The goblins knew better than to disturb the king when he was in this type of mood, still it didn't hurt to be a little loud did it? As they began to get slowly drunker however they could see their kings patience waning

"Any minute now" said one goblin

"Who d'you recon'll geddit first?" asked another to his drinking companion?'

"I dunno, any one of us… still its all good fun at the end of the day right?"

"Yeah suppose" said the first goblin that was a mottled shade of something that could have been brown or could just have been dirt.

"SHUT UP!"

"Ohh there you go" said the second goblin taking a healthy swig out of his tankard as if he was preparing himself for the onset of something rather terrible

"Arr bound to happen sooner or later" said the first goblin serenely

"Is it too much" began the king "For you useless objects to just give me a small bit of silence every so often… its not much to ask is it?"

The first goblin looked at his companion before a smaller goblin spoke up

"But your majesty, it's…." The goblin looked at the others as if asking silently for them to back him up no help was forthcoming. Taking a huge gulp out of his tankard he looked around the room before continuing in a small voice "It's… it's what we do…."

There was a shrill scream as the small goblin vanished

"If anyone else would like to follow Mutt then do carry on with your loud and particularly obnoxious behavior, I'm sure he could do with a few friends where he is."

The room went silent. Goblins stopped drinking and looked at their king in something akin to fear.

"Always happens," said an elder goblin to a newer group of more human looking goblins"

"Why?" one of the goblins asked

"It all started long ago, see there was this girl, and she… well she beat the Labyrinth…."

"Bye, bye Slin" said the king, and with another scream the elderly goblin vanished just like Mutt had.

The king was many things, but he was not unfair, despite what a silly mortal girl had said to the contrary.

It had been ten years since she had traversed his Labyrinth and won, in fact this was the first time that he had ever stopped to ponder her for any amount of time, and he found the result of his pondering disturbing.

He found that remembering the time that abovementioned mortal girl had spent in his domain was quite painful, at first he put it down to the fact that she had won and that he was just a bad loser, but as he continued to probe, he realized it was something more than that… something deeper, something that he didn't really want to explore, but now that he had started he found he couldn't stop.

"Its un-natural" his inner voice proffered and then as he thought some more he wondered, since when did he have an inner voice?!

Maybe he had suddenly developed this inner voice so that he could have a sane conversation, that would be an added bonus, after all the only sort of conversation that he had with the goblins consisted of 'No not the bog your majesty' or 'Ale!!" or 'Food' or just an unhealthy combination of the three. It was no surprise therefore when the king relished the prospect of having long conversations with his inner voice.

But first he would check on the girl, after all ten years, she could be doing anything, it was only fair to check, and she had to afford him at least one little luxury, after all being king of the goblins was hardly easy.

It was Sarah's lunch break and she had hurried outside and down the street to a small park a few blocks from her workplace. Sitting underneath an oak tree she rooted around in her bag for something before pulling out a much worn copy of Jane Eyre. Thumbing through the pages she settled down as she found the place where she had left off.

Pulling on the sleeve of her sweater she wrapped her fingers into it for a moment, relishing the warmth it provided for her icy digits.

It was early spring but still quite cold. She had just got to the part in the novel where Mr. Rochester tells Jane that he is sending her away, when for no apparent reason she began to think of the labyrinth and her friends.

This was the first time in almost two years that she had thought about that place, and why now? When she was reading something totally unconnected to the underground, what had Mr. Rochester got in common with Ludo, or Sir Diddymus, or Hoggle even?

'Nothing' her inner voice said 'but he has got a few similarities to their king'

She pushed the annoying voice to the back of her mind and continued to read, but she didn't get far. She realized she had been reading the same line for the past five minutes, she was not a slow reader either, and she just had things on her mind

'Goblin king shaped things' her mind said in a sweet sing song voice.

She gave the voice a shove and hoped that it had maimed itself, or at the very least fallen into a disused mineshaft or another convenient deep hole.

Looking at her watch she realized her lunch break was almost up. Sighing she fished an apple out of her bag

Taking a bite she sighed at the wonderful peachy flavor and then she stopped and took a minute to examine the piece of fruit she was eating.

Somewhere between her coffee break and now the luscious red apple that she had been looking forward to had turned into a peach.

She was sure that a certain obnoxious king had something to do with this.

Spitting out the piece of peach she had been chewing and throwing the rest of the uneaten fruit onto the grass she reached for her water bottle.

Sipping it she again reveled in the peachy flavor of the water.

Since when had water tasted like peach juice?!

Scowling now she stood up, stuffed her book back in her bag, emptied her water bottle and strode back to work, if she ever in her life saw that glittery excuse for a king she was going to have to have a word about tampering with her food and drink.