"Say you're right words...and we'll take the baby to the goblin city, and you
will be free..." The small hunched person rasped, his face was a warty shade
of green, his long knarled fingers twitched towards the cradle as he spoke.
"I can bear it no longer!" The young woman lifted the child from the cradle and spun to turn her back on the white lace covered basket and the horrid creature standing next to it." Goblin king, goblin king, wherever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!"
There was a crash of thunder and the lights flickered. A set of double doors presumably leading to a balcony banged open showing a wall of fog that began to creep into the room.
The young woman gasped, and curled the baby protectively against her, realizing her mistake. She took one slow step away from the tendrils of wispy fog, and then another.
The Goblin King had arrived. A vague outline of a man moved behind the fog approaching the doorway. The young woman's eyes grew large with fear as she watched him step through the fog...
And laughter erupted from the shadows as the noble king stepped into the room, wearing only a pair of black silk boxers, black leather knee high boots, and black leather gloves.
"Derek!" The woman shrieked at him. She stomped her foot impatiently and tossed the swaddled bundle at him. The infant doll struck him in the chest and bounced to the hard wood floor of the stage. "This is supposed to be a dress rehearsal, why aren't you dressed?"
Sarah stood in the back of the theater and watched the antics on stage for a moment longer before quietly slipping out of the large double doors.
Once upon a time, she had dreamed of being up on that stage, playing the part of the heroine who goes through the trials set before her to rescue the child that she had wished away to the king of the goblins. She had wanted that right up until the time when she had gotten exactly what she asked for.
It had been nine years since she had made her trip into the labyrinth to save her brother Toby from the Goblin king Jareth. Nine years, but it had seemed like a lot longer. She had changed a lot since that time, yet in other ways, she thinks she has hardly changed at all.
She still kept in touch with Hoggle, quite often they would meet and talk for hours. Sarah had taken to keeping a tape recorder going for some of their conversations and she would later use some of the things they talked about as material for a novel. At the age of 24 she had already written six fantasy novels. Her last one had been released in hardcover and made it to the New York Times best seller's list.
Sarah had been visiting an artist friend who was working on the stage setting for the current production this evening and was invited to stay for a bit of the rehearsals. The only problem had been that with her there, the cast had not been paying attention to the rehearsals they were supposed to be conducting and had instead opted to converse with her about different books and question her about what she was currently working on.
When those questions had come up, she had dodged the issue saying that she couldn't say anything about the new novel because she didn't want to give anything away. The truth was that at the moment, she wasn't working on a single thing. She was taking some time off from writing and planned on enjoying it.
She walked through the spring night air letting her mind wander. The winter had been harsh, with temperatures often dropping below freezing and keeping everyone huddled indoors to avoid the frost in the air. Spring had just recently arrived though, and while there was a coolness to the air that required a light jacket, the breeze that accompanied it was gentle and refreshing.
Sarah's mind naturally wandered back to the play. Being politely curious, she had managed to look at one of the scripts. The play had made the incantation for summoning the goblin king the poetic lines that she had just heard. For this she was grateful. Although Hoggle had assured her that calling the Goblin King was actually a lot harder than just saying words, she was glad that the script hadn't called for the phrase of "I wish". Those two words, according to Hoggle, were the second most powerful words in the Underground.
"What do you mean the second most powerful words?" She had sat on the living room floor across the coffee table from the little man, talking as they played a game that he referred to as stones.
"Once, theys were the most powerful, till yous came along." He had told her.
"Me? What do you mean."
He pointed a finger at her accusingly, although there was a mischievous glint to his eye that let her know this was a matter that somewhat amused him. "Now, if you asks around the labyrinth, they'll tell you that the words that hold the most power to see something happen is 'that's not fair'. And it's all account a'you."
Sarah had just blinked. "What?!" She remembered when she had gone into the labyrinth, fifteen years old and still sure that life should be fair and everyone had to play by the rules. Half way through, she had come to the realization that life wasn't fair, and that you had to deal with things the way they were, not how you wished them to be.
"After yous came to the Labyrinth, one of the quickest ways to get on Jareth's bad side is by saying that's not fair." He had moved his stones along the board capturing a good quarter of her pieces along the way.
Jareth. Just remembering the name brought him to mind. She remembered the first time she had seen him, standing in the door way, offering her whatever she dreamed. He had been dressed in black during that meeting, the perfect contrast for his blonde hair and pale complexion.
"This is not a gift for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby."
She had been awed by him, and more than a little scared. She hadn't believed it was really the king of the goblins that had swirled into the room from nowhere.
"You're him, aren't you? You're the Goblin King. I want my brother back if it's all the same." She had been so young.
"What's said is said."ยด His voice, so condescending, it had irritated her, started to shake her out of the grip of wonder that she had fallen into.
"I didn't mean it!"
"It don't matter if you meant it, you believed it and that's what mattered." Hoggle's voice again. He had been explaining how she had managed to call on the Goblin King. Most people could not call on him anymore. Oh they could say the words, and they can even mean it, but if they don't believe that he'll show up, then he won't. She had always believed in magic, in things that didn't belong in this world. She hadn't meant the words she had said, but deep in her heart, she had believed in them enough to bring them to life.
She neared the complex where her condo was located and shook the reminiscent thoughts from her mind. She still believed in magic. It was extremely hard not to when her most frequent visitors to her place were a dwarf, a small chivalrous fox, and a hulking monster, the likes of which is usually only seen by children in their closets. While they often came to visit her, she had never gone back to the labyrinth after she had made it to the center and took her brother back.
Sometimes she regretted never going back there. Tonight was one of these nights. There were many things about the place that had been foreboding and intimidating. But then, they were supposed to be like that to frighten her into not continuing. She had been assured though that the entire land was not like that.
Sir Didymus had spent much time traveling the lands in search of noble deeds to do before he had taken on his responsibility of guarding the bridge through the bog of eternal stench. Since the bridge had been destroyed when Sarah and her companions had tried to make their way across it, the energetic fox had taken his brave steed forward again into the lands. Ludo would often accompany his friend on these journeys. From the sounds of it, Ludo kept most of the real dangers from befalling Sir Didymus before he could get himself in trouble. While they were away though, they were not able to visit as often, and Sarah missed them.
She slipped the key into the security door and let herself in. She walked up the brightly lit stairwell to the third floor and then let unlocked the door to her place. In the building, there were only four condominiums on each floor, with hers being on the top floor of the building. The place was bigger than she needed for herself, but she enjoyed having the extra room to rattle around in. There was no real sense of planned decoration to any of the rooms. Along the walls there were shelves filled with different figurines of fantasy creatures of all sizes and sorts. Carefully arranged on the wall of the room she used as a study were several madi-gras style masks. The living room had a large entertainment center housing many of the electronic gadgets that she had purchased, but seemed to seldom use. The couch and the chair in this room were overstuffed maroon suede, soft and comfortable enough for curling up in.
Curled up in the living room chair, sleeping soundly, was a grey tabby cat. As Sarah flicked on the lights in the room, the cat lifted it's head. He glared at her to let her know that she had disturbed his sleep and yawned to let her know that he had fangs that would be used if she continued to displease him. Then he lay his head back down, his tail touching his nose and closed his eyes.
Sarah half smiled at the sight. "Sorry to disturb you, your majesty." She said to him as she hung up her coat. Sometimes she worried that talking to her cat might be considered eccentric. Then she remembered that she often had long conversations with a fox who wasn't much bigger than the cat, and the fox talked back.
She made her way to the kitchen, flipping on lights as she went. She wanted a cup of tea, a good movie, and to curl up on the couch until she was ready for bed. She admitted that it wasn't the most exciting of plans, but it was relaxing. She enjoyed the company of others, and often had friends over just to socialize, but she preferred to have the night time just to herself.
Now she pulled a mug out of the cabinet and set the kettle of water to boil. She placed a tea bag in the mug and set the sugar container near by. Turning around, she leaned back against the counter top and froze. Someone had been there and apparently had left her a present. She continued to stare at the kitchen table until the kettle started it's high pitched whistle. She snapped back to her senses and shut the burner off. Moving slowly, feeling partly as if she were in a dream, she walked to the table.
If any of her girlfriends had been there to see this, they would have squealed in delight. There would have been a barrage of questions, did she have a new boyfriend, who were they from, why hadn't she mentioned new activity in her rather boring love life. She was glad that she was alone. While the image might have been romantic, she felt a knot at the center of her stomach starting to form.
Carefully arrange on the table were three concentric circles of star-gazer lilies. Each blossom appeared flawless, the colors rich and vibrant, each petal perfectly shaped. They had been laid with a precision that spoke of patience and control. In the center of the rings, sat one peach, as perfect in its own right as the lilies.
"I can bear it no longer!" The young woman lifted the child from the cradle and spun to turn her back on the white lace covered basket and the horrid creature standing next to it." Goblin king, goblin king, wherever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!"
There was a crash of thunder and the lights flickered. A set of double doors presumably leading to a balcony banged open showing a wall of fog that began to creep into the room.
The young woman gasped, and curled the baby protectively against her, realizing her mistake. She took one slow step away from the tendrils of wispy fog, and then another.
The Goblin King had arrived. A vague outline of a man moved behind the fog approaching the doorway. The young woman's eyes grew large with fear as she watched him step through the fog...
And laughter erupted from the shadows as the noble king stepped into the room, wearing only a pair of black silk boxers, black leather knee high boots, and black leather gloves.
"Derek!" The woman shrieked at him. She stomped her foot impatiently and tossed the swaddled bundle at him. The infant doll struck him in the chest and bounced to the hard wood floor of the stage. "This is supposed to be a dress rehearsal, why aren't you dressed?"
Sarah stood in the back of the theater and watched the antics on stage for a moment longer before quietly slipping out of the large double doors.
Once upon a time, she had dreamed of being up on that stage, playing the part of the heroine who goes through the trials set before her to rescue the child that she had wished away to the king of the goblins. She had wanted that right up until the time when she had gotten exactly what she asked for.
It had been nine years since she had made her trip into the labyrinth to save her brother Toby from the Goblin king Jareth. Nine years, but it had seemed like a lot longer. She had changed a lot since that time, yet in other ways, she thinks she has hardly changed at all.
She still kept in touch with Hoggle, quite often they would meet and talk for hours. Sarah had taken to keeping a tape recorder going for some of their conversations and she would later use some of the things they talked about as material for a novel. At the age of 24 she had already written six fantasy novels. Her last one had been released in hardcover and made it to the New York Times best seller's list.
Sarah had been visiting an artist friend who was working on the stage setting for the current production this evening and was invited to stay for a bit of the rehearsals. The only problem had been that with her there, the cast had not been paying attention to the rehearsals they were supposed to be conducting and had instead opted to converse with her about different books and question her about what she was currently working on.
When those questions had come up, she had dodged the issue saying that she couldn't say anything about the new novel because she didn't want to give anything away. The truth was that at the moment, she wasn't working on a single thing. She was taking some time off from writing and planned on enjoying it.
She walked through the spring night air letting her mind wander. The winter had been harsh, with temperatures often dropping below freezing and keeping everyone huddled indoors to avoid the frost in the air. Spring had just recently arrived though, and while there was a coolness to the air that required a light jacket, the breeze that accompanied it was gentle and refreshing.
Sarah's mind naturally wandered back to the play. Being politely curious, she had managed to look at one of the scripts. The play had made the incantation for summoning the goblin king the poetic lines that she had just heard. For this she was grateful. Although Hoggle had assured her that calling the Goblin King was actually a lot harder than just saying words, she was glad that the script hadn't called for the phrase of "I wish". Those two words, according to Hoggle, were the second most powerful words in the Underground.
"What do you mean the second most powerful words?" She had sat on the living room floor across the coffee table from the little man, talking as they played a game that he referred to as stones.
"Once, theys were the most powerful, till yous came along." He had told her.
"Me? What do you mean."
He pointed a finger at her accusingly, although there was a mischievous glint to his eye that let her know this was a matter that somewhat amused him. "Now, if you asks around the labyrinth, they'll tell you that the words that hold the most power to see something happen is 'that's not fair'. And it's all account a'you."
Sarah had just blinked. "What?!" She remembered when she had gone into the labyrinth, fifteen years old and still sure that life should be fair and everyone had to play by the rules. Half way through, she had come to the realization that life wasn't fair, and that you had to deal with things the way they were, not how you wished them to be.
"After yous came to the Labyrinth, one of the quickest ways to get on Jareth's bad side is by saying that's not fair." He had moved his stones along the board capturing a good quarter of her pieces along the way.
Jareth. Just remembering the name brought him to mind. She remembered the first time she had seen him, standing in the door way, offering her whatever she dreamed. He had been dressed in black during that meeting, the perfect contrast for his blonde hair and pale complexion.
"This is not a gift for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby."
She had been awed by him, and more than a little scared. She hadn't believed it was really the king of the goblins that had swirled into the room from nowhere.
"You're him, aren't you? You're the Goblin King. I want my brother back if it's all the same." She had been so young.
"What's said is said."ยด His voice, so condescending, it had irritated her, started to shake her out of the grip of wonder that she had fallen into.
"I didn't mean it!"
"It don't matter if you meant it, you believed it and that's what mattered." Hoggle's voice again. He had been explaining how she had managed to call on the Goblin King. Most people could not call on him anymore. Oh they could say the words, and they can even mean it, but if they don't believe that he'll show up, then he won't. She had always believed in magic, in things that didn't belong in this world. She hadn't meant the words she had said, but deep in her heart, she had believed in them enough to bring them to life.
She neared the complex where her condo was located and shook the reminiscent thoughts from her mind. She still believed in magic. It was extremely hard not to when her most frequent visitors to her place were a dwarf, a small chivalrous fox, and a hulking monster, the likes of which is usually only seen by children in their closets. While they often came to visit her, she had never gone back to the labyrinth after she had made it to the center and took her brother back.
Sometimes she regretted never going back there. Tonight was one of these nights. There were many things about the place that had been foreboding and intimidating. But then, they were supposed to be like that to frighten her into not continuing. She had been assured though that the entire land was not like that.
Sir Didymus had spent much time traveling the lands in search of noble deeds to do before he had taken on his responsibility of guarding the bridge through the bog of eternal stench. Since the bridge had been destroyed when Sarah and her companions had tried to make their way across it, the energetic fox had taken his brave steed forward again into the lands. Ludo would often accompany his friend on these journeys. From the sounds of it, Ludo kept most of the real dangers from befalling Sir Didymus before he could get himself in trouble. While they were away though, they were not able to visit as often, and Sarah missed them.
She slipped the key into the security door and let herself in. She walked up the brightly lit stairwell to the third floor and then let unlocked the door to her place. In the building, there were only four condominiums on each floor, with hers being on the top floor of the building. The place was bigger than she needed for herself, but she enjoyed having the extra room to rattle around in. There was no real sense of planned decoration to any of the rooms. Along the walls there were shelves filled with different figurines of fantasy creatures of all sizes and sorts. Carefully arranged on the wall of the room she used as a study were several madi-gras style masks. The living room had a large entertainment center housing many of the electronic gadgets that she had purchased, but seemed to seldom use. The couch and the chair in this room were overstuffed maroon suede, soft and comfortable enough for curling up in.
Curled up in the living room chair, sleeping soundly, was a grey tabby cat. As Sarah flicked on the lights in the room, the cat lifted it's head. He glared at her to let her know that she had disturbed his sleep and yawned to let her know that he had fangs that would be used if she continued to displease him. Then he lay his head back down, his tail touching his nose and closed his eyes.
Sarah half smiled at the sight. "Sorry to disturb you, your majesty." She said to him as she hung up her coat. Sometimes she worried that talking to her cat might be considered eccentric. Then she remembered that she often had long conversations with a fox who wasn't much bigger than the cat, and the fox talked back.
She made her way to the kitchen, flipping on lights as she went. She wanted a cup of tea, a good movie, and to curl up on the couch until she was ready for bed. She admitted that it wasn't the most exciting of plans, but it was relaxing. She enjoyed the company of others, and often had friends over just to socialize, but she preferred to have the night time just to herself.
Now she pulled a mug out of the cabinet and set the kettle of water to boil. She placed a tea bag in the mug and set the sugar container near by. Turning around, she leaned back against the counter top and froze. Someone had been there and apparently had left her a present. She continued to stare at the kitchen table until the kettle started it's high pitched whistle. She snapped back to her senses and shut the burner off. Moving slowly, feeling partly as if she were in a dream, she walked to the table.
If any of her girlfriends had been there to see this, they would have squealed in delight. There would have been a barrage of questions, did she have a new boyfriend, who were they from, why hadn't she mentioned new activity in her rather boring love life. She was glad that she was alone. While the image might have been romantic, she felt a knot at the center of her stomach starting to form.
Carefully arrange on the table were three concentric circles of star-gazer lilies. Each blossom appeared flawless, the colors rich and vibrant, each petal perfectly shaped. They had been laid with a precision that spoke of patience and control. In the center of the rings, sat one peach, as perfect in its own right as the lilies.