The Goblin Prince
Disclaimer- I do not own the Labyrinth or any of its wonderful characters or creatures; all of that credit goes to the Jim Henson Company and Brian Froud (check out his other works at .).
Author's Note- This is my first FanFic, so helpful suggestions are welcome; just try to be as nice about it as possible, if you please. I'd like to think I'm not a bad writer, English paper wise, but an actual story with a plot and everything has always sort of stumped me. Warning: My updates may be few and far between, but that is only because I am a diligent student with lots of homework, along with a short attention span and a chronic illness named Writer's Block.
~ Prologue ~
After beating the Labyrinth, Sarah Williams spent five years in the Aboveground, and during that time she learned to appreciate her family, went to high school, graduated said high school, and went to college where she majored in ancient Folklore and 19th Century English Literature.
But through all those years, Sarah never forgot her adventure in the Labyrinth, and not just because she could still see her friends in mirrors. Sarah seemed to always be thinking about the Goblin King- though not in any way beneficial for her. Oh no, Sarah seemed to only think of Jareth at the most inconvenient of times… Like while she was on a date or while she was trying to sleep. And of course there was that dreaded day when she fell asleep in class and had the most… interesting daydream about him. Sarah didn't wake up until the teacher had finally started screaming at her. If that wasn't bad enough, Sarah's fellow classmates laughed at her for the rest of the month; apparently she had been repeatedly saying Jareth's name and making questionable noises while snoozing against her desk. Sarah still blames the peach she had eaten for breakfast that morning as the catalyst for her bizarre fantasy.
Understandably they had been a long five years, and Sarah was officially sick of the human world, where almost no one over ten had an imagination and there was never a big enough challenge for her to actually put sufficient effort towards. Thus Sarah started to devise a plan for how she could get back into the Underground and have a little chat with Jareth- without him immediately throwing her head first into the Bog of Eternal Stench. Apparently some powerful forces were on Sarah's side, because three days later Hoggle called her and began pleading with her to come back to the Goblin Kingdom and help Jareth. Not sure who was more shocked; Hoggle at how quickly Sarah agreed or Sarah at the fact that the all-powerful Goblin King had gotten a cold.
Well to make a long story short, there was lots of yelling (understandably), several upturned bowls of soup (not all by accident), some unneeded goblin singing (they meant well), a reasonable conversation (throughout which the goblins went nuts; they thought a certain champion had murdered their king), some handholding, some kissing, some… other stuff, a wedding, and then a year later a baby was born.
So now that what's said is said, on with the story…
~ Chapter One ~
"I wish the goblins would take you away right now!" shouted a voice, blaring through the whole castle, once again an unwanted alarm clock for Jeremy the Goblin Prince.
Jeremy awoke with a start, then slowly counted to ten. He had only reached seven when his Father appeared, already dressed for "work".
"Do I have to come?" Jeremy questioned, hoping he didn't sound too much like a three year old when it came out as a whine. "What time is it anyway?" As Jeremy asked, he looked over at the clock given to him by his Uncle Toby for Christmas a few years back. The red numbers revealed the time to be 1 am. By the Bog, if you're going to wish away your kid, can you at least do it at a reasonable hour?
"Yes, you do. I'm letting you run the show today; allow you to get used to the duties of a Goblin King. Your training is very important." He replied.
I still couldn't understand why my dad was pushing the training so soon. I'm not a slacker, but Fae live pretty much forever, and my dad, King Jareth, wasn't even close to retirement age. It made me wonder if he was keeping things from me, if he was expecting to die soon.
"Alright, I'm coming; I'll meet you at the starting point in five minutes." As I spoke I stood from my fortress of pillows and walked towards the monstrous wardrobe on the other side of the room and stepped inside. A minute later I had exited the wardrobe fully dressed in my own variation of work clothes and my father was gone.
"Young boy, about thirteen; he wished away his little sister who is five." My dad informed me when I reached the hill. I didn't have to look too hard to find the kid; he was rolling down the slight incline at an alarming speed. Hope he doesn't hurt himself, hate to have to try to clean blood off the Labyrinth's walls.
"His name is Corey, and the girls name is Cameron." My father continued, but I was only half listening. My mind was on more interesting things, like if I should drop the little brat into an oubliette right away, or send the Cleaners after him leading to an oubliette. Maybe I could even convince the Fiery Gang to stay in the oubliette with him. Ah, the possibilities.
"Are you listening Jeremy?"
"Ya, ya. I promise not to hurt the kid, or torture him mercilessly his whole run."
"And?..."
"And I promise to give him an actual chance at running the Labyrinth. Don't worry Dad, I know what I'm doing."
"I know you do; which is why I'm leaving this one totally up to you and going back to bed. Good luck." And with a flash of glitter the Goblin King was gone.
Lucky… Alright feet, let's get walking. We have a new runner to challenge. This will be fun.
It was 4 am and the castle was silent- this had to be the quietest run Jeremy had ever heard. The goblins where all asleep in the city, and the little whelp Corey was trying, unsuccessfully, to make it through the hedge maze. Come on fall in the oubliette Jeremy mentally encourage; the sooner the kid lost hope the sooner he could go back to bed.
It was at this time of total quite that there was a banging at the castle doors; too quiet for the prince to here but loud enough to wake the sleeping guards. Startled, the two goblins (one fat and one thin) stood staring first at the door, then at each other, then back to the door again when another three insistent bangs sounded. And being curious as all goblins were, these two guards answered the rapping.
The girl behind the door was petit, drenched from head to toe, with dirt on her pale face and white blouse, and leaves in her cherry red hair.
"Hey," whispered one of the goblins (the fat one), "Is that her?"
"Is that who?" asked the other goblin (obviously the thin one).
The first goblin was about to answer when a tired, raspy voice broke in "Get me your king." It was not a request, but a demand, a demand the goblins ignored.
"Sorry, Kingy's sleepin'" the second goblin stated, just as thunder and lightning shook the sky. The girl flinched and shuddered, her grip on the doorjamb she leaned against growing tighter.
"Get Jareth…" the girl said again, voice now noticeably weaker and knees obviously buckling. But these goblins weren't the brightest (hence why they had gotten guard duty at this ungodly hour) and didn't pick up on the tell-tale signs of weakness and exhaustion, instead brandishing their spears adorned with little biting things (no one really knew what they were), and preparing to send the "intruder" off.
However the girl saw this and, with a sudden burst of unexpected energy, spoke a phrase and raised her arms, releasing a fierce wind that knocked the goblins back into a wall. As you can imagine, this was not a quiet ordeal; both the prince, and thankfully the gardener, heard the two goblin guards as they passed through concrete bricks and mortar.
By the time Hoggle and Jeremy had appeared at the castle's main entrance, the two guards had pulled themselves out of the wall and were in a heated argument.
"I's told you its was her!" The fat one continued to repeat as loudly as he could, trying to drown out his brother-in-arms' "Nuh-uh"s.
Jeremy, confused and annoyed finally spoke in his best impression of his father's 'do as I say' voice. "What is going on here?" He shouted shrilly. Ok, I really need to work on that voice thing.
It was Hoggle who spoke up first, but not to answer his prince. "Mandalina?" he whispered nervously and then rushed to the heap on the floor by the giant wooden doors of the castle. Jeremy hadn't even notice the limp pile till the little dwarf had mentioned it, but now he followed Hoggle to the lump which just so happened to be a girl- a beautiful girl, with peaches and cream skin, curling red hair, and a small star tattoo on her left cheek. She was also completely soaked, with visible cuts and smudges of dirt on every bit of visible skin.
Jeremy had no idea who she was, but obviously not a member of the Goblin Kingdom, quite possibly even the Underground, if the black skinny jeans she wore were any indicator (though Jeremy did own a pair himself that he bought Aboveground while hanging out with his uncle).
"Oh, Mandalina what have ye done to yourself? You should have come sooner. Don't worry, I'll go fetch Jareth, just wait here." Hoggle spoke lightly, then hobbled off, presumably to get Jareth, with not even so much as a glance at Jeremy.
After a beat of silence a pitiful moan sounded from the floor. Jeremy moved closer to the girl and crouched down. He wanted to help alleviate some of her pain but he had no idea what to do.
So he started asking questions to distract her.
"Are you alright? Who are you? What are you? Where are you from?"
His voice seemed to have startled her because she jumped slightly and her eyes (a brighter shade of green than Mom's, they almost seem like they're glowing…) popped open.
"You're not Jareth…" she hissed softly. "Oh well, I suppose you'll do."
At that moment the pretty girl in front of Jeremy was gone, and in her place was a monster with glowing, poison green eyes that kept him rooted in place, and long white fangs that could easily be the size of his index finger. And then the monster lunged at him and all he felt was a twinge of pain as its fangs sank in, then an addictive, numbing bliss that carried him into unconsciousness.