The Goblin War: Chapter 1
Sarah and Jareth stood side by side in the tower throne room in front of the window that looked out over the Goblin city. They stood watching the scurrying goblins and various creatures, transporting materials, carrying weapons, preparing for war. The world below was strangely muted, the sounds not carrying to the glassless window like they should. Sarah turned from the window and peered at their King feeling nerves screw up her stomach, this was the man who was once her very own villain but all that feigned indifference and thoughtless cruelty was a world away from now.
His mismatched eyes were downcast and worried, ringed by purple, lips drawn into a slight frown the upcoming battle weighing heavy on his shoulders. Jareth was lent against the stone frame of the window, sorrow in his eyes and tension tight across his shoulders. He was the Labyrinth, and the Labyrinth was him and the coming battle promised to tear everything apart.
The past month hadn't been kind and the border skirmishes had been steadily increasing in frequency and fatality. On both sides. The world was in upheaval and no one knew how their hand was going to play out. He looked tired. Sarah knew she looked no better, endless worry for her friends and king meant she couldn't stop the nerves and fear jumping in her gut.
To Sarah he looked near exactly like he did ten years ago, back in her childhood bedroom proud and dangerous. A King who decided to humour a spoilt child. Even tired and worried he was still a magnificent sight. He was the master here, of illusions, of the Labyrinth, of time itself, and he was preparing to face an enemy that was to try and destroy his home and his people.
The Master of the Labyrinth was dressed in full goblin armour, tight leather jacket; black breastplate and plackart fitted like a second skin and smoothed over the planes of his chest, embossed with round emblems and elaborate crests of gold. An extravagant gardbrace on his left shoulder and the dramatic half cape attached to his jacket, hanging tasselled and tangled, sweeping the floor made him a striking figure. His hips were circled with a belt of chain, large loops of shimmering dark metal, and hanging from it was an elegant rapier nearly as long as his arm, thin and unassumingly deadly, and his long legs in soft clinging trousers tucked into knee high leather boots. An image, thought Sarah, that was the similar to the first time she knew of the Goblin King, and could possibly be the last she remembered, but it was apt.
The cruel villain from her childhood was so very different from the King she knew now. So knowing that in a few short hours, maybe minutes when the enemy were in range the man she knew, the mischievous King, the sardonic ruler and the patient carer, would be transformed into a creature bent on destruction, on death and would revel in it, terrified her. Sarah had only seen that feral rage once before and it had ended badly.
Jareth wasn't human although he looked it. The rules that governed the Aboveground didn't work in the Underground, and Sarah knew it. Here, time could be stretched and twisted, that appearances were most definitely not to be trusted and if it seemed too good to be then it probably was .The human visage he portrayed, the mannerisms and the courtesies, were from centuries of dealings with human wishers. Even then they were something he didn't truly understand and could toss away without a moment's thought. The rules that governed his kind were convoluted, complex and even cruel, from an outsider's point of view.
She cast her gaze down away from his and admired her own clothes, made especially for her by the subjects of the Goblin Kingdom. Each was gifted to her by one of the friends she made on the first trip into the Labyrinth.
She wore a fitted leather jacket similar in cut to Jareth's own, a white breastplate and plackart, curved around her front and down her sides; it was embossed with small glittering gems and crystals in the shapes of leaves and swirling lines, a little nod to the fairy tale dress she once thought she wanted. She was similarly dressed in soft, stretchy trousers and knee-high black leather boots, and around her waist also was a chain but unlike Jareth's it was positively dainty, like spun gold but deceptively strong, and from it hung twin blades sheathed at her sides, the edges of the metal shaped in a gentle hourglass. It was all softly shimmering and decidedly female, but the edges of her blades were wicked sharp and the armour nigh on impenetrable.
It suited her more than the soft lace and delicate beadwork of a ball gown ever could. Fifteen-year- old Sarah thought that being the delicate princess in the stone tower waiting for her one true love to rescue her and take her away from her terrible, terrible family and problems was what she was destined for. Now, twenty-five, Sarah knew that being the princess, the damsel in distress was all well and good for some people, but now.
Now she was the goddamned dragon, and wouldn't trade her fangs and scales for all the lace and wishes in the whole of the Underground.
Being helpless had lost its appeal.
In the Labyrinth when she had to figure out how to get to the castle beyond the Goblin City. All the twists and turns all shaped by someone else's will, dancing to someone else's tune, all the surprises, to gain back the little brother that she had selfishly and naively wished away. It had definitely rubbed her the wrong way.
In the Aboveground too, the real world was no picnic. The Labyrinth taught a lesson to an ignorant and spoilt child, to any wisher, but in such a way that they weren't truly harmed. The real world had no such rules, no convenient speaking doorknobs to help you pick which way to go, no warnings or helping hands. Just harsh truths and a long way down.
Sarah didn't want to think of the fight, about how these weapons would soon be taking life, how she would be changed so completely if she did.
She deliberately didn't think of the consequences of killing another being, even one that would be trying to kill her, because Sarah knew herself and knew that if she thought she would think too much and talk herself into cowardice. Into running away screaming.
However, she knew that freaking out would have to come later if she wanted to survive the next few days. The next few hours. She thought of the times with her friends and their King, her King, training and laughing, all those lessons coming down to this moment.
Sarah glanced back out of the window, seeing not for the first time how much things had changed from when she was a girl. The fantasy world from her childhood was just as weird and strange but seemed darker and more cynical, no rose tinted glasses coloured her vision anymore. And the world itself seemed to glitter less, to be more twisted and harmful in the wake of the coming war.
"Do you - do you think we'll win?" she nervously asked, feeling every bit the child she used to be and sort of still was.
Jareth stood statue-still by the window.
"We have to" he answered softly not looking back.
"That's not an answer Jareth, and you know it!" She replied sharply, immediately feeling guilty for snapping at him.
He finally turned to her but his eyes where still out over the Labyrinth staring sightlessly at his people preparing for war and replied in an even, emotionless tone.
"I will have nothing to left to lose if this doesn't go our way, that woman will devour the Goblin Kingdom and destroy everything. Exile at the very least, all of my people and…. well as for us, me, I don't want to know."
A barely there smile touched the corner of his mouth, eyes flickering to hers then back to the view he continued "But if we win then it all ends. This land will be free. Don't you see Sarah? The constant fear and tension gone, my people released and happy, everything I have ever wanted as their King" His next words were whispered so quietly, as if to make sure that if they never came true, his hopes weren't truly raised.
"And I'll finally be free."
The throne room doors blasted open and cracked loudly off the stone walls. Both Sarah and Jareth flinched at the sudden noise. A panting, sweating, cursing goblin fell through and landed in a heap. It looked rather like an overlarge baby ferret. The tiny creature quickly picked itself off of the floor brushing down its clothes, the usual mismatched patchwork affair, and tilted back the over large helmet to peer up at its sovereign.
The goblin's deep voice echoed slightly from inside the helmet, but it came through clear and panicked "Your Highness the scouts have spotted the Queen's armies they are on the border and are gaining ground fast!" He gasped a breath and continued "When they reach the Stone Labyrinth the…"
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG
The goblin's eyes widened, so much that Sarah wondered if its eyes would fall out, and he emitted a high pitched whine. Beside her Jareth visibly tensed and his hand clenched around the hilt of the rapier, his knuckles pushing through the leather sharply.
"My Lord, Lady, they have…" The goblin breathed out, and Jareth cut him off.
"Crossed the border and are in the Labyrinth's outer lands, I did realise." His voice was steady if curt. He let out a quiet breath and let his eyes rest closed for a second before staring straight at the goblin for the first time.
"Drin, you know what needs to be done, get the warriors ready and get Hoggle and the others in place, the Lady Sarah and I will lead them. Send word to the Generals to ensure that the Fireys aren't anywhere near the back, the Stonecallers need to be at the western edge and the mounted division at the eastern edge." The Goblin King uttered the orders with complete command, Drin straightened, standing no taller than Jareth's knee, and proudly received the orders from his King.
As Jareth finished speaking the furry ball bowed low enough for the nose guard of his helmet to scrape the floor and then sprinted out of the door. All that was left were the sound of his foot falls, the clank of his helmet, the loud unforgiving clang of the Warning Chime and the otherwise suffocating silence of the throne room.
Jareth locked eyes with the armoured human woman and uttered "You once wondered, if a fifteen year old girl could breach the city walls and make it to the castle, how all my scatter-brained little goblins could fight a real battle and win. Today you will see first-hand how vicious even the most unassuming goblin" He nodded to where Drin had been "can be when they are fighting for their King and kin. How changed you will find even the most gentle of your friends."
His lips sharpened into a vicious smile, one befitting of the King of the Goblins, pride colouring his voice. His last words made her think of Ludo, the gentlest of all her Goblin friends, wondering briefly how the shy and friendly giant could ever be like Jareth was insinuating.
Jareth, hand still clenched around the hilt of the rapier, stood tall and stated "You swore an oath to me Sarah, to me as the leader and commander of this land and of its inhabitants," As he spoke Sarah saw him become the ruthless leader he was known to be, how his eyes became cold and almost avian. Utterly inhuman, reminding her that war was no game and that for as young as he looked, death and destruction like the coming battle was nothing new to him "to me as the King, will you up hold that oath and follow me into battle? Will you lead your friends and fellow subjects into a war that may not be won? Will you fight beside me no matter how dear the cost?"
She before she realised it she was no longer talking to Jareth but the Goblin King, all arrogance and casual cruelty, his body relaxed and oozing confidence, shedding all trace of the worried fae of before. His eyes so old and at once so very young stared at her, waiting for her answer. Her next reply could change the course of fate if just a tiny little bit.
His eyes looked straight at her, unforgiving in their directness. He was waiting for her answer tense and seeing whether he was to leave with her or leave her behind.
Sarah felt herself straighten just like the tiny goblin from before and lifted her chin standing imperiously, cheekily before her King, knowing her answer. He smirked.
"You, my King have called me, your humble servant to war. To fight an enemy of the Goblin Kingdom, against which we will have next to no chance of coming out whole." She let a fierce little grin slip onto her lips forcefully pushing all the fears she had down into her mind and let the faith that she had in him come to the fore. For better or worse, for the Labyrinth and her King.
For Jareth.
Voice strong and resolute she declared "My King, of course I will fight!"