Disclaimer: I think I'd be amazing if I owned anything to with the film Labyrinth, but I don't. Henson and company get that credit.

He doesn't know why she had caught his eye that day. Finding himself one day flying over a little town's park, he saw the dark brunette talking to her dog. Perhaps that was it: the amusement of finding a young woman talking to an animal with no care of ridicule. Her innocence. Or was it ignorance?

Either way he curses the day he ever laid eyes on her.

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He always held a bit of respect for the human race. They lived life by their own sweat and tears. He had never cried, couldn't really sweat either, he was fae. Determination: one of their most endearing traits. To go through all the folly of the human world really did require something extra.

But, to say he held respect did not mean he held admiration. He watched as children starved while others gorged themselves in sweets. He watched as people lived recklessly when others prayed for a few more years of life to live with their loved ones. Disease, envy, greed, mortality, it disgusted him—most of it curable by the humans' own action or precaution. They were vile things really. Not all of course, but it was rare for him to come by exceptions. There was always something wrong with them.

That is why he felt no remorse for the children wished away. When he was young he had always been disturbed by the work of the Goblin King from The North, never imagining that he was destined to be his successor. When he had to face his responsibilities, he went Aboveground to learn why people wished children away. Children were only tainted by what their elders put upon them after all.

For some, being wished away to the Goblins was a better alternative to the sad lives they would live on earth. For others, there was nothing. No reason at all, none that would justify the abandonment of a child in the world of demons. At least what people thought of as demons— goblins never had a good reputation. Baffled by their selfishness, the king roamed Aboveground entertained by the unpredictable things. How they ever got as far as they did made him laugh every time he thought about it.

And as they kept advancing in their technology (a chuckle can't be held in) truth became science (a laugh) and nothing more. Goblins lay to the shadows, fairies hid their glow, and trolls didn't come out from under their bridges. Children read fairytales with modern eyes: such things don't exist. Thus the Goblin King had fewer children wished away to his "imaginary world."

"Poor little things."

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"Yor Majisty! Yor Majisty!" A small furry goblin squawked out as he ran into the throne room.

"What is it you blasted bird?" Jareth ran his fingers across his carefully pieced hair as he swung his legs over an arm of his throne.

"Sire, I aint no birds!"

"What's wrong?"

"That I'm a bird!"

'Ask the right questions.' Jareth rolled his eyes, "What did you come here for?"

"To tells ya a gurls gon' wish fo' us!" He continued to squawk out.

Rubbing his temples he asked, "Please stop that insistent yelling will you? I really don't see the necessity for you to yell everything out. I am right in front of you."

He conjured up a crystal and peered inside to Aboveground. It focused into an adult's bedroom, 'Typical,' as the view turned his eyes shot up, 'It's her. Sarah.'

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In his owl form, Jareth had been on one of his common runs Aboveground when he spotted Sarah for the first time. He was actually on a business trip when he flew over that quaint park. It was simple yet held a subtle air of splendor. The dark haired beauty completed the picture perfectly, her white dress standing out against the lush green of the park. What surprised him as he flew down was that she was talking to a dog. His real amusement was placed in the young woman's obvious disregard for any ridicule by a passing audience.

He landed on a perch wanting to find out what exactly she was doing. After a few moments he knew she was acting, the dog a stand in for an actor. The fact that she was working with an animal didn't seem to faze her as she whole heartily performed her scene. Coincidently it was a scene about him. He cocked his head at her in disbelief, which caught her attention as she ran in his direction across the bridge. It seemed he was the perfect stand in for the Goblin King. Oh the irony.

Her voice sang, "Give me the child."

She was doing well; she had him completely mesmerized, when she stumbled, "Damn. Oh I can never remember that line." As she flipped through the pages of the book she held, he recognized it as an original Labyrinth book. He inwardly smiled since his beak impeded him from doing so physically. Her frustration brought a rosy color to her cheeks that befitted her well. She turned back to him, "You have no power over me." She was quite beautiful he had concluded, when a nearby clock tower rang its bells for another hour.

"Oh no Merlin! I don't believe it! It's 7:00!"

The girl darted back across the bridge and into town as the sky started to pour. He watched her go and was completely dumbfounded when he realized he was following her.