Hey everyone... I want to say thank you to those that are reviewing my work! I have gone back and re-beta (?) read everything, fixed some problems and re-posted... I tried to keep everything as close to how it was, though you may want to re-read because I have clarified on a few things. Like I fixed their ages and such... (My fae are more like elves... They are nearly immortal, their gestational periods are between 24 and 28 months, so at fifty Annalisa is a preteen and her sister at less then five is not walking or really talking yet. So at seventy think late teen's early twenties.)
Thanks a million guys... Knowing that someone is reading this has made it much easier to continue...
LadyDevine
((Oh yeah, I don't own the Labyrinth, I am just borrowing it for a bit and will be happy to return it in working order to Mr. Henson and Mr. Lucas when I am done. All other characters are mine.))
R rated for violence for now, maybe changing later if I get frisky.
What Came Before
Prologue: Before the Storm
Annalisa sat cross-legged on the stones, a book and her younger sister sat on her lap. The sun was shinning so brightly, and the wind moved playfully through the trees and graced the family courtyard. She could hear her mother singing through the large open doors. Her father was probably in his library reading some book of war. She looked up from the book and glanced around her, it was so calm, "Like right before the storm," she said softly.
Her sibling laughed and cooed and demanded to see more pictures, she had grown tired of the ones on the page. They had older half siblings, their mother had married their father after the death of his first wife, and Rebecca only bore him two children, he had all the heirs he needed and she would have no more.
There was something wrong in the world, and even at only fifty she could smell it, there was the familiar metallic taste of magic in the air. Her first alert was her mother. There was no more singing, only a quick scream, then silence. Her parents were some of the most powerful Fae in the realm, and their daughter's had no lack of magic at their fingertips, but something had stopped her mother. Putting the baby back into her basket Annalisa crept to the doors like a thief, wondering what had caused the scream. Usually she would have simply walked into the room to see her father tickling her mother, but today something was foul, and she crept to find that the thing she had expected held a much different view.
Trolls. It could be nothing else, the lumbering foul smelling monsters had her mother bent over a table and were doing terrible things to her. Her father was on the floor, his head no where to be seen. Annalisa screamed not the scream of a scared child, but a blood-curdling scream of terror that slowed time for the briefest of moments. Her mother looked up for only a second, and said the words, "Run, they are all dead, you must survive" to her daughter. Time resumed and she saw the last breath leave her mother's shell and she turned. She had to get to Emily.
She thanked whatever God's were watching that her mother had let her wear her plaid britches that day, a dress would have slowed her down too much. She looked behind her for only a second and saw three trolls on their way out the door, moving slowly, blood on the biggest Troll's mid section.
She tripped and fell, skidding four feet before she managed to stand again, her hands and knees were scraped badly and her stomach ached from where she hit the ground. They were nearly to her and she still had ten yards to reach her sister. She felt a fist come smashing near her, the wind close to her head, continuing to run, she could feel another hand reaching for her, she leapt and barely touched the baby before she disappeared in a flash of light, leaving nothing but the softest sparkle where she was.
She did not know where she was, she didn't open her eyes again, and she simply felt her sister in her arms. She curled into the tightest ball she could and sang; hoping the baby would stay soothed. Annalisa did not know if she could help the baby if it needed anything. Then through her sobs, and poor attempt at song for the baby she felt arms around her and lost consciousness.
Chapter 1: Uncomfortable Silence
The youngest Kildalton daughter chattered happily at her older sister. They sat on a bench in the garden of the castle and waited patiently, or rather, the older sister waited patiently. Emily Kildalton rambled on as her sister smiled and nodded occasionally, but for the most part was happy to study the flowers and statues and listen to the fountain gurgle. Emily, though young, knew that her sister was not listening to her. She knew that her sister was busy contemplating their lives and the world at hand, or other such complicated things that the girl had no truck with. Emily, though young, was happy to talk to herself as long as no one could say that she was.
Annalisa Kildalton was not listening to the fountain or her sister or, contemplating the Cosmos for that matter, she was listening to the Labyrinth that surrounded the castle of the King. Annalisa could feel Her heartbeat, and hummed in her head to Her.
He watched the girls, nay, girl and young woman closely from the shadows. They had been with him for twenty years. Emily had been only an infant when Trolls attacked their parent's castle, thankfully she remembered nothing of the experience, but Annalisa had not been so lucky. At fifty she had seen the massacre, saw her father beheaded and her mother raped and killed. It had been her that saved herself and her sister. She had teleported them to only place that she knew was safe for orphans. The Labyrinth of the Goblin King.
Jareth sighed at the memory of a fifty year old girl, curled in a ball next to a wall of the outer maze crying with her only living relative wrapped in her arms. She had told him there was someone in the maze, gently pleading with him to be gentile but refusing to tell him why. He had arrived with out scrying them in a crystal, simply arriving in an appropriately dramatic way. He heard her before seeing her and the sound touched his heart, singing through sobs, but the sight of a fifty year old girl dirty, bloody and sobbing as quietly as she could but singing to the infant in her arms, had wrenched his soul. He had moved to her and picked up both children in his arms, cradling them, not knowing what else to do. As soon as he picked her up the girl stopped her sobbing, and drifted off to sleep, he could feel Her soothing her, mothering her in the only way She knew how.
Annalisa had slept for hours, he sat at her bedside, concerned and confused as to why the child had come to him. He knew nothing of her past, but recognized the plaid of her trousers. Her father was the Chieftain Kildalton, a powerful Fae far from Jareth's kingdom.
Later when she woke and sat with Jareth talking to him about what had happened she would go no farther into the details then she had seen their deaths and had saved the only person she could. Something had happened to the wards of the castle, but for some reason her magic was unaffected. "Why here, Annalisa? Why not to Titania and Oberon, or any member of your family."
"I don't know, your Highness..."
"Please, call me Jareth, no need for that Highness business."
She nodded, "Jareth, I didn't have time to think. I just ran. I ran for the only thing that I had left and teleported. There was no destination in mind, the only thing I though was "safe"."
"Yes, you are safe now, child," he looked into her haunted eyes and felt something deep and tragic. He was rather concerned about her family, obviously something horrible had happened, but he sensed that perhaps it was more then a simple troll attack. He bent and kissed her forehead gently, "Sleep, girl." She did.
He had petitioned the queen, his mother, for what to do. Titania, having heard of the destruction of the Kildalton's castle, and having heard the tale of the girl's teleportation had a difficult choice to make. After her birth, the Lady Rebecca was petitioned to have her only daughter betrothed to the high prince, but she declined. Now it seemed that Titania would get her wish weather or not Rebecca saw it fit. So she decreed that her only soon was the perfect person to care for the orphans. The oldest owned great wealth and lands, and besides, he had been stock piling unwanted children so long and adopting them out it would do him good to actually care for the two that chose him.
He felt a deep sadness for her again, he often did the first six years when she would wake screaming and he would sing to her, or when Emily would wake and she would sing to the girl, the only mother she knew. He swallowed his feelings and entered the courtyard, Emily saw him immediately, for she had given up on her sister for the moment and was twirling in the grass. The woman sat staring at the fountain, lost in thought. "Jareth! We've been waiting for hours for you!"
"Somehow I doubt that is possible, sense I only sent for you twenty minutes ago," he smiled at the girl and pulled on her pigtails.
"Annie's gone all weird again, snap her out of it so we can go riding, please!" The girl giggled as he tugged at her other pigtail.
"All weird? Compared to you? I think you have that market cornered, girl, but let me see what I can do, how about you run to the stables and have Reeve get the horses for us, alright?"
The girl nodded and ran off, when she was out of sight Jareth approach Annalisa.
She had been deep in thought, usually she panicked if Emily sneezed, but she hadn't seemed to notice the girl go, or Jareth's appearance. Their relationship had been strained lately. He fairly sure it was his fault, he was finding himself thinking more and more about her. More then wondering which instrument he wanted her to play, or if she should learn to cook or about the finances of running a kingdom. Or weather she should marry a king or a lord, actually the mere thought of betrothing her made him sick to his stomach and the Labyrinth protested. She had been quieter then usual, slipping into semi trances and Jareth feared for her.
"It is quite beautiful isn't it?" he remarked quietly, jostling her out of the state of mind. The fountain was indeed beautiful, if not monstrous in its size, it depicted nymphs and dryads playing in a stream.
She looked confused for a moment before she took in her surroundings. "Oh... Yes, it is beautiful Jareth, it reminds me of the fountain in my mother's court yard." The sad look returned to her eyes and she looked down at her hands. They were small and plump, the nails chewed to the quick.
"I know that you have been having nightmares again," his voice did not rise, it was almost a whisper. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I..." she paused. She wanted to answer him truthfully, but it would not be proper. He had been a father to Emily, and a friend to her for the last twenty years, but she could not compromise her position and explain to her that her girlish crush had turned into a deep love and she didn't want him to see her weak anymore. So she lied. "I didn't want you to worry about me Jareth, I am fine, really I am."
"No, you aren't Annie, you were in the maze last night." He frowned at her, she continued to look down at her hands. She couldn't stand to look into his eyes and lie to him; she would fall dead the moment the words left her mouth. "I would have been with you, you know that. I would have held you. You didn't need to go into the Labyrinth at night and huddle in the cold to be soothed."
Tears welled in her eyes. She could not tell him that she loved him, it would ruin their friendship, and it would ruin the peace that she had carefully cultivated since they came to the Labyrinth years ago. "I... I..." she couldn't finish.
The sun beat down, and the birds sang but she could not find it in herself to sob like she had so many nights waking up to nightmares in front of him. She could not find it in herself to ask him to comfort her. He had done so much already.
"I am here for you Annie, you know that, tell me what you want and I will do whatever is necessary to make you happy."
She looked up at him, into those strange eyes that held so much power. She had seen him wear many masks, with courtiers, other kings, but never with her, but recently he had been wearing a mask. She wondered if he had grown to feel the same way, but no that was impossible. He could have any woman he wanted why would he want a scarred seventy-year-old that he had nearly raised. "I am happy, Jareth, you must trust me." She blinked away the tears and looked up at him with a smile. "Though I admit I haven't been sleeping very well, perhaps I will go and take a brief nap while you and Emily go riding."
He knew she was lying, but he wouldn't humiliate her by making her explain herself just yet, he could wait. "Very well, then sleep." He whispered. She slumped and he picked her up, transporting them to her bedroom. He laid her down on her canopy bed and gently kissed her lips. "Your lying to me, Annalisa Kildalton, but I forgive you for not wanting to show your pain. I love you, please let me help you." He left her to sleep, leaving her with sweet dreams, the sweetest that
Thanks a million guys... Knowing that someone is reading this has made it much easier to continue...
LadyDevine
((Oh yeah, I don't own the Labyrinth, I am just borrowing it for a bit and will be happy to return it in working order to Mr. Henson and Mr. Lucas when I am done. All other characters are mine.))
R rated for violence for now, maybe changing later if I get frisky.
What Came Before
Prologue: Before the Storm
Annalisa sat cross-legged on the stones, a book and her younger sister sat on her lap. The sun was shinning so brightly, and the wind moved playfully through the trees and graced the family courtyard. She could hear her mother singing through the large open doors. Her father was probably in his library reading some book of war. She looked up from the book and glanced around her, it was so calm, "Like right before the storm," she said softly.
Her sibling laughed and cooed and demanded to see more pictures, she had grown tired of the ones on the page. They had older half siblings, their mother had married their father after the death of his first wife, and Rebecca only bore him two children, he had all the heirs he needed and she would have no more.
There was something wrong in the world, and even at only fifty she could smell it, there was the familiar metallic taste of magic in the air. Her first alert was her mother. There was no more singing, only a quick scream, then silence. Her parents were some of the most powerful Fae in the realm, and their daughter's had no lack of magic at their fingertips, but something had stopped her mother. Putting the baby back into her basket Annalisa crept to the doors like a thief, wondering what had caused the scream. Usually she would have simply walked into the room to see her father tickling her mother, but today something was foul, and she crept to find that the thing she had expected held a much different view.
Trolls. It could be nothing else, the lumbering foul smelling monsters had her mother bent over a table and were doing terrible things to her. Her father was on the floor, his head no where to be seen. Annalisa screamed not the scream of a scared child, but a blood-curdling scream of terror that slowed time for the briefest of moments. Her mother looked up for only a second, and said the words, "Run, they are all dead, you must survive" to her daughter. Time resumed and she saw the last breath leave her mother's shell and she turned. She had to get to Emily.
She thanked whatever God's were watching that her mother had let her wear her plaid britches that day, a dress would have slowed her down too much. She looked behind her for only a second and saw three trolls on their way out the door, moving slowly, blood on the biggest Troll's mid section.
She tripped and fell, skidding four feet before she managed to stand again, her hands and knees were scraped badly and her stomach ached from where she hit the ground. They were nearly to her and she still had ten yards to reach her sister. She felt a fist come smashing near her, the wind close to her head, continuing to run, she could feel another hand reaching for her, she leapt and barely touched the baby before she disappeared in a flash of light, leaving nothing but the softest sparkle where she was.
She did not know where she was, she didn't open her eyes again, and she simply felt her sister in her arms. She curled into the tightest ball she could and sang; hoping the baby would stay soothed. Annalisa did not know if she could help the baby if it needed anything. Then through her sobs, and poor attempt at song for the baby she felt arms around her and lost consciousness.
Chapter 1: Uncomfortable Silence
The youngest Kildalton daughter chattered happily at her older sister. They sat on a bench in the garden of the castle and waited patiently, or rather, the older sister waited patiently. Emily Kildalton rambled on as her sister smiled and nodded occasionally, but for the most part was happy to study the flowers and statues and listen to the fountain gurgle. Emily, though young, knew that her sister was not listening to her. She knew that her sister was busy contemplating their lives and the world at hand, or other such complicated things that the girl had no truck with. Emily, though young, was happy to talk to herself as long as no one could say that she was.
Annalisa Kildalton was not listening to the fountain or her sister or, contemplating the Cosmos for that matter, she was listening to the Labyrinth that surrounded the castle of the King. Annalisa could feel Her heartbeat, and hummed in her head to Her.
He watched the girls, nay, girl and young woman closely from the shadows. They had been with him for twenty years. Emily had been only an infant when Trolls attacked their parent's castle, thankfully she remembered nothing of the experience, but Annalisa had not been so lucky. At fifty she had seen the massacre, saw her father beheaded and her mother raped and killed. It had been her that saved herself and her sister. She had teleported them to only place that she knew was safe for orphans. The Labyrinth of the Goblin King.
Jareth sighed at the memory of a fifty year old girl, curled in a ball next to a wall of the outer maze crying with her only living relative wrapped in her arms. She had told him there was someone in the maze, gently pleading with him to be gentile but refusing to tell him why. He had arrived with out scrying them in a crystal, simply arriving in an appropriately dramatic way. He heard her before seeing her and the sound touched his heart, singing through sobs, but the sight of a fifty year old girl dirty, bloody and sobbing as quietly as she could but singing to the infant in her arms, had wrenched his soul. He had moved to her and picked up both children in his arms, cradling them, not knowing what else to do. As soon as he picked her up the girl stopped her sobbing, and drifted off to sleep, he could feel Her soothing her, mothering her in the only way She knew how.
Annalisa had slept for hours, he sat at her bedside, concerned and confused as to why the child had come to him. He knew nothing of her past, but recognized the plaid of her trousers. Her father was the Chieftain Kildalton, a powerful Fae far from Jareth's kingdom.
Later when she woke and sat with Jareth talking to him about what had happened she would go no farther into the details then she had seen their deaths and had saved the only person she could. Something had happened to the wards of the castle, but for some reason her magic was unaffected. "Why here, Annalisa? Why not to Titania and Oberon, or any member of your family."
"I don't know, your Highness..."
"Please, call me Jareth, no need for that Highness business."
She nodded, "Jareth, I didn't have time to think. I just ran. I ran for the only thing that I had left and teleported. There was no destination in mind, the only thing I though was "safe"."
"Yes, you are safe now, child," he looked into her haunted eyes and felt something deep and tragic. He was rather concerned about her family, obviously something horrible had happened, but he sensed that perhaps it was more then a simple troll attack. He bent and kissed her forehead gently, "Sleep, girl." She did.
He had petitioned the queen, his mother, for what to do. Titania, having heard of the destruction of the Kildalton's castle, and having heard the tale of the girl's teleportation had a difficult choice to make. After her birth, the Lady Rebecca was petitioned to have her only daughter betrothed to the high prince, but she declined. Now it seemed that Titania would get her wish weather or not Rebecca saw it fit. So she decreed that her only soon was the perfect person to care for the orphans. The oldest owned great wealth and lands, and besides, he had been stock piling unwanted children so long and adopting them out it would do him good to actually care for the two that chose him.
He felt a deep sadness for her again, he often did the first six years when she would wake screaming and he would sing to her, or when Emily would wake and she would sing to the girl, the only mother she knew. He swallowed his feelings and entered the courtyard, Emily saw him immediately, for she had given up on her sister for the moment and was twirling in the grass. The woman sat staring at the fountain, lost in thought. "Jareth! We've been waiting for hours for you!"
"Somehow I doubt that is possible, sense I only sent for you twenty minutes ago," he smiled at the girl and pulled on her pigtails.
"Annie's gone all weird again, snap her out of it so we can go riding, please!" The girl giggled as he tugged at her other pigtail.
"All weird? Compared to you? I think you have that market cornered, girl, but let me see what I can do, how about you run to the stables and have Reeve get the horses for us, alright?"
The girl nodded and ran off, when she was out of sight Jareth approach Annalisa.
She had been deep in thought, usually she panicked if Emily sneezed, but she hadn't seemed to notice the girl go, or Jareth's appearance. Their relationship had been strained lately. He fairly sure it was his fault, he was finding himself thinking more and more about her. More then wondering which instrument he wanted her to play, or if she should learn to cook or about the finances of running a kingdom. Or weather she should marry a king or a lord, actually the mere thought of betrothing her made him sick to his stomach and the Labyrinth protested. She had been quieter then usual, slipping into semi trances and Jareth feared for her.
"It is quite beautiful isn't it?" he remarked quietly, jostling her out of the state of mind. The fountain was indeed beautiful, if not monstrous in its size, it depicted nymphs and dryads playing in a stream.
She looked confused for a moment before she took in her surroundings. "Oh... Yes, it is beautiful Jareth, it reminds me of the fountain in my mother's court yard." The sad look returned to her eyes and she looked down at her hands. They were small and plump, the nails chewed to the quick.
"I know that you have been having nightmares again," his voice did not rise, it was almost a whisper. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I..." she paused. She wanted to answer him truthfully, but it would not be proper. He had been a father to Emily, and a friend to her for the last twenty years, but she could not compromise her position and explain to her that her girlish crush had turned into a deep love and she didn't want him to see her weak anymore. So she lied. "I didn't want you to worry about me Jareth, I am fine, really I am."
"No, you aren't Annie, you were in the maze last night." He frowned at her, she continued to look down at her hands. She couldn't stand to look into his eyes and lie to him; she would fall dead the moment the words left her mouth. "I would have been with you, you know that. I would have held you. You didn't need to go into the Labyrinth at night and huddle in the cold to be soothed."
Tears welled in her eyes. She could not tell him that she loved him, it would ruin their friendship, and it would ruin the peace that she had carefully cultivated since they came to the Labyrinth years ago. "I... I..." she couldn't finish.
The sun beat down, and the birds sang but she could not find it in herself to sob like she had so many nights waking up to nightmares in front of him. She could not find it in herself to ask him to comfort her. He had done so much already.
"I am here for you Annie, you know that, tell me what you want and I will do whatever is necessary to make you happy."
She looked up at him, into those strange eyes that held so much power. She had seen him wear many masks, with courtiers, other kings, but never with her, but recently he had been wearing a mask. She wondered if he had grown to feel the same way, but no that was impossible. He could have any woman he wanted why would he want a scarred seventy-year-old that he had nearly raised. "I am happy, Jareth, you must trust me." She blinked away the tears and looked up at him with a smile. "Though I admit I haven't been sleeping very well, perhaps I will go and take a brief nap while you and Emily go riding."
He knew she was lying, but he wouldn't humiliate her by making her explain herself just yet, he could wait. "Very well, then sleep." He whispered. She slumped and he picked her up, transporting them to her bedroom. He laid her down on her canopy bed and gently kissed her lips. "Your lying to me, Annalisa Kildalton, but I forgive you for not wanting to show your pain. I love you, please let me help you." He left her to sleep, leaving her with sweet dreams, the sweetest that