A Labyrinth fairytale

or

A very different sleeping beauty

There was a big party going on in Sarah's room, everyone she had encountered on her journey thru the labyrinth was there, even some of the goblins that had been trying to stop her from getting to the castle beyond the goblin city. Everyone but the king of the goblins himself.

Jareth was sitting outside Sarah's window in his owl form, observing his underlings and Sarah's party. Sir Didymus just won a game of scrabbles against Hoggle Agnes the junk-lady and Sara.

To say that he was happy by the outcome of his and Sarah's "game" would be lying, he had after all just been rejected by a 14 year old that idolized him to the point of having a figurine resembling him on her desk. But if he was totally honest to himself he would have been disappointed if Sara had given away her little brother just like that. It would have made him think a lot less of her if she had.

If an owl could sigh he would have, as it was he simply took one last look at the beautiful girl that had captured his heart, she was laughing at the goblins doing something silly, and flew away.

The sleepiness hit him like a brick as he entered the underground. When he finally got to his bed he had problems standing, he more or less fell on his bed and fell asleep instantly. He didn't even remove his boots before he hit his bed.

First it was Sarah's party ending late, and as goblins are very sensitive to changes in there sleeping pattern, the day after most of them slept all day, the ones that was awake walked around like zombies and did not really notice anything. The second day the castle goblins assumed that their king was sulking and no one can blame them as that was something Jareth probably would have done had he been awake.

When there had gone a week without anyone seeing or hearing anything from the king, some of the older and braver goblins decided that they needed to investigate the matter.

After searching the whole castle (and a lot of procrastination) they only had the kings bedchamber left to look in.

I was well known that any goblin that put there foot in the kings bedchamber was relocated to the bog of eternal stench immediately, and so the castle goblins put there heads together and found the solution of asking sir Didymus to search the kings camber, as he technically wasn't a goblin and did not suffer from the stench of the bog.

When Didymus entered the room the king still lay sprawled out over the bed the way he had fallen, sleeping like a dead, and nothing the valiant knight did could wake him up. The even went as fare as to start the chicken assembly up( the chicken assembly are a failed project of Brable the goblin to teach chickens to sing it ended whit a shortage of earplugs, the destruction of several windows and the goblin spending the rest of his days in the bog).

By that everyone was sure that the king wasn't just sleeping and sir Didymus set out to ask the Wiseman of the labyrinth if he knew what had happen to the king.

The Wiseman was sitting in the hedge labyrinth sleeping, at the same place that Sara had encountered him in the labyrinth. But sir Didymus did not know that as that was before he joined Sara on her quest thru the labyrinth.

Fortney the old man was easier to wake up that the king. After some shouting from sir Didymus and insulting from the Wisemans hat the Wiseman finally woke up.

- Wha…? What are you shouting for? The Wiseman asked sleepy.

- It is I Sir Didymus. I have come to you to seek counsel fore the king is asleep and neither man nor beast can wake him up! The little fox-like knight exclaimed passionately.

- Have you tried throwing water on him? Asked the Wiseman and yawned.

- Yes we have, we throw a whole bucket of cold water over him and still he sleeps like a rock! We even started the chicken assembly up in his bedroom and the only thing that happened was that he turned from the noise.

- Oh my. Sad the wise man and winced at the thought of the chicken assembly. He rose from the stone chair he'd been sitting in and walked to a bookshelf close by, sir Didymus could have sworn that there been nothing but hedge there a minute ago, the Wiseman took out a old dusty book from one of the top shelf's. Carefully he opened it and leafed thru till he got to the part he wanted.

- Ah! Her it is! "The Curse of the goblin king", I had forgotten about that one.

- Well? What dose it say you old fool? The hat said, obviously unable to keep quiet any longer.

- This was before even my time. The Wiseman said ignoring the hat. Not long after the labyrinth was created and Jareth became king, there was a fey that wished away her son. She immediately regretted her unthought-of wish and Jareth let her run the Labyrinth. But the fey was unable to beat the labyrinth and her son was lost to her. Crying the Fey woman cursed Jareth. "Your own heart shall beat your labyrinth, and when that happens, you will fall in to an enchanted sleep ever after, unless true loves first kiss awakes you." Yes that's it, it was so long ago that even Jaret has problem remembering it. Curses were very popular back then.

- So... to break this spell we need to find the kings true love? Sir Didymus asked.

- Yes but that shall not be very hard. As the curse says that "Your own heart shall beat your labyrinth" we can safely assume that it is the lady Sarah that is king Jareth's true love. The problem is that unless the lady asks about him we can not speak of the king to her. The Wiseman explained.

- Why not? Sir Didymus asked perplexed.

- Because of her last words to the king. He has no power over her and we may not interfere in that situation in any way. The wise man put the book back on the shelf and returned to his chair.

- Will you listen to this crap!? Stop speaking in riddles! The hat said to its wearer

The Wiseman snorted at the hats insults but saw that the knight had a look of confusion on his face to.

- Hmpf it is hard to explain. You just have to take my word for it that you will be unable to say a word about it unless the lady outright asks for news of the king. He said and promptly shut his eyes to signal that the session was over.

- And that's all fore today. Pleas leave a contribution in the box. The hat sad more or less mechanically and the little box was held forwards and shaken pointedly.

Sir Didymus found some spare change and a chicken feather in his pocket and left it in the box.

Thinking hard the brave little knight decided to seek counsel from his brothers, Ludo and Hoggel.