A/N: I'm bacccckkkkk! Did you miss me? ^_^ Sorry it took so long to get this together guys, but I'm in college as an English major, which means writing is now a chore as much as it is a pleasurable activity. That, and I was having massive writer's block on this sequel. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Let me reiterate for foolish mortals that I DO NOT OWN LABYRINTH or any of its amazing characters. That would be Jim Henson. I only own the story and my interpretations of what should have happened after. Also, if you haven't read the first story, some stuff might not make any sense to you, so I suggest you take a little time and read it. Now, without further ado, here's the nice long first chapter to "The Goblin Queen". Have at it!
The Goblin Queen
Chapter 1- Where Shadows Dwell
It was gone. All of it. Sarah stared out at the desolate scene before her. The trees were withering brown, the ground gray, the sky above her was dull and shadowed. Even the smells of earthy purity, of sea blown winds and wet grass were gone. The land for miles around looked and felt dead, caught in a frozen sleep that she feared it would never wake from. Her heart pounded as she raced to the spot she had to see with her own eyes. She came to a screeching halt, almost passing it by, not recognizing it. Her mouth trembled as she spread the bushes back and walked in. Their clearing, their place was gray and lifeless. No wind swayed the leaves or the flowers they had planted there together. It was all colorless and bleak to her eyes.
And the worst of it all was that he wasn't there.
"No," she whimpered, falling to her knees. "No!" she screamed long and loud, to the frozen skies, and let the tears fall. Her heart threatened to die of guilt and loss right there, twisting with agony in her chest. She had failed him. She hadn't been there when he needed her most.
And without him, she couldn't live.
She wouldn't.
Sarah.
She opened her eyes to see green where her tears had fallen. Life, moving beneath her breath, breathing. Her legs moved her forward of their own volition, past their tree, their clearing, and to a path of frozen life.
Sarah.
She ran to the voice, reaching a hand forward. Her heart poured its magic forth in search of him, and began to bring life back to the land around her.
Sarah.
Sarah's body stopped, but her spirit fell backward from it. She looked up and watched as her body turned to look behind her, meeting someone's eyes.
"Sarah. Sarah, wake up dearest, your dreaming."
Sarah's eyes snapped open, blurred by a glaze at first, but once her vision cleared, her eyes met brown and blue. Smiling, she touched a hand to his cheek and stroked along his cheekbone with her thumb. She knew she'd never get tired of waking up to him.
"Good morning, Goblin King."
Jareth smiled back at her. "Good morning, my Queen-to-be."
~LLLLLLLLLLLLL~
"I was crying? Really?" Sarah asked through a piece of toast she had just placed in her mouth.
Jareth had brought Sarah's breakfast to her in the room he had made for her to recover in after the ordeal with Goliath. It had been nearly a week in the Underground since her victory and Jareth's reinstatement as Goblin King. Though Sarah had insisted on day four that she was well enough to get up, Jareth had insisted she stay in bed until the Goblin healers had deemed her 100% well, and had been bringing her breakfast in bed since then. Sarah was convinced he had ordered the healers to keep her in bed a little longer so he could keep taking care of her, but kept that thought to herself. Sitting beside her bed in a soft chair, Jareth told her how he had woken her up because she was crying in her sleep. He had felt her distress before he had even made it to her door. The problem was, Sarah couldn't remember what she had been dreaming of.
"It is common for humans to forget their dreams upon waking, but I would have thought your new magic would have changed that by now," he commented, sipping on a cup of black coffee.
"It has, or it had all the other days this week. I can tell you still what I dreamt of three nights ago, but I can't for the life of me remember what I dreamt of today, which is strange," she looked thoughtfully at her plate of food. "I don't know, maybe it was something that scared me, that my mind's repressing or something."
Jareth smirked. "Does something truly scare the great Sarah Williams? After everything you've gone through, precious, I can't imagine what would frighten you."
"I can think of one thing in particular," she said softly, taking his freehand in hers. An image of the glass chamber he had been trapped in, shattering, ran through her head.
Sensing what she was thinking of, the King gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "You no longer have that to fear, precious thing. We are here, together, you and I. I am well, as you will be, and I don't plan to ever leave your side again."
He leaned over and kissed her lips so gently it would have felt uncharacteristic to the Sarah of 15, who had seen him as merely a villain. The Sarah of 21 knew better though, and happily moved to deepen the kiss. Then, a familiar ringing echoed into the walls of their minds, throwing them off focus.
Sarah pulled back and sighed. "Yeah, until your mother calls you away again, for fear that we'll consummate the bond before the wedding, and before she has time to convince you to marry a Fae instead."
"Sarah, you know I would never—"
"—I know it, you know it, even your father knows it, but your mother is in utter denial, Jareth."
Jareth looked at his fiancé, her green eyes flickering with worry beneath arched eyebrows. Even in the morning hours, with her black hair mussed and her light blue nightgown twisted from wild sleep, she was beautiful to him. More beautiful than any Fae woman he had met, and there had been many in his lifetime. He knew then what he'd known since he had first stumbled upon the child actress in the park with her dog: no one but Sarah could ever hold his heart. Mother be damned.
Placing his breakfast tray aside, he stood up and leaned over her, his forehead rested upon hers and a hand tangled in her hair.
"One month, my love. One month, and we can be married, and I can finally place you where you belong: beside me on the throne, and beside me in my bed. And I intend to be selfish for another month after and keep you in my bed with me, to compensate for all the time we've been forced to wait," he growled seductively.
Sarah giggled, putting gentle hands at the back of his neck. "Why can't we just elope? That'd make things easier, and allow us to enjoy each other's company sooner," she grinned mischievously.
"Were that I could, precious, I would marry you this very second and have you this very night. But as Goblin King, as well as son to the High King and Queen, I am unfortunately forced to follow the rules of the royals. Besides, I want you completely replenished for our wedding month, which I was quite serious about."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Jareth," she whined, "I am replenished. I was replenished three days ago, thanks to having half your magic. And quite frankly, if I don't get out of this room soon, I'm either going to go insane, or throttle you out of frustration."
He laughed at her feisty fire, a personality trait he would never grow tired of in her. "Soon, dearest. One of the healers should be by today in fact, and if he gives you a clean bill of health, you can run round the castle to your heart's content."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
The jingle of magic echoed through their heads again, this time more impatiently.
"I'd best go meet them, before the woman has a grand Fae conniption. Those don't end very well, I assure you," he surmised.
Sarah smiled and nodded, pulling her lover down for one last kiss before he transported himself to Tuatha De Danaan Castle.
~SSSSSSSSSSSSS~
"My Lady, don't fidget so much. I can't tie the laces when you move like that," a little Goblinette pleaded from behind Sarah.
"I'm sorry, Harmony, but I'm just so excited to be getting out of this room!" Sarah squealed.
After an extensive check-up with the lead healer for the Underground, Sarah was given the clean bill of health she'd been waiting for all week. Now, Harmony, the Goblinette Jareth had assigned as Sarah's personal lady-in-waiting, fought to tie the laces of the green and white corset dress that Jareth had placed amongst Sarah's new wardrobe of clothes. She had wanted to try changing clothes by magic, the way she'd seen Jareth do once or twice, but the healer had forbade use of her magic. He wanted her old and new magic to have another day or so to mesh more firmly within her body. Putting on her Aboveground clothes would have been easier than the dress, but she knew Jareth's mother might be around and didn't want give the woman anymore reason to think her unfit for Jareth. So, Sarah was forced to get the dress on the old fashioned way, with Harmony's help.
The young, four-foot-three Goblin woman looked frail with her spindly green limbs, but each pull of the silk ties proved to Sarah how strong she really was. She even had to stretch her small stomach out so she wouldn't suffocate. Once the dress had been tied, Sarah stepped into a pair of comfortable blue walking slippers and walked with Harmony down to the throne room. She looked about the high ceilinged halls and golden brown walls as one who had never looked about a real castle before. The throne room, to her surprise, was cleaner, save for a helmet or two.
"The King had us cleanup for you. Said 'a throne room should look as good as its Queen' or something of the sort. Although, when we finished, I think I heard him mumble something about 'being better off building a new one'. But that sounds like a lot of work to me."
Sarah laughed and shook her head. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he leaves it as is. It wouldn't be the throne of the Goblin King if it looked any other way."
Soon, the two found their way outside the castle entrance. Goblins of every shape and size bustled around the city beyond, cackling, fighting, and just being, well, Goblins. As they walked closer to the buildings, the Goblins caught sight of Sarah and waved to her as they passed, cheering things like, "Your Highness!", "Lady Queen!", and "Long live Queenie!"
Sarah waved back with embarrassment, then leaned in to whisper to Harmony. "Why are they calling me Queen and Highness, Harmony? Don't they know Jareth and I aren't married yet?"
"Course they do, my Lady, but they recognize the symbol you wear." Harmony pointed to the silver medallion round Sarah's neck. "Only royals of the Goblin Kingdom, chosen by the Labyrinth herself wear her symbol. And though the Fae haven't recognized you yet, here to us, we follow King Jareth and the Labyrinth, and if they decide that you're Queen, then to us you are."
"The Labyrinth, huh?"
Sarah stared off briefly at a glimpse of the magic entity's walls just beyond the Goblin City. It had been something to fear six years before, when Sarah first went through it to save Toby. But the mysterious structure, with a life of its own, had grown on her, just as the Underground had.
The two finally reached a maze of gardens to the left of the castle, something Sarah had missed during her first journey. It was a small maze, nothing as complex as the Labyrinth in structure, but it was obvious that it was meant more for beauty than complexity.
Flowers of every shape, size, color, and scent bloomed in the grasses on either side of the path and climbed up the hedge walls in intricate patterns that could only have been made by magic. There were flowers like daisies, rhododendrons, and forget-me-nots that Sarah recognized, and flowers she did not. The ones premiere only to the Faery realm smelled stronger than the Aboveground flowers. One, a pink and blue tulip-like flower with green star shapes splotched along its stem and petals, almost made Sarah light-headed when she got up close to sniff it. Harmony explained that the Faery flowers were magic grown, so they had more potent smells and brighter looks than hand grown flowers.
"The Fae have strong senses of smell, and like flowers like these because they get intoxicated from them. Your nose will grow used to them after a few more weeks."
"Speaking of which, I'll have to remember to speak to Jareth later about my stay here," Sarah muttered to herself, thinking of her family, and Toby.
Something stopped Harmony in her tracks, and Sarah turned to see the Goblinette perking her pointed ears to some unheard call. "Excuse me, Lady Sarah, but it seems the King has some need of me."
"Oh, should I go too?"
"Oh no, my Lady, stay for now and enjoy yourself. I will be back for you if he needs you," she replied, and in a blink of her purple eyes, she was gone.
Sarah sighed, wishing she didn't have to wait to practice with her own magic, but making sure to keep her wish as only a thought, not knowing what the actual wish would do. "After all, what's said is said," she whispered, smiling at the thought of her fiancé.
Making her way down the path, she soon reached an alcove with a stone bench seated amongst a large patch of flowers. Careful not to trample any, she climbed onto the bench and lay upon it, contently looking up at the orange and blue sky. Even in the midday, that same orange hue she had seen during her first run mixed with the blue waves in the air, creating something unique and beautiful in a place she once thought horrid. Out of the corner of her eye, something dark moved. Sarah snapped her head to the side and breathed with relief.
"It's only a flower," she told herself, touching the tall plant with her fingertips. It was another Underground flower, but with a strange scent that made Sarah want to laugh and cry all at once. It's black and purple petals, covered in a thin layer of velvety hairs, were in the shape of a jagged star. It was unique and alone amongst the cluster of flowers surrounding the bench, and it mesmerized her, beckoning for her to smell it a little closer.
"Lady Sarah," Harmony called from nearby, breaking Sarah's trance. "Lady Sarah?"
"Here, Harmony," she called back, sitting up as the Goblinette turned the corner to the alcove.
"There you are! I hate to cut your first day of fresh air short, but the King requests your presence at once. The High King and Queen wish to speak to you."
The time it took Sarah to maneuver her way back to the path without trampling the flowers was just enough time for her to break out in a sweat of nervousness. She took Harmony's hand and let her transport the two to the throne room, leaving the strange little black flower behind and forgotten. For now.
*Yay! So excited for this now! I'm sure you can't WAIT to see what happens. Frankly, neither can I, cause I'm making this up as I go lol. I can't say when I'll get the next chapter up though, but I'll be graduating soon so that'll free up my time. In the meantime, CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND! You know it, I know it, so get to it. TTFN, Ta ta for now!*
