Labyrinth: Herbs and Birds

This is a short story of what I normally encounter in my garden…which leads to a new adventure …sorry if it is too fluffy…

Chapter 1, Introductions

I am an early bird when I rise from my bed to brush away the morning tears from my eyes. My cat is still sleeping on my legs so I move aside gently to not disturb her as I draw back the curtains next to my small bed. It is a warm morning, and since it is spring break from college I do have the given opportunity to sleep in at my leisure, but I am too anxious this morning to keep sleeping, it has become a new habit for me for a year now. I have a morning ritual that is a guarded secret and delight.

I'll explain, I still live with my parents in a country home near a river by a forest near Boston, such a beautiful scenery makes it worth the drive to the local community college where I'm attending an RN (Registered Nurse) program to get certified. I did enjoy working a vet assistant during high school for years, but I do enjoy help human beings as well.

Anyways, for years my Mom and I have always planted gardens around the house, vegetables, fruit trees, flowers and healing herbs. I always enjoyed getting my hands dirty with soil and planting seeds and filling the bird feeders under our fruit trees. Every morning I wake up early to make myself a cup of coffee, take out my sketch book or Emily Dickenson and sit in the gazebo Dad built for Mom when they first moved here. I enjoy spending my quiet time in the morning to enjoy watching the different kinds of birds that visit the garden, I would sketch them or (call me weird) I would have conversations with them. We also have noisy chickens in a secure coop by the woodpile by our house, they are a bit too chatty to my liking. Whenever I need more quiet to study or sketch I simply walk down a trail from the back of our garden to the river where there are tall rock ledges that I used to jump from when I was a kid. The sound of running water is always soothing to my soul.

It was on one of these fine mornings that I was making flash cards on medications over a cup of coffee and blueberry muffin when I saw this odd looking bubble float into the garden and pop (not kidding!) next to my half eaten muffin and became a formal looking parchment with a red seal as the stamp. At first I thought I was seeing things and pondering if my early hours were becoming unhealthy for my college lifestyle. It wasn't like I had much of a social life anyways when all I do in my free time was study, heck, many of the girls in the program accused me of being gay since I obviously didn't have a boyfriend of husband! I pinched myself to see if it was not a dream. The letter was still there, and it also looked glittery on the old parchment. My Mom runs a book store in Boston so I know how to handle and recognize old fashioned material. I carefully picked it up at my finger tips, and turned it over to see if it had a name on it. The handwriting obviously was done by a fine quill pen with Indiana ink, with lovely cursive handwriting, it was defiantly old fashioned, and it read my name. And not just my first name mind you, my entire name! Only my family and very few close friends know my entire name, it does embarrass me often since people laugh at me. Alexandria Cornelia Lavender Petunia Ann-Marie Rose Williams, mind you I am not from Cuba! It's just an odd family tradition in our history from my Mom's side of the family since she comes from a llllloooooonnnnnngggggg line of gardeners, and the odd tradition is that the girls always got these long names with a combination of flowers (or herbs) and normal names from what their mothers' favorites were. You can tell what my Mom enjoys growing the most right. You should see the odd names of my cousins and aunts. The only one who shares my rebellious sentiments to keep our long names short and sweet is my cousin Sarah. Both of us do stay in touch over the years since high school, if it were not for the fact that we were family and friends since we were children we wouldn't have survived high school. We were not what you would consider normal, besides the long flower name secret, we were considered mature by our teachers, but wierdos to our peers.

Sarah and I always shared our secrets with one another since we were kids(we are smiliar in age, I'm only older by a few months), and comforted each other when times became hard. To the night when Sarah lost her mother in the car accident and watched as her Dad remarried a year later. I sympathized since her step-mother kept trying to change Sarah to meet her standards around the household, including adding the addition of her new step-brother Toby. For three years I watched Sarah become bitter towards her family, she stopped talking to me for an entire year when she was 15 due to all the drama at home. It was hard to cope with having a lab partner who didn't want to cooperate. The only way I got her to open up was whenever I took her to the book store after school to look for fairy tales, or give her ideas for short stories, she would write and I would draw the pictures. Her favorite story was a small red book titled "The Labyrinth" that she took to carrying everywhere she went. I enjoyed acting out the book with her and her family sheepdog Merlin in the parks whenever I was not needed to work at the shop or the local vet. Sarah would sometimes feel hurt and voice her pain whenever I didn't have time for her, so I tried to make it up to her by drawing sketches of the Labyrinth characters for her to hang on her wall. She liked the fairy ones, the great maze, dwarves, goblins, and bird creatures, I always sketched her in her Medieval costume as the princess of the story. But the one character she was always never satisfied with was the Goblin King. I tried doing other sketches of goblins but she would always tell me that they were wrong or I was missing something, but I didn't have much to go on! The book doesn't give that much of a description I was constantly trying to be creative to Sarah's frustration. To make up for it, I asked one of my friend's dad to make a figure of the Goblin King as a human form, menacing and dark. I gave it to Sarah for her birthday, and for once she said it was similar to what she had in mind!

One day at school Sarah was even bitterer than ever, kept mumbling under her breathe about Tody crying all night and her being unable to sleep, life not being fair. Toby was in the terrible twos stage so I didn't blame her, I tried to cheer her up by my latest drawings on the way to drama class but she only brushed them off as we entered the auditorium. I asked if she wanted to hang out after school at the bookshop, but she turned me down to go recite Labyrinth in the park with Merlin. I was assigned to help at the vet clinic so I didn't see her for the rest of the day and thought to drop in the next day, Saturday, to check on her.

Sarah was a completely changed person since that day; she even cleaned up her room and kissed Tody on the cheek! She was smiling a wayward smile constantly at her vanity mirror and bedroom window as if expecting something to happen. I grilled her for answers, only to see her sadly sign and tell me it was nothing, but I could tell. She some was having me sketch Labyrinth characters again, this time she gave me whole new details about how they should look, she even gave them names as if she knew them personally! The Goblin King once again frustrated her, she gave many excessive details, such as mismatched eyes (blue and blown I think), tall, swimmer's body, tight breeches (don't know how she came up with that one!), a feathery cape (like soft owl wings), sparkly face with sharp eyebrows with makeup markings, a royal turned down nose, thin lips, sharp teeth (what are we Vampire girls now?), a flowing dark cape, and a worn yet handsome face of a mature man. I became even more confused, #1 how is that a Goblin King? #2 I didn't recall these descriptions in the storybook… #3 why does he resemble the David Bowie poster on her bedroom wall? But I couldn't turn down her eager face and pleading tones, I love her like and sister to do anything to make her stay this happy after 3 or so years of bitterness, so for years I allowed her to carry on this secret hobby of collecting Labyrinth pictures and write stories about the characters that took place in the great maze. Sounds crazy, but I found myself wishing that this whimsical place existed to continue making Sarah happy and content. She and I started to hang out more, more guys at school asked her out but she always turned them down calling them "foolish little boys who didn't even come close to her expectations", she spent more time with Toby enjoying every moment with him (even asking me to sketch him often in his red and white strip pjs), and even tried to get allow better with her parents.

As time rolled on though, I noticed her becoming a bit depressed at times, mumbling nonsense about someone not caring about her, and never seeing HIM again. I questioned who HE was, but like the clever actress she was, she would always change her features and the subject to throw me off. For years, these mood swings began to become ongoing or once in a blue moon.

Anyways, I am getting ahead of myself, someone dared to put my entire name on this letter and make it all fit beautifully! Not even my parents dared to play a joke on me like this, they knew it annoyed me greatly, especially in front of company. I cleaned my butter knife with a napkin and used it to break the seal. Seeing it was safe from any anthrax power I opened it up to read:

His Royal Highness Goblin King Jareth Lysander James Lutin the Fourth of the Underground,

Formally requests your presence to bare witness to the union of his future Queen and soul mate

Lady Sarah Rosemary Camellia Fern Marie Delia Elizabeth of the Aboveground

On the day of Our Lord the 15th of May Underground, and the 16th of May Aboveground

You presence is also required by the Lady Sarah to become her Maid of Honor in the ceremony,

To learn the formalities of court and customs that is to be expected, you shall be summoned to court at once to review for a month your duties as Royal Maid of Honor.

To oppose such a generous request is considered an act of treason and punishment of instant Bogging.

Many blessings to you and have a pleasant day.

"What the FLYING FLIP? Who would come up with an Invitation like this!"

May was in 2 months from now! I had schoolwork to finish! And how did whoever learn Sarah's FULL name! It was creepy enough that I had received such an invitation, but what happened next was even creepier! A dark golden brown barn owl swooped into the garden gazebo and perched itself on the back of the empty chair right across from me! I have seen owls at a distance, but never this close before! My mind flew back to my sketch book full of barn owls Sarah would beg me to draw in the past and my mind tried to remind my body what to do when near such a beautiful yet skittish nocturnal animal. I could tell it male, with gorgeous feathers of black, brown and dark gold, but the eyes held me in studded as a deer in the headlights. Barn Owl eyes were never mismatched colors, (of course Sarah's drawings always were) but this one had the colors gold and brown. Suddenly before my very eyes the owl began to change! Yes, change, morph in a sense into a tall man! This tall man looked familiar but he had long black hair with golden highlights that was wild yet was held back as a ponytail, sharp features of eye markings that shimmered gold and silver, and those eyes continued to hold my gaze as if daring me to try and look away! His skin was pale with held no facial hair, even his broad chest was pale of any hair, (I'm not kidding here! His frilly shirt was open down to his navel! Who did he think he was the next GQ model), his hands were covered with white gloves and his thin lips gave me a bit of a smirk as I sat across from him in shock. When he spoke, his head was lifted high as if looking down is nose at me as a dominant male, with a crisp British accent,

"I take it Sarah neglected to mention my arrival with the invitation."

I gave myself a mental shake and decided to answer the mysterious stranger, "Pardon me, but who are you and why have you trespassed into my garden?"

He took a brief glance at the garden around us, shrugged his elegant shoulders and rose from his chair as he responded, thinking the weird guy was about to make a move on me, I clutch the heavy textbook in my lap which was conveniently hidden under the table. I rose from my chair ready to strike when the stranger bowed, "My name is High Prince Gareth II and third in line for the Fae throne, and I am also known as simply being the King of Dreams."

How humble, I sarcastically thought as he made no movement to return to his seat but continue to stare down at me, hey I'm only 5 foot 4 inches! Whereas this man was a giant! I now had more of a body profile of the man before me, he was wearing a dark cloak over his shoulders flowing in the cool morning breeze, he was wearing leggings that looked a bit too snug for my view, and tall brown riding boots that gleaned in the morning sun rise. Suddenly he reminded me why he looked familiar, the Goblin King drawings Sarah had me draw! But this man wasn't blonde and his eyes were not mismatched blue and brown, and he said his name was Gareth not Jareth from the book. Was this a joke by Sarah? But Sarah never did practical jokes on anyone, heck even her knock-knock jokes were terrible when we were children!

I cleared my throat and put on y professional face, in nurse training we learn to train out features to appear calm and not reveal judgment or fear, I looked back at the Goblin King look-alike and calmly asked, "Are you by chance related to the Goblin King?"

The man raised an elegant eyebrow with a calm and serene face, "I see you do know the situation, very well then once you gather your things I shall summon some goblins to carry them while I escort you to the Underground."

"Excuse me?"

He looked confused by my phrase, "Have I missed something Miss Williams?"

"First of all, is this even real or someone's idea of a terrible practical joke on me and my family, and second what on earth is the matter with you! Don't you realize that I can't drop my classes at the drop of a hat? If I so much as miss a day of class, even if I am ill, I'll lose class credit for my final grade, which will also cost me a job in the future! Do you know how long it takes to get into a good creditable Medical Program that can train and certify people to work anywhere in this country? Of course not, you're from a fairy tale that isn't real and if I don't leave in the next few minutes I'll be late for my Disease class!"

At about this time I check my watch and held back a shriek, I had wasted more time than I thought with this creepy dude that I lost track of the time, I needed to leave of else I wouldn't even get a parking space let alone get to class on time! Punctuality was also graded!

I rushed to continue to put my supplies into my back pack when a gloved hand gripped my arm halting me from putting my textbook into the bag, it was the Gareth dude again, only he was looking at me with a stern glance, "Miss Williams, it is already a risk of treason to have a commoner yell in the face of royalty, and your orders are to come to the Underground with me today to help your cousin."

I fought to pull my arm away, but his one handed grip was too strong for me to escape, I glared at the giant man, "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to think about that later, now let me go, I need to go to school!"

His gaze sharpened at me, staring at me as he would transform back into a giant owl and I was the mouse in his talons, "Miss Williams, I have strict orders from the Goblin King to escort you the Underground immediately!"

"In your dreams you so-called Dream King!" In my defense I whipped the heavy textbook around the to make contact with his face making a big bashing noise when it came into contact with his nose.

As he yelped and winced in pain holding his nose, he released my grip which gave me the opportunity to run away from the gazebo towards the garden's side gate. I did feel guilty though for hitting his handsome face so I looked back and yelled, "I'm sorry! But this class is already like risking my life and time right now!"

I then jumped into my silver Saturn car and sped out the driveway, trying to calm down.