Author's Note: If you've ever read any of the EarthSea books by Ursula K. LeGuin than you'll see where I'm pulling this animal form stuff from. If you haven't you should, her voodoo is amazing. (



Jareth winged away from the jovial scene of Sarah's room. He flew into the moonlight without direction or care for where he was going. The idea of defeat was still so new to him. He'd never been beaten at his own game before.

His owl form provided comfort and distraction. When a magic user takes the form of an animal it is a dangerous emersion. It may often become convenient or necessary to do so but the longer and more often someone takes on a specific form the more likely it is that they will loose themselves in it.

He had flown for what may have been an hour or more when he came to a lake in the woods, drenched in moonlight, surrounded in tall dark trees. He felt the place suited his state of mind and lit upon a branch overhanging the water in a flutter and flurry of feathers.

Changing back into his fae form he dangled his legs over the lake. His left arm reached above him to an overhead branch, wisps of his hair danced on the light breeze.

The full moon's reflection was long and glittering on the lake. As Jareth gazed upon it waves of emotion began to hit him. The fog of being in owl form was lifting and his grief was settling in. His breath caught in his chest and small tears, crystalline in the moonlight, fell down his hot cheeks and into the lake below.

His pride and his defiance rose up in him. He wiped the tears from his cheeks with a graceful movement of his gloved hand.

"Damn her," the words came out choked and unbidden, surprising himself.

He sat a while longer gazing across the lake, his face still a confusion of emotion. Finally something in his expression shifted and set. His eyes look up from its reflection to the moon herself.

A tenth of a second later a great owl was beating his wings over the surface of the lake then steadily climbing up in the cool moonlight.