In the midst of the general commotion and ruckus that must be present around goblins, Jareth sat in his throne, gazing into a crystal ball, although not seeing anything particularly interesting. Spending weeks on end in his owl form had put a great strain on him. He was tired and more irritable than ever. Yet he wondered why he even bothered, for Sarah still believed him to be the villain, when she was the one who had been so cruel. He had offered everything to her; the world, her dreams, his heart. His love meant nothing to her. However, he could not bear to let her slip away. He feared that as time wore on, she would forget about him.
The room filled with the deafening laughter of the goblins. One of them had caught a chicken, and began a game of hot potato with the poor thing. Between the shrieks of delight from the goblins and the squawking of the chicken, Jareth could handle it no longer. He stood up and pushed the closest goblin over with his riding crop.
"Shut up!" he demanded.
One by one, the goblins became silent. The chicken was set free, and strutted along like nothing ever happened. A goblin towards the back of the room noticed Jareth's crazed expression and began to giggle. They all turned to face the giggling goblin, and then looked back at Jareth. They tried to hold it in, but they all became an annoying, giggling pack.
"Get out," he said, quietly at first. He strode towards the door and pulled it open.
"GET OUT!" he yelled.
All the goblins scrambled towards the door. They knew that he meant it, and no one wanted to be around when he was angry. Jareth slammed the door and locked it. He sunk back into his throne. He wondered what he was going to do. He couldn't go on like this much longer. Without Sarah, he would surely fall to ruins and the Labyrinth would be left without a king.
He sighed. Now he was the one being melodramatic. He was just going to have to wait it out. At some point, Sarah would seek him out. At least, that's what he kept telling himself. He also figured that if she didn't, he might just have to go and find her.
It was rather peaceful without various goblin sounds echoing around the room. Jareth made a mental note to kick them out more often. (He also made a mental note that he does kick them out quite frequently, mostly through the window, but for whatever reason it had never occurred to him to make them all leave at once. Through the door. Without any physical kicking.)
Apparently, Jareth had fallen asleep in his throne. He made this conclusion when he heard whispers and muffled giggles that sounded much to close. He opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by goblins.
"You're majesty didn't tell us there would be a sleepover in the throne room!" said one of the smaller goblins.
Jareth looked around, only to see that the entire room was draped in sheets, blankets, and pillows, with an occasional fort constructed. He set his foot on the ground, which made an unexpected crunching sound. Popcorn.
He sighed, and looked at the mess that he would most likely have to clean up himself, for goblins were quite one-way with these sorts of things. They could do the damage, but one was lucky if they cleaned it up without making things worse.
"Yes," he said sarcastically. "When someone locks their door after they yell at everyone to leave, it almost always means 'do come back soon, sleep in my house without permission, and leave a mess.'"
The goblins stared at him blankly. Jareth stood up slowly, fearful of whatever else he might step in. Luckily, the goblins became distracted by a chicken that appeared to be trapped in a pillow fort, and he was able to slip away, carefully maneuvering around still sleeping goblins and a puddle of something sticky.
He entered his bedchamber and collapsed onto his magnificent four poster bed. He covered his face with a pillow and tried to relax. It didn't last long. Before he could even think about falling back asleep, a loud boom followed by the sound of crumbling stone resonated through the entire castle. He pretended not to hear it, but after a minute or so, he decided that a moment of peace and (semi) quiet was not worth losing whatever part of his castle had been (quite possibly) blown up. He reluctantly sat up and dragged himself back into the throne room, where a gaping hole now replaced where the middle of the back wall once stood. Chicken feathers floated through the air, and smoke was rising off a goblin that was lying on the floor, laughing hysterically.
Jareth pinched the bridge of his nose. "Would anyone care to inform me why there is now a fairly large, fairly crumbling hole in the wall that was not there five minutes ago?"
They all began to talk at once, which led to arguments about what had really happened.
"One at a time!" he commanded. "Unless you are all in the mood for a trip to the bog."
Silence.
"You," he said, poking the closest goblin with the toe of his boot. "Talk."
"Well," began the goblin. "Geoffrey and I were…"
Jareth interrupted. "I don't know of anyone named Geoffrey." Odd name for a goblin, he thought.
"Oh yeah, we used to calls him Flunk, but now we calls him Geoffrey. Anyways, we was trying to see who could hold their breath the longest, and we was both getting pretty dizzy, and…do you remember that time when…"
"Get on with it!" said Jareth. He was becoming impatient.
"I figured it was just a case of spontaneous combustion. He lived though. Can't say so much for the chicken, poor thing."
They both looked to see a slightly singed goblin nibbling on what appeared to be a roasted chicken dinner.
Jareth sighed. "I'm not sure if I should trust you with this," he announced to the hoard of goblins. "If you can put this room back in order in less than an hour, I will single-handedly send all of you to The Bog of Eternal Stench before you can blink!"
The goblins stared at him blankly, and the informative one stood with his mouth agape.
Jareth was too used to making threats that it took him a moment to realize what he had said.
"If you can put this room back in order in less than an hour, I will…" he turned back to the informative goblin. "You,"
"Me name's Grimes."
"Alright, Grimes, what do you like to do for fun?" Jareth had to admit that he was apprehensive of what might come out of his mouth.
"Well, I likes to…likes to…burn things?"
"No."
"Then my second choice has to be…to be…have you ever played this game where you take a chicken, three apples, an old sock, and you?…"
"Never mind," said Jareth. "If you can put this room back in order in less than an hour, you may all take turns jumping out the window and into the pond." It was a win-win deal. The goblins got to do what they had been nagging for the past who know how long, and Jareth got to watch them jump into nearly freezing water and then see their faces when they realized that jumping out the window wasn't any more extravagant than being kicked out the window.
The goblins considered the reward for a moment. They concluded that it was a reasonable swap, and presently scurried around looking for something to clean.
Jareth sat in his throne and swung his legs over the armrest. He closely observed the construction work of the goblins, ready to step in if anything went amiss. Two had returned carrying a bucket of the sticky stuff that had been spilled in a puddle on the floor earlier, and that was probably still there. They began filling the hole with it, which worked remarkably well, although it turned a garish orange when it dried. Meanwhile, the rest of the goblins gathered up the pillows and blankets and threw them into the pit in the center of the room. One of them went around eating up bits of popcorn off the floor, and another got to work licking away said sticky stuff.
Jareth was admittedly impressed with their work. They finished in record time. As he had expected, it was simply hilarious watching the goblins jump out the window, and then see the priceless expression on their face as they slopped back into the room, dripping wet and shivering. Yet he kept thinking of how this chaotic and outlandish lifestyle would be much more bearable and amusing if he had someone to share it with. It seemed such a shame to keep it all to himself.