Sea Siren
It had been two hundred and thirty three years to the day that she had died. It had hurt like hell she remembered. Being hit by a car hadn't been one of the most fun parts of her life. Would he remember her? Would he even care? It had been two hundred and forty one years since she had last seen him after all. He made it seem as though he had cared for her intensely, but she knew of his reputation now. Living in the Goblin Kingdom for quite some time had made sure of that. Another thing, would he even recognise her? She didn't exactly look entirely human now. She hadn't since her second birth. A birth which most certainly had not been in the Goblin Kingdom.
Her native land was that of the Sea Siren and she bore the black tribal markings on her face to show it. As well as the ocean coloured skin that shimmered and changed shade in the light. Even if people couldn't guess she was a Siren they would know her link with the sea from the membrane between her long fingers and the seaweed green of her hair. Siren society was far too straight laced for her however. While she loved the sea and loved the song she could never be as serious or as, well, moral as was required. The bindings of her home realm were suffocating to her. So she had roamed through many of the realms until finally stumbling across this one. She hadn't realised where she had been at first, but the ugly little creatures and almost human people had been bizarrely familiar. Finally she had stopped off in a tavern and asked the bar tender what Kingdom she had wandered into.
The Goblin Kingdom. The one Kingdom she had been trying to avoid for fear of being overwhelmed by one night's memories for a lifetime. The memory did resurface, and frequently at that. But she had thrived in the utter chaos that this Kingdom seemed to feed on. It had been perfect for her. So she lived in a small house on an island off the coast and frequented the surrounding coast line with ease. Unfortunately the little raised island was granted a perfect view of the capital cities highest point, miles off in the distance.
The Goblin King's castle. Not the centre of the Labyrinth as she had thought when she had been human, which explained why everyone she had asked when she was playing against the damn thing was no help. The Goblin City was actually quite close to being on the outskirts when the enormity of the Labyrinth was taken into consideration. It silently taunted her. Calling her a coward for not daring to at least see if there was a possibility of something. It begged for her to come and speak with the King who had haunted her dreams and desires since she had been human. The reason she ran through males like no other woman she had ever met, never settling on one, always making sure they knew that any affair was casual, based entirely on sex and they would receive nothing more from her. Her heart was no longer hers to give.
Rolling her shoulders and flicking about her fins of five spines beneath her heavy green cloak, Sarah let her shimmering blue eyes drift over the beautifully intricate maze from the semi baron rise she stood upon with her feet bare. The castle, its crowning jewel less than a days walk away. A deep breath of reassurance and she set off down the narrow, winding path.
Hoggle wasn't at the pond this time. Was that relief or disappointment that flickered in her heart? The wall was just as over grown and dotted with fairies as she remembered. Though a few of the fairies were on the floor, dazed. So Hoggle had been here. Curiosity had gotten her into quite a lot of trouble over the years. So of course she hadn't learnt her lesson and decided to follow the trial of collapsed fairies. Around a slight bend and-
"Ow! It bit me!" A young girl. Twelve, maybe a little older, wearing a pleated skirt and ruffled blouse.
"Well, what did you expect it to do?" Hoggle. Batting a fairy away, Sara pressed herself against the wall, relying on a far too sea like green to hide her amongst the vines.
"I thought fairies did nice things like," there the girl paused, unsure of herself. "Like granting wishes!" she finally finished.
"Well, that just shows how much you know don't it." A smile curved Sarah's full lips at the oh so familiar exchange. Something told her that Jareth would have his hands full with this one. Even if she didn't manage to succeed in getting to the castle, she would most likely have tried hard enough for the King to give her back the child she had wished away. The rest of the conversation was equally familiar and ended with the girl at last through the Labyrinth's door. Once she was sure the girl was well on her way, Sarah stood away from the wall and took a few steps towards the dwarf who had helped her win back her little brother.
He was back on with his work and seemed a little shorter than she remembered, but he still had a cluster of gems at his hip and a dirty cap on his head with his white hair sticking out from under it.
"That little chat I just overheard sounded rather familiar." The Dwarf turned to look at her. His eyebrow raised.
"Do I knows yeh?" he asked, sounding more than a little sceptical.
"You don't recognise me, do you?" The Dwarf frowned and stared hard at her face.
"I'd remember meetin' a Siren."
"I was human when we knew each other Hoggle. We met here actually and you helped me rescue my baby brother." His eyes widened, but it was disgust they widened with.
"'Ow dare you! It's known all over that I've only ever 'elped one person through this place and she's dead! 'Ow dare yeh come 'ere and taunt an old dwarf like that!"
"I'm not taunting you Hoggle, I really am Sarah." Perhaps it was something in her pleading eyes, or the near desperation of her voice. But his eyes narrowed and looked more closely to her face.
"Prove it," he said at last. "Tell me somethin' only 'er and me would know." She frowned and turned her head away while casting her mind back to her human days.
"Karren ended up in prison for trying to kill Toby three and a half months after I ran the Labyrinth and my father starting drinking heavily. Toby and I were rather quickly put into foster care and I got hit by a ford mondaeo when I was twenty three. It hurt." His mouth had fallen open now and his pesticide can had dropped from his hand to clatter against the ground. He didn't speak. He just stared. His blue eyes becoming damp until finally a tear rolled down his wrinkled face.
"Sarah," he choked out. Then ran to her and wrapped his arms around her legs, weeping shamelessly into her knees. Hesitantly her hands reached down to stroke at his head in what she hoped was a comforting manner.
"I'm sorry," she found herself whispering, battling to keep her own sobs at bay. "I'm so sorry I didn't come sooner."
A long, drawn out sigh escaped Jareth lips as he boredly watched the young girl try to figure out how she would get out of the outer corridor. This one had a fiery spirit. He didn't really need to keep tack of her to know that she would more than likely put up a good enough fight for him to give the girl her younger cousin back. He loathed watching children try and save children. It forced the one running his Labyrinth to grow up faster than they should.
Vanishing his crystal, the King languidly rose to his feet and slowly wandered towards the window. How long had it been, he wondered? How long since his garden gate had opened to Sarah? Over two hundred years he knew that. He tried not to keep track of the exact time. It was far too painful, though he didn't deny her a place in his musing or his memory. He should have taken a wife well over a hundred years ago, but he refused to put any woman through his grieving. It would not be fair on them.
His eyes flew towards the entrance. He couldn't see it; he more felt it than anything else. Someone was coming in, someone . . . odd. A quick twist of his hand and another crystal was in his grasp. A Sea Siren? What was one of those doing so far away from their Kingdom, and from salt water come to think of it? She was rather beautiful, what ever her reason for being here. He knew that heavy cloak hid the fins on her back, but for some reason, most likely the clingy silk like material she was wearing, the little of it there was, he couldn't find it in him to care. Besides, he had seen worse. Her shimmering skin, so many ever changing shades of blue and green, was close to hypnotic and her seaweed green hair was easily tussled by the wind. Her features were soft, rounded and feminine. Yet her beauty was not the sort that a man would want to claim just once, her beauty hinted at marriage. Yet her eyes, despite how small she was in the crystal, he could see her eyes were a vivacious storm. It was said in all of the twelve Siren kingdoms, that the face of a female might lie, but her eyes would show you her soul. Of course, that was only true of female Sirens. This female was wild, uncontrollable, powerful and yet, somehow, he could see that she was utterly loyal to what ever she chose to be loyal to.
Who was she?
A lake? How interesting. She hadn't come across this when she had been human. She had never swam in a lake before and this one looked particularly inviting, the bank she stood at slowly sloped into the deep water and pebbles were under her feet. Just like a beach. Just like a beach back in her home realm, well most of it. Some of the shoreline there had heard of sand. Just not much of it. She attributed that to the ever crumbling cliffs there.
But still, it had taken her three days to reach this place. And before that, four weeks without a single swim. It had been highly unnatural. Her kind was meant to swim. They lived under water most of the time. Even she had followed that binding cliché for most of her life. Just a quick swim. What harm could it do? Hoggle had told her there was nothing in the Labyrinth that would harm her now she wasn't human. So she didn't have to worry about something trying to eat her while she swam. Biting her lip, she took her first step into the sun warmed water.
The girl had gotten close, but lost. She had tried hard enough to convince him the child she wished away should be returned to its home. He had been quite impressed with how well she had done considering her less than long legs and her young age.
That had been three days ago. The Siren hadn't left. She had been lethargically wandering his Labyrinth as if she was putting something off. Now, as he watched her through a mirror to have a better view of her, she dipped her bare toes into one of the smaller lakes of his maze like city, his Labyrinth. She was biting her lip, no doubt unsure of the saltless water. What would it be like to talk with this female? He had never met a Sea Siren before. He had met a Mountain Siren, she had been vapid and self obsessed. But this Siren, she was interesting and certainly took an interest all that was around her. Jareth could easily tell that this particular female's curiosity had gotten her in trouble many times.
A wicked but thrilled grin spread across her face, showing off her perfect white teeth, and she dashed into the water after deftly removing her cloak with a flick of her fingers at the clasp. She dived in when the water is deep enough, her hair whipped by her speed.
Her swimming was like poetry. Her small fins grew to wing like proportions and she almost seemed to fly through the murky water. She twists. She turns. She is so utterly exquisite. Her exceptionally short and rather low cut dress no longer tight, it swirls about her like an entrancing mist. Her long, webbed fingers would have looked freakish to him on anyone else, but on her they belong. They drive her aqua acrobatics. They almost define her in this greenish water. More erotic that anything he had ever seen, and Jareth had seen much more than his fair share of what could be considered erotic. But the way those hands moved in the water were more eye catching that a belly dancers gyrating hips. Crystal Moon she was inexorably beautiful, if not eerily familiar.
The Labyrinth was beautiful when you weren't rushing through it in search of a castle no one could lead you to. Beautiful and very interesting and yes she had been using her curiosity as an excuse not to go to the castle for the last year and a half. Possibly longer, she wasn't entirely sure. It had been worth it though. She had spent much time with her old friends rekindling their relationship. There had been many tears on their part. But a Siren didn't shed tears. She had ended up smelling like the flowering coral that was only found in her home kingdom for almost a week as her skin secreted the fragrance in an attempt to cheer her up. So putting off her fate had been worth it. It had also made her quite jittery about just what the hell she thought she had that the Goblin King could possibly want that he couldn't find elsewhere and in better quality. Had she even meant anything to him in the first place? It had been so long ago that her own feelings could easily have warped her memory to make it more bearable.
Well, no matter what he would say to her, she was here now. On the stone steps before the castle's door. To say she was "bricking it" as an old mortal saying went, would be a rather vast understatement. Would just walking in be trespassing? With a sigh, she turned to the sleeping guard. "Excuse me?" she said quietly, knowing that Goblins could never sleep through quiet noises. The guard stared at her with over large bleary eyes. "How should I go about getting the chance to speak with the Goblin King?"
"Go in and try to find him. There's no set protca-a-all." It Sarah almost thirty seconds to discover what had caused the Goblins odd pronunciation when he had spoken so well. Oddly enough it had been his tongue lolling out as he gawked at her exposed legs that let know the answer. Rolling her eyes, she decided to put it to good use.
"Oh, but I'm ever so useless at finding my way around. It's taken me almost two years just to get to the castle. I can't believe that people can actually get here in thirteen hours."
"Actually, the fastest time so far has been about ten hours. A girl called Sarah that wished her brother away. But never mind that, follow me miss." Men, they were the same what ever the species. A bit of leg, a little extra cleavage and they were oddly compliant. Though more often than not, they were drooling too much to be useful. This one however quickly led her through the oh so familiar castle.
It didn't take long to come across the Goblin King, re-splendid in black with his blond hair tied in a tail and his back to her. "Little to the left," he instructed a Goblin that was wearing a tool belt. "Your other left you idiot."
"Your Majesty?"
"I'm busy, what?"
"There is woman here who wants to speak with you," replied the Goblin guard, still rather obscenely leering at her legs.
"Woman by whose standards? Original left a bit more." The tool baring Goblin moved to the right and pointed to a spot on the wall. "Close enough."
"I think she'd be a woman by anyone's standards." Pervert kind of springs to mind, thought Sarah dully as the Goblin King turned, an elegant eyebrow raised at the Goblin.
Oh Mother of the Sea she had forgotten the power of those mismatched eyes. She had forgotten just how handsome his strong, commanding features were. Just how imposing his tall, lithe form was. And by the Mother of the Sea he was an over whelming presence. While she had been around Siren men who could overwhelm the mind with their beauty, Jareth was the only man she had ever come across who could both overwhelm and ensnare simply by the aura he gave off.
"Oh, it's you," he said, his eyes roaming her form, drinking in every detail they could. The blue-green of her cheeks darkened under his thorough inspection of her body. Now she thought about it, she hadn't exactly left much to the imagination with her traditional Sea Siren's clothing.
"You know me?"
"I know of you," he replied, his voice silky and intoxicating. "Over a year ago I felt something . . . odd enter my Labyrinth. As it turns out it was you. I've kept an eye on you since then. Though I must admit, you are far more attractive in the flesh than through a crystal." Her blush deepened, she only hoped that the light in this place was hiding at least some of it. "So is this another instance of indulging your curiosity?"
"No," was her hasty reply. Perhaps too hasty as he raised an eyebrow at her. "I mean, no sire. Speaking with you was my reason for coming here. Perhaps for even coming into your Kingdom though I did that quite by accident. I was sure you wouldn't want any thing to do with me. Maybe you would even be angry at me. I know it was foolish of me to keep putting this off. I really should have come as soon as possible. But I was just so nervous an-"
"You're rambling," he casually interrupted. "Please get to the point I have a lot of serious renovations to carry out in this crumbling heap of a castle and only Goblins who can't tell left from right to work with."
"Sorry. I didn't mean to." A deep breath and then, "I'm Sarah. Two hundred and forty three years ago I wished my younger brother away and then won him back." His gaze had narrowed now. He didn't need to say anything for Sarah to know that he didn't believe her.
"That, Sea Siren, is nothing to jest about. Sarah is dead. She died only two years before I was going to return to her in an attempt to win her over and see her in her rightful place as Queen. Now, good day to you. I've much to see to." And with that he began to walk off. She had to do something to convince him. Fortunately she had thought she might and had come prepared for the occasion.
How dare she even consider making such a claim?! The entire Kingdom knew of his grief over that mortal's death and of how she had not been reborn back into his realm. It was law, had she been reborn to this world she would be born feeling that home was his Kingdom due to the fact that she had been there before as a mortal.
His jaw was set as he walked down the corridor, his pace controlled. He refused to seem like he was running away, yet if he stayed he doubted he would be able to stop himself from beating the female into a bloody pulp.
"There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes
A kind of pale jewel, open and closed
Within your eyes
I'll place the sky
Within your eyes."
Jareth froze at the sound of her singing. She didn't have the voice for this song. Her sound was more the crashing of waves or the cascade of pebbles across an already rocky beach. Not a slow love song. But the song. A whirlwind of memories crashed through him. Her scent, her face, her hair, her dress, her eyes. Those entrancing storm like eyes of hers.
"As the pain sweeps through
It makes no sense for you
Every thrill he's caused
Wasn't too much fun at all
"But I'll be there for you
As the world falls d-"
"Get out of this castle." Anger, hot, seething burning anger washed through him. Everyone knew the courting song of the Goblin Monarchy. Everyone knew he had sung it to her. "Get out of this castle and get out of this Labyrinth. And if I ever hear any of those lyrics pass your lips again, I will not hesitate to cut your tongue from your mouth." She didn't reply for a few seconds. He was about to turn and threaten have her thrown out when she spoke. Her voice low and as deadly as the storm he had seen in her eyes.
"As you wish, Goblin King. But remember this, should you ever seek me out you will discover why it is the women who rule the Sea Sirens and the Sea Herself will seem merciful in comparison to my fury."
It wasn't until just over a year later when the Dwarf, Higgle, Hogwall, what ever his name was, came to speak with him that Jareth realised he had made a very grave mistake in semi banishing the Sea Siren.
"Sire?" he had queried meekly. "Has a Sea Siren been to visit yeah yets? Only, she ain't come to see me for abouts a year and the last time I saw her she told me she was gonna stop putting off coming to see yeah."
"Why would you be associating with a Sea Siren?" A heavy, cold feeling sank in his stomach. The Dwarf had known Sarah better than anyone. If the female had convinced him then had he been wrong about her?
"It ain't my place to say if she ain't been to see yeah yet. But if she 'as and you turned her away, she were telling the truth. She was who she said she was. The Goblin Kingdom felt like home to her, she even left her brother behind to find somewhere she belonged."
Oh fuck, was the mildest part of Jareth's thoughts at that time.
"It really was Sarah?" he asked the Dwarf. Searching for some possible reason that he would lie which would over come his fear of the King. He found nothing.
"You turned away didn't yeah?" The King nodded, feeling sick. He had driven away the female thinking her a twisted liar when she had been his love reborn. And she had searched him out. She had wanted him. Now he had ruined it. Disbelieving a Siren after they had offered what they supposed was viable evidence for what they had said was the biggest insult among that race. It enraged them above anything else and a female Siren enraged was more lethal than an angry Dragon. Now he thought on it, it made sense. She had not attended a Goblin school; she wouldn't know that the song he had sang to her was public knowledge. To her it was a special memory, one she assumed to be entirely private. Oh Crystal Moon, what had he done?
He had to find her and win her back some how. But what had she said before she had left? Her wrath would put the sea to shame? It had been something among those lines, and while he was a King, she would no doubt have left his Kingdom and therefore his power. She could not be charged or tried for the murder of a monarch, presuming she would be as merciful as that, if he went to her in another Kingdom. It would be common law. A slap on the wrist with the jury mumbling about a lovers scorn being the way nature kept the population of immortals down.
Three years it had taken him to get this far, no thanks to the interruptions his Kingdom kept forcing upon him. Three years and after finally tracking down Sarah's brother, being punched by him then enduring death threats from him, he was finally flying towards her. Though how he was going to convince her she should give him another chance the Goblin King had no idea.
Now he was actually flying over a calm ocean in the Sea Serpent Kingdom, occasionally avoiding high reaching rocky peaks that stood like flat topped spikes lancing out from the waves, he realised just how suicidal this plan of his was. His initial impression of Sarah's anger had been ripped apart and pieced back into a far more savage creature by her brother. She would most likely slowly maul him once he found her. Maul him and keep him alive and in agony for as long as she could. Then again, she had apparently sank into depression. Which was why her brother had punched him.
If a Siren sank into depression then they sang themselves to death. It took years, sometimes hundreds of years. He could hear her now. Her bittersweet melody reaching him to spite the wind. His wings pounded all the harder. He needed to find her. He needed to get to her. Anger and vengeance were by far preferable to this soft, sad song.
He could see her now. A greyish blue figure standing on an uneven rocky little island, almost a lower version of the sawn off spike like structures he had passed. Her skin mirroring the sea. She had been more green and darker in the light of his Kingdom. Her long sea weed green hair could be easily seen, whipped by the wind into a near frenzy. And by the magic of the Underworld he knew that tune she was distorting. Ripping into something heavier, more heart rending. It was a sickeningly broken-hearted parody of his courtship song. Telling of how he had ripped her world down and filled her with pain instead of shielding her from it.
By the Sea it hurt so much to sing. But it hurt even worse not to. Her throat was raw yet not a single note soured or rasped as she forced them out. She didn't even know what she was singing she just knew that she must sing and she must not stop. Must never stop the singing. Every note needed to be perfect. Perfect and loud enough to carry for miles. But why did she sing? What was it that made her drag herself away from the stifling warmth of her family to the first low nest she had found and start to sing?
The crashing of the waves against her rock like stage competed with her thunderous voice, but her voice came out the winner. Then a single word cut through the Sea, cut through the singing, cut straight through her shield of depression to the bottomless well of her stormy rage, letting loose the tempest.
"Sarah." The voice of the Goblin King.
When the Sea Siren whirled around to face him, Jareth was not shocked by the unadulterated anger and pain her entire stance showed, hands crooked like some sort of bird of prey diving in for the kill, a snarl on her full lips and the storm in her eyes swirling into a full force hurricane. What struck him speechless was the sheer depth of that anger and pain. He had seen canyons more shallow than the well of her emotions. She was crouched, as if ready to lunge at him; her bare feet braced on the uneven rock gave her a clear advantage. She was used to places like this. He most certainly was not.
"What right do you have to intrude upon my solitude?!" she hissed with more venom than the most deadly serpent.
"None," he replied honestly. "I've come to beg forgivene-"
"Then beg it else where as you'll find none here!" Her words strung more than any physical pain ever could have.
"I was wrong to turn you away. I acted rashly. I should have considered what a Sea Siren would know of my Kingdom."
"What are you talking about?" Her skin had darkened to a more ominous grey. Was the skin tone of a Sea Siren controlled partially by their mood?
"The song I sang to you almost two and a half centuries ago, the song you began to sing to me. It is a widely known song in my Kingdom." Her glare doubled in intensity. "Goblin children learn about it at school. It's the courting song of the Goblin Monarch." Still her skin darkened, as did the look in her eyes.
"Do you seriously think that feeble attempt at grovelling will get you anywhere with me?" she snarled through gritted teeth, her voice sounding hoarse. No doubt from all the singing she had been doing. "Leave, before my control snaps and I maul you for an eternity."
"Sarah-"
"NOW!" she bellowed at his weak protest. He couldn't allow himself to get killed. Not without an heir to take his place. So he took to the wing with one last forlorn look at the Queen who would never be Queen.
Her heart pounded fast, filling her ears with a drum like beat as she watched the owl shrink into the distance. Her chest heaved, her breath coming as rasps as she tried to force calm over herself. The urge to sing was no longer there and now it was gone she found herself amazed that she had even managed to speak with her throat in that much dry agony. How long had it been since she had even swam to sooth it?
Jareth was long out of sight when the first drop of rain splashed against her skin. Closely followed by a second. Her eyes turned to the sky above her head only to be greeted by almost black clouds and a rumble of thunder from the direction the owl had flown in. Oh Sweet Song of the Sea. She had sent Jareth running into a storm.
Instinct and worry took over. She ran for the edge of the rocky nest and dived in to the calm water, soon to be tossed about at its surface.
Wind thrashed him about in the sky as heavy drops of rain battered him. No matter how hard he flapped he could not stay his course. He cold barely see through the heavy sheet of rain and darkness the clouds had forced. Lightning spiked down. The start caused the Kings wings to falter and that was all the chance the wind needed.
The very air seemed to have hands. Hands that grabbed at his wings. Hands that shoved and snatched and tossed him about mercilessly. Sea and sky tumbled across each other. A screech ripped from his throat to be snatched away by the cruel hands of the wind. Then he hit the writhing cold water and it was the sea that now had hands. But these hands punched and crushed as well as dragged and snatched. It wasn't long before he didn't know where the waters surface was. He couldn't breath. His form shifted back to his true shape in desperation as the water harshly pressed against his chest.
Was he seeing things? Like an otter with wings a green shape swam towards him. Rapidly growing in size as it approached. Then wings were enormous fins and the green was hair. The form was a woman. Soon she was right in front of him as his vision wavered. Warm long fingered hands gently grasping his face. Lips pressed against his, firmly locked in place. Then, with her tongue, she forced his mouth open. With a single breath she filled his lungs. Clearing his mind and un-fogging his vision. Yet the air she gave him tasted odd. Before he could react she pulled back to look him in the eye. Sarah? Now he knew he was imagining things.
"I am going to give you another breath." Her voice had a wonderfully bizarre echo to it. He didn't reply. He didn't have a Sea Sirens voice so he wouldn't be heard through the water. "And you are going to wrap your arms around me tightly so I can pull you to the surface. Breathe out slowly as we go up or your lungs will explode. Do you understand?" A nod. "Ready?" Another nod. "Take hold of me now, beneath my fins." He didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her, her skin warm to the touch and the fabric of her dress almost mist like beneath his fingers. This time he opened his mouth without prompting when she pressed her lips against his.
Then they were near flying what had to be upwards. Her hands shooting up to grasp at the water and push it aside as he slowly emptied his lungs. With a gasp they broke the turbulent surface. Jareth hastily panting to catch his breath. Her fins fanned out on the waters thrashing surface, helping them stay above. The rain was coming down heavy, though it didn't seem as bad now he wasn't on the wing.
Sarah looked around them, keeping afloat with practiced ease. Eventually her eyes landed on one of the flat topped spikes that lanced from the water's surface. Only it wasn't quite as tall as the others, reaching about forty or so feet into the storm. "Can you tread water for a moment? I need to see if that nest is any use."
"I think so," and with those words he released his hold on her. She pushed her fins down, propelling herself upwards only to sink like an arrow into the sea. The second she was out of sight worry began to take hold. Was she doing this only to give him false hope? Had she saved him simply to leave him here to die? From what he had heard of her wrath it would not be beyond her. Yet he could not imagine her being that cruel. Still, nervousness gnawed at him. It would be easy for her to tell someone she hadn't been able to find him after inspecting what ever she had gone to inspect. She would even manage to avoid th-
Water erupted in front of him. Sarah appeared from the surface, shaking her hair out. "You're in luck!" she cried over the howling of the storm. "It's just the right height to wait out the storm in!" She paddled towards him and grabbed the front of his tunic with her long slender fingers. Using her fins she pulled him towards the flat topped spire she had been looking at before she had submerged.
"Where are you taking me?" Letting go of him with one hand, she pointed to the flat topped spike of rough rock over her shoulder.
"They're hollow with a ledge," she explained patiently. "Serpents use them as nests and the ledge in that one is out of the water and within reach."
"How do we get in though?" A smile came to her lips as she took hold of his tunic again.
"The same way the Serpents do. I hope you can hold your breath for long enough."
It was easy to see the Kings nerves. Did he really think she would go through this much trouble to save him just let him die? If she had been able to let his life end she would have just left him to the storm. He would have been dead by now had it not been for her and now she was ensuring he would see the storms ends to return to his people.
Sarah beat her fins as fast as she could with Jareth holding onto her, pulling them through the greyish water to the nest's opening. Finally they reached the jagged hole caused by a Serpent mother. A twist of her body and a flick of her fins they were through and in the huge cylinder of still salt water. "Breath out," she ordered the king as she steered them towards the surface.
Within seconds the breached the water and Jareth was again gulping down air. It never ceased to seem odd that other species could not absorb oxygen through their skin if they needed to. It also seemed pretty unpractical, but perhaps that was just because she was a species that was meant to live both in and out of water.
It didn't take long to help the now shivering Goblin King onto the slightly springy ledge, though from the way he was squinting she guessed he couldn't see through the gloom. Neither could she if she was honest, but the nest was coated in water so she could sort of sense her environment. With an ease born of practice, Sarah pulled herself out of the water to sit beside Jareth.
A bright sphere appeared in his hand, casting the nest in a light that seem far too bright after the absolute dark. Squinting, Sarah turned away. She could here his teeth chattering. Obviously Jareth's body wasn't as efficient at warming itself as hers. Come to think of it she really should do something about that.
"You should take your clothes off before they chill you right through."
"What?" Was that disbelief or horror in his voice? She couldn't quite tell.
"When you've been in water as cold as that and you aren't designed to cope with it, you should always remove your clothes because they are soaked in the water which is very cold. Unless you want hyperthermia and possibly death, strip." He stared hat her, unmoving and most certainly unbelieving. "If you're uncomfortable with being naked around me then at least take your boots and shirt off. It's not ideal but it will help a little."
Hesitantly, and still shivering, Jareth reached down and pulled his boots off. Then, after a slightly nervous glance to her he removed his shirt and tunic. Really she should have started a fire to try and warm him, but there was nothing to start a fire with and the only magic her kind had was all song related or to keep them alive in ice cold conditions. Perhaps Jareth would be able to get some heating. If not she would have to do something she really did not want to do to keep him warm.
"Can you start a fire?" He looked up to her as his teeth chattered and shook his head.
"N-not without f-f-fuel."
A heavy sigh escaped her and Sarah's shoulders slumped. She turned her eyes to him, not really knowing why she was helping him. After what he had done, not believing her when she had given proof, she should be leaving him here to die a very cold and lonely death, despite the repercussions it would have on his kingdom. So why then was she forcing her internal body temperature to sky rocket?
"Then I'll have to keep you warm, lie down."
"What?" This time the disbelief was comical, or it would have been had she not felt so awkward doing this. Rolling her eyes, she decided to simply show him what she was going to do.
He wasn't entirely sure what he felt as Sarah roughly shoved him back onto the oddly springy rock and lay beside him, well, sort of. It was more like lying on top of him with her leg over him and her hand spread over his chest as she cuddled into his side. Her warm skin was like fire to him, though he wasn't sure if that was because her skin was genuinely hot or if he was just so cold that she seemed all the warmer.
Needless to say a long awkward silence followed as they lay. Sarah seemed reluctant to speak and Jareth simply had no idea what he was supposed to do. His hands stayed dutifully at his sides in fear of placing them somewhere that would offend her. His heart beat wildly at such a closeness to her, though he kept his breath purposefully measured. It seemed they would lay still and silent for an eternity, but an internal discomfort kept growing and growing within him until finally the King could take it no longer and he spoke.
"How will we know when the storm has finished?"
"I'll know," was her quiet reply. Not timid, simply unsure of the situation they found themselves in.
"How?"
"This nest is drenched through with sea water; I can feel everything around it so I will be able to feel when rain stops drumming against it."
The silence returned, only more oppressive than it had ever been. "I am sorry you know." She tensed against him. Perhaps it was foolish of him to bring up the wrong he had done against her. She could easily have a change of heart and throw him into the water to let him either passively drown or hold him beneath the surface until his breath stilled. "I honestly did not think in the way I should have when you came to me."
"It wasn't just that," she muttered. "I was expecting you to cast me aside. I expected you tell me you hadn't cared at all and that saying you had was just another trick you used to try and beat me. I could have coped with that. But for you to say you would have come back to me then to cast me out." She sighed, her head moving in a way to suggest that she was shaking it. "That hurt far more than you could imagine."
"I'm sorry, I really am but I don't know what else I can say." Sarah didn't reply and silence was once again their companion. And once again Jareth felt the need to speak; only now he didn't know what he was meant to say to her. Sorry was too pathetic a word to simply keep throwing at her and she would most likely be disgusted if he grovelled for forgiveness. A safe topic then, if there was such a thing. The few minutes it took him to come up with a question seemed like hours.
"What brought you to the Goblin Kingdom in the first place?" Sarah gave a heavy sigh and for a moment it seemed like she wasn't going to answer. She even started to fiddle with a lock of his damp blond hair.
"I didn't fit in," she said finally. "Sylph society expects a lot of me, not much of it I can give without acting as though I'm a completely different person. It expects morality that is simple prudishness, perfect order to the point of near OCD. People look at you oddly if you have an imagination or if you aren't as impeccably planned as everyone else. The future is something they almost fear to leave to chance.
"That's not me and it never will be. So I struck out on my own. I did the unthinkable, or at least what is unthinkable to a Sea Siren. Image exploring, all the variables that might be encountered, all that loss of control, all that unknown. To the average Sea Siren any of that is enough to make them baulk, most don't even explore the whole of their own Kingdom. To me it was the very reason for leaving. Imagine what I might find!
"After about a hundred and fifty years I found your Kingdom. Quite by accident as well. I had been trying to avoid it."
"Why?"
"You. I thought you would be angry with me for beating you, I had heard you were ruthlessly competitive and hated loosing. But even when I stumbled into your Kingdom I didn't realise where I was. Not that it mattered, I would have marvelled at the chaos even if I had known when I took those first few steps. I felt like I finally belonged somewhere, like I had found my home."
Now he really didn't know what to say. An overly persistent rumour had stopped her from actively searching out his Kingdom? True he was competitive and disliked loosing, but not the extent that others seemed to think. He couldn't really blame her; he had winced at some of the stories that had been spread around the Underground about him. They were about as flattering as they were true. But how would anyone from another Kingdom know that? That seemed to be a trend in there acquaintance so far.
"I assure you I'm no where near as bad as those rumours make out and the vast majority of them have no value of truth to them at all."
"You would say that," she murmured, a hint of humour to her voice. Despite himself, he allowed a quiet laugh to escape him.
"I suppose I would and I'm hardly in a position to prove that claim at the moment."
"I don't think there's much you could prove lying half naked inside a huge hollow plant with a Sea Siren lying on top of you to keep you warm." She raised her head and looked to his face a smirk on her full lips and a mischievous glint to her stormy eyes. "Except that you can easily make people jealous. Though I suppose if I wasn't so pissed off at you, you could have shown me the truth in an entirely different rumour." His eyebrow rose, and quite unbidden at that.
"Which rumour would that be? There are quite a few of them."
"The one about your extraordinary prowess in bed." That said she lay her head back on his bare chest and made no other move. There were rumours about what he was like in bed? Those ones he hadn't heard. Perhaps people were too embarrassed to bring those ones to his attention. The fact that she had not been proved that she would be an outcast in Sea Siren society. No wonder she felt that she fit in so well in his kingdom. But something else about her statement was odd enough to grasp at his attention.
"This is a plant?"
"Why do you think it's so spongy in here?" was her wry reply. "They grow throughout this Kingdom and have evolved to look like stone so the wild life don't try and eat them. Serpents can break through though and the plants themselves are like real rock once they leave the water. You land dwellers are hopeless when it comes to anything even remotely sea linked."
"Well it doesn't exactly come up much in our day to day lives," he pointed out. "Besides, I'd be willing to bet that's you're just as hopeless with matters of the land."
"That is a bet you would loose. I've spent most of my life living on one coast or another. I even ventured onto the main land for a while. But as I've already pointed out, I'm an oddity. Other Sea Sirens wouldn't know a thing about land life, I however found it fascinating."
"What other kingdoms did you go to?" Her list was impressive to say the least. She assured him that her fifty seven strong recollection was only partial and that she had been to a great many more and simply couldn't be bothered to ream off the complete list due to its length. Most of the kingdoms she mentioned he hadn't even been to. So he asked her about them, about what she had seen and done there. Not only was it safe conversation it gave him a chance to learn things about her. It was quite odd how much personal information he could glean from her stories of adventure and travel.
He learnt she didn't like pink when she had told him, sounding rather horrified, how her skin had turned "the most utterly vile shade of an already repulsive colour" when the light of the Beach Bogart Kingdom had fallen on her. Apparently she had rushed through that place as quickly as possible and been utterly bewildered by the miles of bright magenta ocean that stretched out from the beach as far as the eye could see. He found out she could cook rather well and actually enjoyed doing so when she told him that she had been forced to get a job in the Wolven Kingdom and had been hired in a four claw restaurant. Though the discovery that she blamed him for giving her a taste for adventure when she had been human had been a little blatant. At one point she had jabbed him in the chest and out right said "I hope you know I'm blaming you for all of this. Dragging me into that Labyrinth of yours when I was young and impressionable. I was bound to get a taste for adventure."
They talked for what must have been hours. Trading stories of locations, adventures and misdemeanours. It was almost embarrassing how much more worldly than him she was despite the rather large head start he'd had. Then again she hadn't been tied to a Kingdom and so could have travelled freely. Jareth wasn't ashamed to admit he was jealous of her for that. While he loved his people and his Kingdom, like all hob-Goblins he was a very curious creature and wanted to know what was out there. Unfortunately he would only be able to have unbridled freedom once he had an heir he deemed competent and old enough to take the throne. Despite that he enjoyed their conversation. He could almost believe that she had forgiven him even though he knew she hadn't.
Eventually Sarah lifted her head once again. "The storm is over and the winds have died down." Slowly, she removed herself from him and rose to her feet. The chill that set in once she had left his chest was undeniable and not all due to the cold. "I'd best get you to a low nest so you can take to the wing again and get back to your Kingdom. No doubt you'll be missed."
"Let them miss me a while longer," he replied as he climbed to his own feet. An idea and an urge taking root in him. Boldly he placed a hand on her cheek, over her tribal markings. "Come back with me." He eyes widened and her mouth moved but no sound came out. "I know you're most likely still angry with me, but please. Give me a chance to prove myself to you." Still she didn't speak. It was possible she would kill him for what he was about to do, well, let her.
Without a moment wasted on hesitation, he pressed his lips to hers. She tensed with a surprised squeak but soon relaxed. This meeting of mouths was not a simple exchange of breath. This was grasping, desperate almost. Hands clamoured for some purchase on each other and warmth once again flooded him. They were gasping when their lips parted but the hold they had on each other was still crushing and the feel of skin against skin was intoxicating.
"Your Kingdom needs a Queen," Sarah pointed out breathlessly. Their lips teased at each other, a light touch and not a kiss.
"What makes you think that can't be you?"
"I don't do well with boundaries." From the tone of her voice and the heady longing he saw in her swirling storm like eyes Jareth could easily see that her argument sounded weak to her own ears.
"Neither do Goblins of any sort. That's why there aren't many of them."
"How would your people cope with me not being a Goblin?"
"They haven't complained with any of the previous rulers." And they hadn't. Magic only knew how many different species Jareth had in him. He was mainly hob-Goblin but there was some Avian, Lycanthrope and Demon in him and those were only the ones he knew of. "Goblins thrive on Chaos remember. Anything out of the ordinary is usually seen as an interesting change. All that matters to them is that their rulers are good at their job and strong willed. You're the kind of woman they would be proud to have on the throne." His hands found her face as hers groped at his back and shoulders. He searched her eye and expression, drinking in every detail. "At least give this, what ever it is, a chance."
This time her lips sought his, though the kiss was no less frantic. He felt her nails on his bare back as his hands tangled into her hair. Eyes half closed in a second break of contact she gave a wordless nod. Then their mouths were once again clashing. There was no romance in this kiss, only desperation. Perhaps a fear that they would wake and this would not have been real. Again when it ended they were breathless and unwilling to relinquish their hold of one another. Only this time her head was on his shoulder as his chest heaved. She seemed to have caught her breath quickly enough.
"We should get back," she murmured quietly. Jareth's heart leapt. Through the kiss he hadn't been sure if he had really seen her nod, but now. Now he knew she would be coming with him. That gave him something more precious than anything he could ever hope to gain in his life. More valuable than gold. More powerful than any magic. Stronger than any Giant.
Hope.
A/N I didn't really have an idea for this, I just started writing and ended up with just over 9000 words. Not sure how but I figured I'd post it anyway. Hope you've enjoyed reading it.
If you spotted any mistakes point them out and I'll fix them. I've read over it a fair few times and didn't see any but I might have missed some.
Any way, thank you for reading it and feel free to tell me what you think via review.