Midsummer rituals

Chapter 1

Ok I knew I should be finishing my other stories not starting a new one, and the last ting I should do is up date another whit out an ending and still I do.

I started writing on this one over a year ago I got about one more chapter finished and have been angsting some over how it should continue and end, I don't know how much time I will have to write this term ether and I do not know if I will get the inspiration to finissh it any time soon. We will just have to see.

I will try my best.

This one is more angst then what I usually write so beware!

Rating M for character death.

(well wasn't that a positive authors note?)

"Sarah are you ready? We need to leave soon if we don't want to be late." Maria Sarah's pen-pal since 10 years shouted thru the door. Sarah was just finishing her makeup and quickly put away her things before going down to the kitchen where Maria waited.

" Finished!"she said after braiding her dark brown hair.

"Good! Now we will get there in time to pick flower for the midsummer-pole."Her blond friend said and walk in front of her to the old Saab she drove.

As they drove out of the small town towards the house of the friend of Maria that was hosting the midsummer party they were invited to Sarah reflected on how far from home she was, almost the other side of the world in the north European country of Sweden on her way to a midsummer ritual that had been celebrated for thousands of years, maybe not in exactly the same way but still.

"I'm so happy you finally could come visiting Sarah. Specially at this time of the year, Sweden really is at its best in the summer. And there is nothing like an old fertility rite when it comes to parties." Maria happily said. She had been nervously happy ever since picking Sarah up at the airport two days ago.

"Fertility rite?"Sarah asked intrigued she always had a thing for history and myths even before visiting the Labyrinth. Maria shared her fascination and that had been one of the things that made them keep in contact over the years first by letter as a school assignment then by e-mail and msn as time proceeded.

"Yes did I forget to mention that? Its a celebration for good harvests and fertility. The pole is a phallus symbol from the beginning. We are dancing around a giant penis to make the wheat grow and women pregnant. Not that anyone actually think about it that way any more." Maria explained giggling.

"And every swede participates in this?" Sarah asked smiling.

" Maybe not everyone but almost, its mostly kids and there parents that dances around the pole now days teens find it embarrassing. This is also one of the big drinking festivity's of the year only competing whit new years eve and Valborg."

"Valborg?"

"The 30 of April we light bonfires and party. The real celebration includes choirs singing in the spring. Its supposed to scare away the witches, but I think it was a fertility thing in the beginning to. Makes us sound like savages doesn't it?"

"I think its wonderful whit so much living history around you. Even if you are savages." The last sentence was added in a joking voice and they both laughed together.

The party really was great, Maria's friends was more then happy to show Sarah all the midsummer traditions and she felt like she had been hanging around them for years.

Sarah helped clothing the small midsummer pole whit leafs and flowers,(it was not as big as the once they showed on TV but its not really the size that matters said Maria and laughed). Sarah was then dragged whit in some strange dances by Maria (first something about a merry-go-round and then a even stranger one about frogs).

After the dancing it was time for dinner summer-potatoes and pickled herring in different flavors (Maria made Sarah taste some of the herring it was not as bad as you might think but she was still thankful that there was salmon and meatballs for those who did not like the Nordic specialty).As dessert there was fresh strawberry's cream and honey (fresh potatoes and strawberry's is what Swedish summer is all about really, Maria informed her whit her mouth full of strawberry's and cream on her nose). Thru the meal there was also shots, Anders the guy that sat on Sarah's left tried to teach her the drinking songs that they sang whit a varied result. She did learned "skål", the Swedish word for "cheers", fast.

The party then continued whit music and dancing till someone decided that it was a lovely time for a swim in the lake a short walk away from the house.

The lake was plain as a mirror and only a lonely bird was heard calling in the night. There was with water-lily's that looked blue in the night and red ones that looked gray, the place seemed magical.

The water was freezing, Sarah just got in and then hurried up again.

While waiting for the rest of the party Maria told Sarah the story of how the water lily's in the lake became red.

"There was a poor fisher that made a deal whit Näcken, a Swedish water spirit known for playing the violin and luring people to drown in the water. Anyway the fisher had lost his luck and his family would be starving if he did not catch any fish soon so he made a deal whit Näcken for better catches in return Näcken demanded the fisherman's beautiful daughter. On the day Näcken had set for the girl to come to him, the girl took her fathers small boat and rowed out on the lake in her wedding dress. Näcken came up from the water to drag her whit him down but before he could do so the girl stabbed him in the chest. The blood from Näcken flowed out over the water and colored all the water lily's red." Maria finished dramatically.

"If you are finished telling stories, we should start looking for seven flowers." Anna a friend of Maria said.

"More flowers? For what?" Sarah asked.

"If you pick seven flowers on midsummer's eve and put them under your pillow you will dream of the man your going to marry." Anna explained.

The girls had to search some to find seven different flower in the night, it was not very dark this far north in the summer but it still took some time.

Giggling they put the flowers under the borrowed pillows on the madrases on the floor they were sleeping on that night and fell asleep fast.

Sarah knew it was a dream, she had returned to the labyrinth thru dreams ever since that night nine years ago. She walked thru the hedge maze again, this time in no hurry, she walked thru the fireys glittering forest again, but meet no one, not even a fairy.

Some where in the forest she must have taken a wrong turn cause instead of the wall there was a glade whit a small softly humming brook flowing thru. Sarah had only dreamed of places she had visited when she dreamed of the labyrinth before so this glade made her a little confused, the way you feel in a dream when something unexpected happens, like your male dog give birth to kittens or the man you dream you where marrying turned in to a girl. She sat down on a stone by the brook and dipped her feet in the water. This was a very calm dream, Sarah's usual dreams were full of speed, dangers and adventures her imagination feed her sleeping mind whit, and usually she was running from something. Freud would probably find something very interesting to say about Sarah's dreams.

Something, not a sound she was sure of that, something like a not-sound or maybe just a feeling, made her turn around and find the literal man of her dreams standing behind her. He seemed different somehow, he looked just like he had That Night but he did not entirely fit in the setting, like an ice-bear among the penguins in the south-pol or a kangaroo in a spruce forest. He felt too real, more real then Sarah felt herself.

"Sarah" Jareth said and held out his hand to her. She took it whit out a word.

He swept her away in a waltz around the glade that slowly turned in to the glittering bubble-ball room.

"Do you know what your meddling whit precious?" he asked her and spun her around before she had a chance to answer. "I would have thought that you learned enough from your little trip in my labyrinth to be careful around wishes and dreams." he continued as she returned to his guarded embrace.

"What are you talking about?" she asked confused.

"Magic Sarah, these old traditions are full of old magic bound together whit the land itself. And they are binding in a way you do not know of."

Sarah woke up whit a start. The goblin kings last words echoed thru her head. She reached under her pillow and found the now very flat flowers. They did not look magical, like the strange crystal balls Jareth used for magic, but the peach that nearly had cost her her brother had not seemed magical ether...

Somehow she managed to fall asleep again and slept till past 11 when the rest of the house started to wake up.

There was left over strawberry's, toast and milk for breakfast out in the garden. Their host remarked on how wonderful and unexpected it was with a Swedish midsummer when it did not rain, and that led to a discussion on past midsummer's and the weather witch Sarah had some problem keeping up whit.

After breakfast they watched a movie some kind of action movie, it was a bit confusing for Sarah in the beginning whit the Swedish text as her eyes automatic went to the words but did not understand them, she had to concentrate on listening to the voices more then usual.

After the movie Maria and Sarah made themselves ready to go back to Maria's apartment.

" Are you sure you are ready to drive?" Mattias the host asked Maria.

"Yes, I stopped drinking long before midnight yesterday and I feel fine I wasn't even hungover this morning."Maria answered.

"Wait a second!" Anna said and run up to her room, two minutes later she came back whit a alcohol-meter.

"I got this thru work." Anna said.

"You're well prepared." Mattias remarked.

"Drunk driving is one of the things that kills most people in this country."Anna answered in a matter-of-fact voice as she gave it to Maria who dutifully blow thru the mouthpiece. After a few seconds the meter beeped and showed a green light.

"Looks like I can drive." Maria said. "You should bring that one on more parties Anna."

"I will try to remember it."

There was a long time of goodbyes and thank you for coming/inviting me before they could start the drive back to the city.

Sarah and Maria was happily talking about the party and planing how they could repeat it as they drove around a sharp turn finding a big wild boar standing on the way.
Maria cursed and moved out of the way for it just to drive in to a rock that some how made the car turn over and fall over the railing and over the edge of a cliff in to the lake.
In the seconds before they hit the water Sarah only heard the screams of Maria, her brain seemed to have stopped working and she found herself saying words she never thought she would say again as the car hit the water.

"I wish the goblins would come and take me away right now!"

The brown haired girl disappeared before the car hit a rock that shattered the front and the windows.
She did not see her friend bruised and bleeding look straight in to the eyes of a being she had read about and told stories of but newer quite believed in.
She newer saw how Näcken in his terrifying beauty dragged her friend out of the sinking car and down to his lonely home making her his companion and eternal captive.

She newer saw the blood of both herself and her friend flowing out over the small lake coloring the white waterlily's red in the afternoon sun.

Cliffhanger! Don't worry I will update the rest of what I got soon and take you out of your misery ;)