Chapter Two : The Oracle
Sarah's scrambled to her feet, forgetting her initial anger towards the man that had gotten her there. "I-it's you!" She exclaimed, taking a small step towards him. He looked amused, as though enjoying some inside joke at her expense. Her brows furrowed at the man in front of her. "Who are you exactly?" She asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Me?" he asked "You wish to know my name?" Sarah nodded "fine," he stood from his throne smoothing out his shirt in the process. "I am Jareth, The Goblin King." He announced elegantly, throwing his hands up momentarily before bowing deeply. Smirking at her he gracefully sat sideways on his throne, one leg draped over the left arm.
"Oh…" she said, a little disappointed. "That's it?"
"That's it?" a look of shock passed over his face "Listen, human," he sneered, "I am also High King. You go to the highest peak you can find and look around, I rule over everything as far as your pretty little eyes can see. And then some!" His face hardened with every word he spoke. "I am the top of the ladder here, there is NO ONE higher." He paused. "Understand…Labyrinth Champion?" The pure venom in his voice made both Sarah and the little goblin that had just entered to scared to move. Jareth's eyes never moved from Sarah as his hard voice broke the silence. "What is it, Carda?" The goblin jumped at her name and nearly ran to a large light gray tile in the room, only used by those wishing to address the Goblin King. Bowing before him the dark brown goblin lifted a bright blue scroll above her head.
"A message from the oracle, Your Highness."
"Bring it here." The Goblin King ordered, relaxing back in his throne. Without looking up Carda shuffled forward, her head still down, and placed it at the foot of his chair. "You may leave." He said waving her away.
"Thank you your Majesty." Bowing once again, she saw herself to the door. Sarah, who had taken this opportunity to look around The Goblin King's throne room, found herself out of place in the lavish room. When someone says 'goblin' one usually thinks of bones and dark and dusty places, with spiders and mold, but, this room was completely different. The high dark blue walls of the circular room, which looked to be made out of stone, made a beautiful contrast to the tiered dark grey tiled floor. On the far side of the room facing the double doors, sat a half circular bone chair coated in silver. The large blue and silver glowing crystals floating near the ceiling, glinted off the silver throne and illuminated the entire room.
"Do you like my throne room?" Jareth's voice pulled her out of her thoughts, embarrassed she pulled her eyes away from the crystals.
"It's beautiful." She answered honestly
"Used to be a complete dump," he said disgusted "took a bit of work, but…well, it's as you see now." He waved a hand lazily around at the room. Turning his head to her he narrowed his eyes. "Now back to my original question, why are you in my throne room?" he asked. "Better yet why are you in Underground at all? Don't you have a brother to take care of?" Sarah stared at him.
"How do you know about Toby?" The Goblin King pinched his brow. "And what in heaven's name is 'Underground'?"
"You know what? I think I liked you better when you didn't ask so many questions." Jareth mumbled irritatedly.
"So many questions? I only asked two!" Sarah huffed putting her hands on her hips "I wouldn't kill you to be nice!"
"It very well might." He paused rolling his eyes. "And here I was thinking we had completely lost the outspoken Sarah… pity."
"I am NOT outspoken!" Sarah defended.
"Oh no?"
"NO!"
The Goblin King raised an eyebrow at her.
"What?"
Jareth chuckled "Well if this is you not being outspoken…" Sarah merely growled and crossed her arms. Laughing he unclipped the blue scroll Carda had delivered earlier, after a few moments he rose from his throne, walking over to Sarah. "Don't tell me I've irritated you?" he asked with mock concern, receiving a glare in reply. "Good to know I'm doing my job."
"Don't you have some important king like things to be doing?" Sarah asked angrily.
"Hmm, not that you mention it." Jareth turned toward the door before Sarah caught his sleeve.
"Wait, where are you going?" she questioned.
"Do you really want to know?"
"Would I have asked if I didn't?" Sarah asked in a bored tone.
"Well now I'm definitely not going to tell you." He snickered at her shocked face. "Honestly, this shouldn't be news to you," he said pulling his sleeve from her grasp "now if you'll excuse me, I have an urgent matter to attend to." He paused when he reached the door "Try not to destroy anything while I'm gone." He said over his shoulder before closing the large dark wood door behind him.
"Destroy anything?" Sarah looked around, "There's nothing to destroy that's even within my reach." Her eyes fell on the silver throne. "He would kill me…" a mischievous grin crept onto her face. "Well he never said I couldn't sleep anywhere I wanted." Making her way over to it she curled up onto it, leaning her head against the right arm.
Jareth stepped into crystal room, sparkling balls of light filled the open area, bouncing off of whatever they touched.
"Oracle?" The blonde man kneeled onto one of the many pillows that covered the floor, in front of a small old Fae woman dressed in simmering red cloth.
"Goblin King." Her cracked raspy voice engulfed the room. "Dalana's blood heir…" Jareth's eyes widened at the mention of the dead Elf woman . "He's… dying." The oracle's hand shot out and grasped his arm "If he dies, the Underground will become unstable."
"How?" Jareth questioned leaning forward.
"He has made a pact with the Elven shard, giving him tremendous power." She replied unmoving.
"That's common knowledge. It's been that way for hundreds of years."
"Yes Goblin King, it has, but, the shard is directly connected with The Fae crystal and the Labyrinth
itself. If that is to be disrupted the magic being channel through the three would become highly unstable…" The old woman opened her cienna eyes and stared at him. "You must find a way to sever the bond between the two."
"How?" The man asked urgently.
"That, I do not know, Goblin King." She pulled her arm away slowly. "You must find that our for yourself."
"Are you sure you have absolutely no idea of how to sever the bond?" Jareth asked with a sinking feeling.
"There was once an old prophecy, much older than you my king, which spoke of this. It mentioned a substitute, but of what kind, it did not say." The Oracle's face fell. "That is all the help I can offer you." The king reached for her hand.
"I owe you a great deal, wise one. If that is all you have, then it is more than enough." He rose to his feet "It will be dealt with." He gave her the warmest smile he could before turning on his heel.
"Make haste Goblin King, I fear your time is limited!" He heard her call from through the crystal wall. Great now I have Feldran to deal with along with that pesky human.
Sarah turned burying her face, the sun's rays warming her skin. Wait… She felt around her, the turn should have landed her on the hard stone floor, but all she felt were sheets and blankets. Alarmed she cautiously opened her eyes, her own room greeted her cheerfully. She looked around confused. It had all been a dream? Her brows furrowed. But it had all seemed so real! Her eyes darted to the wall above her headboard, the painting of the Goblin King, assuming that it wasn't a dream, still hung peacefully in it's place. Still rather confused, Sarah looked around her room for any evidence that she hadn't been dreaming, but everything looked to be where she had left it the night before. "So it really was a dream…" Sarah said quietly to herself a little disappointed that not a bit of it was real.
"Sarah! Shouldn't you be leaving for school?" She heard her father call from downstairs. Sighing she sung her feet off the bed and slipped them into shoes before grabbing her backpack. "Sarah?" Her father called again.
"I'm coming!" I think this is the first time I've ever been happy for school. She thought to herself, giving Toby a loving pat on the head and waving to everyone else as she practically ran out the door. It'll be a good distraction. The walk to school didn't seem to bad, with the sun shining and the cool breeze that decided to grace her with it's presence. Sighing she gently rubbed her neck, it seemed strained even though she felt like she slept perfectly.
She doesn't look too comfortable… wait, what? Who doesn't look too comfortable?
"I need to stop with the cake before I go to sleep, it's starting to mess with my head."
"Sarah! Wait up!" a voice called from behind her.
"Hurry it up Gin, we're going to be late!" Slowly making her way to the crowded doorway into the school as her friend finally caught up to her, her blonde curls pinned back out of her face.
"I didn't think you would actually slow down." She laughed
"If I'm going to be late, I'm NOT walking in there by myself. Mr. Kellor has a stare that could kill a hobgoblin." Sarah said sighing lightly.
"You know if he were nicer to people we wouldn't feel the need to make fun of him."
She looks so weird! Sarah shook her head a little. Weird? Since when did I start thinking that Gin was weird looking?
"Sarah?" Gin asked waving her hand in front of her friends' face. "Are you okay?" Sarah smiled slightly before nodding.
"Of course." I have got to snap put of it.
"You seem really off today." Gin said as the two walked home that day.
You have no idea. "Really?"
"Yeah, are you sure there's nothing wrong."
"Other than my neck hurting a little I feel just fine." Sarah smiled at her friend reassuringly "Don't worry so much." Do you think we could mess with her? I don't think we could get away with it.
"Sarah?" Gin shook her friends shoulders "Sarah! Snap out of it!" The brunette's glazed eyes simply stared forward. "Sarah?"
"Sarah?" Toby's voice echoed in her head. "Dad she's waking up!"
"Sarah? Sarah honey, are you awake?" she felt a warm hand touch her face, causing her to stir.
"Where am I?" she asked trying to sit up, her eyes still closed.
"Don't try to get up just yet." He said holding her shoulders "You're at home." She relaxed a little and tried to open her eyes, finding herself unable to do so she started to panic.
"I can't open my eyes." Her worried voice shook
"What did you say sweetheart?" her father asked
"I can't open my eyes!" reaching for her eyes a hand caught her wrist.
"Sweetheart, your eyes ARE open." Sarah stopped struggling
Look at that ugly expression on her face!
Haha it looks like shock to me!
