Chapter Two: Volleyball

The Goblin City was nothing like she remembered. Before, it had been deserted except for the army that had been attacking her. Now it was full of all shapes and sizes of goblins, shouting at each other, buying and selling goods, chasing each other down the street. Sarah watched as a pair of goblin children distracted a fruit merchant while a third child snatched a bagful of peaches and darted off around the corner. The fruit merchant didn't realize what was going on until too late, and he couldn't leave his fruit stand unattended unless he was willing to lose all of his produce.

He grumbled, banged a fist on the table, and glared up at Sarah. "You gonna buy a peach or what, lady?"

"No. Sorry." Sarah ducked her head and walked on, down the street, toward the edge of the city.

Gradually, she became aware that every goblin she passed paused to stare at her as she went by. Some of them turned and whispered to each other. Sarah was able to hear words and parts of sentences.

"...brought her here..."

"...wished for..."

"...lonely king..."

"...companion worth..."

"...here forever..."

When she finally got to the gate where she and her friends had beaten the machine Humongous before, she felt a tug on the leg of her green legging. "Yes?" She asked uncertainly as she looked down at the small goblin child with a mass of vibrant orange fur on its head.

"Are you really going to marry the Goblin King?" His voice sounded just like the voice of any human child, but Sarah was too surprised by the words he said to notice.

"What?"

"The Goblin King," the little goblin boy repeated, tugging on her pant leg urgently, "are you going to marry him?"

"Um, well, no. No, I'm not. Where on earth would you get an idea like that?" Sarah wasn't exactly sure she was still on earth, but she felt that the phrase still applied.

The goblin boy stuck his thumb in his mouth, then turned when he heard a distant shout. He glanced back up at Sarah before he tottered off into the crowd that had gathered at the gate. Sarah looked out at the crowd of goblins, some thin, others wide, some tall, others short, and overall such an assortment of wings, claws, teeth, horns, fur, hair, and noses. She turned back to the doorway, which had opened, and stepped through. She could feel the goblins watching her silently while she left the city and entered the twisting, dangerous, challenging labyrinth.

"I solved it before," she told herself as she walked through the land of the rubbish people. "I can do it again. Even if I'm doing it backwards this time."

The rubbish people didn't take any notice of her, too consumed in managing their own possessions and adding to them. Sarah didn't take any notice of them, either. She only had a few hours to find everyone, and it had taken all of her time before just to find Toby, when she knew exactly where he was. Well, she had a fair guess about Hoggle, at least.

Beyond the land of the rubbish people, Sarah found herself wandering into a forest that smelled much too sweet to be anywhere near the bog of eternal stench. "Well," she reasoned aloud, "maybe I'll run into Ludo."

***

At first, the forest was pleasant enough, birds singing, small animals scampering through the brush. Every now and then, Sarah would call out for Ludo, getting no response. Then the forest began to change. The trees grew more densely and the birds twittered less and less until Sarah felt sure the only sound in this part of the forest were her own feet.

"Hey! Give me back my head!" Cackles of laughter answered the demand.

"Aw, c'mon, man, we ain't finished with volleyball yet!"

"Yeah, man. Volleyball!"

"So use someone else's head! Mine's getting bruised bad, man."

"Oh, well, bruises."

There was a loud smack.

"OW!"

Cackling laughter cascaded in the distance and a bright red ball of fur flew through the air to land at Sarah's feet. "HEY!" A long, toothy snout shouted, "IT'S THE LADY!"

Sarah hesitated. She remembered the Fireys, mostly for how they had tried to take her head off her shoulders. She started to turn and walk away, but now there were things moving in the growth of the forest and she could see tufts of red fur jumping around and moving steadily toward her.

"What you mean 'the lady'?"

"Yeah, man, what lady?"

"THE CASTLE LADY!" The head at Sarah's feet shouted.

"Wait, is that the one that couldn't take off her own head?"

"Yeah! That lady! Hey! She threw my head into the mud!"

"Yeah, and it took me hours to find my head!"

"Let's throw her head around for a while!"

"Yeah! Volleyball, man! Volleyball!"

"YEAH!" Screamed the head in front of her. "VOLLEYBALL!"

The first chicken-legged, red-furred monster burst out of the trees and Sarah turned and ran, shouting for her friends, "Ludo! Sir Didiymus! Hoggle! Someone! Help!"