Chapter One – Of Goblins and the Aftermath

She awoke with a gasp, her heart lurching as the memory of his anguished face lingered. Sometimes, she wished (no, never wish) that she could go back and change what happened that day. But she had to save Toby, and she knew she could never trade him for anything. It was her selfishness that had sent him there, and while it had caused both her and the Fae king pain, she knew she had to undo her mistake.

Maybe someday . . . Her mind repeated the musing from her dream, and she completed it. Maybe we'll meet again.

At twenty-five, Sarah Williams had dated no less than three men – much to the agitation of the goblins – but had soon broken up with each of them – much to the little twerps' apparent relief. Her heart longed for the one who had sung to her, danced with her, and had made that one final attempt to persuade her to stay. Even so, in the ten years that had passed, though she met with Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus often, and had tried to subtly inquire about the health of the monarch – most often failing utterly at her attempt to conceal her interest – she did not call for him. One wish, she knew, and he could be before her, but she resisted. Over time, she realized that she feared him still. She feared what he might do in revenge for her breaking his heart. Besides, if she invited him to come back, what would happen to Toby?

Apart from all this, she wanted him to make the first move. If he still wanted her, he had to come. So, despite her pain in all of these ten years, and though she often almost gave in, she resisted.

She had changed, that day. No longer was she the spoiled, selfish brat that had foolishly wished away her baby half-brother to the goblins. Now, the boy was the brightest light in her life. She understood more of love, knew that she could possibly love the king she had so eagerly cast as a villain before.

No longer, also, did she think of Irene as the evil stepmother from a fairy tale – or she tried not to, anyway. She would never come to think of her as her mother, but she had accepted the woman's place in her family as her father Robert's wife.

When schooling brought her half across the world to England, Sarah had decided to stay there. When she graduated from college, her younger brother, having not wanted to be parted from her in the first place, begged to be allowed to stay with her.

Sarah was willing, her parents not so much. Finally, though, it had been agreed: Toby would live with Sarah, she would be his legal guardian, and she would pay for his schooling, with a little aid from the parents. Basically, she would be the mother she always had been to him, ever since that stormy night long ago . . .

It was a good thing he liked the goblins. After she won Toby back from the Goblin King, his subjects would visit her often. Goblins ran amuck through her house, always hiding when visitors came – which were few – and always making sure their messes and pranks weren't too much. One of the more subdued ones was even a permanent fixture of her house, helping her with the chores. She would ask them about their king, every now and then, and they would answer, telling her what sort of depressed or reflective mood he was in today. Hoggle hadn't seen much of him, and the dwarf was content with that. Sir Didymus had been given a post as the city gate's guard, and Ludo often visited his adopted brother there, and his friend at the gate to the Labyrinth. All three had been pardoned for their disobedience of the king's orders, and their parts in the mess made of the city. Ludo, too, had been very helpful, Didymus told her, in the cleaning up of the rocks he had called. As for the king . . .

Sarah closed her eyes, sighing as she ended her contemplation. It did no good to think of this, and besides, it was nearly time for her alarm to go off, signaling that she needed to get herself out of bed.

She rose before the obnoxious sound could begin, and flicked the alarm off. This was one of the things she had adamantly deemed off-limits to the goblins, and surprisingly enough, they obeyed. Their insistence on calling her "Lady Sarah" did unnerve her at times, but she had grown used to it.

Speaking of goblins . . .

Skeeter, a bony thing half her height, pranced his way into her bedroom as he heard the sound of "the lady" getting up. A pair of Toby's shorts from when he was younger covered the cheerful goblin's lower half with a vibrant green, and an old Mickey Mouse shirt did the job for his torso. He wore an ear-to-ear grin befitting of his kind, but no mischief was planned by him for today. No, he was simply happy because Toby had given him chocolate. While goblins and sugar might usually make a very disastrous combination, indeed, Skeeter knew how to handle himself. Even so, Sarah took one look at him and grimaced.

"Toby gave you a Hershey's bar again, didn't he?"

"Yep!" Skeeter chirped, bounding over to help her make her bed. She let him, with no small amount of amusement at his eagerness. "You're just a little bundle of energy, now, huh?" she mused, grinning. "Did Toby give you the candy last night, or is he up already?"

"Master's up! Hungry . . ." Skeeter made a growling noise, mimicking a rumbling stomach as he rubbed his belly through the bright purple shirt. Sarah laughed at the funny creature, patting his greenish-gray human-like head gently. "I'll get breakfast ready, then. Would you like anything, or have you already eaten?"

"Food!" he cheered, following her quickly, an excited light in his green eyes. "Hungry . . ."

"Right, then. Come along."

Skeeter followed the woman downstairs, his mouth watering at the very thought of eating some good food. When they came to the kitchen, Sarah immediately went to the fridge. "You don't mind eating chicken eggs, do you?" she asked, remembering the fowl she had seen Underground ten years prior. Skeeter shook his head, happily bouncing where he stood. "Goblins eat chicken!" he announced, enlightening her on this subject. "Pets, but food, too."

"Oh, good," said the woman as she pulled out a carton of eggs. This was the first time she had made this meal for breakfast while the little goblin was around. "I'm glad I'm not offending you in any way, then."

"Lady need Skeeter?"

"No, you can go join Toby, wherever he is. Probably in the living room watching cartoons. You two will be okay today, right? I have an interview for a job at one, and I was thinking of walking around for a few minutes afterwards before coming back here. I stopped at a bookstore last time I was downtown, and I wanted to check it out again, and see if that book Toby wanted was in."

"Skeeter and Master be fine," the goblin assured her. "Breakfast!"

She laughed again as she found the skillet she had been searching for, and made a shooing motion with her free hand. "All right, all right. Off with you, then."

He pranced away obediently, leaving her to her cooking. She watched him go with a smile, remembering the first time she met the rambunctious creature. He had stumbled out of her mirror, following her three friends, and had promptly declared himself her helper, and that of Toby. When asked what he meant, he waded hodgepodge through his words until he came across "servant," with Didymus's help. (Being an excellent Scrabble player, he of course knew the synonyms to many words.)

Sarah had valiantly protested the plan, but knew immediately by Skeeter's determination that it was useless, and so they had a third member of the household from that day henceforth. Two years had passed since that day, him coming and going as he pleased at mealtimes for the beginning months, and try as she might, she never could wrangle out of Skeeter what had caused him to come to her in the first place. They had also tried to get him to call them by their names, but Skeeter insisted on calling Sarah "Lady" and Toby "Master." Why, he never told them, and they figured it had something to do with his being their supposedly self-assigned servant.

The smell of the fried eggs soon brought goblin and boy to the kitchen, where Sarah was just sliding the finished products onto plates, accompanied by toast. "Good morning, Toby," she greeted her brother as he followed his nose to the counter.

"Morning," he returned distractedly, eyeing the breakfast. She ruffled his blonde hair (It's becoming so much like his hair . . .) and let him take a plate. "Go on, then," she urged Skeeter. "Eat up, both of you, before it gets cold and that band of troublemakers comes back. Ziggy, Squeak, and Pretzel were planning on coming over, last I heard from Bluey."

Bluey was a rotund, older, slightly hunchbacked goblin, and one of the maternal figures in the castle. She visited occasionally with her three mischievous sons, and was Sarah's most reliable source of information from the Underground apart from Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus. She always told Sarah about the king's mood, and the goblins' most recent antics. Sarah recorded these stories, and had published several volumes of tales about her friends. This provided a steady enough income, but there were times Sarah needed a little more money, and that was why she had an interview that afternoon.

Skeeter obviously tried not to be a pig, but hunger and a new sense of urgency from the news caused him to nearly shovel the food into his mouth. "Food good!" he praised upon finishing. "Skeeter help clean?"

"Thanks," she said, agreeing as she ate her own breakfast more slowly. "Toby, be sure to not let the triplets into the sugary stuff."

"Oh, yeah . . . You have that interview, don't you?"

"Yup," she confirmed, brushing some of her brown hair out of her face. It was longer than it had been ten years ago, and had a slight wave to it, giving it a fullness that made her look more mature – as if her filled in form didn't do that already. Her eyes were still green, but she had noticed that the once-jade irises were now closer to emerald. Toby's eyes . . . Well, Bluey had once said that the king commented that Toby had his eyes, and Sarah saw that he had been right. He kept one baby blue eye – his right one, like the king – but the other one's pupil had enlarged slightly, making it look darker. It was, needless to say, rather eerie for Sarah, and she found herself shivering every now and then. Most of the time, it just made her miss the king more.

Jareth . . . She dared only think the name, fearing the consequences of speaking it aloud. And, oh, how she missed him . . .

"May you stop at the bookstore for me?" Toby asked, interrupting her thoughts. "They called yesterday while you were gone, saying that book I wanted was in."

"Oh, sure." She reached over and ruffled the boy's hair again, then promptly smoothed it down when it looked too much like the Goblin King's. There were noted differences between their looks, but the hair and eyes were enough to make them look so similar. "You wanted that mythology book, didn't you? The one with Persephone and Hades?"

"Uh-huh. Squint recommended it."

"Squint's a goblin. What does he know about human books?"

"Well, he did live in a bookstore for a while. Say, do you know that story?"

"No, but I will soon. Now, I have to leave at twelve-thirty, so we have a couple hours before I need to get ready. Scrabble, anyone?"


..

Author's Note #1

On Sarah's stepmother . . . There have been two names for this woman, who went untitled in both the movie and the book, where the father's name was revealed to be Robert. Fans, Wikipedia says, have dubbed her Karen, and while I like this better than the other name, I use Irene, the canonical name first used in the manga sequel.