3
Sarah climbed out of the hole and found herself on a deserted looking road in the middle of nowhere. There were mounds of dirt and holes in the ground on either side of the road, some of which had smoke rising from them. And in the distance... 'Goblin City' she murmured. She was seeing it from another side. Beyond the city she could see the Labyrinth. The hands had been telling the truth, things were different this time.
Or not so different. There, peeing by the side of the road, was a dwarf.
"Hoggle!" Sarah called, running up to him. The dwarf glared at her over his shoulder.
"A little privacy please, Miss!" he snapped. His sparse hair was black and his ugly face was a different shape. This was a different dwarf.
He finished doing his business, adjusted and then turned to face her. "What do you want?" he demanded.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else." She said. He grunted.
"The name's Hogwart. Who did you say you wanted? Hogbut?"
"Hoggle"
"Hoggle eh? That no good old piece of...well won't say in front of a lady. Sold me some bad gems he did, and those nasty kids of his..."
"Kids?" Sarah exclaimed. Her head spun.. "Where is he? Where can I find him?"
"Number 98. And tell the old git Hogwart wants his money back!" He stomped off down the road and disappeared down one of the holes. Sarah blinked. Beside the hold was a letterbox with brass numbers hanging from it. Number 32.
"Okay." She said, and headed in the other direction passing holes on the way. She could see beady eyes staring at her from some of them. She stopped in front of number 98 and looked around. "Now what?" She got down on her knees and peered into the hole. It was black. She double-checked the number was right, stared back down into the hole, and shrugged. What did she have to lose? If she died here then maybe she'd wake up at home. She jumped feet first into the hole...
And landed on solid ground about six feet down. She picked herself up off the floor, dusted off her book, and looked around. She stood in front of a small wooden door about half her height, with a bell hanging on a hook. Behind her there was no wall, just a passage heading down into empty blackness.
She rang the bell.
The loud clanging was followed by a shrill cry, and cursing.
"For crying out loud I just got him to sleep!" a voice shouted. "Hogwart if that's you again I'm going to shove those rubies fair up your..." the door was flung open and a very angry Hoggle, holding a very ugly baby, glared up at her. He blinked and his mouth hung open. "Oh...I'm sorry Miss...thought you was someone else."
"Hoggle? It's me. Sarah." She whispered, unable to keep her eyes off the baby. It was still screaming. Clearly it had its father's temperament.
"Sarah? Sarah who? Didn't sell you nothing don't come asking me for money back..." Sarah stepped closer into the light.
"It's me, don't you remember?"
Hoggle stared at her. Sarah didn't blame him.
"What are you doing here? You said you was done with us, needed to 'move on' or some such drivel." He grunted, but stood aside and gestured she come in. Sarah ducked under the door frame.
The room was cheerful enough with wooden furniture and a small fireplace (and not a single dismembered hand in sight, Sarah noted thankfully). She had to duck to avoid the low ceiling, and she could hear raucous voices of children coming from another room. Hoggle grunted again and gestured towards a chair, presumably asking her to sit, and put a kettle on the stove one-handed with the screaming infant in the other arm. Sarah watched as Hoggle muttered in the baby's ear and rocked him gently. Its cries grew quieter and after a while it fell asleep. Sarah gazed at its peaceful face.
It was still ugly.
Hoggle took the baby through a doorway, and came back empty-handed a few moments later. He went back to making tea.
It was only after Sarah had a steaming mug of something foul-smelling in her hands that he looked at her again. "So what brings you here to mingle with us uncommon folk?" Sarah decided not to make small talk and handed him the book. He flipped through it, disinterested. "Can't read it. What's so special about it?"
"The pictures are of King Jareth. Before he came here. I found it in my garden and the next thing I knew I woke up here." She said. Hoggle raised an eyebrow.
"You don't say." He turned back to the photo of the little blonde boy with the evil smile. "Ugly little fella wasn't he? Yeccch."
"Yeah." Sarah said, gazing into those icy yet mesmerising eyes. "Hoggle what's going on? Why do you think I'm here?" Hoggle sighed and took a sip of his smelly tea.
"I'm not the one to ask. I'm just a dwarf. I dig up the jewels. I sell 'em. Quality stuff too, whatever others say. But as I see it, that picture there is King Jareth, yes?"
"I'm sure it is, yes."
"And that means that house of yours was his, yes?"
"His mother's, yes."
"Well then perhaps you'd better go ask him." There was a movement beside Sarah. A little dwarf was standing there fidgeting.
"Papa who this?" it asked. It was wearing a pink dress and had its hair in two pigtails under a bonnet.
"This is...an old friend of Papa's. Sarah this...this is Sarah." It took Sarah a moment to absorb that one. She felt her eyes tear up. She got down on one knee in front of the little dwarf Sarah.
"It's nice to meet you Sarah." She said. The little dwarf Sarah smiled. Sarah met Hoggle's eyes and knew she couldn't ask him to come with her. "I'd better go then." She picked the book up off the table, stood and hit her head on the ceiling. "Ow." Hoggle shook his head.
"You got taller but not much smarter." Sarah smiled in spite of the throbbing pain.
"Thankyou, Hoggle." She turned to leave.
"Stop in again, if you like. Before you go back home. Come in and meet the missus." Sarah nodded.
"If I can."
