A Place Lost In Time

"Time is but a reconstruction of what once was, and what always has been. It circles endlessly, but mankind seems to think it goes in but one direction so time as it is today is but a construction of the imagination of Man."

~The Thoughts of a Young King

She woke slowly as if from a dream that wouldn't end, the warning that had been twinging around in the back of her skull back with a vengence as it circled like a vulture louder than her own rapid heartbeat. This was wrong, the whole situation and the feeling of the place around her. Yet it was as familiar as her own breath, as the cold air that circled around her.

A memory of a dream resurfaced, reminding her of a younger self and a terrifying journey that she had in her adulthood attributed to an overly imaginative younger mind. Yet the undeniable proof was under her hands, in the dirt of the place she found herself. Tangled roots touching her feet and the dark stranger standing not far ahead.

No stranger now, as memories resurface, the mismatched eyes burning into her skull and through to her soul...

"Hello again Sarah, have you realized what has happened now?" His head tilted in that same way, as a crystal dances idle through his fingertips... the King, the one who started this whole thing, or rather who helped her begin it through the story she had read.

Lips move but words don't come, as her fingers dig through the dirt searching for reality where it could not be found. The pint glass still in her hand as she slowly remembers a warning in the old book... "Do not eat of the world of Faerie, or be lost there forever."

Before the Peach had been between her lips... but that was a fruit of her world not his... the drink he had given her was of his. Her mistake was evident, she wasn't in her world, she was in the other one..

"Labyrinth..." A word finally spilt between her lips, a ragged whisper that echos in her head just as the laugh that follows does, the cold laughter that she so well remembers now as the mists of time fade the shattered memory shift.

"Yes the Labyrinth precious, the place where dreams spin and are so often forgotten; And where our story began. I think its time we started over again from that same beginning don't you?" He turned his head out towards the land as what appeared to be the sun rose over the terrible beauty of the Labyrinth as he began speaking once more over the terrified gasps of the girl that was now struggling to her feet.

"We started in this place all these years ago my dear, if you recall the place... and the creatures you met. It was here you learned my name, and the truth of what you once simply imagined day by day. Yet despite coming here.. and supposedly winning you let what we are slip through your fingers and called it a dream."

His hand snakes out and grabs her by the collar of the dress she is wearing pulling her close a snarl on his face and a grasp that is far from tender or gentle.. "You forgot us... you forgot me. Yet here you are again.. the triumphant champion of the Labyrinth... and all you can do is shake and shiver like a child. Where is the bravado that once flowed through your veins... and the wild nature that challenged me over and over again."

A toss against the tree and she falls once again, but this time the fury of his words sparks something long since distant and she snaps, snarling back as she rises to her own feet. No words spoken but her glare spoke volumes... and it sparked a grin on the face of the one who called himself King.

"Thats what I remember... and now we'll test this new resolve of yours though... this time you aren't running the Labyrinth. Rather this is your new home..." A flick of his hand, and a small orb rests at her feet... his eyes cold and hard as he whispers.. "I'd keep that with you were I you Sarah sweet, otherwise the Beasties of this place might find you just as sweet a morsel as I myself do."

He leans close a hand tracing her face before he just vanishes leaving her there under the tree with the Sun overhead at the mercies of the land that he ruled. Revenge perhaps in the sweetest sense punishment without the touch of a hand.

Large eyes turn in her skull, as the memories of warning that had all been prompted by this one fellow caused the girl to curse herself profusely for ignoring the signs. Once again she was within the Goblin Kingdom, only this time if HIS word were to be believed there was no escape and no child to be won back.

"Come on feet... lets move on again, maybe old friends wait for us here."

And so she walked towards the gate of the Labyrinth towards what appeared to be a stooped old Dwarf spraying at the faeries. But this old dwarf wrinkled and though familiar to the eye turned for a moment to simply sneer at the girl before turning away. Shock in her mind as she yelled out ..

"Hoggle... HOGGLE!" Running and then tripping as the faeries he sprays dart around her hissing softly. Things have changed, the truth clicks... she is no longer a child she is no longer safe from the dangers of the maze.

The dwarf stands over her a glare in his eye... "If it isn't the pretty missy that made us all dance to her tune the last time she came here. " A booted foot kicks out, and lands dead center of her chest knocking the wind from her lungs. Yet the swarm dart in and push the Dwarf away with snarls and snaps... perhaps last time he hadn't been as kind as he seemed, or as Cowardly. Often the dreams of those in the Labyrinth change it... but she isn't an outsider anymore.

The swarm dart around her... before flitting off leaving her alone in the clearing the Dwarf no longer in sight. Things weren't the same, that was certain and the winded young woman gets to her feet again to walk the familiar yet unfamiliar path.

Yet when she makes it to the gate, the gate is locked and no entry seems evident. She is trapped amidst the gardens to do as she may seeking searching for something that made any semblance of sense.

It seemed as if she had been walking forever, without an idea of where she might be going. Round a corner she watched as a younger self walked past the tree, battling the King.. Jareth with words and the defiance of a youth. Time made no sense here, she understood that now. Hunger was something she didn't quite heed, for it didn't quite make sense. Here and there she found a fruit bush of sorts, following a glittering fluttering fan fair of the swarm.

This time none bit her, but seemed to find her walk amusing and so they followed. The memory of what used to be passed her by in streams and pools of water. Her childhood, and her life from beginning to end. She watched as she walked forgetting why she was here, a speculative observer of her own life passing through a world of dreams.

As she walked she felt the strangest of things, and herself changing. Things around her became clearer; the meaning behind time itself clarified. As if within a classroom she absorbed the knowlege and moved on, becoming more than just Sarah and into the scope of her own dreams. In the scattered pools that showed no lingering images of her as she had been, she caught glimpses of the changes upon her person.

Hair growing longer than it ever should have naturally in such a 'short' period of time, eyes still like emeralds amidst a face that looked hardly human. Her body had grown lean, almost lacking in any of the curvature that it had once held, long and with a snap of wind through her hair like His. Claw like nails grace her fingers, and her skin pale as moonlight held a pattern about her eyes. Yet somehow this was only the beginning of things that were meant to change.

She understood in a rudimentary way that time in her world has passed, for what seemed like a moment in time to herself had begun to filter through and show the world as it progressed and those she knew died. This was meaningless now, at least for the moment. Her destination seemed much more important. Somehow walking as she had, she was within the maze yet not; not a part that HE was familiar with, and comforting at the same time.

Aware of her own anger that lingered at the thought of HIM, for to say his name as she knew would alert HIM to this part of the Labyrinth, that had become in essence Hers. A splintering branch within his own home for as the world changed her, so did she in turn change It. In this was the truth known of the Labyrinth; the old spirit was tired and in finding a companion for her Son, she found a replacement as well.

This was the heart of the old place, and the art of time strung through the ages by the one Eldest who had come through that took the form of the female of the species. Not the blood filtered through generations of imaginations and breeding. The true unchanging aspect of time that the nameless creature understood.

He had some aspects of this power, but now... it was the Girl the dreamer that the Old One had watched that took the place of this power. The dreams important to the forming of the place and that was the destination.

The Girl, Sarah's mind woke after this expanse of time older and wiser now with the knowlege of the Old One's interest in her and of what and why she had dreamed as she had. Her hair now down to her ankles glistened with the light of stars, large eyes held the power of the ancients and looked into eyes that were alike to her own.

No questions were asked, no answers given. As the Old faded into nothing, and the New one now with a name took up the spinning of the world yet with a small grin on her features. She was not more powerful, and had but a fraction of the power that the old one had held, for the old one now slept within the world her power extending out to the whole place.

Yet Sarah understood more, and the Irony of what was delighted her. The Goblin King had stolen her Mortality, and brought her here to let her change into a denizen of his domain as revenge for being spurned so long ago. Yet in doing so he had made an equal in his own kingdom, splitting it effectively in two. How would the King respond to a rival...

A hand danced up a prism of filtered light in her hand... as she began to watch and plot...

For the Girl once Stolen will always want Revenge.