Chapter Three: Getting into the Spirit of Things
"I wish the Goblin King would come and take you away right now!" the young child said to the puppy, angrily.
There was a crash, a giant plume of purple-grey smoke, and lots of glitter and then to the child's amazement, a beautiful creature stood in front of him: a man with blonde hair, tilted eyes, and a neat costume that seemed to be made out of black armor. The child looked up at the man in disbelief and said, "You're the Goblin King!"
Jareth looked at the boy, who couldn't have been more than seven, and the shaggy-haired puppy in the child's arms and sighed. "I would hope I'm the Goblin King, since you wished someone away." He looked around, expectantly. Usually, people wished away other people when they were with said person, but the room was empty. In fact, it was an odd room for a young child—this room seemed like it should be for a teenager. There were video game and Transformers posters on the wall, a small bed, a desk with a computer, and a book shelf with a few books and action figures.
"I didn't think you'd show up!" the child said, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "Do something…goblin-y."
Jareth scowled. "I most certainly will not! Who did you wish away, child? I'm busy." In fact, he had been enjoying his little visit with Sarah, but since he was already conflicted by the emotions he felt at seeing Sarah again after so long, he decided to leave immediately when the summons came.
The child clutched the puppy closer, his eyes going wide with shock as he realized just what he'd done. His lower lip curved out into a pout. "You wouldn't take Chester, would you? I didn't mean to wish him away, but he peed in Ted's room and Ted'll kill me. I'm supposed to be looking after him!"
"Ted?"
"My older brother."
Jareth sighed again, dreading the answer to his next question. "And Chester would be…the puppy?"
"Yes, I got him for Christmas."
"That was this morning, child. You're already wishing the dog away?"
"Please don't take Chester away!"
Jareth pinched the bridge of his nose. Lately, it seemed the quality of those who were wished away was reducing, and now he had to debate on whether he wanted to take away a dog? What were the rules for a dog, anyway? Jareth had to take a human who was wished away, then offer the game to the wisher as a way to win the human back, but did that extend to dogs?
I don't care, I definitely don't want the goblins to have a dog, especially one that isn't potty trained, Jareth thought, shuddering. They already have all those chickens!
He looked around, wondering what he could have the child do instead, and his eyes fell on a book that sat atop the desk. The title caught his eye: A Christmas Carol. He pointed to the book and said, "Give me that book and I'll let you keep your dog."
The child grinned. "Sure! It's my brother's, anyway."
Jareth took the book and left. He appeared in his throne room, once more lamenting his life. When had it become boring? There was a time when he looked forward to the next person wished away, or bogging a few goblins, but now it was just becoming so mundane. When was the last time somebody had wished away someone interesting? When was the last time he'd felt his blood pound with excitement at the prospect of playing the game?
Unbidden, an image of a certain girl with dark hair and flashing green eyes came to mind—except now, she was older. Her face had become leaner, losing its baby fat, and she'd grown, no longer so innocent, but more alluring. And she still had kind but stubborn green eyes—the eyes hadn't changed at all, in fact.
Jareth wrenched his thoughts away from her and decided to read the book instead. He fell onto the throne, flipping through it idly. It didn't take long to read the whole thing and when he was done, he found he was still curious so he went to the Aboveground and pilfered some more books—purely in the name of research.
Now he was lounging on his large throne with his booted feet hanging off the arm rest. A stack of books were precariously balanced in front of the chair: 'Twas the Night before Christmas, The Grinch that Stole Christmas!, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and The Polar Express where just a few of the books within the stack.
Jareth closed the last book with a frown. He stood up and said, "From what I understand of this Christmas thing, it involves 'goodwill towards your fellow man,' food, and decorating a tree. Except when it includes a fat man dressed in a red suit, reindeer, or snow, then it involves presents. Worst of all, there's no villainous deeds to be seen! In fact, all the villains are cruelly reformed."
Sitting on the top of his throne was a goblin with a bulbous nose, large eyes, and a mouthful of sharp teeth; his skin was green and knobby like a cucumber's and he wore pants made out of an old rice sack tied around his waist with a shoelace. He was picking at his teeth delicately with his pinky finger. The little fellow said, "What about boggings?"
"No, bogging anybody would be strictly against the 'Christmas spirit,'" Jareth said, with disgust.
The goblin humph-ed. Jareth looked up and realized where the goblin was sitting. With a sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose and said, slowly, "Gus, what did I say about sitting on the throne?"
Gus tapped his chin, thoughtfully. "Not to do it?"
"And why did I say that?"
Gus frowned. He had no eyebrows—or eyelashes, for that matter—but his eyebrow ridges were well-defined. He screwed his eyes shut as he tried to think and Jareth could almost see the pea-sized gears moving in his head as he tried to remember. Finally, Gus opened his eyes and grinned with triumph.
"Because only Kingy gets to sit on throne!"
Jareth's fingers twitched, but he ignored the urge to pinch his nose again. He hated how the goblins called him "Kingy" and after so many years—centuries, really, if he wanted to try counting, and he didn't—they still insisted on the moniker. One thing at a time, he thought.
"And what else?" he said through gritted teeth.
"Um…" Gus looked around the throne room at the other goblins there. They liked to cluster around their king—goblins weren't creatures who did well alone or in silence—but no one had an answer until a small goblin with large puppy dog eyes named Mort said, "No one sits higher than the king?"
"Exactly," Jareth said, grabbing Gus and dropping him onto the floor. He sat back on the throne and Gus settled at its foot, glancing at the books with curiosity. Nearby, a skinny and tall goblin with a pointy nose was dealing cards to three other goblins. The cards were grimy, wrinkled, and well-used.
Jareth watched the card game for a moment, then grabbed the book at the top of his stack. A Christmas Carol had been an interesting read, but it still didn't explain much about the holiday. Jareth didn't really feel like being visited by three spirits—he liked his sleep. However, some of the other things he'd read sounded interesting, like a roast beast and gifts and snow. Jareth tapped a finger to his chin thoughtfully, looking out at his band of goblins. There were even a few chickens clucking around the area, but Jareth had long learned it was wiser to ignore them. The closest the Underground had ever come to full mutiny had been when Jareth had banned chickens in his castle.
"We are going to celebrate," Jareth decided. Dozens of pairs of eyes looked up, the throne room falling into a hush as they listened to him. Jareth had never said anything like that before; he didn't even like celebrating his birthday, and when the goblins would shyly give him presents, he would bog them (although some of the goblins appreciated the sentiment). "Yes, this Christmas thing doesn't look too hard. It'll be late this year, but we are going to do the whole thing! A feast and one of those green pine trees and everything!"
He pointed to the stack of books and said, "I want you all to read these, you should know what to do."
The goblins obligingly came closer and then stared at the books with confusion, which was when Jareth remembered that none of them knew how to read, except maybe Jeebo, but like most things, Jeebo tended to make up words as he went along. So, finally, Jareth opened up the first book and began reading A Christmas Carol out loud while the goblins clustered around the throne room and listened with rapt fascination and the occasional question. When he was done with that one, he went onto the next, and then the next, until the pile of books had been rearranged, now with A Christmas Carol on the bottom. The last one was about the Grinch, and when he closed this book, the goblin's looked at each other with confusion.
"So…Grinch gave back all the stuff?"
"Grinch wouldn't make a good Kingy, would always give back the wishers," one goblin said, thoughtfully.
Jareth decided not to say anything, since he hadn't taken the child's dog only a few hours earlier. He wasn't getting soft, was he? Jareth made a mental note to bog a few more goblins before he went to sleep that night.
"Well, Kingy did give back Tob—" a goblin named Wort began, but he was elbowed into silence by Jeebo.
Jareth scowled.
"Well, Grinch got to carve roast beast in the end," one of the goblins said quickly.
"We should have roast beast!" Gus said.
"Yeah! Roast beast! Roast beast!"
One of the chickens clucked, flapped its wings, and flew across the room to land on a goblin's head.
"Or chicken," Jareth said, looking at the chicken with a grin.
"No! Never chicken!" the goblins cried. The one with the chicken on its head shuddered, grabbing at the would-be poultry and hugging it protectively. "Never chicken!"
"Fine, no chicken." Jareth scowled again, wondering what kind of king would allow chickens in the throne room, anyway. He really was too generous.
Just like he had been with a certain young girl…
Damn, now he was thinking about Sarah again. He really must stop doing that. When she'd left ten years ago, he'd thought of her much too often and the goblins, charmed by the strange and whimsical girl who had managed to be the first to beat their monarch, had mentioned her almost every day. Finally, Jareth had proclaimed that any mention of Sarah would result in an automatic bogging. The goblins were quiet for a few moments before one had said, tentatively, "Baby would have made a good goblin. Would have been fun."
"Yeah! Kingy even did Magic Dance! We should do Magic Dance every day!"
"Magic Dance! Magic Dance!"
"And ask Sarah to join in!"
Jareth had bogged all of them. They learned quickly that they should be careful not to mention Sarah, but Jareth would sometimes sit on his throne being extremely bored (being Goblin King meant being bored half of the time, especially when there was no one wished away) and think about a certain girl who had challenged him, intrigued him, and managed to best him.
But, ten years had passed…and Sarah was older now…
And she had called him…that fact alone confused him.
He felt a fluttery feeling in the pit of his stomach and frowned. Maybe he was coming down with something—Wait, no, he didn't get sick. But he'd definitely felt odd watching the fireworks with Sarah.
The goblins were dancing around the throne room chanting "Magic Dance! Magic Dance!" and Jareth finally said, "I'll bog the lot of you if you don't stop!"
The goblins quieted down, many pouting, but soon they went back to what they had been doing. Jareth tapped his fingers against the throne's arm rest, his mind flittering back to the fireworks. They had been beautiful—all those colors. Humans often impressed him with their ingenuity. He wondered if it was possible to get fireworks in the Underground.
Christmas in the Underground, Jareth thought, grinning. His heart began to pound with excitement and he relished the feeling. He hadn't felt excited about anything in a long time, and he was looking forward to trying this whole Christmas thing out. He really should thank Sarah for bringing the holiday to his attention, and the fireworks; he'd never have seen them if she hadn't wished him to appear.
With a thoughtful "hmm," Jareth made a motion with his hand and a crystal appeared. He let it glide along his arm then back to his palm where he threw it up in the air. With a puff of glittery smoke, it turned into a shoebox-sized present with candy cane wrapping. There was even a tag and a cheery, red bow on top. He smiled and said, "My first Christmas present. Enjoy, Sarah."
It disappeared from his hand and he leaned back. "Jeebo!" he yelled.
Jeebo looked up, torn between his poker game—he was winning—and his king's command, but after a moment's hesitation, he put down the cards and scampered to the throne.
"Yeah, Kingy?"
A piece of paper and a pencil appeared in the King's hand. He held them out to Jeebo. "I want you to write down everything I say, Jeebo. I have a list of things the Underground is going to need if we're going to try this Christmas thing." He tapped a finger to his chin again and added, thoughtfully, "Maybe I'll have to reorder time a little bit…"
Jeebo dutifully took the piece of paper and the pencil, and waited, ready to take down whatever the Goblin King said.
# # # #
Somewhere in New Jersey, a teenage boy by the name of Ted entered his room and smelled the pungent odor of chemical cleaner. "Jeff! Did that stupid dog pee in my room again?" He yelled. His kid brother didn't answer and Ted fumed, looking at the wet spot on his carpet. At least someone—probably his Mom—had cleaned up the urine. Ted hated that puppy.
He sighed, then went to his desk. Besides the usual junk and his computer, the desk was empty. He frowned. "Hey, where's my book?"
Author's Notes: I'm not 100% happy with this chapter, but if I keep messing with it, I think I'll make it worse instead of better. Depending on my time, the next chapter will be up by tomorrow. I hope this wasn't too confusing timeline-wise, since this chapter happened before Sarah saw the present under the tree. Also, goblins from my other stories (specifically Mort, Jeebo, and Wort) appear. I particularly have a soft spot for Jeebo, his tendency to cheat at cards cracks me up. :D
Please review! Tell me what you think. All suggestions/comments/questions are welcome.
Next chapter, Jareth's present is finally opened (so, you can still guess if you want! And, as I said before, anyone who guesses right gets a cookie -- or any suggestion I particularly like may mean I throw away what I've outlined and use the suggestion with copious amounts of thank yous and shout outs XD), plus more from the mischievous goblins (who should never get their hands on highlighters), and the wonderful "healing" properties of Egg Nog.
I'm still trying to get this story done by New Year's. We'll see if I'm successful. XD
Tidbit: I have, at one point, owned all the books that Jareth pilfered, and I still own a copy of A Christmas Carol.
And now, a few shout-outs...
ChilaliSnowbird: I bet Jareth would still manage to be dastardly and handsome without eyebrows. ;)
FaeriesMidwife: Its always a compliment to know my story caused sleep deprivation. ;) But, I hope you did manage to get some sleep in the end.
TheElfQueen: I imagine Jareth has heard of Christmas but doesn't know what it entails, so no, he probably wouldn't know about mistletoe, however I can see him taking full advantage of it once he finds out...oops...am I giving away plot details? XD
StoryLake: Thanks for the compliments! I admit, this story is a bit different than my usual ones, so it may not be as polished as what I usually write. Plus, I'm trying to get an update a day done, which is killer and doesn't leave room for as much editing. I was wondering, what do you mean by "boyfriend-y"? I will only say this: there will be some fluffy moments in this story, although I'm not sure if this Jareth will be all fluff himself. If you're a bigger fan of dark Jareth, I have a story in progress called "Seeded Dreams" with a darker Jareth.
Kou Shun'u: Thank you! I admit, the beginning is moving slower than I wanted, but I hope the pace will pick up in the next few chapters. However, this isn't going to be an action-y fic at all.
Trixie09, Cybernetic Mango, Myra Valhallah, Notwritten: Thanks for the compliments! :) They made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside -- and made me want to get writing! XD
The Fine Print: As usual, I don't own anything in regards to the Labyrinth except my own original characters.