Shattered Dreams

Jareth the Goblin King reclined on his throne with one leg flung uncaringly over the arm and the other pulled up to his chest with a drink resting on the knee.

With one hand he held a crystal into which he was staring and with the other hand he steadied the glass of bright green drink that interestingly sported an outrageously long multi-colour straw.

He was evidently in a good mood because the goblins around him were rowdy and playing up as usual.

No one was expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen.

I shut the door I'd been looking through quietly and returned to the shadows nearby to talk to the old man.

"I'm ready," the old man told me as I approached.

Then without elaboration he walked away from me towards the throne room. Perplexed, I followed trying not to be so worried.

…

The old oak doors flew open, crashing against the walls so hard that flakes fell down from the ceiling.

The light blew out and a sudden wind picked up filling the gloom with wailing.

The old man walked through the dust and shadow towards Jareth's throne ignoring the startled faces surrounding him.

His robes billowed in the wind and thunder sounded from somewhere making the goblins jump higher each time.

Even Jareth looked slightly startled by my sorcerer's ostentatious entrance.

All eyes where turned to the old man so no one noticed as I slipped in through the door and hid behind Jareth's chair.

In the centre of the room my sorcerer had paused and was melodramatically pointing at Jareth with a look of scorn on his face.

I frowned unsure what he was going to do.

"Hail Jareth who calls himself King of these halls," the old man called, his voice dripping with malice that shocked me. "You are a liar and a cheat and not fit to rule here!"

There was a stunned silence. Even the goblins were quiet.

At least his words were to the point, I thought, but what point? This was defiantly not part of my plan.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at the old man, "This isn't part of the plan!"

He ignored me and continued denouncing Jareth as weak and pathetic and many other things, several of which I didn't even know what they meant.

"I tried to remove you once before but the Seelie court thought otherwise. Perhaps this time they will have no choose, after all what are they against the Unseelie court."

The old man raised his arms and I half expected the hordes of hell to rise up out of the ground but thankfully they didn't. It was probably just a matter of time.

Another dramatic change was coming over the old man. His beard bizarrely changed from white to black and his eyes began to glow like white-hot coals.

I gulped desperately trying to swallow the truth of who my sorcerer really was. It didn't go down well.

"Fight me Goblin King or I shall simply kill you like the coward you are," the sorcerer shouted over the sound of the magic storm he had cooked up.

Jareth looked understandably taken aback, frankly even I hadn't considered this happening when I'd planned my revenge.

The old man raised his right hand and made a curious gesture - Jareth was lifted off his feet and flung at the wall.

Luckily the soft heads of his subjects cushioned his fall.

Cried of 'ouch' and 'ouf' from the flattened goblins rose above the sounds of the storm and drowned out my shouts. No one paid any attention to me hiding behind the sorcerer.

"Stop it!" I demanded dragging at the sorcerer's sleeve. "This isn't right!"

He ignored me too.

When I got too annoying he simply tossed me to one side.

I crashed through a group of goblins who were standing frozen with surprise where they'd been when the sorcerer came in. Finally I smashed into the King's vacated throne then rolled over half a dozen times, running over several other goblins on the way then stopped when I hit the far wall.

After mastering my extreme dizzy spell I managed to focus on what was happening.

The sorcerer was approaching Jareth with madness and murder in his eyes. Jareth was still trying to untangle himself from his squashed subjects.

"This is not what's supposed to be happening!" I shrieked and finally managing to attract a little attention. Jareth looked at me with confusion in his mix-matched eyes.

"Help!" I appealed to him but he was in an even worse position than me.

The sorcerer had the King by the throat, literally, and there wasn't a lot we could do about it.

I screamed, my voice coming out high and scared, "This isn't what I wanted!"

But it appeared no one cared what I wanted.

The room was in chaos.

The goblins seemed to have shaken the spell that bound them in place before and were running around screaming and getting in each other's way. The magic storm raged, causing confusion. Someone had scared the chickens, who were now running riot causing even more damage than the storm.

"Stop it!" I shrieked, running at the sorcerer.

Without thinking I body-slammed him, taking his legs out and smashing us both into the wall. Our own momentum carried us crashing through the wall and drastically into a room full of mirrors.

There was an explosion of breaking glass as we met the mirrors at full speed.

I was thrown away from the sorcerer colliding with a mirror that shattered all over me.

Confused and in pain, I staggered around and hit another mirror with a beautiful silver frame.

I had just enough time to see the sorcerer rise up out of a smashed mirror and begin to walk away (he seemed disgustingly unaffected by his close shave with the mirrors) then the tall ornate, silver framed, gold edged, jewel encrusted mirror fell forward and shattered on my head.

Everything went black.

A/N: Please review. Feedback is always appreciated. And if anyone thinks Flotsam should be dead at the moment I'll take the hint... :)