Chapter 4:
"Queen Sarah? Who is she?" I ask the dwarf. "Queen Sarah was the sole Champion of the Labyrinth, the winner of King Jareth's heart, and mother to Princess Laurel."
"We never met a Queen Sarah." Puck tells the dwarf. "That's because she's visiting family in the Aboveground."
"Oh." I say. "But, why would she leave on such a momentous occasion for her daughter? And why did you refer to her in the past pretense?"
"Well, to answer your first question, she left because her brother had contracted a rare illness. Normally she would have sent a goblin in her place, but Princess Laurel insisted upon it. And I referred to her in past tense because, well, she's not the same Sarah I met when she first entered the Labyrinth. But, enough dilly dallying, you have a Labyrinth to run." He waves his hands towards the wall and double doors open up wide.
"Thank you." I tell him. We walk through the doors, which soon close behind us. In front of us is a brick wall and to either side of us are what seem to be never-ending corridors. "Do you think we should split up?" Puck asks me. I shake my head. "No, we should probably stick together. Besides, it's not like we have a time limit. So what harm would it cause us?"
"Okay, which one do want to take?"
"I would take the right one." A voice says. "Who's there?" I ask. "Down here." the voice says. Puck and I look down to see a little worm sitting on a brick. "Hello. My name is Prince Puck and this is Prince Gabriel."
"Ooh. Princes, I've never met a prince. Well, my name's M.R. Ow. I live here in the Labyrinth. So, you must be the unlucky boys who have to run for Princess Laurel's hand, eh?"
"Yes. We're just wondering which way we should go." I tell the worm. M.R. considers for a moment. "I would go right. It's the quickest way to the castle."
"Thank you M.R." Puck shouts to him as we head down the right pathway. "Your welcome!"
...
We keep walking down the right pathway for a while when we stumble into a courtyard. Two doors with goblins carrying shields stand in front of them. "Halt!" One cries out.
"We are the keepers of the doors. One door will lead you to the castle, and the other one will lead you to...dun dun dun...certain death!"
"Death?" Puck asks shocked. "Well, maybe not death, but certainly certain loss!" Another goblin states. "How do we know which door to choose?" I ask them. "We have to tell you. But-"
"Oh boy. Goblins are worse than the fey. What's the catch?"
"You can only ask one of us."
"And one of us always tells the truth."
"And the other one always lies."
"So how do we know which one of you is lying?" I ask them. "You don't!"
"That's what makes it so fun!" Puck stares at his feet for a second, his green eyes glittering. His head shoots up. "I've got it!"
He walks over to one of the goblins. "Would he tell me that this is the door that leads to the castle?" The goblin takes a moment to consider, the answers wearily,"Yes."
"Then I know that this is the door that leads to certain death." The goblin is shocked. "But, how do you know that?"
"Because if you're the one that lies, you would say that he would say this door leads to the castle."
"But what if I was telling the truth?!"
"Then he would still lie and say this door leads to the castle. So obviously, this is the door that leads to certain death." He walks over to the other door. "We choose this door."
The door opens and we walk through."Wow! This is so eas-" I'm cut off by Puck's screams as we fall through the ground. Multiple hands catch us and keep us there. "Up or down?" They ask. "Helping hands." Puck states.
"Yes. Now up or down?" They ask again. "Well, we're already halfway down, so down, I guess." I tell them. "They chose down!" The squeel. "Wait, wait! Can't we change our decision?" Puck cries out. "Nope! Down you go!" The hands lower us down into a dark, underground passage way.
"Guess we should have chosen up." I say. Puck looks at me incredulously. "Ya think?"
"Thank god! I'm no stuck here alone with this mutt anymore." We turn to see Dadrid and Nicholas slumped against a wall. Nicholas waves to us and we're flabbergasted.
"Oh, what a pity. And here I thought you all would make a different choice than my mother." We all turn to see Princess Laurel standing there with her arms behind her back. She is no longer wearing her gown from this morning, but a suit of armor, made of black dragon skin, no doubt. She tisks as she circles us like a vulture it's next meal.
"Well, I'm suprised to see you all fell into the oubliette. But, my mother did it and won. So there must be something lucky about it. Well, gentleman, since I know none of you will be capable of getting out of here on your own-"
"We can get out of here just fine without your help. Thank you very much." I interrupt her. The other princes are looking at me shocked, but Laurel only looks bemused. "Once again, dear Gabriel doesn't know when to be quiet. That's going to get you into trouble soon. Since you don't want my help, you can get out of this together."
We all start to protest, but she holds up her hand to silence us. "This will be good for you. After all, you will have to deal with each other when you're king." And with that, she vanishes in a swirl of dust and glitter.
"Thanks Gabriel. This is great, just great. You just had to run your mouth off to the princess, didn't you? I hope you have a plan to get us out." Dadrid tells me. "Don't get your fangs in a twist Dadrid. I can get us out of here."
"How?" Nicholas asks me. "Through there."
...
After lifting Dadrid, Nicholas, and Puck out of the hole in the ceiling of the oubliette, we find ourselves in a lagoon. "Well boys, let's start walking." I tell them.
Several minutes pass and I start hearing things. 'Gabriel.' I look around to where the voice could be, but concluding that I'm just imagining things, I shake my head and keep walking. 'Gabriel, come and play with us!'
"Do you hear that?" Nicholas asks us. "Hear what?" Dadrid asks him. "A voice calling out your name."
"Yeah. I hear it."
"I hear it too."
"What is it?" We all look around for the source of the voices when a splashing noise catches our attentions. 'Boys!'
'Over here!'
'Come and play with us!'
'Oh come on, you know you want to!' The voices are coming from the lake in the distance. I look to see several girls standing on the outskirts of the lake. They're all laughing and splashing around. "Nymphs." Puck whispers.
Yes, they were nymphs. The water nymphs with their bluish skin, blue eyes and silver hair that floated around them, and the wood nymphs with tanned skin, green eyes and either blossoms or leaves as hair. They wave to us and Dadrid walks over to them.
A wood nymph with pink cherry blossoms for hair and a water nymph sit next to him or on his lap and start running their hands over him and through his hair. "Dadrid!" I shout to him. "What are you doing?"
"Choosing girls who actually want me! Besides, I don't want to rule by the side of a sour Goblin Princess and rule over those nasty things. If you don't want to join me, fine! More girls for me!" He laughs and the girls giggle and flock to him.
"Just leave him." Nicholas tells us. "Come on." We leave Dadrid to his new found fan base. And that's the last we see of the Vampire Prince.
