Moon Child

By Whiteinfinity21

Disclaimer: I don't own the Labyrinth.

Chapter Four: Wistful Musings

He had been angry, absolutely livid when that ungrateful girl had so haughtily announced that he had no power over her. Who was she, a puny, insignificant wisp of a mortal girl, to claim superiority over him, the Goblin King? One could say that at that point, Jareth was royally pissed.

For the next several days, the goblins stayed far, far away from the castle and any other spot that the king was known to haunt, in fear of receiving a nasty kick from the royal boot. Or worse, a one-way trip to an Oubliette or the bog. Almost a week after The Girl had left with the babe the Goblin King had finally had stopped his ranting and sulking and had grudgingly retuned to his duties. Cautiously his subjects started venturing back into the castle and eventually resumed their normal rowdy behavior in the throne room and anywhere else that had mud, chickens or booze.

Jareth had resolutely pushed the girl from his mind. He had no right to keep mooning over Sarah, he had a kingdom to run and he couldn't properly do that if he was always pinning over her. It was several weeks later when he come to the conclusion that during their final confrontation that Sarah had not purposely rejected him. She had been so caught up in her role, Jareth mused upon reflection, that his words probably had not even registered in her mind. Not to mention the fact that she was woefully under aged by her society's standards for the kind of relationship he was asking of her.

And so the months went by and the seasons kept on changing. Summer turned into fall, fall gave way to winter, the snows melted and the new life of spring blossomed, the grains ripened and spring melted into summer as the cycle started anew. The poignant loss of Sarah's victory faded, replaced with a wistful longing.

He had looked upon the girl once twice in the months that followed her departure from the Underground. She seemed relatively happy and that made Jareth content. The first time he had checked on her, she was celebrating with her friends from the Labyrinth the night after she won her brother back. The second time he saw her, she was pouring over a book in a library, a look of intense concentration on her face as she delved into the mysteries that the text contained. Seeing her like had made his heart ache painfully, bringing back feelings best left buried. That was the final time he checked on her.

And so life in the Underground continued. Jareth kept on collecting the children from the Aboveground that were wished away, making those who wished away their burdens run the Labyrinth if they demanded the child back. Most never got very far, and Jareth watched their futile efforts emotionlessly. After Sarah's run, none of the runners ever made it past the first Oubliette, losing their determination at the thought of being stuck in a dank pit for many hours before their time expired and they were sent back childless.

The story of Sarah's journey through the Labyrinth stuck around for a few months in the Goblin City before fading into the background with all the other myths and legends of the Underground. For the most part, her tale remained forgotten, written down on some musty scroll in a dark storage room of the royal library. Jareth was perfectly content to let her legend fade into obscurity. In a way that meant that her tale was his alone, like he preferred it.

Once in a while a stray thought about Sarah washed across Jareth's mind. It didn't happen very often, mostly when there was a runner in the Labyrinth. After almost a decade the only feelings the subject of his one and only defeat brought up was a wistful longing. But he was happy now that she had refused him in a way. For if she had truly decided to stay, he would have had to watch her grow old and eventually die before his eyes while he stayed young as ever.

Better to have the image of the youthful Sarah in his mind than to have to watch her fade before his very eyes. For having death take her away from him would be a thousand times more painful and heartbreaking than her victory over him would ever be. No, it truly was better this way, for she would always be the defiant fiery girl-almost woman in his mind, in a roundabout way making her his forever if only in his imagination.

Jareth would have been perfectly happy to have things continue on as they were going, but alas change is inevitable. His fragile peace of mind that had fallen over him was not to last.

It started with the arrival of a wandering bard coming to his kingdom and requesting to look at the royal library for material for a ballad or two. Jareth had passively agreed, thinking the request absolutely harmless. He didn't even bother to send a servant to watch the bard's activities as he searched through the library, a mistake he later came to regret.

The bard had spent a few days going through the library before he came across a text that caught his attention. He had asked for some parchment and writing tools. The Goblin King had absentmindedly fulfilled his request. The next day, the bard departed, having found what he was looking for. Jareth didn't even bother to see him off, having no interest in what he had found or the song that would come from it. He should have, perhaps if he had actually looked at what the bard had found, Jareth would have been saved much annoyance in the future.

Several months later, a different wandering musician, much less well known, came to the Goblin City to try and make some profit. Being a no-name, beginner minstrel, he had checked into the cheapest, half-way decent tavern he could afford and had played his fiddle and sang his songs for the evening's patrons. Apparently the kid had talent, since the number of customers at the tavern doubled the next night and there were even more the one after that.

By the end of the week the newbie was lodged in one of the more well known and higher quality taverns and was making decent earning from his nightly performances. Word quickly spread across the city about the young, nameless musician. It seemed like everyone had gone to at least once to listen to him play. Not only did the kid have a wicked talent with that fiddle of his, but one of his songs in particular became an instant hit among the Labyrinth's citizens.

Jareth had been strolling through the public gardens one sunny afternoon, when he heard a few lines one a young guard with a sweet voice was singing to entertain his friends and his sweetheart. The tune was catchy and Jareth drew closer to better make out the lyrics. A few lines into the song, Jareth's blood ran cold. For it seemed that someone had unearthed the tale of Sarah's journey through the Labyrinth and had made a ballad out of it.

Jareth's mind flashed back to that bard that had come months ago to look at the royal library. A wordless snarl escaped his lips as teleported back to his personal chambers. He couldn't believe it that that cheeky bard had the audacity to make a song out of his most closely cherished memory. Now the tale of the girl and the Goblin King was being told in dozens of different kingdoms in the form of a popular and catchy song. He wanted to kill the man. It was like that the creation of this song had tarnished Jareth's fond memory of Sarah.

He spent that night drinking himself into insensibility. The next day he awoke with a nasty hangover and spent the rest of the day in a foul mood, kicking any goblin that he came across straight into the twisting corridors of the Labyrinth. It seemed that everywhere he went he heard the song being repeated, even worse, being embellished upon. The Goblin King swore that if that blasted bard ever entered his kingdom that he would spend a month hanging by his toes as punishment for creating that piece of trash.

As it was, the song had grown so popular among his subjects and at every mention of repetition of the piece, Jareth became even more short tempered. Just three weeks after the young minstrel's arrival in the Goblin City, he found himself being escorted out of the Labyrinth by the goblin guard with the command to never set foot in this kingdom again.

Of course that didn't stop the citizens of the Goblin City from continuing to repeat that song. Much as he wanted to, it was hardly fair for Jareth to throw every person who sang that dratted song into jail. So the Goblin King just sat there and stewed every time it was repeated. Needless to say that the number of goblins getting a bath in the Bog of Eternal Stench was higher than it had ever been. Jareth was not a happy camper.

His subjects quickly learned to not sing the piece of doggerel in his presence since almost everyone who did received a boot to the behind that sent them sailing up to fifty feet away. Goblin King aside, the song was just too popular and fun to sing to just stop repeating it.

The song about Sarah's exploits while running the Labyrinth was not the only thing that was vexing the Goblin King's mind. Not only had all his old feelings about Sarah been dragged back to the surface, but he was not sleeping very well at night. Something or someone was trying to get into his dreams while he slumbered. Only the strong barriers that the Labyrinth had to keep out foreign magics was preventing the unknown sender from getting in.

The presence didn't seem to be malevolent but it was bloody persistent and was very powerful. Whatever it was, it wanted to contact Jareth and he wanted nothing to do with it. Every time he woke up in the middle of the night after the presence tried once again to access his dreams he grew more short-tempered.

Everyone now, not only the goblins gave the king a wide berth, not wanting to incur his wrath. For while he certainly did not do anything out of line to those who inadvertently got on his bad side, they almost always left with a pounding headache and a nasty bruise on their backside.

It was when Jareth had been in this upset and frazzled state of mind when he had felt a shifting of the energies in the area just outside of his kingdom's borders. It was very faint and hardly detectable at first, but as they days went by, it grew stronger and even the most magicless creature in the Labyrinth could feel the gathering energies.

Almost a week passed as the energy continued to grow, and with it, the entity's attempts to get into his dreams grew stronger as well. Jareth was full of pent up anger and was likely to explode at any time. He was now taking long nightly flights across his entire kingdom in his owl form to try and tire himself out enough to not have any dreams. It didn't work, but Jareth did not stop his flights. In a way they were a much needed release for the fed-up Goblin King.

Then on the night of the full moon, the gathering energy started growing unbelievably fast. Those most sensitive to magic were forced to their beds with a massive headache, moaning about the terrible pressure that the energy was creating.

Jareth unluckily was one of those unfortunates. Being the Goblin King meant that he had to be very sensitive to changes in his kingdom, both those of his subjects and of the ones of the more magical kind. His own massive, throbbing headache had rendered Jareth practically senseless and he was cursing the foreign power that was trying to invade his dreams, certain that it was the source of his misery.

Those who were not detained to their beds by the energy induced headache watched in awe and even fear as the moon rose above the eastern horizon. The normal orb that dominated the night sky was very different this night. Instead of being like a huge glowing moonstone in the sky, it seemed to be filled with swirling mists. Many put two and two together and made the connection between the rising energies and this change in the moon.

The growing energy seemed to reach a crescendo as the moon reached its peak in the sky. An odd silence fell across the Labyrinth as the heavy pressure created by all the energy, disappeared with an audible pop. Instantly all those suffering from their headaches passed out and slipped into a heavy slumber.

It was that night when the presence that had been trying to contact Jareth in his dreams finally was able to breach the Labyrinth's magical barriers. For while it was for only a moment, a picture of a fuzzy, shinning silver orb flashed into Jareth's dreams before vanishing.

Everyone in the Labyrinth seemed to heave a simultaneous sigh of relief at the sudden absence of the growing energies. Quietly those who were still up went back to their homes and slipped into their beds. The whole kingdom was silent as its inhabitants slept the sleep of the dead. If anyone had still been awake as the strange moon slipped past the western horizon they would have seen the faint, silver streak of light shoot out from the setting orb and arch over the sky as it flew over and past the Labyrinth fading as it softly made contact on the earth, well outside the Labyrinth's boundaries.

Everyone in the kingdom slept soundly in a well-deserved, restful slumber. For now they could sleep untroubled. The next day when they awoke they would feel revitalized, almost as if one was coming out of a distant dream. They would need that peaceful rest, for what the moon had delivered from afar into the Underground would soon stir up a whole new type of trouble.

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