Chapter 4

Together they explored the areas surrounding the castle. "As you can see your victory over the Labyrinth has marked you as a hero among the Goblins. They didn't think anyone would ever win. Many goblins are going to be excited to see you here again," Jareth was telling her. 'That's the way it should be though,' he thought to himself smiling at the thought.

Sarah was observing everything with a new found interest in the land that had been the focus of her fantasies and dreams for about nine years. She kept stealing small glances at Jareth out of the corner of her eye. She knew he was doing the same towards her.

All of the sudden she saw a goblin stumble into the street and fall. Quickly Sarah went to help the little one. As soon as she helped him up he looked at her shocked.

"Why did you…" the goblin stopped as soon as he realized who he was talking too. "Oh my, you is Sarah the champion isn't you?" The little goblin almost fell down again. Jareth was watching intently as Sarah took her new found fame with such good grace.

As soon as she finished helping the little one, they continued on their way.

"You are a natural with the subjects. You should come here more often," Jareth observed with a look of admiration almost. Sarah would be baffled if she had seen it. Sadly she was lost in other thoughts. Jareth noticed this when she nodded her head instead of replying. Jareth started going on about different subjects and she just kept nodding her head until finally he told her "if you don't start giving me normal answers I'm going to take your brother away and turn him into a goblin," Sarah just nodded her head.

"Yeah sure do whatever you want… Wait what?!?" Sarah looked at him shocked, only to find that he was laughing.

"I was just trying to see if you were listening," Sarah thought of how stupid she was for not listening. She actually started laughing along.

Pretty soon they were in a new area and Sarah was looking around. She had never seen anything like it before it was beautiful.

They were in a forest like place that was more of an orchard than anything.

"This is where we grow our fruits." Jareth told her as she was looking around. She enjoyed looking at all the different varieties of fruits that were there. There were also different trees and plants that she had never seen before and she knew they must be exclusive to the underground.

"Our next stop is the vegetable and rose gardens." Jareth dragged her out of the orchard.

"Alright," Sarah looked at him, she didn't want to leave, there were so many trees for her to look at. Then, when she saw the vegetables her jaw dropped. There were huge pumpkins. The tomatoes were the size of her head. She felt like a small ant when she stood besides some of the vegetable.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed at the sight of the monster vegetables.

"They are quite impressive aren't they?" Jareth asked.

"That would feed my family ten times over," the shock wouldn't leave her face. Somehow she was tired of being shocked.

"Really? It takes about two goblins to eat through one of the pumpkins. The goblins eat more than can be supplied," Jareth sighed 'it must be nice to live aboveground,' he thought and he continued walking. This time he was taking her into the third and final garden which he knew she was going to love.

When Sarah saw the transformation from vegetables to flowers she started to have tears well up in her eyes. This garden had every type of flower known to man.

"This garden was planted just recently by the goblins and Hoggle. They planted it in your honor for defeating me at my own game. They even planted a new breed of flower that they got from your home when they went there on the night you had that party. They call it sweet Williams." Jareth cringed remembering that night. He felt bad for almost making her lose to him. It wasn't the baby that he had wanted after all, it was the girl trying to save the babe.

Sarah remembered that night, it was the first time that she ever had to clean her room otherwise Karen would have flipped out. Jareth looked at her then

"I was there that night, you know." He led her to the small bench that sat by a magnificent fountain that was in the shape of a beautiful centaur. Sarah looked at him cautiously.

"You were invited to come in. I was actually hoping you would come," she admitted as a blush crept up in her cheeks. She didn't know why she cared about him. He was the bad guy, he was the one that took her baby brother away.

"I know, but you were having such a good time. I did not want to spoil your fun. Especially since I got to see you smile for the first time ever that night. I do not think I have ever seen you smile since though," he looked at her carefully, "that was until you came back here." Jareth glanced over at her.

"I didn't have much to smile about. I kept having terrible nightmares about oubliettes and Fierys. Also I kept seeing Phony-warnings yelling at me. You don't realize how terrifying it was to be here without anyone to help me. Why don't you get chased by the cleaners and see if you smile after that." Sarah kept babbling on about it. Somehow she didn't know why but she actually started to laugh hysterically.

"Sarah!" Jareth called to her trying to get her to listen to him. He couldn't get her attention. Finally she stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry, I am still a little messed up, and I really think we should change the subject." Sarah looked away embarrassed. Heat from the blood rushing to her cheeks flooded her body.

"Sarah it's alright to talk about this sort of thing with me. I know how you feel. I had to face the Labyrinth when I was young as well." Jareth took her hand and rubbed it soothingly.

"Really? How?" she was really curious now. She didn't know that Jareth had to run the Labyrinth.

"I was a human once. It was a memory that I tried to block out. Actually I looked at it a lot when you were in the Labyrinth. My birth father had met the king of the goblins playing poker and he lost all of his money. When he tried to win back all of his earnings he bet my life. When he looked at his hand he knew he was going to win, he had four queens and he was confident that he was going to win but the king had a better hand, four kings," Jareth shook his head at the memory. "I guess that the king thought I was special because he took me and left all of the money behind. The king raised me. I trained with him until I was twenty-two and then I challenged his Labyrinth to become the king. I finished it in Twelve hours which set a record in the kingdom. When the king took me to the Lady of the Labyrinth I was terrified. She gave me my immortality and my powers. I have been king for over two hundred years," Jareth looked at Sarah to see her reaction. The shock on her face was priceless.

"Two hundred years? You were born around the time of the revolutionary war?" Sarah couldn't fathom that information.

"Yes, in fact my father was a British officer," Jareth watched all of the emotions play across her face. Finally he decided it was time to go. "Come on I think its time to go to the dining room and eat."

They left the garden without another word. Sarah was lost in thought and didn't notice anything until she stepped back into the castle.