Chapter 3

Sarah was awake long before she opened her eyes. She lay there in the darkness of her own eyelids for several moments reflecting on her dreams. They had been nightmares really. In one she was trapped inside a glass bauble, running out of air. Another had featured a bottomless tunnel through which she was falling. She shivered slightly thinking of the walls of the tunnel. They had been nothing but moving hands and arms. They had spoken to her. In the last dream Jareth had sat in a chair by her bed in his castle, watching her sleep. She wasn't sure when she stopped dreaming, but now she was awake.

She knew now that it had been no dream. She and her brother Toby had, by some strange way, traveled to the Goblin Kingdom, where they had met its king, a man called Jareth. Jareth had yelled at her and told her that he couldn't take her home, then he had left them with his servant. Hoggle had taken them to their rooms, where Sarah now understood they would have to stay until she found a way to get them home. The last thing that she remembered was being overcome with tiredness that she could only attribute to shock and sadness, and she had lay down to sleep.

And here I still am, she thought. It wasn't a dream. A tear leaked out of the corner of her eye and she felt it hit the pillow beneath her cheek. "Don't cry Sarah," came Toby's voice from her bedside.

Sarah opened her eyes and saw Toby sitting in a chair beside her bed. The chair hadn't been there when she had fallen asleep, and she shivered again, thinking of the last dream. "Where'd that chair come from, Toby?"

"I found it in the sitting room," Toby told her. "I finished my game and decided to wait until you woke up so we could check out the castle."

"How long did you sit there?"

"Only a couple of hours. Hoggle came by and told me what time it was. Apparently it was late last night when we got here, maybe that's why you were so tired. But it's morning now!"

A couple of hours, huh? Toby always did have tons of patience. Sarah opened her mouth to tell Toby that exploring this place wasn't a good idea, but then decided that they might as well. Apparently they would be here awhile. "Alright, give me a minute to get dressed."

Toby left the room and Sarah approached her magic wardrobe warily. Jeans, she thought, I want jeans. However, when she opened the wardrobe, all she found were the fluffy dresses of the night before.

Pants, she tried again. Shorts, leggings, capris, nothing worked. Each time the wardrobe was full to burst with frilly, lacy dresses. Throwing what little sense of reality she had left to the wind, Sarah began to speak to her wardrobe. It seemed as though she was resigned to wear a ton of fluff, until at last she made some headway. After threatening to wear the nightshirt she now had on, she opened the doors to find a plain white dress.

With no lace, and no frills at all, the dresses only adornments was a silken belt, the same sky blue color as the dress. After checking the material over and over for hidden pearls and sequins, Sarah put it on. The dress hung straight down to the middle of her calves. With the belt tied loosely in the middle, the simple thing showed off her hips and waist, but wasn't too dressy at all. "This will work for now, but I will speak with the people in charge here about pants," Sarah told what she assumed to be a very sulky wardrobe.

First, Sarah and Toby retraced their steps of the night before. People all along the corridors greeted them kindly, sometimes offering help, but Sarah always politely refused it. To Sarah's relief, they never happened upon Jareth. After they reached the Library, Sarah lost Toby. The shelves were huge and high and Sarah gave up. She felt confident that he would be okay here, if not completely happy. That, in itself, was more than she should hope for considering the mess she had gotten them into.

She wandered down the halls alone, speaking a kind greeting when spoken to, and refusing all the help. She didn't enter the rooms until, some time after her stomach had begun to growl, she found a room with the most delicious mixture of smells he had ever smelled seeping out into the stony hallway. Before she knew it she was knocking on the door, asking if there were enough food for her. "Of course, Miss Sarah!" came the reply of the dwarf-like woman in front of her.

Sarah followed her into a set of rooms much like her own, only much smaller, and shabbier. The lady sat her down at a table that was already filled with people. "Toby!" Sarah cried when she saw him, sitting there across the table between Hoggle and an even smaller resident of the castle.

"This is Sir Didymus," Hoggle told her, pointing to the small fox-like creature on the other side of Toby as she took a seat next to him. Didymus smiled a pointy toothed smile and was elbowed in the ribs when he started to speak with his mouth full. Sarah couldn't help but laughing.

"You're enjoying your time here, then?" Hoggle asked her after lunch as they made their way down yet another unexplored corridor.

"I'm okay. I should have never gotten Toby and myself into this mess. But when Toby ran for the door, instead of jumping to stop him, I yelled. Like that would do anything! Truth is I was really curious about what we would find here. I'm glad it's nothing like my dream. Jareth was much scarier there."

"About Jareth," Hoggle said, stopping to turn and talk to her, "Don't judge him on last night. He'd kill me for telling you, but he was really upset that he upset you."

"Oh, I don't think I was really that upset. Just the hopelessness on top of the shock really got to me."

"I told him it was the shock. I'm assuming that you haven't yet talked to him this morning?"

"No, I was going to wait until... later I guess."

"That's fine, he will wait for you I'm sure. But enough about Jareth, just don't judge him yet." Hoggle turned and began walking again, rather swiftly for his short legs. "C'mon. There's something I think you'll like down here."

Sarah followed him for a quarter of an hour or so down a spiral staircase through the castle. After awhile they came out in what appeared to b a dungeon. "Don't worry. We have no need of a dungeon so Jareth's given it to the animals that live in the castle. And Ludo," Hoggle added as an afterthought. The room was quite large and quite empty. Every few yards or so there was a huge pillar running from floor to ceiling. Even as big as the pillars were it made Sarah nervous to think that they were all that was holding the castle up above them, but Hoggle, as if reading her mind, beckoned her on, "It's more than pillars that keep this castle afloat."

"It's magic isn't it?" said Sarah, carefully stepping over the piles of hay on the floor.

"Of course it is!" Hoggle told her. "It's Jareth's you know? Even if all of the denizens of the castle who are able to do magic were to put all of their magic together it wouldn't compare to his. Humans have never really understood magic, Sarah. You all think it's a foreign thing, which only goblins or fairies or elves can do, but that's not true at all. In fact, it's humans where we get all of our magic. Something so powerful and eternal can only be found in something as passionate and ephemeral as a human. Ah, here we go!"

He was pointing across the empty dungeon toward a not so distant corner where three indistinct figures sat huddled around a fireplace, but Sarah was still thinking about something Hoggle had said a moment ago. "Jareth is a human?" she asked.

"Was a human. He isn't anymore. Now he is nothing, but King of the Underground."

"Are we underground then?"

"No not really. That is what the Goblin Kingdom is called. Jareth is our king, but none of the Underground kings have been from here. Why so curious?"

"I don't know really. I just don't know much about this place, and it seems as though it will be awhile until we get home," her face fell even as she said it.

Hoggle patted her kindly on the shoulder. "Speak with Jareth. It might not be that long. Ludo!" Hoggle turned his attention away from her to the creatures they were coming closer and closer to.

"Hog-gul," came a sort of slow and stupid voice from the largest of the creatures in front of her. However before pausing to figure out what it was that was speaking, the voice had spoken again, more urgently this time. "SAR-UH!" it yelled as it lumbered toward her. On closer inspection, the hulking beast seemed to be an overgrown orangutan with horns and the ability to speak broken, childlike English.

Sarah had stopped wondering how the people here knew her name. "Ludo!" she cried as he ran forward to hug her. Thank goodness I can read Hoggle's lips, she thought, because, judging by the way Ludo had reacted at her presence, he might have been thoroughly distraught had she not 'recognized' him.

Several hours later Sarah found herself, once again walking alone down a deserted hallway. Once again, she had eaten dinner at a table crowded with people who knew her that she had never seen before in her life. The proximity of so many people had made her hot, stuffy, and claustrophobic. Now, she almost wished she hadn't refused Hoggle's offer for directions to the balcony, but she supposed if she searched long enough she would find it.

She felt the cold before she saw the doors, and when she rounded the turn, they were insight and unlocked. The balcony seemed to wrap around the outside of the castle's corner that Sarah had just turned inside. She moved the other side of the corner so that people wouldn't see her out here and come to talk, because she wanted to be alone right now.

She looked carefully over the side of the balcony onto a floor of swirling mists. She shivered and hoped that this fog didn't have the mind of its own that the last fog she'd encountered had. It was raining on the balcony. The night air was cold but the rain was warm and the steady drizzle felt good on her skin. She untied the ribbon she'd been using to tie up her hair, letting her hair fall down her back, some ends clinging to her wet elbows.

She took a deep breath and decided to think about what they would do. It was kind of nice here. There was no job to worry about, no money problems. It was a nice sort of vacation. Still she knew they couldn't stay, and she supposed the first step to getting out of here was to talk to Jareth. She remembered what Hoggle had said about not judging Jareth yet, and she trusted Hoggle. Last night's encounter, however, was not the greatest of first impressions.

How was she to find Jareth, anyway? She had purposely walked away from all the signs of life in the castle so she could be alone, but now that she thought about it, it had been a stupid thing to do. It would take her a good 15 minutes to get back to everyone who would help, but she had everything she wanted to say planned in her head now. "Oh, Jareth. Where are you when I need you?" she said under her breath to the mists swirling beneath her.

"I will always be where ever you want me to be, Sarah, but you could just seek me out inside the castle. You'll catch a cold if you stay out here too long." He spoke from behind her as she looked out over the mists. When she didn't speak again he moved to stand beside her. It took all he had not to put his arm around her and stare at her; instead he clasped his hand in front of him, leaned on his elbows, and looked out over the mists with her.

"What's that over there?" she asked reaching across him to point at a patch of lightening.

Jareth shivered at her sleeve brushing his arm. She didn't know it, but she had worn that same dress in the park the day before he first met her. He had been there watching her. "Sarah, you may not yet know it, but my kingdom is in the middle of a war. That is why the castle is so crowded. Usually, it is not nearly so big, nor so full. However, the war has become more intense lately. Enemy troops have invaded the labyrinth in places. The only place safe was the castle. It's taking much more of my strength to hold this place together than it ever has before.

"This is why I've asked you here, Sarah. I need your help. I'm not sure what your place will be, but I know that if I ride into battle without you, I haven't a hope of winning. Somehow, everything will depend on you."

"Did your crystal ball tell you this?" Sarah teased him. She felt much more at ease with Jareth than she had anticipated. Maybe it was because of the height difference, but she felt so apart from everyone there. Jareth was taller than she was, and represented a stronger something to hold onto. She recognized that he had not meant to be so harsh last night. He had been under a lot of stress from what she understood, and stress can make anyone irritated. She might not have cried had the events of last night not been so stressful on her as well.

"As a matter of fact, yes," he told her, conversationally. "Most of the magic that any Goblin King will ever do will be done with crystal balls. Here, watch!" He produced a crystal from somewhere under his billowing black clothes. Rolling it back and forth, he stared at it almost as intently as Sarah did. After a few moments, he threw it up into the air where it hung there like a small sun. The crystal's light was so bright that the rain stopped falling on Sarah, and she could almost feel her skin drying. After a moment, its light died and the crystal was nowhere to be seen.

"So there is sunlight here?" Sarah asked as the rain began to drizzle onto her skin. It was colder now that she had felt the warmth of the sun.

"There used to be. Now the only bit is artificial. Magically produced is still artificial." he answered the question before she asked it. "Sunlight used to be quite common here, but there is a shield around the castle. I dare not lower it for a little bit of sunlight, and transparent shields are harder to produce. Sometimes, this mist is thinner or even absent, and on those days you can see the labyrinth surrounding the castle, however it still looks like night. Sometimes I just don't know what to do. I want to keep my people happy and healthy, but I want to keep them safe, too. They keep asking for my help, and I'm doing my best but I don't even know if I'm making a difference."

Jareth ran his wet fingers through his golden hair, making the spikes stick up even more. For the first time, Sarah realized that the rain wasn't hitting him. His hands were wet only because they had touched the wet balcony. "You have to help Toby and me as well."

"I don't have to."

"I don't have to help you."

"But you will."

"As will you."

"Glad to know we are on the same page, then."

"Yes, now how will I go about getting us home?"

"I could send you," Jareth conceded, holding up a hand to stop Sarah's outburst. "But it will take more power than I have now. I would have to win this war first. Either that or make tremendous headway. Enough to lower the shield."

"Then here are my terms. I agree to help you in whatever way I can, until you have the strength to send us home. If, between now and then, I find some other way home, I am not obligated to stay."

"As long as you promise to help in whatever way you can."

"I do."

Sarah held out her hand and Jareth shook it. Sarah pulled her hand free and gathered her hair in her hands, wringing out a little of the water, before stepping back into the castle.

"Well, Jareth," she declared, "It has been nice meeting you." She wanted Jareth to take this as an end to the conversation; for she felt like she had achieved quite enough for one day and that another nap was in order. However, when Jareth insisted on walking her to her room, Sarah did not refuse him.

"I feel as if I've met you before," she told him sleepily as they reached her door. A mischievous smirk flickered across his handsome features, but he recovered remarkably.

"Until tomorrow, then."

"Yes, tomorrow, Jareth."

"Sarah..." Jareth began, leaning down to kiss her, but the door was already closed. Jareth slumped against the door, smiling stupidly at his progress of the evening. Maybe he should have taken the dwarf's advice against playing hard to get last time.

Sarah made sure Toby was asleep before throwing changing and throwing herself into her box of pillows. "Oh, no," she said aloud. "I forgot to speak with Jareth about my wearing pants." Though it might have been only her imagination, she thought she heard a quiet snicker from the corner in which her wardrobe stood.