Chapter 4: The Martian, the Lion, and the... feet?
Sarah screamed into the pitch blackness as she fell onto something hard. She felt herself being lifted up by something she could not see. After a bit, her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, and she could make out the shape of hundreds of feet kicking at her. They seemed to be moving her around by using the strength of thier rnumbers, as each leg was stationary. She felt like she was crowd surfing! But whoever heard of crowd surfing on feet? This was ridiculous!
"Which way do you want to go?" The stinky feet asked her. Apparently they could talk by wiggling their toes... Weird...
"Um... What are my choices? I want to go to the castle, but..."
"That is not an option!" A different voice told her harshly.
"Ease up! It's a big decision for her!"
"Alright, well do you want to go left or right?"
"Um, who's left or right would that be? And how can you tell?" She was so confused by this place. Was she going to die? Were all these feet going to trample her to death? Sarah didn't know. But she did know she was sure to have bruises from this later. She was being kicked around like a human soccerball!
"Make up your mind, girl!" Someone shouted. "Which way?"
"I guess I'll go that way!" She closed her eyes and pointed in a random direction, hoping it was the right one.
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!" The room was filled with laughter. They were laughing at her! Sarah did not have such a good feeling about this anymore.
"Why are you laughing? Was that the wrong choice?!"
"Too late now!"
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As she was tossed into yet another dark room, Jareth was also laughing at her. He could see everything in his crystal orb quite clearly.
"Where is she?" One of his Goblins asked.
He looked skeptically at them as they all surrounded him. Why did they all seem to have such an interest in this girl? "Be quiet!!! She's in the oubliette..."
The room erupted in joyous laughter as they all made fun of poor Sarah.
"Shut up! She should have given up by now..." His mischievious mismatched eyes stared into the crystal in his hand.
"She'll never give up!"
The Goblin King suddenly looked very lost. "Won't she?"
There were various murmurs and whispers throughout the throne room. Even Toby looked as if he were watching Sarah's image in the crystal held by Jareth.
"But she will!" The King declared. "The Martian's about to lead her back to the beginning. She'll soon give up when she realizes she has to start all over again!" A smile cracked onto his streamline features, but he got no response out of his minions. With a roll of his eyes, he remembered how incredibly stupid they all were. "Well, laugh!"
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She couldn't be sure, but Sarah thought she heard the sound of laughter directed at her. Standing up to brush all the dirt and dust off her, the frightened young girl stood. She looked up at the metal door that had closed above her as she had been kicked in the dark room. She thought she could just barely make out the shapes of shackles and chains on the walls around her. What was to become of her? She didn't even know where she was! Upon hearing firm footsteps near her, she spun quickly around.
"Who's there?" She called out.
"Me," Came a gruff voice followed by laughter. She recognized that voice from somewhere else before... "Sarah, relax! It's me, Hoggle!"
"What do you want? Where am I?"
"You're in an oubliette. The catacombs are full of them!" He lit something that resembled a type of round glowstick which allowed Sarah to look around.
"Are you sure about that? How would you know, Hoggle?"
"Oh don't sound so smart! You don't even know what an oubliette is!"
"Well..." She thought for a moment. "Do you?"
"Yes. It's a place you put people... to forget about 'em!"
For a moment, as the words registered in Sarah's mind, she felt insulted at what that meant. It hurt her to know that she was so easily forgotten by the Goblin King. But she barely even knew the man! Well, if that's even what he was... The hurt only shown in her eyes for a brief moment, and then it was gone.
"If you know so much about it then you must know a way out!" Sarah's eyes lit up at this notion.
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, you had to get in here somehow. So tell me, Hoggle, how do I get out of here?"
The stout little Martian appeared to think this over. "And why do y' think I'd help you? The King expressly ordered me not to!"
"If you help me, I'll give you this," Sarah removed her wrist-band computer and held it out for him to inspect. "It's the latest technology, and you won't find anything like it here. But you can only have it if you show me how to get the castle."
"Well, I'll take you as far as I can, but as for me I'm not going anywhere near that place!"
"Fine, it's a deal!"
When she handed over her wrist-band, Hoggle used it to open up a warp-hole which lead back to the catacombs directly above them. He explained that being a Martian had it's advantages, in that he knew exactly how to use most kinds of computers. He had been a hacker back on his home planet of Mars, he told her.
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They'd been walking for a while, when out of nowhere there came a sound that seemed to terrify the Martian to his very core. The pair had been talking of friendship, and they had just vowed to help each other through this ordeal. But as soon as the mighty roar was heard, Hoggle took off running in the other direction, leaving Sarah to her own devices.
"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Well, goodbye!" He said.
"Wait, Hoggle! Where are you going?! I thought we were friends!"
"Nope," He was still backing into the shadows of the catacombs. "Hoggle ain't no one's friend... Hoggle is Hoggle's friend!" And with that, he was gone, leaving her completely alone.
"Fine, then go!" Sarah's annoyance was clear by this point. She turned the corner where the noise was coming from. "Well, I'm not afraid."
When she entered a small dim gap in the underground maze, Sarah saw a fierce lion, with enormous claws. Yet the cries were not out of anger, she realized, but out of pain. The lion was all alone, and had a big thorn stuck in his paw. His golden fur shimmered in what little light there was. The girl approached him, his demeanor told her not to be afraid.
"Aw, you poor thing!" She placed a hand on his forearm and tried to get him to show her his paw, but the beast wouldn't. "What happened to you?"
"Goblins..." Came a deep and child-like voice as he jerked his paw away from her.
"What did they do to you?"
"Goblins stab Ludo."
"Is that your name? Ludo?" She knelt down beside him cautiously.
When the lion nodded, still guarding his wound she continued.
"Well I'm Sarah, and I won't hurt you. Give me your paw and I'll help you. Don't you want to be free? I can make it stop hurting."
He reluctantly offered up the injury for her inspection. Ludo seemed to trust the girl. He winced when she pulled out the large thorn, but to Sarah's continued amazment he did not try to attack her. The enormous lion licked his paw clean, and smiled his thanks to her.
"You seem like such a nice beast... Hey, since you can talk maybe you can help me?"
He nodded enthusiastically as a sign that he would help her. But when she asked if he knew the way to the castle at the cetner of the catacombs, he had first looked hopeful, but then said no. He had never been far from his home, and was a stranger to these lands. Of course he lacked the capacity to put that into words.
"Well, then we'll just go this way... Come on."
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Author's Note: Well, how did you like this chapter? I thought it was okay, I think my favorite so far is chapter 2. That was so inventive... I have never took much of a liking to Ludo as a character, though I do admire his loyalty and helpfulness to Sarah. I thought the part of a lion would perhaps be more fitting for him. Plus, I like it better. Lol. You will see that quite a bit of this has changed, but Sir Didymus might still be the same unless I can come up with a good idea for him. Not everything is THAT different, after all. As I've said before, ideas are VERY welcome for this story!
As if this isn't ridiculous enough I've already got an idea for a 3rd story I am doing for Labyrinth! But I promise not to start it until this one is completely done. Then after that story I will do a sequel to this one. Lol. And don't worry, I am still working on Dare To Dream but it is much slower lately, b/c I have been busy with this one, and also other things as well. Oh and for those of you who read GraceRichie's story New Crystals, Old Dreams (which is an AWESOME story buy the way and I highly reccamend it) I won her short-story writing contest thingy. Yep. That was fun to write an dit kepy me busy for a while. This fanfic should be no longer than 12 stories at MOST I promise. And by the way, for other stories that I highly reccamend reading (they really are good) check out my profile. You know what? Look at my profile anyway. I am always posting updates on there, so yeah. It'll be fun! Trust me... And don't defy me! (::throws snake at you::) I want reviews, I mean it!!!
-Kaline Reine