"Sarah! You have to wake up, Sarah." The dark-haired girl batted slowly open her eyes. Her head felt like it weighed 10 pounds as she attempted to lift herself up from the ground, on to her elbows. She looked around and saw nothing but darkness at first. In time, her eyes began to adjust and she saw that there was nothing to really look at.
Nothing, that was, save for one tall, thin, wild-haired blonde Fae squatted on the ground beside her.
In an instant, Sarah was up and standing in the defensive, hands in front of her, as if she could protect herself from his magic. A dream. It must have all been a dream. I'm still trapped in the Underground. He was just playing with me. I must have lost, he defeated me and this is my punishment. He'll toy with my emotions and let me think all of these crazy things oh why is this- She stopped, realizing her mind was running away, down a crazed path that she had no interest in following. Instead, she straightened herself up, brushed her hands down her sleeves and cleared her throat, saying, "What the hell is going on here?" Well done, Sarah, dignified as ever.
Jareth looked at her, arms crossed against his chest and shook his head, laughing, "Oh, Sarah, what must you be thinking right now?" The owl that was now a man, walked towards her, reaching his hand out to grasp Sarah by the chin, "We're in quite a mess dear, but I've found a way to speak to you momentarily. They'll be rousing you soon, and the connection is hard for me to keep, but I have to tell you something. Something quite important."
His eyes were all serious, now, gazing into her own. Sarah held her breath, waiting for what it was he going to proclaim when the world began to shake around them. Suddenly reality began to shift in and out of focus in a haze of what she could only describe as decay. One moment Jareth was there in front of her, the next she was seeing Hoggle and the King. As each passing second moved into the next, she could focus less on Jareth and more and more on her dwarf friend.
He was trying to speak to her, but his voice was drowned out by the chaos surrounding him. She saw sadness in his eyes then.
And with a final shake, Jareth was gone.
After Sarah hit the ground, Hoggle wanted to run to her and help, but before he could get to her side, the Owl, who had only moments before been perched so merrily on her shoulder, was next to her, his wings enveloping her head, his head rested against her ear.
Hoggle felt his blood beginning to boil and his thought-process growing hazy and red. I'm going to kill that owl, he found himself thinking. The thought scared him, just a bit. Hoggle was, generally, a very mild-mannered dwarf, but everything in the last day had begun to take its own toll on him as well.
He began advancing towards the bird, hands in front of him, held in claws. Yes, he was going to throttle the bird, alright. It was all he could see in his mind, his hands wrung around that tiny neck.
It was the King of the Underground who stopped him. With a reach of his arm, a glittering replica sprung forward to grab Hoggle by the back of his shirt and pull him back to the King's side. "Now, now, little dwarf. Let's see what happens, first." The laughter was back in his eyes again, as he looked down at the strange sight of owl and girl. "Yes, I'm quite interested to see what will happen."
They didn't wait long. A glow began to envelope the two, its color bright and growing. It reflected in Hoggle's eyes as he struggled against the glittery hand, holding him in place. So soon? Had he found a way to break the spell this quickly? Again, the rage grew, he had to find a way to stop this. A way to keep them apart.
Without warning, Hoggle flipped around, pushing against the glittery hand and showering a wave of the sparkly substance into the eyes of the King. He allowed a momentary thought to pause him in his actions as he realized that he might be executed for that action. It provided him enough time to get away from the grasp of the King's specter, though, and he moved with all haste to Sarah's side. He couldn't separate the Owl from the Girl, so instead, he began to shake Sarah, gently at first, but with more energy as the light began to form a bubble around the two. "Sarah, wake up! Wake up, Sarah!"
Her eyes began to flutter open, back inside of reality and suddenly the bubble popped. Sarah was awake and aware of the two, King and Dwarf, looking down at her. Jareth had collapsed to the ground beside Sarah. His eyes closed and his chest was rising and falling heavily.
"What...what just happened?"
The King observed the mess of creatures below him and took a deep breath. Things were proving to be far more interesting than he ever could have imagined. But, looking at the dwarf, nestling Sarah's head on his lap and stroking her hair, the girl, wide-eyed and afraid, and the owl, still unconscious, he realized that there was some strange triangle going on. As much as his heart wanted to smile at the insanity of it all, his mind warned him once again that this would not do. Jareth should've been left above. This mistake had once been made before. The Labyrinth, the Goblin City...the Underground itself, had barely survived it.
No, leaving them all together would not do.
The king walked forward, scooping the owl up into his arms. "I think this one will need some looking after. Sarah, would you mind taking him back to your room for now? There will be a feast held in your honor later this evening. For now, I need to speak personally with Hoggle about preparations. I assume that you will be keeping Hoggle on as your second-in-command?"
Sarah was in a bit of a daze, but she nodded once more in the affirmative. She needed all the friends she could get now. Keeping Hoggle close by would only make the transition easier. Right? She pushed herself up and away from Hoggle, and walked towards the King. He gently transitioned the owl into her arms and she just stood there, confused about were to go next.
"Very good. Please, follow the goblin. He'll show you to your room. It wouldn't do for you to get lost." The King gestured behind her.
Sarah turned, startled by the site of the goblin standing behind her. She was quite sure no one had been there before. But sure enough, now there was a little goblin, covered from head to toe in what appeared to be chicken feathers. Under his little, feathery helm, Sarah saw a long, flat pink nose poking out at her. "Right this way. Follow Grub." Sarah was little surprised at the stuffy sound his voice had, if her nose was that big, she'd probably be having allergy problems of her own. She chuckled at the thought of what Grub sneezing might be like, and followed the goblin out of the banquet hall. A rest was just what she needed.
With the three of them gone, the King turned to Hoggle. He carried himself with all the weight a monarch would be expected, and he shadowed over the dwarf, who was now shaking in his boots at the thought of what must now be coming for him. How could he have allowed himself to strike the king, even if it had only been with glitter?
"You and I, I think, need to have a little heart-to-heart, my short-statured friend." And with a kindness that did not reach his cold eyes, the Goblin king rested an arm around Hoggle's shoulders. "Believe it or not, we both want the same thing here. I think you'll be the useful little ally, don't you?" He grinned, the maliciousness back now that Sarah was gone. The King of the Underground was many things, to many people. To Sarah, he would be a friend. To the dwarf, he knew that intimidation would prove a useful tool. "I'll not soon be forgetting the act of treason you committed here today, but I think the two of us can come to some kind of...arrangement." He smiled again, and this time, Hoggle swallowed a gulp of fear. What had he gotten himself into?
Sarah could not have been more amazed by the room she found herself in. In its center was one of the largest beds she had ever seen. She was unsure whether she'd be able to climb into it easily, without use of a step-stool. The room was covered in light green fabrics everywhere, including the bed and windows. The furniture was a beautiful, light mahogany. She spotted several wardrobes and a vanity of silver in a corner. Across the other side of the room was a bookcase larger than any she had seen in such a space. Her focus, however, rested on the item beside it. There she found a quaint little writing desk, styled like the ones she had seen in pictures from the 50s and 60s. Her grandmother had possessed a similar desk and Sarah had a fleeitng memory of playing Grocery Store there with one of her cousins. Sarah would be the cashier and use the old style fountain pen to ring up the purchases her cousins would make from her grandmother's various knick knacks.
The sudden pang of loss at the memory shook Sarah and she pushed it away as quickly as possible.
There were doors leading off in several directions, she assumed to a restroom and closets, but at the moment, her desire to investigate was placed on hold in favor of her concern over Jareth. He was still out. As an owl, she assumed he would take on many of the functions and features of the normal animal, and so, she did not suspect it was normal for an owl to stay sleeping while being carried about a castle, never mind after taking the tumble the two of them had in the hallway.
Grub had been a swift little leader, and he took her around corners so quickly, Sarah barely had time to register which direction they were heading at any given time. She was quite certain if she ever had to navigate these hallways on her own, she would be lost for centuries. But Grub, he seemed to have no problem, skipping down staircases, running across bridges (the expanses below which made Sarah's head spin. Just how big was this castle anyways?) and taking the stairs back up two at a time. It was during one of these staircase hops that Sarah had finally lost her balance. Just as she was about to crest the top of the staircase, one very tired leg slipped behind the other and the next thing she knew, she was flying through emptiness.
What an embarrassing end to the story this will be, she had time to think, before she felt herself being cradled in some sort of soft mass. Her momentum had been too great to stop the fall completely, but it was certainly not the disaster it could have been. As it was, she had the wind knocked out of her and the owl fell from her arms across the stone corridor. Yelping with fright, Grub came running back down the stairs to see what had befallen her. "Queenie! What happened?"
"I'm...really not sure. One moment, I was falling, the next, something slowed me down." She was able to prop herself up enough to try to regain her breath. This was proving to be far more excitement for one day than she ever expected and it wasn't even near over yet. To her surprise, the Goblin laughed at her confusion.
"That's the castle! It recognizes Queenie! Keeps you safe." He smiled, and then took off at his usual break-neck pace. Sarah scooped Jareth back up in her arms and began the chase behind the Goblin once more.
So, the castle has a bit of a mind of its own, does it? she thought to herself as she lay on the bed. As she allowed herself to become lost in thought, she absent-mindedly began stroking the feathers of the owl. Oh Jareth, she thought, what's happened to you? It must have been whatever magic he had been able to perform when he entered her unconscious mind. He had been on the brink of sharing with her the information necessary to save them both. Instead, he had clearly exhausted himself to a point of his own unconsciousness and now he had left Sarah here alone.
Ah well, she thought, as her eyes began to slip closed, at least I have Hoggle. He'll keep me safe.
"All I need'jer ta do is go inta Sarah's room during tha feast. There'll be a little owl there. Take tha owl back to your house and keep 'im there. Is that so hard?"
"Ludo...steal?"
"No, Ludo, you big ape! Yer not stealin' just borrowin'. Sarah don't need ter be distracted right now. We're helping Sarah."
"Help Sarah! Help Sarah!"
"That's right. Help Sarah." Hoggle smiled, but inside he was all serious. Help Sarah to forget, and help me to get rid of the Goblin King.
A/N: I pulled a disappearing act, didn't I? Sorry about that. I took a summer class, and it proved far more time consuming than I ever expected. Then I changed jobs and my last semester started up, so, between all that, I just didn't have the time I wanted to write. But, I'm back, and I don't want to stop writing this. Let's keep it going, shall we?
