7
Between Two Worlds
Disclaimer: I really own nothing at all…well that's not totally true I mean I own my computer, and my clothes but as for the characters of Labyrinth well I don't own any of them. I'm sad.
Chapter 7Sarah's Dream
Sarah rolled out of the snow bank as quickly as she could. She turned and found that the door she had passed through was gone. Brushing herself off, she looked around. The stone walls were covered with a fine layer of crisp white snow. Sarah followed the path before her until it branched off into five directions.
"Well, I can see that this won't give people much trouble. If you get lost you can just retrace your footsteps." She turned around and looked at the trail behind her. However contrary to what she had believed she would see, she found her footprints were gone. She looked at her feet and stepped back. The in print from her foot (A/N Sarah was in bed so no shoes, she is running in her PJs and bare feet) was visible for only a second before it vanished.
"I really have to quit saying that sort of thing in here," she muttered. She picked a path and followed it until she was at another fork in the road. Standing in the center of the fork was an ice sculpture. The sculpture was of a goblin knight crowned in flowers. He was quite majestic as far as goblins were concerned; he stood a full five feet and his armor and was wonderfully sculpted.
"You took a wrong turn back there, human."
Sarah jumped at the voice. It had come from the ice sculpture. The sculpted head was looking right at her, and it was kind of unnerving to have a translucent figure look right through you.
"What?" asked Sarah.
"I said you took a wrong turn back there, you should have taken the far left path." He said with a hoity air.
"How would you know? You're just a statue and a false alarm too, I bet!"
"Just a statue? I'll have you know I am an ice sculpture of one of the greatest goblins who ever lived!"
"Oh yeah? Who?"
"Nive, the greatest fashion designer ever to grace this Labyrinth," he said this with great pride and conviction.
Sarah just rolled her eyes. "Look, Nive. I want to get out of this nightmare. So, is that the right way?"
Nive looked in the direction she pointed in.
"No, it is not. You would be better off going that way." He pointed in the direction Sarah had just come from. Sarah ignored him and walked in the direction that she had pointed to.
"You know, Nive, for a false alarm, you're not very convincing." Sarah said over her shoulder. Nive shot back some scolding remark but Sarah didn't hear it.
Sarah met up with other less interesting false alarms; however the last was the most intriguing. She had walked into an open clearing which was a perfect circle. There were two exits, the way in through which Sarah had just come and a little wooden gate on the far side. There was only one object in the clearing and it was an ice sculpture of Jareth lounging on his throne. Sarah was not the least bit surprised when it sat up and looked at her. She was however surprised when it got up and walked right up to her.
"Hello Sarah. How are you enjoying my new Labyrinth?" asked the ice Jareth.
Sarah cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Are you the real Jareth? Or just another false alarm?"
The ice Jareth grinned at her.
"I will admit to not being the real Jareth, but I have been gifted with all of his personality traits."
"Great," Sarah said flatly. Ice Jareth turned his back on her and started to walk around the clearing. He kept glancing at Sarah as though he knew something she didn't. The fact was he did and Sarah knew it too.
"So, aren't you going to tell me to go back or give up?" Sarah asked testily.
"I could, but I won't lower myself to such an act in your presence. I will be straight forward with you, Sarah." He stopped walking and looked her right in the eyes.
"That is the way to the next area, you know it and I know it. However, I will perform one of my duties and ask that you turn back. It only gets harder from here."
Sarah looked at the ice Jareth's face and for just a moment she could have sworn he looked regretful. A moment later his ice face was back to its former, all knowing grin.
"Thanks for the warning." Sarah said gently.
The ice Jareth adjusted his ice clothing and went back to lounging on his ice throne.
&v v&
Sarah walked to the wooden gate and left the clearing. She had only taken a few steps when she was stopped in her tracks. A snowball hit her right in the face.
"Alright! Ten points guys! Did you see that? Right in the eye!"
Sarah turned and wiped the snow from her eyes she then took cover behind a snow bank.
"Hey! You can't hide there forever." Another snowball hit the top of the bank Sarah was hiding behind.
'Oh man, now what?' she thought. She waited until another snowball hit the bank then stole a peek over the top. She ducked back down again immediately as borage of snowballs pelted the bank.
'Snowmen!' She could not believe it. 'No, those were not men. They are Snowgoblins, and there are three of them.'
They were indeed Snowgoblins. They had the two large snowballs for bodies but the faces were made of various materials. They had snouts, horns and one even had a helmet. There was no mistaking those things for men. Sarah reacted as most people would when they are under attack by snowballs. She threw one back. The only problem was that she didn't aim and missed hitting the Snowgoblins.
"Hey, you throw like a girl!" one of them shouted at her.
"She is a girl! Dummy!"
"Really? I can never tell. Humans look all the same to me."
The Snowgoblins started discussing the difference between human boys and girls. They were so engrossed in the conversation that Sarah was able to finally get a good look at them.
It seemed that the Snowgoblins could move their heads and pivot 360º, but their snow bodies were stationary. Sarah also took note of their arms. They were just sticks but there was a goblin hand at the end of each. From the look of them they were not lodged into the snow bodies very well. Sarah took a few handfuls of snow and fashioned some snowballs. She took aim and chucked the snowballs at the first Snowgoblin. Off went both of its arms.
"AHHHHH!" screamed the now armless Snowgoblin. The two other Snowgoblins stopped talking and sent a barrage of snowballs at Sarah. She received a few blows and was once more taking shelter behind the snow bank.
'This is so stupid! The snow is not even cold! Why am I running from these things?' Somewhere inside Sarah's brain this clicked. She stood up and was hit by more snowballs. It didn't hurt and she did not get wet. She brushed the snow off her nightshirt and walked right up to the three Snowgoblins. There was anger burning in her eyes.
'I hate these pointless diversions!' she thought.
"Hey, you guys can cut it out now." Sarah ordered. The Snowgoblins looked at each other in confusion.
"Is she allowed to order us around like that?" asked one.
"I'm not sure."
"Hey! She is staring at me and it is really freaking me out!" while they talked Sarah took the opportunity to remove the last two pairs of arms from the Snowgoblins.
"Hey that's not nice!" one of the Snowgoblins protested. Sarah sneered at them then, just because she felt like it she took off their heads and stacked them on top of each other.
&v.v&
Shortly after leaving the Snowgoblins, the snow and ice stopped. Now rising up before Sarah was a huge mountain. The ground around it sloped into a valley and all around the base was more of the Labyrinth. Unlike the other areas she had just passed through, Sarah saw exactly where she needed to go. Half way up the mountain a staircase started which led to a small opening that looked like a door. From here she could also see the castle at the center of the Labyrinth. It looked farther away than she remembered. Sarah took another look at the mountain, she could not shake the feeling that she had seen it somewhere before. She shrugged it off though; she could not stop now she had come too far. If she wanted out of this nightmare she would have to help the shadow thing become complete, whatever that entailed. She entered the new area of the Labyrinth feeling very confident.
"Those snowmen weren't so hard to deal with," she said.
However this part of the Labyrinth was not so easy, for even though Sarah tried to keep herself oriented towards the door in the mountain, she kept getting off track and having to retrace her foot steps. This was not very useful because much to Sarah's dismay, the walls were moving.
"Urg! I hate that. Why use the same trick?" she shouted at the walls.
"Because it works."
Sarah was not the least bit surprised to see Jareth sitting on top of the wall. Sarah eyed him with suspicion. He found it disconcerting that she would be looking at him in such an odd way and it showed on his face.
"Are you looking for something in particular Sarah? Or are you staring because you just can't help yourself?" Sarah pulled her eyes away from him. The one thing he did not need was a bigger ego.
"Get over yourself," she said.
Jareth pretended to be hurt. "Oh Sarah, you must know that I go to the trouble of looking this good only to please you," he mocked her playfully. He jumped down from the wall and stood before her. Sarah flushed and looked away from him. The image of him half naked flashed through her mind. Jareth saw her reaction to him and grinned.
Sarah coughed and said, "So are you real this time? or are you another false alarm?"
Jareth was puzzled by her question and his face showed it.
"What do you mean Sarah?" he asked.
"You mean you haven't seen your ice sculpture yet? Ha. I figured you would make a beeline right for it."
"Sarah, you cut me to the quick. Is that how you see me? As a vain and proud man?"
"Yes," Sarah replied.
Jareth just grinned at her. "Well it doesn't even matter if you have seen yourself or not because none of this is real. I'm dreaming all of this," Sarah stated. "That would mean that your not really here either."
Jareth's grin split into a smile and he laughed. "Well Sarah, if this is a dream, could I do this?" He reached out and pinched her arm.
"Ouch!" Sarah rubbed the soar spot and half-heartedly jabbed Jareth in the arm with her finger.
"I still think that this is a dream." Sarah protested weakly.
Jareth chuckled. "Fine. Then it's a dream," relented Jareth.
Sarah did not reply right away.
"So," Sarah began after a moment of uncomfortable silence, "what brings you here?" Sarah knew it was lame but she could not think of anything better to say.
"I came to see what my new Labyrinth looked like. It has been keeping me out since my defeat," he said the last few words with a touch of spite. "I was just about to have a midnight snack when I noticed the edge of the dust storm clearing. I then came out to investigate, and whom should I find wondering the brand new paths? You."
"So you don't know what is ahead of me? This is unexplored?"
"That is correct my dear Sarah." Jareth said smiling
"Great." Sarah said unenthusiastically.
"Well," Jareth said as he started walking away from her "I'll be off then."
Sarah was slightly confused
"Wait, that's it? You're leaving? No tricks, magic or warnings?"
"No," he called back. He was almost out of sight.
"Don't you want to stop me from getting to the center?"
"My dear, innocent Sarah. You're not going to the center. You are going as far as you can."
Then he was gone, and Sarah was once again alone.
& O.o &
In dreams, time moves very differently than when one is awake. To Sarah, it seemed as if she had been looking for the base of the mountain for hours. She finally seemed to be making progress when something got in her way. It was a dead end wall. She had just past through an archway and she figured that she was on the right path when a loud growl from behind made her jump. She turned around and found that she was face to face with a Sphinx. It had a man's upper body but the rest of it was a tiger.
"Riddle," he said
"Riddle?" repeated Sarah. She hated riddles.
"If you can answer my riddle, I will let you pass, and if you can't answer or get the answer wrong, I get to eat you," he said with a smile.
"Ok then," said Sarah.
"Oh, but there is more. You have to ask me a riddle. If I can't answer it, then you can go free. However if I do answer it I get to eat you. Does that sound good to you?" the sphinx asked with a toothy smile.
"No, it doesn't!" protested Sarah angrily
"Well it sounds good to me, so let's begin."
"Do I have a choice?" Sarah asked
"Well, I could eat you now," said the sphinx.
"I think I'll take my chances with the riddle," said Sarah.
"Oh well. Suit yourself then. OK, what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the afternoon?" Sarah's jaw dropped. She had been expecting something harder then that.
'Come on. Everyone knows that one,' she thought. She grinned at the sphinx knowingly and said clearly.
"The answer is man."
"Correct!" said the Sphinx cheerfully. Sarah beamed.
"Now it's your turn." Sarah's good mood left her. She had been so concerned with his riddle that she had not thought of one of her own.
"Well?" said the Sphinx impatiently.
"All right, just a minute," she muttered.
'Come on, Sarah, think! You can't use any from the stories because he probably knows them already. Think!' suddenly it felt as though lightning had hit Sarah's brain as a long forgotten math class flashed through her head.
"OK, Sphinx. Oh, do have a name by chance? Or do I just call you Sphinx?"
The Sphinx was taken aback by this question.
"Is that your riddle?" he asked.
"No. I just want to know your name before I ask you my riddle."
"Well, I don't see the point since you are most likely going to be eaten, but very well you may call me Norman." (A/N Sarah is thinking WTF?)
"Uh, okay Norman." Sarah was trying hard not to laugh. "Here is my riddle. What is unusual about the number 2520?"
Norman seemed to go into a state of deep thought. His eyes crossed and his tail twitched very rapidly.
"I um…Well it's because the um…numbers... Oh darn it. How did you know I was bad with numbers?" Norman started to pout. He crossed his arms over his chest and stalked away.
Sarah was more then a little surprised that he had given up so easily and called after him.
"Hey! Don't you want to know the answer?"
"No," yelled Norman. "I am supposed to know all the answers."
He sulked away leaving Sarah in the dead end.
"Well can you at least tell me how to get to the door up there?" she yelled.
"You're on the path already. Just leave me alone now OK!"
"What?"
Sarah turned around and found that she was no longer in the dead end but at the base of the mountain stair.
& - .- &
Behind the Scenes of Between Two Worlds
When we last left xXDFXx she was unaware of the two approaching Labyrinth stars. Luckily she had a trap set just in case they ever discovered where she was hiding. She called this trap "OUT TAKES" hehehehe
Sarah: Hey what is this huge screen doing here?
Jareth: How the bloody hell should I know that?
Suddenly, the lights go out, and a projector pops out of the ceiling.
From chapter 1
Outside of Sarah William's bedroom window sitting in the branch of a tree was the Goblin King Jareth. He had watched the victory party with little interest, as he knew that Sarah's newfound happiness would not last. He had averted his eyes while she changed into her nightclothes. As he averted his eyes, Jareth lost his balance and fell out of the tree. His safety wire is keeping him from falling into the camera crew below.
"Oh F&," he says. Sarah pops her head out the window and starts to laugh.
After this little clip Sarah bursts out laughing
Jareth: Oh shut up. It wasn't that funny. That harness gave me the worst wedgie I have ever had.
Sarah laughed even harder.
From Chapter 2
Jareth is standing on the ramparts with the crew all around him.
"OK ready. Earthquake in three, two, …"
The camera shakes and Jareth missed his cue, he starts to hop up and down and grabs the boom mike.
Sarah is climbing up on the counter to look into the cupboard but falls backwards out of the shot. One of the goblins sticks his head out and asks if she is all right.
Authors Notes
Well I feel that this story is almost over -sad- but fear not for it shall be continued in the next story I write. That will be a romance XD I can't wait.
Nive: the name and description of this goblin were taken from and belong to Brain Froud's "The Goblins of the Labyrinth" on page 96 and the Jim Henson company. I did not make him up.
And for those of you who did not get the riddle the answer is:
2520 is the lowest number that the digests 1 –10 will divide evenly into.