My darlings! After playing a long exhausting game of hide-and-seek, I found my muse ;D A big thanks to all of you who have followed, favorited, and reviewed! I wish you all the very best this Christmas season and would like to gift you all large baskets of delicious chocolaty brownies! Now on to the chapter!

Chapter 7:Skub

Sarah yawned and stretched languidly. Both eyes shut, she blindly turned onto her right side in anticipation of the blaring alarm that woke her every morning signaling her return to unending paperwork at the station. Reaching her left hand so that it was poised over where she guessed the snooze button was, she calmly waited. And waited. And waited…

"What the heck..!" In frustration Sarah tiredly slammed her hand back onto the bed and pushed herself up to get a better look at the time. She was going to be so pissed if her internal clock had stopped working and she had woken hours before schedule. Blearily she rubbed her eyes as they adjusted to the darkness. Where were the illuminating numbers from her digital clock?

SLAM!

A large door crashed open a little ways from the edge of the bed, blinding Sarah with the golden light from the hallway. She winced, squeezing her eyes shut before it felt like her retinas were about to burn. Small feet could be heard making soft plushy noises as they ran across the carpet and onto her bed. The bed that was about five times too big for her bedroom. Sarah groaned, before flopping backwards onto the king-sized pillows. Everything came rushing back to her: Crappy birthday-creepy thing-fire-wishing-sparkles-Handsome/annoying red head-goblins-bath time-sleep-pillow tossing-Jareth-Jareth's pants-kissing...lots of kissing...damn.

Damn. How on Earth could she have been so stupid! Heroines do not go around willy-nilly kissing the bad guys!

'Oh, but Sarah you liked it.' Her traitorous inner voice whispered to her.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up." Sarah murmured aloud in frustration.

"Why is Lady Sarah telling us to shut up, Tog?" A squeaky feminine voice said timidly.

"I don't know," Tog spoke indifferently, "Maybe it's something that old ladies do."

Sarah's voice rose from the pillowy depths with a dangerous snarl. "So help me Tog, if you call me an old lady one more time...I swear that I will personally have you turned into a brass door knocker.

"Whatever old lady."

Sarah chucked a pillow towards the sound of his voice, and was granted a satisfying "Oof!" on contact. Fits of giggles erupted from the female goblin.

"Skub likes Lady Sarah! She knocked Tog off the bed!" Another burst of high squeaky giggles and suddenly Sarah's arm was being hugged in a thick goblin embrace.

"Whoa there...Skub? I can't see a thing, would one of you mind flipping the switch?" Sarah inquired hesitantly.

A disgruntled "Humph" emanated from the floor followed by various mumbled goblin curses, and not long after, she heard two successive claps. All at once, floating candles flared up from various places around the room, basking them all in a soft and quiet glow.

Sarah could laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Clapper Candles...wow. Clappers were so ten years ago. She almost wanted to search for the tell-tale logo on the hovering candelabras that said the words, "Clap on-Clap off." However, amidst her amused ponderings, an insistent tugging on her arm turned her attention to what could only be Skub. About as tall as her forearm, the female goblin was rather plump, which made Sarah imagine her taking and tasting one too many sweets from the castle's kitchen. But she was adorable...in her own goblin way, and besides, this was the first female goblin that Sarah had met, so that automatically put her immediately on par with Ambrosius, Sir Didymus' noble steed.

Thinking of her cute foxy friend, Sarah had the immediate desire to go see the ones she had left behind all those years ago. "Skub? Tog?" Sarah asked, "Do you know where I could find Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus?"

Tog climbed up onto the bed and tried to act as dignified as he possibly could after the impromptu (but, in Sarah's opinion, deserved) pillow attack. "His Majesty told us to take you to the musical chicken room, you can go see your friends late-Oof!"

In a show of goblin courage, Skub hurled a fringed pillow at Tog knocking him straight over the edge again. "Hush Tog! Let pretty lady see her friends!" she huffed. "You'll find them in the stables Lady Sarah, and if you want I can show you the way! But we have to hurry!" She looked up eagerly at Sarah.

A grin blossomed across Sarah's face as she flung aside the thick, silky coverlet, and hopped onto the plush carpet that tickled her feet. Realizing with a start that she was in no way dressed to go running about barefoot in a stone castle, Sarah rushed over to the wardrobe and moved aside all of the lavish gowns, desperately examining the contents for a good ol' pair of Jeans. Finally, in the furthermost left hand corner, Sarah felt what she was searching for. Blessed denim. 'Oh thank goodness,' Sarah sighed in relief. Shrugging the Levi's on, Sarah grabbed a flowing white poet's blouse out of the wardrobe as well. Slipping that over her head, she vaguely noted that the shirt was about one size too small for her chest, but now was not the time to worry about current wardrobe malfunctions. Skub was already half-way out the door and quickly pit-pattering down the hallway. If Sarah wasted anymore time, she was going to lose track of the small goblin, and the thought of having to navigate the Escher room by herself was enough to make her balk. Attempting to tug on what looked like very comfortable running boots while simultaneously hopping towards the door, Sarah almost tripped over her own two feet. Catching herself, she dashed through the large door and into the tan stone corridor.

"Skub! Wait for me!" Her voice was heard as a disappearing echo as she raced after the chubby little goblin.

Tog meanwhile, dazedly picked himself up off of the carpet and looked mournfully at the door. "I really don't want to be a door knocker."

I know that this was short, but Please PLEASE review and let me know what you think! I'm so happy to be back writing and I would really appreciate your feedback! (There may even be a packet of brownie mix in it for you if you do… wink wink)