Collecting the Important Pieces Pt.2

Ja ne

Kat

OMG. I started this as a test run for my other piece and I've found that I kind of fell in love with it and want to finish this one. Ahhh poor me. Okay so here we go!

For those who want to know WHY those particular materials here we go . . . I did get this confirmed on at least 4 sites. Please let me know if there is a mistake though, but this is what I meant it to mean.

Pyrite- Shields from negative energy, good stone of protection. Enhances intellect and memory. Symbol of the sun.

Silver- Mirror to the soul. Eloquence. Connects physical and astral bodies. Lunar energy. Cleansing, balancing. Also used to fight undead and demons.

Iron- Is for fighting against Fae and other magical beings.

Lapis Lazuli- Knowledge, wisdom, perfection, protection, creative expression.

I thought both the top and bottom ones fit Jareth well.

XOXOXOX

He jerked awake the next morning, his now duel coloured eyes darting around the campsite. To his dismay and growing worry he saw no green-eyed mortal.

"Lady Sarah?" He called out, not wanting to disturb her if she was doing something private in the bushes nearby. No answer met his call. "LADY SARAH!" He resorted to shouting. Had is father stolen his guide? Did the man truly loathe him that much?

"Coming!" He almost missed her answering call as it was some distance off, back in the direction of the stream that they had passed yesterday. He settled in to wait, if she was taking a bath to get cleaned up his older sisters had taught him that it could take awhile.

Some ten minutes later, she and . . . He rubbed the now cursed eye to try and clear the double image it was seeing. To his normal eye, the girl, who was dry he noticed, seemed to be followed by a small kobold, with russet coloured fur. His cursed eye saw only flashes of something bigger and man-shaped in that space. Since the eye should have seen him exactly as he was, the spell that was placed on him must have been placed there by something powerful or at least something equally as powerful as his father.

A worrying fact as they wondered into camp with both their capes full of supplies. Sarah's containing berries and fruit, the kobold's smaller cape filled with fish. The mortal was nodding along with something he was saying.

"I agree sir. It is entirely unjust of them to decline your help based on your appearance." She turned to him with a smile at that point. "Good morning Jareth. We collected breakfast so that our supplies won't be used up so fast."

It was a well thought out plan. The path the mortal seemed to be on lead toward the dwarf mountains and if they had to go through it would be better the have the supplies from home rather then any picked up there. The dwarves were known to make it so no one could pass their tunnels.

"An excellent idea Lady, my thanks. Your companion, lady, is?"

"Jareth, High Prince of the Fae, I'm please to introduce you to, Sir Didymus."

The little knight seemed shocked that the girl knew his name.

"How did you keen?" He breathed out in awe.

A strange look of sympathy mixed with sadness passed over her face at this point and Jareth found himself wondering what had placed it there.

"You are seeking the Labyrinth, are you not, sir knight? You cannot fool its guide."

The small kobold instantly dropped to one knee.

"I am honoured to be accepted for citizenship."

Sarah shook her head as she knelt down and started to get their meal divided on three flat rocks that she must have washed in the stream.

"You will have to run the maze to be granted anything, same as anyone else. Now if you would find some durable branches, we can impale these fish on them and eat."

"As the Lady commands." He dropped into a perfect court bow as he said it, before turning and scampering off to do as the girl had bid. As soon as Jareth's own acute ears could no longer pick up his footfalls he turned to the girl.

"A kobold? Lady I must protest this, their kind is well know to be knaves and scoundrels."

She just blinked at him for a moment.

"Is that what he is? I've always wondered. I thought they were supposed to be taller though. Hmmm."

"Lady, you seem to have wondered off topic."

"He's supposed to be there. I can't tell you more then that."

"Lady, again I must protest-"

"Do you know what those lands have always been home to, Prince Jareth?" the question came out cold and hard as she remembered a shadow globe held carefully on long slim fingers before a face full of fierce pride in his people, his lands and what they stood for.

"Magic's Heart." He told her instantly and without hesitation. This caused her to scoff at his answer.

"Are you so sure? Did anyone ever find it?" She paused and watched as the idea that it had never been there passed over his face. "What those lands have always been home to Prince, are the unwanted, misplaced and misunderstood. Before even the Maze was there . . . According to you. One place in the whole universe for those that need one to be able to earn a fresh start. Now what happened to the last Goblin King?"

It seemed to be his turn to stare at her blankly for a few seconds before giving her the information she wanted. In a blank and empty voice that had her raising her eyebrows at the changed in tone and bracing for the bad news she was sure to receive.

"No one is quite sure. One day, one person in each of the other twelve kingdoms awoke with the Labyrinth's seal of office burned into their bodies somewhere. A summons from the great Maze to compete to rule the kingdom of the goblins and the land they both sit upon. In our kingdom it marked my older brother first, but the mark was in the middle of his back and so he hid it from our father. Refusing the Maze's command has its own cost however and when he failed to arrive in time for the competition the magic in the seal tore him apart."

He had to pause in his telling, forcing his voice back under control, as his mind flashed back to the "lesson" he had been in and his brother had been forced to watch for disobeying his father's orders. It was then that the screaming had started. It had gone on and on, seemingly for hours, till nothing was left of his brother save for a terrible silence that seemed to hold sway over even his own screams which he could feel stuck inside and a coating of blood that had covered everything in the study.

"The competitors that survived their run but failed to reach the end were returned to their homes and so my brother's mark landed on me just as my father needed an excuse not to have to kill me."

He slid the gloves he always wore off his hands so that Sarah could see the mark. It was divided into two halves, one half on the back of each of his small hands. It was mostly done in a blue that seemed to pulse in time with the boy's heartbeat. Save for the tops of each curved horn; which had started to blacken to look like a burn.

"I have until the whole mark turns black to reach the Maze. Otherwise I'll meet the same fate as my brother."

His eyes were haunted as he explained this to her and for the first time she realized he was afraid. Though she wasn't sure if he was afraid to die, or to reach the maze. He slid the gloves back on and anything else she might have asked him was halted as the knight came bursting back into the camp. So, she ruffled his hair as if he was Toby and got down to the business of making breakfast, after which they broke camp and got their expedition underway again, heading ever southward toward the Dwarf lands.

OXOXOXOXOXO

It was well after mid-day repast when a roar echoed out of the forest Sarah said they had to go through and her two companions had been trying to find their way around.

Jareth and Didymus had similar reactions, as both instantly dropped into defensive stances, conjuring their weapons of choice to their hands. Didymus pulling out on elegant spear that Jareth thought was to long for the body he currently occupied to use properly, and on the other form would have been only a half spear. The hilt and shaft of the spear was made of pure bright silver and it carried right up in to one half of the blade. The other half of the wickedly curved blade was made of cold iron and the double sided design told Jareth which kingdom it had been made in. The Fae himself had conjured a pair of twin hooks made of enchanted Pyrite, the bladed spikes at the end of either hilt made of magically re-enforced and re-enforcing lapis lazuli. A small pulse of his magic had the metal on both weapons each alight with a different element, one crackled with lightening and the other wrapped in a sheaf of ice.

Sarah however smiled at the sound and with hand motions told them to stay back about ten feet from her, before she took off into the forest.

XOXOXOX

The ground she was running on was black and mushy with a red tint over it. The surrounding trees were only in shades of black and grey as if the forest swallowed up all of the colour it should have. She slowly made her way through the trees, carefully trying to avoid touching any of the spider silk threads that seemed to cover everything and following the roars that echoed out every so often. She could feel the other two following along behind at the distance she's set, spread out about ten feet from each other to avoid detection.

"I'm coming. Please just hold on." She whispered under her breath as the roars became louder, higher and more pain filled.

Peaking into a clearing in the trees gave her the first splash of colour she had seen since entering the forest. Tied upside down and held immobile, much the same as when she first met him, Ludo was bleeding badly from the bites marks of the three large, cat-sized spiders that were chewing on him. Several feel in front of him was a woman, holding the leads for the spider silk Ludo was wrapped in.

Though the term woman was being used rather loosely in this case. She had four arms and two legs, covered half-way up with fine black fur. A thorax where her behind should have been, also covered in fur, which could easily be seen through the spider silk skirt she wore. Gold trinkets were trapped in the top of it to make a crude belt. the fur continued up her torso and acted as her shirt. Her face was pale and beautifully cruel, with wine-coloured eyes that were narrowed in perverse glee at her pray. A pink tongue that darted out to moisten ruby red lips, and blue black hair done in curls held up by a crown of wiggling snakes.

"I am enjoying your death immensely, last of the forest protectors. For too long I have been forced to hunt you and now . . . Well now you will be a wonderfully nutritious meal for my babies."

An evil giggle as she formed a sphere of power between her bottom two hands. The bright red crimson of it had Sarah moving before she could think better of it, placing her own body in between her friends and the on-coming spell. She was only vaguely aware of Jareth cursing at her under his breath as he darted around to her and Ludo's side of the clearing, as the little knight slowly crept into position behind the other female.

Sarah simply spread her arms and awaited whatever pain and injury the spell and been intended to inflict. When nothing happened, slowly opening her eyes showed the spell halted by a slight form that had inserted itself in between herself and the spider woman.

"Jareth . . ." She breathed out watching him fight to deflect the spell to the side of them. The woman in front of them growled in anger and Sarah watched in horror as the orb grew in response and the youth got pushed back toward her several inches.

"Hurry and do what you were attempting to do, Lady." He managed to grit out at her, those familiar duel coloured eyes never leaving his opponents. A nod as she spun around and dashed toward Ludo, drawing the dagger he'd giving her as she did so. She edged around to the back trying to ignore the spider as they shifted and hissed at her and in a fast move she cut the binding from Ludo's hands. She was knocked back away from him, landing on the ground as his large hands instantly moved to rip the spiders from off of him, tossing them into the trees with enough force that they splattered, before he reached up to claw through the spider silk that held him upside down. As the last thread came undone he hit the ground with an earthshaking crash and lay still.

"How dare you!" This close her voice was smooth and low filled with an undercurrent of ice that made it painful to hear. "Do you know whose will you seek to defy? I am Arachnae, now Queen of the forest that separates the Fae and dwarf lands, Pandora's Garden!"

A flash of red as Jareth finally managed to deflect the spell and one of the trees in the clearing burst into flame on impact. An impatient movement of the Queen's hands had the spider silk moving to smother the flames.

"Who dares to attempt to steal my victory from me?!"

The silver edge of the spear was suddenly placed against her neck from behind.

"I am the free knight Didymus, currently seeker of the Labyrinth."

Again he spoke the words in that deep and oddly accented voice and her eyes sought out the flash of whatever she had seen before, but all that she managed to catch this time was a flash of red-gold before Jareth spoke.

"I am Jaretha'len de Oberon, son of King Atros of the lands of Fae. Currently King candidate for the Goblin lands."

Her every narrowed in anger and hate at the teen standing defiantly in front of her, before scoffing in disbelief.

"Of course you are. All prince's travel with things like the one cowering behind you."

Before Sarah could protest the tone, the knight increased the pressure the blade had against her neck just the slightest bit, so that small drops of blood, yellow in colour, began to trickle down her thin neck.

"I am quite sure you have better manners for guests then that." The odd voice growled out again.

"The young mortals name?"

She sought one out quickly, not wanting to turn her own name over to the evil standing in front of her. Jareth had warned her several times since her Run about the dangers of blindly giving her name out.

"Labyrinthia. Champion and Guide of the Labyrinth."

Anything else that may have been said was cut off by a long low growl that caused the Spider to laugh gleefully.

"Since you wanted that free so very badly, I shall leave your demise in the hands of the animal you have unleashed. Please consider it a gift from me as I took perverse pleasure in breaking his sanity."

She then melted into a mound of small spiders that quickly scurried into the under bush.

"Jareth?" She whispered to the boy now standing beside her as she backed away from the raising mound of fur. "What is he?"

The boy's eyes flickered to her's briefly as the knight scampered forward to stand on her other side.

"My father told me once that the Guardians of the Forest were Minotaur shamans that begged for refuge here when they were forced to escape the humans that had taken over the Isle of Crete to look for their treasures."

Greek mythos, her mind supplied as those normally warm brown eyes locked on her with nothing but pain and anger in them.

It's Ludo. She reminded herself sternly. Somewhere in all that pain, anger and fear was her friend and dammit she was not going to leave him here.

"Lady?" Two very different voices, but the same impatience contained in them. They were both waiting for her to slowly back away, which just wasn't going to happen. A deep breath before she took a half step forward and bent at the waist to be at eye level with his hunched form., ignoring the way his fur stood on end and the low growl of warning.

"If you sit down I'll wrap those injuries up for you." She worked on keeping her voice soft and even with her hands on her knees and a soft smile on her face. He stayed perfectly still for a few minutes just staring at her before slowly easing himself down on his rump, eyes a little clearer then before.

"No hurt?"

Her companions seemed taken aback by the words spoken in his deep voice. She sighed at the question.

"I will do my very best not to hurt you, but I want to clean and wrap those bites." She told him slowly and clearly, moving her hands slowly to mimic the words she used to help him understand.

"Clean? Heal?"

"Yes." she told him simply with a small nod.

"Heal hurts." He told her eyes on the ground.

"Some of it will I'm sure, but it will be better for you in the long run."

When he did nothing else but sit there and stare at them she took it as permission and lowered her pack slowly to the ground beside Jareth, pulling out her water canteen and roll of bandages. She heard Jareth sigh and felt him shift to watch the area around them as Didymus tensed up.

"Lady I must protest, this seems unwise."

A rather inelegant from Jareth as his eyes kept tracking the tree line for movement.

"Yes it is unwise. However is it as unwise as willingly traveling with a kobold?"

The teens question seemed to halt any other protests that the little knight may have made as Sarah walk as normally as possible over to the injured . . . minotaur? He watched her with calm but wary brown eyes. She smiled as she got to him and knelt placing the water beside them and resting that hand against her chest.

"Sarah."

He mimicked the motion and told her what she already knew.

"Ludo."

A nod of acknowledgment as she reached out for the hand he'd placed on his chest, pulling it out straight so she could see the injury.

"I'm going to pour water over this to help wash out the spider's toxins, it may hurt a little."

He still just watched her saying nothing. The injury on this arm was the size of her whole hand and was ragged and shredded from the teeth marks. The toxin they had used had already turned a good portion of the flesh still exposed mushy. She uncapped the water and poured it over the wound. The effect was instantaneous as he tried to jerk his arm forward out of her grasp, but her hands tightened automatically so she was dragged along with the path of the arm till her thigh hit the side of a tree stump with enough force to bruise right to the bone and she was betting it would be a pretty colour tomorrow.

"Milady!" That would be Didymus.

"Sarah!" And that crisply accented voice could only belong to Jareth, but she'd never heard it sound like that before. Panic, fear and worry coloured it for the first time since she had met him. She took a deep breath and concentrated on ignoring the pain in her leg and two of the voices that meant the most to her. Kneeling down again and raising the canteen was met by another low growl and she raised her eyes to his in a glare that would have made her Jareth proud, her voice low enough that she basically snarled the next words into his face.

"You will sit and prove to me that you can behave if you want a chance to earn a new home, otherwise we will leave you here to take your chances with the spiders."

"Home?"

"Yes."

"Home safe?"

"Usually, though it does have its moments."

This time he offered his arm up to her and sat perfectly still for the 30 minutes it took her to be done and his wounds wrapped up and as clean as she could make them with what she had..

XOXOXOX

After watching to assure himself that the girl under his care would come to no more harm from the large beast he turned his attention to the smaller one helping him guard the clearing.

"Weapons like that are made only by the elves and used only by two sets of people. Their own border patrol units, and sold to the monsters to use to help control their own people. So which were you originally Knight, proud elf warrior or monster?"

The question caused that something that over shadowed the small Kobold to come in more substantially, and for a second, just a flash; he found himself staring at a tall humanoid with a wealth of red-gold hair. More then that he couldn't see as the Kobold took a breath and turned a growl at him, and the flash was not enough to identify him as either or.

"You are not yet King, so you will have to forgive me if I choose to keep my past to myself. I want only to start fresh and mean no harm to you or the young lady. In fact as she has agreed to take both of us to the Maze it is also in my best interest to assist you in keeping her safe."

"Your word on that?"

Giving promises to the Fae was a risky thing and whatever the kobold had been he was sure to have know that but for a second he just stared at the prince before nodding.

"On my very hard earned honour, I mean no harm to you or the girl-child."

The ground shaking slightly turned them both to stare at the other pair as Sarah assisted that much larger body back onto his feet.

"Okay boys I'm all done over here. Ludo? Do you know a safe route through this forest toward the mountains?"

A few seconds before he nodded and the, now doubled party, resumed the trek ever southward.

XOXOXOXOXOXOX

Arachnae- Is a name a stole from Soul Eater and it sooo fits.

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Twin Hooks- are a Traditional Shoalin monk weapon. And do actually hook together to increase the reach. Feel free to look them up they are kick ass looking and I can completely see Jareth using them. A weapon that can defend and attack well all in one simple design with a range option.

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WOW. Okay this is the longest section of snippets so far ten pages typed. I really couldn't think of a point to cut it in half so you get it in one big pile of words =}.

AHHHH THANK YOU HACHI! I have a great idea for the prom thing and it's all entirely your fault. You mentioned flashes and the idea beat me over the head, though I don't think it's quite the way you were hoping it would go. . . Oh well I tried. It is the next part so you WILL have to wait awhile for that, and it explains why she's all the way back when. So it's NOT out of order yet. Go me. Anyone else notice we're collecting them backwards?

OH MY GOD! I have so many reviews for this story, I'm so happy!

Other mentions!

Kaytori- There you got at least one of your questions answered, you know what happened to his brother and got a few more hints for sir D's past.

Elf or monster? Which do you guys think?

Taria robotnik- I'm glad that you enjoy my version of Sarah. I think her Run would have made her more sure of her self and things like that.

HachimansKitsune- your evilness has already been noted above, though I do hope you like having more sir D hints. (kidding about the evil, though the idea really wouldn't leave me alone.)

And LaurenvBelladonna I MISS YOU . . . Please let me know what ya though of the last two chapters when you get time k? BYES!

Love YA's!

Ja ne

Kat