When night began to fall over the Labyrinth, the group had reached the edge of the Fiery Forest and were greeted by the sight of the castle. That seemed to trigger something with the Firey, who immediately began jumping about, laughing in exuberance.
"Hey, knock it off, Firey," Hoggle growled. "All that hollering is goin' to get us discovered."
"But it won't be much longer before I'm with my friends again!" the Firey exclaimed, undeterred by the warning.
"Yeah, but is that a reason to go nuts?" Stacey asked.
"But my friends are everything! Without them, I have no energy to get through the day. We thrive on our unity."
"Really?" Sarah gaped in surprise. "So, you literally need one another to survive? Wow, I had no idea. I'm sorry, Firey."
"Hmm, I have to say that calling him Firey all the time might get rather confusing," Daedalus noted. "Tell me, do you have a name?"
"Me?" the Firey blinked. "Oh, no. My friends and I never really bothered picking names. We were having too much fun to think about it."
"Well, you have to have a name," Sarah pointed out. "Daedalus is right. We can't just keep calling you Firey. It might get a little old."
"How about Prometheus?" Stacey offered. "After all, Hoggle did tell me that Fireys can generate fire with their fingers, so, it might be a good idea to name him after the giant who stole fire from the gods and brought it to man in Greek Mythology."
"Lady Stacey, ye really must tell us all about these Greek stories one day," Sir Didymus announced.
"Prometheus," the Firey repeated, testing out the name. "Yeah! Prometheus! I like it!" With that, he started testing out variations of his new name, such as 'Theus' and 'Pro'.
While Prometheus was occupied with his name, Sarah, Stacey, Hoggle and Theseus stepped away to find something for supper, leaving the others to help set up camp for the evening. They eventually found some wild leeks and potatoes, which Hoggle said he could use to make a soup.
"Who'd have thought?" Sarah asked as they gathered up the ingredients. "To think Prometheus and the other Fireys can hardly even exist when they're apart."
"That's not necessarily a good thing, Sarah," Stacey stated. "It's important to be able to get by on your own."
"But that's not true, Stacey," Sarah argued. "We might not suffer the way Fireys would, but nobody can survive for long on their own. If we don't have friends to stand by us, then we suffer in our own way."
"I once thought like you did, Sarah," Stacey replied, focusing her gaze on the potato she was digging up. "I thought that, if I could just make one friend at school, then I wouldn't feel so out of place in Kent. But I couldn't seem to connect with anyone. Until one day, when that all changed."
"Are you sayin'… you had friends, once?" Hoggle asked.
"I was about eight at the time. Wayne had seen how much I struggled at connecting with the other kids in my class, so he decided to transfer me from Holden Elementary to Walls Elementary. I was a bit nervous about the transfer, but on my first day, there were three girls who instantly reached out to me. Phoebe, Quin and Rosabel."
"Wait, you mean the same three girls who I met?" Sarah gaped. "The ones who tried to warn me not to even talk to you?"
"Yeah, those are the ones," Stacey confirmed. "Right off the back, they were so friendly and nice, playing with me at recess and letting me sit with them at lunch time. Quin even traded me her carton of chocolate milk for my juice box. For the first time in my life, I actually thought I had found someone who would be my friend. But I was wrong. See, our teacher kept in a rare china doll in our classroom. It had belonged to her grandmother or great grandmother; I can't really remember which. Just that it had apparently been in some kind of family heirloom. It was also something of the class mascot, I guess. One day, during my second week at Walls Elementary, I went out to recess with all the other kids and waited by the monkey bars for Phoebe and the others. Because we always met up at the monkey bars. But they didn't show up. Instead, the school principal came out. He told me to report to his office right away. When I showed up, Phoebe, Quin and Rosabel were there, along with our teacher and the china doll, which had been smashed. They'd even called Wayne, asking him to come down, too. Phoebe and the other two all insisted that they'd seen me break the doll. And since they found the broken pieces shoved in the back of my locker, all the evidence pointed right at me. When I refused to accept responsibility for breaking the doll, I was suspended for three days. Only Wayne believed I was telling the truth. When I returned to school after my suspension was over, I'd been branded as a liar, shunned by all the other students. But the worst part was when I ducked into the girls' bathroom, trying to get a break from the nonstop name-calling and insults. When I was still in there, Phoebe, Quin and Rosabel all entered and cornered me. Phoebe looked me right in the eye, and said 'if you thought anyone would actually want to be friends with you, then you're even dumber than we thought. Good luck finding anyone who'd want to talk to you, now.'"
"You're saying…they pretended to be your friends just to set you up?" Hoggle cried in outrage.
"I learned an important lesson that day," Stacey concluded. "If the other kids in town were going to hate me that much, then I was better off without friends."
"Stacey," Sarah said, looking at her in sympathy. "You didn't deserve to be treated like that. And none of us would ever do that to you. Please, tell me you realize that." As if to back up Sarah's words, Thesus stepped over to Stacey's side and nuzzled her arm, letting out a noise that almost sounded like a purr. In response, Stacey simply gave the three of them an unreadable look, but after a moment, she gathered up the potatoes she'd already harvested.
"So, how about we start on this soup of yours, Hoggle? I've got quite an appetite today." Hoggle and Sarah shared a look of concern, but Stacey showed no indication that she was going to discuss the matter further.
Hoggle's soup turned out quite well, and was surprisingly filling. As everyone ate their share, they discussed possible plans on how to continue the next day. Since the castle was in sight, they were in the perfect position to make their move the following morning. However, Sarah and Hoggle both cast secretive glances at Stacey throughout the planning. Neither of them had mentioned to the others what Stacey had revealed to them, unwilling to betray Stacey's trust. They'd realized that Stacey had opened up to them in confidence, and they weren't about to go against that. If Stacey had wanted the others to know, they'd hoped she would have said something. But Stacey remained stone faced throughout dinner, showing no indication that she'd ever revealed her painful backstory.
As Sir Didymus started suggesting plans for a direct offensive attack against the castle, however, Stacey slammed her soup bowl down on the log she'd been leaning against. The disruption brought about a sudden silence within the camp, and when everyone glanced over, they saw the dark look she had on her face.
"Stacey, what's wrong?" Sarah asked in alarm.
"Jareth is what's wrong," Stacey snapped, anger radiating in her tone. "You told me after we arrived that he kidnapped your brother, Toby, threatening to turn him into a goblin. Now, he's imprisoning everyone, and even tried to kill us last night. What kind of man are we dealing with, anyway? How do you fight someone who doesn't have a heart?" Sarah flinched inwardly. Saying Jareth didn't have a heart struck her as rather harsh.
"I…I don't think you're being completely fair, Stacey," Sarah replied. "Jareth's…not completely heartless."
"I can't believe you're defending him!" Stacey rounded on Sarah. "I haven't seen a single thread of humanity in him since we arrived." For a second or two, Stacey studied Sarah's torn expression intently before continuing. "Please don't tell me you actually care for that monster."
"He's not a monster," Sarah argued. "You have to understand. He wasn't like this last time. Yes, he's always been cruel, but he was never a complete monster."
"Then how can you explain his transgressions now?" Stacey challenged. "You may be able to justify his actions in your mind, Sarah, but I can't."
Before Sarah could come up with a reply, Ambrocious began whimpering and Theseus arched his back, hissing like a cat. It was these reactions that alerted everyone to the fact that Jareth had appeared behind them. This time, he was flanked by some of his goblin army.
AN: Cliffhanger!
I really hope Stacey's backstory was believable. It's been a while since I was 8, so I may have forgotten how 8-year-olds act.
