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Chapter 10

No Problem

In another part of the Labyrinth Hoggle was running on his own. He had put a good distance between him and Sarah but he couldn't get the thought of her out of his head. She had been so kind to him, despite how awful he had been to her.

He burst out of a cave back into the slowly fading sunlight but he still felt no further away. Unable to fight the sinking feeling in his stomach he stopped to rest again a rock.

In the distance he could faintly hear Sarah calling for help. Despite his best efforts he couldn't block out her voice.

"Hoggle, help!" She called.

His heart stopped. She was in trouble and was calling for him. How could he not go to help her when she sounded so scared?

"I'm coming Sarah!" He called.

He turned around to dash towards the sound of her voice but instead found Jareth lounging again one of the rocks. Instantly Hoggle froze in mid step.

"Well," the King said pleasantly, "If it isn't you. And where are you going?"

Despite his casual tone Hoggle had the impression that the King was in a very bad mood. He was wearing black from head to toe, which always meant that someone had pushed his buttons a bit too much. Was it something Sarah had done?

He had to think of a lie on the spot. "You see, the little lady gave me the slip but I, uh, just hear her now. So I was about to lead her back to the beginning, just like you told me to do."

The King looked as though he was considering that. Hoggle watched as his regal lips pressed together while his sharp eyes observed him.

"I see," the King said slowly, "For a moment I thought you were running to help her. But… no, not after my warnings, that would be stupid."

"Oh, you bet it would. Me, help her, after your warning?" Hoggle roared with laughter as though the thought of him betraying his King was the funniest thing in the world.

But when he turned around he found he was at eye level with the King, who had approached silently while he was laughing. His face was unreadable but Hoggle had the idea that he saw right through his lie.

"Oh dear, poor Hoghead." Jareth said sympathetically.

"Hoggle." He corrected quietly.

Jareth grabbed him on the scruff of the neck and pulled him so close that he could whisper to him. "I've just noticed your lovely jewels are missing."

At first Hoggle didn't react. Then he realize that by not reacting he was admitting that he knew where his jewels were. Then he would have to explain to the King where they had gone and why he didn't have them with him anymore.

Quickly he began patting himself down as though her were looking to see if the King was really telling the truth.

"Oh, yes, so they are… My lovely jewels… missing," He noted, "I better go find them. But first, I'm off to the take the little lady back to the beginning of the game, just like we planned!"

Hoggle quickly began to run off intent of putting as much distance between him and the King as he could. He only got as far as the mouth of the cave.

"Wait!" The King called to him, "I have a much better plan, Hoggle. Give her this."

With a flick of his wrist a crystal appeared out of the pixels into his hands. He allowed it to roll along his fingers before it soared through air towards Hoggle. He caught it but instead of the hard glass beneath his fingers he felt the soft skin of a fresh peach.

"What is it?" He asked wearily.

"It's a present." The King said bitterly.

Hoggle thought about it for a moment. The King never gave out gifts, to anyone. If he were giving a gift to Sarah it had a bad meaning behind it.

"It's not going to hurt the little lady, is it?"

"Oh, now why the concern?" Jareth drawled, giving Hoggle a sly look.

It took him a moment to think of his answer for that. "I won't do nothin' to harm her."

"Oh come, come, com, Hogbrain, I'm surprised at you losing your head over a girl." The King sneered.

"I ain't lost my head." He insisted.

The King could have let it go at that, maybe even just threaten him until he did what he was told. But his mood had considerably darkened since he had left the castle. He had to make sure he knew his place.

"You don't think a young girl could like a repulsive little scab like you, do you?" Jareth sneered, jabbing Hoggle in the stomach with his walking stick to make a point.

Hoggle's face fell. "But she said we was…"

"What?" Jareth snapped, "Bosom companions? Friends?"

"It doesn't matter." Hoggle mumbled.

Jareth reached out and snagged his ear, causing him even more pain. "You'll give that to her Hoggle or I'll dip you head first into the bog of corruption before you can blink!"

He released him and Hoggle limped away sadly.

"Oh, and Hoggle," The King called when he was almost out of sight, "If she ever kisses you I'll turn you into a prince."

"You will?" Hoggle asked, for a moment allowing the image of himself transform into a creature worthy of Sarah's trust.

"Prince of the Land of Corruption." He continued.

Then he laughed a cruel laugh causing Hoggle to shiver. This time he let him leave and Hoggle went off in search of Sarah, unsure what he wanted to do.

Back in the forest Sarah was still walking, looking for Ludo. Out of the bushes came a shrieking noise, which made her jump back.

Out of the bush a lanky red creature jumped blocking her path. Several others followed, surrounding Sarah on all sides.

"What's going on here?" She demanded.

The creatures around her cackled a broken laugh as they danced around her. It sounded to Sarah like the creatures were trying to speak to her but the only thing coming out was a garbled nonsense.

It was then that she noticed all of the pixels on the creatures bodies were shimmering around. She realized that they were corrupted.

"Come on Lady," one of the creatures finally shouted out, "Let's party!"

"No!" Sarah cried, trying to push them away.

"We love to party!"

"Yeah, we do!"

"Come on, Lady, come party with us!"

"Leave me alone!" She shouted again.

The creatures paid no attention to her desperate fight to escape them. One of them reached out to take a hold of her arm.

"You've got to see the view over here!" I told her.

"No, no, over here!" Another grabbed her other arm.

"But back here is much better!" Her left leg was pulled from the ground.

"You're all crazy, this is the best place, over here!" And then her right leg.

"Come on boys, she will love the swampy place!" Finally, with no other place to hold onto the final creature seized her head in it's long arms.

Sarah shrieked as each of the creatures began pulling in each direction, stretching her limbs to their limits. As she was panicking she was trying to think up a plan to get away from the red monsters. They were corrupted meaning it wouldn't be hard for her to try to destroy their body codes.

For a moment she struggled to get her hand into a position where she could help herself. When her hand was pressed against the chest of the creature she quickly erased part of the code, shotting the head off of the creature sending it soaring into the forest.

"Hey!" The head shouted as it flew away.

The others were too busy to notice their friend's problem, which worked in Sarah's favour. With her one hand free she slapped the one holding her leg separating both his arms from his torso. Before the others could take notice she threw the one holding her other leg back removing his lower leg and one of his arms.

"Hey, woah!" The last standing two realized what she was doing too late.

With her legs free she turned and threw both back, hit them at the same time and scattering all of their limbs at once. While they were busy trying to put themselves together again Sarah took her chance to escape.

She took off at a run deeper into the forest, with no idea whether or not the dreaded creatures would follow.