"What?! What is she saying?" The cat-like doorknocker shouted.
"Oh, God, not these geniuses." Jareth complained, resting his forehead in his hand. "Why are there so many guessing obstacles in this Labyrinth? You have to guess which way is right when you're caught by the Hands, make an educated guess with the Guards, and now you have to guess which of these doors to knock on."
"I said, 'I remember this part'." Sarah said.
"Mumble, mumble, mumble!"
"It's best to just not even try with that ring in his ears." Hoggle told her.
"What?! Speak up!"
"Let's just pick a door before I get a migraine from all his shouting, alright?" The Goblin King asked, getting annoyed.
"Well, I tried the door with the ring in his mouth before," Sarah started. "And that led Ludo and I into this sort of forest-like place, until Ludo fell down a kind of trap door, eventually ending up in the Bog of Stench."
"And on top of me." Hoggle reminded her.
"Well, we obliviously want to avoid the Bog, though it's no worse than the baby's diaper." Jareth explained. "What if you try the door with his ears plugged? Even if it's wrong, at least he'll quit shouting for a few minutes."
"Will you speak up?! I can't hear you! Got a ring in my ears!"
"Well, whichever one we pick, it's still a guess." Sarah pointed out. "They don't know what lies beyond their door."
"All your whispering is extremely irritating!"
Sarah saw Jareth cringe with pain, as he told her, "If the other door had Bog traps, then there is good chance the opposite won't."
"But it could have something worse." Hoggle added.
"Worse than the Bog?" Sarah asked.
"Anything's possible with Rivina around."
"Are you just going to stand there all day, mumbling, or are you going to pick a door?!"
Toby, who was still being carried by the Goblin King, started making whining sounds. "Look, we're wasting daylight by batting this around. Sarah, get the ring from the other door, I'll get this one. We'll see what they know when they can actually understand one another."
Why didn't I think of that? She walked over to the Knocker with the ring in his mouth, and pulled it out. The Knocker looked very relieved and stretched it's mouth.
"There, now you can quit making my ears bleed." Jareth said to his Knocker, the ring now in his hands.
"Finally, you learned how to speak at a good volume." it retorted. Sarah giggled a little. He reminds me of my grandma. She really needs to get herself a hearing aid. She always blames us for talking too quietly, when we're really talking at a regular level.
"We don't have time for this," Jareth shot back. "Could one of you just explain which of your doors is the best one to go through?"
"How should we know?" Sarah's Knocker asked.
"See, they don't know anything past their own doors." Sarah repeated.
"They've got to know something."
"We know lots of things," Jareth's responded sourly. "Just not anything that interests the royal King and his band of weirdos."
"It's true." Sarah's said.
"Can't you help at all?" she asked.
"We've been stuck on these doors all our lives, we don't know anything else." Jareth's told her.
"You'll just have to pick, and hope for the best." Sarah's explained.
"I say pick his," The formerly-deaf one suggested. "That ring hurts my ears."
"Excuse me, but my jaw is sore, so I don't want my ring back either!"
"Keep your voice down, you twit! I'm right here!"
"First everyone's too quiet, now they're too loud. Make up your mind!"
"Hold on, just calm down. There's no reason to argue." Sarah said quickly, trying to regain their peace.
"You ought to have that ring back so it can block your big mouth!"
"If you let them put your ring back, you won't hear me!"
"My door has a bunch of traps in it! They don't want mine!"
"Yeah, well mine has got a straight shot to the Fireys!"
"So does mine!"
"See? They know exactly what's beyond their doors, but pretend they don't." Jareth explained to Sarah. "That's the trap here. They force you to guess."
"But now we got them arguing, so they're trying to convince us not to put their rings back."
"Exactly." Jareth nodded. "Well, look at that, you're learning. Since when do you listen to me?"
Around the time we stopped arguing.
"Wait, neither of the doors are without their challenges. We either deal with Bog traps, or Fierys." Hoggle pointed out.
"We deal with Fierys either way." Sarah told him.
"And they'll be easier to handle than the Bog, therefore, I vote we take the one on the left." Sarah noticed that he was suggesting rather than ordering now.
"The one that was deaf?"
"Yes."
"Well, there's no traps if we go that way…Hoggle, Ludo, what do you think?"
"I'm in if you're in, Sarah."
"Ludo agree."
"Alright, then it's unanimous."
Sarah and Jareth replaced the rings and Jareth knocked on his door. It swung open, slowly, revealing a large forest region. "Ladies first?"
"I can't tell if you're being polite, or using me as a guinea pig." Sarah smirked. Part of her was surprised that she was able to do that to the Goblin King.
The other part of her felt like it was totally normal, and liked being able to do it.
"Bit of both, actually." He replied, walking behind her.
"That's reassuring. "
"It wasn't supposed to be."
She laughed a little for some reason, and they walked through the jungle-like path. Leaves and twigs crunched under their feet, and they made sure not to walk into any branches. They talked for a while about just random things, as the sun began to go down once again.
"Do you think the Gargoyles have taken over this part?" Hoggle asked.
"They've most likely infected the entire Labyrinth." The King explained. "We'd better start looking from a worm hole."
They found it quickly, near the roots of a large, twisted tree. Sarah shivered at bit, as she passed through the threshold again. She greeted the Worms again, noted that Mrs. Worm was wearing bright pink eyeshadow, wondered where in the world they sold makeup small enough for worms, and fed and changed Toby.
The hours melted away like marshmallows in hot chocolate. Before she knew it, the sun had completely set, and it was time to go to sleep.
"We're almost to the castle." Jareth explained. "One more night after this, and I'll stain that ridiculous pink fur with fairy blood and doll stuffing...I never thought I'd have to say a sentence like that."
Sarah smiled, and laid down with Toby, who was already asleep from all that hair-pulling, next to her.
"Still worried you won't be able to handle Rivina, Sarah?" Hoggle asked, sitting next to Ludo.
"Not really." she said. "I mean, we have a basic plan...and there's more of us, so we have a better chance. That, and Jareth's really ticked off, so, I think we got this."
"Got that right." Jareth put in.
"It's a lot easier to be brave in the face of danger when you have friends around you." The troll explained.
Knowing he was speaking from experience, she was touched. It felt good to know she could inspire her friend, and give them courage.
The floor shook a bit, as the room was filled with the loud sound of a snarling monster. Jareth and Sarah sat up, and looked at each other. "Is that a Gargoyle?"
"I'm not sure, keep quiet."
"It can't get in her anyway, right?"
"No, it can't without that embarrassing password."
"Guys…" Hoggle began. "It's Ludo, snoring."
They both looked at him, then at Ludo, who was sprawled around the floor, sleeping. Sarah laughed a little. So did Jareth.
"What's so funny?"
They laughed louder. That was so stupid! We were like freaking out, thinking it was a monster, and it's just Ludo!
"You two are weird." The troll observed. "But at least you stopped arguing. In fact, you two actually got along almost all day. Good job. Good night."
The laughter passed, and exhaustion washed over Sarah. Her eyes got heavy again, and she finally gave in. Just when she was about to go to sleep, she heard Jareth mumbled something. She looked up and saw he was lying on his stomach, the crystal ball swirling in his hands. Before she could ask him what he was looking at, tiredness took her over, and she fell asleep.
She dreamt of dolls, talking doorknobs, Toby meowing, and dancing fairies. Overall, it was one of her craziest dreams ever, coming in second to the one where she was balancing pancakes on her head while a fire-breathing cat jumped through the window to get some radioactive yarn from the talking llamas in the fish tank.
She shot up, woken from another loud snore from Ludo. It had scared her so much, her whole body was awake, as well as her mind. Sarah caught her breath, and looked around. It was still pitch dark outside. She'd probably only fallen asleep for a few hours. Darn. Now I'm wide awake. But I have to go back to sleep, or else I won't be able to get through tomorrow. She started to lay back down, when she caught sight of the Goblin King.
He was asleep on his stomach, in an awkward position, the crystal ball still in his hand. He must've fallen asleep while he was looking at it. She was about to try to go back to sleep, when something occurred to her. People tend to move around when they sleep, she realized, recounting the number of times she'd rolled out of her own bed. And that crystal ball is our only way to see into that castle. It's totally exposed just in his hand. If he moves, or rolls onto his back, it could shatter. She sat on her knees, and pondered what to do. Maybe I should just move it, and like, put it in the baby bag for safekeeping. That way, I know nothing will happen to it. I just have to remember in the morning when I go fishing around in there for baby food.
Sarah crawled over, quietly, making sure not to disturb anyone. Tomorrow, they would be closing in on the castle. Rivina would probably be on her best game to try to keep them away. They'd have to be ready, and for that, they needed sleep.
As she got closer, she noticed that the crystal wasn't transparent. Whatever Jareth had been looking at was still going on. Sarah reached over, keeping an eye on the King to make sure he wouldn't scare her again like he had that morning. She felt the smoothness of the crystal on her fingertips, when suddenly, she felt like she was falling! Something had sucked her up, like a vacuum. Sarah closed her eyes, tight. You're dreaming! Wake up! You're just having a weird dream, like the one with the pancakes! Wake up, Sarah! Wake up!