Still with Jareth
Jareth materialized into the oubliette he was holding the vampire in, bringing with him a candle for some light. Of course he wasn't a fool. He conjured a protective barrier between himself and Isabella's former paramour. The vampire immediately took notice of his entrance, and stood in a defensive crouch, eyes black in anger and hunger.
"Who are you? Where have you put me? Why were you at Bella's?" he rattled off. Jareth rolled his eyes at the predictability.
"Honestly. Always the same questions. How dull," Jareth said in a bored tone. Edward growled when no answers were forthcoming.
"You're lack of judgment in your prey has landed you in water hotter than you were prepared to handle, vampire," Jareth said, studying to frozen man child in front of him.
"You know nothing. I was at the home of my girlfriend, and was dealing with an unwanted competition when you decided to magic me into this hole," Edward snapped.
"Your girlfriend, you say. You seem to have selective memory when it comes to Isabella. As I recall from her retelling, you left her months ago, and have had absolutely no contact with her since," Jareth stated.
"I was there to ask her forgiveness. I was hoping to re establish our relationship," Edward practically snapped. His temper beginning to get the better of him.
Jareth rolled his eyes, "Oh, please. Do not insult my intelligence, vampire. You were there to lure her far enough away into a secluded area so you could drain her precious life's blood." He tapped his temple, pointedly looking at Edward. "You aren't the only one in this oubliette with telepathic abilities."
Edward crouched lower, seriously contemplating attacking the strange human in front of him.
"And at any rate, as I stated before, you seriously misjudged your decision to drain Isabella. You see you've managed to incredibly piss off three of the more powerful beings in either your realm or mine with such a decision."
"Over one measly human girl. She is a nobody. Even less when I am finished with her," Edward told Jareth. At this, Jareth's own anger burst forth and and his magic had Edward pinned to the far wall. However, even with his magic and anger demanding to take his head, his countenance never wavered.
"That was a very unwise thing to voice, vampire. You see, although I may be one of the three powerful beings I mentioned to you previously, I have nothing on Isabella's mother and father. Those two could level my kingdom in a blink of an eye and no more than half a thought. No, enough chit chat. I didn't pay a visit to get to know you in such a fashion," Jareth told Edward, his magic still keeping him pinned.
"Oh no, I came to get to know you in another, more intimate and painful way. I plan on torturing you so thoroughly, the rest of your coven won't have a prayer of recognizing you when they next see you. I'm going to enjoy inflicting on both body and mind every torture Isabella felt at your hands," Jareth said menacingly, as the glamor around him faded and his ears and teeth became pointed, his already ethereal beauty enhanced even more, and his eyes shone with cruelty only befitting one of the Sidhe.
)O( )O( )O( )O( )O(
With Bella
Isabella instantly felt Jareth's loss of presence immediately, and it took everything in her not to whimper at the loss. She cared for him. Deeply. But she'd never be able to sort through her emotions properly, unless she managed to get some alone time with him and just be surrounded in him. His melodic rock star voice. His uniquely masculine but floral scent. And most importantly, his eyes. Full of cruelty and knowledge.
"You love him, don't you young one," Oberon asked her.
"I don't know. I haven't spent more than an hour in his company since I arrived. He's either been entertaining my cousin on her run, bringing to light my parentage, and lets not forget that I also had to run the labyrinth. I just need to spend a little more time with him to find out everything. What's worse, is that even though I've only known of him as a real person for only a few hours, it feels like longer," she told them.
"Ah, that would be the time difference," Titania explained. "Time moves so much faster in the Underground. It's how runners are able to run the labyrinth in what they think is 13 hours. In truth, it's not 13 hours but more like, well to give you perspective, one day above is more like a month here. Magic sustains the person in all they need so they can run the labyrinth. They will feel hunger and whatnot, but they will not perish from it. Once the runner is back in the mortal realm, they will sleep like the dead, so to speak, for hours on end. No one will be able to fully rouse them until a balance restores it's self. Jareth said you ran the labyrinth in just under four hours. So you ran it in 4 months, mortal time. A fantastic feat to be sure. I believe the only other person to have finished the run in such a time was Jareth's mother. And she stopped for tea!"
"That seems unnecessarily complicated," Isabella mused.
"Magic is both complicated and simple. Like in everything, nature strives for balance. Magic is not immune to this law," said Oberon.
"So. My parents rule all of Faedom," Isabella said, changing the subject.
"That's not a word," Titania teased.
"Of course it is. Didn't you hear Jareth deem it so? If words have tangible power in the Underground, it's an advantage to make up your own so you will know and have the intent for the magic to manifest in sticky situations while your opponent is left floundering for a defense," Isabella told her.
Both of the royals looked amused. "By that logic, everyone should be walking around with their own language, and no one would understand one another," said Titania.
"Not really. Making up words like Faedom is how a language evolves. If one person starts saying a word to mean something, other people may like the sound of it and start using it themselves. Or they may tweak it to sound like something more to their tastes and start using it regularly then."
"I am ever so glad you got your mother's brains," Oberon said out of the blue. "Finally someone will be able to match wits with her and not get a headache trying to come up with a counter argument."
Isabella giggled at her father. "Then what did I inherit from you?" she asked him.
"I'm sure we'll find something, little one. We have so much time to discover that," Oberon replied with a smile.
"Why don't we start with a nice walk through the gardens. We can all get to know one another as we enjoy the day," suggested Titania. Isabella nodded and went to stand between her birth parents. Right now, she could only thank her brat of an adopted cousin for her foolishness. If it weren't for her spoiled attitude, she never would have gotten to meet an amazing man in Jareth, nor would she have gotten to meet Titania and Oberon, who she was already seamlessly connecting with on a level she never would have managed with Charlie and Renee.
)O( )O( )O( )O( )O(
With Hoggle
That sly Jareth, always so far ahead he'd know everyone's next step before they themselves knew it. Sarah had indeed kissed him in thanks once he saved her from the Fireys. They had landed, or rather slid, almost right into the Bog. He needed to reprimand the King for that. What if he had actually landed in the muck that passed for water? He would have smelled like the wrong end of Ludo after festering in the hot sun for a month for the rest of his life!
Speaking of the wrong end of Ludo, Hoggle had found the friendly fur monster when he was promptly sat on by him when he managed to fall blissfully onto dry ground. The beast was heavy! Now that he had this part of the mission done, he had to find a way to alert Sir Didymus to Sarah's goal in the labyrinth was before the mutt actually tried to help her.
He wasn't all that hard to find. Anyone wanting to cross the bridge would find the knight ready and waiting in their path. Upholding his sworn duty to block anyone from passing without his permission.
"Stop!" they heard the knight call before he jumped into their path before the bridge. "Stop, I say."
"Oh, please," Sarah begged, bordering on desperation. "We have to get across."
"Without my permission, no one may cross," said Sir Didymus pompously.
"Please, I only have a little time left," she begged further. The smell almost overwhelming her patience.
Hoggle grunted in almost pain. The Bog really did smell aweful. "We've got to get out of this stench." They only needed to cross the bridge! The trees beyond provided blessed fresh air.
"Smell bad!" Ludo exclaimed.
"Stench? Of what speaketh thou?" Asked Sir Didymus in his rather posh accent.
"The smell," Sarah exclaimed. She was really starting to get peeved at this little creature. She needed to finish this fracking maze, get her brother, and go home. Bella can stay here for all she cared. Coming into her home with the whole "broken heart" excuse was such a transparent ploy for attention. Honestly.
Sir Didymus could smell her malevolent emotions however, and didn't like them. Not one bit. There was something distinctly spoiled about this girl. In every sense of the word. He would usually help a runner stuck here, but just for that, he would delay proceedings just a bit. Surely a few more moments in the Bog wouldn't hurt her.
"I smell nothing," he told the girl.
"No, you're joking," Hoggle exclaimed.
"But I live by my sense of smell," exclaimed Sir Didymus. He takes two good deep breaths before continuing.
"The air is sweet and fragrant, and none may pass without my permission," he finished in a violent tone.
"Smell bad!" Ludo repeated himself.
Hoggle finally had enough.
"Oh, get out of my way," Hoggle growled, barreling towards the knight. He needed to speak with Didymus at once about Sarah, but had no way to get him alone. He'd have to settle for a spur of the moment, quick message.
"Jareth want us to slow her progress to the castle as much as we can," he said to the knight sotto voce.
The knight growled lowly in acknowledgement that he heard the gatekeeper.
Didymus continued to valiantly defend his charge. "I warn thee. I'm sworn to do my duty." He gave Hoggle a good sharp prodding to his midsection, causing the hobgoblin to double over and stumble back.
"Come on. Let us get across," Sarah demanded, trying to intimidate the knight with her superior height. Sir Didymus didn't like this one bit. The stench of deceit and malevolence clinging to her like a heavy cloak.
"Hold!" he demanded waving his staff at her. But then the great beast, Ludo, came forward and picked up the knight by his staff.
"Listen, I don't want to have to hurt you," he warned the beast. Hoggle took this chance to cross the bridge, just so he could get a breath of fresh air so he can keep his whits about him around Sarah. One never knows when she'd get smart.
"Hoggle, what are you doing?" she demanded at his retreating back.
"Let go of my staff, sir," exclaimed Sir Didymus to Ludo, and after doing just that, a small battle ensued between the diminutive creature and his proverbial Goliath. After seemingly squishing the dog under a tree root, he appeared out of a knot higher up the tree.
"Enough!" he stated, getting their attention. "Before this day, never have I met my match in battle, yet this noble knight has fought me to a standstill."
"Are you all right, Ludo?" Sarah asked the furry beast. Sir Didymus wanted to give into his instinct to bite. He really did not like this runner.
"Smell!"
"Sir Ludo, if that's thy name, now I, Sir Didymus, yield to thee. Come, let us be brothers henceforth, and fight for the right as one."
Ludo grunted and helped Didymus out of the tree. "Oh, thank you very much." He may not like the girl, but the beast was a pure soul.
"Ludo get brother," Ludo said, setting Sir Didymus on the ground.
"Well met, Sir Ludo!" he exclaimed once he was steady on his feet.
"Good. Come on," demanded Sarah before she tried and failed to pass Sir Didymus.
"Wait a minute! You forget my sacred vow, my lady. I cannot let you pass." He was thankful his opponents didn't notice the way he spat 'my lady.'
"But you just said Ludo is your brother," exclaimed Sarah in frustration.
"I have taken an oath, and I must defend it to the death."
"Smell," Ludo exclaimed once again. The smell of the Bog overtaking his senses once again.
"Okay. Let's handle this thing logically. What exactly have you sworn?" Sarah asked the knight.
"I have sworn with my lifeblood, no one shall pass this way without my permission."
"Well, may we have your permission?" Sarah asked, seemingly able to gather enough braincells to ask the right question. Sir Didymus didn't know what to to. The hobgoblin was nowhere in sight to give him orders or advise. He was supposed to slow her down, but with such a direct question, he didn't have a choice but to let her pass.
"Well, I, uh- um. Uh. Huh. Yes?" Sir Didymus finally relented.
"Thank you, noble sir," Sarah said to the knight.
"My lady," he said, sweeping to one side so Sarah may cross.
No that she was able to see the bridge however, she wasn't sure she wanted to cross. It was nothing more than a single board of wood held up with the barest of supports. She hesitantly stepped onto the rickety bridge, if you could rightly call it that, and began to cross.
"Have no fear, sweet lady. This bridge has lasted for a thousand years," Sir Didymus exclaimed surely, wrapping his staff sharply on one of the supporting stones at his end of the bridge. Said bridge then decided to demonstrate such an affirmation by completely disintegrating. Unfortunately for Sarah, she had been right in the middle of crossing. She managed to grab onto a low hanging branch before she too fell, but it was flimsy, and began drooping slowly down towards the Bog, as it was not meant to handle her weight.
"No!" she screamed as she hung there.
"It seemed solid enough," Sir Didymus mused. Then again, he himself hadn't tried crossing since he was charged with protecting it.
"Hoggle!" Sarah pleaded for help. Hoggle had just come back around the bend from being able to clear his head and saw Sarah suspended above the Bog and slowly descending. Hoggle had to give Sir Didymus his due for creatively slowing her down, unaware that is was completely on accident. Sarah began screaming in desperation, not wanting to smell forever after.
"Fear not, fair maiden, I will save thee. Somehow," he said to her. Although he wasn't going to try very hard. He figured getting a little wet was fair payment for her deceitful attitude.
Ludo then began to howl loudly into the air behind the knight. "Sir Ludo, canst thou sit by and howl, when yon maiden needs our help?" he asked the beast. Ludo ignored him and continued to howl. Suddenly a large boulder dislodged itself from its ancient resting place and began rolling straight into the Bog, where it once again came to rest beneath Sarah so she could let go of the branch.
He howled once more and more boulders rose from the depths of the Bog to form a path of sorts from bank to bank. Sarah turned to Ludo, an impressed gleam in her eyes.
"That's incredible, Ludo," she said.
"My brother, canst thou summon up the very rocks?" Sir Didymus asked Ludo.
"Sure. Rocks friends," said Ludo simply as he made his way towards the path to cross. Sarah already making her way to the other bank.
"Hoggle," she said, taking his reluctantly offered hand.
"Here," he offered.
"Thanks, Hoggle." She then turned at the sound of flatulence, to see Ludo crossing the new rock path through the Bog. Every step he took earning another wet fart sound from the rocks beneath him.
"Careful, Ludo," Sarah said in mock kindness. She wanted to get away from this stench, not have it follow her around should the big hairy monster fall in.
"Sir Ludo, wait for me. Oh, Ambrosius. It's all right Ambrosius. You can come out now," the knight coaxed to his noble steed. A shaggy sheep dog, hiding behind the roots of a rather large tree.
"Come on. Thattaboy," he said as the dog appeared before the knight with a saddle on his back. Sarah couldn't help notice the resemblance to her own dog, Merlin.
Sir Didymus climbed into the saddle and urged Ambrosius across the new path.
"Just close your eyes and go," he said to the dog when he hesitated, and he crossed quickly.
"Let's get out of here," Sarah said, leading the party away from the Bog.
Hoggle tarried a bit behind the party, letting them get a bit farther ahead of him before looking down at the peach that he had in his hand. He really needed to find a way to get the peach to Sarah. No doubt that she should be feeling hungry soon, and then, once she had eaten of it, he could make his way to the castle and hopefully have some time to talk things over with his future queen. And he sincerely hoped that his plans went accordingly. Otherwise, he was going to need a strong pint of grog, or four, to get him through his endeavors.
)O( )O( )O( )O( )O(
With Jareth
He had shed his vest and loosened his buttons sometime during his fun with the vampire. He still retained his gloves though. Should he need to touch the creature, not that he had planned on it, his magic doing what he willed of it, he wouldn't get any of his tainted venom on his person. The vampire was groaning in pain. Pieces of him lay separated and shredded around the oubliette, and Jareth was panting slightly at the continuous concentration he was putting into his magic to hurt the being.
It didn't take long to get to this point, but to a person in pain, a few moments feels like an eternity. Jareth took out his pocket watch, and hmm'ed at the time.
"As much as I would love to continue our time together, I have a previous engagement I'm afraid I cannot miss or be late for, not that I would wish to," he told the vampire.
"Got to get home so you can bed your whore of a mother," Edward taunted in a weak voice. At this point, he was in so much pain, he was hoping to goad the powerful being into ending his existence.
It didn't quite have the effect he was hoping for when another powerful burst of magic ripped into him further and only causing more pain.
"Don't be vulgar, vampire. If you must know, I have a plan to woo your former paramour, the Lady Isabella, by taking her to a ball." The vampire laughed, or tried to, rather. It was raspy an sounded as though he had swallowed gravel.
"She hates dancing. I made her go to a dance and she complained the entire time," Edward told Jareth.
"Ah, that is where you are wrong, vampire. For this isn't just for fun, it's for work, too!" Jareth said jovially as he disappeared from the oubliette in a poof of faerie dust.
Only to reappear in the garden where he had left Isabella with her parents. Not seeing them where he had left them, he walked the paths for a bit until he found them near a wishing well towards the center of the gardens.
"Ah! My Lord. My Ladies," he said with a bow to Titania and Oberon. Your visit was delightful, I hope."
Isabella's face brightened at Jareth's entrance. Titania and Oberon noticed this immediately, along with the way Jareth's shoulders visibly relaxed at his first sight of her, and smiled a secret smile at one another. There was no doubt that the two young Fae had feelings for one another.
Isabella went to his side at once, gently placing her hand on his arm in greeting. Jareth leaned ever so slightly into the touch. Savoring the way his heart felt as though it wanted to beat right out of his chest.
Smiling down at the incredible young Fae, he spoke. "I wish to escort you to a ball, this evening. Your parent's are welcome as well. I'm hoping to stall your cousin in there for a while. She has built up this fantasy of me in her head and I have to perpetuate it. I honestly don't know why I'm still trying to get her to learn more than the fact that life isn't always fair."
"Because you took an oath to try to the very end. Humans are strange in that way. Sometimes, it takes them to the very end of something to finally get a point," Oberon reminded the Goblin King.
"Indeed. I'm hoping though, that since her stubborn nature won't allow her to stay trapped there for too long, that after she has broken her end of the illusion, we may still have some fun. I plan on inviting a few more well know Fae as well. Corrigan, Dagda, Mari, Ghillie, The Lady of the Lake, and so on. And there is nothing like dancing to get to know someone. Since I have had only our meal together to speak with you, I wished to use this as a means to do so again," Jareth explained to Isabella.
She beamed up at him, making the difference in their height known. He hadn't noticed it before, but her five feet in height, maybe, was dwarfed by his own 6' 4''.
"My Lord Jareth, I would like nothing more!" she affirmed.
A/N: I am so glad that y'all are enjoying the story. I meant to have this chapter posted a day ago but I ran into a little trouble yesterday in trying to write it, that is to say, I hit a bit of a block. Not to worry though. I slept on it, quite literally too since I slept a good 12 hours into Saturday, and woke up around 2pm ready to write. And here be the fruits of my labor. rofl Enjoy!