Sarah was in a bit of a predicament.
She had been rolling forward, switching her stick from hand to hand as she used it half as a scanner and half as a sort of oar, when suddenly, her wheels had hit some obstacle that she knew had not been there a second ago, and she had been thrown out of her chair.
It was, naturally, this moment when she was pausing to catch her breath back after the wind had been knocked out of her from the impact, that Jareth reappeared.
"Hello Sarah."
Sarah growled incoherently and pushed herself up into a seated position.
"What?" she demanded.
"'What'?" Jareth mockingly repeated. "Why, I'm just checking up on you. Your brother was quite concerned."
"Toby?" Sarah's back straightened. "Is he alright?" She shook her head. "Physically I mean. He's probably terrified."
"Of course," if Sarah didn't know any better, she would have thought that Jareth was mildly offended. "He is perfectly fine. I have never hurt any of the children in my care."
Sarah laughed, but it was not a sound that conveyed amusement. "Just turned them into goblins."
Jareth sighed. "Not all of them. Just the ones who wanted it. It would probably shock you, the number of children wished to me who wish they were anyone, anything, but themselves."
Sarah was quiet at that. She didn't want to admit it, but she had an inkling where these children might be coming from.
After all, you didn't wish away a child because you were happy about taking care of them. It would not take a particularly bright child to be able to figure that out.
What that might do to a child's psyche...
She shook her head, and began to drag herself forward in a combat crawl. This was not the time for contemplation.
"What are you doing?" Jareth asked.
Sarah rolled her eyes, but kept going forward. "The Labyrinth has confiscated my chair, hasn't it." It was not a question.
Jareth looked back, and saw that Sarah's chair was covered in ivy, and had been dragged against one of the walls. He could probably cut it free if he wished to – he could no doubt ask nicely and the Labyrinth would free the chair for him, no cutting required – but, it seemed to him that the Labyrinth had chosen this as the first real test of Sarah, and he was loathe to interfere. The Labyrinth didn't like it if he interfered, and since it had a somewhat sick sense of humour, Jareth generally at least paid lip-service to its whims. Otherwise, it got upset, and it was generally a bad idea to upset one's kingdom if one could avoid it.
"It appears so," Jareth admitted.
Sarah shrugged, and then kept on crawling. "It figures. Ah well." She continued onward.
Jareth ambled beside her, easily keeping pace. "Toby is worried about you," he repeated.
Sarah snorted, but her smile, when Jareth looked at it, was affectionate.
"Of course he is. He worries too much. He's safe though."
Again, it didn't sound like a question, but Jareth found himself answering, nonetheless.
"He is distressed over the deaths of his parents, and deeply concerned about you, but otherwise, yes, of course," he said, somewhat defensively.
"Of course," Sarah agreed amiably. "I know he's safe with you, Jareth. Tell him from me that whatever happens, he's not to worry. Things will work out."
Jareth paused, and Sarah continued to crawl forward. She was a full three metres ahead when he found his words.
"How do you know?" he asked, surprised.
Sarah rolled her glass eyes.
"It's obvious. You want him. You wanted him the first time, and you want him now. I don't know why, but considering the fact that he's had happy dreams about some sort of "magic dance" since he was tiny, I'm pretty sure he didn't exactly suffer when he was under your care."
Jareth supposed that was a fair point, though not the question he had meant her to answer. At least, he thought it was not. He wondered what was going through that stubborn, creative mind of hers.
"I want both of you," he blurted out.
Sarah paused.
"Why?" she asked, clearly perplexed. "I'm scarred and broken, Jareth. I can't even see. Why on earth would you want me?"
"You defeated me," Jareth admitted.
"So?" Sarah said, continuing onwards in her elbow-first commando crawl. "I can't have been the first."
Jareth didn't reply, and a few moments later, Sarah couldn't feel his presence any more, so she guessed that he must have left.
"Weird," she muttered to herself.
Still, she kept crawling forward. Unbeknownst to Jareth, she had a plan.
Sniffing the air, she smelt the distinct smell that flowed from the Bog of Eternal Stench. This far away, the scent was light, and would have been barely even noticeable to most people.
But to Sarah, who had spent the last 8 months or so relying on every sense other than sight, it was still distinctive. It was a landmark that even she could make her way to, and if she could make it...
Well. Suffice to say, she really hoped Sir Didymus was going to be home, otherwise things were going to be tricky.