-- And y'all thought that the Cleaner's were the worse thing in the Labyrinth! shivers Luckily, Sarah didn't have to face what was chasing her and she was saved. Or at least, it seems that way. In case anyone was wondering, Sarah now has only eight hours left to find and rescue Toby. --

Disclaimer: All original Labyrinth characters and lines are those of Jim Henson and Co. The original idea behind Sarah and Jareth was not mine … but this version is. All new characters you meet are mine, as it were, unless otherwise noted.

Chapter the Eleventh

Sarah felt as though they had broken through a barrier. She stopped crying just as the singer fell silent, its steps slowing to a stop. Gently, as though to make up for its earlier roughness, it set her on the soft ground.

They had left the shadowed corridors and burst out into what looked like Japanese gardens. The path was formed by small hexagonal stones of multiple brown hues. Bonsai trees loitered near what appeared to be Koi ponds. A sturdy bamboo bridge spanned a particularly large pond, beyond which Sarah could see the Castle.

"Sorry about that," the singer said in a downy soft voice, "I just thought it would be best to get out of there as fast as possible."

Sarah wiped her eyes and shook her head. "No. I mean, thank-you, it's alright. I really appreciate it."

She looked up at it for the first time. "Uh, I hope you don't mind my asking … but, what are you?"

"I'm a Songbyrd," it replied, making a gurgling noise in its throat. "My name is Draven. And you are?"

"My name's Sarah, and you definitely don't look like any song bird I've ever seen before."

He truly had no resemblance to the tiny avians that Abovegrounders associate with song birds. Draven stood nearly six-and-a-half feet tall and was wingless. His face was beakless, but the lower part of it curved out from his forehead with his tiny nose just above his chin. His eyes were incredibly large and round, but gave the appearance of being slightly smaller and elongated due to markings the colour of kohl that surrounded the eyes proper and continued off in a line about an inch long across the outside of each. However, instead of hair, what covered his head was actually golden downy feathers with a tawny, stronger crest rising up near his forehead and traveling down the back of his head … similar to and yet completely different than a Mohawk.

Both his hands and his feet were uncovered. His hands each had one thumb and six fingers that were long and thin. Instead of toes he possessed three claws and his heels were adorned with double spurs. Yet, his feet were not scaly, nor leathery, but covered with feathers about the same shade as the feathers on his head. It was then that Sarah realized that his entire body was actually covered in tiny, fine feathers (the way humans are covered with hair) that caught the light and gave the illusion that he was mutely glowing.

His attire consisted of loose coffee brown pants and a loose coffee-and-cream coloured shirt. Through the v-neck of his shirt Sarah could see strips on cloth snuggly around at least the upper part of his chest. It looked very tight and uncomfortable, she couldn't see how he could breathe, let alone sing, with such bindings.

Draven made the gurgling noise again, "No, I suppose I don't. I'm not exactly what you would find perched on your window seal am I?"

"Er, no," she blushed a little, realizing how silly her comment must have sounded to him.

"I was just teasing, I didn't intend to embarrass you," he gurgled and smiled, his golden flecked eyes taking on an extra twinkle. Sarah belatedly realized that his gurgling was actually laughter.

"Yeah, well … I guess I just wasn't thinking."

"Heh, it's a wonder you could even think at all. Most people can't, you know, after walking through the Malutiones' Domain. What were you doing there anyway?"

"I'm trying to get to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City. What is the Malutiones and why weren't you crying like a baby?"

Draven's eyes dimmed. "The story of the Malutiones is a nasty one and one that should not be told too closely to where it lives. I was able to retain my sanity by singing."

"But when I started singing it didn't make me feel any better, it just made me feel worse."

He eyed her cricitcally, taking careful note of her shoulder. "Hmmm. Well, your shoulder needs tending to, and since I already saved your life I better finish the job. I'll tell you a little of what I know while doing so."

He led her over to a large, molted red boulder that was currently occupied by a particularly spry looking bonsai. They sat down beneath it.

"Before I begin the much abbreviated version of the tale, might I be so nosey as to inquire about why you're trying to reach the Castle?" he asked, rolling her sleeve up.

"I accidentally wished my brother away. I have (or had, I suppose) thirteen hours to get there and get him back," she tried to see what her wound could possibly look like.

"Don't look!" he said, turning her face away from her shoulder, "How does one 'accidentally' wish one's brother to be taken by the goblins?"

"I didn't know it would actually work! I mean … I was telling him a story about a girl who wished her brother away to get him back to sleep. Then I kind of admitted that I sometimes wished that the goblins would take him away, like at that moment because he wouldn't go back to sleep. If I had known that a bunch of goblins would have actually taken him away I would have kept my mouth shut. It just isn't fair."

"What isn't fair? That your wish was granted when you didn't mean it or wasn't expecting it to come true? Or is it that you have an obligation to rescue him? And if you had known would you have kept your mouth shut just so you wouldn't have had to come here and rescue him, or for some other reason?"

Sarah blinked at all the questions. She had never thought of the situation in that light before. As if sensing her need to ponder over what he asked, Draven began to hum softly as he rubbed on some salve. It wasn't until he was done with the salve that she felt she had an answer.

"I suppose I wish I had kept my mouth shut because I didn't honestly want my brother to be taken away. I mean … I didn't want to deal with his crying at the moment, I suppose you could say that I didn't want to watch him. I didn't want him taken away forever though. I just wanted a break. I don't ever want my brother taken away. I love him.

"As far as the fairness bits go … well, I never really thought about it before now. I mean … what's happened hasn't been the way that I wanted it to go."

"So, your basis for comparison to use the term 'fair' in these situations has been your own desires compared to what happens instead of the rules that govern the world balanced against the chances offered to you."

Hearing it put in such a way so bluntly made Sarah suddenly feel like a small and selfish person. Her cheeks turned scarlet and her ears began to burn. Here I am complaining about a situation my own stupidity got me into to a person who suddenly had trouble thrust upon him for no reason other than the fact that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh!

"You must think I'm a horrible person," she mumbled.

"What! Oh, no, not at all, at all. I was merely making an observation. I didn't truly expect one as young as yourself to take the whole world into account. One does tend to be self-centered for a good part of life until one realizes that there is more to the world. I did not intend for you to take the comment so personally. There, that should do it."

Sarah looked down at her arm. There was a swatch of cloth the same colour of his shirt wrapped around her arm. She pulled her dirty sleeve back over it.

"Thank-you."

"Like I said, it's best to finish what one starts."

Draven helped her to her feet and lead her back onto the path. Standing in the center of the path he considered the shadowy passageway they had just come from. The sun fell around the opening in the wall as though afraid to enter it properly.

"The Malutiones is evil. I am unsure of when it first set up its home in the Labyrinth, but it was not always here. I do not know what it looks like, whether it's male or female, or if there are more than one. All who I know of who might be able to tell you that answer, are dead.

"What is known for sure is that it hates all life, or, at least, all good things about life. It is rumored that a creature as twisted at it is, a person who's heart is filled with bitterness and malice, can safely walk it's paths. For anyone else, it seeks to destroy them. A person who is truly good can battle it, but there is no guarantee that person can surpass it.

"The best one can hope for, walking through its Domain, is to remain undetected. To enter bleeding, or to touch its walls, is sheer folly. Blood drives it wild with hunger and its walls let it know exactly where the trespasser is … not to mention they have a leeching type of force all there own.

"The best way to go through and remain sane is to sing. You said that you started to sing … was it a cheerful song?"

"No, not exactly. I always thought it was a little sad."

"That's why you felt worse. It turned your own weapon against you. Although, you did well to start singing, most people are unable to. Its power radiates from the walls, the floor, and even the sky above: so great is its venom. The best way to stay sane is to sing cheerfully about anything at all. Joy and laughter, these are the antithesis to the Malutiones, and why it hates them more. At least, that is what we Songbyrds teach our young.

"Sometimes it is easy to avoid the Malutiones' Domain. It is like what we see before us: a place the sun dares not shine too brightly. It is almost its own entity here in the Labyrinth, instead of a part of a larger one the way most places are. Sometimes, however, it creeps in on a person. They believe they are going somewhere else and then belatedly find themselves wandering its twisted home. Very few actually seek it out."

With a start Sarah realized that that was precisely what Draven was doing. He was trying to get in, or through, the Malutiones' Domain. After all, he had been strolling through it when she ran into him.

"Draven, you aren't going to go back in there, are you?"

He looked down at her, "Of course. Just as you are on a quest, so am I."

"What could possibly lead you into that awful place?"

"To earn my place among my people I must venture out of the Labyrinth."

"Surely there must be other ways out other than through there!"

"Yes, of course there are other ways out of the Labyrinth. Yet, if I were to do that, my journey would be for nothing. I must follow the path that was set before me."

Who's twisted philosophy came up with that idea? What's wrong with making your own path? She thought.

"If I ever want my bindings off I must do as I was instructed," he said. Then he titled his head and smiled at her. "You know little about the ways of the Labyrinth. Before I go I will give you a little more help so that you may stay out of trouble.

"First, if you follow this path it will lead you out of the gardens and toward the Castle. At the end of the gardens it will break off into different paths. I do not know how many it will separate into, as it tends to change. However, I do know that if you take the path that seems to lead toward the Castle it will actually take you away from it. If you wish to reach the Castle take the path that seems to lead away from it.

"Next, nothing is what it seems in this place. Don't take anything for granted. What may seem like a gift offered in friendship could actually be a potentially hazardous trick. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she replied, thinking: that must be the third time someone has warned me not to take anything for granted.

"Finally, rarely is anything given freely here. If you have been offered advice in the past, accept it for what it is and don't question it. However, you owe me a debt for saving your life." Her eyes went wide as he plucked a feather from the crest on his head and placed it in her hand, "I don't know if I'll ever call it in. Keep this feather with you so that if you do ever need to make well your debt you will know. It's nothing personal, but a Life Debt is one of the few things that a person can't swindle their way out of in here. Remember that too, Abovegrounder."

Completely flabbergasted, Sarah watched him stride back into the Malutiones' Domain without a backward glance singing – of all things – "Oh What a Beautiful Morning."