The Accidental Return

PART TWELVE

Sarah leaned forward to listen as the little farmer cleared his throat. The fire threw shadows across the dilapidated walls of the church, it all seemed so spooky. Sarah remembered telling ghost stories around the fire when she went camping with her girl scout troop.

"A little more then a hundred years ago, the Underground was ruled by a Queen. Her beauty was famous and her kindness was legendary. She ruled the inhabitants of the Underground as if she was a mother and we were her children. She had several advisers that helped her with this rule, because every day the Underground got a little bigger. The Underground is a place where all dreams go when they are finished being…well… dreams. Anyway, these advisors helped her, each having their own job so the Queen did have to bother with it.

One of these advisors was the Keeper of Discarded Children. He wanted a better position within the kingdom, he wanted to be King. So one day, he ships the queen off to the Aboveground. She's stripped of her magic and can no longer return here. The new King of Goblins forbid anyone to talk of the queen and had all her shrines destroyed."

He sighed and looked over at the broken statue, "He was a mean one, they say. He died before I was born, thank goodness, but my Pappy said he drove the Underground into a depression we still haven't crawled out of. Pappy used to say the throne was cursed when the queen was driven away. The Underground would never return to its glory until a queen sits on the throne. Most of the inhabitants had forgotten there even was a queen. Well, everyone but us folks of Hidden Valley, and maybe the owl man."

Sarah was jerked out of her warm cocoon of story listening by the fire, "Owl man?"

"Ayah. I comes here, every now and then, to get away from the wife and chores and just remember. A few times, I came here to see a man, taller then you, staring at the statue of the queen. He seems so sad. Once, I made a noise and he turned, and with such fierce eyes, turned into an owl and flew off. Gave me the creeps. I haven't been back here since."

Sarah nodded. She wasn't sure, but that sounded like Jareth. Could he have been the one to dethrone the queen? No, that was a hundred years ago… he couldn't be that old, could he? Sarah stood, going to the statue. She pressed a hand to the broken face of the woman and sighed, "That was a lovely story, sir. Thank you for telling me." Something glistening in the dirt caught her eyes. She bent over, dusting it off. She held it up and stared at the glass orb in her hand. It looked like one of Jareth's bubbles. She turned it in the firelight, a familiar feeling sweeping through her. She had to sit down before her legs got any weaker. She watched the bubble and inside, she could see people moving. It was like that dream!

She looked up suddenly and saw the farmer was leaving. He gave her a wave and left as the rain poured harder outside and thunder cracked the sky. Sarah looked back at the bubble, squinting hard. This bubble wasn't as clear or clean as the ones she had seen Jareth use, maybe this one was too old. She took her shirt and polished it a little, trying to get a better look. She held it closer to the fire and was able to make out, yes,people were moving inside, dancing. She recognized the place, it was from when Jareth poisoned her with the peach. The round ballroom. She didn't see any others, just two people dancing. She knew Jareth, from his styled spiky hair and just the way he moved like a fluid lover. The woman, she thought at first, it was her. The dress was familiar, but when the woman turned, she saw it wasn't her, it was the statue lady, the queen. Her eyes were blue and her hair was black, but other then that, she and Sarah could have been sisters. The two stopped dancing, Sarah could see their faces better and what burned in their eyes made Sarah feel like she was intruding on a private moment. And in a way, she was, this was a memory from Jareth himself.

"Oh my…" Sarah breathed. She turned her head and the crystal dropped into the fire. It seemed to pop like a bubble and the fire sparkled with glitter. Her hand went to her throat as she tried to stomp down what feelings had been stirred by finding the orb. What was she suppose to do? She just wanted to go home!

'Really, just want to go home, now?' The little voice in her head said.

Sarah grit her teeth and lay on the ground. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, singing very loudly, trying to drown her thoughts out.


She woke up in the morning feeling cross, soar, and wet. She dusted her back off, feeling grumpy as she restarted the fire to dry off from where the rain had gotten in and soaked her. She ate a couple of the applmelon fruits, starting to hate them now, and thought about what she should do. She needed to leave Hidden Valley for one. She had asked the farmer which way to the Goblin City, even better, he gave her a map. It was small, but she could read it and that was all that mattered. It would take some time to get to the Goblin City, but she had to. She needed to see Jareth, evil fairy bitch queen or no. He had to know of someway to send her home, no matter what SHE had said. He was the Goblin King for heaven sake. The Goblin King.

Sarah wondered how he had become the Goblin King. Did he dethrone Queen Charlotte? Could he be that old or did he inherit it from his father? That title… what had the farmer called the advisor? The Keeper of Discarded Children, or something like that. That sounded like what Jareth did. Came when summoned and took children. Or maybe it was just the words from her book. "I wish the Goblin King would come right now." He would come to those words and did as the person asked for a price.

Sarah looked outside after dousing her fire and saw it was clear and very beautiful. She started down the road, walking slowly at first, her thoughts allowing her to go a while before noticing she was hungry again. She stopped, looking around. She wasn't in Hidden Valley anymore, she was sure of it. She was on a flat plain, like a prairie. It looked like the Sea of Grass, but it was very green. Gold sky stretched forever above her and she turned in a circle, not seeing any mountains or trees or any kind of landmark for miles. She threw her hands up and just started walking again, grumbling about kings and queens.

Her heart hurt, she realized as she walked on for about another hour. She missed her father and Toby and even her step-mother. She wanted to know if they missed her too, if they knew she was ok. She hoped Hoggle was ok and Didymus. What had happened to Ludo and David? She stopped in the road again and sighed, she walked to the side of the road to find a place to sit. She hadn't stepped off the road for a moment when she felt it close around it. Some sort of net she couldn't see. She screamed as it pulled her feet up and jerked her into the sky.