Chapter: The Journey Too Steep
Toby Williams was not a happy eleven-year-old when he woke up on a stone floor. Groaning and rubbing his abused head, Toby sat up slowly so as not to inflict any more damage upon himself. In his mind, he wondered if he'd had a concussion or if he was hallucinating the prison-like walls around him.
Why would an eleven-year-old know what a concussion or hallucinations are? When young Toby had been in the Labyrinth at his early age of four, he had been left alone for the first two hours of his arrival. Jareth had already begun the process of pumping Toby's tiny body with magic. When Sarah took Toby back, he'd taken what magic he had and slowly begun to learn things from his own world because that magic made him more aware of his surroundings. This was one of the many reasons that he played dumb and waited to see if people took him at face value.
Standing up slowly, the child prodigy placed his most innocent and dumb look on his face that he could manage at the time with the dull thud of his heartbeat banging against his skull. He wasn't entirely shocked to discover tall, green, and absolutely horrifying creatures standing over him.
"Where's my big sister?" Toby asked in, yet again, his most innocent voice. One of the creatures laughed and poked his side with a long, slimy green finger. It bared its teeth in what could be roughly judged as a smile.
"The boy pretends well!" The creature said with a laugh. "He would have made an excellent goblin had his sister not taken him back." All of the creatures laughed, their voices like a high-pitched wind snapping through treetops during a hurricane.
"Its too bad he's too old now to become one of us!" Another, slightly shorter green creature said.
"Yes, its really too bad." Yet another creature with long, black nail commented with a toothy smirk.
"Enough, you'll scare the boy just as you did before!" King Jareth said as he made his way towards Toby. The little blond boy lifted his fists and would have hit Jareth if there hadn't been something frighteningly familiar about him.
King Jareth was a tall man with wild blond hair and mismatched eyes. One eye was a dark brown, warm and welcoming. His other eye was a glacier-like pale blue, cold and forbidding. He wore a black cape, gray tights, and a white poet's shirt with his muscled chest glowing palely. His smile was predatorily, and scary because of his sharp teeth.
"Do I know you?" Toby asked politely even though he could FEEL the answer in his bones. He KNEW this person! How many times had Sarah told him about the terrible Goblin King? Jareth smirked at Toby's question and sat back on his circular throne, one leg thrown lazily over an armrest.
"Don't play games, young Toby." Jareth said. "You know very well who I am." Toby tried to look innocent.
"I can't know you. You're a stranger." Toby said logically (a little too logically for a person in his position).
"Toby, I will not repeat myself." Jareth said with light finality. He could be cruel and scream the truth in Toby's face as the little blond boy was dunked into what had once been the Bog of Eternal Stench, but he just didn't want to. Jareth happened to like Toby quite a bit since he probably would have become Jareth's favorite goblin.
"Alright, I know you're the Goblin King." Toby finally said when it became apparent that Jareth wasn't going to buy into his act. Darn, and he'd thought he was getting to be as good as Sarah!
"That's much better. I didn't give you knowledge simply to have you become an idiot." Jareth said coolly.
"You gave me magic?" Toby couldn't help the note of curiosity that entered his voice. There was something about Jareth that he couldn't resist. Michu had it too. Perhaps he just liked their magic. "Why did you give me magic?" Jareth laughed and motioned towards a crystal that materialized in his hand. Toby came forward to see what it was.
"I gave you magic, little one, because you would have been mine."
Sarah and Michu had been walking for quite some time. Checking her watch, Sarah rubbed her temples in exasperation as a light to their right marked the sunrise.
"How long have we been in here?" Michu asked as she wiped the perspiration from her forehead. Sarah was a little surprised that Michu was so tired. It was true that they had been walking for several hours, but no one would be wobbling so much from just walking!
"We've been in here for about five hours." Sarah said, leaping forward to grab her friend when Michu swayed dangerously on her feet. Michu regained her balance, however, and refused to let Sarah touch her. Motioning ahead, Michu's breathing became more and more labored.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked quietly when her friend swayed forward dangerously again. Standing up stiffly, Michu sent Sarah a warm, but tired, smile.
"I'm fine. So tell me, what happened when you went into the Labyrinth?" Sarah knew that Michu was changing the subject on purpose, but she knew even better that Michu wouldn't like Sarah pointing out her obvious discomfort and rapidly increasing weakness. With a heavy sigh, Sarah began to explain to Michu what she had done when she was in the Labyrinth with her friends.
'Just a little bit wouldn't hurt. Just one spell . . . but Sarah would know. She knows that I'm a pixie, but she doesn't understand. She doesn't know about my power.' Michu thought as her vision began to blur. 'Why now?!' she demanded angrily. 'Why couldn't this have happened years ago?!'
"So then Ludo summoned the rocks and I didn't get any of the bog on me." Sarah said with a laugh. "Now that I think about it, the Bog of Eternal Stench really wasn't all that scary. The smell was really bad, true, but it was better than some eight-headed hell-hound coming out of nowhere and chewing us into bits." Sarah kept on talking, seemingly forgetting that Michu was lagging behind more and more.
Michu wanted to tell Sarah to slow down, just a little would be fine, but her pride wouldn't let her. 'If I tell her I have to slow down, she'll know something's wrong.' Michu told herself firmly as she reached out to support herself against the cold stone walls. She could feel their magic and their reaction to her own suppressed magic.
That was the reason that Michu was suddenly so weak. In the Human Realm, hiding and squishing her magic wasn't all that difficult. It was all a matter of discipline and forcing herself not to think of the beautiful things her magic could create. Just one sweep of the hand and her lamp (which seemed so far away after hours of working) would instantly turn off. Just a little tug of magic and that loudmouth jerk sitting beside her would go flying, leaving her alone. Just a little magic and she could get some PEACE from the life style she had forced herself to undertake.
Pixie magic was different from any other kind of magic. It thrived when suppressed but when released, it exploded in its power. Michu had been holding her power in for five hundred and seventy two years. No one knew, but that was the record of the longest time a Fae had ever gone without magic. Her little sprout of magic with the dagger had awakened her magic and it had been trying to force itself through her ever since her dagger had been banished away. Goblin magic was similar to pixie magic, but to suppress it was absolutely impossible. Jareth actually held THE record for not spending magic for an entire twenty-four hours.
"Sarah . . . ." Michu finally gasped, her voice coming out as only a whisper. Sarah kept on talking, not having heard her friend at all; even though she felt something was wrong, she wasn't about to make her friend angry for bringing it up. "Sarah!" Michu cried a little louder. Her knees buckled and she collapsed. Sarah whirled around and gasped in horror!
"Michu?!" She whispered. She began to run back, not having realized how far behind Michu had been. "MICHU!!" Sarah screamed when one of the walls of the Labyrinth moved into her path, securely cutting her off from her unconscious friend! Banging her fists viciously on the wall, Sarah screamed over the top to reach her best friend. "Wake up! Michu! Please wake up! Jareth, that isn't fair!" The last part was directed towards the castle.
Desperately trying to find a way through the barrier, Sarah finally turned her tearstained face towards the wall. Forcing herself to calm down, Sarah thought of what Michu would say or do in her situation. Coming to an unwanted but realistic conclusion, Sarah shouted as loud as she could.
"Don't worry! I'll get Toby back and then we'll go straight home! I'll take care of you, don't worry!" Sarah screamed. "You're my best friend! I won't abandon you!" Feeling guilty even after her words, Sarah ran the opposite way and in the direction of the castle.
"Hello Michu." Jareth whispered as he appeared beside Michu's unconscious form. He frowned to find her at foot level instead of chest-level. Getting down on one knee, Jareth picked up Michu so that her body was propped up against his inner thigh. She was breathing hard and her lavender hair was plastered against her skin as beads of sweat formed all over her body. She began to shiver chillingly now that the wind could cool her over-heated body.
"Where's Sarah?" Jareth mused to himself as he picked up Michu's surprisingly light form and took her towards a wall. He smiled faintly when the stone began to twist out of shape, trying to touch her and her magic. She shivered all the more from it. "My dear, you shouldn't be out if you're sick." Jareth said as he went through several walls and sat down on a fountain ledge with Michu cradled in his arms.
"Hello Goblin King." A weak voice whispered. Jareth glanced at Michu's abnormally pale face as she gave him a weak smile. Her cobalt eyes opened very slowly. "Sarah went on ahead . . . and I wasn't sick before I came here. Your damn magic is making me weak." She said before another wave of the chills forced her into silence.
"I have a name, you know." Jareth said airily as Michu's shivers grew worse. "It's Jareth." He added, just to tease her a little. What he received was a hollow laugh similar to an empty breeze.
"Didn't you say that you never wanted to see or hear my name again as long as you lived? Did you die?" Jareth arched an eyebrow, a little surprised to discover that the pixie in his arms was not only joking, but had remembered his words even after all of the years they had been apart.
"I've changed my mind." Jareth shrugged, lifting Michu slightly with his gesture. She arched her own eyebrow in doubt.
"The last time we spoke, you yelled at me. Why did you suddenly change your mind in five hours?" She demanded before she shivered uncontrollably once more. Jareth frowned at her shivers.
"Why is my magic affecting you so badly? I've had pixies and all other kinds of creatures wished away here and they never had such . . . allergies." Both of them laughed.
"It's because I'm allergic to all of your glitter!" When Jareth gave her a be-serious-please look, she giggled again. "I'm not going to tell you. Now answer my question." The cogs in Jareth's mind turned and he smirked at the little pixie.
"I'll tell you the answer to your question if you answer mine." He said with obvious innocence. He loved mind games.
"Alright." 'Yes!' Jareth thought in triumph. "But you have to go first." 'No!' Jareth growled in defeat. Taking a deep breath, Jareth glanced down at Michu again. She had a very strange smile on her face and her eyelids were slightly drooped in a (Jareth gulped) appealing way.
He had only shown passion for two women in his entire life. One was a lost love, the princess of the pixies to be more precise. Sarah was the other. He had given his choice of obsessions a lot of thought and began to notice similarities between Sarah and the Pixie Princess. He'd heard that she had escaped from her kingdom RIGHT BEFORE SARAH CAME TO THE LABYRINTH! No one had heard of her since her disappearance and the only way that would have been possible would have been if she'd gone to the Human Realm. Without Sarah's affection, Jareth had (reluctantly) begun to think about other women. All of the women had been after his throne, or his bed. None of them had ever shown any interest in wanting him for himself.
All except Michu.
She had been the only one clever enough to pose as Sarah and win his affections. She had been kinder, gentler, sweeter, and had loved him terribly. She'd even tricked him into saying he loved her (the new Sarah) and not the old her (the real Sarah). Jareth could see his own want for Sarah's affections in her own eyes during the game shining back at him. She wanted him not for the dreams he promised or the world he lived in; she wanted him for Jareth, not for the Goblin King.
"I changed my mind because I want us to stop fighting." Jareth said simply. Michu starred at him for a long time, her eyes glazing over as unconsciousness began to pull at her. "Now why are you reacting like this to my magic?" Michu chuckled. Jareth knew right away that she was asleep as her eyelids fluttered closed and her dream self began to speak to him.
"It's not your magic, it's the lack of it. I'm holding in all of my power so that Sarah can't realize who I am." Jareth's eyes widened in shock at her words. She was holding in her power?! No wonder she had been hard to pinpoint! He knew she had more magic than a light bulb (the amount which was emitted from her pale form)!
"Idiot." Jareth muttered, not knowing whether he meant himself or Michu. Seeing a faint smile on her face, he shook his head. There was only one thing he could do to stop Michu from going into a coma (which was going to happen fairly soon since she was obviously too stubborn to use her own magic to save herself). Leaning over slightly, Jareth placed his lips against her own.
A/N: Thank you to Lady Sorrow, susan, terrie, draegon_fire, ShopGirl42, GoddessVixen, Megan, Jenny and Queen of the Underground! ^.^ You guys are the best reviewers! I got the idea of Toby's scene from one of you guys (you know who you are ^.^). And now WHAT does Jareth think he's DOING to Michu when he still shows feelings for Sarah?! It's like a soap opera but BETTER!!
O.o So many reviews! I nearly had a heart attack! I think it's kind of obvious that I want more of your WONDERFUL reviews! I love you guys! You're so nice to me! ^.^
Toby Williams was not a happy eleven-year-old when he woke up on a stone floor. Groaning and rubbing his abused head, Toby sat up slowly so as not to inflict any more damage upon himself. In his mind, he wondered if he'd had a concussion or if he was hallucinating the prison-like walls around him.
Why would an eleven-year-old know what a concussion or hallucinations are? When young Toby had been in the Labyrinth at his early age of four, he had been left alone for the first two hours of his arrival. Jareth had already begun the process of pumping Toby's tiny body with magic. When Sarah took Toby back, he'd taken what magic he had and slowly begun to learn things from his own world because that magic made him more aware of his surroundings. This was one of the many reasons that he played dumb and waited to see if people took him at face value.
Standing up slowly, the child prodigy placed his most innocent and dumb look on his face that he could manage at the time with the dull thud of his heartbeat banging against his skull. He wasn't entirely shocked to discover tall, green, and absolutely horrifying creatures standing over him.
"Where's my big sister?" Toby asked in, yet again, his most innocent voice. One of the creatures laughed and poked his side with a long, slimy green finger. It bared its teeth in what could be roughly judged as a smile.
"The boy pretends well!" The creature said with a laugh. "He would have made an excellent goblin had his sister not taken him back." All of the creatures laughed, their voices like a high-pitched wind snapping through treetops during a hurricane.
"Its too bad he's too old now to become one of us!" Another, slightly shorter green creature said.
"Yes, its really too bad." Yet another creature with long, black nail commented with a toothy smirk.
"Enough, you'll scare the boy just as you did before!" King Jareth said as he made his way towards Toby. The little blond boy lifted his fists and would have hit Jareth if there hadn't been something frighteningly familiar about him.
King Jareth was a tall man with wild blond hair and mismatched eyes. One eye was a dark brown, warm and welcoming. His other eye was a glacier-like pale blue, cold and forbidding. He wore a black cape, gray tights, and a white poet's shirt with his muscled chest glowing palely. His smile was predatorily, and scary because of his sharp teeth.
"Do I know you?" Toby asked politely even though he could FEEL the answer in his bones. He KNEW this person! How many times had Sarah told him about the terrible Goblin King? Jareth smirked at Toby's question and sat back on his circular throne, one leg thrown lazily over an armrest.
"Don't play games, young Toby." Jareth said. "You know very well who I am." Toby tried to look innocent.
"I can't know you. You're a stranger." Toby said logically (a little too logically for a person in his position).
"Toby, I will not repeat myself." Jareth said with light finality. He could be cruel and scream the truth in Toby's face as the little blond boy was dunked into what had once been the Bog of Eternal Stench, but he just didn't want to. Jareth happened to like Toby quite a bit since he probably would have become Jareth's favorite goblin.
"Alright, I know you're the Goblin King." Toby finally said when it became apparent that Jareth wasn't going to buy into his act. Darn, and he'd thought he was getting to be as good as Sarah!
"That's much better. I didn't give you knowledge simply to have you become an idiot." Jareth said coolly.
"You gave me magic?" Toby couldn't help the note of curiosity that entered his voice. There was something about Jareth that he couldn't resist. Michu had it too. Perhaps he just liked their magic. "Why did you give me magic?" Jareth laughed and motioned towards a crystal that materialized in his hand. Toby came forward to see what it was.
"I gave you magic, little one, because you would have been mine."
Sarah and Michu had been walking for quite some time. Checking her watch, Sarah rubbed her temples in exasperation as a light to their right marked the sunrise.
"How long have we been in here?" Michu asked as she wiped the perspiration from her forehead. Sarah was a little surprised that Michu was so tired. It was true that they had been walking for several hours, but no one would be wobbling so much from just walking!
"We've been in here for about five hours." Sarah said, leaping forward to grab her friend when Michu swayed dangerously on her feet. Michu regained her balance, however, and refused to let Sarah touch her. Motioning ahead, Michu's breathing became more and more labored.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked quietly when her friend swayed forward dangerously again. Standing up stiffly, Michu sent Sarah a warm, but tired, smile.
"I'm fine. So tell me, what happened when you went into the Labyrinth?" Sarah knew that Michu was changing the subject on purpose, but she knew even better that Michu wouldn't like Sarah pointing out her obvious discomfort and rapidly increasing weakness. With a heavy sigh, Sarah began to explain to Michu what she had done when she was in the Labyrinth with her friends.
'Just a little bit wouldn't hurt. Just one spell . . . but Sarah would know. She knows that I'm a pixie, but she doesn't understand. She doesn't know about my power.' Michu thought as her vision began to blur. 'Why now?!' she demanded angrily. 'Why couldn't this have happened years ago?!'
"So then Ludo summoned the rocks and I didn't get any of the bog on me." Sarah said with a laugh. "Now that I think about it, the Bog of Eternal Stench really wasn't all that scary. The smell was really bad, true, but it was better than some eight-headed hell-hound coming out of nowhere and chewing us into bits." Sarah kept on talking, seemingly forgetting that Michu was lagging behind more and more.
Michu wanted to tell Sarah to slow down, just a little would be fine, but her pride wouldn't let her. 'If I tell her I have to slow down, she'll know something's wrong.' Michu told herself firmly as she reached out to support herself against the cold stone walls. She could feel their magic and their reaction to her own suppressed magic.
That was the reason that Michu was suddenly so weak. In the Human Realm, hiding and squishing her magic wasn't all that difficult. It was all a matter of discipline and forcing herself not to think of the beautiful things her magic could create. Just one sweep of the hand and her lamp (which seemed so far away after hours of working) would instantly turn off. Just a little tug of magic and that loudmouth jerk sitting beside her would go flying, leaving her alone. Just a little magic and she could get some PEACE from the life style she had forced herself to undertake.
Pixie magic was different from any other kind of magic. It thrived when suppressed but when released, it exploded in its power. Michu had been holding her power in for five hundred and seventy two years. No one knew, but that was the record of the longest time a Fae had ever gone without magic. Her little sprout of magic with the dagger had awakened her magic and it had been trying to force itself through her ever since her dagger had been banished away. Goblin magic was similar to pixie magic, but to suppress it was absolutely impossible. Jareth actually held THE record for not spending magic for an entire twenty-four hours.
"Sarah . . . ." Michu finally gasped, her voice coming out as only a whisper. Sarah kept on talking, not having heard her friend at all; even though she felt something was wrong, she wasn't about to make her friend angry for bringing it up. "Sarah!" Michu cried a little louder. Her knees buckled and she collapsed. Sarah whirled around and gasped in horror!
"Michu?!" She whispered. She began to run back, not having realized how far behind Michu had been. "MICHU!!" Sarah screamed when one of the walls of the Labyrinth moved into her path, securely cutting her off from her unconscious friend! Banging her fists viciously on the wall, Sarah screamed over the top to reach her best friend. "Wake up! Michu! Please wake up! Jareth, that isn't fair!" The last part was directed towards the castle.
Desperately trying to find a way through the barrier, Sarah finally turned her tearstained face towards the wall. Forcing herself to calm down, Sarah thought of what Michu would say or do in her situation. Coming to an unwanted but realistic conclusion, Sarah shouted as loud as she could.
"Don't worry! I'll get Toby back and then we'll go straight home! I'll take care of you, don't worry!" Sarah screamed. "You're my best friend! I won't abandon you!" Feeling guilty even after her words, Sarah ran the opposite way and in the direction of the castle.
"Hello Michu." Jareth whispered as he appeared beside Michu's unconscious form. He frowned to find her at foot level instead of chest-level. Getting down on one knee, Jareth picked up Michu so that her body was propped up against his inner thigh. She was breathing hard and her lavender hair was plastered against her skin as beads of sweat formed all over her body. She began to shiver chillingly now that the wind could cool her over-heated body.
"Where's Sarah?" Jareth mused to himself as he picked up Michu's surprisingly light form and took her towards a wall. He smiled faintly when the stone began to twist out of shape, trying to touch her and her magic. She shivered all the more from it. "My dear, you shouldn't be out if you're sick." Jareth said as he went through several walls and sat down on a fountain ledge with Michu cradled in his arms.
"Hello Goblin King." A weak voice whispered. Jareth glanced at Michu's abnormally pale face as she gave him a weak smile. Her cobalt eyes opened very slowly. "Sarah went on ahead . . . and I wasn't sick before I came here. Your damn magic is making me weak." She said before another wave of the chills forced her into silence.
"I have a name, you know." Jareth said airily as Michu's shivers grew worse. "It's Jareth." He added, just to tease her a little. What he received was a hollow laugh similar to an empty breeze.
"Didn't you say that you never wanted to see or hear my name again as long as you lived? Did you die?" Jareth arched an eyebrow, a little surprised to discover that the pixie in his arms was not only joking, but had remembered his words even after all of the years they had been apart.
"I've changed my mind." Jareth shrugged, lifting Michu slightly with his gesture. She arched her own eyebrow in doubt.
"The last time we spoke, you yelled at me. Why did you suddenly change your mind in five hours?" She demanded before she shivered uncontrollably once more. Jareth frowned at her shivers.
"Why is my magic affecting you so badly? I've had pixies and all other kinds of creatures wished away here and they never had such . . . allergies." Both of them laughed.
"It's because I'm allergic to all of your glitter!" When Jareth gave her a be-serious-please look, she giggled again. "I'm not going to tell you. Now answer my question." The cogs in Jareth's mind turned and he smirked at the little pixie.
"I'll tell you the answer to your question if you answer mine." He said with obvious innocence. He loved mind games.
"Alright." 'Yes!' Jareth thought in triumph. "But you have to go first." 'No!' Jareth growled in defeat. Taking a deep breath, Jareth glanced down at Michu again. She had a very strange smile on her face and her eyelids were slightly drooped in a (Jareth gulped) appealing way.
He had only shown passion for two women in his entire life. One was a lost love, the princess of the pixies to be more precise. Sarah was the other. He had given his choice of obsessions a lot of thought and began to notice similarities between Sarah and the Pixie Princess. He'd heard that she had escaped from her kingdom RIGHT BEFORE SARAH CAME TO THE LABYRINTH! No one had heard of her since her disappearance and the only way that would have been possible would have been if she'd gone to the Human Realm. Without Sarah's affection, Jareth had (reluctantly) begun to think about other women. All of the women had been after his throne, or his bed. None of them had ever shown any interest in wanting him for himself.
All except Michu.
She had been the only one clever enough to pose as Sarah and win his affections. She had been kinder, gentler, sweeter, and had loved him terribly. She'd even tricked him into saying he loved her (the new Sarah) and not the old her (the real Sarah). Jareth could see his own want for Sarah's affections in her own eyes during the game shining back at him. She wanted him not for the dreams he promised or the world he lived in; she wanted him for Jareth, not for the Goblin King.
"I changed my mind because I want us to stop fighting." Jareth said simply. Michu starred at him for a long time, her eyes glazing over as unconsciousness began to pull at her. "Now why are you reacting like this to my magic?" Michu chuckled. Jareth knew right away that she was asleep as her eyelids fluttered closed and her dream self began to speak to him.
"It's not your magic, it's the lack of it. I'm holding in all of my power so that Sarah can't realize who I am." Jareth's eyes widened in shock at her words. She was holding in her power?! No wonder she had been hard to pinpoint! He knew she had more magic than a light bulb (the amount which was emitted from her pale form)!
"Idiot." Jareth muttered, not knowing whether he meant himself or Michu. Seeing a faint smile on her face, he shook his head. There was only one thing he could do to stop Michu from going into a coma (which was going to happen fairly soon since she was obviously too stubborn to use her own magic to save herself). Leaning over slightly, Jareth placed his lips against her own.
A/N: Thank you to Lady Sorrow, susan, terrie, draegon_fire, ShopGirl42, GoddessVixen, Megan, Jenny and Queen of the Underground! ^.^ You guys are the best reviewers! I got the idea of Toby's scene from one of you guys (you know who you are ^.^). And now WHAT does Jareth think he's DOING to Michu when he still shows feelings for Sarah?! It's like a soap opera but BETTER!!
O.o So many reviews! I nearly had a heart attack! I think it's kind of obvious that I want more of your WONDERFUL reviews! I love you guys! You're so nice to me! ^.^