escape tunnels
Fable III
Princess, Walter, Jasper

"Ah, now this is more like it! This is what an escape tunnel of a castle should look like!"

The Princess stared slack-jawed at the sheer amount of nothing. Well, there was something, it just happened to take up a lot of space and have a lot of emptiness to it.

"Walter, what exactly used to be down here?"

"Well, if I recall correctly, there used to be a basement level to the castle-"

"Yes, but it's still there."

"It was bigger, if your father's stories are anything to go by."

"This big though? Walter, you could fit the entire city down here!"

"Yes…"

"If I may interject?"

She glanced over to Jasper, who had a bit of an odd look on his face. "Of course."

"Although my memory is a bit hazy, this happening quite some years before you were born, I do recall King Sparrow mentioning the discovery of, well, something beyond the confines of the castle cellar."

"Really? He never mentioned it to me."

"Yes well I caught him sneaking in through the kitchens in the dead of night dragging about quite a mess. And of course he'd managed to wake the entire wing sometime in the process. I doubt he would have said anything otherwise."

"Do you remember what my father told you then?"

"Well Princess, to be quite honest I'm not entirely sure. It was a rather…fantastical tale he spun, and although I dislike to speak ill of him, he did have a tendency to fabricate outlandish stories in excruciating detail-"

"So you weren't really listening to him?" She added wryly.

"Er, well…"

"I seem to hear that a lot." Here she threw a pointed glance at Walter, who pretended to be interested in an odd little statue they happened to be passing. "What do you remember?"

"Well there was something with owls and…urchins perhaps? Yes, I remember mention of small things running about….And…"

"And what?"

Jasper passed a gloved hand across the cave wall nearest him, and then held his finger toward her. It was covered in something shiny. "Something called Glitter."

"Oh! I always wondered what that was. He used to go on about it when Jareth was still the one arranging the balls and galas and such."

"Jareth?"

She looked between the two men flanking her, both of whom were giving her quizzical looks. "You never met him? Surely you must have, Jasper."

The butler shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I was always under the impression Sparrow somehow managed to put everything together himself."

"I always thought you were the one behind it myself, Jasper."

"Oh heaven's no Walter; in fact Sparrow insisted I take no part in it. He was of the belief that I 'had enough bleedin' shite to do'."

She snickered at the surprisingly accurate imitation of the late great King Sparrow.

"Hn. Well, what did he look like? Maybe we've seen him around."

"Blonde, bout yay tall, mismatched eyes."

Walter shook his head. Jasper, however, tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"You know, I may recall having seen such a man around the castle a few times. Perhaps it explains why I would oft find myself cleaning up glitter and wondering where it had come from…"

The princess thought back to the times she remembered clearly speaking with the man. They were few; many of those memories felt more like dreams and thus were untrustworthy. "I don't recall him with that glitter stuff per say, but I do remember him seeming…shiny." She giggled. "Maybe it was just something they did in his kingdom, covering everything in shiny dust."

"Which kingdom is that then? Somewhere in Samarkand?"

"No idea Walter. I just remember Father always called him the Goblin King."

"He also used to call Reaver 'Old Man'."

The princess shrugged. "Yes, but Jareth never threatened to shoot him in the kneecaps like I remember Reaver doing."

"Yes, of course! Anytime someone doesn't threaten to shoot Sparrow in the kneecaps he's telling the truth! How could I have forgotten?"

"Although I'm sure it could be proven wrong, you're probably more accurate than you'd like to be, Walter."

She giggled as Walter scowled over at the butler. "Oh shut up, Jasper, what do you know?"

"How many bullets I had to pull out of that boy, for one."

"How many?" She fluttered her eyes innocently at Jasper, who was giving her the 'you're being morbid and I shouldn't continue this conversation' look.

With a sigh, he acquiesced. "Five hundred and forty three."

"No way."

"Yes, 'way'. It was a time of war-"

"Still, that's a lot of bullets! How the bloody hell did he survive that?"

"He didn't get them all at once, Princess."

"Still! Jasper, that many bullets would fill at least three jars-"

"Four, actually. He insisted on keeping them as trophies."

"Did he have many trophies?"

"Oh yes, though there were a few I insisted he be rid of. They were rotting something fierce by the time he employed me."

"He kept severed heads, didn't he."

Jasper refrained from answering, which she took as a yes. "Soooo does that mean heads are fair game for trophies, now that I have to collect them as part of my hero-ly duty?"

"Most certainly not."

"Can I use glitter to decorate our hideout?"

"I would ask that you didn't."

"You know maybe it would be easier if you gave me a list of things I could do."

"Fair enough. If it sounds like something your Father would have done, thought of, or enjoyed, the answer is no you may not."

She mock scowled up at the smirking butler. "Pity my father wasn't a more mundane man."

"Indeed."

"Here we are then, end of the line."

She sighed at the sight of the Cullis gate sitting innocently on the balcony at the edge of a cliff. "I'm not sure I want to see where this one leads…"

a/n: yes, slight AU/crossover/mention/whatever of one of my favorite movies. i.e Labyrinth. Because everytime I see the escape tunnel out of the castle I think of the underground city in the downloadable content I don't actually own, and thus then I think of the Underground, and how Hobbes remind me of Goblins...I need to stop watching movies.