Chapter 3

Lessons

Jareth placed a very overexcited Sarah back on the settee as she bobbed her head back and forth. He couldn't help but to chortle. Her inscrutable avian face stared at him with round open eyes of black.

Her white legs and chest were sprinkled with tiny light brown flecks, and her rustic colored wings and back were interspersed with light grey feathers, which looked like strings of silver pearls.

Her face was pure white with a thin heart shaped ring of light brown feathers framing her head. She was as beautiful as an owl as she was as a human woman, and Jareth found himself getting lost gazing at her.

"You are gorgeous, precious", he breathed with adoration and gingerly ran a finger over her chest plumage.

Sarah's beak nibbled at him gently, and he figured it was little kisses she was giving him. He withdrew his finger with a sated smile but remained crouched in front of her.

"Now, relax and focus. Close your eyes and concentrate on your human form."

Sarah chirped and clicked her beak as to confirm his instructions and closed her eyes. She sat for several minutes and Jareth had become worried she had gone to sleep.

"Sarah?" he whispered, but she only opened her eyes halfway and gave him an angry squawk as if to say 'don't bother me, I'm focusing'.

Jareth chuckled and stepped back. Sarah ruffled her feathers, and turned her face back at him, before she reclosed her eyes and tucked in her head. Jareth did not dare to interrupt her this time, and patiently stood back, leaning against his desk with arms and legs crossed.

Nothing happened for some time, and Sarah resituated herself every so often, shaking her plumage as if to shake out her body to relax, and refocused. Finally, her body began to shift, and slowly her wings turned back into arms and her legs took on a definite human shape.

Jareth watched with growing anticipation as he held his breath. Her transformation mesmerized him as he seldom had witnessed it for himself. His own transformation happened too quickly now, it took but a mere second. Sarah's seemed to last for over a minute and he found every second of it intriguing and enthralling.

He tilted his head with a very sated smirk on his face when she finally sat in front of him on the settee.

"Hm, what a tasty morsel you are. I should take you right now."

Sarah gave him a baffled expression but then noticed she was as naked as the day she was born.

"What happened to my clothes?" she exclaimed, showing her frustration with knitted brows as she looked down on herself.

"That requires an entire different set of magic, my love", Jareth laughed, and with lightning speed had her reclined on the small sofa, pressing his lips against hers as his tongue sought entrance into her mouth.

"You are magnificent as an owl", he gasped between kisses and let his hands wander down her body.

"As much as I enjoy this right here, I really would like my clothes back", Sarah protested weakly and halfheartedly pushed his body off of her.

"What's the rush? I think this current state suits you just wonderful."

Sarah sat up and turned her head as he again tried to claim her mouth, trailing passionate kisses down the side of her neck instead, his hand venturing into very private territory between her legs.

"Clothes, Jareth", she demanded, and he retreated from the settee with a pouting face.

"How cruel you are. Such a pity", he mumbled and flicked his wrist, instantly dressing Sarah in the long dress she had worn originally.

"Ah, my poor neglected king", she mocked him as she stood up, but wrapped her arms around his neck with bright eyes and a happy grin on her face.

"I did it", she exclaimed. "I really did it. I don't know how, but I did it."

This time it was her who claimed his lips, and he eagerly reciprocated holding her tight around the waist.

"Now, how do I repeat it willingly and not only accidentally?" she wondered, breaking off the kiss.

"That's what I'm here to teach you. Now that we know what you can change into, and that you actually can, we work from there."

He kept trailing kisses down her neck making her fluster and moan.

"You sure you don't want to celebrate your success?" Jareth inquired, hoping he would be able to persuade her.

"It sounds tempting but I think we can celebrate later in our room for a much longer time, not having to worry about lessons anymore", she replied with a licentious quirk of her brows and a quick flick of her tongue over her lips.

Jareth's eyes darkened with anticipation at her words. Oh, he would make sure it would be a very long celebration tonight. He planned on an all-nighter in his mind, and a big smile drew across his face.

Jareth stepped out of the bathroom and noticed Sarah had gone missing from the bedroom. They had finished their morning 'marital duties' a little while ago, and he had ordered breakfast to be brought up to the room while she was taking a shower. After she had finished it had been his turn to wash up. Dressed with only a towel wrapped around his slender hips he wandered around their chambers.

"Sarah?" he called with growing anxiety as he didn't hear an answer. "Just where in the Underground did that woman go?" he grumbled with annoyance. He sensed a feeling of unease from her through their bond, but not danger or dire desperation.

"Sarah, where are you?" he called out again, and this time he heard a faint hoot coming from the balcony.

He stepped through the door, still only dressed in his towel and looked around. There in a tree just a few meters away from the sill of the balcony sat a female owl in a branch looking at him. He immediately recognized her as his wife.

"Sarah, what in the bloody hell are you doing in this tree?"

The only answer he received was an aggravated hoot and a quick bob of her head. She was obviously distraught and tried to tell him something.

"Well, this won't do", Jareth mumbled impatiently and instantly shaped himself into an owl and flew up into the tree, landing next to her with their bodies touching.

"Can you hear me, precious?" he asked with his mind and looked straight into her big round eyes.

"Yes, I can", came the answer and Sarah brought her beak right against Jareth' in a loving gesture. She gave him an owl kiss and he wrapped one of his wings around her body as her head tilted against his neck.

"What happened? What are you doing in this tree?" he asked perplexed.

"I don't quite know. All I know is, I stepped onto the balcony and I tripped over the seam of my dress and fell forward, and the next thing I knew I was kind of flapping around and landing in this tree, and now I can't get back."

She mind sobbed quietly into the crook of his owl neck and moved closer to him. The pressure on his wing around her body tightened.

"Sssh, it's ok, precious. Nothing is going to happen. We really need to get your dresses shortened. Remind me to send them all to the seamstress today. But first, let's get you out of this tree."

"How?" Sarah hooted back and Jareth opened his wings flapping them back and forth in rapid fashion.

"You're going to fly back. It's not that far", he declared, but Sarah puffed up her plumage and shrieked.

"Are you crazy? I don't even know how I turned into this owl again. Apparently it only happens when I trip. So what makes you think I can fly back to the balcony? It's still ten meters."

She was obviously quite disturbed as she shook her body, bobbing her head and preening her plumage nervously.

"Sarah, look at me," Jareth demanded and she stopped her antics, refocusing her big owl eyes on him.

"Of course you can. Unless you are telling me you are too afraid to take thisshort little flight."

He hooted and moved his head sideways in a rather rapid fashion. It looked as if he was mocking her, which earned him a hard peck of her beak against his chest.

"Stop it. I'm not afraid. It's a piece of cake", she screeched in reply and looked away knowing damn well she just lied to him. It definitely was not a piece of cake to her. It seemed impossible, but she was not going to admit this to him and his cocky attitude.

Jareth gave his best owl laugh and took off, drawing circles around the tree without even flapping his wings before he landed back on the balcony.

"In that case, let me see you glide over here."

Sarah only stared at him in silence and nervously moved her legs up and down the branch, scooting herself around without taking off. She sat there, watching Jareth demonstrating his take offs. They looked so simple and easy, like 'a piece of cake'.

She started flapping her wings in a gingerly fashion as she was afraid she would lose balance and fall off the branch. She was a good fifty feet up in the air and her vertigo was not helping. She didn't know owls could suffer from this ailment, but apparently she did, whether she was an owl or not.

"Whoa, just don't look down", she thought and flapped her wings to regain her balance, all the while Jareth looked on with growing concern. He needed to get his wife out of the tree before she would accidentally convert back into her human form.

"Hm, a naked Sarah hanging on to a thin branch of a pine tree fifty feet aboveground."

He tried to clear the image form his mind as he felt his owl arousal come on. Sarah felt his emotions through her bond and was appalled as she screeched insults to him from her tree.

"Pervert, stop that." She was not amused.

She didn't know if it was her anger over Jareth' perverted and lewd thoughts, or her frustration of being stuck in a tree, but she started to flap her wings and with one brave swoop she pushed herself off the tree and spread her wings wide as she glided almost wobble free towards the balcony.

She spread out her talons and crash landed onto the floor with a thud and a handful of feathers flying.

"Geez Sarah, are you okay?" Jareth stood over her with a concerned face, back in his human form.

Sarah slowly transformed back into her form and lay au naturel, befuddled, and half dazed on the stony balcony floor.

"I'm fine. Let's figure out how to get control over this transformation and being dressed afterwards, or I'll be forever tripping into my owl form and reappearing naked."

Jareth helped her off the floor with a chuckle and led her back into their chambers to get dressed. He summoned his servant to take all of Sarah's dresses to the seamstress and have them shortened. He did not want to risk another tripping incident.

"Well, since you are undressed and I only wear a towel, why don't we make use of that fact", Jareth proclaimed with a devious smirk and before Sarah could object, he had her pinned down on the bed beneath his hot and very highly aroused naked body.

She didn't put up a lot of fight and decided to use Jareth overly excited libido to celebrate her achievement in owl flight.

"Ok, I guess we have time for a quickie", she moaned and gave into him as he claimed her mouth with his.

"There is no such thing as a quickie with the Goblin King", Jareth protested during his osculation.

To proof his point, he broke from the kiss and moved seductively down her body, all the while grinning at her like the Cheshire cat until his tongue found what it was looking for and Sarah's eyes rolled back into her head with a deep moan.

"Ok, no quickie then", she gasped and soon forgot all about keeping time.

The next few days were spend teaching Sarah to get control over her transformation, and even though it was slow going, she finally got the hang of it by the end of the week.

She was so thrilled, she transformed back and forth in rapid fashion, making Jareth quite dizzy. Every time he held her in a loving embrace without her clothes, she would change back into an owl before he managed to get hold of her lips. After a dozen transformations in this manner, he finally had enough and blocked her transformation magic.

"That's not fair", Sarah complained, as he finally managed to hold her in a tight embrace and claim her lips for his own.

"You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is?" he jested and gave her a sly grin as he released her from his grip.

She rolled her eyes at his remark and demanded him to either give her back her magic or conjure up a dress for her. He opted to let her have the magic back if she promised to simmer down and quit driving him insane. She reluctantly agreed, and in no time was fully dressed again.

"From everything I have seen, I think tomorrow we can go for a flight, my love", Jareth declared with a wink and Sarah jumped up and down in animated joy.

"You really think I'm ready?' she asked with exhilaration.

"Yes, you are. The only thing you need now is practice. Lots and lots of practice."

"But what about my clothes? I still can't transform back into my clothes." She mentioned with caution.

"And the problem would be? It's not like we are surrounded by too many fae", Jareth laughed. "And I'm sure the goblins wouldn't mind a good show."

With a chortle, he grabbed a horrified Sarah by the arm and made his way back to their chambers. They had a lot to discuss about the upcoming flight and he thought it best to have that done in their bed, on top of the sheets, and with no clothes in the way.