Hey everyone that reviewed, thank you so much! OK, the whole formatting
thing isn't my fault, I had them separated into paragraphs, but for some
reason on FF.net they didn't show up like that. You will notice I'm not
the only one having this problem if you have read other stories. So, I
apologize for the inconvenience, but I can't do anything about it, sorry.
Chapter 9:The Old Kingdom
A tired, yet disturbed Jareth lit a fire wearily in the large fireplace in front of him. Ishtar sat across from him in a big, red, high-backed chair. One hand was placed on his forehead rubbing it absently in thought as the other tapped lightly on his thigh impatiently waiting for Jareth to explain to him the problem. Right after he had appeared in front of the troubled group on the steps of his throne he had known something was wrong. Jareth sat down on the marble step surrounding the fireplace. "I have seen that it's impossible to duplicate the crystals, yet I stumbled quite unexpectedly upon a book in your library about something that might help. There was something called a stone of ages, it's just a rock with ancient incantations carved on it that can make any spell work just by placing your hand on it while performing the spell," Jareth explained. Silently, Ishtar thought about it. He then replied, "Jareth, I have heard of this stone of ages, but it's quite hard to find. Some people don't even think it exists, and I am among them. But, it was last reported "seen" at the temple of Jezebel in the Old Kingdom. It's a very dangerous kingdom to be in with dead spirits and ghosts running about." Jareth smiled knowingly at him. "That's exactly why I'm sending Sarah. Don't look at me like that," said Jareth to Ishtar whose eyes and mouth were open extremely wide. "She's the perfect person to send. She braved and solved my labyrinth, I'm sure she can survive the Old Kingdom." Ishtar shook his head vehemently in opposition. "No, Jareth, it's just too dangerous. Are you forgetting that she's a mortal and could very well die there? I know you have feelings for her, so do you want the death of your beloved hanging over your head?" Ishtar questioned. Insulted, Jareth sniffed a little then said, "I do have feelings for her, but who else is there to send?" That's when Ishtar looked at Jareth and they both blurted the same thought aloud to one another. "You!" they both exclaimed. "Well, this will never do," Ishtar said. "We can't both go, and how are we to determine the who goes?" "OK, how about this," Jareth suggested, "Sarah and I will both go while you look after my kingdom as well as your own. But, be ready for whatever should follow us back. You never what's going to happen in that place." Thinking it over and looking for anything that might be wrong with the idea, and not finding any, Ishtar gave his consent. Ishtar left the room to inform Sarah of the problem and the solution, while Jareth changed hurriedly. He met Ishtar and in the throne room, Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus, Yetzel, and Sarah had been given a room to stay the night in, as their plan to take the Dwarf and Gnome kingdom had been delayed. "Well, where is she?" Jareth inquired, referring to Sarah. "She was in her room sleeping when I found her, but she was terribly upset and was pitching and moaning in her sleep. I woke her and she explained to me she had a nightmare, and tried to tell it to me, but she was so troubled to the point of incoherence that I couldn't understand her. Feeling a bit perturbed at Sarah's weakness, Jareth said reluctantly, "I guess I'll go talk to her then." He faded from view as soon as the words had left his mouth to the room she was staying in. Upon entering the room Sarah looked up from the bag she was packing and was surprised to see Jareth standing at the foot of the bed. "Did you get lost?" she asked innocently. Jareth crossed his arms in front of him and raised an eyebrow. "This is no time to play games, Sarah," he scolded. She looked away and went back to packing the bag in front of her. No longer could she keep it in, so she blurted out, "Jareth, I thought you loved me?" Immediately she regretted asking as he tilted his head mockingly to the side in question. "Whatever gave you that idea?" he asked teasingly. Sarah shook her head absently and scratched her arm. "I don't know, I just thought before I went back aboveground the last time you asked me to marry you and you were sincere, but if you've changed your mind I understand," Sarah said while looking at the floor quite intently. Jareth instantly felt bad about playing with her like this, but they had to get going. "Sarah, we really don't have time for this," Jareth injected impatiently. Insulted, but not letting it get the best of her, Sarah zipped the bag and slung it over her shoulder started to walk past Jareth. As she did, he grabbed her arm, startling Sarah. She looked at his face, searching his eyes with her own to see what he was thinking. It was astounding to Sarah to see regret there as they stood gazing at each other. Slowly he let her have her arm back, and she walked the rest of the way past him. Her mind and heart were both in turmoil. Now she had to trust him to get them through this Old Kingdom alive. 'This nightmare is getting worse. Somebody pinch me,' she thought. Once they had transported to the outer gates of the kingdom that was supposedly haunted from what Ishtar had told her, Sarah was shocked to find that it was an exact replica of Jareth's kingdom. A gray wall loomed in front of them just like it had in Jareth's labyrinth, except this one was slimy and muddy and had an aura of decay about it. The whole place stank of death and decay. Jareth's labyrinth looked like Disneyland compared to the one facing them now. Swallowing her fear, she looked over at Jareth who was gazing around at it like he was analyzing it. "It's exactly the way I thought it would be," he stated. "What do you mean by that?" asked Sarah hesitantly. He shrugged noncommittally and said while running a gloved hand along the outer wall, "It was inhabited by my ancestors, and I always wondered what it looked like." "Oh," was all that Sarah could manage to say back. Slowly they trudged through the sheer gloom of the place along the wall looking for a door or some means of entrance. After they had traveled for a while, Sarah found a gap in one of the bricks and pointed it out to Jareth. He placed his hand through the gap and pulled out a piece of paper that read: I open when the sun shall rise And fragrance fills the air Follow the sound of buzzing bees And ye should find me there Puzzled, Sarah shifted from foot to foot in thought. Normally she was good with riddles, but this one was obvious. 'Think, Sarah,' she told herself. Suddenly it came to her: flowers. "Flowers!" she exclaimed. "Flowers open like a door, so does that mean that the door is amongst flowers?" she asked. Jareth placed a finger on his chin and crumpled the piece of paper and threw it on the ground. "I don't know, but it sounds right. But, where would you find flowers in a place like this?" he asked himself. While Sarah was thinking and looking at the ground intently as usual when in thought, the piece of paper started to move. Frightened by an inanimate object out of the blue being able to move, she jumped back, bumping into Jareth. He gave her a look of annoyance, but when he saw what she was staring at with her mouth open wide, he walked in front of her and stooped to further examine the piece of paper. Right before their eyes a stem bust forth through the paper and shot up towards the light and against the wall it grew into a multitude of flowers. Sarah gasped a little, and moved the flowers back a little from the wall where nothing had been before to discover a door awaiting them. Looking at Jareth, he nodded, and she opened the door. Inside was the same thing that she had encountered in Jareth's kingdom, a huge maze. But this, this was definitely eerie. The floor was slushy and littered with human remains and bones. The walls seemed to moving and puss was oozing though holes in the walls. Along the walls were thorns and Sarah wanted to scream in disgust. "Jareth, get in here, now," she said. "Why.oh bloody hell what is that smell?" Now that he mentioned it, it smelled worse than the bog. "Ugh, you're right. I don't know, but I'm guessing it has to do with the dead people slush I'm standing on here," she replied sarcastically. Looking down Jareth noticed what Sarah had and indeed she was right. Maggoty, rotting, dead bodies were everywhere. "You know this is why I put in the cleaners. Come on, the sooner we get to the center, the better," Jareth said, leading the way. Sarah absently grabbed his hand and allowed him to lead her down the corridor. "Where is this temple of Jezebel at?" Sarah inquired after a while. Jareth looked over his shoulder and smiled smugly at her and said, "At the center of course, where else?" "Figures," she replied. Shortly they came to a turn and had a choice to either go right or left. Sarah wanted to go right, but Jareth wanted to go left. And of course Jareth was "right" so they went left. Through their journeys they came to many turns and corners and dead ends, but Sarah allowed Jareth to lead. Her line of thinking was that if he had his own labyrinth, he should be able to solve anyone else's. Presently she came to realize that her original idea was wrong, as they came to the, what seemed to Sarah, tenth dead-end. "Jareth, what if you let me lead for a while?" she asked. "Absolutely not," he replied curtly. She let go of his hand abruptly and turned to go the other way. "Fine! I'll go it alone then!" Jareth turned just in time to see which way she went and ran after her. Once he caught up to her retreating form, he said, "Sarah, don't be silly. This place is dangerous." Angered by his arrogance and the way he always talked down to her, she turned on him and vehemently shouted, "So, I'm silly now am I? Well, screw you Jareth, I don't need you to protect me all the time! I'm not a child anymore!" Looking her up and down seductively, he replied, "Yes, I can see that. As for screwing me, that will have to what until later." Sarah let out a short exasperated sigh and turned and started stomping away. Jareth followed, quite satisfied with himself. About an hour later, it seemed to Sarah that they were slowly making progress. At one point they had run into a rotten dead zombie person, but they were able to strike down the ghoul using Sarah's handy shoulder bag. Jareth, fed up with letting Sarah lead, tried to resume guiding them through, which led to another argument. "Jareth, if you want to be in charge, fine, be in charge of yourself and leave. I don't need you telling me.Jareth?" Sarah turned to find Jareth gone and a hole in the ground behind her. A long dark hole that looked like it was a long way down greeted Sarah as she stooped down and looked into the gap. "Damn," she muttered and set the bag down on the ground behind her while looking around for a large rock. She found one just large enough to make noise, about fist size, and dropped it into the hole. She counted to 40 before she heard it hit below, and decided it was a long way down. Vaguely she wondered what Jareth would do if it were her that had fallen down the hole, and she knew he would've gone after her, hesitantly, but still he would've saved her none the less. Putting aside her fear, she grabbed the bag and held onto it tightly and jumped. As she was falling, it reminded her of the time she had jumped in Jareth's labyrinth to save Toby. Somehow she knew this time she wouldn't be landing on her feet. Thinking that her life would be flashing before her eyes as she fell deeper into the abyss below her, she felt water suddenly saturate her skin and she swam upwards and came out the other side of a well. It was a bit lighter on the side she came out of, but not by much. Looking around she noticed that Jareth was nowhere to be seen. The weight in her hand that was her bag brought her back to reality that she was still in the water, and she pulled herself out of the well. She tried in vain to dry herself off as much as possible. It was a bit chilly in the cavern and being wet didn't help her situation at all. All of a sudden a thought came to her. She had almost wanted Jareth to leave her alone, and then he had fallen down the hole. 'Oh no', she thought. 'This labyrinth does what I wish it to. I have to be more careful from now on.' Determined to find Jareth, she slung her now soaked bag over her the wet shirt clinging to her like a second skin, and started to walk wearily down a corridor off of the large cavern.
Thanks for reading! Please review!
Chapter 9:The Old Kingdom
A tired, yet disturbed Jareth lit a fire wearily in the large fireplace in front of him. Ishtar sat across from him in a big, red, high-backed chair. One hand was placed on his forehead rubbing it absently in thought as the other tapped lightly on his thigh impatiently waiting for Jareth to explain to him the problem. Right after he had appeared in front of the troubled group on the steps of his throne he had known something was wrong. Jareth sat down on the marble step surrounding the fireplace. "I have seen that it's impossible to duplicate the crystals, yet I stumbled quite unexpectedly upon a book in your library about something that might help. There was something called a stone of ages, it's just a rock with ancient incantations carved on it that can make any spell work just by placing your hand on it while performing the spell," Jareth explained. Silently, Ishtar thought about it. He then replied, "Jareth, I have heard of this stone of ages, but it's quite hard to find. Some people don't even think it exists, and I am among them. But, it was last reported "seen" at the temple of Jezebel in the Old Kingdom. It's a very dangerous kingdom to be in with dead spirits and ghosts running about." Jareth smiled knowingly at him. "That's exactly why I'm sending Sarah. Don't look at me like that," said Jareth to Ishtar whose eyes and mouth were open extremely wide. "She's the perfect person to send. She braved and solved my labyrinth, I'm sure she can survive the Old Kingdom." Ishtar shook his head vehemently in opposition. "No, Jareth, it's just too dangerous. Are you forgetting that she's a mortal and could very well die there? I know you have feelings for her, so do you want the death of your beloved hanging over your head?" Ishtar questioned. Insulted, Jareth sniffed a little then said, "I do have feelings for her, but who else is there to send?" That's when Ishtar looked at Jareth and they both blurted the same thought aloud to one another. "You!" they both exclaimed. "Well, this will never do," Ishtar said. "We can't both go, and how are we to determine the who goes?" "OK, how about this," Jareth suggested, "Sarah and I will both go while you look after my kingdom as well as your own. But, be ready for whatever should follow us back. You never what's going to happen in that place." Thinking it over and looking for anything that might be wrong with the idea, and not finding any, Ishtar gave his consent. Ishtar left the room to inform Sarah of the problem and the solution, while Jareth changed hurriedly. He met Ishtar and in the throne room, Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus, Yetzel, and Sarah had been given a room to stay the night in, as their plan to take the Dwarf and Gnome kingdom had been delayed. "Well, where is she?" Jareth inquired, referring to Sarah. "She was in her room sleeping when I found her, but she was terribly upset and was pitching and moaning in her sleep. I woke her and she explained to me she had a nightmare, and tried to tell it to me, but she was so troubled to the point of incoherence that I couldn't understand her. Feeling a bit perturbed at Sarah's weakness, Jareth said reluctantly, "I guess I'll go talk to her then." He faded from view as soon as the words had left his mouth to the room she was staying in. Upon entering the room Sarah looked up from the bag she was packing and was surprised to see Jareth standing at the foot of the bed. "Did you get lost?" she asked innocently. Jareth crossed his arms in front of him and raised an eyebrow. "This is no time to play games, Sarah," he scolded. She looked away and went back to packing the bag in front of her. No longer could she keep it in, so she blurted out, "Jareth, I thought you loved me?" Immediately she regretted asking as he tilted his head mockingly to the side in question. "Whatever gave you that idea?" he asked teasingly. Sarah shook her head absently and scratched her arm. "I don't know, I just thought before I went back aboveground the last time you asked me to marry you and you were sincere, but if you've changed your mind I understand," Sarah said while looking at the floor quite intently. Jareth instantly felt bad about playing with her like this, but they had to get going. "Sarah, we really don't have time for this," Jareth injected impatiently. Insulted, but not letting it get the best of her, Sarah zipped the bag and slung it over her shoulder started to walk past Jareth. As she did, he grabbed her arm, startling Sarah. She looked at his face, searching his eyes with her own to see what he was thinking. It was astounding to Sarah to see regret there as they stood gazing at each other. Slowly he let her have her arm back, and she walked the rest of the way past him. Her mind and heart were both in turmoil. Now she had to trust him to get them through this Old Kingdom alive. 'This nightmare is getting worse. Somebody pinch me,' she thought. Once they had transported to the outer gates of the kingdom that was supposedly haunted from what Ishtar had told her, Sarah was shocked to find that it was an exact replica of Jareth's kingdom. A gray wall loomed in front of them just like it had in Jareth's labyrinth, except this one was slimy and muddy and had an aura of decay about it. The whole place stank of death and decay. Jareth's labyrinth looked like Disneyland compared to the one facing them now. Swallowing her fear, she looked over at Jareth who was gazing around at it like he was analyzing it. "It's exactly the way I thought it would be," he stated. "What do you mean by that?" asked Sarah hesitantly. He shrugged noncommittally and said while running a gloved hand along the outer wall, "It was inhabited by my ancestors, and I always wondered what it looked like." "Oh," was all that Sarah could manage to say back. Slowly they trudged through the sheer gloom of the place along the wall looking for a door or some means of entrance. After they had traveled for a while, Sarah found a gap in one of the bricks and pointed it out to Jareth. He placed his hand through the gap and pulled out a piece of paper that read: I open when the sun shall rise And fragrance fills the air Follow the sound of buzzing bees And ye should find me there Puzzled, Sarah shifted from foot to foot in thought. Normally she was good with riddles, but this one was obvious. 'Think, Sarah,' she told herself. Suddenly it came to her: flowers. "Flowers!" she exclaimed. "Flowers open like a door, so does that mean that the door is amongst flowers?" she asked. Jareth placed a finger on his chin and crumpled the piece of paper and threw it on the ground. "I don't know, but it sounds right. But, where would you find flowers in a place like this?" he asked himself. While Sarah was thinking and looking at the ground intently as usual when in thought, the piece of paper started to move. Frightened by an inanimate object out of the blue being able to move, she jumped back, bumping into Jareth. He gave her a look of annoyance, but when he saw what she was staring at with her mouth open wide, he walked in front of her and stooped to further examine the piece of paper. Right before their eyes a stem bust forth through the paper and shot up towards the light and against the wall it grew into a multitude of flowers. Sarah gasped a little, and moved the flowers back a little from the wall where nothing had been before to discover a door awaiting them. Looking at Jareth, he nodded, and she opened the door. Inside was the same thing that she had encountered in Jareth's kingdom, a huge maze. But this, this was definitely eerie. The floor was slushy and littered with human remains and bones. The walls seemed to moving and puss was oozing though holes in the walls. Along the walls were thorns and Sarah wanted to scream in disgust. "Jareth, get in here, now," she said. "Why.oh bloody hell what is that smell?" Now that he mentioned it, it smelled worse than the bog. "Ugh, you're right. I don't know, but I'm guessing it has to do with the dead people slush I'm standing on here," she replied sarcastically. Looking down Jareth noticed what Sarah had and indeed she was right. Maggoty, rotting, dead bodies were everywhere. "You know this is why I put in the cleaners. Come on, the sooner we get to the center, the better," Jareth said, leading the way. Sarah absently grabbed his hand and allowed him to lead her down the corridor. "Where is this temple of Jezebel at?" Sarah inquired after a while. Jareth looked over his shoulder and smiled smugly at her and said, "At the center of course, where else?" "Figures," she replied. Shortly they came to a turn and had a choice to either go right or left. Sarah wanted to go right, but Jareth wanted to go left. And of course Jareth was "right" so they went left. Through their journeys they came to many turns and corners and dead ends, but Sarah allowed Jareth to lead. Her line of thinking was that if he had his own labyrinth, he should be able to solve anyone else's. Presently she came to realize that her original idea was wrong, as they came to the, what seemed to Sarah, tenth dead-end. "Jareth, what if you let me lead for a while?" she asked. "Absolutely not," he replied curtly. She let go of his hand abruptly and turned to go the other way. "Fine! I'll go it alone then!" Jareth turned just in time to see which way she went and ran after her. Once he caught up to her retreating form, he said, "Sarah, don't be silly. This place is dangerous." Angered by his arrogance and the way he always talked down to her, she turned on him and vehemently shouted, "So, I'm silly now am I? Well, screw you Jareth, I don't need you to protect me all the time! I'm not a child anymore!" Looking her up and down seductively, he replied, "Yes, I can see that. As for screwing me, that will have to what until later." Sarah let out a short exasperated sigh and turned and started stomping away. Jareth followed, quite satisfied with himself. About an hour later, it seemed to Sarah that they were slowly making progress. At one point they had run into a rotten dead zombie person, but they were able to strike down the ghoul using Sarah's handy shoulder bag. Jareth, fed up with letting Sarah lead, tried to resume guiding them through, which led to another argument. "Jareth, if you want to be in charge, fine, be in charge of yourself and leave. I don't need you telling me.Jareth?" Sarah turned to find Jareth gone and a hole in the ground behind her. A long dark hole that looked like it was a long way down greeted Sarah as she stooped down and looked into the gap. "Damn," she muttered and set the bag down on the ground behind her while looking around for a large rock. She found one just large enough to make noise, about fist size, and dropped it into the hole. She counted to 40 before she heard it hit below, and decided it was a long way down. Vaguely she wondered what Jareth would do if it were her that had fallen down the hole, and she knew he would've gone after her, hesitantly, but still he would've saved her none the less. Putting aside her fear, she grabbed the bag and held onto it tightly and jumped. As she was falling, it reminded her of the time she had jumped in Jareth's labyrinth to save Toby. Somehow she knew this time she wouldn't be landing on her feet. Thinking that her life would be flashing before her eyes as she fell deeper into the abyss below her, she felt water suddenly saturate her skin and she swam upwards and came out the other side of a well. It was a bit lighter on the side she came out of, but not by much. Looking around she noticed that Jareth was nowhere to be seen. The weight in her hand that was her bag brought her back to reality that she was still in the water, and she pulled herself out of the well. She tried in vain to dry herself off as much as possible. It was a bit chilly in the cavern and being wet didn't help her situation at all. All of a sudden a thought came to her. She had almost wanted Jareth to leave her alone, and then he had fallen down the hole. 'Oh no', she thought. 'This labyrinth does what I wish it to. I have to be more careful from now on.' Determined to find Jareth, she slung her now soaked bag over her the wet shirt clinging to her like a second skin, and started to walk wearily down a corridor off of the large cavern.
Thanks for reading! Please review!