Chapter 3:
As the world began
to wake up, Jareth soared high above the rest of the world,
looking for Labyrinth inhabitants, and feuding silently over
being left on his own, and having his power ripped out from under
him by Sarah.
Down below, he could see a crowd of people gathering, and
pointing upwards, at first, he thought that they were stupid, and
had never seen an owl before, then, intelligence kicked in, and
he swopped down inconspicuously behind the crowd, rearranging
himself back into his more human shape, and looking up.
"Mooommm...
there are things outsiiiiiddde...."
"Don't be silly, honey!"
Flopsy and Mopsy
were in a sub-urban street, looking around rather boredly.
"Nobody to play with!" said Mopsy childishly, flicking
her moppy hair out of her small, beady, pig like eyes and looking
around briefly.
"Let's get on that thing!" Flopsy pointed to a
milk-cart, which was parked outside someone's house.
Carefully, the managed to haul themselves onto the back, and when
its owner reappeared, they were on their way to ... well, where
ever they were going to end up.
Roo and Furtle had
been searching for a very long time, at least, Furtle had been.
So far, Roo and Static had stopped to 'check out' about two
hundred things, including a McDonalds, where they frightened the
morning staff half to death by marching in with a chicken,
demanding to know if they had seen any other Goblins.
"Roo, I really do think that perhaps some discretion
wouldn't go amiss in this situation," worried Furtle, as Roo
wandered absently below a park bench, with three shocked elderly
women sitting on it, wide eyed.
"Nonsense! Look!" Roo pointed to where a few Goblins
were, sitting on an intersection, quite a distance away
"Let's hunt em down."
Jareth gulped with
what might have been worry, those Goblins couldn't even spell
I.Q, and together they would probably make up the intelligence of
a piece of plastic.
They had taken Toby up a high rise building, and three goblins
were teetering on the edge of a narrow window sill, with Toby
sitting on a corner, looking down in tears.
"Go on your own, Jareth..." muttered Jareth,
in an even worse mood now "We can manage without you,
you can find the goblins, Jareth... What am I going to do
now?" he pondered aloud.
Sighing, he created a crystal in the palm of his hand, and tossed
it up to Toby.
As it had done in the Escher Room, the crystal mesmerised Toby,
leading him along the window sill, with perfect balance.
"There's only so many times you can walk up and down a
bloody window sill..."
Sarah, Hoggle and
Didymus were getting nowhere.
They hadn't seen one person from the Labyrinth, and to be honest,
seeing a girl who looked like she had slept on a door step in
syrup, butter, sugar and pepsi soaked clothes, and was also with
a Fox riding a sheepdog, and a Goblin, was attracting a little
too much attention.
Before Sarah could come up with a brilliant plan that she just knew
was in her bath-water covered head somewhere, they saw the
Fireys. About fifteen of them, playing a strange game, that
seemed to involve scaring the people in the passing vehicles.
"We need a pla-" began Sarah, "Didymus! STOP!!!
The traffic WILL hurt you!" Sarah leaned over, and plcuked
Didymus from the sheepdog by the scruff of his neck, Ambrosias
stopped dead, as though he had been waiting for the opportunity.
"Well, I never-" huffed Didymus, as Sarah plonked him
onto the ground "We have to lure them back to my house,
Hoggle, do you remember the way?"
"Fair maiden, I must ask you not to-"
"I think so, Sarah," said Hoggle, over Didymus
"Ya... ya don't want me ta do somethin', do ya?"
"Actually I was thinking you could lead the Fireys back,
with the help of the ever ... strong...and...cunning sir
Didymus..." Sarah added tactfully, calming Didymus slightly.
"Just how will I do that? I don't ever do anything!"
"Hoggle, you took out that robot, remember?" sighed
Sarah, wondering if Hoggle would ever get over his self-esteem
problems.
"That wasn't leading Fireys around in a land I didn't
know!" whimpered Hoggle "There was lives at
stake!"
"Toby's missing, Hoggle!" begged Sarah "Just tell
therm it's a game of Follow the Leader, and they must follow you
and do exactly as you do! Didymus can go at the back, and make
sure none of them...dare... defy his wrath."
"Well..."
Up and down. Up and
down. The child must be getting dizzy, didn't these humans
usually have some sort of rescue service for these kinds of
problems?
Jareth groaned, the crystal was losing energy, he could feel it
becoming more thin, and bubble-like.
There was only one thing for it now, Jareth would have to go and
get the little brat, and he planned to make quite sure that the
goblins were kicked around the Throne Room for months after
this...
Jareth closed his eyes, and moved back into the shadows, flying
out as the owl, and up towards Toby.
Toby's face was tear-stained, but for the time being, he seemed
to have run out.
Jareth shuddered inwardly at the stickiness of Toby's fingers as
he reached automatically for the owl.
Toby clutched at Jareth, sobbing silently because he couldn't cry
any more, and Jareth getting the feeling he was in for a long
day, settled down on the childs lap, allowing himself to be
petted, which he didn't enjoy particularly, but Toby stopped
crying.
Roo, Furtle, and
the other goblins were standing in the middle of an intersection,
arguing.
It seemed the renegade Goblins didn't want to return to the
Labyrinth, but were in debate because Roo was advising it, and
they had been taught to respect her decisions, even though she
was mean, and often told them to do stupid things.
"Roo... hey.. Roo? What would you do in a situation like
this one?" Furtle gluped, his eyes widening as a truck
loomed over them.
"A situation just like this one?" said Roo, turning to
look at the truck "RUN AWAY!!!"
"This is Sally
Barnes, reporting live from an appartment block, where a young
child is clinging to the outside of the building. It would also
seem that the child is clutching some sort of barn owl, though it
is still being determined if the beast is real."
Sarah had made it to the Mall, and she was walking past an
electronics shop, when the News Report flashed onto the screen.
"Toby..." she gulped, trying to figure out where the
apartment building was, it looked like it was all the way across
town... "Oh god... an owl..."
OKAY... it's 3am, and I am DEAD beyond any revival ... so... we're leaving it here...