Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to the Labyrinth. I'm just playing with them, I'll give them back…well, maybe I'll keep Jareth for a while…hehehe… Oh yeah, and don't sue, I'm broker than broke.
Prologue:
A hot, dry wind whipped the sandy dust and crumbled gray rock around in little tornado forms and slashed against the king's cheek. 'Imagine regaining some power only to find this,' he thought grimly as he surveyed what used to be his kingdom. Once upon a time, it flourished. Magic thrived here and stories were played out every day. He had been a good king. Harsh, but never a tyrant. He had given his life for his kingdom, sacrificed every chance of happiness for it and it had paid off. His Labyrinth was a legend in its own right. Everyone far and wide in the Underground knew about it and respected it, and its King. Now it lay in utter ruin, every bit as dead as the rest of his kingdom. Even his castled was reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble. The king ran his hand over a branch nearby and the remaining brown leaves cracked and disintegrated beneath his touch. He sighed heavily, all signs of life had left. The fountain outside the Labyrinth's entrance had stopped flowing. Not even the insects or vultures remained to make noise. It was deathly quiet, too quiet the king thought. He ran his hand over his cheek to clear away some of the dust and looked pathetically at his glove, at all that remained of the once sturdy walls, walls he thought would last forever…even outlast his own immortality. This was the first time he'd seen his labyrinth in ten years and it was not the welcoming sight he had hoped for. Of course he wasn't foolish enough to expect it to be the same. He had felt the Labyrinth's pain as if it were his own, so connected he was to this place. But he had at least hoped for some life to be left. For there to be something for him to salvage. Now it seemed all his struggling to regain his powers was in vain. "No, I'll not give up this easily, I've come to far," he said aloud in the sternest voice he could muster. Even he had to admit it still sounded weak and he was glad he alone heard it. He shook his head and looked around him again, squinting at the harsh sun. It had always shone bright when he wished, but it had never beaten down on his land like this. Everywhere he looked images of what was once there haunted him and so he decided quickly to follow an old path he seemed to have found. There had to be someone out there, if not in the Labyrinth, then somewhere else in his kingdom. Everything couldn't have died or he would have found at least bones by now and he hadn't, not even after he'd kicked at a few suspicious lumps in the dust. That meant that the creatures that once inhabited this place had to be somewhere else in his kingdom. His Labyrinth, his pride and joy, had taken over a half of his land, so if they were somewhere out of it, he'd be able to find them quickly. Not sure whether he should waste his strength on flying, he settled for his current human-type form and left, awestruck by the destruction that one little girl had caused.
