What Babe?
Disclaimer: yada yada yada
*****
"I've brought you a gift."
He waved the crystal before her eyes.
"What is it?"
"It's a crystal. But if you turn it this way, it will show you your dreams."
She hesitated a moment, and then reached for it.
"Too easy," he thought to himself, a little disappointed.
Sarah screamed with sudden rage as the crystal seemed to shatter into a million fragments at her touch. "You tricked me!" she cried.
His mocking laughter sounded strangely distant. She turned about frantically, trying to locate him, but it was as if there was a wall of shimmering glass between them. Then she heard a familiar voice singing, and warm arms around here.
"Mama?"
Her mother smiled down at her and rocked little Sarah on her lap, singing her favourite song about little fishes. Sarah cuddled against her, feeling her stroking her hair, feeling safe and warm again, as she hadn't for a very long time. She lay in her mother's arms for who knows how long, when she heard a distant rumbling sound, like thunder. The rumbling grew louder and she began to panic, flailing about, clutching desperately at her mother, only to find herself all alone again.
The rumbling sound resolved into the sound of hoof beats as a white horse dashed towards her. She cowered on the ground, expecting to be trampled, but the horse came to a sudden halt before her. Looking up she saw the rider was a handsome young man with a circlet of gold in his hair. He bent down and held out his hand to her, and as she took it he swung her up into the saddle before him, saying, "You're safe now, Lady Sarah." Then they turned and rode off in the direction from which he had come.
*****
The Goblin King opened his hand and the crystal floated away, out of the window and over the rooves and the tree tops, rising higher and higher. Sarah drifted, a prisoner of her dreams.
"What a pity," he sighed. Then, in a swirl of cloak and glitter he transformed into a barn owl. Flying out the window, he circled the house once and then disappeared.
*****
The man and the woman returned to the darkened house, and seemed unsurprised at its emptiness. They were laughing excitedly, celebrating the news of her pregnancy. It was a second marriage for both, and they had feared they would remain childless. Up the stairs they came to the room recently vacated by the Goblin King. It was completely empty, and seemed to sparkle in the moonlight that shone through the open window.
"This room will be perfect as a nursery."
*****
In the castle beyond the goblin city, the King was bouncing a baby boy in a red and white striped suit on his knee. One arm was steadying the child, the other held a crystal before the child's fascinated gaze.
"You see, young man, they have forgotten you already. You'll be much happier here with us anyway."
The baby gurgled, reaching for the shining orb.
The King laughed. "A goblin babe!" he cried, and the goblins surrounding them let out a cheer.
As Toby's fat little hands touched the crystal there was a shower of glitter, and then the King dropped his newest subject to the floor of the throne room, where it proceeded to crawl happily among it's new brethren.
Jareth leaned over to inspect his handiwork, grinning like a shark.
"You remind me of the babe."
"What babe?" asked the little goblin.
the end