Disclaimer: None of this is mine.
I finally finished this and I went through every song on my computer to find the perfect one to go with this and found none… But chapter 13 will have theme music. I hope you enjoy this.
Chapter 12: Danger's Untold
Her child was coming, but she was giving her mother gyp. The hours had uncomfortably turned into a day and she was starting to grow tired. Annalisa had read everything that she could find in the Library at the Glade and in Titania's castle on childbirth and different kinds of Fae. She had known some of it, but after each volume that she read she realized that her mother must have been crazy. As days passed she learned more and more, and eventually decided that the thing to do was to train a wise man in the process and then go from there.
Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and finally at twelve days before the baby was due to arrive the wise man was ready, and her walking was increasing from a trip in the labyrinth once a week to one every other day. She was feeling strong and her trips were taking less and less time in the same routes, she could see every winding passage in her mind and work her way through in the dark with her eyes closed. She avoided the Bog but everything else was easy.
Jareth protested her walks in the Labyrinth, but she ignored him, it made life with him much easier she realized. She had been doing it so long that when they married and she had to pay more attention to him his stubborn and domineering ways were starting to aggravate her. Her love for him had grown, but since she had announced her pregnancy he had been irritable and she would find him looking forlornly out over the hills and mazes of the Labyrinth. He was worried, and she understood, but only so much snipping and yelling could she take before she decided to go to the Glade and not return.
The time had arrived with a gush of water and a low primal groan as the contraction hit her. It was low and dull, like she had been punched at first and then went screaming into sharp pushing pains. She could feel the child inside of her changing reflexively to a shape that would help protect her.
Shifting was an inborn ability in most Fae, though Druid's did not share the ability. Annie being half Dragon Kin allowed that her daughter could morph into two forms, the more comfortable as her mother could only be a mammal was the dragon, and it was giving Annie quite a bit of trouble. The doctor was sent away early, in a most ungracious fashion.
Annalisa, the ruler of two kingdoms' in the Underground sat on her heels, her thin nightdress hiked up to her thighs, baring down. In a fit of weariness she had laughed out loud, the thought of someone seeing her looking somewhat less then regal or posed may hurt the way her people looked at her and the chances in becoming High Queen. It passed quickly, there were other things more important. The child would not come, or change and she was growing tired. She held on to the post that had been chosen and placed just in case this should happen. Sweat poured from her body and the doctor, seasoned from wars and all manners of diseases was horrified. "What are you doing, Lady? You'll kill yourself and the child!"
She had looked up at him as another contraction hit her and screamed. "Get out you horrible little man." Aelis had closed the door after him, and moved to help her lady.
-----------
The throne room had been it's usual mass of squirming, dirty and crude life forms. They were avoiding Jareth while continuing with their antics. He paced, he had been pacing for hours. He wasn't allowed in the birthing room. He knew that he had been under the stress of worry and fear for the past some months but it had come to a climax when his wife's water had broken in the garden. Later, when the doctor had come out at a full run after an earth-shattering scream, they ran headfirst into one another. "What are you doing, man? Get in there!"
"No, the Ladies possessed!" He continued to run, Jareth heard his footsteps fall away and wondered exactly what was going on in that little room..
Jareth walked to the door of the room, and went to turn the handle cautiously, afraid of what he might see. Aelis had been there with a grim look of determination on her face. "Sire, you canna come in. If ye want to be of help then go to the Eerie and retrieve a wise woman. Your daughter is being as stubborn as ye!"
There was a firm slam as the door closed. He took to flight, hoping to reach the Eerie in time.
Mean while his wife would have been sobbing if she had the strength. She had sat down again when it became obvious that the child was too scared to change back. Annie soothed her daughter, trying to convince her that the best thing to do was to change. "This is going to kill me," she whispered. There was no fear in death for her. She knew what lay beyond the shroud. There was so much to be done though, "We just have to wait, little one." She sighed. There was nothing to be done.
------------
The rift between the worlds was a quiet place, not the quiet of a country night, but the disconcerting silence that there is nothing living there except for a single man. There were breeze, but no wind, there was ground, but no life on those hard and uncaring rocks. The sky was black, the black of a void, one could loss themselves in the questions that the rift's sky could bring up.
The breeze ruffled his feathers, he would have savored the feel of true freedom had he not been deep in thought. There had been no one. No one to help, hinder or console him, he was terrified. There had been such loneliness before they came to be in his life. He had never known the merit of company. Never knew the warmth of a child's hug or a woman's genuine smile. There had been women, courtiers and peasants willing do whatever he asked or demanded in a heartbeat, there to satiate his every physical need. Something had been missing. There was no one that had ever lightened his spirit. Even as a child, a scared and not so innocent child she had done something to him, touched him in a way that he could never put to words. There was something inside of him that had been made whole by her appearance in his Labyrinth.
The only explanation that the denizens of the Eerie would give was, "The Druid's Secrets are their own!"
There would be no help for his wife and child.
Something must be done, I have to see her, there was nothing to be done, but seeing her may ease his soul. As long as she was all right he would be saved. She was his salvation. The loneliness was gone only when she was with him, with her quick smile and beautiful laughter, even when she was angry with him he felt as if he could face the dawn. He went from being a cruel and evil Goblin King to being a man once again in the space of a few days. Her light had led him through the darkness and that consolation may soon be gone.
He couldn't cry yet, he didn't have time, he had to be with her. The thought that he may already be to late urged him on. He would be there soon. As soon as he passed the rift, the dead zone, he would teleport to the castle and no matter what Aelis said would be with her until the end. No matter what happened.
It's probably over, he thought, feeling his chest clench. It couldn't be over, he hadn't seen her again. She would leave him all alone again. The fear of loneliness and loss pushed him onward to her. As soon as he broke through the rift he teleported to the
------------
"Annalisa," the voice was soft as moonlight and it came whispered from over the hills and far away in a place that Annalisa could not go. She had been dozing, the child had been quelled until she was near reverting to Fae form but a contraction frightened her again. Her body had gone numb and she was simply waiting for the child to change. It had to be soon.
"Mama," she whispered back, in her half dream state, and slipped further into the dream. She was in the Glade, more specifically the meadow in which the races of the Realms were born. She turned and saw the different races milling around in a large circle. She studied each in turn and when she finally came back to the full circle a familiar red haired woman stood in front of her.
Rebecca watched her daughter silently. She had called her to this place, and she only had a while, but she was glad to see the girl. It had been so long since she had time to study her daughter, how she had grown into a beautiful young woman under the Goblin kings care. 'Annalisa, I have important things to tell you. You mustn't speak, let me finish and then you may ask me one question."
The younger woman nodded, her brows knitting together.
"Your daughter is scared, and not willing to come into this world that you are so afraid of, you fear not death or the ascension, but the world around you frightens you, and that frightens the child. If you are going to survive this you must accept what has happened and accept that sometimes there is nothing that we can do." She paused and let this news sink into her daughter, fearing that it may not help. "Now, what is your question?"
"Does he really love me?" She asked, knowing that perhaps there was something more pertinent that she should ask, but she knew that she could never be free of her fear if she didn't know the truth.
"In his own way he loves you. He is a selfish man, vain and cruel, but yes he loves you. You have brightened his life, eased the loneliness that he had faced for so long. Brought cheer to dreary days and he loves you, that love is dangerous though. He will love you forever Annalisa, until the mountains crumble and the seas boil, but you may not always love him. Sometimes that hot rush of passion you feel will eventually ease to a warm rush, and then just a warm feeling that steels over you. I must go, but remember that everything is ever changing, you just have to find your anchor in the night to stay afloat sometimes."
Her mother faded and her eye's fluttered open. It was still daylight barely. It was nearly two days of labor.
-------------
"Through danger's untold, and hardships unnumbered I have made my way here, to the Castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen."
Lightning flashed in the night sky, and Lord Byron and Lord Hilliard awoke standing on a hill outside a familiar sight. The Labyrinth reached out beyond them, and there was fear in their hearts. They turned in unison to see a woman, her read hair down and flowing around her shoulders in the wind that the storm was building up. "You will solve this Labyrinth in thirteen hours or you will die for the crimes against the Druid's of the Glade." She said, her eyes cold and pain glazed.
"And if we solve the Labyrinth?"
"Then I will merely banish you." She waved slightly in the wind, as if she were a willow. It flowed around her whipping her thin nightdress about her, her belly was still large with child and sweat glistened on her forehead despite the cool air.
"And what authority do you use to do such a thing." Hilliard asked defiantly.
Her eye's flashed red and silver for a moment and Byron was truly frightened. "I use the authority of the Chieftain of the Druid Clans, as the Queen of the Goblins, as the daughter of the people that you murdered in cold blood because you wanted to take control of a land that would not have you anyway. You are selfish and evil and you will die tonight. Thirteen hours, I suggest you get moving." She faded into the background and was gone. The men looked at one another and walked down the slope.
I finally finished this and I went through every song on my computer to find the perfect one to go with this and found none… But chapter 13 will have theme music. I hope you enjoy this.
Chapter 12: Danger's Untold
Her child was coming, but she was giving her mother gyp. The hours had uncomfortably turned into a day and she was starting to grow tired. Annalisa had read everything that she could find in the Library at the Glade and in Titania's castle on childbirth and different kinds of Fae. She had known some of it, but after each volume that she read she realized that her mother must have been crazy. As days passed she learned more and more, and eventually decided that the thing to do was to train a wise man in the process and then go from there.
Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and finally at twelve days before the baby was due to arrive the wise man was ready, and her walking was increasing from a trip in the labyrinth once a week to one every other day. She was feeling strong and her trips were taking less and less time in the same routes, she could see every winding passage in her mind and work her way through in the dark with her eyes closed. She avoided the Bog but everything else was easy.
Jareth protested her walks in the Labyrinth, but she ignored him, it made life with him much easier she realized. She had been doing it so long that when they married and she had to pay more attention to him his stubborn and domineering ways were starting to aggravate her. Her love for him had grown, but since she had announced her pregnancy he had been irritable and she would find him looking forlornly out over the hills and mazes of the Labyrinth. He was worried, and she understood, but only so much snipping and yelling could she take before she decided to go to the Glade and not return.
The time had arrived with a gush of water and a low primal groan as the contraction hit her. It was low and dull, like she had been punched at first and then went screaming into sharp pushing pains. She could feel the child inside of her changing reflexively to a shape that would help protect her.
Shifting was an inborn ability in most Fae, though Druid's did not share the ability. Annie being half Dragon Kin allowed that her daughter could morph into two forms, the more comfortable as her mother could only be a mammal was the dragon, and it was giving Annie quite a bit of trouble. The doctor was sent away early, in a most ungracious fashion.
Annalisa, the ruler of two kingdoms' in the Underground sat on her heels, her thin nightdress hiked up to her thighs, baring down. In a fit of weariness she had laughed out loud, the thought of someone seeing her looking somewhat less then regal or posed may hurt the way her people looked at her and the chances in becoming High Queen. It passed quickly, there were other things more important. The child would not come, or change and she was growing tired. She held on to the post that had been chosen and placed just in case this should happen. Sweat poured from her body and the doctor, seasoned from wars and all manners of diseases was horrified. "What are you doing, Lady? You'll kill yourself and the child!"
She had looked up at him as another contraction hit her and screamed. "Get out you horrible little man." Aelis had closed the door after him, and moved to help her lady.
-----------
The throne room had been it's usual mass of squirming, dirty and crude life forms. They were avoiding Jareth while continuing with their antics. He paced, he had been pacing for hours. He wasn't allowed in the birthing room. He knew that he had been under the stress of worry and fear for the past some months but it had come to a climax when his wife's water had broken in the garden. Later, when the doctor had come out at a full run after an earth-shattering scream, they ran headfirst into one another. "What are you doing, man? Get in there!"
"No, the Ladies possessed!" He continued to run, Jareth heard his footsteps fall away and wondered exactly what was going on in that little room..
Jareth walked to the door of the room, and went to turn the handle cautiously, afraid of what he might see. Aelis had been there with a grim look of determination on her face. "Sire, you canna come in. If ye want to be of help then go to the Eerie and retrieve a wise woman. Your daughter is being as stubborn as ye!"
There was a firm slam as the door closed. He took to flight, hoping to reach the Eerie in time.
Mean while his wife would have been sobbing if she had the strength. She had sat down again when it became obvious that the child was too scared to change back. Annie soothed her daughter, trying to convince her that the best thing to do was to change. "This is going to kill me," she whispered. There was no fear in death for her. She knew what lay beyond the shroud. There was so much to be done though, "We just have to wait, little one." She sighed. There was nothing to be done.
------------
The rift between the worlds was a quiet place, not the quiet of a country night, but the disconcerting silence that there is nothing living there except for a single man. There were breeze, but no wind, there was ground, but no life on those hard and uncaring rocks. The sky was black, the black of a void, one could loss themselves in the questions that the rift's sky could bring up.
The breeze ruffled his feathers, he would have savored the feel of true freedom had he not been deep in thought. There had been no one. No one to help, hinder or console him, he was terrified. There had been such loneliness before they came to be in his life. He had never known the merit of company. Never knew the warmth of a child's hug or a woman's genuine smile. There had been women, courtiers and peasants willing do whatever he asked or demanded in a heartbeat, there to satiate his every physical need. Something had been missing. There was no one that had ever lightened his spirit. Even as a child, a scared and not so innocent child she had done something to him, touched him in a way that he could never put to words. There was something inside of him that had been made whole by her appearance in his Labyrinth.
The only explanation that the denizens of the Eerie would give was, "The Druid's Secrets are their own!"
There would be no help for his wife and child.
Something must be done, I have to see her, there was nothing to be done, but seeing her may ease his soul. As long as she was all right he would be saved. She was his salvation. The loneliness was gone only when she was with him, with her quick smile and beautiful laughter, even when she was angry with him he felt as if he could face the dawn. He went from being a cruel and evil Goblin King to being a man once again in the space of a few days. Her light had led him through the darkness and that consolation may soon be gone.
He couldn't cry yet, he didn't have time, he had to be with her. The thought that he may already be to late urged him on. He would be there soon. As soon as he passed the rift, the dead zone, he would teleport to the castle and no matter what Aelis said would be with her until the end. No matter what happened.
It's probably over, he thought, feeling his chest clench. It couldn't be over, he hadn't seen her again. She would leave him all alone again. The fear of loneliness and loss pushed him onward to her. As soon as he broke through the rift he teleported to the
------------
"Annalisa," the voice was soft as moonlight and it came whispered from over the hills and far away in a place that Annalisa could not go. She had been dozing, the child had been quelled until she was near reverting to Fae form but a contraction frightened her again. Her body had gone numb and she was simply waiting for the child to change. It had to be soon.
"Mama," she whispered back, in her half dream state, and slipped further into the dream. She was in the Glade, more specifically the meadow in which the races of the Realms were born. She turned and saw the different races milling around in a large circle. She studied each in turn and when she finally came back to the full circle a familiar red haired woman stood in front of her.
Rebecca watched her daughter silently. She had called her to this place, and she only had a while, but she was glad to see the girl. It had been so long since she had time to study her daughter, how she had grown into a beautiful young woman under the Goblin kings care. 'Annalisa, I have important things to tell you. You mustn't speak, let me finish and then you may ask me one question."
The younger woman nodded, her brows knitting together.
"Your daughter is scared, and not willing to come into this world that you are so afraid of, you fear not death or the ascension, but the world around you frightens you, and that frightens the child. If you are going to survive this you must accept what has happened and accept that sometimes there is nothing that we can do." She paused and let this news sink into her daughter, fearing that it may not help. "Now, what is your question?"
"Does he really love me?" She asked, knowing that perhaps there was something more pertinent that she should ask, but she knew that she could never be free of her fear if she didn't know the truth.
"In his own way he loves you. He is a selfish man, vain and cruel, but yes he loves you. You have brightened his life, eased the loneliness that he had faced for so long. Brought cheer to dreary days and he loves you, that love is dangerous though. He will love you forever Annalisa, until the mountains crumble and the seas boil, but you may not always love him. Sometimes that hot rush of passion you feel will eventually ease to a warm rush, and then just a warm feeling that steels over you. I must go, but remember that everything is ever changing, you just have to find your anchor in the night to stay afloat sometimes."
Her mother faded and her eye's fluttered open. It was still daylight barely. It was nearly two days of labor.
-------------
"Through danger's untold, and hardships unnumbered I have made my way here, to the Castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen."
Lightning flashed in the night sky, and Lord Byron and Lord Hilliard awoke standing on a hill outside a familiar sight. The Labyrinth reached out beyond them, and there was fear in their hearts. They turned in unison to see a woman, her read hair down and flowing around her shoulders in the wind that the storm was building up. "You will solve this Labyrinth in thirteen hours or you will die for the crimes against the Druid's of the Glade." She said, her eyes cold and pain glazed.
"And if we solve the Labyrinth?"
"Then I will merely banish you." She waved slightly in the wind, as if she were a willow. It flowed around her whipping her thin nightdress about her, her belly was still large with child and sweat glistened on her forehead despite the cool air.
"And what authority do you use to do such a thing." Hilliard asked defiantly.
Her eye's flashed red and silver for a moment and Byron was truly frightened. "I use the authority of the Chieftain of the Druid Clans, as the Queen of the Goblins, as the daughter of the people that you murdered in cold blood because you wanted to take control of a land that would not have you anyway. You are selfish and evil and you will die tonight. Thirteen hours, I suggest you get moving." She faded into the background and was gone. The men looked at one another and walked down the slope.