A/N:

I had never planned to write this story. This fic is not a sequel since the events take place at the same time as Goblin King Unknowing Halloween VIP but I wrote it long after finishing that fic...like five months after. The reason this story exists is because I put a snippet of that twisted tale on a post with the LFFL facebook group. My friend saw it and commented that she could not wait to see what happened when Hoggle was babysitting the goblins. Uh yeah me too since I did nothing with that part of the story. I explained this, and she suggested trying to add it in somewhere. Well there really was no good place for it so I wrote a stand-alone one shot that tells the story of what happened after Jareth left and Hoggle was in charge of the goblins. So AngelGlass this one's for you. I hope you and everyone else enjoy it. Please take the time to read it if you liked this one. Don't forget to review.

The dwarf shook his head. This time, more glitter flew around the throne room, and when it had cleared, the Goblin King was gone. Hoggle looked at the shiny mess on the floor. "Well, I'm not cleanin' up his mess," he said to himself.

Hoggle watched as the glitter slowly fell down around him. "Damn that Rat," he thought. "He is goin' off ta spend time with Sarah, an' what does he do? He leaves old Hoggle ta deal with the goblins."

Hoggle knew that Jareth was interested in Sarah. He might even be in love with her. The problem was that Hoggle knew he was in love with her and did not like the thought of competition for Sarah's affection. He was well aware that between himself and Jareth the fae definitely held an advantage.

A flash of light caught Hoggle's attention. When he looked around, one of the goblins was holding a small black and silver square with a rectangle on top of it. Something on the rectangle gave off another bright flash of light.

"What the hell?" Hoggle yelled, and the goblin, holding whatever it was, and all the other goblins around him burst into gales of laughter.

Hoggle was blinking rapidly but all he could see were white spots behind his eyes. The maniacal laughter that surrounded him was making him angrier. He threw his hands out and began walking toward the continued laughter. His fingers brushed one of the goblins, but he moved to the side quickly, and Hoggle was sent staggering into the round pit in the middle of the throne room. This caused more raucous laughter, and Hoggle could tell that more of the goblins joined in this time.

Slowly, Hoggle's vision cleared, but for a minute he lay on the cool stone floor, trying to calm down and not kill the goblins in the throne room. He sat up and turned toward the side of the pit that he had fallen into. Hoggle, not being a fool, put his hand up, shielding his eyes from another bright flash.

Keeping one arm up as a shield, he awkwardly made his way out of the pit. He shuffled over to where the goblins were still laughing. Apparently, when Hoggle had fallen into the pit, they had all fallen on the floor after watching it. Hoggle reached down and grabbed the thing that Binky was still holding on to and wrenched it out of his hand.

"What is this thing?" he asked, staring at the object that had round things on it and an incomplete rainbow at the bottom.

"Lady Sarah," answered Binky who stopped laughing as soon as Hoggle had taken the thing from him. "Lady Sarah had it. She gave to use," he grinned at the dwarf.

"What does it do 'cept temporarily blind ya?" Hoggle asked. He could not believe that Sarah would have a weapon that blinded people, and if she did, he knew that she was smart enough not to give it to the goblins.

Stumpy, who was now sitting on the ground instead of lying down, held up two small squares and handed them to Hoggle. Hoggle hesitantly reached out and took them. He had enough experience around the goblins to know that anything they handed you had the chance of blowing up in your face. Pinching them between his thumb and forefinger and holding them away from him, Hoggle turned the squares around and then dropped them. On each one was an image of him with a goofy expression on his face.

"How did ya do that ?" he asked, staring at the goblins.

"Blinky push button. Make bright light and paper with picture comes out. Lady Sarah called it polio-roid," the goblins were nodding and grinning now.

Hoggle reached down and picked up the two pictures. He still did not know exactly what any of these things were, but he decided if they came from Sarah, they couldn't be that bad. Hoggle knew that the goblins had been able to go through the mirror portal and talked with Sarah, but he did not realize how much they saw of each other. Hoggle shook his head, as he was feeling jealous of a bunch of goblins.

"Hey, let's take the polio-roid and flash the fireys!" Blinky said, grabbing the camera back from the dwarf. This bright idea had obviously just come to him. All around him, goblins made noises of accent.

Hoggle reacted quickly as he hobbled after the goblins with surprising speed and reached out and grabbed the one that was holding the camera above his head. Swinging the surprised goblin around, he took possession of the camera and put it along with the pictures in his bag attached to his belt. The goblins looked impressed, as they always were when they saw things of surprising size disappear into his bag, but that same bag did not change in shape or size.

"What did you do that for?" The goblins turned around and faced Hoggle with frowns on their faces.

"Too bad," Hoggle told them. "You idiots should be grateful I am keeping your heads and limbs attached to your bodies." Hoggle could not imagine what the fireys would do if the goblins set off those blinding flashes around them.

"Lady Sarah gave that to us, it's ours, it's not fair!" several goblins chorused.

Hoggle had a flashback to when Sarah had taken his bag of jewels. He had said almost the same exact thing. He only hoped that he had not sounded quite that whiny. Looking at a group of goblins that were beginning to look more and more hostile. He would need to figure something out or the mutinous group might start destroying the place or try to get the blasted thing back from him by using force. He did not think that it would work, but knowing the goblins' affinity for explosives, he did not want to see what they would do. What he needed was a distraction.

"Ok…ok what do you want to do?" he asked the goblins, taking a chance. "Besides getting that flash thing back and causing havoc with it," he added.

"We want Kingy back," complained one.

"Kingy sing, Kingy dance," said another.

"Want to go with Kingy," lamented another.

"Why do ya want ta go with the king?" Hoggle asked. This was the first time he had heard that the goblins asked to go anywhere. The goblins, especially the goblin hoard, usually were quite content hanging around the throne room, the gardens, and the city. They liked to sing, dance, drink, and carouse, which was easily accomplished right there.

The little goblin looked up at Hoggle with disbelief. "Kingy goin' to have fun with Lady Sarah and the babe Toby. We want to go have fun too."

Hoggle was sure that the kind of fun the king was looking for was not the same kind of fun that the goblins would want. He shook his head to clear it from those thoughts. "So what kinda fun da ya think they are havin'? What da ya think yer gonna miss?" he asked.

"Donno," pouted Zike, one of the smallest goblins. "Just know they havin' Halloweenie fun. We want to have Halloweenie fun."

"Babe Toby told us all about it," nodded Blinky. "Dress up costume, parade, Bob's apples, jackin 'lanterns, trickin' treats, and fire."

Now Hoggle had known Sarah for a few years, and during that time, he had learned a lot about some of the Aboveground traditions. From what he knew, some of the things that Blinky said made more sense than others. He thought he figured out most of it though. Thinking about their list of activities Hoggle actually did not think they were bad ideas. Except for the trick or treat, no one in the Goblin Kingdom, or the Underground for that matter, did it, they all seemed doable and fairly non-destructible.

"Alright," Hoggle said, looking at the group in front of him. "I think we can do some of those things tonight. We can have our own Holloweenie fun." Hoggle tried to sound convincing.

The goblins started clapping their hands and jumping up and down. "Ok, let's think about what we will need. Hoggle started making a list. He sent the goblins to go and find things to wear as costumes. They ran off to who knew where to find things. While they did that, Hoggle went to the kitchen to try to find pumpkins and apples.

Hoggle struggled with another armful of pumpkins. He again lamented his lack of natural magic. He knew that Jareth would have snapped his fingers and a pile of pumpkins would appear wherever he would want them. Hoggle had lost track of the number of trips he took, but he finally had enough pumpkins that if the goblins worked in pairs or groups any that wanted to participate in the carving could.

Several goblins had already reconvened in the throne room. Hoggle struggled not to laugh at the odd conglomeration of items they were using as costumes. While Hoggle had been in the kitchen fetching pumpkins, some of the goblins had been there as well. Some were wearing various bowls, colanders, pots, silverware, and tools in a variety of places on their bodies.

Others were wearing pieces of cloth wrapped around them. These, from their sizes and patterns, he guessed were bedsheets, pillowcases, and curtains. This made him worry, but he shrugged it off. The throne room looked none the worse. As long as it still looked ok, he would be long gone before Jareth could discover any problems in any other rooms in the castle.

"Nice costumes," he praised the goblins, hoping that none of them asked him to guess what they were, because he had no clue.

The goblins seemed to preen at his words, and when they did not push it, Hoggle figured that he was in the clear and would not have to play the guess who game. By the time the goblins had all returned, Hoggle had never seen such a strange-looking group, and that was saying something based on what he had seen in the Labyrinth. Only the ones that looked like they were wearing several articles of women's clothes had him wonder where they had come from. He did not ask, however, he didn't want to know the answer.

"Ok," Hoggle puffed as he spread the pumpkins out around the throne room. Hoggle struggled to remember what Sarah had told him about how to carve a pumpkin. "Ya wanna take the top off the pumpkin," he began. "Then ya take out the stuff inside. Then ya cut a face or picture inta the side of it." Hoggle still did not understand why those in the Above did this. The goblins seemed excited enough by it.

The enthusiastic goblins tore into the pumpkins. Hoggle had put tools that they could use near each of the pumpkins, but the hoard decided to use their clawed hands instead. Maniacal laughter echoed through the room as they worked and pieces of pumpkin started flying. That's when it happened…

Vuff, after prying off the top of his pumpkin, was impatient to get the insides of it to the outside. He straddled the open gourd and went at the goopy inside like a dog burying a bone. A handful of pumpkin guts landed squarely on top of Zick's head, as he was considering where to put his "face".

Zick, taking offense to being splattered, grabbed a handful of muck from the floor next to him. He turned and fired it in the direction the original volley had come from. That handful hit not Vuff but Yat, who was working next to him. She wasted no time in retaliating but missed her mark as well.

It didn't take long before the pumpkin guts were flying all around the throne room. Hoggle could not stop it, hell, he didn't even notice it starting until it was too late. He did the only thing he could do, he dove for cover under Jareth's throne. He figured that they would run out of ammunition soon. Then he would get them interested in another activity. The state of the room he would worry about later.

Eventually, the goblins ran out of ammo. Hoggle slowly crept out from under the throne ready to take cover at the first sight of any kind of projectile. When he was able to not only get completely out but was able to stand up and nothing came close to hitting him, he felt that it was safe to survey the damage. Then he was sorry he had.

Stringy, orange pumpkin insides covered almost every surface of the room. It was stuck to the walls in sticky blobs. It littered the floor as slippery landmines spotted with off-white, oblong seeds. They hung off the back and arms of the throne, dripping almost to the floor. Hoggle shook his head, amazed that there had been that much stuff in a few pumpkins. He was marveling at this when a glob of the messy stuff dropped from the ceiling and landed on his head. This was immediately followed by gales of laughter from the goblins in the room.

When Hoggle had gotten the pumpkin off his head and confirmed that none of the stuff was stuck to his clothes, he decided that he immediately needed to find something else for the goblins to do.

Cursing Jareth again under his breath for putting him in this situation, Hoggle looked for someplace that wasn't completely covered with pumpkin mess. The only place that seemed to be relatively pumpkin free happened to be the pit in the center of the room.

He needed something that could involve multiple goblins but take up only a little space. Thinking of the list that he had been given of the Halloween activities from Toby, bobbing for apples seemed to be the best idea.

This was another activity that Hoggle didn't understand the purpose of, and he was not sure that he even understood exactly how it worked. If he remembered right from Sarah, a large container was filled with water, and apples were dumped into it. Without using their hands, players tried to eat an apple without using anything but their mouths. Thinking about it, Hoggle shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen," he thought. The whole bunch would fall into a tub of water. Maybe it would clean some of the pumpkin gunk off of them.

Hoggle had found a large pot in the kitchen. It looked something like the cauldron in the poster for a play on Sarah's wall that he saw one time. What was it called Mac Bee's? No, Mac Donald's? No. Macbeth…maybe…who cares? All he knew was that it was big enough to fit a lot of apples and the goblins could get it as long as they used the step ladder he was able to find.

The goblins watched with great interest as Hoggle struggled to get the large pot into the pit. It fell over with a loud clang, and Hoggle had to right it again. He then enlisted the help of all the goblins to fill it. With surprising speed, they were able to procure several pails and set up a sort of bucket brigade. It worked well, except for the several times that a pail managed to get dumped over a goblin's head instead of being passed hand to hand.

Eventually, the caldron was filled. Hoggle looked around, and he realized that he had forgotten to get the apples from the kitchen when he was collecting the other items. Not wanting to leave the goblins to their own devices, especially with a large container of water available.

"I guess someone will need ta get some apples," he said, looking around and hoping that some apples would magically appear.

A hand tugged at his sleeve, and he looked down to see one of the smaller goblins standing there. "I gots some apples for ya," she said almost shyly. She then moved aside, and Hoggle was shocked to see several large burlap bags of apples sitting there. He could not believe that he missed them, and wondered how they had gotten there.

Hoggle lifted one of the apples up and looked it over. It was large and looked ripe and delicious. He gave a tentative sniff, and it smelled like an apple and shrugged. Well, at least he didn't have to find apples. Without another thought, Hoggle tossed the bags of apples into the water, each hitting with a satisfying splash.

Hoggle tried to explain what the goblins needed to do and the first brave contestant climbed the step ladder and leaned over the pot. Eyeing the floating targets, Gorp launched himself at one and ended up falling into the pot with a large splash, sending water and a few apples over the edge.

Gorp came up sputtering but triumphantly held his prize in his teeth. Hoggle helped him climb out, and Gorp headed to sit on the stairs and enjoy his prize. One by one, several other goblins tried their luck with various levels of success. Gorp was not the only goblin to end up taking a swim.

The goblins soon lost interest in the game. Many found it too difficult, and others thought that there were far too many rules. Hoggle found that he was working to herd the goblins and keep them in the pit and not wander off to do who knows what. Hoggle noticed that several of the goblins that had been eating the apples they won passed out around the pit. Hoggle chalked it up to drinking too much goblin ale before Jareth had left. He could see several empty barrels as was normal in the throne room.

Hoggle was in the middle of a round-up, when an explosion outside shook the castle walls. He and all the goblins ran out the main door of the castle and into a courtyard area that separated the castle from the Goblin City. Once he was outside the gate, he froze in shock. A stack of every imaginable kind of object was piled into a mountain that, at this point, was engulfed in flames.

"What the…" Hoggle couldn't even finish the thought.

"We make fire!" cheered Vuff, and Hoggle realized that he had not seen Vuff or a few other goblins lately. Now he knew what they had been up to.

Looking at the monstrous mess of items in the burning pile, Hoggle noticed that there were objects that he recognized. In fact, he thought that he saw Jareth's desk chair from his study. While the goblins stood there looking enraptured at the flames, Hoggle stumbled back into the throne room.

Not even caring anymore about what Jareth would say when he returned, Hoggle slumped onto his throne. The little goblin brought one of the apples over and handed it to him. Hoggle took it and examined it again before accepting the offering.

"Thanks," he mumbled and took a bite of the fruit.

Almost immediately, Hoggle felt strange. The mess around the throne room dissolved into a swirl of color. A thought hit him and made him feel sick.

"Where did these apples come from?" he asked.

The goblin rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. "I gots them from Kingy's trees!" she said happily.

"These are some of Jareth's magic fruits?" he asked incredulously as his consciousness began to slip away.

Damn them and damn me too, he thought, but then he decided that wherever the enchanted apple would take him would be better than here when Jareth returned.

A/N:

So not sure what Jareth will do with Hoggle when he realizes what happened. Hopefully, Sarah makes him happy enough that he won't care. (If you don't understand that read Goblin King Unknowing Halloween VIP) Please leave a review.