Okie, this chapter's odd. n.n Contains more dreamy goodness, some animal
cruelty ( n.n;; ) and a strange ending. But that's okay! Although I
really feel like I'm not writing J in character sometimes, because it's
really hard to think of him as powerless and dependant n.n() Does anyone
else think so? I need feedback, people! =3
Disc: Me no own His Royal Fluffmullet. Me no own Miss Drama-queen. Me no own Miss Drama-queen's bitchy parents or her walking mop-dog. Or Candy- striped crying machine. Me no own Royal Fluffmullet's overgrown rat maze or any of the strange critters living there. Me own everyone else. Me miss anyone? n.-
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The cage he was in wasn't comfortable in the least. The floor was cold, hard plastic. The space was far too cramped and tiny to stay in for longer than a few minutes, never mind the few days he'd been in here. The corner of the kitchen he was situated in was uncomfortably warm during the day, and boring besides. It didn't help that the woman had turned the carry- case to face against the wall so that she wouldn't have to look at him. Jareth was getting tired of peeking through holes. Perhaps the greatest and by far the most demeaning form of negligence of all, however, was the fact that no one was willing to clean up the mess that was accumulating in the inadequate space wherin he was confined. Jareth had set a corner aside for that particular unpleasantry, wishing for the hundredth time that he had retained enough of his magic to dispense with that, at least. He ignored that area for the most part, but it offended his cultured senses and his pride. He was very quickly running out of patience.
Feeding was another issue altogether. Karen and Robert gave him food, at Sarah's insistence, which ranged from scraps of meat to the handful of worms someone had given him the day before. That one still irked him. He wasn't a bloody robin. Thankfully, his digestion had stopped being so overly sensitive and he was able to stomach it, at least. It wasn't nearly enough, however, and it was clear that the stepmother especially was beginning to tire of the chore.
And Sarah... for all of her determination to have him looked after (if one could call it that), she herself refused to go near him. She would come into the kitchen often to spend time with her dog, casting Jareth wary glances every now and then. It hurt, and what was worse was that he could sense that his powers were starting to fade in her care. She just wasn't happy, and it was beginning to seep away.
Damn it all. Hurting Sarah was proving to be the worst mistake he could have possibly made.
Jareth hooked his beak onto the bars, feeling helpless. It was all so... mundane, so bloody frustrating. He was tired of doing nothing! What he needed was a way out, and quickly. The cage seemed to be getting smaller and smaller every day.
Sarah came in and filled a pitcher with water from the sink. She seemed so much more dispassionate these days. The bandages were off and her arm was healing quickly, although it would leave an ugly scar. She, however, seemed to care less and less.
"Hey, boy," she said to Merlin, sparing him a pat on the head. She grabbed a knife from a drawer and took a lemon out of the fridge, setting it down onto the counter to cut it into slices.
Jareth rustled his wings a bit. He had started to regain some use of them, and although they were nowhere near flight-able yet, he could at least move them a little now. Sarah paused mid-slice to glance over at him and he keened piteously.
"What? Do you want out of there, Jareth? Too bad, you're staying right where you are." She brought the knife down again, slicing through the lemon viciously. Jareth winced. Sarah dumped the slices into the water jug and added some ice from the freezer, then carried the concoction out of the kitchen to where Karen and her father were. She spared him a glance on the way out.
Damn. What to do? She obviously wasn't ready to forgive him yet. He looked away with a frustrated sigh. Perhaps she expected him to do something first. Well, that was certainly out of the question. He could do little but sit here and rot.
Jareth leaned over and tried the bars again. The mechanism for opening the door was simple enough, just a spring-loaded bolt that slid into the frame. If it weren't for the fact that the door was always pushed up against the wall, he could have escaped by now.
He sighed. Escape and do what, exactly? He'd just get thrown right back in again, unless his standing with Sarah changed. Leaving wasn't a viable option if he wanted to survive for very long, and aside from that, he had nowhere else to go.
He glanced up as Sarah and her stepmother re-entered the kitchen. The older woman put some glasses down and turned to face Sarah.
"Sarah, we need to talk," Karen insisted. "You have to decide what to do with that animal."
Sarah's irritation flared up. In spite of what the owl had done, she still wanted to help him. And as long as he stayed in that cage, her need to defy Karen won out over her fear.
"Why do we have to do anything with him?" She argued. "It's not like he can get out or anything."
"Sarah, he smells. And I don't like having that thing in my kitchen!" Karen folded her arms across her chest.
"He only smells because you don't clean up after him," Her stepdaughter snapped. "Besides, if we take him to the vet, they'll have him put down."
"Well, maybe it's for the best if they do. They are professionals and they'd know what's best for it," her stepmother reasoned primly.
"Oh, so killing him is what's best for him? Maybe I should maul both my arms and see if you have me put to sleep," Sarah spat. How on earth could her stepmother be so cruel?
"At the rate you're going, you won't need to," Karen observed. "That bird will do it for you."
Sarah faltered. "...He was just scared," she mumbled after a moment. "He doesn't realize that we're trying to help him."
"Which is exactly why you need to turn him over to the vet, Sarah. Let the professionals deal with him."
"They'll put him to sleep!" Sarah repeated with righteous indignation. "You're not even listening to me!"
"Then maybe he deserves to die!" Karen shot back. Sarah froze in shocked amazement.
"I can't believe you just said that," she said coldly. "I'm not turning him over to a vet, and you'd better not, either, or I won't ever forgive you." With that, she stormed out of the kitchen and through the back door.
Karen sighed and glared at the carrying case in the corner , then turned and left the room as well, muttering under her breath. Jareth snapped his beak at her. Good riddance.
What Sarah had said gave him pause for thought. Did the professional healers in this world really kill off their patients like that, without a second thought? He could see it happening if the creature was beyond hope, but... he wasn't beyond hope, was he? He carefully, slowly flexed his wings. The pain was tolerable now, although just barely, and he -could- move them. He -was- improving. Jareth scowled. That damned stepmother was bound and determined to be rid of him, wasn't she? He was little more than a burden in her eyes.
The Goblin King sighed. He would have to find a way out of this soon. He could tell that that woman would not honor Sarah's request for very much longer.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sarah stood on a familiar red hill, overlooking the great stone edifice spread out before her. She very nearly panicked at first. What was she doing back here? She wouldn't have to go through it again, would she? What was at stake this time? Was it her brother? Or something worse?
She calmed down when she realized that she hadn't made any wishes. There were no arrogant blond Goblin Kings taunting her, telling her she had thirteen hours with which to make it through. In fact, there was no one.
Sarah looked around, puzzled. She would have expected to see someone, at least. Like Hoggle, wandering around outside the gates and spraying fairies. Or a few crows, or something. Now that she had stopped to notice, the Labyrinth seemed a lot more run down. Almost like it had been abandoned altogether.
"Hello?" she called out hopefully. Her voice echoed eerily, bouncing back at her from across the suddenly barren landscape. The Labyrinth had vanished into thin air. Sand whipped around the arid desert she now found herself standing in. She couldn't see around her, the air was so thick with orange dust. It rushed at her, smothering her, trying to force it's way down her throat and choke her. Sarah really did panic this time.
"Someone help!" She coughed, red-faced. "Goblin King!" She cried in desperation.
"What do you want now, Sarah?" His voice drifted over. She looked up in the direction from whence it had come to see him emerge from the whirling storm. She blinked and rubbed sand out of her eyes, holding her sleeve to her mouth to block out the dust.
Jareth stayed where he was, sand and wind tossing his wild blond mane about. He looked awful. His face was haggard and bitter, and coated in a film of dust which he barely seemed to notice, as if he'd given up entirely on ever being clean again. The shirt he wore was torn and bloodied, and orange dust covered it as well. He resembled a homeless vagabond more than he did a King.
"Jareth..?" Sarah asked in shock.
"I do not recall ever giving you permission to address me so casually," Jareth informed her coolly, his usual display of regal arrogance up in full force. Sarah ignored him, looking around distractedly.
"My friends... where are my friends? Hoggle and Ludo and Didymus and... and everyone? Where are they?" She turned to face him. "What have you done to them?"
"Perhaps you should be asking me what -you- have done to them," Jareth snarled, his mask of indifference falling away. He seemed tired, hopeless. "-I- have done nothing but cater to your whims, Sarah," he continued, his voice harsh with bitter resentment. "I granted your wish. I played out your ideal villain..." he was pacing around her like a large cat as he went on,"I risked everything for a selfish, thoughtless girl like you, and look what I have gotten in return." He halted in front of her and gestured grandly, mockingly. His eyes bored into hers. "Do not presume to ask what I have done, Sarah."
"I-I don't understand..." Sarah looked lost. "Where are my friends?"
"I haven't the faintest idea, Sarah. Perhaps you could tell me what has happened to my realm in my absence." His face fell into a pained expression and he leaned forward. "I gave you everything, Sarah, and you stole it out from under my nose and threw it all away. You have only yourself to blame for your missing companions." His voice faltered, and for one moment, she thought he was going to break down right in front of her. He turned suddenly and started to walk away. "There is nothing I can do for you now."
"Wait!" Sarah cried, "Don't leave me here!" But he was already gone. The wind and sand rushed back in, burying her and filling her lungs as the ground simultaneously gave out beneath her and she plummeted into the ground. Sand, sand everywhere! She couldn't breathe! Sarah opened her mouth to scream...
...And woke up, gasping.
She sat up, trembling and damp with perspiration as she tried to calm her thundering heart. She had been suffocating, there was sand everywhere, in her eyes, in her lungs, and she couldn't breathe, and...
And she couldn't remember anything else. Sarah took a few deep, calming breaths. It had just been a dream. Only a dream.
She lay back, but she was far too wound up to go back to sleep just yet. After a moment of staring at the ceiling, she got out of bed and headed down towards the kitchen for a drink.
There was no juice in the fridge, so Sarah had to settle for a glass of lemon water from earlier. She leaned back against the counter to drink it.
Jareth was staring at her from his cage on the floor, and Sarah watched him as she sipped her water. He saw her looking and ruffled his feathers.
"Hey there," she greeted. Not really sure of what she was doing, she walked over and sat down cross-legged on the floor beside him. The barn owl cocked his head to one side and peered up at her as she turned the case to look in through the bars. Maybe it was the nightmare she'd just had, but he really didn't seem that frightening in comparison. In fact, he really was a beautiful bird, she had to admit. The moonlight from the kitchen window shone through the bars, turning his white feathers a silvery blue. Large dark eyes gazed up at her with a sort of guarded curiosity that made him look both wary and vulnerable at the same time. Sarah tucked a lock of hair behind one ear and regarded him thoughtfully. It really wasn't his fault that he'd gotten hurt. He was scared and in pain, and he had a right to feel reluctant about letting her come near him.
"I'm being selfish, aren't I?" She asked him rhetorically. The owl nudged the bars with his head and looked back up at her hopefully. Sarah fingered the bolt and bit her lip, watching the owl intently. He made no move to attack her, but stood back and glanced from her to the latch, then back again.
"This is ridiculous..." She sighed and got up, putting her glass in the sink and heading back upstairs.
Jareth heaved a sigh and sat back down. He'd been so very close! She had almost let him out. If only she'd decided to stay for another minute, he might have managed to convince her that he didn't wish her any harm. He was getting fairly desperate by this point. Perhaps he was limiting himself to how he would expect a normal barn owl to behave. What did it really matter, now? She knew it was him, and he was getting nowhere pretending ignorance. It seemed like now was an opportune time to stop behaving like a wild creature.
His eyes fell on the bolt holding the door closed. She had left the cage facing away from the wall...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Despite the awful dream she's had, Sarah slept well for the remainder of the night. She awoke the next morning feeling warm and relaxed, and reached out to stretch luxuriously.
Her fingers brushed against something soft and alive. Sarah's eyes flew open and she looked down.
It was on her bed. The owl was out of the cage and it was ON HER BED. She sat stone-still, petrified that she'd disturb him by moving away. He had made himself at home on her comforter, settled up against her side for warmth and dozing peacefully.
Sarah blinked. It was just too bizarre to be frightening. Wild owls did -not- just curl up next to the nearest human for a nap! How could this possibly be? He was almost acting like a pet...
It dawned on her that maybe he had been trained by someone in the past. Maybe that was why he chose to sit outside her window all the time. The possibility had never really occured to her before. It would explain why she hadn't managed to frighten him away when she had lost her temper that one time. And why she saw him everywhere, as if he were following her. That had to be it. There was no other explanation as to why he'd be lying on her covers as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Feeling bolder in light of this new epiphany, she cautiously stroked his feathers, ready to snatch her hand back in an instant. He stirred and lifted his head, craning around to face her. Sarah pulled back, but he didn't look anything but content as he let out a huge yawn and blinked at her slowly.
"Oh, Jareth..." She breathed. This really was the strangest experience she'd ever had. He didn't seem wild in the least, not anymore. Even with an explanation at hand, it was nothing short of surreal.
She slowly reached forward to pet him again. He didn't even hiss like she expected him to. In fact, he leaned into the caress, much to Sarah's delight. Reassured, she scratched his neck lightly, earning a blissful croon in return. Her free hand went to her mouth, and tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. She let out something that was half laugh, half sob as all of the tension she had felt recently seemed to evaporate. She'd been so cruel to him for the past few days, but he wasn't holding it against her... he really wasn't vicious at all.
"Sarah..." Karen stuck her head in through the doorway. Sarah looked up. Leave it to Karen to ruin a magical moment like this. "Time to get u-.. oh my God!" Her jaw dropped as she took in the scene in front of her.
"What's going on?" Robert crowded in behind her at his wife's exclamation, and they both looked on in disbelief. Jareth turned his head to regard them smugly.
"We're keeping him," Sarah stated with a grin.
Disc: Me no own His Royal Fluffmullet. Me no own Miss Drama-queen. Me no own Miss Drama-queen's bitchy parents or her walking mop-dog. Or Candy- striped crying machine. Me no own Royal Fluffmullet's overgrown rat maze or any of the strange critters living there. Me own everyone else. Me miss anyone? n.-
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The cage he was in wasn't comfortable in the least. The floor was cold, hard plastic. The space was far too cramped and tiny to stay in for longer than a few minutes, never mind the few days he'd been in here. The corner of the kitchen he was situated in was uncomfortably warm during the day, and boring besides. It didn't help that the woman had turned the carry- case to face against the wall so that she wouldn't have to look at him. Jareth was getting tired of peeking through holes. Perhaps the greatest and by far the most demeaning form of negligence of all, however, was the fact that no one was willing to clean up the mess that was accumulating in the inadequate space wherin he was confined. Jareth had set a corner aside for that particular unpleasantry, wishing for the hundredth time that he had retained enough of his magic to dispense with that, at least. He ignored that area for the most part, but it offended his cultured senses and his pride. He was very quickly running out of patience.
Feeding was another issue altogether. Karen and Robert gave him food, at Sarah's insistence, which ranged from scraps of meat to the handful of worms someone had given him the day before. That one still irked him. He wasn't a bloody robin. Thankfully, his digestion had stopped being so overly sensitive and he was able to stomach it, at least. It wasn't nearly enough, however, and it was clear that the stepmother especially was beginning to tire of the chore.
And Sarah... for all of her determination to have him looked after (if one could call it that), she herself refused to go near him. She would come into the kitchen often to spend time with her dog, casting Jareth wary glances every now and then. It hurt, and what was worse was that he could sense that his powers were starting to fade in her care. She just wasn't happy, and it was beginning to seep away.
Damn it all. Hurting Sarah was proving to be the worst mistake he could have possibly made.
Jareth hooked his beak onto the bars, feeling helpless. It was all so... mundane, so bloody frustrating. He was tired of doing nothing! What he needed was a way out, and quickly. The cage seemed to be getting smaller and smaller every day.
Sarah came in and filled a pitcher with water from the sink. She seemed so much more dispassionate these days. The bandages were off and her arm was healing quickly, although it would leave an ugly scar. She, however, seemed to care less and less.
"Hey, boy," she said to Merlin, sparing him a pat on the head. She grabbed a knife from a drawer and took a lemon out of the fridge, setting it down onto the counter to cut it into slices.
Jareth rustled his wings a bit. He had started to regain some use of them, and although they were nowhere near flight-able yet, he could at least move them a little now. Sarah paused mid-slice to glance over at him and he keened piteously.
"What? Do you want out of there, Jareth? Too bad, you're staying right where you are." She brought the knife down again, slicing through the lemon viciously. Jareth winced. Sarah dumped the slices into the water jug and added some ice from the freezer, then carried the concoction out of the kitchen to where Karen and her father were. She spared him a glance on the way out.
Damn. What to do? She obviously wasn't ready to forgive him yet. He looked away with a frustrated sigh. Perhaps she expected him to do something first. Well, that was certainly out of the question. He could do little but sit here and rot.
Jareth leaned over and tried the bars again. The mechanism for opening the door was simple enough, just a spring-loaded bolt that slid into the frame. If it weren't for the fact that the door was always pushed up against the wall, he could have escaped by now.
He sighed. Escape and do what, exactly? He'd just get thrown right back in again, unless his standing with Sarah changed. Leaving wasn't a viable option if he wanted to survive for very long, and aside from that, he had nowhere else to go.
He glanced up as Sarah and her stepmother re-entered the kitchen. The older woman put some glasses down and turned to face Sarah.
"Sarah, we need to talk," Karen insisted. "You have to decide what to do with that animal."
Sarah's irritation flared up. In spite of what the owl had done, she still wanted to help him. And as long as he stayed in that cage, her need to defy Karen won out over her fear.
"Why do we have to do anything with him?" She argued. "It's not like he can get out or anything."
"Sarah, he smells. And I don't like having that thing in my kitchen!" Karen folded her arms across her chest.
"He only smells because you don't clean up after him," Her stepdaughter snapped. "Besides, if we take him to the vet, they'll have him put down."
"Well, maybe it's for the best if they do. They are professionals and they'd know what's best for it," her stepmother reasoned primly.
"Oh, so killing him is what's best for him? Maybe I should maul both my arms and see if you have me put to sleep," Sarah spat. How on earth could her stepmother be so cruel?
"At the rate you're going, you won't need to," Karen observed. "That bird will do it for you."
Sarah faltered. "...He was just scared," she mumbled after a moment. "He doesn't realize that we're trying to help him."
"Which is exactly why you need to turn him over to the vet, Sarah. Let the professionals deal with him."
"They'll put him to sleep!" Sarah repeated with righteous indignation. "You're not even listening to me!"
"Then maybe he deserves to die!" Karen shot back. Sarah froze in shocked amazement.
"I can't believe you just said that," she said coldly. "I'm not turning him over to a vet, and you'd better not, either, or I won't ever forgive you." With that, she stormed out of the kitchen and through the back door.
Karen sighed and glared at the carrying case in the corner , then turned and left the room as well, muttering under her breath. Jareth snapped his beak at her. Good riddance.
What Sarah had said gave him pause for thought. Did the professional healers in this world really kill off their patients like that, without a second thought? He could see it happening if the creature was beyond hope, but... he wasn't beyond hope, was he? He carefully, slowly flexed his wings. The pain was tolerable now, although just barely, and he -could- move them. He -was- improving. Jareth scowled. That damned stepmother was bound and determined to be rid of him, wasn't she? He was little more than a burden in her eyes.
The Goblin King sighed. He would have to find a way out of this soon. He could tell that that woman would not honor Sarah's request for very much longer.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sarah stood on a familiar red hill, overlooking the great stone edifice spread out before her. She very nearly panicked at first. What was she doing back here? She wouldn't have to go through it again, would she? What was at stake this time? Was it her brother? Or something worse?
She calmed down when she realized that she hadn't made any wishes. There were no arrogant blond Goblin Kings taunting her, telling her she had thirteen hours with which to make it through. In fact, there was no one.
Sarah looked around, puzzled. She would have expected to see someone, at least. Like Hoggle, wandering around outside the gates and spraying fairies. Or a few crows, or something. Now that she had stopped to notice, the Labyrinth seemed a lot more run down. Almost like it had been abandoned altogether.
"Hello?" she called out hopefully. Her voice echoed eerily, bouncing back at her from across the suddenly barren landscape. The Labyrinth had vanished into thin air. Sand whipped around the arid desert she now found herself standing in. She couldn't see around her, the air was so thick with orange dust. It rushed at her, smothering her, trying to force it's way down her throat and choke her. Sarah really did panic this time.
"Someone help!" She coughed, red-faced. "Goblin King!" She cried in desperation.
"What do you want now, Sarah?" His voice drifted over. She looked up in the direction from whence it had come to see him emerge from the whirling storm. She blinked and rubbed sand out of her eyes, holding her sleeve to her mouth to block out the dust.
Jareth stayed where he was, sand and wind tossing his wild blond mane about. He looked awful. His face was haggard and bitter, and coated in a film of dust which he barely seemed to notice, as if he'd given up entirely on ever being clean again. The shirt he wore was torn and bloodied, and orange dust covered it as well. He resembled a homeless vagabond more than he did a King.
"Jareth..?" Sarah asked in shock.
"I do not recall ever giving you permission to address me so casually," Jareth informed her coolly, his usual display of regal arrogance up in full force. Sarah ignored him, looking around distractedly.
"My friends... where are my friends? Hoggle and Ludo and Didymus and... and everyone? Where are they?" She turned to face him. "What have you done to them?"
"Perhaps you should be asking me what -you- have done to them," Jareth snarled, his mask of indifference falling away. He seemed tired, hopeless. "-I- have done nothing but cater to your whims, Sarah," he continued, his voice harsh with bitter resentment. "I granted your wish. I played out your ideal villain..." he was pacing around her like a large cat as he went on,"I risked everything for a selfish, thoughtless girl like you, and look what I have gotten in return." He halted in front of her and gestured grandly, mockingly. His eyes bored into hers. "Do not presume to ask what I have done, Sarah."
"I-I don't understand..." Sarah looked lost. "Where are my friends?"
"I haven't the faintest idea, Sarah. Perhaps you could tell me what has happened to my realm in my absence." His face fell into a pained expression and he leaned forward. "I gave you everything, Sarah, and you stole it out from under my nose and threw it all away. You have only yourself to blame for your missing companions." His voice faltered, and for one moment, she thought he was going to break down right in front of her. He turned suddenly and started to walk away. "There is nothing I can do for you now."
"Wait!" Sarah cried, "Don't leave me here!" But he was already gone. The wind and sand rushed back in, burying her and filling her lungs as the ground simultaneously gave out beneath her and she plummeted into the ground. Sand, sand everywhere! She couldn't breathe! Sarah opened her mouth to scream...
...And woke up, gasping.
She sat up, trembling and damp with perspiration as she tried to calm her thundering heart. She had been suffocating, there was sand everywhere, in her eyes, in her lungs, and she couldn't breathe, and...
And she couldn't remember anything else. Sarah took a few deep, calming breaths. It had just been a dream. Only a dream.
She lay back, but she was far too wound up to go back to sleep just yet. After a moment of staring at the ceiling, she got out of bed and headed down towards the kitchen for a drink.
There was no juice in the fridge, so Sarah had to settle for a glass of lemon water from earlier. She leaned back against the counter to drink it.
Jareth was staring at her from his cage on the floor, and Sarah watched him as she sipped her water. He saw her looking and ruffled his feathers.
"Hey there," she greeted. Not really sure of what she was doing, she walked over and sat down cross-legged on the floor beside him. The barn owl cocked his head to one side and peered up at her as she turned the case to look in through the bars. Maybe it was the nightmare she'd just had, but he really didn't seem that frightening in comparison. In fact, he really was a beautiful bird, she had to admit. The moonlight from the kitchen window shone through the bars, turning his white feathers a silvery blue. Large dark eyes gazed up at her with a sort of guarded curiosity that made him look both wary and vulnerable at the same time. Sarah tucked a lock of hair behind one ear and regarded him thoughtfully. It really wasn't his fault that he'd gotten hurt. He was scared and in pain, and he had a right to feel reluctant about letting her come near him.
"I'm being selfish, aren't I?" She asked him rhetorically. The owl nudged the bars with his head and looked back up at her hopefully. Sarah fingered the bolt and bit her lip, watching the owl intently. He made no move to attack her, but stood back and glanced from her to the latch, then back again.
"This is ridiculous..." She sighed and got up, putting her glass in the sink and heading back upstairs.
Jareth heaved a sigh and sat back down. He'd been so very close! She had almost let him out. If only she'd decided to stay for another minute, he might have managed to convince her that he didn't wish her any harm. He was getting fairly desperate by this point. Perhaps he was limiting himself to how he would expect a normal barn owl to behave. What did it really matter, now? She knew it was him, and he was getting nowhere pretending ignorance. It seemed like now was an opportune time to stop behaving like a wild creature.
His eyes fell on the bolt holding the door closed. She had left the cage facing away from the wall...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Despite the awful dream she's had, Sarah slept well for the remainder of the night. She awoke the next morning feeling warm and relaxed, and reached out to stretch luxuriously.
Her fingers brushed against something soft and alive. Sarah's eyes flew open and she looked down.
It was on her bed. The owl was out of the cage and it was ON HER BED. She sat stone-still, petrified that she'd disturb him by moving away. He had made himself at home on her comforter, settled up against her side for warmth and dozing peacefully.
Sarah blinked. It was just too bizarre to be frightening. Wild owls did -not- just curl up next to the nearest human for a nap! How could this possibly be? He was almost acting like a pet...
It dawned on her that maybe he had been trained by someone in the past. Maybe that was why he chose to sit outside her window all the time. The possibility had never really occured to her before. It would explain why she hadn't managed to frighten him away when she had lost her temper that one time. And why she saw him everywhere, as if he were following her. That had to be it. There was no other explanation as to why he'd be lying on her covers as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Feeling bolder in light of this new epiphany, she cautiously stroked his feathers, ready to snatch her hand back in an instant. He stirred and lifted his head, craning around to face her. Sarah pulled back, but he didn't look anything but content as he let out a huge yawn and blinked at her slowly.
"Oh, Jareth..." She breathed. This really was the strangest experience she'd ever had. He didn't seem wild in the least, not anymore. Even with an explanation at hand, it was nothing short of surreal.
She slowly reached forward to pet him again. He didn't even hiss like she expected him to. In fact, he leaned into the caress, much to Sarah's delight. Reassured, she scratched his neck lightly, earning a blissful croon in return. Her free hand went to her mouth, and tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. She let out something that was half laugh, half sob as all of the tension she had felt recently seemed to evaporate. She'd been so cruel to him for the past few days, but he wasn't holding it against her... he really wasn't vicious at all.
"Sarah..." Karen stuck her head in through the doorway. Sarah looked up. Leave it to Karen to ruin a magical moment like this. "Time to get u-.. oh my God!" Her jaw dropped as she took in the scene in front of her.
"What's going on?" Robert crowded in behind her at his wife's exclamation, and they both looked on in disbelief. Jareth turned his head to regard them smugly.
"We're keeping him," Sarah stated with a grin.