A/N: um. right, now I'm going to continue where I left off!
Disclaimer: (to the melody of Where oh where has my little dog gone) Where, oh where had my dis-claim-er gone? Oh where, oh where can it be? With its sentences cut short and its spelling cut long, oh where, oh where could it be? In English; I've lost my disclaimer. Therefore, I do not own. Happy?
Chapter Started: 3/9/03 Chapter Finished: 3/9/03
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Last time, on 'Age has NOTHING to do with it', Jareth proceeded to tell Sarah's father about a hypothetical situation, and Sarah flew into a rage. We left off when Scary-mode-Sarah flew at Jareth, and I guess that that's where we'll pick up!
~
"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO TELL MY DAD SOMETHING LIKE THAT! HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT POOR TOBY?!? HE'S IN HERE TOO, YA KNOW! HE'S THREE FREAKIN' YEARS OLD! HOW. HOW DARE YOU!!!" and she would have attacked him right then and there, but Robert and Karen each grabbed a hold of one of Sarah's arms and a moment later had her tied down to her bed and Jareth on the opposite side of the room.
"THIS IS CHILD ABUSE!!!" Sarah roared, thrashing against her bonds. "BAD, BAD, NASSSSSSSTY PEOPLE WHO CALL YOURSELVES MY FAMILY!!!" to say she was pissed would have been the Understatement of the Year. "WICKED, WICKED BIRDS!!!"
"Holy Peaches, Sarah, what is with you??" asked Jareth. "YOU TRYING TO TELL MY PARENTS A LIE THAT I KNOW I'LL GET IN TROUBLE FOR!!!"
"They wanted a Hypothetical situation, Sarah."
"THEY WOULD HAVE PRETENDED YOU WERE TELLING THE TRUTH, BUT WAS TOO EMBARRASSED TO SAY IT WAS THE TRUTH!!!"
"ah. That explains a lot. But why are you so scary?"
"BECAUSE I. AM. SCARY-MODE-SARAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"
Toby began to cry.
"Now look what you've done, Sarah! You made Toby cry!"
"TOUCH HIM AND DIE!!!"
"You already told me that."
"WELL I'M TELLING YOU AGAIN!!!"
Toby cried harder, and Karen tried to comfort him, but he thrashed out of her arms and clambered onto Jareth's lap, wailing into his 'shirt', if you could call it that. "JARETH!!!"
"He did it on his own," Jareth excused, patting Toby's narrow back. "It was his choice."
"HE'S THREE!!"
"STOP YELLING, YOUR SCARING THE LOCALS!!!"
Sarah stopped yelling and twisted around to give Jareth a skeptical look. Finally, Scary-Mode-Sarah was gone. "I'm sorry, Toby!" she said as Robert untied her bonds. She then launched herself at Jareth and snatched a sniffling Toby out of his arms. "HE'D better NOT be a Goblin," she warned.
"Look for yourself," Jareth said with a roll of his eyes. Sarah examined Toby up and down, then sat down next to Jareth on the floor.
"I think that you're all pissy because you didn't get any more sleep then a couple of hours," Jareth said.
"I didn't. gee, your smart."
"Heh. Join the club."
Robert cleared his throat. "So, you came earlier on, did you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "GET THEM AWAY FROM MY TOBY!" Karen wailed, and snatched Toby away from Sarah. The babe promptly began to cry, and even when Sarah stood and snatched him back, he continued to wail at the top of his lungs. "Leet me see!" Robert said, but Toby still cried, harder then ever.
With an exasperated sigh, Jareth snatched Toby away and rocked him slightly, conjuring up a crystal for him to hold, which he did, and he quieted down. Jareth handed him back to Sarah, who threw a glare in Karen's direction.
"You do magic tricks," Robert added to his earlier statement. Jareth sighed. "I've had enough of this. I'm leaving." He started towards the door, but Robert stood in his way. "No, Jareth. You are staying here until we get the truth."
"You've got it," Jareth snapped, then whirled on Sarah. "How can you put up with such closed-minded idiots? They have no sense of logic!"
"See what I've been putting up with? I've been rethinking your offer - if it isn't too late. and Toby has to come." Sarah immediately flushed when she realized what she had just said.
"Yes, yes," Jareth said, waving a distracted hand. "What I need to do is Get back to the Underground and Kill Mr. Willy. Then this potion he splashed on me will be gone and THEN I can rethink the Labyrinth," he sighed and massaged a temple.
"Can we help?" Sarah offered, bouncing Toby a little. Jareth raised an eyebrow. "I don't see how, but you can come try if you want."
"Oh, good!" Sarah squealed. "We can be wuvles!"
Jareth wisely decided not to ask what a 'wuvle' was.
Sarah cooed at Toby, "Didjya hear that? We're going back to the Labyrinth!" she said, and Toby found this very funny. "Laby, Laby!" he said excitedly.
"No," Karen broke in. "First of all neither of you are going anywhere. Second of all, Toby belongs to me. he isn't going anywhere with You or with YOU." She said snottily. Sarah gave a hussy sigh and walked calmly over next to Jareth. "Dad, let us out." She ordered.
"No. just the truth - that's all I want. Then you can leave and you'll be grounded."
Sarah sighed. "Say, Jareth, didn't you say that you couldn't get back to the Labyrinth?"
"Not by owl or simple magic. But I or we can walk there, if I concentrate hard enough."
"Oh. Well, let's get going!"
"Sorry, Sarah, my dear, but I'm afraid that there's a road bloke here."
"then let's take a detour."
"any suggestions?"
Sarah jerked her thumb over her shoulder, at the window.
"Oh." Jareth said. "That'll work." And he crossed the room in three long strides and opened the window, throwing the screen out of place. "Yes, it'll have to do." He said, and was out in an instant. He dropped smoothly to the ground.
"EXCUSE ME," Robert shouted, and moved towards the window in a fury, but in an almost panic, Sarah threw Toby out the window with a "CATCH, JARETH!" she could only pray that he had. Now Karen threw her entire upper body out the window. "Toby, Toby!" she cried. "No, give me back my son, please!" Robert tried to do the same, and while they were distracted, Sarah flew out her bedroom door. Both Robert and Karen heard the click, and they both lunged for Sarah at the same time.
But she was downstairs and out the front door in a flash, and Jareth was there waiting for her with Toby in hand. The three year old found all of this madly funny.
"Run!" Sarah shouted, and Jareth held Toby securly in one hand, locking his fingers around Sarah's with his free hand, and the two bolted down the street.
"COME BACK! THIS IS KIDNAPPING!" Robert and Karen roared after them, and followed. But as luck (or not luck, but Sarah saw it as luck) would have it, across the street up a ways was a patrol car. "This way!" Sarah called, tugging on Jareth's hand, leading him to the cop car. The cop was already out, leaning against his door, drinking a cup of coffee (the doughnuts were hidden in the passenger seat). He looked up as Sarah and Jareth approached, panting.
"Please, sir," Sarah gasped. "Those two people are trying to kidnap our son!" she motioned towards Karen and Robert, who were catching up fast, then to Jareth who was leaning over hands on knees, grasping Toby with one arm still.
"seem a bit young to have kids, eh?" asked the cop in an Australian accent. "It's our religion!" Sarah flared up. "we got married and had our child when the Great Chocolate Dinosaur bid us to! And those two people are trying to kidnap our son!"
To say the cop was taken aback, well, let's just say that he was surprised.
"Yes, yes, I'm sorry, miss, uh, err, Mrs., um?"
"Sarah," she gasped, and threw a frantic look over her shoulder to Karen and Robert.
"Sarah, I think that maybe we should go now," Jareth said. Toby giggled and clapped his little palms together. "Bad, bad!" he laughed, and waved his arms around. "Yes, they're very bad, Toby, hold on, Jareth," Sarah said in a warning tone. Then she turned back to the cop. "please, can you cover our backs?"
"I think that it'd be better to take this to the court and settle it there," the cop started, but Jareth grabbed Sarah's hand with his free one.
"No time, gotta go, bye!" he shouted over his shoulder, dragging Sarah. He slowed his pace a bit so that she could run as well.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Sarah!" the cop called after them as Karen and Robert stopped at his car.
By the time Sarah and Jareth slowed to a slow and tired walk, both were panting heavily and barely able to pick up their feet. Or at least, Sarah was. Jareth recovered rather quickly (having a younger body, see, more energy). Toby was rather disgruntled from being carried so long in a running motion, and grumbled as Jareth handed him so Sarah. "Okay," he said. "Its just mind work and walking from here."
So they began walking. Sarah was dragging her feet and wondering how she could have gotten into this mess, and Jareth practically dragged her, eyes vacant in concentration. So it was that only little Toby noticed their surroundings change, albeit slowly at first, and he made a number of noises including all the words he knew to try to tell Sarah. She grunted and shifted him into a different position, on her hip.
When she DID finally notice, it was because her foot had sunk into a reddish sand, and she looked up to see the Labyrinth at a distance. A very long distance. She groaned - it was only a spot on the horizon, and barely able to be seen in the sun's rays. She looked behind them and was shocked to see the road and her street protruding from the land of the Underground.
"Change, change!" Toby said proudly. "Yeah, I'll say," Sarah said through a constricted throat. She looked up at Jareth, whose arm she was hanging on, and cocked her head slightly at the calculating look on his face. Wisely, she said nothing.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, she dropped to her knees and cried something about not being able to go on any longer. Jareth stopped and turned around to look at her. In his arms, Toby slept soundly (for he had long taken him from Sarah when he started to snooze.
"What, tired?" he asked. Sarah looked behind her and saw that there was just barren land surrounding them. She looked back to Jareth. "Are we there?" she asked hoarsly.
"Yes."
"How long?"
"About a couple of hours. If you were tired you should have said something."
"Sorry, I thought you were still concentrating!" she fell back and laid there on the ground. she was very tired.
"Come on, Sarah," Jareth said, pulling her to her feet. She made a small noise of complaint. "It'll take us a while to get to the Labyrinth," he said. "And it isn't safe to walk at night in the Wild Lands." And with that he managed to sweep her into his arms, and balance Toby over his shoulder at the same time. "Very strong," Sarah mumbled before falling asleep.
~
When Sarah woke up again, she was on Jareth's back this time, and toby was balnced on his hip. The sun was sinking behind them slowly, and Jareth plodded on. "Jareth?" she asked softly.
"What?"
"Aren't you tired?"
"No."
"Why not? And you can put me down, I feel rested now," Sarah slid off Jareth's back and took Toby from him, cradling him to her chest.
"Magic. As long as I'm in the Underground I'll keep all of my strength until I sit down or lay down. In which case, I wouldn't be able to fight the fatigue. It wouldn't be wise to leave you and Toby defenseless in the Wild Lands. We have to get into Labyrinthine territory. Almost there."
They plodded on for a while in silence when suddenly Jareth groaned and keeled over. "Jareth!" Sarah shouted, and ran over to him. She rolled him over and gasped. He looks even younger! She realized. Indeed, his features were younger and smaller looking. He looked almost drastically different from the Goblin King she had first met.
Now his golden-blond hair with white-blond highlights came only to just below his ears (which, Sarah gasped as she noticed, were slightly pointed), and his skin was paler, smoother, younger. He size also was greatly reduced, and Sarah realized he seemed maybe sixteen or fifteen by now. Her age, or a little older. "Jareth!" she called, and set Toby down to try to wake him up. "Jareth, wake up!" she begged. "JARETH!" he twitched slightly, and forced his eyes open.
"Sarah," he whispered, and Sarah found that his voice was a lot younger too. "you look younger," she offered, balancing his head on her lap. "Bad," he muttered.
"Bad," echoed Toby, who had woken up. The sun was almost completely gone, and Sarah remembered what Jareth had said about the Wild Lands. "Jareth," she asked Tentatively. "Are we in Labyrinthine territory? Jareth? JARETH!" she shook him and he opened his eyes again. They were different, Sarah noticed - still mismatched, but that was hardly visible because they were so dark in each color.
"Are we in Labyrinthine territory?" she asked in a softer tone. Jareth made a face and forced himself up. Sarah marveled somewhat at his will. "No," he said hoarsely. "Have to go on," and he managed to get to his knees before collapsing again. This time he didn't move or open his eyes, and Sarah thought he was dead. His forehead was still warm - but, she scowled, that wouldn't tell her anything. So she did something slightly more logical - she checked his pulse. Still beating, his heart.
"He's alive," she gasped in relief, and Toby hugged her waist and whimpered. "Dark," he whined. Sarah looked over her shoulder at the sun just as it disappeared completely and they were thrown into darkness. No moon, no stars, no light. Sarah panicked for a moment, hugging Jareth and Toby to her, when there was a twinge and she looked up. The stars were appearing! Thirteen only, though, she noted. Thirteen bright, shining stars that lit up the land around her, Jareth and Toby a little, and her eyes adjusted to the dark quickly enough.
So therefore, they did not mistake the black shaped moving in on all sides, or her ears make her think that in the complete silence of night there were low, dangerous growls. Sarah swallowed. This was bad - oh, it wasn't fair! She didn't deserve to die like this, and neither did the others! Well, Jareth, maybe, but Toby was only three!
Another growl, right next to her. Toby cried out, and Sarah screamed and lashed out with her foot. She felt her shoe connect with coarse fur, and whatever it was came about to her waist in height maybe, and weighed a lot more then she did. So it didn't do much other then to make the beast stumble back a bit, snarl, then it leapt at Sarah again. She screamed, and Toby burst into tears, hugging Jareth's arm, wailing in horror. Again, Sarah lashed out with her feet, throwing herself halfway across Jareth's prone form, one arm trying to protect Toby, the other she held in front of her face to protect it from the claws that were sinking into her elbow.
"No!" she screamed. "Help, somebody, please! HELP!" she stopped crying for help and a wail was torn from her throat as a white hot knife seemed to rip into her side. She screamed again and again, drowning out the snarls and growls and even Toby's voice, kicking with all of her might, flailing her free arm, screaming herself beyond hoarse.
Then, finally, suddenly, unexpectedly but welcomed, one of her feet hit home, and a yelp was heard. Almost immediately the other.. Things saw the easier, not fighting prey, and they leapt upon their comrade. Sarah gasped and took the chance to garb Jareth's arm and Toby around his waist. All she could hear was a strange buzzing in her ears, all she could feel was the excruciating pain on her left side of her stomach, just below her ribcage, all she could say was scream, scream incoherent words, and run, dragging the two boys (or, holding one and dragging the other which was very difficult. Sarah was running on pure adrenaline now).
The beasts (Which Sarah now decided could be classified as either small bears or full-grown very hungry, angry wolves) quickly finished up their former comrade and ran after Sarah, easily seeing her in the darkness and needn't have bothered anyway since her screams could have woken the dead. Toby was past wailing - he had passed out.
One of the "wolves" snapped at Sarah's legs, and she stumbled and paused to kick it with all of her might in the jaw. It was then that she realized her socks and shoes were gone, and her feet were stinging with every step. Then, as luck would have it, the "wolves" began to slow down, then finally gathered as a small heard or something in a sort of line, and snarled after her. One of them howled, and that chilling sound made Sarah stumble again, and she fell. Her sobs echoed about, and she could sense her own unconsciousness nearing, but she hesitated at embracing it.
No, those beasts could come at any moment, though why they had stopped was beyond Sarah. She struggled to her knees and looked behind her over her shoulder. The wolves were all sitting, their yellow and/or green eyes flashing in the thirteen stars' little light. One of them got up and paced, growling, then it started to jump towards her, but something stopped it, and it recoiled with a snarl. What had stopped it? Sarah didn't care. She dropped Toby and Jareth, and collapsed face first on the ground, giving up, finally.
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A/N: not bad, in my opinion. Sorry for the lack of "humor", but I did intend this fic to be somewhat horror-ific. ^_~ review if you want, I like Constructive Criticism, and I like making sure that my stories are well proof-read, you know, being beta-readerless and all. Anyhow, bye-ee! P.S. sorry thiscame out so late - FF.Net and that whole slow thing. But that's okay b/c everything's better then before now! ^_~ anyhow, I'll go type the next chapter.
Disclaimer: (to the melody of Where oh where has my little dog gone) Where, oh where had my dis-claim-er gone? Oh where, oh where can it be? With its sentences cut short and its spelling cut long, oh where, oh where could it be? In English; I've lost my disclaimer. Therefore, I do not own. Happy?
Chapter Started: 3/9/03 Chapter Finished: 3/9/03
~
~
~
.
Last time, on 'Age has NOTHING to do with it', Jareth proceeded to tell Sarah's father about a hypothetical situation, and Sarah flew into a rage. We left off when Scary-mode-Sarah flew at Jareth, and I guess that that's where we'll pick up!
~
"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO TELL MY DAD SOMETHING LIKE THAT! HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT POOR TOBY?!? HE'S IN HERE TOO, YA KNOW! HE'S THREE FREAKIN' YEARS OLD! HOW. HOW DARE YOU!!!" and she would have attacked him right then and there, but Robert and Karen each grabbed a hold of one of Sarah's arms and a moment later had her tied down to her bed and Jareth on the opposite side of the room.
"THIS IS CHILD ABUSE!!!" Sarah roared, thrashing against her bonds. "BAD, BAD, NASSSSSSSTY PEOPLE WHO CALL YOURSELVES MY FAMILY!!!" to say she was pissed would have been the Understatement of the Year. "WICKED, WICKED BIRDS!!!"
"Holy Peaches, Sarah, what is with you??" asked Jareth. "YOU TRYING TO TELL MY PARENTS A LIE THAT I KNOW I'LL GET IN TROUBLE FOR!!!"
"They wanted a Hypothetical situation, Sarah."
"THEY WOULD HAVE PRETENDED YOU WERE TELLING THE TRUTH, BUT WAS TOO EMBARRASSED TO SAY IT WAS THE TRUTH!!!"
"ah. That explains a lot. But why are you so scary?"
"BECAUSE I. AM. SCARY-MODE-SARAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"
Toby began to cry.
"Now look what you've done, Sarah! You made Toby cry!"
"TOUCH HIM AND DIE!!!"
"You already told me that."
"WELL I'M TELLING YOU AGAIN!!!"
Toby cried harder, and Karen tried to comfort him, but he thrashed out of her arms and clambered onto Jareth's lap, wailing into his 'shirt', if you could call it that. "JARETH!!!"
"He did it on his own," Jareth excused, patting Toby's narrow back. "It was his choice."
"HE'S THREE!!"
"STOP YELLING, YOUR SCARING THE LOCALS!!!"
Sarah stopped yelling and twisted around to give Jareth a skeptical look. Finally, Scary-Mode-Sarah was gone. "I'm sorry, Toby!" she said as Robert untied her bonds. She then launched herself at Jareth and snatched a sniffling Toby out of his arms. "HE'D better NOT be a Goblin," she warned.
"Look for yourself," Jareth said with a roll of his eyes. Sarah examined Toby up and down, then sat down next to Jareth on the floor.
"I think that you're all pissy because you didn't get any more sleep then a couple of hours," Jareth said.
"I didn't. gee, your smart."
"Heh. Join the club."
Robert cleared his throat. "So, you came earlier on, did you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "GET THEM AWAY FROM MY TOBY!" Karen wailed, and snatched Toby away from Sarah. The babe promptly began to cry, and even when Sarah stood and snatched him back, he continued to wail at the top of his lungs. "Leet me see!" Robert said, but Toby still cried, harder then ever.
With an exasperated sigh, Jareth snatched Toby away and rocked him slightly, conjuring up a crystal for him to hold, which he did, and he quieted down. Jareth handed him back to Sarah, who threw a glare in Karen's direction.
"You do magic tricks," Robert added to his earlier statement. Jareth sighed. "I've had enough of this. I'm leaving." He started towards the door, but Robert stood in his way. "No, Jareth. You are staying here until we get the truth."
"You've got it," Jareth snapped, then whirled on Sarah. "How can you put up with such closed-minded idiots? They have no sense of logic!"
"See what I've been putting up with? I've been rethinking your offer - if it isn't too late. and Toby has to come." Sarah immediately flushed when she realized what she had just said.
"Yes, yes," Jareth said, waving a distracted hand. "What I need to do is Get back to the Underground and Kill Mr. Willy. Then this potion he splashed on me will be gone and THEN I can rethink the Labyrinth," he sighed and massaged a temple.
"Can we help?" Sarah offered, bouncing Toby a little. Jareth raised an eyebrow. "I don't see how, but you can come try if you want."
"Oh, good!" Sarah squealed. "We can be wuvles!"
Jareth wisely decided not to ask what a 'wuvle' was.
Sarah cooed at Toby, "Didjya hear that? We're going back to the Labyrinth!" she said, and Toby found this very funny. "Laby, Laby!" he said excitedly.
"No," Karen broke in. "First of all neither of you are going anywhere. Second of all, Toby belongs to me. he isn't going anywhere with You or with YOU." She said snottily. Sarah gave a hussy sigh and walked calmly over next to Jareth. "Dad, let us out." She ordered.
"No. just the truth - that's all I want. Then you can leave and you'll be grounded."
Sarah sighed. "Say, Jareth, didn't you say that you couldn't get back to the Labyrinth?"
"Not by owl or simple magic. But I or we can walk there, if I concentrate hard enough."
"Oh. Well, let's get going!"
"Sorry, Sarah, my dear, but I'm afraid that there's a road bloke here."
"then let's take a detour."
"any suggestions?"
Sarah jerked her thumb over her shoulder, at the window.
"Oh." Jareth said. "That'll work." And he crossed the room in three long strides and opened the window, throwing the screen out of place. "Yes, it'll have to do." He said, and was out in an instant. He dropped smoothly to the ground.
"EXCUSE ME," Robert shouted, and moved towards the window in a fury, but in an almost panic, Sarah threw Toby out the window with a "CATCH, JARETH!" she could only pray that he had. Now Karen threw her entire upper body out the window. "Toby, Toby!" she cried. "No, give me back my son, please!" Robert tried to do the same, and while they were distracted, Sarah flew out her bedroom door. Both Robert and Karen heard the click, and they both lunged for Sarah at the same time.
But she was downstairs and out the front door in a flash, and Jareth was there waiting for her with Toby in hand. The three year old found all of this madly funny.
"Run!" Sarah shouted, and Jareth held Toby securly in one hand, locking his fingers around Sarah's with his free hand, and the two bolted down the street.
"COME BACK! THIS IS KIDNAPPING!" Robert and Karen roared after them, and followed. But as luck (or not luck, but Sarah saw it as luck) would have it, across the street up a ways was a patrol car. "This way!" Sarah called, tugging on Jareth's hand, leading him to the cop car. The cop was already out, leaning against his door, drinking a cup of coffee (the doughnuts were hidden in the passenger seat). He looked up as Sarah and Jareth approached, panting.
"Please, sir," Sarah gasped. "Those two people are trying to kidnap our son!" she motioned towards Karen and Robert, who were catching up fast, then to Jareth who was leaning over hands on knees, grasping Toby with one arm still.
"seem a bit young to have kids, eh?" asked the cop in an Australian accent. "It's our religion!" Sarah flared up. "we got married and had our child when the Great Chocolate Dinosaur bid us to! And those two people are trying to kidnap our son!"
To say the cop was taken aback, well, let's just say that he was surprised.
"Yes, yes, I'm sorry, miss, uh, err, Mrs., um?"
"Sarah," she gasped, and threw a frantic look over her shoulder to Karen and Robert.
"Sarah, I think that maybe we should go now," Jareth said. Toby giggled and clapped his little palms together. "Bad, bad!" he laughed, and waved his arms around. "Yes, they're very bad, Toby, hold on, Jareth," Sarah said in a warning tone. Then she turned back to the cop. "please, can you cover our backs?"
"I think that it'd be better to take this to the court and settle it there," the cop started, but Jareth grabbed Sarah's hand with his free one.
"No time, gotta go, bye!" he shouted over his shoulder, dragging Sarah. He slowed his pace a bit so that she could run as well.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Sarah!" the cop called after them as Karen and Robert stopped at his car.
By the time Sarah and Jareth slowed to a slow and tired walk, both were panting heavily and barely able to pick up their feet. Or at least, Sarah was. Jareth recovered rather quickly (having a younger body, see, more energy). Toby was rather disgruntled from being carried so long in a running motion, and grumbled as Jareth handed him so Sarah. "Okay," he said. "Its just mind work and walking from here."
So they began walking. Sarah was dragging her feet and wondering how she could have gotten into this mess, and Jareth practically dragged her, eyes vacant in concentration. So it was that only little Toby noticed their surroundings change, albeit slowly at first, and he made a number of noises including all the words he knew to try to tell Sarah. She grunted and shifted him into a different position, on her hip.
When she DID finally notice, it was because her foot had sunk into a reddish sand, and she looked up to see the Labyrinth at a distance. A very long distance. She groaned - it was only a spot on the horizon, and barely able to be seen in the sun's rays. She looked behind them and was shocked to see the road and her street protruding from the land of the Underground.
"Change, change!" Toby said proudly. "Yeah, I'll say," Sarah said through a constricted throat. She looked up at Jareth, whose arm she was hanging on, and cocked her head slightly at the calculating look on his face. Wisely, she said nothing.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, she dropped to her knees and cried something about not being able to go on any longer. Jareth stopped and turned around to look at her. In his arms, Toby slept soundly (for he had long taken him from Sarah when he started to snooze.
"What, tired?" he asked. Sarah looked behind her and saw that there was just barren land surrounding them. She looked back to Jareth. "Are we there?" she asked hoarsly.
"Yes."
"How long?"
"About a couple of hours. If you were tired you should have said something."
"Sorry, I thought you were still concentrating!" she fell back and laid there on the ground. she was very tired.
"Come on, Sarah," Jareth said, pulling her to her feet. She made a small noise of complaint. "It'll take us a while to get to the Labyrinth," he said. "And it isn't safe to walk at night in the Wild Lands." And with that he managed to sweep her into his arms, and balance Toby over his shoulder at the same time. "Very strong," Sarah mumbled before falling asleep.
~
When Sarah woke up again, she was on Jareth's back this time, and toby was balnced on his hip. The sun was sinking behind them slowly, and Jareth plodded on. "Jareth?" she asked softly.
"What?"
"Aren't you tired?"
"No."
"Why not? And you can put me down, I feel rested now," Sarah slid off Jareth's back and took Toby from him, cradling him to her chest.
"Magic. As long as I'm in the Underground I'll keep all of my strength until I sit down or lay down. In which case, I wouldn't be able to fight the fatigue. It wouldn't be wise to leave you and Toby defenseless in the Wild Lands. We have to get into Labyrinthine territory. Almost there."
They plodded on for a while in silence when suddenly Jareth groaned and keeled over. "Jareth!" Sarah shouted, and ran over to him. She rolled him over and gasped. He looks even younger! She realized. Indeed, his features were younger and smaller looking. He looked almost drastically different from the Goblin King she had first met.
Now his golden-blond hair with white-blond highlights came only to just below his ears (which, Sarah gasped as she noticed, were slightly pointed), and his skin was paler, smoother, younger. He size also was greatly reduced, and Sarah realized he seemed maybe sixteen or fifteen by now. Her age, or a little older. "Jareth!" she called, and set Toby down to try to wake him up. "Jareth, wake up!" she begged. "JARETH!" he twitched slightly, and forced his eyes open.
"Sarah," he whispered, and Sarah found that his voice was a lot younger too. "you look younger," she offered, balancing his head on her lap. "Bad," he muttered.
"Bad," echoed Toby, who had woken up. The sun was almost completely gone, and Sarah remembered what Jareth had said about the Wild Lands. "Jareth," she asked Tentatively. "Are we in Labyrinthine territory? Jareth? JARETH!" she shook him and he opened his eyes again. They were different, Sarah noticed - still mismatched, but that was hardly visible because they were so dark in each color.
"Are we in Labyrinthine territory?" she asked in a softer tone. Jareth made a face and forced himself up. Sarah marveled somewhat at his will. "No," he said hoarsely. "Have to go on," and he managed to get to his knees before collapsing again. This time he didn't move or open his eyes, and Sarah thought he was dead. His forehead was still warm - but, she scowled, that wouldn't tell her anything. So she did something slightly more logical - she checked his pulse. Still beating, his heart.
"He's alive," she gasped in relief, and Toby hugged her waist and whimpered. "Dark," he whined. Sarah looked over her shoulder at the sun just as it disappeared completely and they were thrown into darkness. No moon, no stars, no light. Sarah panicked for a moment, hugging Jareth and Toby to her, when there was a twinge and she looked up. The stars were appearing! Thirteen only, though, she noted. Thirteen bright, shining stars that lit up the land around her, Jareth and Toby a little, and her eyes adjusted to the dark quickly enough.
So therefore, they did not mistake the black shaped moving in on all sides, or her ears make her think that in the complete silence of night there were low, dangerous growls. Sarah swallowed. This was bad - oh, it wasn't fair! She didn't deserve to die like this, and neither did the others! Well, Jareth, maybe, but Toby was only three!
Another growl, right next to her. Toby cried out, and Sarah screamed and lashed out with her foot. She felt her shoe connect with coarse fur, and whatever it was came about to her waist in height maybe, and weighed a lot more then she did. So it didn't do much other then to make the beast stumble back a bit, snarl, then it leapt at Sarah again. She screamed, and Toby burst into tears, hugging Jareth's arm, wailing in horror. Again, Sarah lashed out with her feet, throwing herself halfway across Jareth's prone form, one arm trying to protect Toby, the other she held in front of her face to protect it from the claws that were sinking into her elbow.
"No!" she screamed. "Help, somebody, please! HELP!" she stopped crying for help and a wail was torn from her throat as a white hot knife seemed to rip into her side. She screamed again and again, drowning out the snarls and growls and even Toby's voice, kicking with all of her might, flailing her free arm, screaming herself beyond hoarse.
Then, finally, suddenly, unexpectedly but welcomed, one of her feet hit home, and a yelp was heard. Almost immediately the other.. Things saw the easier, not fighting prey, and they leapt upon their comrade. Sarah gasped and took the chance to garb Jareth's arm and Toby around his waist. All she could hear was a strange buzzing in her ears, all she could feel was the excruciating pain on her left side of her stomach, just below her ribcage, all she could say was scream, scream incoherent words, and run, dragging the two boys (or, holding one and dragging the other which was very difficult. Sarah was running on pure adrenaline now).
The beasts (Which Sarah now decided could be classified as either small bears or full-grown very hungry, angry wolves) quickly finished up their former comrade and ran after Sarah, easily seeing her in the darkness and needn't have bothered anyway since her screams could have woken the dead. Toby was past wailing - he had passed out.
One of the "wolves" snapped at Sarah's legs, and she stumbled and paused to kick it with all of her might in the jaw. It was then that she realized her socks and shoes were gone, and her feet were stinging with every step. Then, as luck would have it, the "wolves" began to slow down, then finally gathered as a small heard or something in a sort of line, and snarled after her. One of them howled, and that chilling sound made Sarah stumble again, and she fell. Her sobs echoed about, and she could sense her own unconsciousness nearing, but she hesitated at embracing it.
No, those beasts could come at any moment, though why they had stopped was beyond Sarah. She struggled to her knees and looked behind her over her shoulder. The wolves were all sitting, their yellow and/or green eyes flashing in the thirteen stars' little light. One of them got up and paced, growling, then it started to jump towards her, but something stopped it, and it recoiled with a snarl. What had stopped it? Sarah didn't care. She dropped Toby and Jareth, and collapsed face first on the ground, giving up, finally.
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A/N: not bad, in my opinion. Sorry for the lack of "humor", but I did intend this fic to be somewhat horror-ific. ^_~ review if you want, I like Constructive Criticism, and I like making sure that my stories are well proof-read, you know, being beta-readerless and all. Anyhow, bye-ee! P.S. sorry thiscame out so late - FF.Net and that whole slow thing. But that's okay b/c everything's better then before now! ^_~ anyhow, I'll go type the next chapter.