Sydney was exhausted but she only had one more path to go. The last one
all lead to dead ends, just like before. She only had the last three to
try., but as she trudged up to it the tiny puff of fur stopped her.
"Don't try and stall, I know I'm almost out." She panted as she waved the tiny bird away but it held it's ground.
"Head my last warning don't you think," it chirped angrily. Sydney paused. "the closer you come to finishing the faster you'll sink!" and with that it flew off again.
" I knew there was a catch" Sydney sighed as she went down the path. As she expected she came to three other paths, she went down one but nothing. It was one her way out did she notice that she was indeed sinking faster, she had to jog now to keep from sinking. 'Well at least I know I'm almost out' she thought. She headed down the next path, and again came to a dead end. Turning to go back around she found the sand covering her shoes.
By the time Sydney made it to the last path, the sand was up to her knees and she had to crawl her way though the sand. Soon her hands were being covered in the sand and she had to slow down to rest, but the slower she went the faster she sank. Seeing the end of the path she saw that it was also a dead end! But she then noticed three distinct carvings on the wall, and went for those.
Pulling her right hand out of the sand, she pulled herself closer, she could see the carvings clearly now. One was a rock, the other a leaf and the last was of a tree. 'But what do they mean?' She thought. Then the tiny bird swooped down and landed on the wall.
"Chose one, chose one, two, or three. If the right one you chose than you will go free!" Chirped the fur ball.
So she had to chose one, though she had know idea what the carvings represented. The sand was now moving up her elbows and had completely covered her legs. She was only a few feet away, but it felt like miles to Sydney. She dragged herself though the sand as fast as she could, feeling as though she was swimming in glue.
The sand was now at her face and covered most of her body, and she was almost there. She coughed as she breathed in the sand. Pulling her arm out of the sand she reached to touch a carving, any carving, suffocating in sand wasn't the best way to die and Sydney didn't care which one was the right one, just as long as she could escape.
She took a deep breath as the sand worked its way over her nose. The tiny bird was fluttering overhead, screeching, and offering no help. She strained to reach the carving, her fingers only inches to them. The sand covered her eyes, and she reached blindly and touched the carving of the leaf. As she did so the wall disappeared and a wave of sand, along with Sydney spilled out.
Sydney laid on the sand, gasping for air and thanking every god she could think of. Sitting up she tried to shake as much sand as she could from her hair. Then she stood up and winced as she felt the grains of sand everywhere under her clothes. She was just about to shed her shirt to remove the sand when she heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Well, that was a close one."
Spinning around she came face to face with the Goblin king. "I have to admit you had me worried Sydney." He said as he walked towards her, his smile growing larger.
Sydney backed away from him until her back hit the branches.branches! Turning she saw the walls of the Labyrinth were now made out of shrubs.
"You don't have to be afraid of me." The king said as he paused in front of her and crossed his arms.
Sydney immediately saw that he was dressed differently. Gone where the black clothes, instead he wore a white poets shirt that gaped open halfway down his chest, exposing pale skin. He wore talisman on a thick gold chain; it was in the shape of a inverted crescent moon, with sharp ends. A brown leather jacket, on which a cape was fastened halfway down his back, and it hung heavily to the ground. Black leather gloves, and form fitting gray pants. They seemed to be made of soft cotton. Like what dancers wore. They were indecently tight and molded themselves like a second skin. They showed of lean legs, thighs and other things. Sydney looked away before she started blushing.
"I don't? And why is that.um." Sydney paused as she realized she didn't know his name, and wondering why she wanted to in the first place.
"Jareth" he offered.
"Why is that Jareth?" she placed her hand on her hips and gazed at him defiantly.
Jareth smiled dropping his arms, and placing them on his hips to mirror her. "Do you think I would cheat, in order to slow you down Sydney?" He asked sincerely.
'Absolutely' Sydney thought, but didn't say. Though Jareth seemed to have heard her. He laughed out loud.
"You are a spitfire, as is Sarah." He said, "Clever too" he added. Remembering Sarah, Sydney looked at her watch to see that four hours and twenty minutes had passed. She shifted in her sand filled clothes
"If you have to talk to me, then could we walk and talk. I'm wasting time." She snapped.
Jareth's smile dimmed a little "Of course" he said. They stared at each other for a moment, nether one of them knowing who was to move first. Finally Sydney turned and headed down the new paths. Jareth fell into step next to her, clasping his hands behind his back. Sydney felt how tall he was know that he was standing next to her, he had to be six-three, six-five if you counted the hair.
They walked in silence for a moment, and Sydney felt bad about snapping at Jareth. Though she had no idea why she should feel bad for him. But she knew that the thought would not leave her head until she apologized.
"Jareth..um" she paused, thinking of what to say.
"Yes" he said looking down at her. He saw that whatever it was that she wanted to say was very difficult. Looking up Sydney gasped; his eyes were two different colors. One was sky blue, the other almost as green as hers.
Jareth smiled, "I get that reaction all the time." He said, his eyes held sadness in them, it was almost if he hated his eyes.
"Oh, but they're beautiful.I mean.." 'No, no, no, what are you thinking, don't fall for a pretty face, don't all for a pretty face.' Sydney scolded. But it was to late, Jareth had heard the admiration in her voice.
"Well no one's told me that before." He said, his accent thickening, his eyes locking on to hers. Sydney knew she was entering dangerous territory, and struggled to change the subject, she cleared her throat but no ideas came to her, and she couldn't tear her eyes from his gaze.
"Sydney, why don't you take what you want?" he said gently.
"What!" she said, misinterpreting his words.
"This," he said holing out a crystal ball to her. " it's all you ever wanted, why wont you take it?"
"Oh.I want to, really but," Sydney had to fight the urge to reach out and snatch the crystal from him, instead she fixed her eyes on the maze, and shook some sand out of her shirt. "But I can't give up, I have to help Sarah find Toby.it's my fault he's here in the first place, I can't betray Sarah."
Jareth sighed and began to roll the crystal around in his hand. Sydney wondered what would happen if he dropped it, though something told her that he would never drop one, not before, not now, not ever. " If her brother wasn't on the line, do you think that Sarah would hesitate?" he asked.
Sydney didn't answer, because she didn't know. If the situation were different what would Sarah have done, what would she have done? Again uncomfortable with the conversation, Sydney changed the subject.
"So.um how is Sarah, I know you know."
Jareth allowed the subject change and smirked. Crossing his arms, the crystal sill in his hand, "She's fine, she's being entertained right now."
"Oh don't sound so smart, you don't even know what a oubliette is." Said Hoggle. "Do you?" asked Sarah. "Yes, it's a place you put people.to forget about 'em."
"You know, Sarah is a hour ahead of you." Jareth continued, stealing a fleeting look down at Sydney to catch her reaction.
"Well good for her." Sydney snapped, giving Jareth a look of death. He smiled 'true, a little competition couldn't hurt' he thought. "She was two hours ahead of you but the maze you just came from brought you up."
"And you say I'm the clever one." Sydney said, irony hung off her words. She was starting to wish he would leave her alone so that she could concentrate on the Labyrinth. They paused for a moment when they came to a fork in the paths. The whole time they had been talking the Labyrinth was just turns and corners, now she had to chose. Seeing that the conceded man wasn't going to offer her any help, she chose the path on the right.
"You are clever," Jareth continued once they started walking again. "You use you head to sort things out. Sarah has gotten though on simple luck."- he paused in mid sentence and stopped walking. Sydney looked back at him. His face was set in concentration and his eyes where empty as if he was listening to some thing.
"Wh-what is it?" Sydney asked, and then suddenly not wanting to know when she saw anger invade his face. But it melted away just as fast as it appeared and he looked up at her.
"I'm sorry my dear, I would really enjoy continuing our conversation, but I have other matters I must.attend to" he said, his arrogant smile returning to his face. The crystal vanished and he was half way into a bow when he noticed her shifting uncomfortably.
"Here let me help you." He said waving his hand slightly. Suddenly Sydney felt someone touching her, she gasped and jumped away from Jareth, but the sensation stayed with her. The invisible hands ran across every part of her body and she felt a blush starting to rise. Then she noticed that the sand was falling out of her clothes and pooling on the ground at her feet. The hands threaded their way though her hair, pulling out her hair ties and dropping them to the ground along with the sand. Then when all the sand had been removed the touch lingered low on her stomach.
She looked up at Jareth, who stood there, with heated eyes and lips slightly parted. When he realized Sydney was looking back at him, he straightened up, smiled and disappeared in a shower of glitter.
Sydney stood there in the pile of sand for a quick moment before picking up her hair ties and hastily tying her hair back up. 'The Goblin King just felt me up' she couldn't believe it. " That arrogant, conceded, son of a -
"Hoggle, can it be that you're helping this girl?" Jareth said calmly, though inside he was enraged that he had to cut short his visit with Sydney to catch the Dwarf betraying him. And now Sarah, the Dwarf and himself where standing deep in one of the Underground's many underground tunnels.
"H-helping? In what sense?" stuttered the Dwarf.
"In the sense that you leading her straight to the castle." Jareth snapped as he threw his cape over his shoulder.
" No I wasn't, I was leading her back to the beginning, just like you told me." Said Hoggle.
Jareth looked over to see Sarah's reaction. She standing next to the wall of the tunnel trying to not care that he was there, but she never took her eyes off him, and watched his every move.
Upon hearing Hoggle's intention, Sarah gasped and looked at Hoggle. "What!" she shouted at him. Jareth hid his grin, She was so predictable, this mortal girl. Jareth stepped closer to the dwarf and in a fluid movement, crouched down to look the Dwarf in the eye as he tried to explain.
" I told her I was taking her to the center of the Labyrinth just to throw her off the scent, a little trickery on my part.."
"What is the plastic thing 'round your wrist?" Jareth interrupted when he spotted the pink and purple beaded bracelet on Hoggle.
"Oh, how did that get there" Hoggle muttered to himself. Jareth knew very well how it got there. Sarah had given it to the Dwarf in exchange for passage to the castle; dwarfs had such a weakness for shiny objects. He stood, using his height to intimidate the Dwarf, who only came up to his waist.
"Higgle.." Jareth started. "Hoggle" Hoggle corrected
"Mmyes, Hoggle if I thought for one moment that you were betraying me I would be forced to suspend you head first into the Bog of Eternal Stench."
Jareth watched the horror play across Hoggle's beady eyes. Then he fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around the King's leg. "Oh, please, not the Bog of Eternal Stench!" he begged.
"Oh, yes Hoggle." Jareth replied moving his leg to throw the Dwarf to the ground.
Jareth leisurely walked over to Sarah. She backed away until her back hit the wall, just like Sydney. Though the King offered no words to calm her, instead he placed his right hand flat on the wall by her head and leaned in, but only enough that Sarah would still have to look up at him.
"And you Sarah. How are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" he whispered to her. she looked up at his mismatched eyes, and showed no reaction to them. She only blinked and said,
"It's a peace of cake."
Hoggle groaned from his place on the floor, 'that was the wrong thing to say Sarah' Hoggle thought. Indeed it was worst thing she could have said. Jareth smiled and straightened up. "Really, well then, how about upping the stakes?" he pointed behind him to a clock that appeared. It showed that four hours and thirty-five minutes had passed. Rotating his index finger clockwise the hands began to spin around and around, then it stopped, showing that now seven hours and thirty-five minutes had passed.
"That's not fair!" shouted Sarah.
"You say that so often." Said Jareth as he slid pass her "I wonder what your basis of comparison is" he added stepping deeper into the tunnel. He wondered how Sydney would take finding out about the lost time. "So the Labyrinth is a piece of cake, is it." a quick movement of his gloved hands showed a crystal ball. "Well then lets see how you deal with this little slice." With that he turned and pitched the crystal into the tunnel and then disappearing just as the blades of the cleaners roared down on Sarah and Hoggle.
"Don't try and stall, I know I'm almost out." She panted as she waved the tiny bird away but it held it's ground.
"Head my last warning don't you think," it chirped angrily. Sydney paused. "the closer you come to finishing the faster you'll sink!" and with that it flew off again.
" I knew there was a catch" Sydney sighed as she went down the path. As she expected she came to three other paths, she went down one but nothing. It was one her way out did she notice that she was indeed sinking faster, she had to jog now to keep from sinking. 'Well at least I know I'm almost out' she thought. She headed down the next path, and again came to a dead end. Turning to go back around she found the sand covering her shoes.
By the time Sydney made it to the last path, the sand was up to her knees and she had to crawl her way though the sand. Soon her hands were being covered in the sand and she had to slow down to rest, but the slower she went the faster she sank. Seeing the end of the path she saw that it was also a dead end! But she then noticed three distinct carvings on the wall, and went for those.
Pulling her right hand out of the sand, she pulled herself closer, she could see the carvings clearly now. One was a rock, the other a leaf and the last was of a tree. 'But what do they mean?' She thought. Then the tiny bird swooped down and landed on the wall.
"Chose one, chose one, two, or three. If the right one you chose than you will go free!" Chirped the fur ball.
So she had to chose one, though she had know idea what the carvings represented. The sand was now moving up her elbows and had completely covered her legs. She was only a few feet away, but it felt like miles to Sydney. She dragged herself though the sand as fast as she could, feeling as though she was swimming in glue.
The sand was now at her face and covered most of her body, and she was almost there. She coughed as she breathed in the sand. Pulling her arm out of the sand she reached to touch a carving, any carving, suffocating in sand wasn't the best way to die and Sydney didn't care which one was the right one, just as long as she could escape.
She took a deep breath as the sand worked its way over her nose. The tiny bird was fluttering overhead, screeching, and offering no help. She strained to reach the carving, her fingers only inches to them. The sand covered her eyes, and she reached blindly and touched the carving of the leaf. As she did so the wall disappeared and a wave of sand, along with Sydney spilled out.
Sydney laid on the sand, gasping for air and thanking every god she could think of. Sitting up she tried to shake as much sand as she could from her hair. Then she stood up and winced as she felt the grains of sand everywhere under her clothes. She was just about to shed her shirt to remove the sand when she heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Well, that was a close one."
Spinning around she came face to face with the Goblin king. "I have to admit you had me worried Sydney." He said as he walked towards her, his smile growing larger.
Sydney backed away from him until her back hit the branches.branches! Turning she saw the walls of the Labyrinth were now made out of shrubs.
"You don't have to be afraid of me." The king said as he paused in front of her and crossed his arms.
Sydney immediately saw that he was dressed differently. Gone where the black clothes, instead he wore a white poets shirt that gaped open halfway down his chest, exposing pale skin. He wore talisman on a thick gold chain; it was in the shape of a inverted crescent moon, with sharp ends. A brown leather jacket, on which a cape was fastened halfway down his back, and it hung heavily to the ground. Black leather gloves, and form fitting gray pants. They seemed to be made of soft cotton. Like what dancers wore. They were indecently tight and molded themselves like a second skin. They showed of lean legs, thighs and other things. Sydney looked away before she started blushing.
"I don't? And why is that.um." Sydney paused as she realized she didn't know his name, and wondering why she wanted to in the first place.
"Jareth" he offered.
"Why is that Jareth?" she placed her hand on her hips and gazed at him defiantly.
Jareth smiled dropping his arms, and placing them on his hips to mirror her. "Do you think I would cheat, in order to slow you down Sydney?" He asked sincerely.
'Absolutely' Sydney thought, but didn't say. Though Jareth seemed to have heard her. He laughed out loud.
"You are a spitfire, as is Sarah." He said, "Clever too" he added. Remembering Sarah, Sydney looked at her watch to see that four hours and twenty minutes had passed. She shifted in her sand filled clothes
"If you have to talk to me, then could we walk and talk. I'm wasting time." She snapped.
Jareth's smile dimmed a little "Of course" he said. They stared at each other for a moment, nether one of them knowing who was to move first. Finally Sydney turned and headed down the new paths. Jareth fell into step next to her, clasping his hands behind his back. Sydney felt how tall he was know that he was standing next to her, he had to be six-three, six-five if you counted the hair.
They walked in silence for a moment, and Sydney felt bad about snapping at Jareth. Though she had no idea why she should feel bad for him. But she knew that the thought would not leave her head until she apologized.
"Jareth..um" she paused, thinking of what to say.
"Yes" he said looking down at her. He saw that whatever it was that she wanted to say was very difficult. Looking up Sydney gasped; his eyes were two different colors. One was sky blue, the other almost as green as hers.
Jareth smiled, "I get that reaction all the time." He said, his eyes held sadness in them, it was almost if he hated his eyes.
"Oh, but they're beautiful.I mean.." 'No, no, no, what are you thinking, don't fall for a pretty face, don't all for a pretty face.' Sydney scolded. But it was to late, Jareth had heard the admiration in her voice.
"Well no one's told me that before." He said, his accent thickening, his eyes locking on to hers. Sydney knew she was entering dangerous territory, and struggled to change the subject, she cleared her throat but no ideas came to her, and she couldn't tear her eyes from his gaze.
"Sydney, why don't you take what you want?" he said gently.
"What!" she said, misinterpreting his words.
"This," he said holing out a crystal ball to her. " it's all you ever wanted, why wont you take it?"
"Oh.I want to, really but," Sydney had to fight the urge to reach out and snatch the crystal from him, instead she fixed her eyes on the maze, and shook some sand out of her shirt. "But I can't give up, I have to help Sarah find Toby.it's my fault he's here in the first place, I can't betray Sarah."
Jareth sighed and began to roll the crystal around in his hand. Sydney wondered what would happen if he dropped it, though something told her that he would never drop one, not before, not now, not ever. " If her brother wasn't on the line, do you think that Sarah would hesitate?" he asked.
Sydney didn't answer, because she didn't know. If the situation were different what would Sarah have done, what would she have done? Again uncomfortable with the conversation, Sydney changed the subject.
"So.um how is Sarah, I know you know."
Jareth allowed the subject change and smirked. Crossing his arms, the crystal sill in his hand, "She's fine, she's being entertained right now."
"Oh don't sound so smart, you don't even know what a oubliette is." Said Hoggle. "Do you?" asked Sarah. "Yes, it's a place you put people.to forget about 'em."
"You know, Sarah is a hour ahead of you." Jareth continued, stealing a fleeting look down at Sydney to catch her reaction.
"Well good for her." Sydney snapped, giving Jareth a look of death. He smiled 'true, a little competition couldn't hurt' he thought. "She was two hours ahead of you but the maze you just came from brought you up."
"And you say I'm the clever one." Sydney said, irony hung off her words. She was starting to wish he would leave her alone so that she could concentrate on the Labyrinth. They paused for a moment when they came to a fork in the paths. The whole time they had been talking the Labyrinth was just turns and corners, now she had to chose. Seeing that the conceded man wasn't going to offer her any help, she chose the path on the right.
"You are clever," Jareth continued once they started walking again. "You use you head to sort things out. Sarah has gotten though on simple luck."- he paused in mid sentence and stopped walking. Sydney looked back at him. His face was set in concentration and his eyes where empty as if he was listening to some thing.
"Wh-what is it?" Sydney asked, and then suddenly not wanting to know when she saw anger invade his face. But it melted away just as fast as it appeared and he looked up at her.
"I'm sorry my dear, I would really enjoy continuing our conversation, but I have other matters I must.attend to" he said, his arrogant smile returning to his face. The crystal vanished and he was half way into a bow when he noticed her shifting uncomfortably.
"Here let me help you." He said waving his hand slightly. Suddenly Sydney felt someone touching her, she gasped and jumped away from Jareth, but the sensation stayed with her. The invisible hands ran across every part of her body and she felt a blush starting to rise. Then she noticed that the sand was falling out of her clothes and pooling on the ground at her feet. The hands threaded their way though her hair, pulling out her hair ties and dropping them to the ground along with the sand. Then when all the sand had been removed the touch lingered low on her stomach.
She looked up at Jareth, who stood there, with heated eyes and lips slightly parted. When he realized Sydney was looking back at him, he straightened up, smiled and disappeared in a shower of glitter.
Sydney stood there in the pile of sand for a quick moment before picking up her hair ties and hastily tying her hair back up. 'The Goblin King just felt me up' she couldn't believe it. " That arrogant, conceded, son of a -
"Hoggle, can it be that you're helping this girl?" Jareth said calmly, though inside he was enraged that he had to cut short his visit with Sydney to catch the Dwarf betraying him. And now Sarah, the Dwarf and himself where standing deep in one of the Underground's many underground tunnels.
"H-helping? In what sense?" stuttered the Dwarf.
"In the sense that you leading her straight to the castle." Jareth snapped as he threw his cape over his shoulder.
" No I wasn't, I was leading her back to the beginning, just like you told me." Said Hoggle.
Jareth looked over to see Sarah's reaction. She standing next to the wall of the tunnel trying to not care that he was there, but she never took her eyes off him, and watched his every move.
Upon hearing Hoggle's intention, Sarah gasped and looked at Hoggle. "What!" she shouted at him. Jareth hid his grin, She was so predictable, this mortal girl. Jareth stepped closer to the dwarf and in a fluid movement, crouched down to look the Dwarf in the eye as he tried to explain.
" I told her I was taking her to the center of the Labyrinth just to throw her off the scent, a little trickery on my part.."
"What is the plastic thing 'round your wrist?" Jareth interrupted when he spotted the pink and purple beaded bracelet on Hoggle.
"Oh, how did that get there" Hoggle muttered to himself. Jareth knew very well how it got there. Sarah had given it to the Dwarf in exchange for passage to the castle; dwarfs had such a weakness for shiny objects. He stood, using his height to intimidate the Dwarf, who only came up to his waist.
"Higgle.." Jareth started. "Hoggle" Hoggle corrected
"Mmyes, Hoggle if I thought for one moment that you were betraying me I would be forced to suspend you head first into the Bog of Eternal Stench."
Jareth watched the horror play across Hoggle's beady eyes. Then he fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around the King's leg. "Oh, please, not the Bog of Eternal Stench!" he begged.
"Oh, yes Hoggle." Jareth replied moving his leg to throw the Dwarf to the ground.
Jareth leisurely walked over to Sarah. She backed away until her back hit the wall, just like Sydney. Though the King offered no words to calm her, instead he placed his right hand flat on the wall by her head and leaned in, but only enough that Sarah would still have to look up at him.
"And you Sarah. How are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" he whispered to her. she looked up at his mismatched eyes, and showed no reaction to them. She only blinked and said,
"It's a peace of cake."
Hoggle groaned from his place on the floor, 'that was the wrong thing to say Sarah' Hoggle thought. Indeed it was worst thing she could have said. Jareth smiled and straightened up. "Really, well then, how about upping the stakes?" he pointed behind him to a clock that appeared. It showed that four hours and thirty-five minutes had passed. Rotating his index finger clockwise the hands began to spin around and around, then it stopped, showing that now seven hours and thirty-five minutes had passed.
"That's not fair!" shouted Sarah.
"You say that so often." Said Jareth as he slid pass her "I wonder what your basis of comparison is" he added stepping deeper into the tunnel. He wondered how Sydney would take finding out about the lost time. "So the Labyrinth is a piece of cake, is it." a quick movement of his gloved hands showed a crystal ball. "Well then lets see how you deal with this little slice." With that he turned and pitched the crystal into the tunnel and then disappearing just as the blades of the cleaners roared down on Sarah and Hoggle.