Jareth stormed into his silent throne room swearing a string of curse
words. Goblins scattered to get out of his way. One goblin didn't move fast
enough and got kicked as Jareth stalked across the room. A quick glance
showed the mortal baby sleeping on a pile of equally asleep young goblins.
Jareth paced in front of this throne; no use making decisions when one is
enraged.
If he could have just kissed her, if her could have just kissed Sydney, she would have been his. He couldn't remove the vision of her deep green eyes staring so willingly at his eyes. He was so close, but no that stupid beast Ludo had to let himself known, and he knew that Sarah had something to do with it. Damn her!
When he was sure he could make rational decisions he calmly sat in his throne and created a crystal. Looking in it he saw Sarah at the doorknockers to the forest. She was removing the ring from the mouth of one so it could talk. She handed the ring to a fiery red-orange beast Ludo. Jareth knew she was involved.
The Dwarf was nowhere to be seen, he had left Sarah and obviously did not take her to the beginning of the Labyrinth. Looking at the clock it showed that they still had four hours and fifteen minutes left. At the pace Sarah was going she could easily make it on time. Jareth needed something to stall Sarah and keep her from going anywhere so he could concentrate on convincing Sydney to stay with him. He had already decided that the older girl was much more to his liking than Sarah was.
Suddenly he had an idea.
Sydney was wandering around the Labyrinth now, not realizing that her thoughtless wandering was getting her though the Labyrinth much faster than before. She was lost in thought about Jareth, what would have happened if she had let a man who was suppose to be her enemy kiss her? Would alarm bells ring? Would Sarah come running, screaming betrayer?
Her aimless wandering brought her to a stone covered part of the wall that looked to be an immense cave. It was jet black inside and she could not see in. she was about to step inside when a rather large goblin stepped out of the shadows. Startled, Sydney stumbled backwards.
"What dose this young girl want?" he asked in a gruff voice. He was dressed in flowing pastel robes and was completely bald, with two very large yellow eyes.
"Um. I'm wondering. do you know the way to the center of the Labyrinth?" she asked him.
"What! No of course not!" he snapped. Sydney wasn't very disappointed, she had soon realized that even if someone did know the way, chances where they would not, or could not tell her. "What is this place?" she asked.
The large goblin turned around and headed back into the cave. "It's a dream cave, this is where mortal dreams are created and sent Aboveground."
'Oh, Jackpot!' Sydney was so excited, if only she could go in and see it. The goblin shuffled his way back into the cave, leaving her there to think it out herself. Looking at her watch she saw that barley four hours remained when there should be seven.
"Not fair!" she shouted "Jareth you cheater, what did you do!?" she didn't expect an answer and she didn't get one. She sighed, it would have been nice to scream at him in person. Sydney suddenly didn't care about the time, looking over at the castle as it loomed in the distance; it was not so far away now. Sydney could see the windows and doors, it was only a matter of time before she reached it. And besides Sarah was a whole hour ahead of her, she would get there at any moment. Sydney had made up her mind and decided to do some sight seeing.
Jareth had found the conniving Dwarf on his way back the beginning of the Labyrinth, no doubt to continue his favorite past time of exterminating fairies. Sarah's calls from the forest where easily heard as she called for Ludo, for the beast had disappeared, by Jareth's doing. Sarah was now lost and alone.
Hoggle ignored her calls until she called for him. "I'm coming Sarah." He said turning to go back, Jareth decided this was the time to show himself.
" Well, if it isn't you. And uh where, are you, going?" Jareth asked calm as day.
Hoggle jumped back horrified that he had been caught. "Well the little lady gave me the slip,"
"Ludo!" came Sarah's cry. "Hoggle continued.
"But I just hears her now, so I was about to lead her back to the beginning like you told me." Hoggle applauded himself for remaining calm. Jareth on the other hand sneered at him.
"I see." He said ambling over to a boulder and leaned on it. "For a moment there I thought you were running to help her.but no..not after my warnings that 'would' be stupid."
'Oh you bet it would, me, help her, after your warnings. Hahahe" Hoggle's forced laughter was surprisingly' convincing, but not to Jareth. When Hoggle turned, his laughing was cut short for the Goblin King crouched down in front of him, with mock concern on his face.
"Oh dear, poor Hoghead." Said Jareth softly, covering his mouth with his hand.
"Hoggle" Hoggle quietly corrected. Jareth moved his hand from his mouth and reached out to grabbed Hoggle by the shoulder and brought him closer.
"I've just noticed your lovely jewels are missing." Jareth knew that Sarah had taken the jewels to force Hoggle to show her the way to the castle. 'What a friend, to take away what you most care about in order to force you to help, you would have had much better luck with Sydney.' Jareth thought
Hoggle tried to act surprised and failed. " Wh-what, oh yes, my..lovely jewels, missing. I better find them." Hoggle slowly stepped away from Jareth. " But first I'm off to take the little lady back to the beginning of the labyrinth just like we planed." He turned to leave.
"Wait!" Jareth called, standing up. Hoggle paused and turned. "I have a much better plan." A wave of his hand and a crystal rolled into his palm. He smiled at is sinisterly, "give her this" he tossed the crystal to Hoggle, then turned to leave.
Hoggle caught it easily despite his clumsy hands, and the crystal turned into a peach when he caught it. He knew his King was up to something.
"Wh- what is it?" he asked.
Jareth turned around, "It's a present" he said simply. Hoggle knew only bad things could come from this.
"It isn't going to hurt the little lady, is it?"
"Oh, now why the concern?" Jareth mocked
Hoggle wasn't about to poison Sarah, he gathered his courage, " I wont do nothin' to harm her."
'Oh, come, come, come, Hogbrain! I'm surprised at you, losing your head over a girl." Jareth shouted walking back to stand closer to him. Hoggle drew himself up.
"I ain't lost my head." He said
Jareth walked over to him his grip tightening on his whip. "You don't think that a young girl could ever like," he poked Hoggle in the shoulder with the whip , "a repulsive" he poked him again, "Little scab like you , do you?"
Hoggle rubbed his shoulder, "Well, she said we was"- "What" Jareth interrupted, "Bosom companions" he dropped his voice lower, "friends"
Hoggle sighed for he knew that the Goblin King was saying must be true. "Don't matter." He mumbled to himself.
"You'll give her that Hoggle," Jareth grabbed Hoggle by the ear causing the Dwarf to whimper painfully. "Or I'll tip you straight into the Bog of Eternal Stench before you can blink." He shoved Hoggle away and turned once more to leave.
"Yes, right." Hoggle whispered as he too turn to leave.
"And Hoggle" Jareth called after him. Hoggle turned to look back. "If she ever kisses you, I'll turn you into a prince."
'Y-you will?" asked Hoggle.
"Prince of the land of stench!" Jareth said laughing out loud. 'if that deceiving little scab gets a kiss before I do then he's going to get severely punished' Jareth continued to laugh as he disappeared.
Sydney entered the cave and gasped at the sight before her. Thousands and thousands of tiny green lights lighted up the immense and dark cave. They flew around in a giant swarm in the middle of the cave, looking like tiny fireflies. Though a few swooped around the cave alone. The goblin was sitting on a large stack of very old looking books, with his nose buried in an even larger book. He seemed to ignore Sydney's presence.
Suddenly Sydney spotted a red light among the others and her attention was drawn to it. The red light seemed drawn to her too, for it left the swarm and fluttered over of her. Sydney followed its hypnotizing back and forth movement, as its swayed ever closer to her. The goblin watched, using his powerful eyes to see the red dream come ever closer to her. The girl only stood rooted to the spot, her head moving back and forth with the sway of the dream, her eyes where wide and empty. The goblin smirked, 'that's what that mortal gets for coming in here' he thought.
The red light touched Sydney on the forehead just between the eyes, then it disappeared. Sydney's eyes flashed red for a moment before retuning to her vibrant green. Sydney shook her head, trying to clear it. For a moment she forgot what she was doing, then she remember the cave she was in. Believing that she had wasted enough time here she reluctantly decided to leave.
Blinking as she left the darkness of the cave, she carefully made her way though the maze. Jareth no longer plagued her thoughts, instead she thought about the cave she just left. She wandered around aimlessly choosing a path here, a turn there. Suddenly she came to two large doors with bronze looking statues in front of them.
The statues where gruesome, one had his hands out in front of him as if he couldn't see. Closer inspection told Sydney that he couldn't see because he had his eyes sewn shut!. The other wasn't in any better shape, in fact he was worse. He had no legs and was dragging himself along by his hands.
The answer was obvious, she had to choose which door to go though, but whether or not theses statues had anything to do with what was thought the doors, she didn't know. Frustrated at yet another obstacle she contemplated whether or not to turn around and back track to another path. But she would lose precious time doing that.
"Oh!..I wish this could all just end!" she screamed to herself. She was hungry and tired from being awake for over nineteen hours., and all she wanted to do was rest. She was startled out of her mind when Jareth appeared before her.
"Sydney all this could end, if you just take my gift." He presented the crystal to her. His heart leapt when he saw her seriously think about taking it, but he thought to soon, for she shook her head.
"No" she sighed, "I'm too close to give up now." She jumped away when Jareth reached out for her. Suddenly energy flowed back to her as she remembered what was about to happen when Jareth was last with her.
"Sydney your tired, you've been though Hell, this could all just end if you"-
"NO!" Sydney interrupted. Jareth took a step back. "No! I've come to far! We're going to get Toby back and I will go back home, and Sarah and I will look back on all of this and think of it as just a bad dream!" she tuned her back on him, breathing deeply to control her emotion.
Jareth realized that Sydney must have had a inspiring revelation that rejuvenated her spirit and that it would be almost impossible to reach her as she was right then.
"All right Sydney," he said remorsefully. "I'll leave you alone. But if you want to talk to me for what ever reason, just call out for me."
When he said nothing more, Sydney turned to see that he had disappeared. Sighing she went up to the doors. The one with the sewn eyes was, in a twisted way, much better off than the one with no legs. So before she could think any more on the subject, she went behind the statue and opened the door and stepped in.
For a fleeting moment she caught sight of a small maze with gaping holes and missing walls. When the door slammed shut behind her, the world went dark.
If he could have just kissed her, if her could have just kissed Sydney, she would have been his. He couldn't remove the vision of her deep green eyes staring so willingly at his eyes. He was so close, but no that stupid beast Ludo had to let himself known, and he knew that Sarah had something to do with it. Damn her!
When he was sure he could make rational decisions he calmly sat in his throne and created a crystal. Looking in it he saw Sarah at the doorknockers to the forest. She was removing the ring from the mouth of one so it could talk. She handed the ring to a fiery red-orange beast Ludo. Jareth knew she was involved.
The Dwarf was nowhere to be seen, he had left Sarah and obviously did not take her to the beginning of the Labyrinth. Looking at the clock it showed that they still had four hours and fifteen minutes left. At the pace Sarah was going she could easily make it on time. Jareth needed something to stall Sarah and keep her from going anywhere so he could concentrate on convincing Sydney to stay with him. He had already decided that the older girl was much more to his liking than Sarah was.
Suddenly he had an idea.
Sydney was wandering around the Labyrinth now, not realizing that her thoughtless wandering was getting her though the Labyrinth much faster than before. She was lost in thought about Jareth, what would have happened if she had let a man who was suppose to be her enemy kiss her? Would alarm bells ring? Would Sarah come running, screaming betrayer?
Her aimless wandering brought her to a stone covered part of the wall that looked to be an immense cave. It was jet black inside and she could not see in. she was about to step inside when a rather large goblin stepped out of the shadows. Startled, Sydney stumbled backwards.
"What dose this young girl want?" he asked in a gruff voice. He was dressed in flowing pastel robes and was completely bald, with two very large yellow eyes.
"Um. I'm wondering. do you know the way to the center of the Labyrinth?" she asked him.
"What! No of course not!" he snapped. Sydney wasn't very disappointed, she had soon realized that even if someone did know the way, chances where they would not, or could not tell her. "What is this place?" she asked.
The large goblin turned around and headed back into the cave. "It's a dream cave, this is where mortal dreams are created and sent Aboveground."
'Oh, Jackpot!' Sydney was so excited, if only she could go in and see it. The goblin shuffled his way back into the cave, leaving her there to think it out herself. Looking at her watch she saw that barley four hours remained when there should be seven.
"Not fair!" she shouted "Jareth you cheater, what did you do!?" she didn't expect an answer and she didn't get one. She sighed, it would have been nice to scream at him in person. Sydney suddenly didn't care about the time, looking over at the castle as it loomed in the distance; it was not so far away now. Sydney could see the windows and doors, it was only a matter of time before she reached it. And besides Sarah was a whole hour ahead of her, she would get there at any moment. Sydney had made up her mind and decided to do some sight seeing.
Jareth had found the conniving Dwarf on his way back the beginning of the Labyrinth, no doubt to continue his favorite past time of exterminating fairies. Sarah's calls from the forest where easily heard as she called for Ludo, for the beast had disappeared, by Jareth's doing. Sarah was now lost and alone.
Hoggle ignored her calls until she called for him. "I'm coming Sarah." He said turning to go back, Jareth decided this was the time to show himself.
" Well, if it isn't you. And uh where, are you, going?" Jareth asked calm as day.
Hoggle jumped back horrified that he had been caught. "Well the little lady gave me the slip,"
"Ludo!" came Sarah's cry. "Hoggle continued.
"But I just hears her now, so I was about to lead her back to the beginning like you told me." Hoggle applauded himself for remaining calm. Jareth on the other hand sneered at him.
"I see." He said ambling over to a boulder and leaned on it. "For a moment there I thought you were running to help her.but no..not after my warnings that 'would' be stupid."
'Oh you bet it would, me, help her, after your warnings. Hahahe" Hoggle's forced laughter was surprisingly' convincing, but not to Jareth. When Hoggle turned, his laughing was cut short for the Goblin King crouched down in front of him, with mock concern on his face.
"Oh dear, poor Hoghead." Said Jareth softly, covering his mouth with his hand.
"Hoggle" Hoggle quietly corrected. Jareth moved his hand from his mouth and reached out to grabbed Hoggle by the shoulder and brought him closer.
"I've just noticed your lovely jewels are missing." Jareth knew that Sarah had taken the jewels to force Hoggle to show her the way to the castle. 'What a friend, to take away what you most care about in order to force you to help, you would have had much better luck with Sydney.' Jareth thought
Hoggle tried to act surprised and failed. " Wh-what, oh yes, my..lovely jewels, missing. I better find them." Hoggle slowly stepped away from Jareth. " But first I'm off to take the little lady back to the beginning of the labyrinth just like we planed." He turned to leave.
"Wait!" Jareth called, standing up. Hoggle paused and turned. "I have a much better plan." A wave of his hand and a crystal rolled into his palm. He smiled at is sinisterly, "give her this" he tossed the crystal to Hoggle, then turned to leave.
Hoggle caught it easily despite his clumsy hands, and the crystal turned into a peach when he caught it. He knew his King was up to something.
"Wh- what is it?" he asked.
Jareth turned around, "It's a present" he said simply. Hoggle knew only bad things could come from this.
"It isn't going to hurt the little lady, is it?"
"Oh, now why the concern?" Jareth mocked
Hoggle wasn't about to poison Sarah, he gathered his courage, " I wont do nothin' to harm her."
'Oh, come, come, come, Hogbrain! I'm surprised at you, losing your head over a girl." Jareth shouted walking back to stand closer to him. Hoggle drew himself up.
"I ain't lost my head." He said
Jareth walked over to him his grip tightening on his whip. "You don't think that a young girl could ever like," he poked Hoggle in the shoulder with the whip , "a repulsive" he poked him again, "Little scab like you , do you?"
Hoggle rubbed his shoulder, "Well, she said we was"- "What" Jareth interrupted, "Bosom companions" he dropped his voice lower, "friends"
Hoggle sighed for he knew that the Goblin King was saying must be true. "Don't matter." He mumbled to himself.
"You'll give her that Hoggle," Jareth grabbed Hoggle by the ear causing the Dwarf to whimper painfully. "Or I'll tip you straight into the Bog of Eternal Stench before you can blink." He shoved Hoggle away and turned once more to leave.
"Yes, right." Hoggle whispered as he too turn to leave.
"And Hoggle" Jareth called after him. Hoggle turned to look back. "If she ever kisses you, I'll turn you into a prince."
'Y-you will?" asked Hoggle.
"Prince of the land of stench!" Jareth said laughing out loud. 'if that deceiving little scab gets a kiss before I do then he's going to get severely punished' Jareth continued to laugh as he disappeared.
Sydney entered the cave and gasped at the sight before her. Thousands and thousands of tiny green lights lighted up the immense and dark cave. They flew around in a giant swarm in the middle of the cave, looking like tiny fireflies. Though a few swooped around the cave alone. The goblin was sitting on a large stack of very old looking books, with his nose buried in an even larger book. He seemed to ignore Sydney's presence.
Suddenly Sydney spotted a red light among the others and her attention was drawn to it. The red light seemed drawn to her too, for it left the swarm and fluttered over of her. Sydney followed its hypnotizing back and forth movement, as its swayed ever closer to her. The goblin watched, using his powerful eyes to see the red dream come ever closer to her. The girl only stood rooted to the spot, her head moving back and forth with the sway of the dream, her eyes where wide and empty. The goblin smirked, 'that's what that mortal gets for coming in here' he thought.
The red light touched Sydney on the forehead just between the eyes, then it disappeared. Sydney's eyes flashed red for a moment before retuning to her vibrant green. Sydney shook her head, trying to clear it. For a moment she forgot what she was doing, then she remember the cave she was in. Believing that she had wasted enough time here she reluctantly decided to leave.
Blinking as she left the darkness of the cave, she carefully made her way though the maze. Jareth no longer plagued her thoughts, instead she thought about the cave she just left. She wandered around aimlessly choosing a path here, a turn there. Suddenly she came to two large doors with bronze looking statues in front of them.
The statues where gruesome, one had his hands out in front of him as if he couldn't see. Closer inspection told Sydney that he couldn't see because he had his eyes sewn shut!. The other wasn't in any better shape, in fact he was worse. He had no legs and was dragging himself along by his hands.
The answer was obvious, she had to choose which door to go though, but whether or not theses statues had anything to do with what was thought the doors, she didn't know. Frustrated at yet another obstacle she contemplated whether or not to turn around and back track to another path. But she would lose precious time doing that.
"Oh!..I wish this could all just end!" she screamed to herself. She was hungry and tired from being awake for over nineteen hours., and all she wanted to do was rest. She was startled out of her mind when Jareth appeared before her.
"Sydney all this could end, if you just take my gift." He presented the crystal to her. His heart leapt when he saw her seriously think about taking it, but he thought to soon, for she shook her head.
"No" she sighed, "I'm too close to give up now." She jumped away when Jareth reached out for her. Suddenly energy flowed back to her as she remembered what was about to happen when Jareth was last with her.
"Sydney your tired, you've been though Hell, this could all just end if you"-
"NO!" Sydney interrupted. Jareth took a step back. "No! I've come to far! We're going to get Toby back and I will go back home, and Sarah and I will look back on all of this and think of it as just a bad dream!" she tuned her back on him, breathing deeply to control her emotion.
Jareth realized that Sydney must have had a inspiring revelation that rejuvenated her spirit and that it would be almost impossible to reach her as she was right then.
"All right Sydney," he said remorsefully. "I'll leave you alone. But if you want to talk to me for what ever reason, just call out for me."
When he said nothing more, Sydney turned to see that he had disappeared. Sighing she went up to the doors. The one with the sewn eyes was, in a twisted way, much better off than the one with no legs. So before she could think any more on the subject, she went behind the statue and opened the door and stepped in.
For a fleeting moment she caught sight of a small maze with gaping holes and missing walls. When the door slammed shut behind her, the world went dark.