Chapter 4 - The Wedding

******

Disclaimer - I do not own the Labyrinth or anything to do with it. Please don't sue me.

******

Hilarity and Trin arrived at the ceremony in the nick of time. They looked around for a

seat

only to find that they were surrounded by dozens of strange people and creatures.

Some had wings or horns sticking out of their heads and they were all dressed in

clothes that predated the poor aliens' by nearly three hundred years. Lots of big dresses

and breeches.

"Oh crap! I'm going to look like a pixie stick in a meringue factory!" Hilarity

muttered quietly so that only her cousin could hear.

"That's nothing, I'm going to look like a Beatle at a Mozart convention." Trin replied,

not so quietly. They stifled a laugh.

Amidst all this strangeness sat Sarah's family looking rather nervous. Hilarity assumed

that they weren't to comfortable with this marriage malarkey. They went over and sat

by them. Toby, who now looked about eight years old, noticed his ex-nanny first and

gave her a grin recognition.

"Hilarity!" he cried happily.

"Hey kiddo!" she grinned back. "Long time, no see."

"It's so good to see someone from our world." said Sarah's father with relief "I was

beginning to think we were the only humans here." Hilarity politely refrained from

telling him where she was really from. "How long has it been? Five years?"

"Yeah! I see Toby's grown like a beanstalk." she replied "You remember my cousin

Trin, don't you." Trin waved at them then went back to staring at his fingernails.

"So have you been here before?" asked Sarah's father, curious about how these people

knew the bride and groom.

"Once or twice." she replied "But Jareth usually comes over to our neck of the woods

because we live within walking distance of a multiplex cinema." bet they didn't know

that.

******

The ceremony passed without complication. It was very beautiful but a little too

formal for Hilarity's taste. Plus she felt very uneasy about the other guests and felt that

they weren't very nice people.

The reception took place in the castle gardens. Hilarity sighed. The roses were still a

mess. She wondered if anyone would notice if she nipped out and....no, stop it, she

thought. She spent the whole of lunch jammed between an arguing elvin couple and

an elderly man with an unpleasant smell. She remembered why she hated weddings.

Trin who sat opposite her helped himself to some fruit.

"I wouldn't trust those peaches, Trin." she said.

"Why not?"

"Remember those vodka watermelons we had at that beach party last year. Those are

worse." Trin quickly put it back.

"Whose that guy?" he asked pointing to the best man.

"Jareth's brother. I've forgotten his name." she replied nonchalantly "Weird idea isn't

it. He's not the kind of person you'd imagine as having a family."

After dinner the dancing started. Hilarity felt a little vulnerable. Trin had gone off to

flirt with the bridesmaids with little success and, being the only female with her ankles

exposed, she had been bombarded by indecent propositions. She remembered why she

hated Jareth's friends. Luckily, Toby was so pleased to see her again that he demanded

her full attention for the entire evening. She taught him how to play 'Bogies', a rather

pointless game she had learned from the BBC where they would take it in turns to

shout "Bogies" getting louder and louder until one person copped out or failed to

match the other in volume. Then they had a peach fight seeing as no one was eating

them. Hilarity hadn't realised how much she'd missed that childish, purile filth.

"Remind me never to let you near my children!" said a man as she led a very messy

Toby back to his table. Hilarity recognised the speaker as Jareth's brother.

"Oh! you have kids. That's nice, how many?" she smiled.

"I have a daughter whose just turned five hundred." said the man.

"Aww, they're so sweet at that age, aren't they. Then they hit puberty and it all goes

downhill. I'm Hilarity by the way."

"Knossos."

"Gesundheit!" Hilarity laughed at her own joke but her companion ignored her.

"So, you're Jareth's famous alien friend." said Knossos "Funny, I thought you'd be

more exotic, with scales or spines or something."

"No, but my race is semi-chameleonic. Nowadays people can only change their

appearance in extreme situations though."

"Fascinating." he drawled boredly. Christ! What a git. "Would you care to dance?" he

asked.

"Normally, I'd love to but I've got some very important business to attend to over

there." she pointed to somewhere behind Knossos then legged it in the opposite

direction while his back was turned. It had been one of her most effective ways of

avoiding Zutroy when she was at University. She turned a corner and ran straight into

Jareth.

"Oh! Sorry!" she cried looking slightly embarrassed.

"Have you just been propositioned by my brother?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Generally, from the number of women running from that end of the garden to this

end." he said.

"By Jove, Holmes you've got it!"

"Have you reached a decision yet?" he asked.

"Can Trin stay too?"

"If he stays out of trouble."

"Then my answer is yes. A bit of Labyrinth sitting can't be too bad."