A/N: I'm going to start putting my notes at the bottom...so look there from now on! ;)
Disclaimer: Jareth, Sarah, Toby, and the whole 'Labyrinth' crew belong to Jim Henson and all of those folks. Characters not from 'Labyrinth' or other recognizable works are mine...unless I say otherwise. :P
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Chapter Three
"So, uh…where exactly IS this court?" Toby inquired, finally resigned to the fact that he had no choice but to find the Imperial Diadem.
"The Unseelie Court is far beyond our borders," Oberon explained. "Upon leaving the castle, you must head east, through the land of the gnomes. Close to our borders, the gnomes of Og'Mael are tolerant of faeries…and without close scrutiny, you could pass for a fae. The farther you travel into this kingdom, however, the more careful you will have to be. The gnomes there have been subverted by the power of the Unseelie Court, and will be more than willing to capture you. However, if you remain cautious you will make it through unhindered."
"Should they try to trap you, however," Puck interjected, shooting an irritated glare at the king, "Use this." He handed over a leather pouch, which Toby took eagerly. Opening the drawstrings, he peered inside and saw nothing more than ordinary sand.
"What's this supposed to do?" he asked dubiously.
"One of my little tricks," Puck replied smugly. "Modeled somewhat after your mortal gunpowder, but with a little more excitement." He winked. "It should be enough to deter any gnome from attempting to catch you."
"And if it's not?"
"Well then, I suppose you'll be playing the part of Jester to the Gnomish court for a long time to come, eh?" The small fae cackled.
"One more word of caution, which my husband seems conveniently to have forgotten," Titania spoke up, her wide doe eyes solemn. "To the southeast of this castle lies the kingdom of the elves. Once, their land was joined with ours, but in recent years they've separated and are struggling to create their own monarchy. They wish to have nothing to do with any creatures of this kingdom, and can be quite hostile at times. Therefore, you must not stray from your course. If you should wander into Elvish lands, you will have even less of a chance at surviving than you will in Og'Mael. Do you understand?" Toby could only nod in response, fear tightening his throat too much to allow speech. Oberon took this sign as the end of their conversation.
"Very well. Good luck to you, young mortal, and may we see you return to the kingdom soon!" Looking past Toby, he gestured regally to someone toward the back of the room. Turning, Toby saw a petite faerie servant step forward. "Everlind, please see to it that he is given supplies to last him during this journey. Puck, I will hear no more of your complaints; this boy is no longer your responsibility."
"'Twas I who brought him here, and therefore it should be me who leads him!" Puck exclaimed vehemently. When the king made a blatant show of ignoring the other man's protestations, Puck stormed over to Toby and murmured, "I did not have the time to teach you nearly as much as you need to know. Do not trust your mundane perceptions in this world. What you see, what you hear, even what you touch can all be deceptions. Rely on your instincts, young friend, and you should do well. In the meantime, I will do my best to establish contact with the Goblin King, and with luck your quest will be ended quickly." He cast a quick glance in the direction of the impatient king. "Now, be off with you! And keep in mind that nothing is what it seems!"
Why does that line sound so familiar…?
"Follow me, young mortal," spoke a sweet voice next to Toby's ear, effectively breaking his concentration. Turning once again, he found himself looking at the faerie girl, Everlind. Pale ivory skin was tinged a dusky pink along her high cheekbones, and hazy amethyst eyes looked out from within a frame of sooty black lashes. Thick black hair was pinned high on the back of her head, allowing the long curls to fall gracefully to the nape of her neck. Her dress, by contrast, was completely incongruous with the rest of her. While her features were all elegantly sculpted, her dress was patched together with different shades of purple fabrics: some lavender, some orchid, and some so pale as to be indecipherable from white. Pockets of varying sizes adorned her skirt, so many that Toby wondered if all her life possessions could be kept there.
She smiled politely at him, and Toby found himself even more captivated by this girl than he'd been by Ti in her taller, goddess-like form. He followed her obediently out of the throne room.
"My name's Toby," he told her at length, feeling as though he had to say something to this wonderful girl. She gave him that small, enigmatic smile again and nodded.
"Yes, I know. And mine is Everlind." She fell silent once more, and Toby despaired of ever being able to strike up a conversation. However, just as he'd given up, she turned her head and glanced at him. "You are truly from the mortal realm?" she inquired, almost eagerly. He nodded in response. "I hear others often speaking of their encounters with mortals, but I had never hoped to see one. You are not so very different from us; I find myself strangely disappointed."
"I'm sorry," Toby mumbled, feeling somehow guilty for disappointing her. "You don't really look too different from people in my world, either. Well…some of you do. No one in my world has purple eyes." He chuckled nervously and felt his cheeks grow pink. Everlind laughed.
"Truly?" she asked in disbelief. "This is a very common shade among my people. Not the fae who live in this castle; I was born in a village far south of here. Most fae who live in this area have dark eyes. Rarely, someone comes along with gold or silver eyes. Do people of your world have eyes that shade?"
Gold or silver? Toby shook his head. "We've got brown, blue, green, and gray," he told her, watching as she seemed to grow even more curious. "Oh, and then there's hazel…That color changes."
"How so?"
"Well, sometimes the person looks like they have blue eyes, and sometimes their eyes look brown, or green…"
"Can the person change their eye color at will?" The petite fae looked envious. "I would like to have silver eyes. Do you not think silver is a lovely shade?"
"Yes…" Toby agreed hesitantly. How would he know if silver eyes were pretty if he'd never seen them before? "But you can't just change eye colors whenever you want. Sarah -- that's my sister -- has hazel eyes. They just…change whenever. Like, if she gets really angry at something, her eyes get dark."
"It still sounds lovely." Everlind sighed and went back into contemplative silence.
After a few moments, Toby's instinctive need to talk gave him voice again. "So, um…When I get out of here, which way is east?"
Everlind blinked, surprised for a moment that he didn't know his way. Then she frowned to herself and began sorting through the myriad pockets in her dress. "I have something…in one of these pockets…that should be of aid to you," she said distractedly, stopping in the middle of the corridor while she searched. After several minutes, she plucked a small object from one of the larger pockets and held it up for Toby's inspection.
"A rock?" he said cautiously, not wanting to upset her. The girl's triumphant expression melted into a look of amusement.
"A compass stone, Toby," she corrected him. "Not so great a magic as the one Puck has given you, but useful nonetheless." Clasping it tightly in both hands, Everlind closed her eyes and brought the stone closer to her face. After a few seconds, muted white light began to shine from between the cracks of her closed fingers. Another few seconds and the glow was gone, and the smooth gray stone looked normal once more.
"Now what?" The stone was placed in Toby's outstretched hand, and he looked at it curiously.
"Turn in a circle, and see what happens."
Looking skeptical, Toby nonetheless began to turn slowly in a circle, holding the stone before him on his palm. When he'd turned nearly halfway around, the stone began to glow again. As he continued turning, this time much more slowly, the glow grew brighter until finally he had to turn away from it. Everlind grinned and pulled on his arm to turn him the rest of the way around, and the stone faded back to dull, ordinary gray.
"So…when the stone starts glowing like that, it means I'm going east?"
"Exactly!" Everlind looked pleased with herself. "I've never had use of it, myself, but I found it discarded and decided that I would keep it in case it proved useful someday."
Realization dawning on him, Toby glanced down at the pockets stitched on the girl's dress. The glance had only been brief, but Everlind was quick and clever, and she seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. "Aye, I collect many interesting things," she stated, confirming his suspicions. "Pieces of silver, ribbons, even items of small magic -- though it's rare to find those. Anything that catches my eye, I pick up and carry around with me, a habit which has made all these pockets necessary! My brother called me Magpie as a child because of my habit. However, even he found useful some of the items I carried!" She shrugged, suddenly looking self-conscious, and chuckled. "I apologize; I didn't mean to stand here and bore you with my life history!" Smiling again, she nodded once down the corridor and continued walking. Toby trailed obediently after, amused by the girl's odd behavior. The compass stone felt warm in his closed hand.
He was surprised to see the cavernous room that housed the castle's kitchen. Of course, such a large place would require a large kitchen -- and an equally large staff -- but he'd been thinking that magical creatures would disdain such mundane approaches to making food. Yet there were hundreds of uniformed servants, bustling about in preparation for the next meal. Everlind, comfortable in such a busy atmosphere, slipped easily through the other servants and beckoned Toby to follow. He didn't have such an easy time making his way to the other end of the kitchen, however, and consequently collided with several irate fae. Everlind rushed back to him and hastily led him by the hand out of that room and into a smaller, quieter place: the pantry, most likely, though such a name seemed inadequate for a room only slightly smaller than the kitchen itself. Shelves lined the walls, all stocked with food, and bags of what appeared to be flour and sugar took up an entire corner.
"Everlind?" Toby asked quietly, his eyes still roving over the shelves. His stomach growled in response to such a wealth of edibles. "Puck told me…Well, he said that if I ate or drank anything here, I'd be…"
"Bewitched?" Everlind finished for him. At Toby's nod, she smiled sadly. "Aye, what he said was true. Any human who tastes the food of Faerie is doomed to an eternal life here. Perhaps 'eternal' is not the appropriate word, however…"
"Because humans don't live as long as faeries?"
"No, they don't." She gave a wavering sigh, and her wide amethyst eyes suddenly began to glitter with tears. "Oh, Toby, would that I could change things just for you!" she cried. "What the king has demanded is unfair, for surely he knows that…" She trailed off and stared hard at the floor.
"Knows what, Everlind?" Toby asked warily, a cold feeling slowly numbing him. Though he had an idea of what she was about to say, he needed to hear the words come from her lips, as though perhaps what she had to say wouldn't be as bad as the thoughts that were storming in his brain. The fae girl was slow in responding, fighting hard to keep her emotions in check. Eventually, she looked up at him again, and what he saw in her face was even more frightening than looking upon Oberon's countenance.
"He knows the effect of our food on mortals," she began. "He knows that if you should even taste any of it, or take the tiniest sip of wine or water, you will want to stay here forever."
"So I won't eat anything!" Toby exclaimed defiantly, suddenly not wanting her to continue. However, she'd finally gotten the courage to tell him everything, and she wasn't about to let him stop her. Placing a gentle, yet firm hand over his mouth, she went on.
"The quest will take days, weeks, perhaps even longer. Eventually, you will lose strength if you do not eat. If you eat, you will be bewitched. If you do not eat--"
"Everlind…" Toby begged, pulling her hand away from his mouth.
"…You will die."
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Notes: The name 'Everlind' was not one created by me. It was a name I picked up from a TERRIFIC series of books by Terry Brooks...if any of you have read the Shannara fantasy series, then you'll probably know what I'm talking about. In one particular book, there was a character named Mole who lived underground and didn't really associate with people. He spent his life collecting discarded stuffed animals and other things that people had "abandoned". And he treated the stuffed animals like family. Everlind was the name he gave to one of these stuffed animals, and I always thought there was something really pretty about the name. So I gave it to one of MY characters. ;) And her habit of collecting things is a nod to Mole. I feel so clever! ;)
I'd also like to thank Phoenix Flight for that one lonely review I got. *grins*
Disclaimer: Jareth, Sarah, Toby, and the whole 'Labyrinth' crew belong to Jim Henson and all of those folks. Characters not from 'Labyrinth' or other recognizable works are mine...unless I say otherwise. :P
Chapter Three
"So, uh…where exactly IS this court?" Toby inquired, finally resigned to the fact that he had no choice but to find the Imperial Diadem.
"The Unseelie Court is far beyond our borders," Oberon explained. "Upon leaving the castle, you must head east, through the land of the gnomes. Close to our borders, the gnomes of Og'Mael are tolerant of faeries…and without close scrutiny, you could pass for a fae. The farther you travel into this kingdom, however, the more careful you will have to be. The gnomes there have been subverted by the power of the Unseelie Court, and will be more than willing to capture you. However, if you remain cautious you will make it through unhindered."
"Should they try to trap you, however," Puck interjected, shooting an irritated glare at the king, "Use this." He handed over a leather pouch, which Toby took eagerly. Opening the drawstrings, he peered inside and saw nothing more than ordinary sand.
"What's this supposed to do?" he asked dubiously.
"One of my little tricks," Puck replied smugly. "Modeled somewhat after your mortal gunpowder, but with a little more excitement." He winked. "It should be enough to deter any gnome from attempting to catch you."
"And if it's not?"
"Well then, I suppose you'll be playing the part of Jester to the Gnomish court for a long time to come, eh?" The small fae cackled.
"One more word of caution, which my husband seems conveniently to have forgotten," Titania spoke up, her wide doe eyes solemn. "To the southeast of this castle lies the kingdom of the elves. Once, their land was joined with ours, but in recent years they've separated and are struggling to create their own monarchy. They wish to have nothing to do with any creatures of this kingdom, and can be quite hostile at times. Therefore, you must not stray from your course. If you should wander into Elvish lands, you will have even less of a chance at surviving than you will in Og'Mael. Do you understand?" Toby could only nod in response, fear tightening his throat too much to allow speech. Oberon took this sign as the end of their conversation.
"Very well. Good luck to you, young mortal, and may we see you return to the kingdom soon!" Looking past Toby, he gestured regally to someone toward the back of the room. Turning, Toby saw a petite faerie servant step forward. "Everlind, please see to it that he is given supplies to last him during this journey. Puck, I will hear no more of your complaints; this boy is no longer your responsibility."
"'Twas I who brought him here, and therefore it should be me who leads him!" Puck exclaimed vehemently. When the king made a blatant show of ignoring the other man's protestations, Puck stormed over to Toby and murmured, "I did not have the time to teach you nearly as much as you need to know. Do not trust your mundane perceptions in this world. What you see, what you hear, even what you touch can all be deceptions. Rely on your instincts, young friend, and you should do well. In the meantime, I will do my best to establish contact with the Goblin King, and with luck your quest will be ended quickly." He cast a quick glance in the direction of the impatient king. "Now, be off with you! And keep in mind that nothing is what it seems!"
Why does that line sound so familiar…?
"Follow me, young mortal," spoke a sweet voice next to Toby's ear, effectively breaking his concentration. Turning once again, he found himself looking at the faerie girl, Everlind. Pale ivory skin was tinged a dusky pink along her high cheekbones, and hazy amethyst eyes looked out from within a frame of sooty black lashes. Thick black hair was pinned high on the back of her head, allowing the long curls to fall gracefully to the nape of her neck. Her dress, by contrast, was completely incongruous with the rest of her. While her features were all elegantly sculpted, her dress was patched together with different shades of purple fabrics: some lavender, some orchid, and some so pale as to be indecipherable from white. Pockets of varying sizes adorned her skirt, so many that Toby wondered if all her life possessions could be kept there.
She smiled politely at him, and Toby found himself even more captivated by this girl than he'd been by Ti in her taller, goddess-like form. He followed her obediently out of the throne room.
"My name's Toby," he told her at length, feeling as though he had to say something to this wonderful girl. She gave him that small, enigmatic smile again and nodded.
"Yes, I know. And mine is Everlind." She fell silent once more, and Toby despaired of ever being able to strike up a conversation. However, just as he'd given up, she turned her head and glanced at him. "You are truly from the mortal realm?" she inquired, almost eagerly. He nodded in response. "I hear others often speaking of their encounters with mortals, but I had never hoped to see one. You are not so very different from us; I find myself strangely disappointed."
"I'm sorry," Toby mumbled, feeling somehow guilty for disappointing her. "You don't really look too different from people in my world, either. Well…some of you do. No one in my world has purple eyes." He chuckled nervously and felt his cheeks grow pink. Everlind laughed.
"Truly?" she asked in disbelief. "This is a very common shade among my people. Not the fae who live in this castle; I was born in a village far south of here. Most fae who live in this area have dark eyes. Rarely, someone comes along with gold or silver eyes. Do people of your world have eyes that shade?"
Gold or silver? Toby shook his head. "We've got brown, blue, green, and gray," he told her, watching as she seemed to grow even more curious. "Oh, and then there's hazel…That color changes."
"How so?"
"Well, sometimes the person looks like they have blue eyes, and sometimes their eyes look brown, or green…"
"Can the person change their eye color at will?" The petite fae looked envious. "I would like to have silver eyes. Do you not think silver is a lovely shade?"
"Yes…" Toby agreed hesitantly. How would he know if silver eyes were pretty if he'd never seen them before? "But you can't just change eye colors whenever you want. Sarah -- that's my sister -- has hazel eyes. They just…change whenever. Like, if she gets really angry at something, her eyes get dark."
"It still sounds lovely." Everlind sighed and went back into contemplative silence.
After a few moments, Toby's instinctive need to talk gave him voice again. "So, um…When I get out of here, which way is east?"
Everlind blinked, surprised for a moment that he didn't know his way. Then she frowned to herself and began sorting through the myriad pockets in her dress. "I have something…in one of these pockets…that should be of aid to you," she said distractedly, stopping in the middle of the corridor while she searched. After several minutes, she plucked a small object from one of the larger pockets and held it up for Toby's inspection.
"A rock?" he said cautiously, not wanting to upset her. The girl's triumphant expression melted into a look of amusement.
"A compass stone, Toby," she corrected him. "Not so great a magic as the one Puck has given you, but useful nonetheless." Clasping it tightly in both hands, Everlind closed her eyes and brought the stone closer to her face. After a few seconds, muted white light began to shine from between the cracks of her closed fingers. Another few seconds and the glow was gone, and the smooth gray stone looked normal once more.
"Now what?" The stone was placed in Toby's outstretched hand, and he looked at it curiously.
"Turn in a circle, and see what happens."
Looking skeptical, Toby nonetheless began to turn slowly in a circle, holding the stone before him on his palm. When he'd turned nearly halfway around, the stone began to glow again. As he continued turning, this time much more slowly, the glow grew brighter until finally he had to turn away from it. Everlind grinned and pulled on his arm to turn him the rest of the way around, and the stone faded back to dull, ordinary gray.
"So…when the stone starts glowing like that, it means I'm going east?"
"Exactly!" Everlind looked pleased with herself. "I've never had use of it, myself, but I found it discarded and decided that I would keep it in case it proved useful someday."
Realization dawning on him, Toby glanced down at the pockets stitched on the girl's dress. The glance had only been brief, but Everlind was quick and clever, and she seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. "Aye, I collect many interesting things," she stated, confirming his suspicions. "Pieces of silver, ribbons, even items of small magic -- though it's rare to find those. Anything that catches my eye, I pick up and carry around with me, a habit which has made all these pockets necessary! My brother called me Magpie as a child because of my habit. However, even he found useful some of the items I carried!" She shrugged, suddenly looking self-conscious, and chuckled. "I apologize; I didn't mean to stand here and bore you with my life history!" Smiling again, she nodded once down the corridor and continued walking. Toby trailed obediently after, amused by the girl's odd behavior. The compass stone felt warm in his closed hand.
He was surprised to see the cavernous room that housed the castle's kitchen. Of course, such a large place would require a large kitchen -- and an equally large staff -- but he'd been thinking that magical creatures would disdain such mundane approaches to making food. Yet there were hundreds of uniformed servants, bustling about in preparation for the next meal. Everlind, comfortable in such a busy atmosphere, slipped easily through the other servants and beckoned Toby to follow. He didn't have such an easy time making his way to the other end of the kitchen, however, and consequently collided with several irate fae. Everlind rushed back to him and hastily led him by the hand out of that room and into a smaller, quieter place: the pantry, most likely, though such a name seemed inadequate for a room only slightly smaller than the kitchen itself. Shelves lined the walls, all stocked with food, and bags of what appeared to be flour and sugar took up an entire corner.
"Everlind?" Toby asked quietly, his eyes still roving over the shelves. His stomach growled in response to such a wealth of edibles. "Puck told me…Well, he said that if I ate or drank anything here, I'd be…"
"Bewitched?" Everlind finished for him. At Toby's nod, she smiled sadly. "Aye, what he said was true. Any human who tastes the food of Faerie is doomed to an eternal life here. Perhaps 'eternal' is not the appropriate word, however…"
"Because humans don't live as long as faeries?"
"No, they don't." She gave a wavering sigh, and her wide amethyst eyes suddenly began to glitter with tears. "Oh, Toby, would that I could change things just for you!" she cried. "What the king has demanded is unfair, for surely he knows that…" She trailed off and stared hard at the floor.
"Knows what, Everlind?" Toby asked warily, a cold feeling slowly numbing him. Though he had an idea of what she was about to say, he needed to hear the words come from her lips, as though perhaps what she had to say wouldn't be as bad as the thoughts that were storming in his brain. The fae girl was slow in responding, fighting hard to keep her emotions in check. Eventually, she looked up at him again, and what he saw in her face was even more frightening than looking upon Oberon's countenance.
"He knows the effect of our food on mortals," she began. "He knows that if you should even taste any of it, or take the tiniest sip of wine or water, you will want to stay here forever."
"So I won't eat anything!" Toby exclaimed defiantly, suddenly not wanting her to continue. However, she'd finally gotten the courage to tell him everything, and she wasn't about to let him stop her. Placing a gentle, yet firm hand over his mouth, she went on.
"The quest will take days, weeks, perhaps even longer. Eventually, you will lose strength if you do not eat. If you eat, you will be bewitched. If you do not eat--"
"Everlind…" Toby begged, pulling her hand away from his mouth.
"…You will die."
Notes: The name 'Everlind' was not one created by me. It was a name I picked up from a TERRIFIC series of books by Terry Brooks...if any of you have read the Shannara fantasy series, then you'll probably know what I'm talking about. In one particular book, there was a character named Mole who lived underground and didn't really associate with people. He spent his life collecting discarded stuffed animals and other things that people had "abandoned". And he treated the stuffed animals like family. Everlind was the name he gave to one of these stuffed animals, and I always thought there was something really pretty about the name. So I gave it to one of MY characters. ;) And her habit of collecting things is a nod to Mole. I feel so clever! ;)
I'd also like to thank Phoenix Flight for that one lonely review I got. *grins*