Disclaimer: I do not own or stake any claim to the Labyrinth or any of its characters, nope not one bit of it. They belong to the Henson Company.
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Prologue and sorts
Sometimes there are no 'why's or 'how's about things. Some things simply are and should be accepted as such. The Labyrinth simply 'was', ruled by a man who simply 'is'. There is no rhyme or reason why Sarah caught his eye one day as he was flying about, something he was wont to do in fits of boredom. How can one not get bored with the tedious company that populated his kingdom? And so he flew.
There had been many silly girls carrying on with their silly dreams below his languid flights. Sarah carried on with her games, equally silly to common scrutiny, but Jareth's was uncommon. She loved books and their fantastic worlds, but this one in particular she happened on purely by chance. The shopkeeper had no inventory of it, it bore no trace of origin, no publisher, no author. One would have thought it had no history if its cover weren't faded and its pages yellowed. This was a book of what simply 'was', and offered no 'why's or 'how's about it, yet it was as old as the world its pages detailed. Perhaps he had placed it there on one of his wanderings, perhaps it sprung up out of sheer necessity, as we now know there is sometimes no rhyme or reason to things. However it is that these things may happen, it captured the heart of one Sarah Williams, 15, and quite propitiously for our oft-airborne Goblin King.
Jareth was a man of indeterminate years who has lived for an indeterminate time in an indeterminate world. I suppose it would be quite a lonely existence if no one knew or even believed you existed. Loneliness creeps in bitterness, and scorn is sure to follow. All he was, all he knew was cast aside as trifle foolishness, something for silly girls and their silly dreams. By all standards, that would diminish his kingdom and his rule to trifle foolishness as well. Quite something to embitter a man, more so a king!
He found distraction in Sarah, initially. She gave his kingdom and his rule validation, his sole advocate in this resplendent yet burgeoning woman. She was quite a bit older than the other silly girls he'd seen, but still carried on as all the others. However, rightly so, for the book that had so captured Sarah's heart was not like any other. Something about it cried out to her to never let it go, to hold on to the dream. Hold on, but for what? It can honestly be said that neither of them knew at this point, and to this there was a reason.
Jareth's distraction soon became his curiosity. Curiosity gave way to fascination, and in time, this grew to love. Love! The ultimate distraction; oh what had befallen our Goblin King! Such a thing might be cause to make one reckless or rash, there is a certain urgency to fresh love much like the crisp air that follows a spring storm. Ah! But there's that storm to be dealt with. For two such as Sarah and Jareth love will come, undeniably, powerfully, but that love must first come softly.
Days became weeks, weeks turned into months. Was there ever a man quite so smitten? Some would argue, but given Jareth's past and now his present, I would say not. So this was his 'business to attend to'? What his subjects would think if they saw this side of him (of course they wouldn't!). He would reserve this for her and only her. He ached to be for her more than even she knew she yearned for.
She was a carefree dreamer but his dream reigned in her heart. He, the enduring ruler, found himself subject to, lost in the sea of her eyes. As compelling as their congruity may appear, their sparks could ignite a firestorm. But it had to start somewhere, so Jareth let her come to him in her own time. She would know when, it would come to her, some things just had to be so. And so he flew. Exhuberance replaced mundanity, and his once aimless flights now became pointedly resolute. Oh, what one silly girl could do him.
It did come to her as he knew it would. One night in exasperation yet only half-aware, though at least half, she took her step and said her words. To this half there, too, was a reason. If only poor Sarah could grasp the enormity of her newfound realization. These 'certain powers' were never meant for what she did with them, but that was the ignorance of the impulsive and unmindful child in her.
From here you know the story, well, most of it. For his intents and purposes, this night would have been their union. The night, however, blew in cold truth. To her it was a broken dream, which may as well have been a broken heart if not for the silly child in her. To him a broken heart, which was his dearest, and only, dream. All was not lost!
This is where we begin.