(Thank you all for your reviews. There have been some questions so I will try my best to answer them. First of all, for draegon-fire...the left passage doesn't lead to the castle, hee hee, but thank you for being insightful. Jareth made the promise at a time when he was desperate and he failed to realise that for Sarah to be in love with him, her ideal would be not to be completely under his control. There is something mutual occurring that cancelled out the weakest part of the promise. As for whether this story will end up being a romance... I hope it will be a little more complex than that ... just have to wait and see!
As for the Hoggle problem, in case it was not clear enough in the prequel, he has turned into a prince because in the film I quote... "if she ever kisses you, I will turn you into a prince". He has not become a prince of the bog of eternal stench because that part was not a lie. Furthermore, *grins as she ices the cake* Hoggle was young to start with because it took a while for his true age to catch up with him. Hope you enjoy the next chapter xx)
Chapter III
After taking a sequence of right and wrong turns, through dusty passageways, up and down stairs, above and below ground, Sarah came to a cube-shaped room with what looked like a tent pitched just off-centre of the floor. As she got closer, she realised that it was not a tent but part of a bizarre creature with elongated, rope-like arms that spanned out over the tiles.
"Hey, um, are you okay?" she asked the thing that was sprawled flat. "You're not hurt are you?"
"Me?" the thing answered, its head swivelling out from under its bulbous body to look at her. Two eyes bulged at the sides of a long, trumpet nose. "No, no, I'm fine. Just climbing this wall."
Sarah could now see that each spindly limb held a kind of hook that buried into the gaps between the stone slabs on the floor. There were also various rungs embedded into the ground in several places.
"Not meaning to be rude, but isn't that the floor?" she said.
The creature tutted irritably and gestured towards the wall to her right.
"*That's* the floor."
No sooner had he spoken the words, Sarah shrieked as she slid towards what she had believed to be wall. She managed to grab onto a rung protruding above her head, then she looked across at the unaffected creature whilst he ascended to her level.
"T-the room! It's upside-down!" she stammered, gasping with the strain of holding her own weight.
"Not quite. I'd say ninety degrees from last time you looked," the tent-like being said without any sign of having made a joke.
Sarah located a rung to rest her feet on and relieved a great deal of aching. She peered upwards to see a trapdoor in the ceiling, a little out of her reach if she were to climb to the top of the wall.
"How often do these things change?" she asked the climber.
"Usually when you don't want them to."
"That's not-."
"Sshh!"
Sarah quieted at the creature's command for something else had entered the room. She held her breath as a great black-furred beast trod below, each step thundering ominously. If it had not been for the six legs sloping into deadly taloned paws, she could have sworn it was a giant dog. Fearsome yellow eyes darted above slavering jaws that were reddened with fresh blood. She had never seen anything so frightening, even when compared with the Polydragon, because at that time she believed she was needed alive. The beast was bigger than Ludo, the orange monster she had seen in Jareth's dungeons, her friend.
"What is that?" she gasped, wishing immediately that she had kept quiet.
The glowering orbs whirled to fixate upon her and the maddened creature charged. Before she could wonder whether it could jump high enough to reach her, the room rotated again. Now she and the climber were on the ceiling and the immense monster scrabbled at the left-hand wall, latching onto various rungs with its array of toes.
Sarah took her chance for escape; observing the trapdoor was now on the right-hand wall, just close enough to jump to. Swinging herself along the metal rungs, not daring to look down, she gritted her teeth and threw her body weight at the door. As luck would have it, the trapdoor swung inward and she bowled out into the old sand-coloured maze. She clearly recalled this as the place where she had made markings on the floor during her quest for Toby.
She peered back through the door to see the climbing creature had disappeared but the wolfish monster remained clinging to the far wall, snarling and snapping at thin air. Figuring it would not be long before the room shifted, Sarah thought it wise to get moving. She closed the trapdoor and returned to the maze.
Or so she had thought.
Sarah had come to a dead end. That could only mean one thing.
"Well, she didn't meet certain death, that's for sure!" bellowed a northern British accent from behind her.
Several voices burst out into peals of laughter. Sarah turned to see the red and blue guardians, guffawing behind their moustaches and shields. Without explanation, she smiled fondly at the characters.
"How are ye, m'gel?" asked the red upside-down guard.
"Could be better," Sarah answered, "but I've had a lot of time to think you guys through and I've discovered a problem."
"Is tha' right?" the blue upside-down guard chortled, causing the others to pop up their heads, laugh, and duck behind their shields again.
Sarah licked her lips as though preparing herself for a difficult sum.
"One of you told me the rule that I can only ask *one* of you a question, but the other told me that one of you *always* lies and one of you *always* tells the truth," she said, watching their puzzled expressions closely. "Which means one of those rules isn't true."
"Really?" piped up the top red guard.
"Yeah, that's what I think. So either I can ask as many questions as I like, or both of you are able to tell the truth or lie whenever you please." At this she faltered. "I just don't know which one it is."
"Then why don't you try asking?" suggested the top blue guard. "You've got nothing to lose."
Sarah suddenly thought that the blue guard must be the one telling the truth, but then wondered if she really *did* have something to lose if she chose wrongly. Even if she did know the right door, it was possible that 'certain death' constituted rotting in that oubliette.
"If it turns out I can only ask one question, I'd risk wasting it. If you can lie or tell the truth, there won't be a point in me asking things unless you had control over what you answered." She hoped that made sense to them. They shrugged.
She sighed.
"I guess I'll have to give up trying to be clever," she said finally. Then she approached the red guard. "Would he tell me that the creature following me is wanting to kill me?" She glanced at the other guard as she spoke.
The red guard twitched his nose and ducked behind his shield for a conference. His helmeted head resurfaced.
"No," he replied, unsure of what his answer meant.
Sarah's face whitened slightly. "Then there's only one thing for it. Is my hair dark?" she asked the blue guard.
"Yes."
Sarah blanched. Now she knew three things; that the red and blue guards only told truth or lies as originally thought and therefore could answer as many questions as she asked; the blue guard was truthful; and the dog-monster was out for her blood.
"Did, did I choose the right door last time? I mean right as in not leading to certain death?"
"Yes," said the blue guard, stepping aside to let her pass.
Sarah took a breath and opened the door but did not walk onto the path beyond. Instead, she took a running jump, aiming to clear the hidden pit that led into the oubliette. Her shoes touched stable ground. A tingle of relief spread through her and she resumed her journey through the winding passages of the Labyrinth.
* * * *
The cell door slammed shut in the darkness. A torch ignited in its wall bracket, revealing the two figures that faced each other. The largest of the pair was burdened with a tangle of chains, hardly able to move his great horned head in any direction. When the dim flame showed the Goblin King to be mere inches away, Ludo emitted a mighty roar and shook his bonds with a fury. Links strained out from the wall and floor but held fast.
Jareth placed a finger at his lips to hush the beast.
"I'm going to set you free," he said calmly. "But first I want to show you something."
A crystal globe shimmered into view, hovering just in front of Ludo's nose. Within the glass, there appeared a moving image of a girl darting along narrow pathways. The ginger-pelted creature became animated suddenly.
"Sehwah!" he moaned, fighting his restraints.
"Not Sarah," Jareth told Ludo solemnly, receiving a look of confusion. "Sarah left you. She left us. She has forgotten you."
"No!" Ludo wailed. "Sehwah friend!"
Jareth reached out to remove the suspended orb but changed his mind, noticing the soothing effect it had on the monster.
"She lied, dear Ludo. Young women like her... you can't trust them. This is not Sarah," he said, gesturing to the girl in the crystal. "It's a trick to ensnare the weak."
"Not Sehwah?" the beast asked sorrowfully.
"No."
"Sehwah *lied*?"
"She did."
An enormous tear ran down Ludo's squashed muzzle to splash wetly on the dungeon floor. He sniffed and tried to raise a paw to wipe his nose but it was just too much effort. The man who watched him offered no comfort, scowling inwardly at the sickening sight of a tame animal.
"Oh come, come, there's no sense in crying," Jareth said with a grimace. He stepped forward to look the distraught beast in the eyes, blocking his view of the crystal. "How would you like it if we made it so Sarah could never leave? She could not lie and she'd never abandon you again."
Ludo returned the Goblin King's gaze with a pitiful stare of his own.
"Sehwah stay?"
Jareth nodded, playing enthusiasm. "Yes. Yes Ludo. Sarah would stay, *forever*."
"Ludo need Sehwah!" yelped the prisoner, causing the chains to tinkle loudly.
Jareth placed his gloved hands either side of Ludo's head to keep him steady, his unwavering tone instantly pacifying him.
"All I will do is tell a few little stories to keep her here," he spoke with a voice reminiscent of icing sugar. "But I want you to do something for me."
"Ludo? Ludo help keep Sehwah?"
Jareth nodded slyly and began to whisper in Ludo's ear.
As for the Hoggle problem, in case it was not clear enough in the prequel, he has turned into a prince because in the film I quote... "if she ever kisses you, I will turn you into a prince". He has not become a prince of the bog of eternal stench because that part was not a lie. Furthermore, *grins as she ices the cake* Hoggle was young to start with because it took a while for his true age to catch up with him. Hope you enjoy the next chapter xx)
Chapter III
After taking a sequence of right and wrong turns, through dusty passageways, up and down stairs, above and below ground, Sarah came to a cube-shaped room with what looked like a tent pitched just off-centre of the floor. As she got closer, she realised that it was not a tent but part of a bizarre creature with elongated, rope-like arms that spanned out over the tiles.
"Hey, um, are you okay?" she asked the thing that was sprawled flat. "You're not hurt are you?"
"Me?" the thing answered, its head swivelling out from under its bulbous body to look at her. Two eyes bulged at the sides of a long, trumpet nose. "No, no, I'm fine. Just climbing this wall."
Sarah could now see that each spindly limb held a kind of hook that buried into the gaps between the stone slabs on the floor. There were also various rungs embedded into the ground in several places.
"Not meaning to be rude, but isn't that the floor?" she said.
The creature tutted irritably and gestured towards the wall to her right.
"*That's* the floor."
No sooner had he spoken the words, Sarah shrieked as she slid towards what she had believed to be wall. She managed to grab onto a rung protruding above her head, then she looked across at the unaffected creature whilst he ascended to her level.
"T-the room! It's upside-down!" she stammered, gasping with the strain of holding her own weight.
"Not quite. I'd say ninety degrees from last time you looked," the tent-like being said without any sign of having made a joke.
Sarah located a rung to rest her feet on and relieved a great deal of aching. She peered upwards to see a trapdoor in the ceiling, a little out of her reach if she were to climb to the top of the wall.
"How often do these things change?" she asked the climber.
"Usually when you don't want them to."
"That's not-."
"Sshh!"
Sarah quieted at the creature's command for something else had entered the room. She held her breath as a great black-furred beast trod below, each step thundering ominously. If it had not been for the six legs sloping into deadly taloned paws, she could have sworn it was a giant dog. Fearsome yellow eyes darted above slavering jaws that were reddened with fresh blood. She had never seen anything so frightening, even when compared with the Polydragon, because at that time she believed she was needed alive. The beast was bigger than Ludo, the orange monster she had seen in Jareth's dungeons, her friend.
"What is that?" she gasped, wishing immediately that she had kept quiet.
The glowering orbs whirled to fixate upon her and the maddened creature charged. Before she could wonder whether it could jump high enough to reach her, the room rotated again. Now she and the climber were on the ceiling and the immense monster scrabbled at the left-hand wall, latching onto various rungs with its array of toes.
Sarah took her chance for escape; observing the trapdoor was now on the right-hand wall, just close enough to jump to. Swinging herself along the metal rungs, not daring to look down, she gritted her teeth and threw her body weight at the door. As luck would have it, the trapdoor swung inward and she bowled out into the old sand-coloured maze. She clearly recalled this as the place where she had made markings on the floor during her quest for Toby.
She peered back through the door to see the climbing creature had disappeared but the wolfish monster remained clinging to the far wall, snarling and snapping at thin air. Figuring it would not be long before the room shifted, Sarah thought it wise to get moving. She closed the trapdoor and returned to the maze.
Or so she had thought.
Sarah had come to a dead end. That could only mean one thing.
"Well, she didn't meet certain death, that's for sure!" bellowed a northern British accent from behind her.
Several voices burst out into peals of laughter. Sarah turned to see the red and blue guardians, guffawing behind their moustaches and shields. Without explanation, she smiled fondly at the characters.
"How are ye, m'gel?" asked the red upside-down guard.
"Could be better," Sarah answered, "but I've had a lot of time to think you guys through and I've discovered a problem."
"Is tha' right?" the blue upside-down guard chortled, causing the others to pop up their heads, laugh, and duck behind their shields again.
Sarah licked her lips as though preparing herself for a difficult sum.
"One of you told me the rule that I can only ask *one* of you a question, but the other told me that one of you *always* lies and one of you *always* tells the truth," she said, watching their puzzled expressions closely. "Which means one of those rules isn't true."
"Really?" piped up the top red guard.
"Yeah, that's what I think. So either I can ask as many questions as I like, or both of you are able to tell the truth or lie whenever you please." At this she faltered. "I just don't know which one it is."
"Then why don't you try asking?" suggested the top blue guard. "You've got nothing to lose."
Sarah suddenly thought that the blue guard must be the one telling the truth, but then wondered if she really *did* have something to lose if she chose wrongly. Even if she did know the right door, it was possible that 'certain death' constituted rotting in that oubliette.
"If it turns out I can only ask one question, I'd risk wasting it. If you can lie or tell the truth, there won't be a point in me asking things unless you had control over what you answered." She hoped that made sense to them. They shrugged.
She sighed.
"I guess I'll have to give up trying to be clever," she said finally. Then she approached the red guard. "Would he tell me that the creature following me is wanting to kill me?" She glanced at the other guard as she spoke.
The red guard twitched his nose and ducked behind his shield for a conference. His helmeted head resurfaced.
"No," he replied, unsure of what his answer meant.
Sarah's face whitened slightly. "Then there's only one thing for it. Is my hair dark?" she asked the blue guard.
"Yes."
Sarah blanched. Now she knew three things; that the red and blue guards only told truth or lies as originally thought and therefore could answer as many questions as she asked; the blue guard was truthful; and the dog-monster was out for her blood.
"Did, did I choose the right door last time? I mean right as in not leading to certain death?"
"Yes," said the blue guard, stepping aside to let her pass.
Sarah took a breath and opened the door but did not walk onto the path beyond. Instead, she took a running jump, aiming to clear the hidden pit that led into the oubliette. Her shoes touched stable ground. A tingle of relief spread through her and she resumed her journey through the winding passages of the Labyrinth.
* * * *
The cell door slammed shut in the darkness. A torch ignited in its wall bracket, revealing the two figures that faced each other. The largest of the pair was burdened with a tangle of chains, hardly able to move his great horned head in any direction. When the dim flame showed the Goblin King to be mere inches away, Ludo emitted a mighty roar and shook his bonds with a fury. Links strained out from the wall and floor but held fast.
Jareth placed a finger at his lips to hush the beast.
"I'm going to set you free," he said calmly. "But first I want to show you something."
A crystal globe shimmered into view, hovering just in front of Ludo's nose. Within the glass, there appeared a moving image of a girl darting along narrow pathways. The ginger-pelted creature became animated suddenly.
"Sehwah!" he moaned, fighting his restraints.
"Not Sarah," Jareth told Ludo solemnly, receiving a look of confusion. "Sarah left you. She left us. She has forgotten you."
"No!" Ludo wailed. "Sehwah friend!"
Jareth reached out to remove the suspended orb but changed his mind, noticing the soothing effect it had on the monster.
"She lied, dear Ludo. Young women like her... you can't trust them. This is not Sarah," he said, gesturing to the girl in the crystal. "It's a trick to ensnare the weak."
"Not Sehwah?" the beast asked sorrowfully.
"No."
"Sehwah *lied*?"
"She did."
An enormous tear ran down Ludo's squashed muzzle to splash wetly on the dungeon floor. He sniffed and tried to raise a paw to wipe his nose but it was just too much effort. The man who watched him offered no comfort, scowling inwardly at the sickening sight of a tame animal.
"Oh come, come, there's no sense in crying," Jareth said with a grimace. He stepped forward to look the distraught beast in the eyes, blocking his view of the crystal. "How would you like it if we made it so Sarah could never leave? She could not lie and she'd never abandon you again."
Ludo returned the Goblin King's gaze with a pitiful stare of his own.
"Sehwah stay?"
Jareth nodded, playing enthusiasm. "Yes. Yes Ludo. Sarah would stay, *forever*."
"Ludo need Sehwah!" yelped the prisoner, causing the chains to tinkle loudly.
Jareth placed his gloved hands either side of Ludo's head to keep him steady, his unwavering tone instantly pacifying him.
"All I will do is tell a few little stories to keep her here," he spoke with a voice reminiscent of icing sugar. "But I want you to do something for me."
"Ludo? Ludo help keep Sehwah?"
Jareth nodded slyly and began to whisper in Ludo's ear.