(Author's note: Sorry for the long wait! I hope chapter thirteen is to your liking, being Jareth's favourite number and all. It feels so good to put him in chapters, I hate it when he misses out :p Apologies for the forthcoming shortness and slowness since extreme lack of time - DFQ xx)
Chapter XIII
"What're you doing?"
The day had decided to draw to a close and Sarah was watching Lynden from her place on the bank of the pool. Her friend was standing waist deep in the steady current that was churned by a frothing waterfall, her liquid eyelids closed and her hands lost beneath the surface.
"The water is so pure here," Lynden said. "The Labyrinth is clearer than ever. I can feel so many emotions. It feels...amazing." She raised her arms out of the water and looked at Sarah, who was stifling a yawn. "I think you should take Ludo's advice." She nodded at the slumbering beast further inland. "Go get some rest. I don't need sleep. I can keep watch."
Sarah agreed and got to her feet. She paused in her movement towards the middle of the clearing.
"Pterelas said he would come with us to the Goblin City," she said, receiving an acknowledging bob of the head. She smiled at Lynden then she walked into the glade.
The rock dragon lay motionless beside Ludo's snoring bulk, the pair seeming ever the more docile among the colourful flowers that gleamed in the dimming light. Sarah stretched out on the grass between them and was shortly accompanying them in sleep.
Lynden resumed her exploration of the river's secrets, allowing the current to drift them through her, to merge with her. So many pleasant memories and a few tearful ones, none of them her own, absorbed into her knowledge. Lives of the oblivious and innocent inhabitants of the Underground, the humour and frivolous nature of goblins caused her to tingle with laughter.
She felt the water grow warmer and the tingling increase. The emotions became more vivid, the river flowed faster, the sentiments much stronger. Still the temperature rose, just below an uncomfortable heat as Lynden envisioned the changes in the Labyrinth. She twitched violently, a burning sensation spreading through her arms.
Something was wrong. The pictures in her mind became a myriad of flickering images, too fast and distressing to understand. Feelings of intense anger and pain, feelings she did own but were not nearly so powerful, flowed into her limbs with the heat that was now unbearable. The Labyrinth itself cowered. She could sense it, like a trembling creature, it writhed in self-pity. Now the images were taken over by a sole vision of blazing orange. Her inner sight was clogged with smoke and her fingers stung. Fire!
Lynden tore herself from the water network of information and whirled around to see the figure that stood behind her, the soles of his boots resting lightly on the river's surface.
"Lynden," he said solemnly, staring through her as though she were glass. "Can you smell something burning?"
She did not allow herself the time to wreak a long-awaited vengeance or her hatred upon her king. Turning to look over her shoulder, Lynden observed a curl of smoke rising above the treetops. Without a second thought, she had leapt out of the water and was running into the forest.
Jareth traced the calming waters with each foot crossing ahead of the other until he reached the bank. The amusement he would normally have shown at his own devious trickery was absent; his gaze distinctly colder, black streaks of mascara bleeding from his eyes. He walked into the clearing, treading carefully into the midst of the sleeping friends.
Passing the rock dragon coolly, he stopped alongside the smaller beast that had been his former prisoner. Unwavering in his expression, the Goblin King produced a crystal inside his cloak, less glittering than it once was, and let it slither from his sleeve in the form of a serpent.
The snake wound through the grass towards the resting beast and tightened about his throat. Ludo convulsed in his sleep but lay still again when the viper faded against his fur.
Keeping himself hidden behind his material shroud, Jareth turned his attention to the young woman nearby.
* * * *
Lynden squinted in the smoke and cursed. There was no sign of any flames and there was no evidence of destruction. Nothing scorched save for the remains of the old methis plants. She scanned the ground and noticed a colony of small, rabbit-like creatures. Each one coughed out a cloud of sullied steam. A diversion.
A look of horrific realisation crossed Lynden's face.
"Sarah..."
She bolted back through the jungle.
* * * *
The Goblin King knelt beside Sarah, taking in every detail that was visible of her mortal being. Her cheeks were flecked with the traces of dirt she had omitted when she had bathed in the river. Her worn clothes were damp; she had not dared to strip in a place that was so watched. This instilled his admiration for her as well as the maddening hunger.
Jareth leant forward and allowed his cloak to part from his chest, at once revealing a crude streak of red beneath the unbuttoned half of his shirt - a wound that was poorly disguised by his pendant. His emotionless façade was interrupted for the brief moment his collar brushed the cut and he winced.
"Sarah, my Sarah," he whispered as the tips of his gloved fingers hovered thoughtfully near her pale, white throat.
She appeared so innocent, so uncorrupted, but he knew better. There were few who could deceive him. He shivered strangely, his hand clawed, poised like a deciding talon.
"Do you not know how easily I could extinguish you? So simple..." He brushed her cheekbones with a feather-light touch. "Could I do that? Snap your delicate little neck and leave you here for your friends to find? Maybe then you would cease to torment me."
Once again he gritted his teeth in pain. He drew his finger across the fresh cut and applied it to the side of her face, painting a symbol in his own blood. Then he leant back on his heels and watched her. It could only have been for a few minutes that he stared at Sarah, in the way that a child would, yet somehow his injury managed to seal and had already become a scar.
"I won't let you leave," he said, breaking himself from his trance.
It was just as he leant forward to kiss her that Lynden stumbled back into the clearing and sighted him.
"Get off her! Sarah!" she yelled.
The rock dragon and the beast woke. Sarah sat up as Jareth shimmered out of visibility. Lynden rushed over to her, doing her best to put an aqueous, comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Sarah, are you okay? Jareth, he was-."
"I know," Sarah replied vacantly.
Then she lay back down and fell asleep.
Chapter XIII
"What're you doing?"
The day had decided to draw to a close and Sarah was watching Lynden from her place on the bank of the pool. Her friend was standing waist deep in the steady current that was churned by a frothing waterfall, her liquid eyelids closed and her hands lost beneath the surface.
"The water is so pure here," Lynden said. "The Labyrinth is clearer than ever. I can feel so many emotions. It feels...amazing." She raised her arms out of the water and looked at Sarah, who was stifling a yawn. "I think you should take Ludo's advice." She nodded at the slumbering beast further inland. "Go get some rest. I don't need sleep. I can keep watch."
Sarah agreed and got to her feet. She paused in her movement towards the middle of the clearing.
"Pterelas said he would come with us to the Goblin City," she said, receiving an acknowledging bob of the head. She smiled at Lynden then she walked into the glade.
The rock dragon lay motionless beside Ludo's snoring bulk, the pair seeming ever the more docile among the colourful flowers that gleamed in the dimming light. Sarah stretched out on the grass between them and was shortly accompanying them in sleep.
Lynden resumed her exploration of the river's secrets, allowing the current to drift them through her, to merge with her. So many pleasant memories and a few tearful ones, none of them her own, absorbed into her knowledge. Lives of the oblivious and innocent inhabitants of the Underground, the humour and frivolous nature of goblins caused her to tingle with laughter.
She felt the water grow warmer and the tingling increase. The emotions became more vivid, the river flowed faster, the sentiments much stronger. Still the temperature rose, just below an uncomfortable heat as Lynden envisioned the changes in the Labyrinth. She twitched violently, a burning sensation spreading through her arms.
Something was wrong. The pictures in her mind became a myriad of flickering images, too fast and distressing to understand. Feelings of intense anger and pain, feelings she did own but were not nearly so powerful, flowed into her limbs with the heat that was now unbearable. The Labyrinth itself cowered. She could sense it, like a trembling creature, it writhed in self-pity. Now the images were taken over by a sole vision of blazing orange. Her inner sight was clogged with smoke and her fingers stung. Fire!
Lynden tore herself from the water network of information and whirled around to see the figure that stood behind her, the soles of his boots resting lightly on the river's surface.
"Lynden," he said solemnly, staring through her as though she were glass. "Can you smell something burning?"
She did not allow herself the time to wreak a long-awaited vengeance or her hatred upon her king. Turning to look over her shoulder, Lynden observed a curl of smoke rising above the treetops. Without a second thought, she had leapt out of the water and was running into the forest.
Jareth traced the calming waters with each foot crossing ahead of the other until he reached the bank. The amusement he would normally have shown at his own devious trickery was absent; his gaze distinctly colder, black streaks of mascara bleeding from his eyes. He walked into the clearing, treading carefully into the midst of the sleeping friends.
Passing the rock dragon coolly, he stopped alongside the smaller beast that had been his former prisoner. Unwavering in his expression, the Goblin King produced a crystal inside his cloak, less glittering than it once was, and let it slither from his sleeve in the form of a serpent.
The snake wound through the grass towards the resting beast and tightened about his throat. Ludo convulsed in his sleep but lay still again when the viper faded against his fur.
Keeping himself hidden behind his material shroud, Jareth turned his attention to the young woman nearby.
* * * *
Lynden squinted in the smoke and cursed. There was no sign of any flames and there was no evidence of destruction. Nothing scorched save for the remains of the old methis plants. She scanned the ground and noticed a colony of small, rabbit-like creatures. Each one coughed out a cloud of sullied steam. A diversion.
A look of horrific realisation crossed Lynden's face.
"Sarah..."
She bolted back through the jungle.
* * * *
The Goblin King knelt beside Sarah, taking in every detail that was visible of her mortal being. Her cheeks were flecked with the traces of dirt she had omitted when she had bathed in the river. Her worn clothes were damp; she had not dared to strip in a place that was so watched. This instilled his admiration for her as well as the maddening hunger.
Jareth leant forward and allowed his cloak to part from his chest, at once revealing a crude streak of red beneath the unbuttoned half of his shirt - a wound that was poorly disguised by his pendant. His emotionless façade was interrupted for the brief moment his collar brushed the cut and he winced.
"Sarah, my Sarah," he whispered as the tips of his gloved fingers hovered thoughtfully near her pale, white throat.
She appeared so innocent, so uncorrupted, but he knew better. There were few who could deceive him. He shivered strangely, his hand clawed, poised like a deciding talon.
"Do you not know how easily I could extinguish you? So simple..." He brushed her cheekbones with a feather-light touch. "Could I do that? Snap your delicate little neck and leave you here for your friends to find? Maybe then you would cease to torment me."
Once again he gritted his teeth in pain. He drew his finger across the fresh cut and applied it to the side of her face, painting a symbol in his own blood. Then he leant back on his heels and watched her. It could only have been for a few minutes that he stared at Sarah, in the way that a child would, yet somehow his injury managed to seal and had already become a scar.
"I won't let you leave," he said, breaking himself from his trance.
It was just as he leant forward to kiss her that Lynden stumbled back into the clearing and sighted him.
"Get off her! Sarah!" she yelled.
The rock dragon and the beast woke. Sarah sat up as Jareth shimmered out of visibility. Lynden rushed over to her, doing her best to put an aqueous, comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Sarah, are you okay? Jareth, he was-."
"I know," Sarah replied vacantly.
Then she lay back down and fell asleep.