A/N: WOW I updated! Amazing, no? this chapter, I'm afraid to admit, is short and not much humor. Who knows, it might not be humorous, at least not obviously anymore. You might have to search for the humor, because it's there, subtly. Anywho, enjoy and have fun!

Disclaimer: Don't own Labyrinth. NYEH.

Chapter 2: Close Encounters

Crazy; one word with such an incredible impact on the life of someone if it had been uttered within earshot of the target spoken of. Sarah, unfortunately, was quite familiar with the word and disliked it greatly. In fact, if she thought back on it, she could clearly remember her step-mother often reminding her father of just how "crazy" his daughter was, perhaps even bordering on insane. She closed her eyes, silently banishing the memories. As much as she hated the word, it oddly enough seemed fitting for the creatures she had just escaped from, hiding up in a tree in the Fiery forest, if it was even called that. She held her breath as the incredibly large furry versions of what she could only hope was a cross of dragon and hyenas ran directly beneath her hiding spot and continued down the foggy path, shouting obscenities and insults in another language, letting it out slowly after seeing them disappear within the mist. She closed her tired eyes and rested her perspiring forehead against the cool bark of the ancient gnarled tree, willing her heart to calm down so she might be able to breathe normally once again. For hours she had been running, if not to escape the dragon-hyena hybrids, then some other odd creature. Hours of running non-stop, only to find that she was barely even to the castle. She sighed in frustration, realizing a bit too late that she had found herself in a completely new part of the maze. It resembled the hedge maze, but it also seemed to have melted halfway into the Fiery Forest, as if frozen in the middle of morphing. It was certainly disorienting.

As her heart rate calmed down, she leaned over the edge of the rather large tree limb and peeked from beneath the canopy of leaves, silken tresses hanging below her as she looked about as if to make sure the coast was clear. With a large sigh of relief, she righted herself again and slowly made her way down, landing on the packed forest floor with a soft thud. She brushed her jeans off absently and looked about her, seeing three paths she might take. Finger to her bottom lip in thought, she turned slowly; inspecting each pathway, including the one she just came from. No, she thought, not that one. It might lead her back to those creatures, or worse yet, the faeries that attacked her at the pond three hours ago, just outside of the large stone maze. She scuffed the dirt beneath her shoe slightly as she chose one of the less attractive paths, debris and plants littering the ground. As she continued walking, memories began resurfacing of her last visit, and as if of their own accord, her memories drifted towards a certain Goblin King. Her brow furrowed. Nearly five hours later and she had yet to see one strand of hair on his head, let alone one of his crystals. This thought disturbed Sarah greatly, the aforementioned girl grimacing as she pulled a rather sticky spider web out of her hair, the webbing glistening with some inner light that could only be described akin to being droplets of water tied together.

As she wiped the sticky substance off onto a nearby tree, she noticed that a rather large iridescent dragonfly sort of faerie had landed on the back of her hand, preening its wings and fussing over its antennae-like hair. Whether from shock or fear, Sarah's entire body froze as the little creature turned, dancing lightly across the skin of her hand, before looking up at her and giggling. Within the blink of an eye, the little dragon-faerie flew up to meet Sarah's lips, brushing her own tiny mouth across the human's, causing Sarah to jerk back and gasp, her world suddenly spinning. Eyes shut tightly, the woman staggered backwards and her backside met up with the rough bark of a tree, her suddenly numb body sliding down to meet the dirt. The faerie merely giggled mischievously and blew Sarah a kiss before flying off, disappearing into the mist, hopefully never to be seen again. Vaguely she remembered once being in this very position before, sprawled out on the forest floor and disoriented beyond belief, but the only exception was that she had no peach this time to cause these symptoms. Stars danced before her eyes as she lazily opened them, trying in vain to focus on some sort of branch dangling before her face, only to half-realize that it was tangled in her hair. She pushed at it sluggishly and grunted lightly when she realized that it hadn't budged a single inch and she let out a breath, having to close her eyes lest she start getting nauseous from the world spinning before her very eyes.

Her entire body tingled yet she couldn't feel the wind that suddenly picked up, or the leaves idly falling into her hair from the tree above her. Was this what it felt like to die? Panic gripped her so suddenly that she tried to cry out, only resulting in a sort of gurgling sound from her vain efforts to move. Finally she gave up and fell victim to the alien sensations running through her body and a single tear trickled down her cheek, showing her sudden defeat. She didn't even hear the footsteps that approached her or the concerned voice call out to her, trying to coax a response from her. Slowly, the voice, growing more urgent by the second, drifted into her foggy consciousness, causing a spark of familiarity to flare within her mind. Brow furrowing, Sarah slowly opened her eyes, looking at a strangely familiar pair of boots not even two feet away from her. Her gaze drifted upwards slowly, over lean thighs and slim torso, before finally meeting the Goblin King's concerned gaze.

Jareth sighed as he crouched before the girl, trying to assess the situation and handle it in the best way possible. He gripped her chin and sighed in annoyance when she tried to fight him, lifting her face away from his hand and moving her head to lean back against the tree, eyes shutting tightly as her vision swam horribly, letting out a small groan. Without missing a beat, he gripped her chin again and turned it this way and that, fully looking her over. "Sarah…" She didn't respond, merely drawing her eyebrows together and pursing her lips, her hands flailing slowly about. His gaze suddenly drawn to her lips, he noticed the small blisters forming on her bottom lip, suspiciously looking very much like a small kiss. Immediately he knew what was wrong with her.

A small creature in his kingdom called the Ug-Nabiath; a malevolent little Faerie resembling a dragonfly who liked to cause nothing but mischief wherever it went, which tended to leave humans in a sort of drug-induced state from a mere kiss. Unfortunately, the species had no idea of the effect it had on humans so what was usually considered an innocent act of affection was indeed an almost fatal action to be done.

Jareth immediately summoned a crystal, sighing deeply and murmuring as he put the orb into her relaxed hand, "After all that I do for you, and you still think of me as a monster." He shook his head and mumbled a spell beneath his breath, causing the crystal to glow eerily then disappear into her skin, the spell weaving its way throughout her bloodstream to reverse the effects that the Ug-Nabiath had left behind. Five minutes later Sarah's eyes fluttered open and Jareth looked into her eyes, letting out a breath of relief when he saw them slowly clear to their natural state. Good. She was out of danger now. He leaned back on his haunches as she finally became aware of her surroundings, her eyes widening as she took in his form, and just how close he was.

Sarah stuttered, "What… What happened?"

Muwahahaha. A cliffie! Heh sorry about that folks, but I thought it best to leave their chitchat for another chapter. Review and tell me what you thought of this chapter, please? Thankies!

-Niffers