Chapter Two

Come on, feet

For the last ten minutes Jareth had been humming that damn ballroom song. And his voice, though it was irritating her to hear the song again, was making her want him. She cringed at the thought and drove it away.

"If you want to drive me insane could you do it in some other fashion?" she asked.

"Don't like my singing?" he laughed.

"No," she said "your singing is great. Just don't sing that song."

"Ah," he said, understanding now "I see. You don't like my songs."

"Not all of them no," she sighed and he thought a moment.

"I've been meaning to ask you about the ballroom experience," he brought up.

"In the cave," she insisted "I don't think I can handle being dropped again." Jareth laughed at this. "It's not funny!"

"I'm sorry," he chuckled, trying to keep himself from laughing more "it's just, you have this weird idea that I will be surprised by anything you do."

"Why is that funny?" she asked.

"Your very predictable," he pointed out "you get in trouble, you call for help. Well, all other times you had OTHER people to call on. In a situation such as this, you did not. So who did you call?"

"I don't think you understand that I was calling out randomly," she grumbled.

"I don't think YOU understand," he laughed again "you think your thoughts are concealed from me, well there not."

"Well would you not do that?" she asked rolling her eyes. They didn't say anything for a moment and Sarah backtracked her memory. She couldn't have been thinking of calling Jareth, could she? Alright, she said 'someone save me' and then... oh damn. She did call him. She had him in mind, at least.

"See?" he asked.

"Didn't I just ask you not to read my thoughts?" she asked.

"Let me put it to you this way," he said "if you could read people's thoughts, would you not bother doing it, just because it's not polite?"

"I guess I would," she admitted "but it doesn't mean you have to do it to me."

"But see," he explained "you're the most confusing person I've met, so naturally I'm going to want to figure you out."

"How am I confusing?" she asked.

"Normally," he started, stepping around rocks and overgrown roots "well, let's say we have a normal woman, alright? Well, let's say she wants a man, ok? Well, normally she acts like she doesn't want him around him, so it attracts him. And once she knows she's got him hooked, she shows that she's attracted."

"Two things," Sarah started "one, what does this have to do with me being confusing, and two, you have had WAY to much time on your hands if you understand women Jareth."

"Because," he laughed "someone will show interest in you, but you still push them away, even if you're attracted."

"I'm done," she sighed and wriggled out of his arms.

"Hit a nerve?" he asked.

"No," she lied "I just don't think I need to go through this. Thank you for helping me so far Jareth, but this is all I can take." He laughed.

"What are you going to do?" he asked laughing "hop?"

"If I have to," she grumbled.

"First sign of you struggling and your going right back into these arms," he warned and she gave a crooked smile.

"More reason to not struggle," she teased and he sighed, disappearing. "Come on feet, er, foot. It's not that far." Two minutes later Sarah found herself leaning on a near by tree. There was no way she was going to be able to hop a quarter of a mile. A yowl was let out somewhere near by and Sarah froze.

The wolves couldn't have come back, could they? Howls confirmed that they were closing in. Sarah panicked and looked around for something to fend them off with. Nothing. "I could use those arms right about now," she grumbled sarcastically. Nothing. Ok, so no weapon, no Jareth. Alright. Now what was she going to do? The howls drew closer and Sarah was beginning to get that pit in her stomach. Her mind wandered, thinking about all that could happen.

A large gray wolf stepped out of the brush. Others followed, eyes gleaming green in the light of the moon. "Jareth," Sarah said worriedly. Still nothing. Was he going to let her die?! "Come on Jareth," she said, voice cracking "I need saving now." The beasts circled her, mouths foaming. The largest leaped forward, mouth wide open coming inches to Sarah's arm. But Jareth appeared between the two, exactly when the beast bit down.

Sarah fell backwards, but watched as Jareth tossed a crystal into the woods, the creatures following. She let out a relived sigh, and then caught gimps of his arm.