He looked at Alia, not Cara, which was odd. Why else would he be here but to visit Cara? Alia began to ask him why when she noticed he wore a cloak. The remnants of the movie still floating in her head, she blurted, "You're him aren't you?"
"Him?" a voice, accented to her American ears, asked from the depths of the hood.
"Um...never mind," Alia answered, a little flustered. "Don't be ridiculous," she told herself. "It was just a movie. But he is wearing a cloak. Who wears a cloak these days?" She tried to explain herself to the stranger. "We were just watching a movie and when I looked up and saw you standing there in that cloak, it startled me. I just said the first thing that popped into my head. You reminded me of one of the characters, the Goblin King."
"Ah, I think I understand," he stepped further into the light, pulling back his hood and smiling. The light showed the deep blue color of the woolen cloak, not the black that she had first assumed. His blond hair shone a deeper gold than the Goblin King's in the light of the lamp and he wore it cut short, not long. "No, I am not the Goblin King."
"No, I see that now. It was just my imagination running away with me. So, who are you? Are you here to see Cara?"
"My name is Tieran and I am here to see you."
"Me? Why? How did you know I'd be here?"
"Yes, you. Where else would I find you? Cara is why," he said gesturing to her lying in the bed.
"What about her?" Alia stood and stepped closer to Cara's bed.
"She is dying, is she not?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah. So?"
"I believe I know how to help her."
"Yeah, and so did the doctors. Now she's just in here for tests, tests and more tests. What do you want to do to her?"
"I do not want to do anything to her. I told you I came here to see you. I need you to do something."
"Me? I can't do anything. Don't you think that if I could do something, I would?" Alia's voice quivered and she took a deep breath, trying to control herself. She always cried at the worst times and she vowed not to do it this time. "Why won't this quack just go away?" she thought angrily. "And why am I standing here talking to him? He shouldn't even be in here. Where's a nurse when you need one?"
"Quietly," he said softly. "You will wake her. You are right, you cannot do anything here. I need you to come with me and do something for me."
"Yeah, right. I wasn't born yesterday."
He shook his head in mild annoyance. "You misunderstand me."
"We'll see about that." She channeled her other emotions into defiance and anger.
"I need you to come with me to obtain something for me. I cannot go get it myself. Once you have it, you will be able to use it to help Cara."
"Why can't you get it yourself? What is 'it"? And why me and not someone else?"
"I would really rather not discuss it here. We could wake Cara or be disturbed by anyone walking in. You will not come with me first and let me explain?"
"Hell, no."
"I thought not." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "It is part of a prophecy. That is why it needs to be you. The prophecy says you must be the one to go on the quest and find 'it,' the fruit."
"What? It names me by name?"
"No, of course not." He smiled. "Prophecies never work that way. That would be too easy. No, they lie dormant until just the right time. Then someone, such as me, deciphers them just in time for someone else, such as you, to be drafted into service to fulfill them, usually with very little time to spare."
"So, how do you know it is me?"
"You fit the prophecy. You picked up the stone."
"The stone?"
"Yes, the 'rock' you found that changed colors."
"Oh, that. I thought you were talking about some Arthurian legend." Alia took the stone out of her pocket again. "This?"
"Yes. You have not ruined it, as you thought. It is red again, you see? The color changes with the light source."
"Okay, why did I need to pick up the stone?"
"You picked up the stone because you saw it on the ground, correct?" He looked up from the stone to Alia with a questioning glance.
She nodded for him to continue.
"So because you saw the stone you picked it up. But this particular stone comes from my world, therefore not everyone in your world can see it. You alone saw it and picked it up. Because you can see this stone you should be able to do other things, which I will explain to you later."
"Your world? My world? And if I'm the only one who can see it, why could Cara see it when I showed it to her earlier?"
"Because you picked it up and kept it? Perhaps somehow that makes it visible to anyone. Or perhaps, she would have been able to see it in any case. I do not know."
"What about your world versus my world?"
"My world… I believe you mentioned a movie earlier?"
"Yeah, it was called 'Labyrinth.' What about it?"
"That is a part of my world. As a whole we call it the Underground and the Labyrinth forms just a small part of it."
Alia sat down quickly. "All of that is real? It exists?"
"Yes. It does not exist within your world and it is not exactly as it appeared in the movie but, it does exist."
"You live there?" she asked in a small voice.
"Yes, I live near the kingdom of the Goblin King." He smiled. "That is where you will need to go to get the fruit. I cannot. I am not allowed to enter the Labyrinth or its surrounding lands. Even if I could reach the fruit, I still would not be able to take it. You can."
"So you are a criminal! I was right! Someone has a magical restraining order against you."
"No. That is the law for everyone. Jareth could not enter my home uninvited either."
"So you want me to come with you and go through the Labyrinth for you?"
"Yes. No. You do not need to go through the Labyrinth to get to the castle."
"The castle?!" she almost squeaked. "You want me to go to the castle? I'm supposed to walk up to the Goblin King – he's real, too, right?" The man nodded. "So I just walk up to the Goblin King and say 'Excuse me, do you have any fruit hanging around I can have?'"
"Quietly, you'll wake Cara. Of course not."
She lowered her voice, both in volume and pitch, "Then what am I supposed to do?"
"You will need to get into the castle, find the peach tree in the gardens, and take the peach from it. You may not even see Jareth." He tried to make light of the possibility.
Alia's outrage only grew. "So I don't even ask for it? I'm supposed to just take it? That's stealing! He's not going to notice someone stealing one of his peaches?"
"Two of his peaches, actually. I understand your point, but that is the way the prophecy says you are to do it."
"Two of them?! The prophecy says?" Alia threw her hands up in the air. "Oh, well, that's all right then, if the prophecy says that's the way I do it. Does the prophecy happen to mention what happens to me when he catches me and throws me in a dungeon, or an oubliette, or the Bog of Infernal Stench or whatever it is? I suppose the Bog exists as well?" She plowed on without waiting for an answer. "Can't we just write him a letter from a safe distance? 'Dear Sir or Madam, It has come to our attention that you have a tree with magic peaches on it. We would be grateful if you could send us two of them by return post. Thank you very much.'"
"No, we cannot write a letter. That is not the way it is done. It is necessary for you to go get it, to prove your worthiness, perhaps. And, yes, unfortunately the Bog does exist. But the word is Eternal not Infernal, though your way is just as appropriate. The prophecy does not say whether he catches you. I hope that means he does not."
"You hope? If I am the one who has to do this, then why are you even here? Other than for the pleasure of teasing me with this wonderful news. Why come to tell me? What's in it for you? And what's in it for me? You said it would help Cara. How?"
"The peaches will help Cara. Have you ever read any of the Chronicles of Narnia?"
Alia nodded, "That's the one with the lion, right?"
"Yes. Do you remember the story with the rings that take the children from this world to other worlds? Where Narnia is created?"
"Mm-hmm. And there was an evil witch."
"Yes. The boy was sent to get an apple from a tree to heal his mother. This is the same principle but, instead of an apple, it is a peach. The peaches from this tree have the power to heal as well as induce the hallucinations you saw in the movie."
"So that's what Cara gets out of it, and I get Cara, but what do you get? Why do you care about her? Why go to this trouble? Do I stop and pick up some item of power on the way back so you can take over the world?"
"Do that and I would send you back to Jareth. I am telling you because the very fact that there is a prophecy suggests that this is important to my world. Why would there be a prophecy if it was not important? The only other thing I want is the second peach."
"Why?"
He shrugged. "You never know what might be useful."
"How can I believe any of this?"
"If you do not believe, you stay here and things will continue on as they did before. Perhaps you will wonder 'What if?' for the rest of your life, perhaps not. If you do believe, two things could happen. On the one hand, it all could be true, and you will go on a quest and, if you succeed, do something very worthwhile."
"And if I don't succeed?"
"I cannot answer that any more than you can. I do not know what would happen to you. In the second case, if you believe and what I am telling you is not true, what is the worst that could happen?"
"The worst case scenario would be that you are a serial rapist, torturer, and murderer with a very creative cover story."
That stopped him a moment. "I would have said the result would probably be the same as if you did not believe at all, but without the 'What if?'. Still, the question is: What do you believe?"
Alia jumped up and paced across the room. "Ohh, I don't know! I hate making decisions. And this is such a big one."
Cara slept on, miraculously oblivious to the previous discussion, while Alia paced. Alia paused, turned, and asked, "Can I have some time to think about it?"
"The sooner you go, the sooner you can help Cara. Will it really make a difference in your decision if you take longer to debate it?"
"I don't know. I want to help Cara. I want to believe what you're telling me, but the possible consequences for being wrong in 'my world' can be serious."
"And you're afraid of being disappointed," she admitted only to herself.
"And I really don't want a firsthand experience of the Bog of Eternal Stench," she told him.
"Who does? What about a firsthand experience of the basis for the rest of the movie? It was not all stinking bogs, oubliettes, and trash heaps."
"There is that," Alia conceded, but she still looked dubious.
"You will not be completely alone. I will keep in contact with you. I am just not allowed to travel with you."
"Keeping in touch won't be much help if I get in trouble."
"I do not believe there will be much physical danger."
"Much? I'd be happier with none." Alia took a deep breath, then sighed. "Okay, I'll go."
Disclaimers, credits, and trivia:
Everything belongs to Jim.
The Chronicles of Narnia were written by C.S. Lewis. The book referred to is the sixth book of the series, titled The Magician's Nephew, if anyone was wondering.