Alia woke mid afternoon, stifled and hot, with the woolen blanket over her head. She untangled herself and found herself bruised and sore from sleeping on a few well placed rocks and the long walk of the day before. With a great deal of groaning and suffering she washed her face in the stream then sat down again next to her pack and started looking through it for the first aid kit.
"Tieran, that kit with the bandages and stuff in it that you packed, does it have aspirin in it?"
"Aspirin?"
"Yeah, I'm so sore I can barely move. Did you pack anything that helps that?"
"Yes, there is a bark in there that should help you."
"No convenient pills?"
"No, you will need to make a tea from it."
"Ohhh," she groaned, "that means I have to get up and get wood for a fire again. At least there are matches." Slowly, painfully, Alia got up, gathered wood and built a fire. She put some water on and then looked through the first aid kit again, Tieran helping her identify what and how much she needed.
As she watched the water, waiting for it to boil, she thought to herself, "As long as I have the fire I might as well make myself a decent breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Whatever." Looking through the satchel she found more oatmeal and, to her surprise, more fruit, this time something similar to purple strawberries.
"Okay, Tieran, what's with the bag? I keep finding fruit in it and I am almost positive that there wasn't any left in it after yesterday morning. How's it getting in the satchel? I thought you couldn't do magic because Jareth would catch you?"
"I am not doing any magic. The satchel has held the fruit and many other things all along."
"So why isn't it squashed?" She thought she had him there.
"It is not always there in the bag. There is a possibility of it being there each time you reach in. It is stored in a pocket in another dimension."
"So I can eat anything I want, as long as it is in there?"
"Yes, whatever you like. Whatever you think of or expect, it will provide the closest item it has."
"You mean, I've been eating dried fruit because that is what I expected? How did I get the fresh fruit? I wasn't expecting that."
"You must have thought about it."
"Then I'm getting something better than oatmeal for breakfast." Deciding on more fruit, some muffins and croissants, she drank the tea and cleaned up. She would have liked waffles or pancakes, but thought that might be pushing things. Whether from the food, the tea, or just moving around and loosening up, she was feeling better already.
She checked to make sure she had completely extinguished the fire. "Wouldn't want to fulfill the prophecy by burning down half the Underground, now would we?" Picking her way across the stream, she continued northward through the last remnants of the foothills.
As she crested the last hill between herself and the desert she found to her amazement that the desert had not been blue with the distance, but was in fact blue by nature, the pale silvery blue of a sky suffused with a dusty haze. She could not see where the desert ended and the sky began.
"It's blue!" "Tieran, did you know the desert's blue?"
Tieran popped her bubble. "Yes, of course. That is why they call it the Desert of the Sky. You have reached it then?"
"I'm standing on the last hill," Alia confirmed.
"Look to the northern horizon. You should be able to see a spire."
"Is that the castle? Either it is bigger than I thought or it's a lot closer than I thought."
"Remember, it sits on a high cliff. That allows you to see it at a further distance."
"Well, I can see it, now what?"
"If you want to reach the oasis you will need to aim a little to the east of the spire. Start walking and I will try to correct you as you go."
Alia half walked, half slid down the steep hill to the desert floor. As she approached, the heat reflected back up at her with increasing intensity. She struck out across the desert, aiming just east of north, as the afternoon waned.
The sun went down and the temperature of the air above the sand started to drop soon after, as the sand released the last of its absorbed heat. The moon rose, turning the sand even more silver.
The hours passed and Alia made occasional course corrections at Tieran's guidance, a little more east, a little more west. All the dunes looked the same, up one side, down the other; she felt as though she walked nowhere, climbing the same dune over and over.
After midnight, she discerned a dark smudge against the silver of the sand on the horizon directly in front of her, but it refused to grow larger and more distinct as she traveled.
Suddenly, the smudge appeared much larger and closer, allowing her to pick out the individual trees. Alia was entering among the palms, when an apparition manifested itself in front of her. After a second look, Alia found herself confronted, not by a ghost, but by a scarecrow of a genie, trying to look threatening.
On his tall, thin frame he wore an oversized vest and undersized pants. He had put his genie's cap, also several sizes too big, on at a lopsided angle, but despite this it still slid down over both ears. He wore genie slippers with turned up toes, but even these were defective and too long. He looked as though he had cobbled his entire costume together from remnants that no other genie wanted.
"No one may approach who does not know the password," he boomed in a deep voice meant to be imposing, but when contrasted with his appearance only achieved ludicrous.
"Password? What is this? Arabian nights?"
"No one may enter without the password," he boomed, continuing with the charade.
"So what is this, a private oasis? It's not like you get many customers going to or from the Labyrinth through the desert. Okay, I'll play along. How about 'Open Sesame?'"
"Invalid password."
"Alakazam?"
"Invalid –" his voice broke and squeaked, "–password."
"Don't I get a hint?"
"I can't give you a hint, they'd fire me," he continued in a goofy voice fitting his appearance. "And this is the last place that would give me a job. You have to have the password or I can't let you in."
"Oh, come on! We're out in the middle of nowhere. Who'll know?"
"They'll know, they'll know."
"Well, I haven't the slightest idea and I don't have to get into the oasis, so I'll just be on my way." Alia started walking.
"But you can't pass without the word!"
"I have a whole desert to go around it in," Alia said, gesturing with her arm. "I don't need to pass through."
"But...but... That's not the way it's supposed to work. This isn't the way it is done."
"It's the way I'm doing it." Alia kept walking determinedly and waved him off. "You've done your job. I'm not using the oasis without the password. They can't fire you. Don't worry about it."
"But...can't you stay and visit?" he whined.
"Visit? What for?"
"I'm lonely."
"I don't have time to hang around. I'm not walking across a desert for the heck of it, you know."
"Oh, come on. We could play a game! Or tell stories! Or riddles! I know some riddles, listen – what has four wheels and flies?"
"A garbage truck, or I guess around here it might be a garbage wagon. No, I'm not staying."
"How about this one? What did the duck say to the waiter?"
"Put it on my bill," Alia answered in spite of herself. "Go away. Leave me alone."
"Okay, okay, those were easy ones. What about What's black and white and red all over?"
"A zebra with a sunburn, or a skunk with a sunburn, or a penguin with a sunburn, or a newspaper. Where did you get these things?"
"Boy you're good. Here's my hardest one: What's black and white and black and white and black and white and green?"
"What? I have no idea. What is black and white and black and white and black and white and green?"
"Ha, got you! It's three skunks fighting over a pickle," he was very pleased with himself. Alia groaned. "This is fun. Okay, now you ask me one."
"Oh, come on," Alia groaned. "Will you just leave me alone?"
"Ask me one! Ask me one! I'm ready!"
"I might as well be talking to myself," Alia muttered and kept walking. "If I tell you one, will you leave me alone?"
"Ohh, okay," he agreed grudgingly, "I suppose."
Alia racked her brains trying to think of a riddle, any riddle. She had not played with them since she was a child. She thought of one about bears at the North Pole, then discarded it. "No, that wouldn't be fair. He might not know about the North Pole." She thought some more, all the while the genie clamored at her side for his riddle. "Would you be quiet? I'm trying to think."
"Tieran, do you know any riddles? I have an annoying genie following me, begging for a riddle. He won't leave me alone until he gets one and I can't think of any."
"A riddle? Hmm... How about:
It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter."
"I've heard that somewhere before."
"It is an old one here. Most know it or have heard it."
"What is it? Darkness?"
"Yes."
She asked the genie the riddle and had him stumped.
"Ooohh, that's a hard one. Let me think about it." He continued floating along beside her as she walked. By this time she was well past the oasis and heading for the open desert again.
"Don't you need to be guarding the oasis?"
"Oh, I can tell when someone is coming, don't worry," he assured her brightly.
"I wasn't worried, I just wanted to get rid of you," Alia thought to herself. "Have you thought of the answer yet?" she asked with a sigh.
"No," he pulled a long face. "Give me a hint?"
"You didn't give me any hints."
"Oh, all right. Can I have the answer then?"
"It's darkness. Now will you please go?"
"Okay." He looked hurt and vanished.
"Finally," Alia sighed with relief and continued walking.
Disclaimers, credits, and trivia:
Labyrinth, etc. belong to the Jim Henson Company.
The satchel idea isn't mine. It comes from a really good book by Meredith Ann Pierce called The Darkangel.
Tara/Dreamin' gave me the pickle riddle, which I had never heard before. Thank you. The Darkness riddle I found in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Did he make it up or is it older than that? The other riddles I've just heard here and there.