She was sitting, removing sand from her boots for the umpteenth time, and admiring the sunrise, when the genie popped back in next to her. "Oh, not again," she thought as she put her head down on her knees.
"I remembered something. Since I couldn't figure out your riddle you get a wish. Anything you want."
"Anything I want?" she asked and then thought to herself, "What I really want is for him to leave me alone." As she watched the sand pour from her boot, her more practical side kicked in. "I need something for all this sand and I need to move faster. Transportation. A camel? No, I've heard they're hard to handle. A horse? Definitely more exciting and at least I've ridden one once or twice. Might as well enjoy myself."
"Can you give me a horse? A desert horse? A healthy one please, not one that looks like it's on its last legs. And one that a rider with very little experience can handle. Oh, and please don't forget the bridle and saddle – I'll need them, too."
"I know just the thing. Watch." He turned, crossed his arms and stared at a patch of sand.
"If he blinks and nods, I can't be responsible for my actions," she thought.
As he stared at the sand a whirlwind began to form and the sand rose in a cloud, growing denser and denser without a breeze even stirring her hair. As she watched, it started to solidify and take shape. Soon she could discern the form of a horse the size of a chicken.
"Very impressive, but I'll need a horse larger than that, please."
"Wait, it'll grow." And indeed it did begin to grow, the vortex pulling in more sand. It reached the size of a normal horse and then began to gain detail, growing a mane, a saddle, a bridle, and other fancy trappings. As the vortex died and the last of the sand fell back to the dunes, the horse tossed its head and neighed.
"If you can do things like this I don't see why anyone won't give you a job."
"Aww, it was nothing," he said, embarrassed. "Most genies can do it faster and some of them don't even need to use sand."
Alia walked over to the horse and caught its head. "He's beautiful," she said, looking into the horse's intelligent eyes. The horse's coat shone a deep blue black in the light of the sunrise, with a mane and tail that faded to a blue-silver paler than the sand he had been created from. The tack ranged from leather that matched the color of his coat to a deep cobalt blue velvet with silver trimmings.
"Is he a normal horse? He won't fall back to sand after a day or once he leaves the desert will he?"
"Nah, he's a horse now. A little smarter, a little faster, and a little more endurance than normal, but a horse."
"That's wonderful."
"I did good, didn't I?"
"Yes, you did great. Thank you very much. This is a big help," she said as she impulsively gave the genie a hug. Then she walked back over to the horse again and looked at it. She turned back to the genie, "Um, can I ask for one more thing? Could I have a leg up?"
"Sure that's easy." He helped her into the saddle.
"Thanks, I never could get on a horse easily. Does he have a name?"
"No. You get to pick one – he's your horse."
"Hmm... I'll have to think about it. You'd better get back to your oasis."
"All right. Come back to visit me, okay?"
"If I ever come this way again I'll try, all right? No promises. I might not even be back."
"Oh, I'm sure you will. Bye. Good luck. Bye." He continued calling to Alia as she rode away for as long as she could hear him.
Alia rode for some distance before contacting Tieran again, getting used to riding again, even daring a gallop in an area where the desert leveled to a flat plain with no dunes. There must have been magic in the saddle, for she had no problems keeping her seat, not even jostling when trotting as she usually did.
"What shall I call you? I can't just go on calling you Horse. You're the color of the night sky, midnight blue, and your mane reminds me of moonlight and starlight. How about Night." The horse tossed his head, seemingly in assent. "Then it's official. Time to check in with Tieran."
"Tieran? How much farther do I have to go?"
"You are just beyond halfway across the desert. Why did you notstop at the oasis?"
"I didn't have the password. That's where the genie came from. When I approached, he showed up and wanted a password. I didn't have it, of course, and didn't feel like waiting around. You said I didn't need to stop there anyway, so I kept walking. That's when the genie started following me and wanted to play a riddle game. That riddle you gave me stumped him and I got him to leave. Thanks."
"You are very welcome."
"Then he came back and offered me a wish, so I got a horse to ride. No more sand in my boots. But I was kind of rude to him before and I'm starting to feel bad about it now."
"What will you do with it?"
"Do with what?"
"The horse."
"Um, ride it? What else would I do with it?"
"And what will you do with it when you get to the cliff, for example?"
"Oh." Alia was crestfallen. "I hadn't thought that far ahead. I could turn him loose, I suppose, but that seems so cruel, both to the horse and the genie – he was so proud of what he made."
"I cannot help you, Alia. I cannot take the horse and care for it," Tieran reminded Alia. "Jareth would notice the magic."
Alia agreed, "No, I know, I wasn't even going to ask. Do you think I could contact the genie like I do you? I could ask him to keep an eye on Night if I don't come back soon. He might not even do that after I was so mean and rude to him before."
"You should be able to contact him. You will not know until you ask him."
"I guess I won't. I don't have his name though. I never asked for it. How do I call to him without his name?"
"Think of him and you should be able to find him."
Alia thought hard about the genie, about his oversized hat, his trailing vest, his comic shoes. "Genie, can you hear me? I need to ask you something. Can you answer me?"
"Sure, I can hear you." Alia nearly fell off the horse, despite the saddle, when the genie popped in next to her so unexpectedly. "That's a neat trick. Where'd you learn to do that?"
"A ...a friend showed me." Alia stammered. "When did Tieran go from a stranger with the directions to a friend?" she asked herself.
"I need to ask you about Night, I mean the horse. I have to cross the desert and, eventually, I will need to climb a cliff. A horse can't do that. Could you please watch him until I come back? Keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't get in trouble, make sure he finds enough to eat?"
"Mmm, I don't know. You already got your wish fair and square. I'm not supposed to help you more than that."
"Well, really it's helping the horse, isn't it? And I'll do something for you if you want and I can," Alia offered. "That would just be a trade, not help. What do you want me to do? More riddles?"
"Ooohh, riddles." He looked tempted.
"And it wouldn't interfere with your oasis guard. You could even bring him back to the oasis. Animals don't have to have the password do they?"
"Nooo, but I don't know. It still sounds like it would get me in trouble."
"It's a simple barter. I give you riddles, you take care of Night."
He still looked as if he did not like the idea. Alia had an inspiration and reined in Night in a valley between two dunes.
"What if the horse wandered back to the oasis? You would be able to keep an eye on him then, wouldn't you?" Alia felt she was onto something.
"Yeah," he answered, but he sounded unsure.
"And then, when and if I come back through the oasis I can trade for the horse if I have time. Would that work? We wouldn't be breaking any rules then would we?"
"No, I guess not," he answered hesitantly, not sure what he was committing himself to.
"Wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate this very much. I really like the horse, I've named him and everything, and I am really very grateful for you giving him to me. I don't want him to get hurt or starve. I don't know what there will be for him to eat out here. I'm sure he would thank you, too, if he could." Alia's babble ran out of steam. "You'd better hurry back before your employers miss you. Who employs you anyway?"
"The ruler of the desert. I've never met him."
"Oh," hitting a conversational dead-end she paused awkwardly, not knowing what else to say. "Um, well. I'll try to be back soon. Thanks again." The genie disappeared and she turned Night and urged him up the dune face to the north.
"That went well. Do you suppose it is part of the destiny of the prophecy that everyone helps me? I seem to be getting unusually lucky on this trip. Not only doesn't the dragon eat me, she gives me a ride. The genie gives me a horse and then agrees to keep it for me despite my bad manners."
"Yes, you have been lucky," Tieran said wearily.
"I guess the heroes always are in these sorts of stories. You said I was over halfway across the desert. I wonder how long that will take on Night? Maybe I can make it before I have to stop," Alia babbled mentally at Tieran. "I'm getting kind of tired, though. You must be, too. I've talked to you off and on all night."
"I am a little tired."
"You could sleep. Since I can see the spire clearly now you don't have to guide me. I'll only call if I really need you."
"If you are certain you will not need me?" He sounded reluctant to leave her unsupervised.
"Nope. Night and I got it covered for now," Alia answered confidently.
"Call for me when you reach the edge of the desert."
"I will," Alia responded and felt Tieran leave. "Okay, since you're supposed to be smarter than the average horse, in case I fall asleep, let me show you where we're going. See that spire on the horizon?"
The horse nodded his head emphatically. Alia hoped it wasn't just a coincidence.
"That spire is where I need to go. Just keep heading for it."
Another head toss.
"Are you really understanding me?"
Head nod.
"This isn't just coincidence?"
Head shake.
"Did I need to worry about having the genie watching you?"
The horse shrugged, involving his whole body and causing Alia to clutch at the saddle.
"I see. Can you try to get out of the desert and to that spire as quickly as possible?"
The horse nodded again and broke into an easy loping canter that covered the ground quickly.
They continued this way through the desert for some time, moving from a trot to a canter then back again with an occasional walk thrown in. The sun beat down on them and Alia was grateful for the hooded cloak to shade her from it. They stopped occasionally for water from her bag and once she tried to find Night something to eat from the satchel. He took the offered apple politely, but Alia got the feeling that he didn't really want it.
Gradually, they encountered more stone and hard packed clay and less sand. Alia could also easily see the cliff on which the castle stood.
The sun and rhythm of Night's movement lulled Alia into her thoughts again. She reflected on the genie. He had said that if he messed up he would be fired.
"Apparently, you have to have a job, even in the land of fairy tales. They never mentioned that in Grimm. It seems unfair, somehow." Alia laughed at herself. "How did that line go? 'You're right. It's not fair, but that's the way it is.' I guess life's the same all over.
"I wonder if he even wanted to be a genie? He likes riddles so much; he probably just wanted to study them for the rest of his life."
The thoughts of careers triggered her memories and these memories took her back into high school, to a night shortly after she and Cara had met, when Cara had slept over at Alia's house and they had stayed up all night talking, as teenagers do.
"So, what are you going to do?" Alia had asked Cara.
"Do? What do you mean, 'do?'"
"You know, 'do.' What are you going to do when you 'grow up?'"
"Oh, that. I've got it all planned out. I'm going to be another Bill Gates. The first female one. The first minority. Just call me Billina."
"How about Wilhelmina?"
Alia got a pillow in the face for her suggestion.
"I'm serious. I'm going to be so rich I'll be able to buy him out. Only I won't give him that satisfaction. I'll take over his company instead."
"Yeah, right. I'll believe it when I see it," Alia said as she tossed the pillow back.
Cara propped herself up on one elbow and challenged, "All right, Miss Smarty Pants. What are you going to do?"
"Me? I don't know. I …maybe an artist. Lots of money would be nice."
"You'll never make lots of money as an artist. Not until you're dead, anyway. For lots of money you have to be a doctor or a lawyer. Or a computer tycoon," Cara added with a big grin.
"No, not a lawyer or a doctor. They're too much stress. People's life in your hands, depending on you. Not for me."
"Yeah, think of all that power."
"Nope, not for me. I'll just have to find one of those jobs where you make lots of money and golf every day."
"But you don't play golf," Cara objected.
"So I'll hire someone. I'll have all that money. I'll have to find something to do with it. Or you could hire someone – you'll have even more money, Wilhelmina."
"Nope, that's mine. Mine, do you hear me? All mine!" Cara exclaimed evilly.
"So what will you do with it?"
"Save the world maybe. Buy back the rain forests and stuff. Cure cancer and AIDS and all those other diseases." Cara changed the subject. "Enough of this stuff. What about the really important things? Like who are you going to marry?"
"What?"
"You heard me. What do you want in a guy? Mine's gonna be rich."
"Rich? What does he need to be rich for?"
"So his fragile male ego isn't threatened by my wealth, of course. Some guys are threatened by powerful, rich women."
"Ah, right, of course. Rich is nice. I guess if I married someone rich I wouldn't need to worry about what I did. I could just be a rich society wife and live off of him."
"That would be boring, though."
"And unfulfilling," Alia sighed. "So much for that plan."
"So what else? Handsome?"
"Yeah, handsome."
"What kind of handsome?" Cara prodded. "Getting information out of you is like pulling teeth."
"Well...dark hair. Eyes. Eyes are important."
"What else? Tall? Short? Thin? Fat?"
"I'd rather thin than fat. Height doesn't matter much. I'm not tall. Only, if he's too short, it'd be embarrassing for him, you know? More importantly, he'd need to have similar interests, be kind, be my friend, you know?" Alia shifted the conversation off her revelations and back to Cara. "What about you? What's your rich guy like? You going to have a trophy husband?"
"Maybe. I'm thinking more along the lines of the rock star type. You know, blond, good-looking, good body, good dresser. Or maybe some corporate type, so he has the power, too. Gotta watch out for the ego again. Though if he was the dumb blond trophy type, he might not notice."
"So you either want a surfer dude, a rock star, or a corporate raider?"
"That about covers it."
.….
"Why did you stop?" Alia asked as she pulled herself upright in the saddle. The lack of motion had awoken her from her doze across the horse's neck. "Have we reached the cliff already?"
Night shook his head, rattling the bit and other metal parts of the bridle as she rubbed her eyes. She noticed that the sun had sunk low in the sky. Then she saw what stopped them.
Laying directly across their path, between them and the cliff, cut a deep chasm. She looked along it in both directions, hoping to see a bridge, but it stretched without a break for as far as she could see.
"Hmm, do we go left or right? Or do we go neither way? You couldn't jump that could you?"
Night shook his head emphatically no.
"Didn't think so. Then I guess it's time to ask for some advice." "Tieran, I've got another problem. Another challenge to overcome, to put a positive spin on it."
"What is it this time?" he asked, tired and annoyed.
"I'm sorry to wake you, but there is a chasm across the path that Night can't jump. Is there a bridge nearby that we can use to cross?" Alia asked as she dismounted. She fell on her hands and knees as her legs gave way after the long hours of riding.
"I do not see the chasm on the map. Can you see what is at the bottom?"
Alia, who had fallen uncomfortably near the edge, was getting a very good look at the bottom. "It looks like there's a river at the bottom, about a couple hundred feet down."
"There is a river on the map. Strange that it does not show the gorge that it is in. Even if it is a new feature, it should be on the map."
As Alia was moving back from the edge and trying to stand up, she knocked some loose sand and pebbles over the edge, drawing her eye irresistibly as they fell. She noticed something strange about the way it fell, but could not quite put her finger on it. She deliberately tossed some more pebbles over the edge to observe it again. She watched it fall for quite some distance – longer than she should have been able to for pebbles of that size – and realized they fell at the wrong speed.
"Hang on. Maybe there isn't a gorge at all. What was that line from the movie? 'Things aren't always what they seem in this place?'"
She looked at the river again and thought she could see some sort of bridge crossing it far down in the chasm. "It looks like there is a bridge. Is that on the map?"
"Yes, it is marked on the map near you. It seems to be the only one."
"Then I guess I have to get down to it somehow." The sun would set in a few hours and if the gorge was of any depth it would get dark in it even sooner than up here on the edge of the desert. She decided to wait until morning to start down and across. "I think I'll wait until tomorrow though. I'll find a place to camp so you can go back to sleep. Talk to you in the morning."
"Be careful. Good night."
"Yeah, of course. G'night."
Alia turned back to the horse. "You can stay here or head back to the oasis now. It's your choice. You know I don't have much for you to eat. I have to find somewhere to camp for the night."
Scanning the chasm's edge, Alia observed no trees or streams along its length, turning it into a matter of preferring one boulder to sit next to over another. She moved well back from the edge, Night following along behind her like a puppy.
"Whether it's a chasm, a gorge, or just a ravine, I don't want to fall into it in the middle of the night. At least I don't have to gather firewood," she thought with a wry smile as she realized no trees meant nothing to burn in a fire.
She removed 'Night's saddle and bridle and then ate as the sun set. Once finished, Alia took off the pendant, rolled herself in her cloak and blanket and slept.
Disclaimers, credits, trivia:
Labyrinth, etc. belongs to the Jim Henson Company.
Thank yous to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review for this (or any other) story. And if you're reading and you haven't left a review, why not? I hope I have more than a handful of people reading this. After all the effort we writers put into giving you these stories, the least you can do is let us know you're reading them. Particularly if you like them. And you must like this one otherwise you wouldn't have made it to chapter 10. If you leave a signed review I try to return the favor and read things you have written (if I'm familiar with the source material, no guarantees if I'm not).