"What do you mean you want to leave?" both Puck and Jareth asked together. They both looked at the other and back at Idony.
"Your insane," Puck said "all this walking has drove you over the edge. Now you're going to spiral down into oblivion until everything you know becomes some strange fantasy and everything pretend will become real!! Soon we're all just going to be some weird made up characters in some sixteen year olds story that she'll post on the internet in her sad attempts to get reviews!"
"Puck," Idony sighed "you gotta stop rambling like that. It makes no sense whatsoever. What's the internet anyways?"
"What do you mean you want to go home?" Jareth asked completely ignoring their conversation.
"I want to go home," she said "like, Aboveground home." Jareth and Puck gave each other a dry look and they both burst into fits of laughter. "It's not funny!" she yelled but they wouldn't stop. "This is hopeless!" She ran into the woods without looking back. Puck stopped laughing as did Jareth and they both looked at each other.
"Maybe you should go talk to her," Puck suggested.
"Why me?" Jareth asked "you're her best friend."
"True," Puck agreed "but you're the one that can send her home." Jareth sighed and walked back into the woods. This female was trying his patients. He stopped at the edge of the woods and looked at the girl sitting at the edge of the pond. She seemed almost weak for a moment, if you truly looked at her. She may act like an adult but she truly is sixteen. Jareth wanted to let her live like a sixteen year old, without worry. She shouldn't have to worry about finding food and keeping herself alive.
She should be taken care of, even though she drove him to insanity and back, she deserved something. Yet, he didn't want her to leave. She was the first person he'd cared about since Sarah in any way whatsoever. But he wasn't ready to open up and make himself vulnerable. He wasn't ready to get hurt again.
"Why do you want to go back?" he asked.
"You won't understand," she mumbled. Her legs were pulled up to her chest with her chin resting on her knees and her arms wrapped around her legs.
"Try to explain," he said sitting next to her. There was a long pause.
"I want to know," she said quietly and then paused. "I want to know why she didn't want me. I want to see, people."
"You want other humans," Jareth said, nodding. "I understand that, I long for people from time to time."
"But you can have people," she said looking out across the water. The wind whipped around and blew her hair across her face.
"You can't make someone want your company," Jareth said after a long time. "At the very least you have some creatures that care about you. Your little imp friend for example, he followed you all the way here and he's not turning back."
"Goblins aren't the most compassionate creatures," she sighed and looked at Jareth "your not like them."
"Me?" he asked "I'm evil, remember?"
"Are you?" she asked turning back to the water. There was a long pause.
"No I suppose I'm not," he muttered "I've become soft over the years I suppose." Idony smiled, she was glad. If he was the same man he was ten years ago she was sure that she wouldn't be human any longer. But somehow he'd grown a heart.
"I just," she stopped and tears filled her eyes. She tried to keep them from falling, she didn't even blink. "I want to find where I belong."