Need I say it? I don't own Labyrinth.
Chapter two.
'Whoopy do! Finally she does something good for me.' Hoggle leapt like a salmon, easily dodging the thrown crystal, fear giving him gymnastic abilities beyond his reach.
Running through the house, Hoggle ducked into the bedroom, acutely aware of the curses following him from the kitchen.
With a fast look behind himself, he dived under the bed, into nowhere space.
What is nowhere space?
Nowhere space is where everything connects.
It's best describe as that bit behind the radiator. You know-the bit you can't get from the top, and you can't get at it from the bottom either.
Or it's that bit under the bed, where you know there's a plug, but you just can't reach without going all the way under the bed.
Anything that goes missing after you know you've just put it down a minute ago tends to wind up inside. Biro pens, paperclips, little springy things that come with kitchen appliances, they all can be found inside nowhere space.
It can be a time as well.
It can be that point on a rainy Saturday afternoon when every single entertaining program has finished, and all that's on is either an old black and white film, a makeover program you've seen before, and a foreign language film, minus the sub titles. The time that drags, when you know you should be doing something useful, but just can't muster the energy.
It's also how Goblins travel.
Hoggle emerged from under Sarah's bed, spitting out what appeared to be a toy doll's plastic shoe.
"Sarah! Ye needed me?"
Spinning round from her place at the vanity, Sarah gave him a smile.
"Hoggle! I knew you'd come-I knew it couldn't just have been a dream!"
Looking around wryly, Hoggle commented: "if it hadn't been a dream, wouldn't your room have bin tidier?"
Sarah flushed. "Listen Hoggle, I'm sorry I called you away if-"
"Na, na! It was good of ye." Looking around, Hoggle noted the lack of places that even someone as small and wiry as he could fit into and hide. "It sounds odd Sarah, but…" he rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassment getting the better of him.
Smiling at her friend's discomfiture, Sarah tucked her knees up to her chest. "Hoggle, I owe you a huge favor for helping me get Toby back."
Taking a deep breath he looked up at her. "Sarah, I needs your help." He started to pace nervously, wringing the bracelet he wore. "He's chasing me."
She listened intently, not needing any explanation as to who 'He' was.
"Ever since you left, hes bin mad.
At me mostly, I think."
"Heggler, you do give yourself airs."
Both Sarah and Hoggle spun to face the Goblin King, looking remarkably at ease for a man sat on a window sill. He leaned back, savoring the night air as he swung his legs, arms gripping the window frame. "It is a wonderful night out here." He noted, "the stars are most divine. What you can see of them anyway."
He turned his head, looking straight at Sarah. "Your kind must learn not to pump such foul pollutants into the air."
With a sharp intake of breath, Sarah went on the attack, hurling the first thing that came to hand.
Jareth caught it easily, bringing the object close to his face to inspect it. "A Statue of myself? A crude rendition, butmost flattering…May I come in?"
"No," Sarah growled. "Right now all I want to do is push you right off that windowsill, but a body on the lawn would be too hard to explain in the morning."
"I'm coming in anyway." Jareth turned round and swung elegantly into the room. Striding across the carpet, he knelt bring himself to Hoggle's eyelevel. "Don't worry Hoggle, I haven't forgotten you.
Now, Sarah, how is your dear darling baby brother? Well, I trust?" He asked getting up.
"He's fine, not that it's any concern of yours. He's my brother."
"Yet that did not stop you wishing him away."
Sarah stepped forwards, almost nose to nose with her adversary. "I got him back. Because, guess what? You have no power over me." She said, finishing in a sing song tone.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, "You are not in my world now Sarah. Despite the effect those words may have had upon me the last time we met, they do not apply now.
If I have no power over you, then the same applies to myself. You have no power over me."
"'just fear me, love me, and I will be your slave,'" Sarah parroted.
"It is true that you held a minor fascination for me whilst you traversed the labyrinth, but that is over now.
And I-I have other business.
Despite your egotistical thinking, I do have a kingdom to run, even if it is populated by halfwits. Speaking of which; where has that particular one gone?"
He peered around the room, noticing with interest the number of labyrinthine creatures that were incorporated into the room, as toys, ornaments, and decoration. He was not the only one to have merited a place in her room.
Offhand, he wondered how exactly that had happened. He wasn't careless with his creatures, allowing them to run rampant in the aboveground. So how exactly had Sarah managed to collect this…memorial?
Surely the book hadn't managed to inspire all of this?
"Hoggle?" Sarah looked round, noticing for the first time her friend's disappearance. She got up, walking around the room, peering under the bed, in the wardrobe, and behind the door. "Where are you Hoggle?"
She got down and looked under her vanity table.
"there you are," she whispered, barely above a breath.
It was still too loud.
Jareth was beside her, crouching to stare at the dwarf."Hamkin-"
"-Hoggle!"
"whatever." Jareth dismissed Sarah's concern with a wave of his hand. "He has committed treason. I come here following him; the law must be upheld." He paused for a second contemplating, fingers steepled upon his chin. "My subjects are not allowed to roam around willynilly. How did you get here Hoggle?"
"He's welcome here. Unlike some."
"hmmpf. If you are not going to tell me, I can pursue it no further." Walking away, Jareth began to pace the room. "I assure you, that though your concern is laudable, it has no place in my court. Justice must be served."
"you're going to kill him, aren't you?" Sarah quietly said. "That's what used to happen to people who betrayed the crown."
"I can not believe that you think so little of me Sarah. Tut tut. Unmerited, I can assure you.
No; banishment is the traditional-"
"No!" Hoggle raced out from the dresser, grasping at his kings legs. "Ye can't banish me; who'll feed the pond creatures, and what about the fairies!"
Jareth sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead. "Get off." When the ranting dwarf refused to let go; "Hoggle, release me at once, or I shall refuse to banish you."
Stifling, Hoggle looked up. "Ye won't banish me? But what ya gonna do?"
"Hoggle, if you do not cease this ludicrous display this very second, I will personally make sure to dunk you slowly into the bog of eternal stench…feet first."
He let go as if Jareth had suddenly turned to molten steel, the threat working it's usual magic.
"Now, if you would be silent for a while, so I can finish-" He looked around making sure as he fixed a glare upon both that neither would dare to interrupt him. "There. Before I was interrupted I was saying that banishment was the usual punishment for treason.
But," he held a finger up, warding off Hoggle's histrionics, "according to the law I must give you and our fellows a chance to prove yourselves to the crown. Trite, I know, but that is the way it is done."
"I won't let you." Sarah stepped forwards, blocking Hoggle from Jareth's line of view. "I won't let you hurt my friends. I don't care what it takes, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone but me. I'm the one you're angry with."
"And there is that ego again. You are trying my patience, Sarah, despite the fact that this has nothing to do with you." He sounded exhausted to Sarahs ears, something she was not quite ready to believe. He told her once that she had exhausted him, just before…
Her attention was distracted from considering this by Hoggle tugging insistently at her trouser leg.
"Let me go Sarah." He whispered in her ear as she bent down. "Can't be any worse than what would happen if I stayed here too long."
"What would happen?"
"I'd disappear. Look at him, you can see it."
It was true.
Now that she was looking, she could see a slight blur around the goblin king. A pearly luminescent shine that glossed his features, making him appear paler than usual.
"He came without askin'. You asked for me, so I can last bit longer than he can. This place drains him. All we're doin nows, tryin his temper.
"I'll go with you." He stepped round, and walked towards his king.
"Hoggle! Wait!"
He turned, watching her. Sarah was running round her room, picking up bits and pieces, tossing them into a pillowcase hastily wrenched from the bed.
"There!" She smoothed her bangs from her face. "Take this Hoggle. There are things in here you could use."
"Like what?" Hoggle asked, curiously.
Peering in; "umm…a Swiss army knife, sunglasses, lunchbox, and couple of chocolate bars." Noting the baffled look, "It's a type of food humans like to eat for treats."
"Will you hurry up!" Jareth conjured a crystal, playing it across his fingers. "there are other things I wish to do today, you know."
"Alright, alright."
"Finally," Jareth huffed. "Are you ready to return?"
"Yeah, yeah." Hoggle grumbled.
"Before Hoggle goes, I want to make some adamants.
You won't try to hurt any of my friends by either directly placing them into danger, or by knowingly sending them into danger."
"The entire underground," Jareth rolled his eyes theatrically, "is certain danger. If you wish to make adamants, you should be more specific."
Sarah cocked her head to one side. "Okay then. Umm…no sending anyone into a situation where you know they're going to get killed."
"Done." Jareth glared down to Hoggle, now standing by his left. "Now, we must be going. And Sarah?"
She looked up, watching the shimmer playing across his features.
"You'd make one hell of a poker player."
Da na! What do people think? More should be up soon. I've actually got quite a bit typed, but I want to give myself some leeway in case something comes up.
Reviewing will make me write faster-and suggestions are always greatly appreciated.
If you have an idea, drop me a line. As long as it fits within the rules I laid down for myself in this story, and doesn't contradict with a future plotline, I'll probably use it.
See you next time!