"Sarah? Sarah!"
She rolled over and pressed her face into the pillow, mumbling quietly to herself. Someone was calling her name, but she was tired, too tired to get up.
"Sarah!"
The voice was becoming more insistent. Though she clapped her hands to her ears, she couldn't block out the annoying sound.
"Go away," she muttered sleepily. "I'm trying to sleep. Come back later."
"Sarah!"
"Oh, fine," Sarah grumbled. "You're not going to go away until I talk to you, are you?" With an angry pout on her tired face, she rolled over and opened her eyes.
There was some sort of dwarfish-looking goblin standing right outside her rooms, looking at her with a wide-eyed expression on his wizened face. He was perhaps the strangest-looking creature she had ever seen in her life. His skin was like leather, with a large, bulbous nose, and little wisps of white whiskers everywhere. In fact, he reminded her of nothing so much as an old, knotty, gnarled tree, with something of the same cranky disposition.
"Yes?" she asked crossly. "What do you want?"
"Sarah!" the goblin exclaimed, his voice creaky and crackly. "It's me! And... what happened to you?"
"Who are you?" she yawned. "I'm trying to sleep."
"Who am I?" the goblin snorted, though there was a distinct flash of worry in his eyes. "I'm Hoggle! Don't you know me, little lady?"
"Hoggle?" Sarah frowned. There was something about that name that sounded slightly familiar, but she couldn't place it. After a moment, her face cleared and she shrugged. "Sorry, I have no idea who you are or what you're doing here. Would you mind terribly going away...?"
"You don't know who..." The goblin's voice trailed off into an angry mutter. "What a rat!"
"I beg your pardon," Sarah said stiffly. "I'm not a rat, and seeing as I don't even know you, it's slightly rude of you to refer to me as such."
"Not you. Him!" He gestured angrily with his oversize hands. "Jareth. He did this!"
"Did what?" She shook her head. "Why am I even sitting here talking to you? I'm going to go back to sleep now, so you might as well leave."
"Wait!" the goblin yelled, startling birds, who rose up from the trees in a great cloud of disgruntled chirpings. "Just come out here for a minute. Not so hard, is it? Just come on outside, and I'll go away."
"You make no sense."
"Welcome back to the Labyrinth, lady," the goblin said sarcastically. "I ain't gonna go away until you come out here, so you might want to get it over with."
"Fine," she snapped, throwing back the crimson covers. "But you'd better go away as soon as I get out there."
"It's a promise."
Sarah slipped her feet out of bed and stormed over to the doors, emerging into the sunlight. "There. Are you happy now, you—" She paused.
The goblin tipped his head, a sly smile at the corner of his mouth. "I guess I'll be going now, then, little lady."
"Wait," she said slowly, her brain spinning. "Wait, I do know you, don't I?"
"Should say so."
"I've seen you before. In the Labyrinth." Sarah blinked several times. "You...you helped me. You – Hoggle!" she exclaimed, her thoughts re-organizing. "Oh, Hoggle, it's you!"
She dropped to her knees and gave him a tight hug, kissing him on the cheek. Though he would never have admitted it, a tear rolled down his old, tired cheek, finding every crevice on the way. He hugged her back, patting her shoulder awkwardly. For her part, Sarah couldn't believe it. The whole time, she'd been hoping and praying for her friends to show up, but deep inside, she hadn't actually believed that they would. And now, here was Hoggle, somehow, and he still looked exactly the same.
She pulled back, blinking hard. "Hoggle, how did you know I was here?"
He put his hands behind his back. "Word travels fast in the Labyrinth, missy. When the faeries started whispering about a red-headed boy who looked familiar, and about a pretty, dark-haired lady that Jareth whisked away, it weren't too hard to figure out."
"So you... came all the way here to help me?" She sniffled slightly.
"Yeah, that and, um..." He looked sheepishly down at his hands.
"What?" Sarah asked curiously.
"To...to see if you still got my jewels!" he blurted out, turning a dull red around the base of his neck.
She blinked. "What?"
"My jewels," he said again, the words seeming to flow easier this time. "You never gave 'em back, and them's my rightful property, after all, so I was wonderin' if you still got 'em."
"I..." She lowered her head and scratched the back of her neck. Faint words out of the past again returned to her.
"Them's my rightful property! It's not fair!"
"No, it isn't. But... that's the way it is."
Hoggle was still looking at her expectantly. "I'm... sorry, Hoggle," she said. "I don't have them with me."
"Oh." He stared at the ground for a moment. "Do you know where they are?"
Sarah sighed and stood up, gazing off into the distance. "I don't know... I don't even remember if I had them with me when I got home after the last time I was here."
"Ah."
"I really am sorry," Sarah said anxiously. "I should have returned them sooner, but I got so caught up in trying to rescue Toby that I forgot."
He made a dismissive noise. "It don't really matter. But...if you do find 'em, let me know."
"Of course." She paused. "Oh, Hoggle, it is so good to see you. I missed you!"
"You...you did?" He looked up at her again.
"Yes! You're my friend, remember?" Sarah smiled. "I would have recognized you before, but—"
"Yeah, Jareth was making you forget things again. I could've told you that."
"I just haven't seen you in so long. I can't believe you're actually here!"
"Why'd you stop calling us?"
The question, so bluntly asked, threw Sarah off for a moment. "Huh?"
"You said that you needed us, but then you just started ignoring us." He crossed his arms and looked up at her with a cool expression in his eyes.
"I didn't start ignoring you all," Sarah exclaimed. "That wasn't what happened!"
"Sure what it looked like to us."
Sarah's heart ached at the thought of her friends waiting, day after day to see her again, and day after day bringing nothing but disappointment. "No, I..." She exhaled noisily. "I didn't forget about you all. I thought about you, Ludo, and Didymus constantly. But I was just so...busy."
Hoggle snorted. "Busy? Too busy to see friends? Or just too busy to see us?"
"No," Sarah said again, but this time, her voice was weaker, as was her conviction. Hoggle's words had the ring of truth to them. "You don't understand, Hoggle. I had to grow up. I had to start spending more time in the real world."
"We ain't real?"
"No, that wasn't what I meant." She raked her hands through her hair. "My world, the world that I live in. I had to live in it and stop wishing to want to be in yours. I had to go to school and do homework, and... I had to be friends with people there, you see? I didn't have time to go and spray faeries with you, or go and guard the bridge with Didymus."
Hoggle's face seemed to close in on itself and become expressionless. "So we just weren't important anymore."
"That's not it," she said, getting frustrated. "You just don't understand, Hoggle! You have no idea what my life is like. I have to write my thesis, I have to get a job, to look out for Toby, to...to break up with my boyfriend. You act like I've just been lounging and eating grapes. I haven't. I've been working hard. I couldn't stay fourteen years old forever. What is it with you goblins? Why can none of you understand that I had to grow up?"
"You don't understand nothin', neither," Hoggle muttered. "Not a thing. I don't know why I even came here. Stay here with him, then." Without another word, he turned and walked away.
Sarah stared after him unhappily. She hadn't meant to explode at him, but she was just so sick of it. In the last few hours, she'd had more angry words shot at her than she had in years. The worst part was that they were all acting like she had done it all on purpose. It's not fair! she wanted to scream. It's not my fault! Maybe goblins didn't age, didn't gain a day, but she did. She was twenty-six years old, and they were all acting as though she had become a crone.
But I wished for Hoggle to come, she thought sadly. I held my breath and prayed that my friends would show up. And he hasn't changed at all. It's all the exact same as I remember it, which means that it's nothing like I remember it. Instead of Hoggle being her faithful friend, here he was, walking away from her with his small back held proudly straight, and it was her fault. Her fault for growing up. He no longer understood her, and she understood him all too well. I don't belong here. She spun around in a suddenly desperate circle. I don't belong in this place – I've got to get out of here, now. Before it's too late. Screw this place, I've got to go find Toby and get him through the Labyrinth.
Without another thought, she turned and ran off after Hoggle, disliking the feel that the birds were all watching her. Though her legs were infinitely longer than his, either he was moving much faster than he looked or she was moving much slower than she felt. As she chased him across the garden, each second felt more and more like a nightmare, except that she was not being chased, she was doing the chasing.
By the time she caught up to where he had been, he had already scaled the garden wall with amazing dexterousness and was somewhere on the other side.
"Hoggle!" she called, hoping that he could still hear her. "Hoggle! Are you still there?"
Though there was no answer, she could almost feel him, standing just on the other side of this impossible-looking wall, arms crossed, foot tapping, waiting for her to speak. She took a deep breath and flattened her palms against the wall, hoping that she could say the right thing.
"Hoggle, I'm really sorry," she shouted. "You're right. I should have kept calling you all, no matter what. I made a mistake, I messed up, and I'm really sorry for that, but you all never stopped being important to me. I promise that! Please, Hoggle, don't just leave. I have to get out of here too, and you're my only hope – Will you help me get over this wall?"
"What about Jareth?" was the surly response.
"What about Jareth?" she yelled.
There was a long moment of musing silence during which she held her breath, hoping that he hadn't walked away.
Finally, he spoke again. "We'll have to find Ludo and Didymus. They'd never forgive me if they found out that you came back and they didn't see you."
Gladness and relief sang in her heart. "Of course!"
"Just climb, little lady, and you'll be over the wall before you know it."
Her elation disappeared. "Great." Unlike last time, though, she didn't hesitate. Digging her hands into crevices, she began to hoist herself up, trying to ignore her pounding heart. The actual climbing itself was easier than she had been expecting it to be, but by the time she was several feet in the air and the top of the wall was still nowhere to be found, Sarah started to panic a little bit.
"H—Hoggle!" she called, her voice quavering. "How high is this wall?"
"Not as high as that ladder we climbed out of the Oubliette," he replied, sounding slightly confused.
"Yeah," she muttered, "but that time, I had a ladder." Hoping that she was more than halfway up, though, there was nothing for it but to grit her teeth and keep climbing. Just don't look down, she thought to herself. Look straight ahead and pretend that you're only two or three feet off the ground. Her hands started to feel cold. "How did you make it over this thing so fast?" she grumbled, but it was loud enough for the small goblin's large ears to catch.
"I didn't waste time worryin', that's how."
"Lot of help you are."
"Just keep climbin'. You must be nearly there by now."
"Dammit, Hoggle," she said through her teeth, "I must be twenty feet off the ground by now." No sooner had she spoken, however, than her left hand reached for a handhold and found a smooth surface. With great effort, she pulled herself on top of the wall, and lay there gasping, forehead pressed against the cool stone, eyes squeezed shut, not wanting to look up, down, or anywhere.
"Sarah?"
She cracked her eyes open and peeked down the opposite side. Immediately, she groaned and slammed her eyes shut, a wave of vertigo rocking her. Hoggle had been looking up at her from what looked like very, very far below.
"Y—you look like an ant!" she gasped. "I can't climb down that!" Suddenly, she wanted to cry. She couldn't climb down either side; she was just stuck up here.
"It ain't as far as it looks," Hoggle reassured loudly. "Just start climbing down and you'll be at the bottom in no time."
"Hoggle," she said warningly, "that's what you said the first time."
"Well, you made it, didn't you?"
"Barely," she said, resting her head against the stone again. "I can't do it, Hoggle. I just can't."
"So what're you gonna do?"
"Stay up here? Till I die, maybe?"
He snorted. "If you don't climb down now, I'm gonna start throwing rocks at you."
Her eyes flew open. "You wouldn't!"
"Wouldn't I? The Sarah I knew wouldn't have let a little drop scare her."
"But I—" she trailed off and groaned. "If I fall, Hoggle, I'm blaming you."
"Yeah, yeah," he rumbled.
Slowly, as slowly as she possibly could, she swung her leg off the top of the wall, searching for a foothold, biting her lip so hard that it nearly bled.
The climb down was twice as scary as the climb up, if that was even possible. Only a few feet down, the rock that her left foot was resting on crumbled away into nothing, nearly sending her careening down to the ground. Luckily, though, she managed to stabilize herself on her right foot and grip the wall with her shaking hands for all she was worth. If Westley could manage it on the Cliffs of Insanity, you can manage this, Sarah. A bark of grim laughter was torn from her tight throat. Great, Sarah, you're losing your mind already. You're turning to fantasy movies for real-life encouragement. Well done. Slowly, though, she managed to keep herself moving downwards, and indeed, sooner than she though possible, her right foot touched solid ground.
Releasing the wall, she collapsed onto the ground, whispering a silent litany of "Thank god, thank god, thank god," over and over again. During the time it took her to recover, she was vaguely aware of Hoggle looking down at her with a bemused expression on his craggy face.
Several minutes later, when her hands no longer felt ice cold and her legs felt strong enough to support her, she sat up, heaving a relieved sigh. "Sorry about that," she apologized with an embarrassed laugh. "I have a bit of a problem with heights."
"Heh," Hoggle grunted, lending her a hand to stand up, albeit shakily. "You sure have changed, haven't you?" Really, it wasn't a question. "Why didn't you crumble up like that after being dangled over the Bog of Eternal Stench, eh?"
"Because it wasn't that far to fall, was it?" She brushed off her clothes, dusty from the trip over the wall.
"Yeah, but the end result would've been lots more unpleasant."
"I consider getting my brains splattered all over the ground to be rather unpleasant." She paused, looking around. "Where are we?"
"The Goblin City," he said with a grand gesture. "...You've been here before, Sarah."
"Yes, but... This place looks different." Looking around again, she decided that there was no way she could have recognized it. The Goblin City she'd remembered was a brown place, full of plaster and daub buildings. This place looked nothing like that. This place was far more sinister. Black buildings, black brick, black smoke rising from black chimneys. She shook her head. "I could swear that this is a place I've never been before."
Hoggle nodded sagely. "Ahh. I forgot. You never saw this part of the city."
"What do you mean, 'this part'? What's special about this part?"
"Well, last time we was here, we came in the front door of the city, so to speak. This is behind the castle, and it's...different here."
Sarah shivered involuntarily. "Yeah. It's creepier."
"With good reason. All of the toughest goblins live here, in Jareth's shadow." He looked up at her. "I don't particularly like bein' here."
"Then let's get out of here," she replied. "I don't like it either." She looked around again. "So, where are we going?"
"To find Didymus. Far as I know, he still guards that stinkin' bridge." He frowned. "Only that idiot would go back to the Bog."
"The bridge?" she asked, confused. "But... didn't it...collapse?"
"It collapsed on your turn through the Labyrinth, little lady." He picked a direction and started walking.
Sarah hurried after him. "I don't understand," she said. "Are you saying that, well, this sounds ridiculous, but that it somehow repaired itself once I was gone?" She laughed, as if to reinforce the fact that it was a ridiculous idea.
"Around this place, things have a way of goin' back to the way they was before." He nodded back at her. "So you're not far off."
"So anything I did, any changes I made... they're all gone?" She sighed, amazed despite herself. "It's almost like I never existed here, then."
"Not quite," he muttered. "But, anyway, all you gotta know is that Didymus is back guarding the bridge, and that's where we're gonna find him."
"Right." She straightened her back, eying the surrounding buildings out of the corner of her eyes. "Um, Hoggle, I don't want to alarm you, but I think we're being watched."
He followed her gaze to where a pair of black shutters snapped shut with a click.
"Crud!" he muttered. "I was hopin' that they wouldn't notice we was here if we came through in the midday... They all sleep until midnight 'round here," he added for her benefit, "but if they know we're here, they all know it."
"Are they...going to be trouble?" She swallowed, walking a little faster and wishing for Ludo's solid strength at her back.
"Is Jareth an arrogant sneak?" he replied.
Sarah sighed. "Damn. Can we outrun them?" Behind her, a door opened and a goblin slipped out quietly and scuttled into an alley, presumably to alert others to their presence.
"You can," Hoggle replied, looking down at his own short legs.
Sarah firmed her chin. "That's ridiculous. I'm not going to desert you. We beat Jareth's goblin armies once before, we can do it again."
"I'd rather run."
She was about to respond to Hoggle when a cry went up from a building behind them.
"Fire!"
Sarah swung around in alarm, her eyes widening when she did indeed see smoke roiling out of the windows of the nearest building. "Come on, Hoggle," she said nervously. "Let's get out of here."
With a loud cracking noise, flames began to bellow from every inch of the building. As both Sarah and Hoggle looked on in relative horror, the flames jumped from building to building, faster than they had thought possible. Goblins spilled from all around, running towards the fire, carrying buckets of water. Within a minute, the blaze was flush up against the walls of Jareth's castle, but seemed to spread no further.
Sarah swallowed. "Hoggle, we'll never get a better chance. Let's hurry."
"I don't get it!" Hoggle exclaimed. "The plaster those buildings are made of don't burn... Never have before."
Quelling a sudden sick feeling in her stomach at his words, Sarah grabbed his hand. "No time to think now, Hoggle. Before they get this thing under control, we've got to get out of here!"
This time, he listened, and with an inferno behind them, they turned and fled.
**********************************
A/N: What's going on here? How is inflammable material burning? (Edited to add: by which, of course, I mean that I'm an idiot. Inflammable means the same thing as flammable. Duh. *hits self on head* I did mean not flammable. Really.) What on earth is going through Hoggle's head? What have twelve years done to Didymus and Ludo? And do we want to see Jareth's underwear again?
All of that and more, still ahead!
