Jareth's Throne Room
"Ouch," Abe groans as he's unceremoniously dumped onto something cold and hard.
Abe closes and opens his nictitating membranes a couple of times to clear his vision. As things start to come into focus, he looks around. He's in a stone pit surrounded by strange creatures that he assumes must be goblins. The drawings in his book don't do their ugliness justice. There's a lot of noise, but after a moment, Abe realizes it's not the goblins making the loudest sound. Looking up he sees a dark haired woman pressed against the wall behind her and she's screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Would you please stop screaming," Abe requests as he tries to stand up as gracefully as he can and for a change, failing.
As he finally regains his footing, he senses something flying at him. He barely manages to duck as the item sails over him. He turns to see where it came from just as another missile comes at him. He catches this one only to be rewarded with teeth and claws sinking into his arm as the goblin protests being handled. Abe quickly drops the creature as another one heads for him. Batting it out of the way, he quickly steps out of the pit and starts trying to reach the woman.
"Please stop throwing goblins at me," he requests as another goblin is batted out of the air.
The goblins have figured out that being near Sarah isn't exactly the safest place to be, so they start heading for the exits. There's a traffic jam of little ugly hairy monsters at the doors as they try to escape. Sarah follows them and starts tossing them at Abe again. She's not sure what the thing they brought back is, but she's not taking any chances.
"Miss Williams I'm not going to hurt you," Abe states as another flying goblin is avoided.
"Stay away from me!" she yells while launching yet another goblin. "Get away!"
After a while, the goblins have managed to vacate the area so all that are left are tankards, barrels of ale, cushions, some blankets and the occasional chicken. Sarah grabs a half empty tankard and turns to throw it at that blue thing. She stops with her arm raised; suddenly realizing that she's alone in the throne room. With a quick look around, she sees that the guards are also gone. Taking this as possibly her only chance, she bolts out the door toward freedom.
Abe, feeling it would be safer to be elsewhere, follows the goblins. He heads up a set of stairs that lead to a door that the goblins are cowering in front of. Curious about why they're not going through the door, Abe removes a glove and places it on the door.
"Interesting," he mutters to himself.
He reaches for the knob, but the goblins stop him.
"You can't go in there," one says.
"His Majesty would be most displeased," says another.
They start grabbing him and pulling him away from the door. They manage to drag him half way down the stairs before he can stop their movement.
"Are you sure you want to go back in there?" he asks.
"Um, oh, uh," are the answers he gets.
As Abe starts to work his way loose of their grip, a blond man appears at the base of the stairs. Abe can almost taste the power this man wields and right now it's practically coming off of him in sparks. He's furious and the goblins hide behind Abe, which is quite the feat considering how little space Abe takes up.
"Where is she?" the man yells.
"She, sire?" one of the braver goblins asks popping his head out from behind Abe's back.
"The girl," he snarls. "Where is she?"
"Girl, Your Majesty?" asks another that's hiding behind Abe's knee.
"The girl that was wished away earlier today," he growls.
"Oh, that girl," says another from behind Abe's shoulder. "Well, you see, Your Majesty, um, we don't know."
"WHAT?" the king screams.
Jareth starts stalking up the stairs towards them. Abe, having a very good sense of self preservation, steps to one side. The goblins are stacked on top of each other in a perfect silhouette of Abe. Realizing that their cover is gone, they start tumbling over each other trying to get out of their king's way.
"FIND HER!" he bellows causing the walls to slightly shake. "NOW!"
The goblins all but kill themselves getting down the stairs to obey their liege's orders. In a matter of moments, the staircase is clear of everyone except Abe and Jareth.
"And what are you doing here?" the monarch snarls.
"Avoiding Miss Williams," Abe answers the question simply.
Considering the first question most people ask him when they first meet is 'What are you?' Abe's rather surprised. He's actually mildly impressed that this man isn't, as Liz would put it, flipping out.
"And why would you need to avoid Miss Williams?" the king continues in a dangerous tone of voice.
Jareth takes a step closer to Abe and slips. Looking down, he sees a smear of a blue liquid on the step. Looking up the stairs, he sees several more blue smears.
"What is this blue…stuff?" he demands, not really expecting an answer.
"My blood," Abe replies simply.
Abe looks at his damaged arm and sees that teeth marks actually go fairly deep. Jareth sighs, leans against the wall, closes his eyes and rubs his temples.
"Why are you bleeding?" he questions in a slightly more sedate tone of voice without ever opening his eyes.
"It seems Miss Williams was upset by my arrival," Abe explains. "She started throwing goblins at me. I caught one unaware of what it was, and it bit and scratched me. Might I trouble you for some bandages?"
"Follow me," Jareth orders as he turns and heads back into the throne room.
Having no better options, Abe complies and carefully treads down the stairs. He enters the nearly empty throne room just as the king resumes his throne. Jareth holds up one of his hands, rays of light appear to collect at his fingertips and form into a crystal ball. He tosses it at a table. The crystal pops like a bubble and first aid supplies appear on the table.
"Thank you," Abe says.
Walking over to the table, Abe starts to clean and dress his wounds. While working, Abe is able to pick up Jareth's thoughts. His mind moves rapidly from one thing to the next. While Abe is able to figure out that the king is responsible for Sarah being here, he can't exactly determine why. The mix of emotions from the seated man is confusing. Anger, love, need, want and worry all wage war inside his mind and all for the same reason: Sarah.
After Abe finishes taping the bandages in place, and seeing that the king is ignoring him, he looks around the room. Something red catches his eye down in the pit he had been dropped in. Going over to the edge of the pit, he looks down and sees the little red book that he had picked up earlier in the apartment. Stepping down into the pit, Abe picks up the book, sits on the edge and starts to read.
"Where did you get that?" Jareth asks in a dangerously quiet voice.
"Miss Williams' apartment," Abe answers. "I was holding it when I was brought here."
Abe notices a strange sound just as the king opens his mouth. But before Jareth can say anything else, a noise can be heard from down the hall. There's laughter, yelling, shouting and screaming. The screams Abe recognizes as Sarah's.
"It seems the goblins have found Miss Williams," Abe observes.
"So it would seem," the king replies smugly with a smirk on his face.
A minute later, a fair number of goblins come in carrying a kicking and screaming Sarah. Since they're trying to hold onto a less than willing subject, scratches can be seen on Sarah's arms and her clothing is torn in several places. Abe manages to get his legs out of the way just as they dump their struggling load back into the pit. Not wishing to be within striking range of the angry woman, Abe gets up and heads toward the window.
The goblins go back to what they were doing before Abe was wished away. From the way they just return their previous activities, it's like nothing ever happened. Sputtering several unladylike comments Sarah stands up and glares at the Goblin King. Swinging his leg off of the arm rest where it had been dangling, Jareth leans toward the angry woman.
"That wasn't very wise, my dear," Jareth says in something between a purr and a growl.
"Well, it's better than just staying here," she spits back, shaking with suppressed anger. "You didn't seriously think I was just going to sit here and take this whole thing lying down did you?"
Abe picks up the lust that Jareth is now feeling towards Sarah. Her last comment about lying down seems to have brought that one on. Her feelings keep jumping between fear and anger. Abe looks around for something to distract the king. He doesn't really like where this is going. He looks out the window and is actually taken by surprise.
Spread out beyond the city walls is a vast labyrinth. The size is simply mind boggling even for Abe. Taking a closer look though, reveals a strange discrepancy.
"Your Majesty," Abe interrupts.
"Yes," Jareth snarls as he pulls his attention away from Sarah and looks at Abe.
"Is Hellboy running the Labyrinth?" Abe asks.
"Yes, he is," the king sighs. "I sincerely doubt he's going to make it in time though. He only has thirteen hours, and some how I don't think he has the brain power to even get into the Labyrinth much less beat it."
"Ah, yes, well," Abe replies as he turns back toward the window. "I think 'beat' might be the operative word here."
With a sigh of disgust Jareth walks over toward the window and looks out. The sight that greets him leaves the king speechless for a moment. With a look of anger plastered on his face, he disappears in a cloud of glitter.
"Where did he go?" Sarah asks as she steps out of the pit. The goblins closest to her quickly move out of her way.
"Down to stop Hellboy I imagine," Abe answers, looking at her.
"It's a little early for him to start messing with your ah…" she starts, eying him suspiciously.
"My friend," Abe fills in.
"Right, your friend," she continues. "I wonder how far your friend has gotten if he's already trying to interfere."
"I'd say about a tenth of the way," Abe replies as he looks out the window again.
"How can you tell from here?" she asks.
"Look for yourself," he replies as he steps away from the window.
Sarah cautiously walks over. Trying to keep an eye on the strange blue man, she glances out the window. Then she takes another longer look as what she sees registers in her brain. In absolute stunned amazement, Sarah stands there staring out the window with her mouth hanging open.
"It seems Hellboy decided to take the direct route," Abe comments as another section of Labyrinth wall collapses.
