"AMBROSIUS!" Didymus yells for what seems the hundredth time. The fact that the dog has yet to respond to the call of his master doesn't seem to deter the knight. "AMBROSIUS, COME HERE BOY!"
"Could you please give it a rest," Hellboy grumbles. "You're giving me a headache."
"And trust me," says a quiet voice from the vicinity of Hellboy's chest, "if you think he's grumpy now, he's a real grouch when he has a headache."
Didymus hangs his head and his ever proud tail drags on the ground as he trudges on. Hellboy looks down at Liz and smiles.
"Hello, beautiful," he whispers.
"Hi," she responds. "How long was I out this time?"
"A couple of hours," he answers.
"Was anyone hurt?" she quietly inquires.
"Well, the dog is missing, and the kid is in an oubliette, but other than that everyone is accounted for," he replies.
"What's an oubliette?" she questions.
"It's a place where yous put someone to forget about them," Hoggle responds.
"You can put me down now, Red," Liz tells Hellboy.
"I know," he replies.
He continues to walk on without bothering to stop and put her down. With a sigh and a shake of her head, Liz looks around. She sees that they're still in the hedge maze and that Hoggle is still playing tour guide.
"I thought I burned this place down," she says.
"You know that's the weird thing," Hellboy comments. "We got to the edge of the blast zone, and it just stopped, like the fire had hit a wall or something."
"Humph," Hoggle grumbles. "Jareth stopped little missy's fire from burning down his precious hedge maze. Past nine years he's done nothin' but obsess about making the Labyrinth even harder. Not about a little thing like fire put a crimp in his plans."
"What happened nine years ago?" Hellboy asks.
"Sarah," Hoggle answers simply. "Ever since Sarah defeated the Labyrinth, Jareth has been tryin' to figure a way to get her back here. I guess all his plannin' finally worked out. Never thought I'd see the day when Sarah would be back in the Underground."
"So he's been looking for revenge all these year?" Liz asks. "Seems a bit obsessive compulsive to me."
"That's Jareth for ya," Hoggle responds. "As for wanting revenge, well, that's what he keeps telling everyones, but I think it's more than that."
"Why do you say that?" Hellboy questions.
"Because the last time anyone said anything less then complimentaries about Sarah ended up head first in the Bog of Eternal Stench," Hoggle replies.
"So why do you think he's worked so hard to get her back here?" Liz asks.
"Well, I thinks he's in love with her," Hoggle answers.
"All this because he's in love?" Hellboy queries. "A bit over the top if you ask me."
"I don't know," Liz teases. "I can name someone who's done some pretty outrageous things for the woman he loves."
"That's different," Hellboy grumbles, turning a darker shade of red.
They round another corner and come to two walls joined together at a ninety degree angle. A door are situated in each wall and on each door is a gruesome face made of brass and no knobs or handles. The door on the left has a large ring that starts in one ear, passes under the chin and ends in the other ear. The door on the right has no ring at all.
Hoggle marches up to the door on the right and glares at the face. The face stares back.
"It's rude to stare," the door accuses.
"Where's your ring?" Hoggle demands.
"Don't know," it sniffs. "Don't care."
"Great," Hoggle growls and turns towards the others. "We need to find a brass ring like that one."
Hoggle points a stubby finger towards the ring hanging from the door on the left.
"It's rude to point," the door on the left yells.
"Why do we need it?" asks Hellboy.
"The only way these doors open is to knock on them using the knockers," Hoggle answers.
"Why don't we go through the door on the left, since we can't get through other one?" Liz asks.
"Because that one leads back to the outside of the Labyrinth," Hoggle replies.
"Ok, that's bad," Liz responds. "Red, please put me down now."
Hellboy complies and they start to look for the missing ring.
Toby is mad. Not just mad, he is fuming mad. It's all Sarah's fault. If she had just done as he wanted, then he wouldn't have wished her away. And that stupid Goblin King. Who does he think he is anyways? He left those stupid goblins of his and that brought those people, if 'people' is the right term. Then he got dragged here and now he's stuck in some god forsaken hole in the ground.
Toby hears whimpering and kicks in the general direction of the sound. Failing to hit his mark makes the boy even madder.
"Shut up, you stupid mutt," Toby yells. "It's all your fault we're in here."
Ambrosius keeps well out of the boy's reach since he already sports several sore spots not just from the fall into the oubliette but from the little beast as well. It doesn't help the poor cowardly animal that the bite that caused him to run in the first place still hurts. The dog puts his head down on his paws and silently pines for Sir Didymus and facing dangers untold and hardships unnumbered with his brave knight. Anything would be better than being stuck down here with this abusive creature.
The smell of smoke drifts into the oubliette on a faint breeze catching Ambrosius's attention. Lifting his head up, the steed sniffs deeply. It is coming from somewhere nearby. Getting up, Ambrosius checks carefully, but the breeze isn't coming through the hole they fell through some time ago.
As quietly as he can, he lets his nose lead him to a small opening on the far side of the oubliette. It's just big enough for him to squeeze through. Without a thought for the cruel child behind him, Ambrosius crawls through the hole and starts to wend his way through a maze of dark tunnels. So intent on following his nose, he doesn't notice that he's being followed.
Toby hears the dog moving around, sniffing for something. At first he just ignores the stupid mutt, but when Ambrosius stops on the far side of the hole they're in and sniffs intently, Toby's curiosity is piqued.
He carefully crawls towards the dog only to find a hole in the wall and no dog. Not being a particularly large child finally has an advantage in his life. As quietly as possible, Toby follows the sounds of Ambrosius. Whenever the boy reaches a fork in the tunnel, all he has to do is listen for the sound of Ambrosius's tack or his sniffing or his toenails clicking on the hard ground.
After what seems to be days later, a light can finally be seen at the end of the long winding passage. Upon seeing the light, Ambrosius throws caution to the wind and runs for freedom unaware that the abusive creature he was trying to escape is not far behind.
"Ludo find," the large orange beast exclaims.
Ludo ambles back towards the others carrying the missing brass ring in his hand. The others join him back at the doors. Hoggle takes the ring from his friend and heads for the door without its ring.
"Ok, you, open your mouth," Hoggle orders.
"Mm-mmm," the door utters with its lips tightly pressed together.
"Huh, doesn't want his ring back in his mouth, eh?" the left door says. "Can't say I blame him."
"Here, let me," Liz says.
She takes the ring from Hoggle and walks up to the uncooperative door.
"Open," she orders.
"Mm-mmm," the door responds again.
Igniting her hand, she lets the flames play over her fingers. She idly watches as the blue flames lick at her flesh. She holds it near the face so it can feel the heat and she can see the worry written on its metal features.
"Open your mouth, or I'll melt you," she says in a quiet menacing voice.
Without hesitation, the face opens its mouth and allows Liz to replace the ring. It grumbles as Liz douses the flame and knocks on the door. The door swings open and the travelers walk through into a forest.
"If we hurry and we're lucky, the fireys won't notice us," Hoggle says quietly as he nervously looks around.
The others follow Hoggle as silently as possible until a noise from not to far away causes Didymus to suddenly perk up his head and dirty, matted tail. Without a word, the knight takes off into the forest, following the sound. The rest of the group has no choice but to follow him. No one asks him where he's going; the noise they hear gives them the answer.
Ambrosius trots through the forest, occasionally stopping and sniffing the ground and air, occasionally changing direction. He knows this forest; it is located very close to the Bog where he and Didymus used to guard a rickety old bridge. Crossing that bridge used to scare him, but it's gone now and they live outside the Labyrinth with the other two.
Ambrosius is now looking for a way to get back to his home outside the walls. Maybe he'll find Didymus there. Catching a familiar scent he jogs towards it until he hears a voice that chills him to the bone.
Not knowing what else to do, Toby sits on a rock near the exit hole and sulks. He's furious. He's tired and hungry and that stupid mutt just left without him. If he could, he'd take more of his frustrations out on the dumb animal.
"It's not fair," he pouts. "I didn't want to be here. Why'd that stupid Helljerk have to go and ruin everything? It's not like I asked for his help or anything."
Getting up, Toby starts stomping through the forest looking something, anything, that will help him get out of here or at the very least get him some food. He tromps through the bushes not caring how much damage he causes. Leaving a path of destruction in his wake, Toby continues his journey until he sees a familiar being.
"YOU!" he shouts.
Ambrosius jumps at the sound of Toby's voice. Paralyzed with fear, the dog stands there shaking. He's unable to move as the boy charges up to him and swings his leg at the dog's head. Toby misjudges the distance and only grazes the dog's ear, but that's enough to snap Ambrosius out of his frozen state.
There comes a point in time in everyone's life when you have a choice. You can roll over and die or stand up and fight. That point in time has just come to Ambrosius.
Baring his teeth, Ambrosius lets out a growl that resonates through his chest. Toby stops and stares stupidly at the dog. Ambrosius starts barking and Toby turns tail and runs away with the sheepdog right on his heels. Toby quickly finds a tree with some low branch and scrambles up to safety. Ambrosius remains at the foot of the tree barking loudly so that the entire world knows that he's treed the villain.
A short time later, Didymus comes upon the scene and the most wonderful sight greets his eyes.
"Ambrosius, my valiant steed," Didymus cries. "You are safe."
Ambrosius stops his barking at the sound of his master's voice and turns towards it. Leaping across the clearing, the dog bowls his master over and starts licking the knight's face. Laughing and crying with joy, Didymus doesn't even try to stop him, despite how undignified the whole thing is.
Toby sees his chance to escape and takes it. But before he can touch his foot to the ground, he's plucked off of the tree like he was nothing more than an insignificant insect.
"It seems the pooch treed us a brat," Hellboy chuckles as he brings Toby up to eye level. The kid stares brazenly back into the golden eyes. "Don't try it again kid, next time I'll let the dog eat you."
Hoggle finally makes it to the clearing on his short stubby little legs huffing and puffing.
"Come on, we need to get out of here," he says in a low urgent voice.
Before anyone can ask why, the answer appears in the form of five red and orange strange creatures that are laughing and singing while tossing their own heads around.
"Oh no, not fireys," Hoggle whispers.
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