The Most Unlikely Foe
Author's Note:
Thanks very much for your reviews; I'm really glad you're enjoying this so far. I'll try my very best to keep the updates coming as quickly as possible.
Hope you like this chapter and please review when you're done reading.
Three
"That's Right, Yes, Yes, Yes"
"Another dead-end! What is this place anyway!" Aragorn fumed as he pounded a fist against the wall.
"It's a maze, it's supposed to have dead-ends." Pippin said cheerfully.
"For pity's sake! This is getting us nowhere!" Boromir threw his hands up in the air and slumped to the ground with his back pressed to the wall.
"Sitting there isn't going to help." Aragorn yelled down at him.
"Well when you think of a better way to get to the castle, other than walking in circles, I will get back up."
"You want to get to the castle?"
The group looked up to the top of the wall where the voice had come from. Sitting there, with its head tipped to the side was the hunched form of the strangest looking vulture they had ever seen.
"Did you just speak?" Aragorn asked uncertainly.
The vulture tipped its head to the other side but didn't respond. Aragorn sighed and was about to haul Boromir to his feet when the voice sounded from above him again.
"You want to get to the castle, yes, yes, yes?"
"That's right." Aragorn tried again.
"No one here goes to the castle. Always those from outside, yes, yes, yes."
"What do you mean?"
"His majesty rules with an iron fist, yes, yes, yes. We don't go there."
"So you're afraid of the Goblin King?"
"Very much, yes, yes, yes." He nodded his head vigorously, bobbing its long neck up and down. "Whose child did he take?"
"Child?"
"Yes, yes, yes, his Majesty takes children wished away to him. No one wanted them then but they always want them back, yes, yes, yes."
"No he hasn't taken a child from us he has taken our friend, he's an Elf.
"Not a child? Most unusual, yes, yes, yes. The King, he will be pleased."
"What do you mean pleased?"
"It is a lonely place to rule, the Labyrinth. His majesty he takes the children, plays his game, and then turns the child into a Goblin. Goblins are not pleasurable companionship."
Aragorn could have sworn the bird grinned maliciously but his brain just couldn't deal with that right now.
"So what are you saying? That the Goblin King plans to use Legolas as some sort of sex slave?"
This time the vulture erupted in cackling laughter; it's whole body shaking, before it settled down again.
"His majesty does not need to take from your friend, nor will he. He likes the game of the chase too much. He will seduce your Elf by any means necessary though, using magic is not considered cheating."
Aragorn's eyes widened as he realised the gravity of the situation. They needed to rescue Legolas and they needed to do it fast.
When the bird spoke again its mood had returned to that before it had revealed his Kings plans for Legolas.
"But I feel sorry for your friend, yes, yes, yes."
"Well do you think you feel sorry enough to help us find him?"
The bird ruffled its feathers and shook it's head.
"His majesty will kill me if he finds out I was helping, yes, yes, yes." It sounded nervous but also like it was contemplating helping them.
"We wont let him. Do you know the way to the castle?"
"Yes, yes, yes, but only by flying see." It spread its wings to illustrate the point.
"Well can you help us at all?"
It hopped from one foot to the other and glance from left to right several times before answering.
"I can get you out of stone maze, yes, yes, yes. I will fly above. Show you the way. Take you to garden, yes, yes, yes. No closer, no, his majesty will see and I will be gone, yes, yes, yes."
"Thank you."
Aragorn grabbed Boromir roughly by the arm and hauled him to his feet.
"Time to go. This bird if going to get us out of here."
"So you're a Prince? How very delightful." The Goblin King held a silver goblet in one hand and put it to his lips, drinking deeply from it.
Jareth was perched on the ledge of an arched window, having given up his throne to Legolas. The Elf sat, facing the Goblin King, and swirling the liquid in the goblet. He had been weary of drinking it ever since he had begun to feel light-headed after the second glass. Normally alcohol had very little effect on him, even Mirkwoods strong wines could not do anything to impair his judgement, but for some reason this liquor was starting to go to his head.
Jareth picked himself up from the window and sauntered his way over to the Elf sitting in his throne. He sat himself in Legolas' lap and draped his arm about the Elf's neck.
"I've never had royalty wished away to me before."
He ran a tongue up the side of Legolas' face and the Prince shivered. Jareth smirked to himself as the Elf kept his eyes fixed forward.
"Drink up. I would hate for a guest of mine to go thirsty."
He pushed the bottom of the goblet in Legolas hand up until the rim touched his lips, forcing the Elf to swallow a mouthful before Jareth would remove his hand.
"I though I was your prisoner."
"I keep my prisoners locked in a dungeon. Though if you're that way inclined we could have you taken down there and chained to the wall."
Legolas turned frightened eyes on the Goblin King, who erupted in malicious laughter.
"Your Highness."
Jareth snapped his eyes around to glare furiously at the Goblin who had entered the throne room.
"What!"
"Sorry to interrupt your Highness but his friends they……well they've…"
"What is it, spit it out!"
"They've reached the gardens sire."
"What! How could this happen! They were going so poorly when I last looked!"
He leapt up from Legolas' lap and stalked over to the Goblin who cowered before him.
"Get out of my sight or I will send you straight to the Bog of Eternal Stench!"
The Goblin scurried off as fast as his squat legs could carry him.
Jareth stood fuming for a moment before he conjured up a crystal. Staring down into the crystal he saw the group gathered at the entrance to the gardens and threw the object against a wall, shattering it into tiny glass slivers.
"I suppose you might have underestimated them." Legolas smirked over at Jareth.
"Well then, I might just have to pay them a visit."
Legolas gasped and jumped up to try and stop him but he was too late. The Goblin King was gone, leaving only a shower of glitter behind.
"I leave you here, yes, yes, yes. Must not go any further, no. You have a long way to go from here. Good luck."
With that the vulture ruffled his feathers some more before he took off. They watched him go before entering the garden through a stone archway.
"It's nice to see grass again." Merry sighed as he wriggled his toes in the well-kept grass.
"I'm glad my gardens are to your liking."
"You!" Aragorn spun to face Jareth, who was leaning with his back against a nearby tree
"Were you expecting anyone else?"
"What have you done to Legolas?"
"Nothing to harm him." Jareth smirked.
"You keep your hands off him!"
Jareth laughed loudly.
"Who have you been talking to Aragorn? Legolas is enjoying a nice glass of my finest liquor in my throne room. As for the rest of you, you really have made too much progress for my liking. I think I might have to up the anti a little, I've never let a group run my Labyrinth before."
"You can't do that!" Gimli yelled.
"Oh but it's my Labyrinth and my rules. I can change them at will. Enjoy!"
There was a bright flash of light and a lot of smoke but when it cleared the Goblin king was nowhere to be seen and a giant stone chessboard had replaced the grass in front of them. The pieces were the size of people and there was no way past it except to walk straight across it.