The Most Unlikely Foe
Ten
Thirteen Hours
"Why does everything in this dismal place look like it was built 200 years ago and never maintained properly?" Boromir grumbled as he kicked a stone off the edge of the cliff and watched it plummet towards the gorge's bottom.
"Well it's seems to be the only way across Boromir so we're just going to have to hope that the bridge holds out." Aragorn said through gritted teeth as he inspected the ropes holding up this side of the bridge.
The other man was starting to really grate on his nerves, especially seeing as this whole incident was his doing. Still Aragorn knew for sure they must be running out of time and didn't want to waste precious time arguing with the Steward's son.
Warily Aragorn stepped out onto the old bridge. It creaked loudly under his added weight and he held his breath as he brought his other foot forward to join the first. He took a few more steps out onto the bridge and when he was sure the structure was not going to disappear from beneath his feet he turned back to face the others.
"Perhaps it might be best if we cross one by one. I'm not sure how much weight this bridge can hold."
Merry and Pippin exchanged a worried look as they watched Aragorn slowly make his way across the worn bridge, knowing that they soon would also have to make what appeared to be a rather perilous crossing.
They had been in the throne room no more than a few moments before Legolas wrenched himself from Jareth's hold and ran for the open window. He stuck his head out into the fresh air and breathed in deeply, relishing the feeling of the wind as it caressed his face and tussled his hair.
His hands griped the stone ledge in front of him and his grip tightened considerably as he suddenly felt a warm weight pressed up against his back. His spine stiffened as hot breath tickled his sensitive ear and he felt an arm slip about his waist.
"Now why the sudden resistance Legolas. You didn't seem so objectionable when we were down in the dungeon." Jareth whispered huskily into his ear.
"That's not fair. I was……" Legolas struggled to put the way he had felt, trapped in that dungeon, into words but was having no immediate success.
"You cannot stand there and tell me that you were vulnerable and that I took advantage of you." Jareth taunted the Elf.
Legolas spun around, still pinned between the windowsill and Jareth's body, to face the Goblin King. Anger flared brightly in his eyes and Jareth smirked at his reaction, raising an eyebrow and daring the Elf to come up with another explanation.
"No you didn't, I never said you did. It's just…down in the cell…I don't take well to confinement in stone prisons. I needed to feel…"
"Life." Jareth finished for him as he leaned further into the Elf. "You needed to feel my heart beating against your flesh and can you honestly tell me you didn't like it?" He whispered against Legolas' ear and felt the Elf shudder slightly.
Legolas pushed Jareth back from him enough so that he could glare defiantly at him, before he ducked under the monarch's arms and escaped to the other side of the room.
Jareth growled quietly in frustration but was determined not to let Legolas simply walk from this one.
"So nothing?"
"You make it very hard to like you Jareth." Legolas accused as he sat himself in the Goblin King's throne.
"I never asked if you liked me fair Prince. What I asked was whether or not you were attracted to me."
Legolas looked up at Jareth from the other side of the room, the Goblin King leaning against the wall by the window that looked out over the entrance to the Goblin city. He allowed his eyes to sweep up and down Jareth's form. He had permitted himself such looks before but made an obvious point of it now. As his eyes reached the beautifully sculpted face of the Goblin King he was met with a sly smirk and mismatched eyes that knew too much.
"In another time and place, yes I would be attracted to you." Legolas finally admitted, but this did not seem to satisfy Jareth.
"What does that mean exactly?"
"So you can answer in riddles but I cannot?" Legolas protested.
"My kingdom, my rules." Jareth stated with a raised eyebrow and the flip of a slender hand.
Legolas glared at him but when the Goblin King refused to respond he sighed in frustration.
"It's difficult to allow yourself an attraction to the man holding you captive."
"Ah."
"Were we to have met under different circumstances I probably would have been attracted to you. However as it is now I resent you for holding me prisoner here against my will."
Jareth feigned a hurt look and tipped his head to the side before pushing himself off the wall and crossing the small throne room. He seated himself on the arm of his throne but did not encroach upon the Elf any further.
"Surely that is nothing to hold against me. After all I am only doing my job."
Legolas snorted at that and turned away from Jareth, disgusted by the fact that he would consider preforming such tasks as a job.
"So in all fairness you are not really my prisoner."
Jareth reached a hand out to cup the Elf's fair face but Legolas sensed it coming and quickly rose up out of the throne. Whirling to face the Goblin King Legolas stalked up to him and glared down at him.
"You are forcing my friends to run through your Labyrinth, delaying an extremely important task we have taken on in Middle Earth and you expect me to what? Fall to my knees before you?"
Jareth smirked ferrely and flicked a tongue out to wet his lips.
"No I do not expect you to. I want you to, but by no means do I expect it of you. In fact I expect you to fight me as you have been doing since I brought you here."
Legolas groaned in frustration and stalked to the other side of the room as Jareth laughed loudly behind him. Clearly he had only managed to encourage the Fae to pursue him more eagerly.
"Surely you do not find me that repulsive."
"I have already answered that question for you Jareth."
"No you answered my question for another time and place. Here now with, as you so aptly put it, you as my prisoner and I your captor; am I really all that repulsive to you?"
"No."
Jareth raised an eyebrow at the frankness of the reply but said nothing as he waited for the Elf to continue.
"But I object to what you are doing to myself and my companions and so I will continue to deny you what you clearly want."
"And perhaps what you want?"
Legolas chose to ignore the comment and instead returned to his spot looking out the window while Jareth sighed in frustration for the second time in as many minutes and slipped off the arm of his throne to sit in it.
Legolas let the cool wind blowing in through the stone arch to sooth his boiling blood, everything that Jareth has said had hit far too close to the truth for Legolas' liking and he was angry at himself for betraying so much to his captor.
He stared out over the Goblin city and his eyes widened as he spotted movement far off in the distance on the closer side of a deep abyss by an old looking bridge. He straightened slightly and lent out the window slightly to get a better look.
"Aragorn." He breathed as he recognised the five figures now making their way up the long dirt road that would lead them to the city's entrance.
"What?" Jareth looked up from his spot lounging in his throne.
Legolas did not respond but Jareth didn't need him too, he had heard exactly what the Elf said the first time. He leapt up from his throne and strode across the stone floor on long elegant legs. He stepped in behind Legolas and peered out the window over the Elf's shoulder.
What he expected to see was the party of five to be making their way through the Goblin city towards his castle. Instead what he saw was nothing, no matter where he looked or how far out the window he leaned he could not see what the Elf seemed to be focusing on.
"Wishful thinking Legolas." Jareth breathed into Legolas' ear.
Legolas smirked, his eyes still focused on the small group hurrying down the dirt road.
"You're wrong Jareth. I think you have lost this challenge."
Jareth looked across at the Elf in confusion and Legolas turned to him with a bright smile.
"My Elven eyes see far further than yours Goblin King."
"You can see them from here, can't you?" Jareth said through gritted teeth. "They're headed this way, aren't they?"
Legolas only continued to smile, enjoying the look of furious frustration on Jareth's face.
"You loose." Legolas whispered to him.
Suddenly, piercing the quiet and echoing off the stone walls, the chime of an ancient clock caused Legolas' eyes to fly wide open and both the Elven Prince and the Goblin King to turn their attention to the clock hanging on the throne room wall. It's hands were at the thirteenth hour and as realization hit him Legolas sunk to the floor as though his muscles had suddenly forgotten how to hold his weight up.
Jareth smirked down at the Elf now kneeling in disbelief on the stone floor. He crouched down before him and took the Elf's chin between his thumb and index finger, raising his eyes till they met his own.
"No my beautiful Prince, you loose."
Then Jareth was gone, leaving a stunned Legolas sitting on the floor wondering what was to become of him now.
"The Goblin City is a lot smaller than I thought it would be." Merry muttered as they walked, uninhibited through the large gates to the city.
The five looked around, weapons drawn for any sign of guards or an army to put a halt to their advances. The city was eerily quiet and Aragorn wasn't sure whether or not this should worry him. After all, for all he knew about Goblins they could be nocturnal.
However all thoughts of the stillness of the Goblin city were stripped from his mind as the silence was penetrated by the chiming of a clock. It rang out through the city and the group spun around to find its source.
Standing behind them was Jareth a satisfied smirk gracing his face as the ornate clock suspended in the air beside him chimed out its thirteen hours.
Horror replaced shock on the faces of the diminished Fellowship as the thirteenth chime rang out. Jareth stepped gracefully towards them and looked down at them in a very gloating manner.
"It looks like you've lost."
"No." Boromir breathed.
"But…but we're in the Goblin city." Pippin objected.
"But you have failed to reach the castle at its center in the thirteen hours allocated to you. Therefore you loose, I win and you shall be sent back to Middle Earth without your Elven companion. He belongs to me now." Jareth finished with a devilish smirk and watched in satisfaction as a look of horror spread over Aragorn's face.
"Wait! Surely there is something else we can do! This can't be it, you cannot just keep Legolas here." Aragorn argued furiously.
"I'm afraid I can Aragorn. As per the agreement made by your friend Boromir here." Jareth winked over at the other man who growled in helpless frustration.
Aragorn shook his head in disbelief and Gimli raised his axe in a threatening manner, which Jareth choose to ignore in favour of smiling maliciously as he enjoyed his victory. As far as his Labyrinth went he still maintained a relatively perfect record, still only one had beaten him but that was something he had put behind him, for now.
"Well it has been fun watching you all run hopelessly through my Labyrinth but I'm afraid it is time for you to return home."
The wave of a hand was all it took for Jareth to open the portal between the Underground and Middle Earth and with a final smirk from the Goblin King the group of five were swept from the strange world of the Underground and back to their own.