Yadda yadda yadda. Same old disclaimer here. Please remember, though, that this PLOTLINE and original characters, are mine. Muahaha.

Golden Threads

Chapter 5: Back to School

As it was nearing midnight, exhaustion finally claimed Sarah. The visions alone were near enough to drive her into her blankets, in hopes of solitude an silence, but having been up since the morning before had her physically exhausted as well. She crawled into her low bed, pulling the quilt up under her chin. School would start again the next day, and she didn't want to be a walking zombie on the first day of the semester. All of the strange things that had been happening lately had her on edge. How was she supposed to go to school and work while pretending things are normal, and then come home and have visions and talk to her cat? Things didn't seem to add up in her mind.

"Goodnight, Aurie," she said quietly, "now for some peaceful sleeping."

"Sleep well, child," the cat replied quietly, "For your dreams shall not be peaceful. You shall find yourself soon enough."

"What do you mean, find myself?" Yawn.

"Your dreams will be a part of your journey. You shall see. Sleep now."

With that thought, Sarah began to drift off to some much needed sleep. A few hours of peaceful, energy restoring sleep passed by. Then the dreams came, the dreams of her past, in all of its humiliation, pain, and joy. The dreams that would show Sarah what this lifetime had made her, and what it had taught her. Royal eyes watched on, preparing to watch her dreams, as he often did. While he could not enter her waking visions, her nightly dreams were wide open to him. He got comfortable, knowing that this night's dreaming might take a while.

A familiar face. It was Sarah's last real boyfriend. They were serious, in this instant. Flashes of their intimate moments. Passionate lovemaking, tiny gestures of care, long discussions about life. Shared hopes and dreams, interests, outings, dates. Confessions of love. Then the real nightmare hit. Sickness, the fear. Him stating clearly, 'If you were to get pregnant in the future, I'd take care of you. I think I could handle it at this stage of life, though I wouldn't wish for it. I'd do the right thing, probably marry you.' More sickness. The thin white stick, two pink lines. Tears. A phone call. 'I'm pregnant'. The anger. He breaks up with her, asks her to adopt the child out to a family. He's not ready to be a father, he says. They have classes. She starts to feel even more sick than before. She faints after some classes, and can't walk very far. Constant, shooting, burning, throbbing pain. The doctor. Discussions with parents. The disappointment of her family, of his. The distrust. Medical instruments. They had to terminate to save her life. Her body had tried to miscarry over and over again. Her blood pressure would crest, and then plummet. The baby's heart had slowed to an unhealthy rate. The blood. The abortion. No anesthesia. Horrible, ripping pain, as the nurse held her down to the table. The month of bleeding and pain that followed. Thoughts of suicide, tears, low grades, apathy. Alone. No-one to turn to. Internal strength. Friends coming to her, those she had ignored while with him. Shame. Resolve. Hopes and dreams, then they shattered. Sleep was her only solace.

The dream shifts, the last funeral. Her grandmother, the last grandmother, passes. She is sick for days, unable to hold the most basic foods down. The tattoo, the promise to never forget those she had lost. Her grandparents, her child, and her best friend. The thought pulls her to the graveside of that friend. She had died early in college. Cancer, robbing her of the simple joys she had loved. A memory of her hands on the fresh soil of the grave. Tears. Farther back. She sees her love of performing. Dance. Winterguard. Theater. The feeling of electricity with her fellow performers when they were completely on. The rush of emotion running through them, and through the crowd. The elation of a great performance. The cheers. The awards. The standing ovation. Back. Middle school. Ballet, tap, jazz. Art. The beginnings of her passion to paint. Her first few masterpieces. Her pets, always there, always protecting. Always choosing their 'person' in the family. So many of them chose her. Her early abilities in academia. Reading and writing at three. Division at five. Farther back, her earliest memories. A desert, alive with color. Swimming, cool water. Snakes under the shade of a large oak tree. Her brothers and sister. Tea.

Strange, thought the Goblin King, that her first memory is of tea. He thought more on the image that came to mind. Her mother, humming a haunting melody, while sliding fresh lemon slices into a large glass container. She was making sun-tea, Sarah's favorite. It was one of the only things the small girl could see, from across the room. Her thick glasses weighted down on her face. With her glasses on, things still needed to be far away for her to see them clearly. The fresh wonderful colors of the tea had drawn her attention. They went outside. Sarah, the tiny girl-child she was, pulled the glasses off. The horizon blinked sharply into focus. A falcon soared. Unusual for that part of the country, but the tiny Sarah had not known that. The bird was in perfect focus, over a hundred yards away. "Mommy," the tiny girl had barely said, "birdy gots a mouse!" She pointed. Her mother had lifted binoculars, for they were the reason for the outing, and gasped. There, dangling from the clutches of the falcon, was a pale gray mouse.

Jareth was in awe of the memory. Then he realized. The girl had had far-sight. She could see great distances with amazing clarity, but had not learned to see things nearby yet. That was common in fae children with the ability. He was angered, though, at the glasses. She had never truly needed them. Her mortal parents simply didn't realize what a gift their daughter had. The years of glasses and teasing had been unnecessary. Proof enough of that had come when Sarah had started coming into her power. Her vision was immaculate. A thought struck Jareth. Why in all the heavens would a child with cat guardians have a falcon's far-sight?

Morning dawned cold and early for Sarah. Her first classes of semester were pretty early in the morning, compared with the semester before. Yawning widely, she wiped at the remainders of tears on her cheeks. Why she had dreamt of the fiasco, as she called it, she didn't know. The last thing she had wanted to think of that morning was the baby, though. It always brought her down. Well, she thought, that baby wouldn't have wanted me to fail completely at school, so I might as well get moving. A quick breakfast and long hot shower later, and Sarah was in her sweet old car on the way to school. The cat had made her hide her necklace under her shirt, the mere thought of which had made Sarah giggle. Who would care if Sarah was wearing a weird necklace? That alone was pretty normal. She shrugged all strange feelings aside, as to get on with the day. She got to school early, and went off in search of her new classrooms. "Come on feet," she said, and stopped in her tracks. Where had that phrase come from? Next thing you know, she thought, I'll be saying all the lines from that movie.

Class to class, she went that day. Everything seemed pretty normal. They got their syllabi, book lists, test dates and such. Some classes made them take notes on the first day, and several gave out assignments. Her crossover class between anthropology and history seemed like it would be interesting, and Spanish was always useful, but her math course and literature course were rather dry. She loved reading, but not the old "literary classics" and definitely not most of the American authors in that classification. She would deal with it though. She would have to read some boring old stories about eras and people she didn't really care to read about, and pass the class. No big deal. She hadn't actually been to her literature course when she pondered this thought, though. She had a break. She sat down on a bench on campus and pulled her sketchbook from her bag. Letting her pencil drift across the page had always been a great idea before, and it seemed to be keeping her nerves calm until she looked down. Staring up from the page was a sketchy, but very clear image of a castle set in the middle of a great maze.

"Whoa, Sarita, nice sketch," a voice came from behind her, "somewhere you've visited?"

"Oh, yeah, Daize," Sarah said, shoving the book into her bag, " 'cuz they have castles in America." Her friend Daisy was always a little funny about travels, and bad jokes.

"Oh, yeah...HISASHIBURI DESUNE!" Daisy yelled, throwing her arms around her friend. "How was your break?"

"Boring, I guess," she said, snickering to herself. "Y tu?"

"Got back from New York on Saturday." Daisy had been planning that trip for weeks, saying she'd be out of touch while she was gone, but that she would be back right before classes, unless her mother and she got in another huge argument.

"Oooh! I still want to go there! How was it?"

"Shiny!" Both girls fell into fits of random laughter, thinking of the movie they'd seen the semester before, Serenity.

"Sou desuka?" Sarah asked, grinning.

"Geez, don't you two ever speak the same language for more than a minute?" a male voice said, approaching them, "Or, did you forget how?"

"Hey Jon," Sarah said, "you know we just like to confuse you mere males."

"Yeah, yeah...but can we at least keep it to a language we all know? We can't all speak like, four of them, like you two." Jon sat on the bench with the girls, opening a soft drink. Sarah regarded the young man on the bench. Shorter than either girl, and very distinctly Chinese, he was in their Japanese class, the next day.

"Come on, Jon," she said, "we all know you speak Spanish. You're a closet Mexican!" Daisy fell in on the joke.

"Yeah, Jon, that photo we have of you in the sombrero proves it!"

"Argh!" He growled and stood up.

"Gomene!" the girls said in unison, "Let's get some lunch!"

Jareth watched in his crystal, silently amused by the antics. The mind that Sarah possessed could be matched by few. She spoke several languages, though not with any real fluency, yet. Other than Spanish, she was still in the learning phase of the other languages. With her tiny amount of magic that she had used so far, though, she would be able to enhance her own ability to learn. With the great intelligence that she already possessed, that was a frightening prospect. Her world measured the ability to learn as intelligence. The IQ that was often so faulty as a person aged. Hers had been nearly 170 as a child, but she had declined any testing as she aged.

"Sire," Kaltar said, with a bow, as he entered Jareth's study. "I have brought the librarian."

"Councilman of Libraries, so good of you to come," Jareth said, standing to greet the guest, "I believe we have a good deal to discuss?"

"Indeed," he said, taking a seat. His white silk pants and loose fitting mesh robe settled elegantly on the chair. Ptah was still finely built at his age. Bronzed skin and defined muscles were displayed with a sense of modesty by the loose, flowing garments. The robe was barely covering his golden necklace and arm bands. Jewels and hieroglyphics shone from the metal. He looked the part of an Egyptian god, which ironically, he was to the Aboveground. Sharply contrasting, Jareth sat at his desk, as well. His black and gray ensemble, white hair and pale skin made him the silver to Ptah's gold. "M'lord of Goblins," Ptah started, "Shall we discuss recent events, the books, or people first?"

"Councilman of Libraries," Jareth started but was cut off.

"No need for such formalities, my boy, we won't have so much time for all of that, and I am in your home."

"Fair enough," Jareth said, and started over, "Ptah. I believe that first we should discuss Sarah."

"She is deeply entrenched in all three. Which aspect should we start with?"

"Recent events, then" Jareth said. "What is happening to her?"

Ptah brushed long black hair back from his eyes, looking thoughtfully at Jareth. "What isn't?"

Author's Note: I know, I know. Another short Chapter. And a tiny bit of a cliffie, at that!

Hisashiburi Desune it's close to "long-time-no-see" in Japanese. It's only really used if you haven't seen a friend in a while. "Y tu" is "and you?" in Spanish. "Sou desuka" is the closest English spelling I could come up with for the Japanese phrase equivalent to "is that so?" It's also used for "Really?" "Gomene" is like, "sorry" in a way, though in this instance, I'm probably using it incorrectly. But then, they would know that, and say it anyways. I'm studying both languages for my major in school, so PLEASE don't criticize my use of them. Also understand, when I use Japanese, it's hard to show exactly how it should be spelled, without using their hiragana or katakana versions. So, SOU it's pronounced like "sow" or "so-u" but a continuation of the "o" sound in "so". Okay? Good. I know my chapters aren't very long right now, but come on...I have school and work to take care of! As usual, thanks to Not Human and SilverWing02 for the reviews they've been leaving me!

Also: I do not intend ANY offense or discrimination of ANY racial group with the jokes my characters are making. They are based off of a running joke with a group of my friends about our Chinese friend being mistaken for Mexican last year. It's his mustache, okay?