Del: Wow! I have two readers now!

Bubbles: Yippie!

Del: Weekend has been very long, moved into my new apartment, and still haven't unpacked.

Bubbles: Well as soon as you get your stuff sorted through I'll get mine done!

Del: HEY! YOU HAVE THE NEXT THREE DAYS OFF!

Bubbles: Yeah! But I don't know where all of your stuff goes!

Del: Men……. sigh

Disclaimer: Okay! Don't own anything from the Labyrinth, but I do own the story and the new characters that pop up ( hint: they aren't in the movie)

In Times of Sorrow

Chapter 4

A Difficult Path

Jareth storms through the castle, goblins quickly jumping out of his way doing their best not to upset their distraught master. A few more sophisticated goblins trail behind him apparently frustrated, "But Master who will run the kingdom for a week? There is no one here to rule in your place!" Jareth pauses for a moment, "I hereby appoint…."
"But Master, there is no goblin suited to rule in your place," another goblin interjects.

Jareth sighs in frustration and pulls a black crystal from his sleeve. The goblins gasp in horror and one quickly says, "NO MASTER! NOT HIM!" But one look from Jareth quickly silences the nervous goblin while saying, "You have shown me that I have no choice. Yet you complain when I call upon his aid, and you know how I feel about asking for aid from my brother."

The goblin swallows and says, " I understand completely master, but could the healer Leon not manage in your place?" "NO! Leon must always be watching over Sarah, her health is of dire concern." The goblin hangs his head in defeat, muttering, "Very well, your majesty." Jareth gazes into the black crystal and turning it ever so slightly, the image of a man with dark ebony black hair spiked into a mohawk, and burning red eyes gazes back and smirks. "Well hello brother," the man says.

"Hello Darien, I have a favor to ask of you," Jareth explains, " I must leave my kingdom for a short amount of time, and I will need you to manage in my absence." Darien gives his brother a very skeptical look, "I am rather busy brother, is it of dire emergency that you must go?" Jareth sighs, "Yes Darien, time is of the essence! Are you going to come or not?" Darien laughs, "Of course, I'll always give my older brother a helping hand when I can." Jareth smirks at his brother, "Very well then, I will be leaving immediately!"

The goblins look rather discontent, as Jareth replaces the black crystal into his sleeve with a slip of his hand, and walks down the hall toward the throne room.

Leon and Gobit are sitting quietly in Jareth's chamber keeping watchful eyes on Sarah. Leon checks her temperature and begins rummaging through his bag. "Gobit, please find me some boiling water. We need to make a potion to help Lady Sarah with her fever," Gobit quickly salutes, "Yus sur!" And with that the little goblin hurries out of the room, while Leon continues to pull jars and bags of herbs and roots out of his medicinal bag.

As Jareth opens the doors to his throne room he is greeted by the sight of his brother lounging on his throne, "Hello Jareth." The man smiles and quickly standing gives his brother a huge bear hug! "Hello Darien," Jareth grumbles. "So what is so important that the great Goblin King must abandon his kingdom to his younger brother for a week," Darien questions.

"Okay Darien, this isn't a very easy subject for me, never has been, but it is a girl," Jareth states. Darien chokes back a laugh while Jareth stares deadly daggers at his brother for almost laughing, "You're serious?" Darien asks. "Of course! I wouldn't have called you here for nothing," Jareth says and walking from the throne room with his brother following intently. Jareth opens the door to his chamber room and enters quietly.

Leon looks up from the bowl of herbs in his hand, "Your majesty, her fever is still high, but I'm working on a potion to lower her fever and help her rest more fully." "Thank you Leon," Jareth motions to his brother, "Leon this is my brother Darien, he will be managing the kingdom while I'm away." Leon bows to Darien, "It is a pleasure to met you sire."

Darien waves his hand absentmindly, "You don't have to call me that. I'm not royalty, Jareth is the pure-blooded Fae, I'm just his half-breed younger brother." Walking up to the bed Darien gives Sarah a good look, "So this is her brother?" Jareth stands beside the bed, while Darien begins to walk around and says, "Yes, she is very ill at the moment so I'm going on a quest to find the Dragon's Crystal."

Darien stops suddenly and looks at Jareth, "The Dragon's Crystal, but brother that is a quest for fools and madmen, she must be special indeed if you are willing to take on that quest. But my only question is why? What is wrong with her?"

Leon is crushing leaves in his bowl and Jareth runs his hand through his hair, "She has lost a large amount of blood, and if we can't find a way to replenish her body and help her heal then she will die." Darien runs his fingers over the comforter, "Well if you are willing to risk so much for her, then all I can say is that I wish you the best brother."

Jareth smiles at his younger brother for the first time as they clasp hands, "Thank you Darien, I won't forget this." Darien smirks and replies, "Don't worry about it, this will be a piece of cake." Jareth looks at Darien and then at Sarah, "I really hope so brother."

Jareth and Darien are sitting together in the throne room looking over a map, Darien points to a spot on the map and says, "This map is of the Dragon kingdom, I drew this a few months ago when I mistakenly got caught up in a dispute between a few dragons and gremlins and ended up imprisoned in the fort." Jareth looks at his brother, "How did you escape?"

Darien leans back and stretches, "Well when they realized that I wasn't a spy for the gremlins they were more understanding and ended up becoming a guest of theirs for a while." Jareth looks over the map, "So you are familiar with the Mountain of Kintar?"

Darien sighs, "Unfortunately not, the Dragon kingdom is in a state of civil disrest at the moment. As you know the Old One finally relinquished his rule and returned to the Heaven of Dragons. And then the kingdom was split, for his two sons had different ideals of the future of the kingdom."

"One son, the oldest, wanted to rule as his father had done; maintaining peace and prosperity within the kingdom and the other kingdoms of the Underground. Yet the youngest son had a different idea, jealous of the fact he may never rule the kingdom the young dragon collected the few dragon followers he had and laid siege on the Mountain of Kintar."

A goblin enters carrying a tray and offers a glass of wine to the brothers, taking the glasses and handing one to Jareth, Darien continues, "The youngest succeeded in taking the mountain, so he now has the Dragon's Crystal imprisoned within the mountain. The oldest, refuges to wage war on his brother and peace talks are in the progress. But it has created chaos for the kingdom. The subjects are torn, the older wiser dragons support peace, whereas the younger more restless dragons demand conquest and war."

Darien sips from his wine and pulling a large sword from the sheath on his back and hands it to Jareth, "This sword belonged to the Old One's royal guard, and any respectable dragon will honor the code that belongs to this sword. No harm shall come to you within their lands, and no harm may you bestow upon any dragon with this sword, unless the blessing of redemption has been placed upon the weapon."

Jareth holds the sword carefully; the blade is sharp but old, with gold and silver dragon's tails entwined around the center, ending in a dragon's head holding the handle of the sword. "Blessing of redemption?" Darien sighs, "Yeah, in all my years I've never heard of that spell except from dragons. I do not know what it is, but I fear that you may need some help on your journey, and unfortunately this sword and map are all that I have to offer. Jareth, you might have a large task at hand than you originally expected, are you sure that you can do this?"

Jareth stands and placing a holster around his shoulders slides the sword into the sheath on his back, "I have to do whatever I can to save her. I will enter the kingdom and seek the oldest brother for his aid, then I will do what I must to obtain the crystal."

Darien stands and faces his brother, "Very well then, may the fates smile upon you brother. I will watch over your kingdom until you return." Taking his brother's hand in a firm handshake Jareth says, "Thank you brother, and please protect Sarah, I can't lose her." Darien smiles, "Very well brother, I've never known you to lose your head over a girl but I will most definitely protect her. If you don't mind me asking, who is she?"

Jareth rolls the map up it vanishes with a wave of his hand as he says, "She is the only mortal that has ever defeated me." Darien gasps, "But I feel that my defeat was nothing in comparison to the defeat she has felt. I don't really know why this has happened but I must save her."

Darien sighs as the two brothers leave the throne room and stand at the entrance of the castle, "So she is mortal, but you love her?" Jareth faces the lands to the west, "Yes, I love her." And with that Jareth spins and in a flurry of glitter and white feathers, transforms into an owl and flies west into the setting sun.

Inside the castle, Leon and Gobit are boiling the potion for Sarah but they don't see her eyelids flutter, nor do they hear the gentle whisper of Jareth's name.

Del: OKAY! Well another chapter down. Sorry it took so long, I've had a lot of work in the office to do lately and I've just been busy and..

Bubbles: Excuses, excuses, EXCUSES!

Del: Hey you! You aren't helping much.

Bubbles: pouting Sorry.

Del: It's okay kiss Bubbles?

Bubbles: My bubbles!

Del: laughs, Okay guys read and review. Hope you like the way the story is going, I just sort of think out a chapter every day and type it out while I'm at work and have access to a computer.