CH11

"Jareth are you trying to scare me to death!" Sarah yelled. Jareth was standing just outside the door now rubbing his ears after Sarah's scream.

"No I was just thinking you might like someone to escort you to dinner since you wouldn't know your way. We are having it on the veranda because it looks like it will be a beautiful night."

"Oh," Sarah said, "Thank you." Her pulse was still racing.

"Do anything interesting in the past few hours?" Jareth asked while leading Sarah to dinner.

"Other then take a shower and sleep, I really didn't do much."

"Oh did you have any good dreams?"

"Actually I dreamt that I was at a Finally Day Festival trying to walk through a group of goblins. Of coarse they wouldn't move and I began to get really frustrated. I started to yelling at them telling them, "You think you would show a little more respect for," and Sarah stopped. It would be to embarrassing to tell Jareth the rest.

"For?"

"such a pretty girl! Any ways it is of no importance really. What did you do?" Sarah said as quickly as she could.

Jareth gave Sarah a strange look but decided to answer her question, "I read some history books. It is not one of my favorite subjects but it is something you need to know if you want to be a good ruler."

"Oh well I bet that The Underground's history is a lot more interesting then the history I had to read."

"It is still basically the same thing except ours has a little more magic. There are rulers, paintings and boring battles. Well they aren't all boring. I do rather like reading about how Aslan defeated the White Witch."

"Wait! You mean Aslan actually lived?"

"Yes he did. He was a great ruler."

"So the Chronicles of Narnia really happened?" Sarah asked.

"That's right I forgot, you read the fictionalized version of our history. Someone from your world got hold of some tidbits of history from ours. I hear they made a lot of stuff up but all in all it is right on the mark. The same can be said for Harry Potter. Oh here let me get that for you." Jareth opened a glass door that lead out onto a beautiful terrace.

There was a very heavily carved table with lots of strange food on it and candles lit all around. Sarah's attention now seemed to be drawn to what appeared to be a roasted 3 legged chicken of some sort.

"I thought you might like to try some goblin cuisine." Jareth said.

"It looks delicious," Sarah said not really sure if that was a lie or not.

Jareth pulled out a chair for Sarah. After she was seated he sat down at the opposite end. There was already food on Sarah's plate. Some of the chicken like substance, which Jareth told her was called Picoscentamaski and actually had more qualities of a steak was on her plate. She also had a strange kind of steamed bean that reminded Sarah of Spaghetti O's, and what looked like green mashed potatoes with red gravy. To Sarah's surprise it all tasted very good. I could not really tell you what all the food actually tasted like for none of the tastes exist in our diet. All I can tell you is that it was delicious.

The table was not built for conversation. They were at least 30 feet apart. Every once in a while they would look up at each other and acknowledge the others existence. Other then that there was very little conversation through the whole meal until,

"Excuse me Jareth but isn't that your third bottle of wine?" Sarah yelled across the table.

"My forth!" Jareth yelled back.

"I didn't ask about your fork. I asked if that was your third bottle of wine."

"I said it is my FORTH," Jareth yelled back holding up four fingers.

"Oh, my bad!" Sarah said.

"Are you finished with your dinner?" Jareth asked.

"I'm done," Sarah yelled back.

"You're fun?" Jareth asked.

"No I am DONE! I FINISHED my dinner!" Sarah shouted.

"Would you like to go somewhere where we can just talk?" Jareth hollered to Sarah. She gave a face that looked like she didn't understand what he said. "Would you like to go someplace so we can talk?" he said.

Sarah held up her hand telling him to wait a minute. She came running down to his side of the table. "Jareth I can't understand a word you are saying from over there. Do you want to go someplace where we can just talk?" Sarah asked.

Jareth laughed, "You took the words right out of my mouth. Let's go to the garden."

"Alright," Sarah said. Jareth picked up his bottle of wine and they were off.

"Do you always eat dinner at that table?" Sarah asked while lying by the side of the fountain outside of her room. She was looking up at the stars. There were so many that they just seemed to clump together to make one massive sheet of white across the night sky.

"Yes I do," replied Jareth who was sitting on a bench just across from her, "Usually it is just me eating so I don't mind." He then took a huge swig from the bottle in his hand.

"What is that stuff?" Sarah asked looking over at him, "You seem addicted to it."

"It is Peach Wine. One of my countries most sought after products. Would you like to try some?"

"Sure. Is there not a lot of it or something?" Sarah asked.

"Oh no there is plenty. It is just that the goblins that help make the wine also help in drinking it." Jareth formed a crystal in his hand and transformed it into a glass. He poured some wine and handed it over to Sarah.

"I can't believe you let them drink on the job. Don't you get upset with them?" Sarah asked while taking a sip.

"How could I? It is in the goblins nature to try and have a good time. They can't help it sometimes. It can be annoying but hey it makes this stuff really rare outside of the country so that gives us more visitors from other lands thus increasing our number of tourists. So it all works out in the end."

"You know I thought you hated the goblins." Sarah said while downing her whole glass, "Dang this stuff is really good. Can I have some more?"

"Yes you can. Here," He handed Sarah the bottle, "And I don't hate them. They can be severely annoying at times. I do tend to get angry with them a lot but all in all I don't hate them. I couldn't for I created them. I made them into who they are." Jareth pulled out a crystal and transformed it into another bottle of wine.

"You said you grew fond of Toby while he was here, in the letter you wrote me. If I hadn't beaten the labyrinth would you have still turned him into a goblin?"

"Actually I wouldn't have. Toby was much different then any other baby I ever took. He looked intelligent. You could see it in his eyes. I could see him taking over the throne once I was tired with it. I never planned on turning Toby into a goblin. I was going to keep him as my son."

"Yeah Toby is a good kid. It is hard to believe when he has a mother like Karen. Oh how I hate that wench!" Sarah said while taking another long drink from her bottle.

Jareth laughed, "She does seem like the perfect evil stepmother."

"Stepmother? Ha" Sarah said, "She doesn't think she is my stepmother. To her I am the hired help that doesn't get paid! My dad had to go behind Karen's back so that my Aunt could come over and help me with the house and Toby while they went on their vacation. She thinks I can do all of that by myself. Grant it I could have. But that would have been torture. I would have been a blabbering idiot by the time they got back. Which is probably what she wanted!" Sarah yelled flailing her arms.

"You know what? I think that is enough wine for you young missy." Jareth sat down next to Sarah as he tried to reach over her for the bottle.

Sarah looked him in the eyes, "I will tell you when it is enough. And it is not enough!"

"Alright, whatever you say. But don't blame me for the headache you will have tomorrow."

"Fine. So since we talked about my wonderful stepmother why don't you tell me about your parents?" Sarah took another gulp from her bottle.

"What's to say about my parents?" Jareth asked, "My mother died when she was giving birth to my younger sister, I was12. My father then buried himself in his work and I was left to raise Justine."

"Did he remarry a wench too? Do you have any evil stepmother stories?" Sarah rambled

"I hear he did remarry. See after he retired he moved to the Aboveground. I think to some forest called Holly's Wood. I hear he has been married three times," Jareth said.

"I am going to become a nun." Sarah said as she put her head on Jareth's shoulder.

"Now why would you say that Sarah?" Jareth asked looking down at her.

Sarah looked him in the eyes, "Because marriage sucks. The only guy I can think of that has never messed up is Jesus. So I may as well just marry God and become a Nun!"

"I know you don't want that Sarah," Jareth stated, "Don't waste your life down that road. You are much better then that. Just because your exboyfriend Ryan was an ass doesn't mean you should give up. Sarah if you put your mind to it I am sure you could have any man you want."

"Any guy?" Sarah asked.

"Yes any 'guy'," Jareth said.

"Well I want Bill Gates!"

"Why would you want him? He is getting up there in age."

Sarah laughed, "Excuse me! How old are you?"

"1250 but I don't get old so there is a difference."

Sarah looked into his mismatched eyes and knew he was right. For 1250 he was very attractive. Sarah didn't know if it was the wine talking but at the moment she just wanted to be close to him, as close to him as she could get. You could tell Jareth felt the same way for he had that look in his eyes. The same one he had after the food fight.

Jareth and Sarah were both gazing at one another. Sarah was focused on Jareth's lips more then anything. His eyes were beautiful but his lips looked so soft. Sarah could feel her mouth tingling. She wanted to feel his lips on hers. Sarah began to lean into Jareth.

The clock by Sarah's room then chimed 13 o'clock.