Jareth had not answered Ridels question but instead called one of the taller goblins over.

"Take this young lady up to the guest room will you? I need to think on things." He commanded. The goblin bowed to his king and took her by the wrist. Funny but he was much stronger than he looked. It led her down one of the many dark corridors. She now sat alone in the room the Goblin had so non ceremoniously dumped her in.

It was, she had to admit, a very beautiful room. Or at least had undoubtedly been at one time. The high marble pillars were covered in filth and parts of the floor were stained in suspicious colors. The domed ceiling was a fantastically beautiful sun roof. Unfortunately The glass was so grimy that the only light that filtered through lent an even more depressing air to the room. The smell of the room was absolutely fowl. If these were the guest quarters she didn't want to think of what the dungeons were like.

Ridel had found several bottles of what she assumed to be some sort of goblin ail poorly hidden under the bed sheets. She had been contemplating sleep until she got a glimpse of the ecosystem that had developed in the mattress. She was convinced it had not been cleaned since it's manufacture.

She was sure she could hear tiny little voices coming from it if she listened very carefully. It made her shiver. From then on she made a point not to touch anything. She wished she had slippers on or something. Anything not to have to touch the floor with her bear skin.

"If I ever see my home again I swear that I shall burn my copy of the Labyrinth and stomp on it's charred remains." She muttered to herself.

Ridel felt her heart jumped into her throat as something long and furry crawled out from under the bed and slithered over her feet before disappearing through a huge crack in the wall.

She stood there for quite some time, staring at where the creature had disappeared. She became aware of the sound of innumerable small legs clawing there way around the inside the walls.

"… Okay… That's it, I'm getting out of here right now!"

Ridel walked over to the bed and pulled the top blanket off. Ignoring the shouting and general cursing of the microscopic inhabitants. she shook it out and stripped the bed of all it's sheets. She tied them to each other end to end then finally secured her makeshift rope to one of the bed posts. Satisfied that it would hold her weight she walked over to one of the filthy windows and, after some searching through the muck, found the latch and swung it open.

She stuck her head out and surveyed the ground below her.

The goblin City stretched out in front of her, completely deserted.

'That'll work.' She thought, and without further adieu tossed her makeshift escape rope out the window. It didn't quite reach the ground but it looked like she could make the drop safely.

Ridel froze. The click clack of high heel boots. Someone was coming, and she was reasonably sure it wasn't a goblin.

It was now or never. She crawled onto the window ledge. Suddenly the window seemed much higher than the last time she looked.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep steadying breath and With a small whimper of fear she grabbed the rope and jumped.

A key turned in the lock and Jareth Swung the door open.

"And how is my little gust enjoying her…self?" He suddenly noticed that he was addressing a room completely devoid of his captive. However, the classic bed sheet escape mechanism caught his eye and he walked over to the open window. Leaning over the sill he saw that the girl was about half way down the castle wall.

"Hello there!"

Ridel froze in her decent and looked slowly up at the smirking goblin king. She was surprisingly embarrassed and said the only thing that came to her. "…Uh… Hello."

"Having fun are we?" he asked.

Ridel groaned. "Well something tells me it's much more fun from ware your standing."

He Grinned. "So… will you be a good little girl and climb back up here, or do I have to climb down there and get you myself?"

"well… Let me think about it…" She hung there swaying with the rope and pretending to think about the prospect. "No if it's all the same to you I think I'll just keep doing what I was doing."

"Very well." Jareth stood up strait and suddenly took hold of the rope. "Dear me, I wonder what would happen if I did this!" He pulled on the bed sheets and heard a satisfying shriek from Ridel, who had almost lost her grip.

"DON'T DO THAT!" she screamed, as if he might actually stop.

He continued to pull the bed sheets into the room and Ridel climbed furiously down until she was at the end of the rope. Suddenly there was no way she would survive the drop to the ground and her only option was to let the goblin king drag her the rest of the way up the wall.

Jareth was enjoying himself immensely. Ridel squealed so nicely. Then he froze. A white raven was circling almost out of view. He nearly dropped the sheets as the full import of the creatures presence hit him. 'Byrem. Byrem is here! In my labyrinth! He must have found out about my little guests.'

The raven disappeared in the glare of the sun, as if it had been no more than a mirage. Jareth knew better.

Coming back to the present Jareth hauled the shaky red head back into the room and shut the window. "Well now, that was rather stupid wasn't it."

Ridel hung her head and tried her best not to blush any redder. "Well… it was worth a shot any way." She mumbled.

Jareth scoffed.

"Well now that it seams I can't trust you on your own for more than ten minutes together, I suppose I had better set you up with a guard."

"What?" groaned Ridel. Jareth formed a crystal in his hand and tossed it in the air. When it landed it made a loud popping sound and suddenly in it's place there stood a very confused looking goblin.

"You," said Jareth catching the creators attention. "I want you to guard this girl, alright? Make sure she stays out of trouble."

The Goblin looked at Ridel, then at the king, then back at Ridel again. "But yer majesty, Wazzer and I was just about to-" Jareth cut the goblin off. "Listen. You do this for me, and let's say I forget all about sending you and you're friend Watsit to the bog. Sound good to you?"

The goblin's eyes grew wide and he nodded his head vigorously. "Oh yes highness! Right away your highness! No trouble at all your highness."

"Shut up." Snapped Jareth offhandedly. Then turned to Ridel. "I have some unexpected business to attend to. If I catch you trying to escape again, I'll through you in the deepest oubliette I can find. Is that understood?"

Ridel settled on glairing at him. Then nodded her head almost imperceptibly.

"Good. You two stay here for now. I'll be back later." With that Jareth vanished in a cloud of glitter. Ridel's little goblin guard stomped over to the side of the room and sat down with a huff. He Glared at Ridel, who had interrupted his fun. Ridel sat quietly in the center of the floor and tried to think of a new plan. It was hard to do with the constant bored huffing and accusing glare of the goblin. It struck her that the goblin was acting like the kids she used to baby-sit, whenever they didn't get there way.

This was going to be a very long day…

A/N

Just a bit of mindless fun, filler, stuff. Nothing much. Hope you enjoyed it.

Ridel