"Are we lost?" Asked Maria. "Because I think we're lost. That crop of eyeball lichen looks so Familiar."

Said lichen gave her what may have been a wink. Of course it was hard to tell when all the eyes acted individually.

Maria and Allizander had been walking around for almost an hour according to her watch, and apparently making no progress.

Her feet, clad in thin house slippers, were starting to give her grief and she had been very put out that the first corridor had held a total lack of friendly blue worms.

"Patience my girl." Said Allizander. "The way quickest forward is sometimes-"

"The way back?" Asked Maria innocently.

Allizander gave her confused look. "I was going to say the longest way round. It's a bit daft sounding. Way forward being the way back. But trust me, this way will have us at the castle in six hours or less."

Maria grumbled incoherencies and kicked at a pebble on the ground in front of her. Six more hours of walking with Allizander didn't sound like much fun. It was nice of him to try to help, but the guy wouldn't shut up and was really getting on her nerves. Thirteen hours seamed a lot longer when you took them one minute at a time.

Maria tried to figure out the time in her head. 'We started 56 minutes ago, so we'll just say an hour, then take away six more, That laves me with six bloody hours to have my confrontation with Jareth! Sarah only had a few minutes! This will be a piece of…uh… pie.'

Allizander rounded a corner and was out of sight for all of one second before Maria hared him yelping and a loud Twang. She gave a short squeak of surprise and dashed around the corner.

"Allizander? What happened?"

Allizander stood rigidly in front of her with his tail twice the size she remembered it to be. Also his charming top hat had a small arrow sticking through it.

"That'll tech ye tu shoow yer face round eir ye devious weezle ye!" Screamed a high pitch little creature. It was about two feet high and held a cross bow three times its size.

"A-Allizander?" Maria stuttered. The thing turned to her. "Oh, so yous tinkin' ye needing help dis eh? Bring a little girly ter help ye carry me tings?"

Allizander had slowly taken off his top hat and was inspecting the arrow hole. "This was my best hat." He whined.

"Scuse me." Said Maria. "I don't know what this is all about, but we're not here to take anything. We're just passing by."

The crazed little fur ball waved the huge crossbow frantically under her nose. "I wunt have it! Get out! Get out! Get out! Let me be ye Weezle lovin' git ye!" It screamed as if it had not heard her. It looked as if it may start foaming at the mouth any second, and the way it swung its crossbow around made Maria fear for there lives.

"Okay, okay," Maria said soothingly. "We're just leaving now. Don't sweat it." Maria inched around the creature, giving it a wide berth. It kept it's cross bow leveled at her mid section. it gave her an appraising look up and down. "You ain't up te nothin' are ye? What ar ye doin' in this bit O teh Labyrinth?"

"I say, that hat was very expensive!" Piped up Allizander. The creature swung it's cross bow around and shot a warning at him. He yelped and ducked covering his head with his arms. The arrow just missed Allizanders left shoulder.

"Shut up! I be talkin' to te little lady!" The thing screamed. Maria gulped.

The thing turned back to her. "Now answer me question."

"Okay, alright, look. I was visiting a friend, spending the night at her house see, and it was really late and we were all gigly and stuff and she kept on making me laugh, So I joked around and said that if she didn't stop I'd wish her away to the goblins."

The thing perked up at this.

"so anyway she kept on goofing around so I said the words. And the next thing I knew my friend was gone and the goblin king was standing in the room gloating."

The thing glared at her. "Well what wer ye s'pectin' te happen? So I's gessin' ye got all soppy an asked for ye friend back an' he wouldn't give? So now yer stuck here runnin this little rat race te get em back?"

Maria nodded. Though she was a bit offended by the little things rendition, it more or less had the story right.

"HA! Serves ye right ye little brat!"

"Now wait a moment sir!" Said Allizander.

Maria exploded. "BRAT? How was I supposed to know the goblin king would actually show up and take her? It doesn't exactly happen every day you jerk! The goblin king is SUPPOSED to be a made up character in a silly old movie! And besides! I've heard my friends say the words billions of times and no goblins ever showed up then!"

Both Allizander and the little furry creature were staring at her after her little outburst. The little thing spoke up first. "Ye aint from around ere are ye?" It looked up at her with a bit of awe and suspicion.

Maria sighed in frustration. "Do I LOOK like a goblin to you?" she huffed.

The thing lowered it's cross bow a bit. "You ain't fae er nothin'?" It asked, again it's voice was loaded with suspicion.

Maria was a bit surprised at that. "Er… do I look fae to you?" she asked out of genuine curiosity this time. As she understood it, the fae were supposed to be the most beautiful people in the fictitious fairytale world. She never thought herself particularly attracted.

"No…" said the thing after considering the question for a while. Darn.

"No ye don't. Yer a bit off, like ye aint usin yer glamour."

Oh well, Maria didn't want to give herself airs after all. But still…

"She happens to be a human Sir! And you would do well to remember that!" Said Allizander.

The creature gave her a wide eyed and fearful… Or was it reverential Look? The thing started to shake just a little and backed away from her. Maria was having trouble adjusting to the sudden change in attitude.

"Um… Are you…What? What's up?" she asked, just a little concerned.

"Ye… Ye just go along okay? I's just a simple man witout much. Sorry about the bow an' all, I'us just lookin out fer me property okay? Ye just go help yer friend yeah? Oh and here! Tek this soes ye knows I'm sorry." The creature retreated into a small hole in the Labyrinth wall and came back out with a weird… Very weird, grubby looking necklace. It reached out and pressed it into Maria's hand.

"Um… Okay? Thanks I guess." It had a silver chain, which had turned green in some places with time and neglect, and had a pendant outlined with two dragons. One was gold, the other silver. An emerald tear drop hung from the top and dangled in the middle.

"It aint magic mind ye," said the little thing bashfully. "but it still be a nice bit a trinketry yeah?" It seamed to be trying to gain her approval. Maria was a bit weirded out, but grateful none the less.

"Yeah it's really neat, Thank you. What's your name?"

The creature looked apprehensive, but Maria could just make out the name "Growr" Mumbled quietly.

She smiled and put on the necklace. "Thank you Growr, This is really sweet of you."

Growr grumbled a bit, obviously not liking to be considered sweet, which just made him sweeter in her eyes.

She turned to Allizander "Well, come on Zander, we still have a Labyrinth to run. Good bye Growr!" She waved and continued down the path they had been walking down.

Growr turned to Allizander as he walked by and asked him in a quiet voice. "She don't know te first ting about whut she gone and gotten herself into do she?"

"You still owe me for the repairs on my hat you know." He grumbled. Growr smiled showing his crooked yellow teeth.

"Git yer human friend te make ye a new one." He cackled and ducked back down into his hole. Allizander sighed and started after Maria before she got to far ahead.

A/N

Sorry for the lack of goblin king. Maybe he'll be in the next chapter.

And just so you know, I had never read the WeeFree men before I wrote this. I was not copping Terry pratchett.

ANYWAY!

please don't forget to leave a review So you can help me continue the story! Just to remind you, I have but the barest of plot lines for this story and need ideas to help me get to the end.

Ridel