MD: This is a rewritten version of this story. I haven't really worked on any of my fanfiction for a while but when I started re-reading some of my work I wasn't very pleased by it. The plot is still pretty much the same but I think my writing has evolved to flow better. I've also added some parts to elaborate on Jareth's relationship with his sister and how things work in the Underground. Constructive criticism is very much welcomed! I hope you enjoy the story.
Five years after Sarah left the Labyrinth she was something of a legend. Goblin children at bedtime often asked for "the story about the lady who stole the Goblin King's heart". On this particular evening a group of young Goblins were gathered in the throne room at the feet of a young woman. This young woman was Jareth's younger sister, Phael, who held the title of Goblin Princess. She resembled Jareth in every way from her platinum blonde hair and pale skin to her two-toned eyes. If not for her more feminine features and lack of a characteristic bulge in her pants she could be her brother's twin.
While some might think otherwise, Goblin royalty do tend to be very kind to their subjects- especially the children. Phael particularly enjoyed telling stories to the children, so she did so once a week.
"What story would you like to hear tonight?" Phael asked, throwing her long braided hair over her shoulder.
"The one about the lady!" came the chorus of replies. Phael frowned. Jareth being her brother, this story was amongst her least favorites.
"Not that one," she said. Dozens of big, round eyes looked up at her sadly.
"Please, princess?" one particularly adorable goblin squeaked. "It's my favorite." Phael sighed- Damn her girly inability to refuse the requests of small, adorable things.
"Fine…" she conceded. The Goblin children cheered.
"Once upon a time in a far-away land called the Aboveground lived a young girl named Sarah and her baby brother Toby. One day when Sarah was babysitting Toby the stress of taking care of the child got to be too much and she wished for the Goblins to come take him away, not knowing that her wish would come true. Sarah pleaded with the Goblin King to return her brother, but the wish had already been made. If she wanted her brother back, she would have to find her way to the Castle at the Center of the Labyrinth…"
Phael told the story well, detailing every part of Sarah's adventure from her conversation with the worm, to Goblins changing the direction of her arrows, to the incident with the tunnel cleaner. She told the children about Hoggle, Sir Didymus and Ludo. She told them about Sarah's run-in the Wild Gang and her subsequent escape. She told them about how the Goblin King tricked Sarah into eating an enchanted peach and how she was able to escape the crystal. She even told them about how Sarah and her friends were able to breach the walls of the Goblin City and defeat the city guard.
"Once Sarah reached the castle she immediately went to look for her brother. Through this entire ordeal the Goblin King had looked upon Sarah with wonder. How could one simple human girl have such strength and determination?"
At this point in the story all of the Goblin children were leaning in and hanging on Phael's every word.
"Sarah found the Goblin King and demanded her brother back. The Goblin King, who had become entranced with the young lady before him offered her a deal- his love in exchange for her to stay in the Labyrinth and give him her heart. She refused and told him, 'Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City, to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great!' The Goblin King made one last attempt to sway Sarah as she struggled to remember the last line to her spell, but to no avail. She spoke the last words, 'You have no power over me' and the Goblin King was defeated. Sarah went home to the Aboveground with her brother, never to return."
The Goblin children sitting around Phael's feet began sobbing and wiping the tears from their faces with their sleeves. One rather round little Goblin blew his nose loudly on another's shirt, which caused the offended Goblin to shove the round one. Within moments a raucous fight broke out between all of the children and Phael was walking around the floor breaking up all of the individual fights.
"All of you, knock it off!" came a commanding voice from the doorway. All of the Goblin children stopped in their tracks immediately and looked up to the doorway slowly. There stood a very peeved-looking Goblin King.
The young goblins all quickly hopped to their feet and scurried away in every direction, tripping over each other several times before the room was completely empty. Jareth slowly made his way over to his sister and stopped only a couple of inches in front of her. He was doing his best to stare her down which was proving difficult considering they were roughly the same height to begin with and both wearing heels.
"How many times must I ask you not to tell that irritating story?" Jareth asked through gritted teeth.
"At least one more time, as always, dear brother," Phael replied with a smirk.
"I find your sarcasm less than amusing."
"Odd… I've not been informed that I'm here to amuse you." Jareth narrowed his eyes.
"You know, I'm not sure why I didn't dunk you in the Bog of Eternal Stench long ago."
"Because if you did I'd curse you to go bald until the smell wore off."
"Oh really?" Jareth said dangerously, a crystal appearing in his hand.
"Try me, glitter boy" Phael replied, a crystal appearing in her hand almost as quickly.
"You two, stop acting like children!" came a voice from across the room.
A short, stout female Goblin stood in the doorway holding a tray full of tea and pastries. She shuffled over to where Jareth and Phael were, Jareth having hold of Phael's dominant arm and Phael grabbing a fistful of Jareth's poet shirt. The Gobliness set the tray on a table before walking in between the fighting siblings and pulled their grips loose from each other.
"Honestly, I thought I'd taught you better than this! You'd think I'd never have given you a single etiquette lesson," the Gobliness chided.
"Etiquette does not extend to insufferable siblings, Kolyma," Jareth said before turning back to Phael. "When are you getting married and moving away? You're getting old."
"I'm getting old? Why you…" Kolyma grabbed Phael's leg as she started toward Jareth again.
"Miss Phaelimphadoria, pay his manners no mind and at least try to conduct yourself as a lady," she said. "You need to come pick out a dress for next week's ball anyway."
"Ball?"
"Yes… the ball in Elf Country… Prince Pulmo invited you…"
Phael raised an eyebrow.
"For goodness sakes, girl, he's having the ball in honor of your birthday!"
"Oh, that ball." Kolyma and Jareth both met their faces with their palms, heads shaking.
"And Jareth- you need to go to the royal tailor and get fitted for a new jacket and… whatever those things are that you wear in place of pants." Phael snorted and Jareth glared at her dangerously.
"You'd better get going, dear sister, if you're going to find something you look good in before the ball," Jareth sneered.
Phael began to get mad again and opened her mouth to retort, but stopped and calmed her expression. She raised an eyebrow at her brother, balancing a crystal in her hand which quickly turned into a long and elegant silver scepter.
"Well, then, Kolyma, let us be on our way," she said, twirling the scepter gracefully.
Kolyma nodded at her with a smile, obviously pleased at her pupil's self-control and began to exit the room with Phael following behind. Kolyma rounded the corner and as Phael passed Jareth, the twirling scepter connected with his groin causing the noble Goblin King to fall to the floor in pain.
"Jackass."
Meanwhile, in the Aboveground, a certain Champion of the Labyrinth was sorting through her books. Her bookshelf had reached beyond full capacity and she had decided to donate a few to the library. The "donate" pile was looking a little pitiful- Sarah just wasn't the kind to part with books easily. As she reached up to the top shelf to take down a copy of "Pride and Prejudice" a little red book fell out with it. It hit the ground with the front cover face up- the word 'LABYRINTH' written across the front in bold, gold lettering.
Sarah stared at it a moment before bending down and picking it up. She wiped off the thin layer of dust that had accumulated and opened it. The spine made a small cracking sound and the book fell open to the page where she had last left off.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered…" she murmered, running her fingertips along the words.
"Hey, Sarah!" Sarah snapped the book shut as her little brother Toby came running into her room.
"Hey, Toby. How was your nap?"
"It was okay. I had a funny dream," her brother replied.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, there was this elf guy in it and you were in it, too. There was a big maze and a bunch of weird little monsters everywhere. It was really cool 'cause…"
As Sarah listened to her brother ramble on about his dream she felt a pit form where her stomach was supposed to be. Toby just had, from the sound of it, a very vivid dream about their adventure in the Underground. And it just happened to be on the same day that she found her copy of Labyrinth. That couldn't just be coincidence… There had to be something going on. Sarah shook her head. No… she was being silly. But still…
"… and then there was this HUGE bigfoot thing with red fur and… are you listening to me?" Toby demanded.
"Hm? Oh! Yeah, sorry, Toby. I was a little lost in thought. Hey, how about we go get some stuff to make dinner?"
"I want sloppy joes."
"We had sloppy joes last night. How about spaghetti?"
"'Kay," Toby replied and began downstairs. Sarah followed after him with one last quick glance out the window just in case a snowy owl happened to be perched in the tree.
Jareth sat in his room watching Sarah and Toby in his crystal ball. He smirked at the situation, although he had not had any part of it. He had heard parts of the story that Toby told to Sarah that she had missed.
'…and then there was a part where you were dancing with the elf guy and you were wearing a really big dress and you looked really pretty…'
"You were beautiful at the ball, Sarah," he whispered to himself as a single tear slipped down his face.
Phael at that moment had been just about to walk into her brother's room to apologize for her earlier overreaction to his attempts to annoy her. When she saw Jareth crying her jaw dropped and she retreated quickly back to her room.
"Kolyma! Kolyma, get in here!"
"What is it, child? Did you ask Jareth if he liked the dress?" the small Gobliness asked.
"Huh?" Phael looked down at her attire- a ridiculously poofy purple thing that she hated but Kolyma loved. "Oh… I didn't get the chance to ask him. That's kind of the point."
Phael stammered for a moment, trying to gather her words
"We have got to do something about that… that human… person," Phael said. "That… Sarah girl."
"What on earth are you talking about?" Kolyma asked.
"She is ruining Jareth. She hasn't even been here in five years and she's ruining him."
"I still don't understand what you're talking about!"
"That girl is evil. Pure evil- she must be stopped," Phael insisted.
With a flick of the wrist a crystal appeared in Phael's hand. A moment later an image of Sarah came into focus. She was standing at the kitchen counter chopping onions. Toby was beside her with a butter knife trying his darndest to chop onions, too.
'It won't cut,' Toby complained.
'That's because it's not sharp.'
'I want a sharp one.'
'Toby, I can't give you a sharp knife. Tell you what- Why don't you set the table? If you do, I'll make brownies and you can lick the spoon.'
'Yeeaaaah!'
"Oh, yes," Kolyma said seriously. "Truly evil, that one." Phael narrowed her eyes at the crystal ball before chucking it at the wall to shatter.
"Stupid mortal girl…" Phael grumbled and began walking off. "I'm trying on a different dress."
Just as Phael disappeared behind a changing screen Jareth stormed into the room.
"What in the Underground is going on in here?" he demanded. "I heard something crash from all the way down the hall."
"Jareth, get out of my room," Phael said from behind the screen.
"You will not tell me what to do." Phael peeked out from behind the screen as Jareth walked toward her.
"You're hobbling a bit, there, your highness. Hurt yourself?" Jareth narrowed his eyes at her.
"You know what you did," he hissed.
"Oh, that," Phael said thoughtfully. "I didn't think I'd hurt you that badly through all the padding you stuff down your pants."
"I do no such thing!"
"What a minute, what did Phael do?" Kolyma asked. Jareth began to speak but flushed red and shut his mouth. "Phael, what did you do?"
"I was merely testing to see whether Jareth here really didn't stuff his pants as he claimed. Turns out he speaks the truth."
"Wait, you… Phael… you didn't," Kolyma gasped.
"I probably did," Phael replied. "Help me tie this corset."
"Young lady, I cannot believe your conduct!"
"Okay, you know what? Both of you get out of my room. You're on my nerves."
"No, Phael, we're going to talk," Jareth insisted.
"No, we're not. You're going to get out of my room and leave me alone."
"I'm not going anywhere."
Jareth reached out to grab Phael by the arm but a glittery explosion erupted in his face and a snowy owl flew past him, out the door and down the hallway. Jarethe sighed, taking a seat in a large cushy chair by the window. Sinking down into the chair he propped up his feet and started tapping his boots with his riding crop.
"When did we start fighting like this, Kolyma?" he asked miserably.
"Do you really want me to answer that truthfully?" the Gobliness asked, wringing her apron in anxiety. Jareth thought for a moment.
"Yes."
"About five years ago. You know Phael has never been very easy to get along with, but before that you were always patient and understanding with her. Now you both tend to be short with one another. Now… you just seem to be in a bad mood more often."
Jareth didn't answer, but stared off into space and continued to tap his boots with his riding crop.
"I'll go talk to her, sir," Kolyma said and turned to leave the room.
"Thank you, Kolyma," Jareth murmered.
It took Kolyma a good hour to find Phael sitting on the ledge of one of the upper towers of the castle. She was balancing a crystal on one finger and staring intently at the image held within. When Kolyma approached her she gave a sideward glance and threw the crystal off of the ledge.
"Phael, dear, why don't you go talk to Jareth?" Phael stayed silent. "I talked to him and I really think you two would do well to have a heart-to-heart."
"I have a plan," Phael said. "You're not going to like it." A crystal appeared in her hand and she looked into it for a moment.
"Phael… what are you doing?" Kolyma asked in a worried tone.
"I love Jareth and I don't like seeing him like this. I'm going to the Aboveground and paying little Miss Sarah a visit."
Kolyma's jaw hung open in shock.
"I need for you to cover for me. If Jareth asks where I am, you don't know. You haven't seen me since I left my bedroom."
"Phael, don't-!"
Kolyma tried to grab the hem of Phael's dress but she had already jumped from the ledge. Running over to the railing, Kolyma could see a snowy owl flying off into the distance.
"Oh, dear… oh dear oh dear oh dear…"
The clicking of boots behind her alerted her to Jareth's presence.
"I just saw an owl fly away. Was that Phael?" he asked.
"Um… well…"
"That's a yes. Where is she going?"
"I… I don't know," Kolyma stuttered. Jareth furrowed his brow.
"I suppose it's getting a little dark to go looking for her now. And if she doesn't want to be found I doubt I could find her," Jareth sighed. "If you hear from her, come and get me no matter the time of night." Kolyma nodded. Without another word Jareth turned and left the room. Kolyma leaned over the railing, looking out on the vast Goblin Kingdom.
"Oh, Phael, you owe me one," she whispered.
Meanwhile, a snowy owl was fluttering just outside Sarah's window…
MD: Gaaaaaahhh… That took forever to get it the way I want it and I'm still not sure it's decent. Constructive criticism is always appreciated!