Part Five:
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Jim Henson Productions or the Labyrinth or Mr. David Bowie's very fine self.
Jareth Grabbed the glowing wisp with both hands and pulled with all his might. It felt like he was holding a writhing fiery snake. He tried to formulate his desires into a solid command for the untamed energy.
Finally, when he felt he could stand the pain searing his hands no longer, he managed one concrete pleas to the near sentient power: Get me out of here! his mind screamed at it. At that thought the night around him exploded.
Given no real parameters, the wild magic went from a thread to a raging torrent in less time than it takes to blink. The inn that squatted above him shuddered, groaned and then flew from its foundations as if it had been catapulted off its cellar. It shattered itself and everything and one inside it into millions of glittering fragments that fell to earth like snow and melted away.
Jareth was left crouched in the ragged hole stunned but unmercifully conscious. Then a powerful force snatched up the young immortal and threw him high into the air. As Jareth fell his fear caused his tenuous hold on the wild magic to weaken and gleefully it tore itself free from his grasp and began to flood the area with it's eldritch influence.
The land in the immediate vicinity of the now obliterated inn twisted and buckled the earth flowing like warm honey. Power pooled in the ground warping every thing it touched living or no. Small animals caught in the flood became great beasts and winged horrors, the rocks and soil glowed with a preternatural power. Strange plants shot up from normal seedlings and trees began to move scratching long fingered and leafy limbs at the starry skies. Amid this chaotic insanity Jareth fell to earth, his body hit the softened earth and was cradled in its gentle embrace. The wild magic swirled around him bleaching his hair from golden blonde to a silvery white and his skin to porcelain purity. The magic invaded his being and began to twist his body. Suddenly, a figure of a man, gnarled in the fashion of humans or fae of extreme age, appeared over him. As he watched he began to spin, gathering the wild magics to himself and storing them in his body. The man began to glow brighter and brighter, his back arched in pain and mouth open in a keening wail but still he spun on. Just as he grew too bright too look on, he exploded into a fragments of cold fire and disappeared.
Suddenly Jareth was alone in the dark night, silence surrounding him in a thick heavy blanket. The mage seemed to have absorbed all the energy that had been warping the area and except for that which was permanently changed such as Jareth's own appearance, there seemed to be no sign of the incident save the hole where the inn had stood. Jareth tried to rise to his feet, placing his hands flat on the now firm earth to lever himself up. Pain shook his arms as his raw magic seared flesh came in contact with the ground and he fell back. Looking at his hands he saw that the once elegant fingers were raw and burned from holding the wild magic unprotected. As he stared at his hands in shock with a rumbling of hoof beats the Elvin court that had been looking so frantically for so three long days and being drawn by the explosion of power, found the young prince.
Author's Note: If I get no feedback on the story I will assume that none are interested and cease and desist.>>