This update took quite a while, but I , again, had I writers block. I'm very proud of the Jareth part in this chap. It is very good I think. Nothing interesting to say about the story now really.

Thanx to my faithfull reviewers: Prinsess of Rivendell (time nr. 6....danr, now I did thank you again...) and Moonjava (you are nearly just as bad as Prinsess. You two have made up half of all my reviews :D.) and Fortune-the-vamp of course.


Chapter 11. 'Feelings about eachother'

Sarah, Hoggle, Ludo and sir Didymus reappeared right in front of the Castle of Jareth. The chaos that was first in the city had calmed down. The streets were empty and awfully quite. Everyone had barricaded themselves in their houses, too afraid to even peek outside, and it looked like there was no one living left in the Goblin city. It seemed like the entire city had frozen still, all life becoming lifeless and silent with it. Ludo moved closer to Sarah.

"Where is everyone?" whispered Sarah, afraid to disturb the silence. Hoggle didn't answer, but only mumbled "This can't be good," as he also crept closer to the others. Even sir Didymus grew silent, and Ambrosious softly howled.

"Ludo scared," Ludo grumbled. Sarah gave him her hand and they slowly walked to the gates of the Castle. The walked up the stairs, half hoping that the Goblins would pop up again like last time Sarah came here, but there was no sign of anything living. Ludo pushed open the heavy doors and the four companions walked inside. To their comfort, they heard sound coming from the Throne room. Sarah gave Hoggle a swift smile and then walked to the sounds.

When they entered the throne room, they found the greatest mess ever. There were several goblins fighting and screaming. Sarah saw that, as she had expected, there was no one on the throne. Sarah crossed the room and started to exanimate the throne, in hope to find a clue where Jareth had gone to.

"No, there is nothing here," Sarah mumbled. She stood up and turned around. She suddenly noticed that the entire room had grown quite and that the goblins watched Sarah in astonishment. Sarah looked uncomfortable around.

"What?" she said. A very short goblin walked to Sarah and began to poke her leg. Sarah looked confused at the goblin, who had turned around to the others.

"She is real," it said to the other goblins.

"That can't be," a female goblin said. A exited murmur grew, as the goblins crept closed to Sarah.

"Hé! What is this? What do you want from me?" Sarah said.

-

Jareth flew over the wildly spread Labyrinth in the orange sky. The wind in his feathers made him feel better, and his mind wandered off to memories.

"But what they didn't know, was that the Goblin King had fallen in love with the girl…"

"I'm surprised you are losing your head over a girl."

"I lost my head?"

"…and I have done it all for you."

Jareth hooted softly. His Sarah. His beloved Sarah. He closed his great brown eyes for a moment to remember the image of them together, at the ball in one of his crystals. She in her white dress, and he in his blue suet, dancing on his song.

Jareth opened his eyes as he suddenly heard a bird twitter next to him. He saw a little robin flying exited, telling him he had a message for the king. With a hoot, Jareth told the small bird to follow him, and he swooped down. He landed softly on the muddy ground of the Firey Forest. When again in his human form, Jareth stretched out his arm. The robin landed on Jareth's hand, still twittering exited. Jareth smiled at the bird.

"Be quite for a moment my little friend. I can't make up what you are tying to tell me," he said. The robin instantly grew quite, now reframing his story again slowly. Jareth nodded as he heard about Markla sending the bird. He untied the small note from the robin's leg and unfolded it. The handwriting was not very neat, and there were ink spots everywhere, but still Jareth managed to read to short message.

"He has come again," Jareth read out loud. He frowned. Who did Markla meant with 'he'? He asked the robin, but he didn't know it either. Jareth turned around the paper to see if there was anything more, but there wasn't.

"Only one way to find out," Jareth mumbled. He changed into the white barn owl again and flew together with the robin off to his castle.

-

"And then the King. He can't possible be kidnapped. I mean, he is our king. And not just for nothing you know! He is very brave and strong minded. He won't be taken away that easily," Markla said. Kranlar nodded his head annoyed. When would she finally stop talking?

"No no. He is far to royal to be taken. He won't be gotten down by such a silly little whip who calls himself Istosar Samuel. You know, I always…" Markla continued undisturbed. To her satisfaction, she saw that Kranlar was losing his nerves.

"But what about that Samuel? I mean…" Markla was suddenly disturbed by a scream. Kranlar sighed relieved, happy to be rid of Markla's endless talk, and looked at the goblin who had screamed. The goblin ran to Markla and Kranlar, panting and murmuring something.

"Why do all goblins have to have difficulty with speech?" Kranlar thought annoyed. The third goblin halted in front of the two.

"The girl!" he yelled. Markla looked confused.

"What of her?" she asked.

"The girl! She is back!" the goblin screamed.

"What!?" yelled Kranlar furious. Without taking any further notice of Markla and the other goblin, Kranlar rushed into his room and slammed the door behind him, leaving the other two confused behind. Markla was shocked by the news she had heard. The girl was back. But how had she escaped Kranlar, if Kranlar had been here, with herself? This meant that either there were more goblins in the plot, or that Kranlar wasn't behind all this at all.

"Where is the girl?" Markla asked the goblin. The girl needed to be properly informed about all the commotion.

"In the throne room," the goblin answered. Markla thanked the goblin, and then rushed to the throne room. She hoped the girl hadn't left jet. When she entered the great room, she saw that the girl was surrounded by some goblins.

"Hé! What is this? What do you want from me?" the girl yelled.

The dwarf, sir Didymus and the hairy monster stood at the other site of the room. Markla gulped at the sight of Ludo. He was very big, and he didn't look very happy. Reminding herself of the girl, Markla ran to the crowd of goblins, and began to send them off one by one. When finally every last one of them had gone off, Markla took a closer look at the girl. She had dark brow hair and the same colour of eyes. Her face was very young, though her body already nearly fully grown. This was definitely the girl that hunted her King's mind.

"Thank you," said Sarah, waking Markla up from her thoughts. Hoggle, sir Didymus and Ludo walked over to Sarah and Markla, looking superstitiously at the female goblin.

"You are the one we have seen at Jareth's chambers," Hoggle exclaimed. Markla nodded.

"But that doesn't matter now. There are far more important thing going on, like how you came here," she said, pointing at Sarah.

"Well, Hoggle helped me here," Sarah answered, not knowing what to expect. Markla looked confused.

"But how did you escape Kranlar?" Markla said. Now it was Sarah's turn to be confused.

"Escape who? Why should I escape from anyone?" She asked.

"But…you were kidnapped!" Markla exclaimed. Sarah shook her head. That made Markla look even more confused.

"Hold your fire lady. What is going on here?" sir Didymus asked. Decided that she trusted the four companions, Markla told the entire story.

"The Goblin King has changed since you left girl," Markla started her story. "He was very lonely, and he got weak. A couple of days ago, there was a council here by the goblins. They were planning to kidnap you, then tell the King you never wanted to see him again, and so get the old, strong King back. This task was laid in the hands of Kranlar, a very curious goblin, much smarter then the rest. I overheard this. A little later, I also heard Kranlar and three other goblin talk about something that had gone very well. I ran to the King to tell him what I had heard. He was furious and left to find you in the Labyrinth. He commanded that I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about that, because Kranlar might find out the King had left. Therefore I couldn't help you three when you asked me were the King's rooms were," Markla looked meaningful at the three. Hoggle mumbled a apology, but Markla just continued.

"When you three told the goblins the King had gone, they told you the story about Istosar Samuel. I thought that would bring Kranlar of the sent, but it didn't. He smiled at it, and I realised that he must have contact with Istosar Samuel. I tried to hold Kranlar from contacting Samuel by talking to him. It worked quite well, but then a goblin told us that you were here girl. Kranlar left furious to his room, and I ran to here," Markla sighed down hearted.

"If Istosar Samuel would come here again, which I fear he will, the King will be an easy target to destroy."