Title: The Labyrinth: The Way Back
Author: Aviry Nolane
Date: Dec 1, 2002.
Notes: I know, another two parter.. I'm sorry.. I'm sorry!
Thanks again to all who r&r! When I steal Jareth away I'll make sure you can all come over every once in a while and pet him or something. As for Sarah. she belongs to the highest bidder. If I have to hear one more thing about how this chapter makes her look fat.
Disclaimer: disregard everything I said about character theft above. laa laa laa .
** twiddles thumbs**
Shebang! I give you Chapter 5!
( please don't feed the characters. )
b Chapter 5a - Dangers Untold /b
Of course he had been watching her for some time.
He had been watching, waiting, hunting, for the exact moment to set his plan into action.
It was beginning to turn into a nice healthy obsession for him.
How sweet.
He had watched Didymus's struggle to return home all morning with a strange fascination. Nothing like this had ever happened before to his knowledge, certainly not in his lifetime.
Time after time in the automobile, in the elevator pull, in the hall, he had watched as Didymus tried to part the veil between the two worlds to return home, and failed every time. It was not until Didymus started to fade into nonexistance that Jareth was truly worried. Had she not called him at that exact moment, he would have gone anyway. He had already conjured the crystal and was preparing to leave when she muttered his name in anguish.
Perhaps there would be a rather substantial upside to this after all.
In the same second that he arrived he transported Didymus back to his castle through the veil opening.
As soon as he had done so he knew that the boisterous fox would be fine. His link to the creatures of the Underground was so great that when properly focused he had only to know their whereabouts to read their emotive responses.
Not that he really cared for such nonsense. He was the Goblin King for all sake. He had enough to worry about running a kingdom without having to feel the pain and strife of a random fiery who was greatly perturbed by losing its favorite silver crown piece.
Nonetheless, when Didymus woke up the next morning in the healer's ward of the castle, Jareth had already made sure that there would be a bouquet of Trumpetberry blossoms and a medal of valor by his bedside. Jareth was very nearly delighted by the elderly knight's suspicious ailment.
The Goblin King loved playing the hero.
How delightfully ironic.
But maybe the gift basket was a bit premature.
Sarah screamed the second Jareth appeared, trying her best to muffle the sound through her coat sleeves lest some passerby have a chivalrous inkling. She was scared, she wasn't stupid.
It almost didn't make sense to her that she had called him.
It made even less sense that he had appeared.
What was beginning to slowly make more sense was a spiteful plot contrived by the corrupt Goblin King to steal either Toby or herself back to the Underground for some devious purpose yet unknown to her. What had he done to Didymus?
A tormented look filled her eyes. What if he had come to do the same to her? What if he had already done the same to Toby?
He moved towards her.
A very bad move indeed. In fact it was probably the worst move he could have made with that vindictive smile plastered across his face.
In a game of chess, the move Jareth had just made would be akin to sacrificing the king.
As he stepped forward Sarah groped for anything below her desk that could be of use to her.
His second step drew him only closer. Perhaps he didn't mean to look so threatening, certainly he didn't want to alarm her to the point he had, but he was still Jareth, and he was as pompous as he had always been.
Call it a character flaw.
He took another step closer.
Sarah panicked.
A fourth.
She found what she had been looking for.
He reached out to her with a feral scowl.
Being in the restaurant industry had its advantages. Even in the back office there were still plenty of pots and pans laying about waiting to be unpacked.
His next step and Sarah caught him off guard as he reached abruptly for her.
She brought the weighty frying pan down on him as if her life depended on it. To her frazzled mind, it did depend on it, and she wasted no amount of strength she possessed to make it known to him.
It seems, in moments of terror and shock that several things happen all at once.
In fact, it may not be this way at all. Events may occur several minutes apart and yet the overwrought mind will string them as one fluid, continuous motion to alleviate stress.
For Sarah it seemed as if the exact moment the hit Jareth, Mark entered, catching him as he fell. The phone began to ring somewhere in the haze of her mind, her coffee mug shattered, the pan fell to the floor, and the world ended. All in one fell swoop of her arm.
Mark stared at her questioningly as he held the unconscious form in his arms. She shook her head, somewhat at a loss for words, and beckoned Mark to follow her into her study.
Once they reached her destination Mark lay the Goblin King down on her leather sofa, his eyes not being able to help but focus on the stranger's unusual appearance.
"Sarah," he began, the suspicion brewing in his emerald gaze, "I don't know if-"
She silenced him with a wave of her hand and pointed to the door.
She needed time to think. Men. Couldn't they even give her that?
He grinned. Sarah was a odd one. "Sure Sarah, what are friends for?" He flashed her an amused smile again as he strode towards the door.
"Mark." She stated flatly, "wait."
He turned and gripped the fifty that she held out by her fingertips and winked at her. They exchanged a brief smirk of understanding between the two of them before he left, whistling.
She hoped whatever she had given him had been enough to ensure Bill wouldn't find out about her visitor. She hadn't even looked.
The door clicked shut behind her and she made her way to the couch where the still form of the Goblin King lay unmoving. She checked his pulse, and finding it strong, she settled back into a neighboring chair to watch him sleep.
One thing was for sure.
She was going to need more coffee.
Thanks again to all who r&r! When I steal Jareth away I'll make sure you can all come over every once in a while and pet him or something. As for Sarah. she belongs to the highest bidder. If I have to hear one more thing about how this chapter makes her look fat.
Disclaimer: disregard everything I said about character theft above. laa laa laa .
** twiddles thumbs**
Shebang! I give you Chapter 5!
( please don't feed the characters. )
b Chapter 5a - Dangers Untold /b
Of course he had been watching her for some time.
He had been watching, waiting, hunting, for the exact moment to set his plan into action.
It was beginning to turn into a nice healthy obsession for him.
How sweet.
He had watched Didymus's struggle to return home all morning with a strange fascination. Nothing like this had ever happened before to his knowledge, certainly not in his lifetime.
Time after time in the automobile, in the elevator pull, in the hall, he had watched as Didymus tried to part the veil between the two worlds to return home, and failed every time. It was not until Didymus started to fade into nonexistance that Jareth was truly worried. Had she not called him at that exact moment, he would have gone anyway. He had already conjured the crystal and was preparing to leave when she muttered his name in anguish.
Perhaps there would be a rather substantial upside to this after all.
In the same second that he arrived he transported Didymus back to his castle through the veil opening.
As soon as he had done so he knew that the boisterous fox would be fine. His link to the creatures of the Underground was so great that when properly focused he had only to know their whereabouts to read their emotive responses.
Not that he really cared for such nonsense. He was the Goblin King for all sake. He had enough to worry about running a kingdom without having to feel the pain and strife of a random fiery who was greatly perturbed by losing its favorite silver crown piece.
Nonetheless, when Didymus woke up the next morning in the healer's ward of the castle, Jareth had already made sure that there would be a bouquet of Trumpetberry blossoms and a medal of valor by his bedside. Jareth was very nearly delighted by the elderly knight's suspicious ailment.
The Goblin King loved playing the hero.
How delightfully ironic.
But maybe the gift basket was a bit premature.
Sarah screamed the second Jareth appeared, trying her best to muffle the sound through her coat sleeves lest some passerby have a chivalrous inkling. She was scared, she wasn't stupid.
It almost didn't make sense to her that she had called him.
It made even less sense that he had appeared.
What was beginning to slowly make more sense was a spiteful plot contrived by the corrupt Goblin King to steal either Toby or herself back to the Underground for some devious purpose yet unknown to her. What had he done to Didymus?
A tormented look filled her eyes. What if he had come to do the same to her? What if he had already done the same to Toby?
He moved towards her.
A very bad move indeed. In fact it was probably the worst move he could have made with that vindictive smile plastered across his face.
In a game of chess, the move Jareth had just made would be akin to sacrificing the king.
As he stepped forward Sarah groped for anything below her desk that could be of use to her.
His second step drew him only closer. Perhaps he didn't mean to look so threatening, certainly he didn't want to alarm her to the point he had, but he was still Jareth, and he was as pompous as he had always been.
Call it a character flaw.
He took another step closer.
Sarah panicked.
A fourth.
She found what she had been looking for.
He reached out to her with a feral scowl.
Being in the restaurant industry had its advantages. Even in the back office there were still plenty of pots and pans laying about waiting to be unpacked.
His next step and Sarah caught him off guard as he reached abruptly for her.
She brought the weighty frying pan down on him as if her life depended on it. To her frazzled mind, it did depend on it, and she wasted no amount of strength she possessed to make it known to him.
It seems, in moments of terror and shock that several things happen all at once.
In fact, it may not be this way at all. Events may occur several minutes apart and yet the overwrought mind will string them as one fluid, continuous motion to alleviate stress.
For Sarah it seemed as if the exact moment the hit Jareth, Mark entered, catching him as he fell. The phone began to ring somewhere in the haze of her mind, her coffee mug shattered, the pan fell to the floor, and the world ended. All in one fell swoop of her arm.
Mark stared at her questioningly as he held the unconscious form in his arms. She shook her head, somewhat at a loss for words, and beckoned Mark to follow her into her study.
Once they reached her destination Mark lay the Goblin King down on her leather sofa, his eyes not being able to help but focus on the stranger's unusual appearance.
"Sarah," he began, the suspicion brewing in his emerald gaze, "I don't know if-"
She silenced him with a wave of her hand and pointed to the door.
She needed time to think. Men. Couldn't they even give her that?
He grinned. Sarah was a odd one. "Sure Sarah, what are friends for?" He flashed her an amused smile again as he strode towards the door.
"Mark." She stated flatly, "wait."
He turned and gripped the fifty that she held out by her fingertips and winked at her. They exchanged a brief smirk of understanding between the two of them before he left, whistling.
She hoped whatever she had given him had been enough to ensure Bill wouldn't find out about her visitor. She hadn't even looked.
The door clicked shut behind her and she made her way to the couch where the still form of the Goblin King lay unmoving. She checked his pulse, and finding it strong, she settled back into a neighboring chair to watch him sleep.
One thing was for sure.
She was going to need more coffee.
