Ok, guys. I'm at home with the flu. Imagine me, if you will, sweating my GUTS out in this horribly hot Queensland weather and blowing my nose every 3 minutes. You don't want to, do you? Don't worry about me; I've just been doing my science assignment… which was… kinda due today and my maths homework (that's for tomorrow). My mum's roommate just moved in, so I haven't really had much time to do anything. Oh, god, just shoot me now! Well, here are the shout outs!
Elenea Galad- I know, right? That couldn't have gone better!
Bobmcbobbob- well, what I mean is that- no offence to the majesty that is my imagination- but since Princess 'left' (I am still not over that, poor me) this story has only been a painful reminder of what she helped me with- homework, reading- any sort of English work, actually. And mostly she just helped with crapping all over my page, but I think she crapped with love. Um… I wish I could have heeded your advice with the whole 'take care' thing, but the flu kinda creeps up on you.
SilverWings020- I'm glad you thought it was funny. Maybe I should write it down- we have to do a stand up comedy thing for drama, and I SUCK at it!
Gi Xian- I like Legolas too. The hair (and the fact he's orlando Bloom) get to me… mmm
Calendae- thankyou
MordSith-Rahl- you haven't seen it? I love it- my friend Jacqui says I look like the corpse bride (Emily) except for the revealing dress, the whole WHITE bit and the whole blue/dead bit. The weird thing is, it's true. Anyway, I'm having a Halloween party next weekend and Jacqui is going as Emily, but I made (ok, altered. It was a wedding dress from lifeline and I just made it corpse-y) her costume. I'm going as sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas (funnily enough I look like her too.).
Silver Angel- I suppose you did, but thanx anyway.
SmeagulTheWeasul- oh, it'll look like it did before, except black. I'm not going to go into the details of it.
Dreaming One- Um, a new reader? You got attracted by all those snazzy reviews and thought you'd check it out, huh? It wasn't meant to be funny, just insightful; if Jareth can turn up the volume when sarah is with a guy, then he must be watching, right? Well, Jareth was old enough to be fighting trolls in 1298, so pretty old.
Amelthea727- Sure will!
Petra15- thankyou…
LabyLvrPhx- are you british? 'bloody brilliant' is a very british thing to say- unless ur impersonating ron weasly, who is british. Nothing against british people, we kinda owe our.. well… culture to u guys… anyway! I'm glad u like the story.
Obsessor-of-inuyasha- um… what the? Couldn't make out one sentence of your review
p.s. what does it mean when you tell a guy (after becoming friends with his, routinely plucking out his hair, stabbing him with pens and pinching him with incredible force) to go screw himself (this guy TOTALLY deserved it! he got this tryhard Mohawk haircut and after that he became such an arsehole and was really mean and I just HAD to put him in his place) and then you take the next school day off because your sick and he CALLS YOU TO SEE HOW YOUR DOING and you go 'what do you want' listen to him jabber on a bit, then 'look, can you wrap it up coz I feel like I'm gonna hurl and I don't want to chuck up on the phone' (I seriously said that to him) and then he hangs up on you. Everything should be okay, right? I mean he should take the message and run with it. Wrong. He ASKED ME IF I WANTED NEOPETS IN A TEXT! Then I got a little cranky and I sent him some threatening stuff about the homework due the next day and how he can shove his farty neopets up his hairy and the next day he was asking me how I was and if I wanted some gum. And I know he got the text coz he showed it to me! Apart from farting in his face (which ive kinda already done, as well as burped the alphabet he was really grossed out by thethe time I got to letter d) can you guys help me to get him AWAY FROM ME? PLEASE? I'LL UPDATE MORE IF I GET SOME GOOD ADVICE!
Chapter 24
The Markets
Hoggle took Sarah out of the front doors of the castle. Nothing could have prepared her for the whirlwind of colours, smells and, above all, noises that was the Goblin City Markets.
It seemed that it wasn't only goblins that attended the markets, but all types of creatures; there were performing fieries, dancing dryads and elves, fey juggling goblins (thus their skills were to be admired as the goblins had quite a few very pointy bits) and many musical bands comprised of all of these beings and more.
There were brightly coloured stalls everywhere with almost every kind of ware available with just as many strange and different salespeople;
'Potion bottles, spare potion bottles for the avid brewer!'
'Books, writing books, written books, quills and ink!'
'Jewellery; amulets, precious stones, rings for all tastes!'
Sarah's head spun and she had to grasp the wall nearby for balance as the smells of spices- cinnamon to be forefront-, incense, cooking food and so many other things assaulted her mind.
'Sarah?' asked Hoggle 'Are you alright?'
Sarah grinned and righted herself. 'I'm fine. This is definitely my kind of place!'
Hoggle smiled and swallowed the last of his toast. 'Where to?'
Sarah put her tongue I her cheek. 'Hmm… EVERYWHERE!'
Hoggle took Sarah around to see the musicians and Sarah gave each of them a gold coin, which Hoggle called a 'Flute'.
The musicians, most of which were fey playing various instruments and some of the ones who were singing were nymphs and dryads, all bowed to her, thanking her profusely. Apparently a Flute was a lot of money.
Hoggle showed Sarah all of his favourite trinket and jewellery stalls and Sarah bought an intricately made gold amulet with an amber coloured stone set in what was made to look like a claw.
Hoggle had advised her that her purchase was genuine in both metal and stone. Sarah handed it to him so he could appraise it better.
Hoggle ran his thumb over the amulet. 'Tha' is a very rare stone. Very magical. And the claw, tha's special. Owl claw. Symbol of protection.' Hoggle tipped the amulet back into Sarah's hand. 'A strong protection amulet you have there.'
Sarah fastened it around her neck, where it hung safely between her breasts. She didn't feel the need to tell Hoggle that she already knew that it was an owl claw, that she had bought her amulet specifically for that feature because it reminded her of Jareth. It would help her remember that someone special was watching out for her. 'Now can we go look for a material stall and then a drapery? I want some new curtains and a new bedspread so I can make over my room and annoy Jareth.'
'Right y'are milady!' Hoggle took Sarah's hand and lead her skilfully through the crowd.
When they found a material stall, Sarah chose out plain black cloth for curtains and black cloth with tiny pink sequins for a bedspread.
'I can tell you a good seamstress if you like', offered the young fey woman as she handed Sarah her change (two silver coins, Brands, and one coin that looked to be made out of bone, Pips).
'Please do', said Sarah excitedly.
'Go to the dwarf down the street. Her name is Fortuna and she is the best seamstress in this city. Only charges a pittance for her work, too. Tell her I sent you,' said the lady, pointing outside her stall to a tidy store down the street.
'Okay, thanks', Sarah took up the material, giving Hoggle a bit of the black as he insisted he could handle it, and traipsed down the street, with Hoggle puffing behind her.
0o0o0o0o0
Meanwhile, up at the castle, Jareth was very bored with the proceedings of his royal summit. He liked the Troll King- a very nice chap despite that little falling out between their two kingdoms in 1298- but just not enough listen to him ramble for hours about how people didn't appreciate that not all trolls were stupid.
Jareth felt his eyes grow unfocused and knew that to retain his sanity, he must find something to do that was even remotely interesting.
He absent-mindedly fingered the bump on his head where Sarah had hit him with her door. He blinked and then grinned.
Jareth summoned a crystal and looked into it. This is not babysitting, he thought, it is not spying. I am simply, er, checking up on her and her friend Hodgebodge.
The crystal remained blank.
Jareth frowned, no longer in his good mood. The only reasons for someone to not be shown to him was if they were out of the crystal's range, being shielded magically from him or… or…
Jareth shook his head. No, not that. She isn't… she can't be… dead. He conjured another, more powerful crystal and sought Sarah out again.
His worried features and hasty crystal summoning had drawn had drawn the attentions of his guests and Ramona came over to him.
'What's wrong?'
Jareth shook his head again. 'I can't find her,' he said in a dazed voice. I can't, I can't see her…' he was staring avidly into the crystal, moving it so that he could see every angle of absolutely nothing.
Ramona's face transformed into a mask of absolute horror; she knew who Jareth was talking about and how much that 'who' meant to him. 'Rally the troops!' she cried dramatically. 'Sarah Williams has been taken!'
Legolas stood up, anger written all over his face. 'Yes! We shall find the wayward maiden! And we shall crush her vile kidnappers!'
Everyone stared at him.
Ramona itched her cheek a little. 'Um, what about Elvish conduct? Aren't you Elves supposed to be gentle and unable to hurt people?'
Legolas shrugged. 'There are more important things in life.'
Fenrir sighed. 'The meeting is being postponed, isn't it?'
The other royals looked at him as though he was crazy and it was all Jolungus could do to keep Jareth from leaping on Fenrir and 'whoopin' his ass'.
0o0o0o0
Jareth and Gabriel are sitting together in a dark room. 'I can't believe Lady won't let us handle this 'Alex' guy…' grumbles Jareth.
'We could have deep fried his red-haired butt any day of the week,' agrees Gabriel.
Jareth shakes his head. 'She's just to kind for her own good.'