Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters used in the movie, Labyrinth, even though I do in my dreams. But that's another story in itself.

Chapter 19

ÆRNAY arrogantly walked out into the gardens that surrounded the goblin Castle.

"Disgusting" He grunted.

He waved his hand over a deep purple rose bush causing it to shrivel up.

"Better".

He looked to the sky and transformed into a black crow and flew passed the flower beds leaving browned and cracked flora behind him.

A tree off to the corner of the garden began to sway and suddenly the camouflaged face of a dwarf came into view out of a knot right in the center.

"It's all clear" he called over his shoulder. In a matter of seconds all 5 friends and 12 goblins emerged from the knot and were standing in the Goblin King's garden.

Hoggle looked around at his "army". They weren't much but they would have to do.

"OK. Be careful and quiet. Alls of you and stay together, unless I say," he pointedly said in the direction of the goblins.

"Follow me. We needs to find the doorway into the castle that goes directly to Jareth's chambers."

Konile looked suspiciously at the dwarf, "Hoggle? Why is it that you know the shortest way to the Goblin King's chambers?"

Curious, the rest of the army looked at their "leader".

He looked up at Konile, "Jareth showed me the way to the castle when Sarah first came to the Underground. He wanted me to keep her safe. He said that if she got into too much trouble to bring her directly to him."

They all stared but Konile had a slight smile on her face.

Hoggle squirmed a little under their stares. "Well, what are wes all doing standing here let's look for the doorway." He walked passed them.

"What does it look like?" Briegal asked.

"Oh it looks like a purple rose bush it should be right around …" Hoggle stopped. Right in front of them was the shriveled doorway.

"Oh no" Konile gasped.

"Hold on. It might still work." The dwarf walked toward it followed by all.

After much poking they determined it was ruined.

Ludo becoming increasingly frustrated began to whimper and walked around the bush.

"Don't worry, my brother. We'll soon find another way into the castle and save the fair Sarah." Didymus called behind him.

Ludo continued strolling around looking to the ground for an idea.

Instead he found a small shiny object directly in front of him.

"Pretty!" he said bending down to pick up the oval object that seemed to change color.

They all turned to the large beast to find out what was so attractive. Unfortunately for them they witnessed Ludo disappear before their very eyes. All gasped and ran toward the spot to look for the object but could not find the beast of the object of his fascination.

Sarah walked along the mushroom forest lost in thought, followed by Sielke and Rastrin. It was apparent to her that she would not be getting help in this decision. All of a sudden it felt like she was a 15 year old again going through a journey of self discovery yet again only this time she knew what she felt for the Goblin King. He was the love of her life and she the sister she always wanted. She heard loud rustling coming form the far right. The warriors quickly were at her side pulling her down to the ground. Feeling she was safely hidden they turned to smoke and floated toward the noise. Sarah was kept waiting anxiously. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. In seconds the warriors were again at her side.

"it's ÆRNAY's men. They'll be at the castle within the hour. Your majesty, you must use your link to Paralda to warn him." Rastrin whispered to Sarah.

'Paralda?'

'Yes, Sarah.'

'ÆRNAY's men are in the forest they will be at the castle within the hour.'

'Thank you, My Queen. Do not worry. All will be fine. The warriors know the next point of contact. Please listen to them and forgive me for not accompanying you on this journey but I must keep you safe.'

'I understand and please keep yourself safe. I need you to be safe. I will see you soon.'

'Yes, My Queen.'

She caught herself trying to reason that she had actually meant those words. She needed Paralda. He had been there for her since she's gotten aback to the Underground. He was her rock, her teacher, her friend. She suddenly recalled his wonderful eyes as he bent down toward her in the training room. He smelled of magic and sugar. She shook herself and looked to the warriors who were curiously looking at her.

"OK, I warned him. Let's go." She stood up. "Should we be worried? I mean I remember when I first got to this forest my path was blocked a few times."

"That is because the forest sensed that you did not mean us harm. And so it led you straight to us. The path will be different for the Fae. Hopefully, they will not reach the castle at all but at the very least Paralda will have the advantage of knowing that they are on their way."

They had been talking for an hour and Myra felt like Jacob had not made any progress. He just wouldn't open up to her. But from what she could gather. She sensed that this story had to have more to it than just some teasing. There had to be or Jacob was what she had first thought. An arrogant, self-centered, idiot.

"I know that teasing can be bad for kid's self esteem but don't you think carrying this around for so long just isn't quite right? Think about it. What did you say it has been 100 years?" She disbelieving exhaled.

He looked at her in shock. "It's been 500 years"

"OK, then it's really not healthy. Look, Jacob. I know that this has been with you for along…a very long time but have you even asked Jareth for an apology? I'm sure he feels awful. Kids do lots of cruel things. I remember I was called all sorts of names in school but I learned that it didn't matter what other people thought of me as long as I knew who I was. And I always had Sarah to cheer me up. She's really important to me."

"And you to her, I gather. I never had that kind of friendship with anyone. I wish I did maybe things would be different."

Myra smiled at the youthful lookon his face. He looked almost child like with his long hair falling to his shoulders. She leaned forward against him and placed her forehead on his shoulder.

"Sorry, if I had the use of my hands this would be the part where I rubbed your shoulder or back. Whatever."

She suddenly had a vision.

She was in the middle of a strange wooded area and Jacob was standing in front of her. He slowly walked toward her until he scooped her up and gently kissed her. She started getting goose bumps all over her body. But the strange thing was that she hadn't pulled away as she expected to. Instead she deepened the kiss and brought her arms around his neck.

She jumped back and returned to her semi seated position.

He placed his arm around her shoulders and chuckled. "You are a special one aren't you? You know what my father is having her do to get you back?"

"What? Who? Oh. You mean Sarah."

"My dear Lady. I do believe you are flushed? What were you thinking?" with a mischievous smirk.

"Nothing. Nothing. What were you saying about Sarah?"

"Oh yes. My father is having her steal Jareth's amulet so we can kill him." He sighed smiling to himself.

Her goofy grin disappeared and was replaced with a scowl. After one look at her, he stood up from the bed and said,

"I know what you're going to say..."

"How exactly did your father know that Sarah would risk herself for me?"

"Well, if the legends about her are correct then it would not have taken much for her to risk herself but after I went Aboveground I found out about the bond you two shared. I explained to my father that you were bosom companions."

"Jacob! I swear I am going to kill you. You got me into this mess."

"Well I had planned on untying you but I see from your reaction to this bit of news that that will be out of the question. Besides it should be an easy task for her it's not like she has a real attachment to Jareth."

"You are an idiot! Sarah has been in love with Jareth since she was a child!"

She looked up at him to see he had a look of sheer horror on his face.

"One more reason for me to hate my cousin." He scoffed the menacing look returning to his face.

A/N:

Thank you for your reviews.

I apologize for not being able to update last week. I was still trying to get past the events that occurred in Half Blood Prince. With that said I would like to invite you all to my new website. The link is on my author's page. It is still in the first stages so if you have any suggestions please feel free. I will be putting up cast pages for this story and quite possibly putting up more stories on this website.

Please do not worry about this story as I have said before this story is actually finished. It is just a matter of my typing it up. Oh I just reworked a few chapters that are really juicy.