Chapter 18

The Einhorn Paradox

Sarah and Bethan had not gotten much sleep despite trying. It was cold, and the ground was hard and frozen over. They also had lost all their sense of time and didn't know anymore how long they had been in the cave. Judging by Sarah's stomach rumbling it had to be over twelve hours.

Bethan fumbled around in his bag and came up with two small pieces of dried fae stag jerky. He handed Sarah one piece and nodded. Sarah took it with a thank you and ate. They drank some melted snow for water.

"I have a few more pieces of jerky, but we better safe it. We don't know how long we'll be down here." Bethan closed his bag, made another torch for Sarah, and smeared the remaining tar from his starter kit onto both torches.

Sarah took it and lit it with the glowing coals of the dying fire. They also wrapped up as much wood as they could carry and slung it over their backs.

The going was slow through the narrow passage and Sarah had to hand Bethan her bow, quiver, and wood pile before she could squeeze through it. Once they had made it, it opened up into a large cavern with a frozen pool in the middle. They had to cross it to make it to the other side and continue.

Bethan carefully tested the ice. The last thing they needed was for one of them to fall through it. It was certain death from hypothermia. He kept leading Sarah across the ice step by step, in a slow and meticulous fashion. The ice made cracking noises a few times, but it never broke.

It seemed hours before they made it across, and both heaved a sigh of relief looking at each other with reassurance. Bethan signaled to move on.

They had to climb a few jagged rocks to continue on the path up and into the cavern. Sarah was glad that there were no more narrow passageways. The torches provided some comfort, but only lit the way directly in front and above them. After five feet the cave appeared pitch black and menacing. It definitely was not a place for someone with claustrophobia or nyctophobia, a fear of tight enclosed spaces and the dark.

It seemed like they had been walking for hours, up and down, over razor sharp rocks, sliding through icy crevasses and over precarious rock ledges. Bethan seemed to see the path when Sarah had no clue where they were heading. She was glad he was with her. Alone, she never would have found her way. She would have been lost forever.


Jareth directed his goblin rescue crew as best as he could. They had made good progress at first trying to tunnel through the snow to get directly to the cave entrance, but it kept collapsing.

Finally Jareth decided to remove the snow from the top first. It was going to take longer, but at least it didn't collapse anymore and put the rescue crew at danger. The goblin foreman had suggested to use some of the explosives to get rid of most of the snow mass, but Jareth did not want to risk another avalanche.

They had worked most of the morning and afternoon without any breaks, and they still didn't seem to be any closer to the entrance than the day before. Jareth was getting frustrated and the fear deep within his heart became unbearable. He refused to give up hope, as something deep inside kept telling him Sarah was alive.

Arman and Aden were out, tracking down the other four hunting parties to inform them of the situation, but had not returned with anyone yet. Jareth intensified the digging efforts.

A goblin came running as he had found something in the snow. It was a string of feathers, the same feathers Sarah had worn in her hair. Jareth recognized them as she had written 'Jareth' on the band that tied them together and drawn a little heart around his name.

He remembered laughing at her when she had drawn this, and she had smiled at him and said: "this way you are always with me." She then had given him a passionate kiss and her shimmering eyes had looked deep into his soul.

He was close to crying as he took them and held them in his hand.

"It means nothing", he told himself, "Sarah is alive", and he made the goblins double up their efforts and concentrate on the area where they had found the feathers. He carefully put them in his jacket pocket.


Sarah and Bethan had stopped to rest and made a small campfire with the wood they had brought along. They extinguished their torches to save the tar as it was getting low. If they ran out of torchlight, they would be lost as the cave was pitch black. Bethan had a light crystal with him but magic did not work in this forest and cave, as he had tried several times to light it.

They ate another couple of pieces of his fae stag jerky. It wasn't much, but it did settle Sarah's stomach some. After only an hour Bethan signaled to get going again. They had no clue on how much further they had to go or if they even went into the right direction. For all they knew they may be going deeper and deeper into the cave and farther away from any exit.

Finally they came to a ledge with a steep drop off. They stood there for a few seconds and Sarah dropped a rock over the ledge and counted the seconds.

"About two hundred feet", she told Bethan with a look of desperation. "How are we going to climb down two hundred feet? This is a sheer cliff."

She felt close to giving up.

"I have an elven rope with me. Whatever length we need it automatically adjusts." Bethan took it off his belt where he had it rolled up in a tight little ball.

"Not here it won't", Sarah answered dejectedly. "No magic, remember?"

Bethan gave her a downhearted look and kicked another rock over the ledge in frustration. He walked the ledge to see if he could find some sort of a path leading down or they would have to turn around, track back who knows how far and try another route.

He finally found a small trail that led down the cliff, but it was extremely precarious. He pointed at it and unrolled his rope.

"We can do this. I go ahead and attach the rope securely to the wall. Then you follow behind tied to it. If you should slip you only fall as far as the rope will let you, no further."

"What about you?" Sarah looked at him with concern.

"Elves are extremely steadfast on their feet. We are awesome climbers, and that's without magic." He smirked and started making his way down the narrow steep trail. Sarah held her breath as she watched him descent.

"If we make it out of this cave, I want Jareth to promote him to a ranking officer of some sort. That boy is awesome", she thought and gingerly followed him down the ledge.

It took them several hours to make it to the bottom of the cliff, but they made it safely. Sarah ended up with bruised knees and scratched elbows and hands, but was otherwise is good shape. Bethan was unscathed as well. They both looked up the cliff as they realized their accomplishment.

"I don't think I ever want to do that again", Sarah mumbled and Bethan nodded in agreement.

They sat down and took a rest. Their torches were getting really low and Bethan became concerned they may not last longer than another hour or so.

"Let's make a small fire and see if we can hole up here for the night, or whatever time it is. Rest for a few hours and catch some sleep if possible."

Sarah suggested and again Bethan shook his head in agreement.

Sarah could tell he was exhausted though he did not want to let on, and he seemed relieved that the suggestion for a longer rest had come from her. It had given him a way out of looking weak.


Arman and Aden had tracked down two other hunting parties and they had joined up with the rescue crew. One of them was Kaden's and the other was Faron's. They listened in horror to Arman as he told them what had happened. Faron walked over to Jareth who was in the middle of directing removal of a large pile of snow.

"Jareth", he said softly and put his hand on Jareth' shoulder. Jareth touched it with his hand and shook his head.

"She's alive Faron, I am refusing to believe she is gone. Sarah is alive and I will find her and bring her home. We will celebrate the winter solstice together", Jareth was very adamant about it and Faron only nodded in silence.

"I do everything I can to help find her. She is my daughter too", with that he grabbed a pick and began breaking the large ice boulders that blocked the way to the cliff wall. Jareth stood there with a tear in his eyes and then joined him.


Sarah and Bethan had tried to catch some sleep, but it was pointless and they only tried to fool themselves. The cave was damp and cold, the dark looked menacing, and the ground was hard and littered with sharp small lava rocks. They both had only one thing on their mind, to get out of there.

After about an hour Sarah gave up on the sleep and sat herself up with a moan. Her muscles were cold and now felt stiff and achy. Bethan didn't seem to fare any better. They sat there in the dark for a while, neither one of them speaking a word.

Bethan heard it first, and then so did Sarah. There was something in the dark, with hooves. They heard a very distinct clatter of hooves and a snort. Bethan listened intensely into the dark and strained his eyes to see, but he could not penetrate the blackness.

Sarah's hands were searching for the torch as the sound drew closer and closer, and Sarah felt as if something was breathing on her face. She finally found the torch and stuck it in the still hot coals.

Swoosh, the torch lit up and in front of her was the head of a horse with a huge horn on its forehead and two red glowing eyes. She only saw if for a split second as it reared up, threw down its front hooves besides Sarah and galloped off with a snort. The torch must have startled and blinded it. Sarah let out a shriek and crawled backwards towards Bethan, who sat there with his mouth open, equally stunned.

"What the hell was that?" Sarah whispered in sheer terror. "It was right against my face, I could feel its hot breath."

"That, that", Bethan couldn't help but to stutter. "That was an Einhorn."

"An Einhorn? But I thought those are extinct", she gasped and looked at Bethan with disbelief. She knew what an Einhorn was from her mom's fairy tale stories. It was a mean unicorn.

The unicorns in the old tales were not the soft cuddly ones they tried to sell to children for toys, the fairy tale unicorns were called Einhorns and they were mean beasts that were killers, always out to kill people. She vaguely remembered an old fairy tale her mother had read to her about an Einhorn. Whom was it by? Sarah tried to remember.

"Das tapfere Schneiderlein. The valiant tailor", she called out loud. Bethan gave her a puzzled look.

"It's a fairy tale story my mom read to me as a kid. It's a Grimm story", Sarah tried to explain to Bethan who still looked puzzled.

"A grim story?" He muttered back.

"No, a Brothers Grimm story. That was their name. It's about this tailor who brags to everyone about how brave he was, and he wore this belt that had seven notches on it. He told everyone he killed seven with one blow.

Everyone assumed it was enemies, but it had only been flies. He only killed seven flies with one blow, not giants, or people. But anyway, they send him into the woods to kill this Einhorn that had been terrorizing the village people."

"It terrorized a disco music group?" Bethan looked puzzled all over again.

"What?" Sarah responded bewildered. "No, not the music group. How do you know about the Village People?" She had to ask before continuing with her story.

"King Jareth", came his short answer with a smirk. "I like YMCA, it rocks."

"Of course you do." Sarah heaved and shook her head. "No, village inhabitants. Pay attention Bethan."

"So, did he kill it?" Bethan asked with renewed interest.

"Yes, yes he did actually", Sarah replied and tried to remember how he had done it. Finally it came to her.

"With a rope and an axe. He lured it to attack him in front of a tree. He jumped to the side in the last second and the Einhorn got its horn stuck in the tree. He put its rope around its neck and chopped of its horn and took it to the king to claim the princess."

Sarah gave him a proud smile.

"Nice story and cool ending. Too bad there's not a princess I could get for killing one of them." Bethan had a wishful look on his face that made Sarah laugh out loud despite their predicament in a dark dangerous cave. Her laughter echoed down the vast cavern and reverberated throughout the system.

They heard a high pitched whinny as a reply and Sarah's laughter was muted. They were catapulted back to reality.

"We got a rope and we got two daggers." Bethan said and tried to sound confident.

"Yeah but we don't have a tree", Sarah murmured deep in thoughts.

They decided that staying put was not safe and started back up on their mission to find an exit out of the cave. They had enough tar and pitch left for roughly an hour. Every so often they heard the clatter of hooves and knew the beast was following them.

"If an Einhorn lives here, then an exit can't be too far off." Sarah told Bethan. "Horses do not wander deep into caves, and an Einhorn is more or less a horse with a horn on its forehead."

She tried to sound confident and self-assured.

They had to climb a few more jagged rocks and crawl over a ledge, but once they got to the top they saw a distant glimmer of light. Sarah squinted her eyes as she was the first one up on the ledge.

"Look, Bethan', she grabbed his arm and pointed towards the dim light. "It's an exit."

The closer they got, the brighter the light shone, and soon the vast hall was illuminated enough to see without a torch. They quickly but carefully climbed down a steep trail. It was less than three hundred feet from the exit and clear even ground to get there.

They were halfway across the hall when out of nowhere the Einhorn came racing up behind them and threw Bethan with its horn across the hall into a wall of jagged rocks. Sarah turned in shock and saw Bethan landing with a horrible thud. He laid there motionless.

The Einhorn was about to charge him again and Sarah knew it wanted to impale him with its horn. She had to distract it quickly.

"You", she yelled at it and threw a rock at it. "Why don't you pick on someone who can fight you?"

She stood out in the open and drew her bow.

The Einhorn turned and faced her with red glowing eyes. It pawned the ground with its front hoof creating bright sparks before it charged at her.


"Hurry the hell up already", Jareth yelled at his goblin crew. They were so very close to the entrance, and he had grown increasingly impatient. Another yard and they could crawl in there. Jareth started to dig again with his hands to speed it up and Faron joined him.

They finally managed a hole big enough to squeeze through. Jareth jumped in head first, followed by Faron, Kaden, Arman, and Aden. It was dark and their eyes had to get adjusted to the dim light. The goblins kept widening the hole and finally enough light shone in there to make it easy to see.

Jareth immediately noticed the camp fire and the moved wood and brush. He touched the ash and coal. It was still slightly warm.

"They were here and started a fire. Probably stayed the night. That's good", he sounded hopeful and with renewed energy. He kept looking around and found the narrow passageway. A piece of clothing hung on one of the jagged rocks.

"It's Sarah's. She must have gotten it hung up as she squeezed through here. Faron hand me a torch."

Jareth peeked down the pathway and when Faron handed him the torch he slowly made his way through it. The others followed suit after lighting their torches.

The small procession made its way through the narrow passage way and entered a giant cavernous hall with a frozen pond. Jareth' heat sunk again.

"How are we going to find them? This is huge." He moved his torch around to see more of the cavern.

"They crossed the pond. Look at the cracks", Faron said and kneeled down by the pond to inspect one of them.

"Looks like they made it safely across as there are no breaks and the cracks are already starting to freeze back over."

He stood up and looked at Jareth. Everybody stared silently into the dark cave. They knew tracking them down in the vastness of this pitch black cave was a near impossibility.

"Let's reconvene outside", Jareth decided after a few painful minutes of fighting with himself over which course to take. He wanted to follow Sarah's trail with all his heart, but his head told him, that was the wrong course."

The small party turned about and left the way they came in.


Sarah stared down the charging Einhorn with her drawn bow. She waited until the last minute to shoot it. The arrow barely missed its head and got stuck in its ear. It was enough to buy Sarah enough time to jump to the side and do a roll as the Einhorn ran passed her.

The landing was painful on the rocky ground and she winced in pain. Bethan still wasn't moving and Sarah was concerned for him. She didn't have any time to check on him as the Einhorn charged her again.

Sarah quickly drew another arrow and shot. Again, the arrow was deflected by the Einhorn, which threw it aside with its horn.

"A kingdom for a tree", she murmured to herself, but there were no trees in the cave. If she could only use her magic and activate her time bubble she could have it defeated in less than two minutes, but magic was not allowed in these woods, and it didn't work.

Sarah made a run for the exit with the Einhorn close on her heels. She zigzagged back and forth and kept her small gain on the larger less agile animal. Oh she was so close, when the Einhorn caught up with her, and she had to make another tuck and roll jump to her side, imbedding more sharp rocks into her back.

They stared at each other. The Einhorn pawed the ground and gazed at her with glowing red eyes.

"I want nothing from you. I only want to get out of this cave. Let us pass and we'll leave you alone", Sarah yelled at the animal.

Her last arrow had broken during her tuck and roll and she threw her bow to the side, drawing her dagger. The Einhorn took a step forward, snorting and blowing air. Its red eyes glowing even more as it lowered its head and pointed its horn straight at Sarah.

Sarah stood there, looking at the exit and back at Bethan who was still motionless on the ground. She could not leave him behind like this, being that close to their freedom from this cave.

"Let us pass. Let me get my friend and we'll leave you alone", she said again, but this time her voice was much softer and calmer. Sarah stood there ready to pounce with her dagger in her hand. She was ready for anything. The animal did not attack, but only stared her down, aggressively shaking its head.

A thought came into Sarah's head, a very crazy and risky thought, but she had to give it a try.

It was a story her dad had told her once about a vicious dog in the neighborhood. He had attacked her dad one day and he had his golf club on him, raised in defense. Not until he put his club down, and laid it on the ground and showed the dog his empty hands that he had settled down and actually let her dad pet him. He wasn't aggressive toward him, he had only been frightened.

"Let's see if your strategy works here too, dad", Sarah whispered. "Please, don't let me down."

She slowly put down her dagger on the ground and stood up straight, showing her empty hands to the Einhorn.

"I have no weapons to do you any harm", she kept talking to the animal. "I only want to gather my friend over there and leave this cave so I can go home to my family. We mean you no harm."

Sarah wasn't sure if the Einhorn understood her or even cared, but it was her last hope. There was no way she could defeat it with her small dagger alone.

The animal shook its head again and raised it as it stood there motionless, staring at Sarah. She held its gaze, but the Einhorn's eyes were no longer glowing red. They now had a soft hue of brown and it no longer pawed the ground.

Bethan had come to and managed to sit up with the help of a boulder next to him. He was holding his ribcage and was breathing with difficulty. Several of his ribs were broken. He stared at Sarah and the Einhorn with his mouth open as he could not believe what he was seeing.

The Einhorn stepped towards Sarah in a non-menacing way and bowed its head when it was only inches away from her face, its horn slightly off to the side of her head. Sarah reached up with one hand and touched it lightly on its muzzle and then scratched its forehead.

"You were only scared of us, weren't you?" She didn't speak the word and only thought them but the Einhorn heard her and answered her back.

"You are Queen Sarah from the Labyrinth Kingdom. Your fame has preceded you. I am sorry to have mistaken you for an intruder and attacker. My name is Paradox."

It looked at Sarah with soft eyes now and nuzzled her gently.

"I am her. We are lost. Our party is somewhere out there looking for us. We got buried by an avalanche and got trapped in your cave. We only want to go home."

Sarah kept communicating with Paradox purely via telepathy as Bethan tried to figure out what was going on.

"How come I can communicate with you via thoughts when magic is not permitted in these woods?" Sarah asked confused.

"Because it is not magic you are using, but a gift of yours, your natural talent. You always had the gift of telepathy, you just never realized it until you moved to the Underground."

Paradox turned towards Bethan who once again became nervous.

"Let's get your friend on my back. He is in no shape to walk and I take you back to your group. I know the way, it's not that far."

Sarah ensured Bethan that everything was going to be ok, and that he was going to take a safe ride on the Einhorn Paradox. His mouth hung wide open as the animal laid besides him so he could climb on its back.

"That is super groovy", he mouthed. "I'm riding an Einhorn. Wait till Arman sees this."

He held on tight as it stood back up.

"Super groovy?" Sarah laughed. "Oh let me guess, King Jareth."

She picked up the bows and her dagger and held Bethan up as she walked besides Paradox out of the cave.