Sorry for the wait, folks. But I do feel I've got a legitimate excuse this time (First time in years). With school just around the corner, I've enrolled in the district I just moved to and as it turns out, the AP Language class had a summer assignment. So I've got to try and condense a four month long assignment into a few weeks. Granted, I read the book (The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which I recommend to anyone who can enjoy a good memoir) in about three days, but I'm still not sure what to do with the handbook/field guide/whatever it is.
Now forgetting the excuses, I offer up the first chapter after an exert from- you guessed it -Sarah's mother. We're brought back to Sarah herself, and I promise, we're here to stay... for this story. I have another favorite story of mine in the Labyrinth category that's going up after this that is actually written from two perspectives. I intend to publish both technically separate stories together as one. Maybe I'll zig-zag across chapters, or maybe I'll put each chapter from either points of view on one page, separating them and letting you choose which point of view to read this time. Oh, who knows?
Talk of the next story is a 'subtle' hint that I don't intend too many more chapters for this one. Anyone who was a little thrown off by the last chapter, I will admit that it wasn't exactly essential, but that's the sort of thing that I have to do to get back on track. Sometimes I've got to skip around to glue a story together.
Hope you like it, I don't own Labyrinth, Jareth, Sarah, Hoggle, or Linda. I do, however, own Aurea.
"Of course I'm a villain." Jareth purred with a smirk that, now that I even humored the idea he was insisting upon, could look rather frightening. And yet, I honestly wasn't afraid of him.
"Then, should I be concerned for myself?" Should I be worrying about what I'd gotten myself into?
"No, of course not." He sat back down beside me. "I'm not your villain. But I don't appreciate being thought of as completely benevolent."
From his tone of voice, I got the feeling that he'd had this conversation before. I didn't bother another thought on it- there's no way someone could be fooled into thinking he's the big, bad wolf.
"Mm-hm." I humored him, leaning back again. "If it helps you sleep at night."
"Perhaps you should learn more about my Labyrinth before you pass judgment." He waved a hand passively. Normally, I would have shrugged, jumped down, and demanded a tour if that was how he was going to be. But there, just now, he's avoiding my gaze.
"What're you hiding?" I demanded, narrowing my eyes and leaning down from my perch on the arm of the throne. He looked up then, surprised.
"Excuse me?"
"You're hiding something, because you only act suspicious when you are suspicious."
"I'm always suspicious. I kidnap human children for a living." He defended himself... poorly.
"That book's all true then?" I was momentarily thrown off, but shook my head. It doesn't really surprise me. "No, what are you hiding from me?"
"I was only going to suggest that you take a tour of the castle grounds, at least. Beyond that, I'd rather accompany you until Bartley has been eradicated from the Labyrinth. I cannot join you today, I have other things to take care of that I would normally attend to immediately following a wish like the one I've just returned from. But I've put it off until a more opportune time. Will you be alright with my gardener show you the grounds for now?"
He had completely changed the subject just now. Jareth, what are you hiding from me? I thinned my lips and crossed my arms. "Jareth..."
He stood again, and pulled me to my feet. "You've already found your way to the library, but the castle grounds may change and shift, like the passages beyond. Hoggle can assist you until you've found your way around."
"Jareth..."
"In the garden, there is a peach tree. It's only eleven years old, and it's fruit ripens this time of the year. It's scent is especially enticing to mortals, but I implore you to leave it be. Fruit from the Underground is not like that which you're used to."
He turned quickly and walked out, and I sighed in irritation. Yeah, he's definitely got something up his sleeve. Either he's doing something behind my back, doesn't want me to see some part of the castle and thus has to hide it, or he doesn't want to be there when I do see something.
No, he isn't evil, but he isn't completely benevolent, is he? I trust him completely, and I have no doubt he likes me and isn't just eager to get rid of me, but I don't trust him to tell me the complete truth. I already know about fruit of the Underground. I know what it does, and I know there is no cure except more of it. Does he not realize I already know about this, or does he know something I don't?
As a familiar dwarf walked into the room, I felt a brief disappointment upon realizing it had to be a peach tree; I love peaches.
"Hoggle?" I stared at him in surprise. That same dwarf that had gotten us out of the oubliette.
"You again?" He grunted, then waved a hand and scoffed at me. "Figures yer the girlie."
"What do you mean?" I wondered. Does the whole Labyrinth know of me?
"Don' matter. Come on, I'll show yeh 'round the grounds." He didn't look happy about it, but had already started out the way he'd come. That was back the direction from which I'd come from the library.
"Thank you for earlier, Hoggle. Helping us out of there."
He looked at me in surprise. "Yer thanking me?"
"Of course. We would have been stuck in there forever if you hadn't come in."
"The King woulda found yeh." He muttered. "Yer not one he'd loose real soon."
"What do you know about me?" I wondered, remembering how Aurea had tried to hide something about me earlier too.
"I know yer the King's new toy. He gets one every so often."
"I am, am I?" I scoffed, not believing him for a second. Jareth's my best friend.
"Sure. Hasn't had a new toy for several years. Then he went and found you." He mused.
The ground shook violently and I gasped, grabbing at the walls. Hoggle squeeked, fell down, and climbed back to his feet when the ground settled as quickly as it had started shaking.
"What was that?" I gasped, looking around wildly for some large creature coming at us.
"Passages changing." He muttered half-heartedly. "Aint nothin'." I wasn't fully convinced, but I let it slide.
"What were you saying, then?"
"I was saying..." He paused, looked down one corridor and then the other, before speaking again. "I was saying, these passages change a lot. But the halls don't ever shift. Once you know what hall yer on, yeh'll know. Library's just down there. I don't bet you already been there."
He was pointing to the end of the hall. I nodded, taking note of the identical scenery of this hall as the one I'd admired as I'd exited the library. "What are all the other doors?" There were several along one side, and not a single one on the other wall.
"They're jus to closets and goblin rooms. They shut themselves up and pass out for a few days, then just roll out." He shook his head. "'Cept the second one there. That's another corridor. Always leads to the one that's got all the windows."
He opened it up to show me. I stepped through to admire the windows on the right; they faced out towards the goblin city. We were two or three stories up, and it was all very irregular, so I wouldn't at all compare it to any hall I'd been in before. Aside from the fact that I don't remember going up any stairs.
"How'd we get all the way up here?" I asked, fascinated by the city below. It was more like a hodge-podge of goblins running around, going about their days. There was no order, no obvious rules. As I watched, one took bread from another and ran off, and the one that had the bread originally just threw a shoe at the thief before simply going to grab another loaf from the- what I assumed to be -marketplace.
"Magic. You can't understand magic, yeh aint getting far here, girlie." He scoffed, and kept walking.
"Of course I know magic." I started to follow, before realizing the windows on the other side faced what appeared to be a garden area at ground level. "Magic is everything that simply doesn't make sense."
"That's one way to say it." He mumbled.
"That's the gardens?" I tried to find a door in. It was completely overgrown; creepers everywhere, vines blocking half the windows and weeds overtaking most of the ground. And yet, there were also shrubs and flowers that appeared to be well cared for. Trimmed up, watered, like your average garden in the above.
"Yeah..." He didn't stop.
"How do you get in?"
"How you get in every room."
"And how's that?"
"How's what?"
I groaned in frustration. "How do you get into those gardens?"
"Through the door." He gave me an irritated look, pointing to gates that hadn't been there before. Of course. I sighed and shook my head. Magic. "Ain't nothing interesting in there."
"Jareth said there was a peach tree here." I pulled the gates open. "I just want to see. He was acting rather suspicious."
Hoggle didn't say anything, he just followed me inside. It was larger than it had looked, but the contents was just the same. Mostly, there was untamed underbrush, but there were pockets of clean cut shrubs and cared for flowers. It was a fair balance between chaos and order. But, mostly it was wild weeds and creepers, fallen branches and ferns to the point that I dared not step off the path until I had shoes.
It was only then that I realized that this whole time, I've been barefoot and in my pajamas. It's warm here, and I've got on one of my longer nightgowns, so it didn't bother me very much, but still.
"The door on the other side leads closer to the kitchens." Hoggle pointed as we came to another bend in the path. I ignored him, however, in favor of the clearing we'd come to. It was wide enough that walls and windows of the castle peeked through periodic clusters of trees. But the clearing was far more manicured than the path. The gardens reminded me of a balloon on a string, with a door into the castle at either end and foliage all around.
Now, I could leave the path. The grass was soft and clipped, there was a bench over there and a budding bush of some sort of flowers behind it. On the other side of the clearing was the peach tree which, true to Jareth's word, smelled heavenly.
But I wasn't tempted. I knew full and well how dangerous those fruit were, and I didn't even think about plucking a peach from it's branches. Jareth, or Aurea, or Hoggle, or any one else here could eat from it no problem, but not me.
"What's that?" I asked, going closer.
"A peach tree, obviously." I rolled my eyes at Hoggle's intentional ignorance. He knew I meant the small, white obelisk behind the tree. It was about two and a half feet tall, and twice the width of the trunk in front of it. It stuck out at a slight angle too.
"Is it a monument?" I wondered, looking for any engraved writing on the surface, but there didn't seem to be any.
"Yeah, I guess." Hoggle followed me begrudgingly. "The librarian set it up, but the King didn't seem to mind. Didn't stop her, at least."
"Well who's it for? It doesn't say anywhere." I touched it's cool surface, wondering if it was Aurea's parents or if maybe she'd been married. Maybe she'd even had a child, but I somehow doubted that. She was rather nurturing... of her library. I just couldn't see her having a child, she seemed rather young still. Older than me, I had no doubt, but I was thinking it might be someone she'd loved?
"The king's last toy." Hoggle answered, tapping the base of the obelisk that faced the wall. I hadn't looked at such an out of the way place for an engraving, but sure enough, there was something written down there.
So I wedged myself in the two-foot gap and brushed the grass and dirt away. It didn't come up to cover the words, but nearly. I'd thought there had been more to it, but I was wrong. Just two words, or rather, one name.
Linda Williams.
I, at first, didn't quite understand it. That's when I'd brushed the grass away to see if there was a date. There wasn't, and I briefly noted the similarities in her name and mine. I didn't quite understand at first, until it clicked with a sudden *pop*.
"Hoggle?" I asked, staring at the obelisk. "How long has this been here?
"About eight years." Hoggle shrugged, edging towards the door. I pulled myself back to my feet and stared at the peach tree silently. A million things ran through my mind in the span of a few seconds.
"Where is the king now?" I asked, still staring at the tree.
"How am I supposed to know?" Hoggle demanded, still creeping away like he feared me to burst at any second. He knew that was there, he knew I would find it, and that just proved that it's exactly what I thought it was. It could have been a coincidence, but him trying to escape wasn't.
"Show me where his..." I wavered between two rooms I knew he spent time in. He'd tell me about the work he'd left behind in his study, about how more interesting my room was than his... and I wasn't sure where to go now. But I wasn't going back to the throne room. Maybe the Escher room? Wherever I went, I knew he'd be there. He was probably watching me right now, biting his nails and fearing what I'd say when I confronted him. "Show me to his room."
"His room?" Hoggle looked surprised. "No one's supposed to-"
I gave him a look. "Where is it?" I wasn't afraid of him, and I knew he wouldn't get upset if I was in there. Not to call myself special, but he should have bigger things to worry about than the sanctity of his bedroom.
"Down this hall and up two floors." Hoggle pointed one direction after sticking his hand through the door.
"Will you show me?" I asked, keeping my cool.
"Ahhh... sure?" He didn't want to, but he volunteered anyways. This time, out journey was done out in silence. I thought about how I should feel, if I should be skeptical or if I should just wonder how. Should I ask why first? Which is more important, why or how? Is this what Aurea had been hiding? Hoggle did say she set this up, so it's got to be. Why such a secret? Should I just ignore Hoggle's jabs like I had been, or should I start to question my closest friend? He had said he was evil, and I hadn't believed him. Should I rethink that, or should I give him the benefit of the doubt. There were so many factors to this, that I had no idea how I should feel. She left a long time ago, I remember being close before, but since I haven't spared her much thought. How should I feel?
My mind whirled in circles until we reached the start of the short passage that lead to one door facing the south. He started back down, and I walked forward without hesitation. I tried to calm down and only spent a moment wondering if he was already inside or if I would have to wait.
That's what I'll ask. What happened? I really can't assume anything, because all I know is that I trust him, and she's been gone for ten years.
After I shut the door behind me, I hesitated. His room didn't honestly have much to it. A desk, a shelf with seven crystals, and a messy circular bed with a silent king sitting on the edge. I sat beside him, crossing my legs, and waited for an explanation.
"I can't answer if I don't know the question, Precious One." He didn't back down. He didn't look that nervous about this conversation, but it didn't escape me how he had failed to mention my mother before... ever.
"So my mom was here?" I asked, completely abandoning all my thought-through and planned out interrogation tactics.
"Yes, for near three years." He answered indifferently.
"Why?"
"She wished herself here. If you suspect me behind it, I'm not. My involvement is strictly limited to the longevity of her life, and her presence in the castle specifically."
"Explain."
"When she schemed her way into the Underground, I couldn't care less. But like you, she turned out to be rather handy with a deck of cards or a chess board. Moreso than a goblin, at the very least."
"So, you invited her to stay in the castle for games?" I pursued. "Why did she wish herself away? What do you mean, longevity?" I was getting frustrated.
"Sarah-mine," He lifted his chin and commanded my attention. I calmed down, telling myself again that I trust him for a reason. "Eleven years ago, your mother ate a fruit given to her by an imp. More than eight years ago, she died by eating a fruit that an imp gave her. If you seek to blame me for any of her misgivings, you should know that I provided room and the fruit that kept her alive for near three years."
"I don't blame you for what happened to her." I stated easily. I don't. I knew he wouldn't have done anything to directly harm her. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that she had lived near for nearly three years. "But, this does put a few things to different perspective."
He raised an eyebrow. "Does it?" He challenged.
"Yes. You know my mother before you knew me. Did that have anything to do with it? How come you never told me?" I demanded, taking up his challenge. All those nights I hadn't even suspected he knew my mom. "My mom was living with you for three years, you'd kept it a secret?"
"I didn't intend for it to be a secret." He shrugged. "The subject never came up. You never once spoke of your mother those nights you ran your mouth until I made you sleep. I don't care enough to bring it up."
"But did this have anything to do with when you answered my wish?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know the answer. If he only cared because I was the daughter of his game partner? Or, she was there three years...
"Of course." He didn't hesitate. "I can answer wishes, that doesn't mean I have to. Just now, ten children have made wishes in your province alone. I don't answer them all- I don't even care to know what they are. When someone is wished away, then I must answer, but otherwise, what do I care? I only went to meet you because your wish came from the same household that woman came from. And from a child the same age as the one she rambled on and on about."
"So..." I hedged, hoping I really didn't have to voice my suspicions and fears about this whole new situation.
"You want to know the full story?" He assumed, clearly not wanting to tell it. So, I shook my head.
"I just want to know the truth."
"Have I ever lied to you?"
No. I shook my head again. "So she ate a fruit. She wished herself away to survive." I could see that. I didn't know Mom very well, but I could see her doing that. "Were you as fond of her as you are of me?"
He didn't appear to like the question, but gave an answer nevertheless. "You assume I have an affinity for any mortal. I'm not going to mislead you into thinking I truly cared about your mother's fate. She fascinated me because most humans wouldn't wish themselves away. She interested me because she could provide a mild challenge in the games I so love, but she annoyed me. Constantly, she would run my ear with talk of her child, her beloved daughter, and her home in the Above. If I mourned her passing, it was briefly."
He truly appeared indifferent.
"After Aurea insisted upon the grave out there- they had been friends apparently -I was rather bored. It's fortunate, however, because my boredom and mild interest in the wish I'd received from the same household the woman had come from lead to all of this."
Silence for a minute, before I looked away.
"A few more years free of boredom?"
I heard him scoff. An arm reached around me and I looked back to him. He was amused!
"I believe we've already had this conversation." He half-laughed. "I'm not a benevolent creature, but I'm not your villain. Do you think I find sport in caring for humans?" He did laugh now. "It isn't my fault you've wormed your way under my skin."
"So that's it?" I ignored his attempt at being cheesy. A bombshell that huge drops on me and somehow he's gotten me to feel like it's no big deal. I can't help but to feel like I'm underreacting now. Somehow, he's done something that's forced me to not only shrug this whole thing off, but also not feel any more reluctant towards him due to the fact he's been keeping this from me for years.
"I hate your logic." I muttered to myself. He seemed amused again, and pulled his arm back.
"Are you done interviewing me?" He asked patiently. I eyed him distrustfully. "Good. I don't intend to return for a while, so you can either continue your tour or spend the rest of the day in the library. Much has happened in twenty-four hours, and it's not yet over. When you're tired, sleep here."
"Where are you going now?" I questioned, feeling like I've spent six years waiting to hang out with my best friend again, and now that I am, he just keeps disappearing.
"Bartley." He sobered quickly. "The sooner I take him out, the better."
"And how long is this going to take?" I asked, wondering what's changed. Now that he's back in my life, I feel like something else is going to change. "And what after that?"
He hesitated, before smiling and holding up a crystal. "We'll figure that out when it comes."
I watched the crystal, like I have so many times before, years ago, until it was completely unrecognizable as a crystal. Instead, it was a peach. He held it out to me, and I hesitated.
"Aboveground?"
"Of course." He nodded. I took it then and rolled it over in my hands. But, I have one more question.
"Jareth? Why a peach? Not this, but the tree out there, the fruit Mom ate after she came. And some of the goblins had called me 'Peach Girlie' earlier. It has some correlation, right?"
"I'm not so sure. But that was the fruit the woman had requested. As I didn't care at all, that was the fruit given." He mused. "I will return by morning, but if you need me before then... I'm sure you can figure it out."
I started to object, but he disappeared with that smirk. He just expects me to know what to do in case of an emergency? Just like that? It mustn't be hard, then, but of course he can't make it easy.
I bit into the peach, savoring the flavor, before falling backwards on the bed. I hadn't even the slightest idea what was going to happen after this, but I couldn't find it in myself to care either. Now I know that I was sharing the same setting my mother had- she had been trapped in this place for her need of Underground fruit and I for protection against Bartley -but I still wondered what else there was to the situation.
If he's been hiding something like that, what else could he be hiding?
Well, now I suppose Aurea has nothing to hide. Perhaps now I can pry an honest conversation out of her.
So, even though I feel like a lot happened this chapter, I still feel like it was a filler. I mean, I know where I am going and I know how to get there now, and I couldn't do it without this one, and yet, it felt rather slow and... monotonous. Suggestions or requests on the next one? I'd like to hear them, along with comments on this one.
And at last, the true question finally arises. Sarah finally has her best friend back, she's safe, and she's hanging out in a magical castle of her dreams, but she has no idea what's going to happen. Does anyone else? And was her mother's presence such a small deal like Jareth's made it out to be?
So after he does get rid of Bartley, what is going to happen? Probably he'll just send her back and put life for them all the way it had been... pffffft! No, I want to hear what you think.
R&R