Thank you so much to everyone who has been patient with me for the last few months! I have been so busy with school and final exams, it's been incredibly stressful. But exams will be over after this week and then I should be more regular with updating :) Please let me know what you think about this chapter in a review, and feel free to express any opinions as long as they are constructively critical and not just offensive :) Thank you to all of my lovely readers! Ya'll are amazing :*
REVIEW ANSWERS:
AliceMayqueenJackson - Thank you so much! I'm glad that I've written Jareth well enough for you to like him a lot :) I'm not an actual comedian, but I like to think I'm witty thanks to my writing skills :) Thank you a bunch, your review is one of my favorites and it made my day. All the same encouragement to you and your writing endeavors! :D
"Okay, guys," I called out to Sir Didymus and Ludo, who were walking ahead of me a few paces. "I think we're lost."
"Nonsense!" Sir Didymus called from the front. "I have an impeccable sense of direction!"
My blood boiled and I gritted my teeth. We had been walking down the same corridor for an eternity and this guy was seriously getting on my last nerves.
"Oh yeah, wise guy? Which way is north?"
Sir Didymus halted his dog-steed, and swung his oddly shaped head this way and that, his white hairy whiskers swishing around. Ludo looked around stupidly with him.
"Um... well, obviously, north is... uh... that way!" he declared, throwing a small pointing hand to his left.
"Would'ja bet your knightliness on it... good sir?"
Sir Didymus shot me a glare from where he sat and kicked Ambrosius forward with his heels while Ludo looked between us in bewilderment.
"Of course! Let there nary be a knight that would stand down from a challenge."
"Bro, I'm not challenging you, I'm asking if you know where the hell we're going!"
Sir Didymus nearly fell off his dog-steed and Ludo let out a yelp. Hopping off his dog, he approached me as if I were a brooding viper ready to strike.
"Dear maiden," Sir Didymus said cautiously, "thee must watch thy words. A cursing woman never brings good fortune on a quest such as ours."
I rolled my eyes and let out a groan. My feet hurt, my stomach growled incessantly, and I had absolutely zero patience left. And I was not going to lose this bet with Jareth. Over my cold, dead body would I lose.
"So done with this shit," I muttered, walking past a baffled Sir Didymus and Ludo. "I'm leading the way, and if anyone wants to argue, they can fight me. A'ight?"
As I resumed the role of leader, I heard Sir Didymus whisper to Ludo behind me, "She could have at least asked nicely."
"Not-Sarah ang-wee," Ludo agreed in a low tone too loud for a whisper. I felt a pang of guilt but I continued forward. I wasn't about to let that squirrel knight lead the way. My life and future marriage was on the line here.
"So, which way, fair warrioress?" Sir Didymus asked from behind me. I paused, looking around. We'd come to a fork in the road; right or left turn. I bit my lip, deep in thought.
We'd taken mainly right turns lately and that's gotten us nowhere. Perhaps a left turn will turn us in the right direction. Didn't Einstein define insanity as doing the same shit over and over or something like that?
"Left," I said simply but it sounded authoritative, which I liked. Before the two knights of stupidity could argue with me, I set off in that direction. "Y'know, this might just lead out of out here," I said, looking behind me hopefully to see the knights' gazes mirror mine, "we just need to change our turns up a bit. Y'know, this really smart scientist once said-" Something gave beneath my foot and before I could even scream, I was falling through the floor into darkness. I hit something hard and smooth, and felt wind whipping my face from the face; I was sliding. Everything around me was dark and all I heard was wind whipping past my ears and the faint, desperate voices of my two companions.
A light began to peak out in front of me, growing bigger as I kept sliding - the slide ended and I was thrown off into the air and flat on my face into the dirt. Pain stung my skin and my knees, but otherwise I felt alright. Exhilarated, even.
I pushed myself to my feet, looking around. Tall, jungle-like trees stretched above me and their branches swayed in an invisible breeze. They were packed so densely together that the land beyond them seemed pitch black. I looked behind me, expecting to see a slide of some kind, but all I saw were more trees. I glanced above me and saw a bit of sunlight peeking through the leaves of the canopy. It was cool and chilly down here, and it made my skin crawl.
Where the hell am I?
"Hello?" I called out, hearing the authoritative tone of my voice completely vanish. I sounded weak and scared and that made me feel angry deep down. On the surface, I was more concerned about my safety than my pride. "Anyone there?"
Suddenly, I heard what sounded like children giggling. My blood curdled and I stiffened in fear. I arched my back and stood my ground, trying to look a lot less scared than I felt.
"Come out, you cowards!" I hollered. "You goblins better quit following me! ...I mean it!"
"Goblins?" a chorus of high-pitched, demented voices rang out. My heart sank and I recognized everything immediately from when my mom would read me The Labyrinth before bed.
How had I not recognized this place earlier?
As if on cue, five orange creatures popped out from behind the trees around me. Their thin limbs poked out from fat torsos and held large, clawed hands. The worst was their faces; long, bent snouts with jagged teeth and large eyes that glinted red if I looked closely enough. They seemed different from what I used to imagine... demented. Insane.
My heart hammered in my chest and I started to feel claustrophobic. Fireys.
"Hey there, lady!" one called out from behind me, making me whip around. "Wanna play?"
"N-no, I'm f-fine, thank you," I stammered, feeling a cold shower of terror pour over me. "P-please, just tell me how to get out of here."
"But, that's no fun!" another one hollered from beside me, making me flinch. He jumped up to me on his spindly legs and I doubled back a few steps. I felt something jump on my shoulders and wrap its legs around my torso.
"We just wanna play with your head!" a high-pitch voice nearly screamed in my ear.
I hit the breaking point. I screamed, throwing the Firey off of me and onto the forest floor, sending his head and limbs in random directions when he hit the ground. I took off without looking back, but I knew when I heard thumps from beside me that they were throwing their limbs at me.
"Come back!" they shouted. "You can't forfeit the game, that's not fair! We haven't had anyone to play with in years!"
I sprinted as fast as I could, pumping my arms and feeling the wind in my hair. Trees with fat trunks rushed past me as ran and jumped over fallen trunks and overgrown roots. As my hair was whipping about my face, I noticed several large overgrown roots about two feet above the ground approaching me at breakneck speed. A low, fat branch hung above them a few feet in the air. I knew what to do, and I had one shot at this.
I could hear the Fireys scampering behind me, all jeering and giggling and tossing their hands and feet at me, the heads screaming as they flew by. When the first overgrown root was nearly beneath me I launched myself off of it to the overhanging branch, to which I grabbed onto and swung myself into the air, letting go of the branch.
For what felt like an eternity, I was airborne. The breeze whipped my clothes and kissed the skin beneath as the fat roots passed beneath me. Knees bent and arms poised at my sides, I felt like a bird soaring through the sky. For the longest time, all I could hear was my own heartbeat echoing in my ears as the roots ended and the ground finally came up to meet me. Extending my legs at the right moment, I hit the ground running. I didn't stop, I didn't look back, I just kept running like a madwoman through the unending forest.
To my horror, I heard their childish giggling right behind me. A flash of orange jumped out in front of me, making me skid to a halt on the slippery earth and fall to my butt. The Fireys were surrounding me, all five of them, stalking me in the center. Gazing up at them, I realized they did seemed much less childish than they did in the book. Their eyes were burning red, rimmed with an insanity that spoke vicious volumes. Their fingers twitched and their mouths foamed and they uttered guttural weren't playful children-beasts anymore. They were starving, predatorial creatures. And I was their prey.
I scrambled to my feet, feeling only a spark of hope. But that's all I needed. I took jabbing mock-steps at them, making them flinch backwards for a moment. I growled back at them and swiped my hands.
"C'mon, you cowards!" I howled hoarsely. "Hit me with your best shot!"
"We don't want to hit you," one of the Fireys cooed dangerously, foam dripping off of its lips. "We just want to plaaaayyy."
"Yes, we just want to plaaayyy with your heaaaddd."
"And your arms and your legs and..." the creature dissolved into giggles, nearly doubling over for a moment.
They were closing in closely now, and I was constantly twisting around to see all of them.
"Play with your own heads, bastards!" I shouted, feeling more and more helpless.
"No, we want yooouurss," they cooed in the creepiest unison I ever had the displeasure to hear. "We want your heeaad."
I gritted my teeth and summoned my courage. I wasn't going down without a fight.
"You're not getting shit!" I declared viciously. I delivered a powerful kick to the Firey in front of me, knocking his head clean off his neck. It bounced behind him past the fat trees, screaming all the way. I grabbed his struggling body by the torso and threw it at the other Fireys; it took out two of them but one was clever enough to dodge it. All four quickly got up, along with the headless body, and began to advance on me again.
I felt something tap my foot. I glanced down and saw a silver glass ball glinting in what little sunlight passed through the leaves. I reached down and grabbed it, hoping to throw it at the beasts.
Then I heard his voice. "For my warrior queen." In my ears, clear as if he were right beside me. Suddenly, the ball began to squirm in my hand. I held open my hand as the ball began to expand and shapeshift. The Fireys noticed and hesitated in alarm, red eyes blinking in bewilderment. The silver ball quickly lengthened and smoothened into a broadsword with a jeweled, golden handle. It felt natural in my grip, as though it were welded just for me. Glancing down at the sword and back up at the Fireys, I felt myself grin.
"Come at me, you bastards!" I howled, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I let out a warrior cry and charged at them, waving my sword about. Three of the Fireys took off screeching like lunatics while two of the cleverer ones, one of which still headless while his head screamed in the distance, charged at me. I swung my sword at them, taking off the head of the first one. To my shock, black goo sprayed from the stump as the creature fell to the ground. The headless one made a move to retrieve his head, but I cut him off and drove the sword through his torso. Black goo erupted around the blade and dripped down to his feet. Some had sprayed in my face, dripping down my cheeks and onto my lips.
I wiped my mouth roughly, stepping back and letting the sword hang at my side. Then it dawned on me what I'd done. I glanced down at the sword and felt the onslaught of soul-eating guilt. Closing my eyes, I felt the adrenaline begin to leave me.
"What have I done," I murmured, more of a statement than a question.
Whatever was wrong with those things, this sword kills them pretty damn well.
I gazed down at my black-stained sword, still dripping goo off of the tip of the blade. I remembered what I heard before the silver ball changed to a blade, and something like relief warmed my grief-stricken heart. At least I wasn't going to die in here.
"Thank you, Jareth," I murmured, almost in a whisper. I knew he was listening, someway, somehow.
Letting out a sigh, I mentally steeled myself and continued my trek out of the forest of the godforsaken Labyrinth, the Goblin King's sword gripped tight in my right hand.
Let me know what you thought of this chapter in a quick review! Reviews fuel my writing and make my days so much brighter, so each one is a gift! Thank you again to all who have reviewed, you've fueled this story as much as I have. :)
~Writer by Moonlight