Retracing old steps
The wall reached from horizon to horizon, or so it seemed. Just as it has twenty years ago, it looked impenetrable. Sarah looked at the pond where she had first seen Hoggle, sadly reminded that Jareth had said she would not get any help from the 'traitors'. She could only guess what that meant. She walked past the pond and its green waters.
In the great wall, she saw a huge, grotesquely designed gate. She stared at it almost accusingly. "The Labyrinth," she whispered. She took a step toward the gate, then jumped back as the gate swung toward her. It looked for a moment like a mouth opening widely. Sarah gulped down the bile gathering in her throat and stepped in.
"Take nothing for granted," she told herself aloud. "Remember things are not always what they seem here." She held her hand out, running it along the inner wall. If there were a break her eyes did not perceive, her hand would feel it. Breathing slowly, keeping her focus Sarah stepped forward. She did not look behind her, only ahead. "Remember what Hoggle said, you can't take anything for granted." She said in her most convincing tone, the one she used to get Jenny to eat all her vegetables.
Clumps of lichen on the walls stared down at her sympathetically, eyes boggling. Sarah tried not to look back at the boggling eyes. She heard a sobbing noise, and looked around. Discovering it was she herself who was doing the sobbing. "Stop it Sararh!" she scolded herself. "Tears are not going to help you now. You have to look for that opening."
"There's an opening just across there," a cheery voice said. Sarah looked down, a tiny worm-like creature with large eyes popped its head out from between the bricks just beneath her. "'Allo." it greeted in a cheery voice. "Long time no see."
Sarah blinked. "Hello."
"Allo." He greeted again. "Come in, meet the misses, have tea." He invited warmly.
Sarah looked down at him, "Did you say there's an opening here?" She looked at the wall opposite where she stood.
"It's right in front of you," the worm said in its kind voice. "You just need to walk in."
Sarah reached down, with one finger she touched the worm. "Thank you, little friend."
The worm looked up at her with adoring eyes. "You should come in, have tea…we've got cake today."
"Perhaps another time, thank you." Sarah waved good bye as she stepped though the passage into the new corridor that would lead her down a familiar path. Lichen clinging to the walls watched her as she walked. She wondered if other eyes, mismatched eyes were watching her right now as well.
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Horned, hairy, or helmeted goblins racketed around the place, across the filthy floor over the steps of the throne, up on the ledges of the room. Some were chasing chickens, some squabbling, others staring balefully at all the rest through crazed eyes. Jareth watched them with an amused smile. Gwynn was chasing a bugged-eyed goblin round the throne room merrily. Jenny was riding on the black pig in a helmet, piggyback. Both children were having fun, and the sounds of their joy pleased the king. Soon they would not even worry about going back home. One of the goblins looked at the master and roared with joy. Jareth lay back in his throne, thinking it was good to be King.
Jenny giggled as she rolled off the back of the pig. She danced her way up the stairs to the throne. Jareth held his hands out to her and she leapt up into his arms. She looked into his eyes, her own eyes going soft. "I know you!" She said in an awed voice. "You're the one in my Mommy's secret book."
Jareth alerted, looked at the little girl with his kindest expression. "What secret book, Jenny my love?"
The little girl nuzzled into his shoulder. "The one she keeps next to her desk. I'm not allowed to look at it. Mommy says the pictures are too…adult…but I saw one, and it looked like you."
"Indeed? Next to the desk you say?" Jareth planted a kiss to the child's brow. "Are you having fun?"
"Oh yes!" she yawned. "But getting sleepy."
"Gwynn, be a good boy and come here to…me." Jareth paused, he was not sure what to call himself. "Jenny I have a nice big bed for you and Gwynn to sleep in. Come, I'll take you there and tuck you up."
Jenny put her arms around the man's neck. "You smell good." She said as she snuggled.
"Thank you." Jareth smiled. Gwynn came running to him and he caught him up with his free arm. Holding tight, he transported himself with the precious cargo to his own bedchamber. "Here we are, my little loves." He lowered the children to the bed and they crawled up to the pillows. Jenny, heavy eyed, settled right in to the pillows. Gwynn was keyed up from having run so wild. "You need to sing to him." Jenny yawned. "Mommy always sings to him."
Jareth took a seat on the edge of the bed. "What does Mommy sing?"
"All the pretty ponies." Jenny closed her eyes.
"Hushabye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby
When you wake you shall have
all the pretty little ponies
Blacks and bays, dapples and greys,
coach and six little ponies
Hushabye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby" Jareth knew the song well, and his voice filled the room with its sweet sound. Jenny was quick to fall asleep. Gwynn curled up in the arms of the Goblin King and listened to the song a second time before he too fell into slumber. Gently the king lay the boy beside his sleeping sister. He closed his eyes and sent for an elf nursemaid to watch over the sleeping children before returning to his throne room.
Goblins were chasing each other round the circular room. Jareth watched for a moment and drew a crystal from the air to check on Sarah's progress. "Ah good, she's making progress…" he tossed the crystal and turned to leave the throne room. He had plans for Sarah, and needed to see to them. "Now about that secret book, "he mused.
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Sarah was wandering along brick corridors. Still high and forbidding, but at least they didn't stretch out to the end of space and time. She had learned on her last visit that trying to mark a path did no good. If she marked some stone or brick, a little creature would lift the marked brick, turn it upside down, and replace it. Across the end of the passage behind her was a dead end. "This looks familiar." She said touching one wall gently.
"That's right," a voice behind her said. "It's familiar!"
Behind her, the cubicle that had been a dead end now had two carved doors in the wall, and a guard posted in front of each door. "The Ruse!" she said excitedly as she walked over to the carved doors. "Hello boys." She greeted them.
One of the guards looked at her gave her figure a scrutinized leer then he winked suggestively. "Hello, pretty thing."
Sarah blushed and leaned toward the door. "You don't remember me." The one to her left had incredibly shifty eyes beneath his helmet.
The other guard snickered. "Sure we do, you're the smart aleck who bested the King." He wiggled his brows at her. "So you going to choose a door or not?"
Sarah cupped his jaw with one hand. "Of course I'm going to choose." She teased the pair. "And I don't even need the riddle. I know exactly what I'm doing here." She looked down at her watch. "I only wish I knew how long I've been here." When one of the guards opened his mouth, she placed a hand over it. "It's not a real wish, it's a rhetorical statement."
"Ah." the guard said. "So which door?"
Sarah looked at the doors and the guards lifted her finger and pointed. She chose the one on the left and as the door opened, she stepped past the guards who were flirting outrageously with her. "I told him I beat him before. It's a," before she could stop herself and her pride, she said, "piece of cake…." promptly she dropped down the shaft of helping hands.
Sarah was not sure, but she got the feeling that the only ones the helping hands were helping were themselves. She did not remember the hands touching her in quite this manner the last time she fell down this shaft. "Stop that!" She shuddered, and shouted.
"What have we here?" asked one of the several faces of hands around her.
Sarah had not noticed the leering expression before, and wondered was this one of the things that had changed. "You're hurting," Sarah told them. She felt other hands reaching for her and finding her, taking hold of her by the legs and the body. There were hands on her thighs, her ankles, and her neck. She shuddered, and shouted, "Stop that!" Some of the hands began to go places she had not expected. One slid up the front of her blouse. "I said stop that you pervert!"
"Weapons check," the hands claimed sounding guilty.
"I don't believe you," she shouted. "Put me down you bunch of perverts!" A second later she regretted saying that.
"She chose down?" She heard the snickers behind their hands. "She chose -- down!" and with that, they started to hand her down the shaft, not roughly. But a few more hands grabbed her where she didn't want to be grabbed.
Down she went, far down, until she found herself held briefly above a manhole, while Helping Hands removed the cover of it. Then the lowest hands let go of her, dropping her neatly down the manhole, and the last she saw of the hands was their waving goodbye helpfully. She could hear some of them boasting of garbing ass and one set went on about having gotten a handful of tits. As she landed on the stone floor of a dark, small cell, the cover was replaced on the manhole with a clunk. In pitch darkness, Sarah sat down and covered her face. She was not sure if she should laugh or cry.