Author's Note: I am blessed, honored, flattered and completely shocked by all of the attention that this story is receiving. I never figured that the Labyrinth community would welcome me so quickly and give me such good advice! Thank you for all the alerts, helpful reviews, support and encouragement. Here's a longer chapter, as a treat.
Also, please note: this is a work in progress and while I have completed my detailed outline, the story is always changing. I'm adding length, detail, description. Please read the previous chapters every once in a while. You'll pick up some new things!
Silence. Everything was silent.
Jareth could feel his heartbeat in his fingers, aching to touch something that wasn't a dirt wall. His back hurt, his feet hurt, his whole body hurt. While he could sense light streaming through the hole at the top, he was trapped in a... dungeon? That was the place, he thought- with dirt walls and no doors- a place where you put people to forget about them.
He'd fallen down a few hours before, his dizzying thoughts twisting into twenty incorrect solutions for his problem. And what about Caroline! Jareth couldn't believe that he had gambled her life away so easily, with his silly stories and empty threats. A Goblin Queen in love with a fifteen year old boy? How unrealistic could you get?
He was completely sure that his fists were bleeding, at this point. He was filled with rage and, while he had punched the wall about a hundred times, he did not seem to be getting anywhere. Trying to control himself, he looked up at the grid on top of his cage, his dungeon, his downfall.
And then he had an idea.
"Alright, I'm not really sure if you can hear me down here... I feel rather silly asking. Trees, can I have some help?"
The words flew out of his mouth. He heard a crash above him and rolled out of the way to avoid the rain of metal pieces from the broken grate above him. Hundreds of vines seeped into the hole, creating a twisting river of green. Light streamed into the hole, filling him with hope. He could have sworn that one vine even fixed his hair lovingly.
Twisting around his limbs and torso, the vines lifted him gently out and laid him on the ground. It took Jareth a few minutes to get used to sunlight, as he was temporarily blinded. Hearing laughing, he turned around and saw Bast behind him again.
"How are you enjoying the labyrinth now, little one?"
Jareth thought for a minute, feeling a thought press against him, sneaking up to him and worming its way into his brain...
She was more radiant than he had ever seen her. Her cheeks were flushed and he could see a bead of sweat on her forehead, glimmering, taunting him. She was more beautiful in this lifetime- more beautiful than ever.
"How are you enjoying my labyrinth?" he teased, taunting her, daring her to express her anger again. She was so indignant! He adored this new side of her that he had never seen before.
She glared and he knew she couldn't keep her mouth shut, though she was trembling in anger and fear.
"It's a piece of cake."
He grinned, his pointed teeth glinting in the light and his heart filling with an emotion that he did not know how to explain.
Jareth soon remembered why he did not like cats. She accompanied him on the next leg of his journey on foot, answering his questions with half-questions and giving him vague reasons for her presence ("Her majesty asked me to watch you," was her only reply). She tired easily and was always lurking in shadows. It made him very uncomfortable.
When he asked her how long she had been alive, therefore, he was surprised to receive a real answer from Bast.
"After Neith created Apep, in the creation of the world, though I have not lived here for nearly as long. I am an agent of Ra, protector of the Pharoah, so I suppose that is why her Highness sent me here, with you."
"So, wait, what's so special about me?" Jareth asked, furrowing his brows.
Bast shrugged and licked a paw absentmindedly, "I could not tell you that. Personally, I find you rather dull."
She laughed again and Jareth groaned, frustrated. As they continued walking, they encountered a small creature in the middle of the dirt path. It was a small man, looking around middle-age but only about a foot tall, with completely miniature appendages and features. He was dressed in bright, mismatching clothing. Bast halted abruptly, arching her back and hissing.
"What do you want, sprite? Your kind does not converse with mortals," she snarled, narrowing her glowing eyes at him.
"Lucifer sends his regards," the boy giggled, "and he sends a present for the boy."
The cat's eyes darkened and stopped shimmering, resting on her two back legs and sitting down. "Why is he interested?" she asked. Though she was acting nonchalant, Jareth noticed that her shoulders were still tense and her ears were flicked back.
"He is... amused," grinned the sprite, tossing a thin box out of his pocket. The box was flat and wooden, with an inlaid pattern of flowers and vines on the outside. "While we do not dawdle in mortal affairs, when certain compensation is involved..." the small man shrugged his shoulders.
"Figures," Bast sighed and squinted, staring at the box. "Here, Jareth, take it but don't open it. Not until I get a look at it."
Jareth reached over cautiously, sticking his hand out. The sprite gracefully dropped the box in his hand and cackled, snapping his fingers twice and disappearing.
Jareth was stunned. "Do sprites normally do that?" he asked, tracing the inlaid pattern with his hands.
"Sprites, brownies, call them what you want to. Nasty little creatures, in my opinion. All they do is cause trouble. They live around here in Rowan Forest but don't tend to bother humans too often. You can trap them and they'll grant you one wish, but it's incredibly tricky to make a sprite trap. Also, they'll sic their brethren on you once you're done, and then you'll be sorry. Here, let me see that box," she said calmly.
Setting it on the floor in front of her, Jareth stepped back and waited. Bast leaned in and sniffed the box, pressing down on it with a paw. Nothing happened.
"I think it's fine to open. Just making sure it's not some kind of death trap."
"Who would be sending me a death trap?!" Jareth cried, slightly shocked that anyone aware of his existence in the Underground would already have a death wish for him.
"Nonsense. You always have to be careful, around here. Didn't you ever get any common sense? Pick it up and open it."
Jareth was unaware of his trembling hands as he picked up the box, wiping sweat off his forehead with the palm of his hand. He slid the lid off and found a medium-sized dagger, laid in a cushion of red velvet. The hilt was encrusted with blood-red rubies in a circular pattern, thirteen rubies in all on both sides. While picking it up and inspecting it, Bast noticed a sentence engraved on the inside of the lid.
"This box contains life and death," she spoke softly, narrowing her eyes. "It's always tricks with him, figures. Nothing is ever simple. No easy answers." She hissed and curled her tail around her feet. Jareth was too transfixed with the dagger to pay attention.
"Here, come on, you! Pick it up and put it back. I don't want you carrying that around in plain view," she snarled, batting the box at him. Jareth jumped, startled, carefully placing the dagger back into the box.
"Where to?" he asked, shoving the box into the back pocket of his jeans.
"I suppose you still want that sister of yours?" she inquired. Jareth nodded quickly.
"Well then we've still got miles until we reach the Goblin City. I suggest you start walking."