The Moon Mad King
By WhiteInfinity21
Disclaimer: I don't own the Labyrinth.
Chapter 9- Year Five, Sixth Moon
Everything was perfect. The food had come out exactly as he had ordered, the night was warm and balmy with a slight breeze, and the garden was in its full glory, the bright colors and smells of the flowers dazzling the senses. The Goblin King had his most competent guards posted at all entrances to the Queen's Garden to keep anyone from disturbing him and Sarah while they dined under the stars and the bright moon.
Candles and fairy lights were scattered across the garden, giving it a romantic, ethereal feel. Jareth had made sure that everything was perfect for Sarah tonight, it had to be. For he had finally, after five years, had mustered up the courage to ask Sarah a very important question.
The world held its breath as the air stilled. In slow motion Jareth watched shimmering motes of moondust gather in a swirling column. A dark shape slowly phased in, becoming solid as the figure transferred its matter from one place to another. Then in a blink of an eye the dust was gone and Sarah stepped out of the moonlight and walked into the shade of the ancient willow that Jareth was waiting for her under.
At that moment the Goblin King fell in love all over again. Sarah was dressed in a gauzy silvery-green, shimmering dress that went down to her knees and was held up by thin straps over her shoulders. She was barefoot and her hair fell unbound in sensuous waves to her waist.
Shyly Jareth's beloved looked up at him, a blush staining her cheeks as she took him in. He was wearing low slung, comfortable dark gray pants and an unbuttoned dusky blue cotton shirt that pleasantly exposed his nicely toned chest and stomach. The Goblin King was going for casual but sizzling sexy, a combination that was sure to distract Sarah all night. Her skin tingled as Sarah's imagination ran wild with ideas of what she would like to do to him in that getup.
The sly smile that her lips formed did not go unnoticed by Jareth and he eagerly anticipated Sarah carrying out those delicious ideas that she was surely making in that active imagination of hers.
Jareth offered Sarah his arm and she smoothly slid hers into his. Arm-in-arm he led Sarah through the small, chest-high hedge maze to a circular clearing that had a small, musical fountain in the center. A delighted gasp escaped Sarah's lips as she saw the small, intimate candle lit dinner laid out on a soft blanket near the fountain.
"Oh Jareth, this is wonderful," Sarah sighed.
He chuckled and led her over to the blanket. After they settled Jareth pulled out a bottle of thirty year old white wine from the ice bucket it had been cooling in. He uncorked the bottle with a small pop and filled two crystal wine glasses with the peach-tinged liquid.
Jareth handed one of the glasses to Sarah and offered a toast, "to our love."
"To our love," Sarah repeated as their glasses clinked together before both took a sip.
Once their wine glasses were emptied Jareth lifted the cloth covering a basket of warm butterrolls. He cut one in half and spread peach jam and sweet cream in the middle and handed it to Sarah. She gently bit into it, looking the Goblin King in the eye as she slowly licked off some sweat cream from her lower lip. Jareth swallowed his hungry growl and moved onto the next part of the meal.
Conversation between the lovers was kept light and they took turns teasing the other by feeding their partner food, brushing against the other in intimate ways and eating their food in a very suggestive manner. Both were humming with desire by the time they moved onto their dessert, a bowl of berries with whipped cream and chocolate sauce to dip the bits of fruit in.
By now their flirting teasing had deepened into full-blown, blatant sexual taunting. Sarah after watching Jareth roll a chocolate covered raspberry on his tongue in a manner that should be illegal was about ready to jump the Goblin King. Dinner had been satisfyingly romantic and sweet, but Sarah was ready to move onto the after dinner activities (read eight hour sex marathon). She moved to a crouching position and her muscles tensed, preparing to spring when- he pulled out a little black box from the picnic basket and got on one knee in front of her?
Sarah was totally caught off guard by this unexpected move.
"Sarah, while it is not custom in the Underground to do this, I find the Aboveground tradition of giving a female a ring to signify a man's intent to wed his woman very appropriate to us," he took her hand and spoke from the heart.
Sarah was staring at him slack jawed as he continued, "beloved, please accept this ring as a symbol of my love and intent to wed you."
Oh Goddess, this can't be happening, Sarah frantically thought.
"Sarah, will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the Underground?" Jareth asked opening the small box and displaying a ring of intricately woven gold, silver and platinum metal threads.
"I…I…" she stuttered trying to compose herself.
He looked up at her with his heart in his eyes.
"Jareth," Sarah finally tamed her chaotic thoughts, "I love you, I really do, with all my heart and I will accept your ring as a symbol of our love, but I can't marry you."
"What?!" Jareth drew back as if stung, "what do you mean you can't!"
"I cannot tie myself to the Goblin Monarchy, my allegiance will always belong to the Moon," Sarah explained in a slightly strained voice, silently begging him to understand, "you must understand-"
"Understand what!" Jareth yelled, Sarah cringing back at his sudden fury, "understand that the woman who I believed had loved me refused to marry me? That you are refusing my suit for the second time?"
"But I do love you, I just can't-" Sarah desperately cried.
"Liar!" he accused.
"Jareth, listen to me!" Sarah demanded, teary eyed but determined, "you must know by now that as Moon Children we must be free to move about without hindrance. We go where we are needed, only answering to the Moon Goddess. We cannot be tied down to any one place or have duties that conflict with our nature. Your time as Goblin King is limited and your bond to the Labyrinth is already fading as your connection with the moon grows. You cannot deny these truths, deep down you already know this."
"You haven't changed at all, always making excuses, never willing to take responsibility for your words and actions," his voice was cold with fury, "you are still the same selfish, irresponsible, immature brat you were when you wished your brother away."
"What?" Sarah felt as if she had been stabbed in the back, "you can't mean that."
"Of course I do," Jareth snarled, "ungrateful bitch, only thinking about yourself. I can't stand to look at you anymore."
Sarah had had enough. She had tried reasoning with him only to be met with deaf ears. Ungrateful bitch was she! She'd show him just how much of a bitch she could be.
"And here I thought that you were a reasonable, decent person with a good heart. Obviously I was wrong. The man I thought I loved doesn't really exist," Sarah bitterly spat, "You are nothing more than a hot-headed, rotten, spoiled twit who throws temper tantrums and abuses your subjects when you don't get your way."
She started at him straight in the eye as she pronounced, "you're beneath me."
Jareth's body froze with shock as Sarah's cruel words broke his heart. The shock quickly gave way to anger again and the words were out of his mouth before he could think, "get out."
"What?" Sarah exclaimed.
"Get out!" he repeated louder, "leave!"
"If I leave, I'm not coming back," Sarah warned.
"Good, because I never want to see your deceitful face again!"
"Fine! I'm better off without you anyway!"
One minute she was standing there a few feet in front of him, fists clenched, anger and betrayal twisting her lips into a snarl as an invisible wind whipped her hair into a frenzy. Then the words spilled "fucking bastard" out of her lips and she was gone.
Jareth stood alone in the garden, their abandoned meal looking like a battlefield in the aftermath of a war. His jaw was tightly clenched and his hair had lifted off his head, a physical manifestation of his fury.
"Good riddance," he muttered. "Bitch."
He turned around to head back towards the castle.
The Goblin King only made it ten feet before he collapsed to his knees crying in despair.
Toby had never seen the Goblin King act like this before. When he was not brooding darkly, he was ranting and raving, storming around the castle and the Labyrinth. Many a creature cowered away from his fiery cursing and any goblin stupid enough to get near him in that state received a kick from the royal boot. And when he wasn't either brooding or yelling, Jareth morosely stared off into space, ignoring everything around him.
While the prince didn't know the exact cause of the wild, destructive mood swings currently plaguing the Goblin King, Toby had a hunch that it had something to do with that dinner Jareth and his sister had had in the garden over a week ago. He had been expecting to hear the sounds of celebration or at least some cries of passion as they made love coming from the garden that night as he went to sleep, but all he heard was lots of yelling followed by silence. Something had gone wrong, but the thirteen year old had no idea what had happened. Jareth refused to speak about it and the teen hadn't seen Sarah for over ten days.
The teenager had caught Jareth crying brokenheartedly in his chambers, behind locked doors a few times, but that was as close as he seemed to be able to get to the older man as he raged and despaired away. In fact, no one in the entire kingdom had seen either the Goblin King or Sarah for the last three days. Jareth because he had locked himself in his rooms and Sarah since she had figuratively had dropped off the face of the earth.
Jareth's duties were suddenly thrust upon the prince and the King's advisors as he stopped doing them. Even with their help, Toby barely was managing to keep the kingdom in one piece. He desperately needed Jareth to stop sulking and reassume his duties. At thirteen years of age, Prince Tobias had more maturity than the Goblin King had right now, though he had several centuries of age over the teen.
Toby hoped that they resolved whatever misunderstanding had sprung up between them, especially because the full moon would be rising in just two more days. He was worried what would happen to Jareth if he spent the night of the full moon alone, neither he nor Sarah, barring her first month back in the Labyrinth, had ever been alone when they had been consumed by the moon madness. Somehow he knew that Moon Children did not cope well with being alone in their most mystical yet vulnerable time, Toby had to get Sarah and Jareth back together before the moon madness overtook them or he feared that something awful would happen.
Jareth had never been so furious in his life. After all he had done for her, all the time they had spent together, this was how she repaid him? By breaking his heart anew? He had offered her the world and she had said no. There was only so much a person could take and Jareth had finally reached his limit. Sarah had gone too far!
If he ever saw her again it would be too soon!
His mood quickly changed from anger to sorrow as he realized again just what he had done in his pigheadedness.
He was absolutely miserable and his entire being was aching for Sarah. Oh Goddess he missed her so much. Sarah was right, he was nothing more than a spoilt, hot-headed fool, he should have listened to her back in the garden as she tried to explain things to him. Now he would never see her again and it was all his fault.
If he ever saw her again it couldn't be too soon.
Sarah sighed sadly. What was it about men that made them incapable of listening to reason? Sarah tried to explain things to him but she was sure that he had deliberately misunderstood what she had been saying.
Instead of acting like a reasonable adult and listening to why she couldn't marry him he yelled at her and told her to leave, that he couldn't bear to look at her deceitful face again. Despite his hateful words she wanted to go to him.
Sarah mentally slapped herself, what am I thinking! He was the one who called a double-crossing liar, there is no way that I would demean myself anymore and go crawling back to him.
If he wanted to apologize then he could come find her himself! Till then he could suffer on his own. She was better off without him anyway.
Arrogant, stubborn jackass! Sarah internally ranted even as she wiped the tears that were still running down her face, he'll realize soon enough that what I told him was the truth. He can go jump in the Bog for all I care!
What did it matter that she missed him so badly that it hurt? So what if all she wanted to do was curl up in his arms? Jareth was a mean, nasty person that didn't deserve to lick the bottom of her shoes. It made no difference that she still loved him with all her heart. That she ached without him. None of it made any difference anyway…
Men are stupid.
Bah! Humans, fae, it don't matter what race they be, long-leggers are all the same. Their heads all too high up in the clouds to see what's happening at their feet. Always getting so caught up in their personal drama, unable to see reality. Fools the lot of them!
Take the Goblin King. He is a prime example of the narcissism and blind-sightedness that all long-leggers possess to some degree or another. Arrogant, haughty, self-important and utterly in love with himself, the rat who calls himself Jareth can't see past his hurt pride to see the big picture. The Goblin King was a fool if he ever saw one!
Sarah, ah Sarah.
Sarah on the other hand, while being more reasonable and perceptive than most of her kind was sadly too caught up in her stubbornness to be able to see the full truth either. Silly girl.
All this pain them two are suffering would easily be solved if they just went and talked to each other, but no! They both thought themselves as the wounded party and were unable to let themselves be the first one who threw in the towel.
What they both need is a good kick in the arse. Foolish long-leggers!
Not that he would be the one to administer the much needed kick to the king, oh no. He valued his hide and didn't fancy an experience with the Bog of the upfront and personal kind.
Besides, the fairies were starting to tear apart the ivy and eyestalks near the gate again. Those litter buggers had a date with the spray can or his name wasn't Hoggle!
Fwiend Sawah sad. Sawah and King have fight. King hurt Sawah, Sawah hurt King. Sawah misses King, King must miss Sawah. Ludo sad for Sawah.
Sawah should go see King. King needs Sawah.
Big Moon come soon. King and Sawah need to dance together under Big Moon. But Sawah too stubborn to go to King. Ludo need to find Toby, Hoggle and Bwother. Must get Sawah and King together before Big Moon. Make hurt and sadness go away. No longer be alone.
Ludo will help fwiend Sawah and King be happy again.
It was a lovely day in the Bog. The birds were singing, the insects were merrily buzzing away, there was nary a cloud in the sky and the sweet smell of roses and wildflowers filled the air.
In reality, the only bird song was the croaking of crows and the only buzzing insects were of the blood sucking kind that loved nothing better than to descend upon unwary travelers in black clouds, intent on making them absolutely miserable. A brown haze hung over the Bog and the only smell was that of the Bog itself. But Sir Didymus was an eternal optimist, always looking on the bright side of things (than and he had no sense of smell whatsoever).
Aye, tis a sad day indeed when two people so in love quarrel, Sir Didymus reflected while surveying the Bog for intruders, it never ceases to amaze me when such a small misunderstanding can cause so much pain.
The wily old knight was, as usual, guarding the only safe passage across the Bog, keeping intruders from proceeding any further unless sanctioned by Sarah, the King or himself. The only time he was not at his post was when he was tutoring Prince Tobias about weapons and strategy.
It may not seem like it, but the rock bridge across the Bog of Eternal Stench was one of only three safe passages from the outer passages of the Labyrinth to the inner part. The first was only accessible by the royal family (and Sarah though Jareth didn't know it) and the second could be only be found by taking a left after passing through a specific invisible opening in the Endless Outer Corridor. The third was the Rock Bridge across the Bog.
The first passage could only be used by the King, his consort and the prince. The second was so hard to find that only one Runner had ever found it during Jareth's entire reign as Goblin King (some five hundred years, give or take a few decades). The third, the most well known and accessible one, was guarded by the Goblin King's most loyal retainer. It was an important job, one that Sir Didymus took very seriously.
The only he had ever failed at that particular duty was with Sarah and the only reason why he let her and her comrades by was because of his gut instinct. He had a feeling that the outcome of her run would be integral to the future welfare of the kingdom and so let her by to have a chance to reach the castle.
Sir Didymus didn't get such hunches very often. But when he did, he always followed them as his instincts had never led him wrong. A good warrior always listened to their instincts or else they would have a very short career indeed.
Why when I was still a mere kit there was a time that my instincts led me to save an entire family of brownies from a rampaging blugger... but I am digressing. What is important is helping Lady Sarah and the King resolve their disagreement, Sir Didymus thought as he heard a shrill scream followed by a loud splash, besides, I am getting tired of fishing goblins out of the Bog.
"What, you want to know what I think? Well I'll tell you what I think."
A snore drifts up from below.
"I think that it stinks to be this geezer's hat! That's what I think!"
"Oh?"
"You meant about la chica de la luna loca and the King? Right."
"I don't see what the big fuss is about. So they had a lover's spat, no big deal. Now being stuck as the Wise Man's hat, that's what I call a bum deal."
The sound of quickly retreating foot steps can be heard.
"Hey wait! Where are you going? I'm not done talking yet!"
The Wise Man sleeps blissfully on.
"Didja hear?"
"Hear what?"
"King and Pretty Lady had a big fight."
"Fight? Like claw-cat and fang-dog?"
"No, more like biting faeries and grumpy gate keeper."
"Oooooh, that's bad."
"Yeah bad."
Silence falls over the two goblins.
Then a chicken walks past.
"Oooooh! Chicken!"
"Chicken?!"
"Chicken!!"
"Get chicken!"
"Get chicken! Get chicken!"
The cry spreads across the room and other goblins poke their heads and various other body parts in to investigate. The last thing that the chicken saw before it passed out from terror was a wall of giddy, excited and dirty goblins. Some of them were drunk as well, but then again, that's nothing new.
They tried, they really did. But two days just wasn't enough to meet and come up with a good plan to reunite the estranged lovers, let alone convince them to come out of isolation. Jareth still refused to leave his chambers and even Ludo, the one who knew Sarah's whereabouts most of the time surprisingly, had no idea where the Moon Maid was. The kingdom needed its king and the King needed his heart-mate. Both were missing the critical component that they needed to operate and if things weren't resolved soon, Prince Tobias feared that the Goblin Kingdom would sink into anarchy and chaos.
This was bad. If just one argument between the two resulted in this much confusion and potential for disaster, it was easy to realize why Jareth needed an heir so badly. The Goblin King was becoming unfit to rule the kingdom and would have to cede the crown over to his heir just on that fact alone. If Sarah had not been there to help guide Jareth as his awakening Moon Child nature emerged, the Labyrinth could have easily fallen to invaders by now.
It was all one big puzzle. The kingdom needed all three to operate now: Jareth, Sarah and Toby. Take one away and the entire thing falls to pieces. Sarah needed to be found and soon. She was the missing piece and she had to return to her place to complete the system.
Too bad that no one could locate her. All Toby and Sarah's friends could hope for was for the full moon to reunite the lovers out of necessity if nothing else.
An eerie silence fell over the Kingdom minutes before the full moon rose over the eastern horizon. Something was wrong, every creature in the kingdom could feel it. The tension in the air was thick. Something had been pulled tight and was liable to snap at any minute. Like normal when it came to matters involving the kingdom's two resident Moon Children, only a select few had any clue about what was happening. And the ones that did know had already gone underground, seeking shelter from the inevitable storm that was coming.
It was a haunting night. The silver light from the moon did not enchant like it normally did. There was something sorrowful about the silver orb in the sky, almost sinister if viewed from the right standpoint. This was not a night to be out and about, the normal safety granted to all under the full moon's influence by the two Moon Children deep in the throes of the moon madness was gone. Almost every creature was barricaded in their homes, nests or dens. Even the usual nocturnal animals were absent this night. Everything was unnaturally silent, tense. Fearful.
Then the muffling silence was broken by a pain-filled screech that came from the castle. It rang across the kingdom, sending a shiver down the spines of every goblin, sprite and other magical or intelligent creature in the Labyrinth. Something had snapped and that something was the Goblin King.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! It is missing, gone. Hurts. Hurts so much. Where is it? My other half, my other soul? Why is it not here? I can't remember. Where is it? I must find it, she? Yes she, my other half. I must go to her, only she can make the tearing void go away. Oh Goddess it hurts so much, I have to hurry.
A figure stumbles out of a bed, half dressed and heads to the open window.
How can I find her? I don't know where she is? Who is she? My other self? Who is she, why is she not here? I need her.
The figure, a man is crying as he looks at the rising full moon.
Yes! The moon, Mother Moon can help me. Her light can guide me to my other soul. She can feel my soul pain. The goddess wants us to be together, to be one again. I must go to her. But how? She had not taught me how to use the moonlight in such a manner. I can do nothing unless I know how. I can't find her without the knowledge.
Despair fills the desperate man. He wants to jump out of the window and fly away.
Fly away? The words trigger a memory that had been buried by the moon madness. An image of soaring silently under a star-strewn night. The feeling of the wind going through creamy white feathers, of it pressing against him as he dived after his unaware prey. His talons extended and snap! They closed around the shrew, breaking its spine before it even has time to struggle. Satisfaction fills him at his kill. He flaps away, landing on a nearby tree to consume his meal. A thin, sharply curved hooked bill rips into the warm, pliant flesh, tearing a chunk off. He swallows it in one gulp and tears another off. He continues until nothing is left. The hunger is abated for now.
He takes off, flying high above the forest. All he sees below him belongs to him. Here he is king. This is his land, his home. He rules both the skies and the earth. He is Master of everything below him. He is the Goblin King. He is….
The memory fades. But at last he has an answer. He will change into his other form and let the moon guide his wings to his other soul. His absent half.
He spreads his arms out as if to embrace the full moon. He can feel the change start to overcome him, the feathers erupting over his skin, his bones shifting, becoming lighter. His arms turning into wings, his legs shrinking, toes becoming sharp, curved talons. He is ready to become one with the sky, the night, to leave the earth below him entirely and follow the moonlight to his beloved.
Suddenly he comes up short. Something is holding him back, preventing him from fully embracing the moon. An inhuman screech comes out of his beak-like mouth. His vocal cords have already changed into that of a barn owl, he is incapable of making speech anymore.
He screeches again as he fights against the thing that is binding him to the earth. He cannot stand it! It is preventing from becoming a creature of the wind, the night, unbound by the earth below it. The more he fights against the bond that is holding him earthbound, the more pain he feels.
Something is tearing within him, it hurts so much. He has a feeling that something is wrong, that it is too soon for this to be happening, that he isn't ready for this. But he has no choice, the void in his heart and soul is devouring him. He must rid himself of this connection to the ground so he can become airborne and find his other soul.
His soul reaches out to the moon, taking strength from the goddess' light to fight against that which is preventing him from becoming an entity of the air. The bond stretches thin, grows too thin. It cannot stay intact against the pressure he is exerting on it. Then suddenly, without warning, it breaks.
Pain unlike anything he has ever felt before fills him. It feels as if something vital has been ripped from him. The physical pain is almost worse than the pain he is still feeling from being apart from his other soul. It is overwhelming, almost crippling. Desperately he reaches out to the moon, allowing Selene's light to fill and soothe the raw pain he is feeling from severing his connection to the earth.
Elation fills him. No longer is he in that nebulous halfway state. He is fully of the moon. Nothing holds him back anymore, he can join his beloved and never have to leave her again. Another screech, this time of triumph, comes from him. He opens his wings and takes to the wind, dipping, looping, spinning, doing an aerial dance to express his joy. He is now entirely of the moon, all he has to do is find his other soul.
He feels a tug on his wings. Instinctively he knows that it is coming from the moon. He follows the pull, the moonlight carrying him along on a silver wind making his flight effortless. Something drifts up to him from under the trees far away. It is a terrible, harsh sound. Full of despair and sorrow.
He listens harder. It is a song, of sorts. But instead of harmonious sounds, it is made up of harsh, dissonant screeches and wails. He has never heard anything so awful or sad in his life. He increases his speed, wanting to reach the source of the noise and make it stop. The wailing becomes louder as he gets closer and closer. It is making his bones rattle and his flight is becoming erratic.
The owl struggles to maintain control of its flight, letting out a frightened scream as he feels himself losing control. His sudden scream startles the creature that is the source of the wailing, causing it to stop. The owl awkwardly flaps, regaining control of his flight just meters above the trees. He is exhausted and can no longer fight the pull of gravity and the battering winds.
He finds a break in the trees and goes through. The pull of the moonlight is diminished under the forest's canopy but it is still strong enough for him to follow. Weaving around the trees he is coming closer and closer to his other soul. The void is disappearing. The pain is decreasing.
The woman dressed in a shimmering blue-silver gown sees the creamy white barn owl at the same time he sees her. She lets out a yell of delight and holds her arms open to him as he folds his wings and dives towards her. Just as he is about to impact he changes and collides with her, causing them to crash to the soft forest floor while he is laughing the whole time.
"My other soul, my beloved, we are together once more" he whispers awed as he buries his face in her dark, silky hair, "I love you, let us never again be parted."
"Jareth, my soulmate," she croons, her arms winding around him, holding him close as if to prevent him from ever leaving again.
Jareth throws back his head and lets out a wild, delighted laugh.
"Is it wonderful my Sarah," he tells her, "I have finally become full, become fully of the moon. Nothing can prevent us from being together anymore. We are the same now and can be as one forever."
"Good, good. We are finally right, finally whole," Sarah agrees, "look! The moon, it is glowing so brightly. Selene is beckoning, can you not feel it?"
"Then let us go," he got up and pulled her up after him.
The two glowing moon children walk over to the nearest beam of moonlight and step into it. They disappear in a flash, leaving the Underground behind them as they fly towards the moon.
The Labyrinth's shriek rattled Toby's bones as Jareth unexpectedly severed his connection to the maze. The physic shriek caused the prince to stumble, his hands shooting out in front of him barely in time to prevent his face from smashing into the stone floor. His nose was bleeding and his head was ringing in the after affects of the Labyrinth's cry of pain, but Toby knew that he needed to get to the Heart now. He stumbled about and swore every time he crashed into something his blinding headache preventing him from thinking straight.
An eternity later he stumbled into the closest tunnel that lead to the Heart and started running. There were no debris on the ground to make him trip, but more than once he stumbled over his own feet in his blind rush to reach the Labyrinth's Heart. Then he was there, falling face-first into the warm, soft sand that comforted and cradled Wish Aways as they were transformed into another state so they would forget their former lives and hardships Aboveground.
The Labyrinth was still in a pain-filled frenzy, caused by the sudden loss of its king and tightly clamped onto the Prince the second he landed in the multi-colored sand. Toby let out a strangled gasp and then went limp. There was no point in struggling, the Labyrinth would complete its connection with the teenager right here and now. With Jareth now lost to it, the Labyrinth needed the prince to fill in his role.
The sudden change was far too early for both the Goblin Prince and the Labyrinth, seeing as that Toby was nowhere near ready to take on the full responsibility of managing the Labyrinth and collecting Wish-Aways, but they had no choice now. Jareth's abandonment made it necessary for Toby to inherit the full connection to the Labyrinth that only the ruling monarch of the kingdom should have.
There was no finesse, no buffering against the sudden invasion as the Labyrinth filled Toby and completed the half-formed connection in a clumsy, hasty manner. It wasn't painful, just highly uncomfortable to Toby as he felt his bond to the Labyrinth solidify and become complete. Then it was over and Toby lay on his back on the sand gasping for air. He felt full to the bursting and overwhelmed.
His body couldn't handle the sudden change and was starting to go into shock. The Labyrinth could feel the prince's distress and instantly caused him to lose consciousness, barely averting the potential disaster that going into shock would have caused the thirteen year old.
The price for Jareth's premature freedom from the Labyrinth was too heavy and Toby had been the one who had received the punishment for the Goblin King's foolhardy actions under the influence of the moon madness. Things had radically changed pushing a burden upon the Goblin Prince that he was in no way prepared for. The consequences that Sarah and Jareth's fight in the garden twelve days ago had caused were devastating and the couple would learn of it the following day.
They would learn a harsh but much needed lesson, but at too high of a price. Their hurt pride had caused this and Toby had been the one to pay the price. What was done was done and could not be reversed. The only thing that they could do was to try and make things easier for Toby as he adjusted to his sudden change. But they could never fix their mistake, could never make things right, much to the guilt, regret and despair of all.
To be continued…
Wow, that was really draining to write. I hadn't intended to write that last scene with Toby in that way, but I won't change it. It is heavy and depressing and next chapter you will get to see the fallout from the events on the night of the full moon. Warning, it will be dark and a bit angsty as will the next few chapters after it.
This fic is about halfway through, only five more years until Toby's 18th Birthday, and from now on things will get much harder for Jareth as he starts to sink into madness and depression. This is all part of the plot, since I am trying to stick to the events described in the song in Moonlight Madness. Stick with me and I promise that none of you shall be disappointed in the way this saga ends.
Please tell me about your thoughts on this chapter before you move on to the next Labyfic, reviews help inspire me and make me write faster.