Hey everybody! Just thought I would do a quickie chapter of Fae King while I have time. So here is a little shorter chapter, but I hope that the next one will be longer. Thanks for reading and keep reading! Especially my two most faithful readers and reviewers, you know who you are, keep it up! It's not long now and I will be done with both stories!

Last Time: "Ahhhhhhh!-Nooooooo!" Jared's terrified yell mingled with Jareth's as Jareth watched his father disappear beneath the thundering masses.

Jareth watched it jump around a log further down the gully, bent and broken in an arch like way over a prone figure sprawled on its side in the dust.

Jared had his eyes closed and his head was tilted toward the sky at an odd angle, while a cut bled sluggishly down the side of his pale face to mingle with the dirt below. His once spotless clothes were torn and bloodied, covered in dust and dirt. Jareth fell to his knees and picked up Jared's still gloved hand, there were rips and tares in the once black cloth, and the blood from his wounds on his hands starkly contrasted with the pallid white skin underneath the glove. Jared's face was calm and relaxed. Jareth pulled on his father's lifeless hand. "Dad?…Dad, come on." Jared's hand fell limply to the ground. "You gotta get up." Jareth patted his father's cheek, but there was no twitch of life, no heartbeat to indicate that the fae king had survived the fall.

James pulled away from Jareth. Jareth shivered, as it suddenly seemed that the air had gone ten degrees colder. "Run away, Jareth." James growled low. "Run…Run away, and never return."

Jareth glanced at his father one last time, as if ingraining his face into his memory. Then he ran off blindly down the canyon's winding way, obviously broken.

Three hyenas appeared behind James as he stared after his fleeing nephew.

"Kill him." Came James' command.

"Kill him." James commanded, eyes cold. The three rushed past their leader, intent on their long awaited prize. James looked over at Jared's body. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen." He sneered down and then spat at the dirt in front of Jared's body. He tossed a little dirt onto his spotless clothes and tore his tunic a little; making it seem as if he had tried to save Jared and Jareth as well. James raised his arms to the sky and spun, calling out gleefully, "Now, there is no one to stop me. Oh, I just can't wait to be king!"

Jareth could hear the hyenas panting and growling mere yards behind him. So, he scrambled through a hole in the canyon big enough for him but small enough that the hyenas snarled in frustration, because they couldn't get through. Jareth got to the end of the gully, but stopped short at the sheer drop that waited at the end of the gorge. Jareth risked a glance behind, and discovered that the hyenas had found another route. He looked out at the setting sun and taking a deep breath, Jareth plunged over the side of the canyon; tumbling end over end into a large patch of briars that grew at the bottom of the drop. He began scrambling under and over prickly branches, as far away from the hunting animals as he could get.

Banzai was the fastest, so he was in front. Galloping over the ledge and down the drop toward the fleeing fae child, Banzai spotted the briars. "Whoa!" he yelled skidding to a stop just at the lip of the last ledge, heading almost head first into the thorny thicket. He sighed in relief from the save, but not a moment later, Shenzi and Ed both crashed into him from behind, sending him flying into the briars. "Yeow!!" Banzai shot up and out of the briars, howling in pain, in his hyena fae form. Shenzi and Ed roared with laughter at the sight before them. Banzai was covered in thorns from head to toe, and from the looks of it, it was very painful.

Shenzi stopped laughing as she returned to her own hyena fae form and spotted Jareth just clearing the thicket and running across the mass plain into the setting sun, as if the devil himself were after him, heading into the desert of despair. "Hey! There he goes! There he goes!" she told the others pointing.

Banzai pulled out some thorns in his hand, with his teeth. "So go get 'im." He mumbled around a mouthful of barbs.

"There ain't no way I'm going in there. What, you want me to come out like you? Cactus butt?" Shenzi placed a hand on her hip, laughter layering her voice.

Ed grinned at Banzai, tongue out in hyena humor. Banzai spit the spikes he had in his mouth at Ed, hitting the stupid git in the nose. Ed pulled away with a pained yelp, rubbing at his injured appendage. "We gotta finish the job." Banzai said, all three knowing first hand how well James took failure.

Shenzi shook her head, dirty blonde hair swinging in her face. "Well, he's as good as dead out there anyway." She replied, shading her eyes to look at the running figure as it got smaller and smaller. "And IF he comes back, we'll kill him." She said to the others, shrugging her thin shoulders.

Banzai pulled out the last of the thorns and stood, facing the retreating shadow. "Yeah, you hear that?" he called out, voice ringing across the plain. "If you ever come back will kill ya!!" the form gave no indication that he had heard, only a slight speeding up of the running pace. Chuckling, the three headed back to James to tell him that the "deed" had been done.

That night, by the light of the moon, all the nobles stood around the throne, dressed in black, listening to James as he retold the tragedy that had befallen their beloved king and prince. "Jared's death is a terrible tragedy, but to lose Jareth, who had barely begun to live…" James said with a slight catch in his voice. Sarah, looking like a pale ghost in her black tunic and skirt, pressed the side of her small face into her mother's side. Her mother put her arms around Sarah in a protective hug. Sarah tried not to sob as tear made tracks down her pale cheeks. Sarah and her mother stood next to the newly widowed queen Angela. She had immediately fainted at the news, but when she had been brought around again with smelling salts, had remain a silent black shadow; completely alone in her grief for her only son and husband. Hoggle patted Sarah on the shoulder awkwardly, feeling at a loss at how to give comfort; for Jared had been a dear friend, and Jareth, though slightly annoying at times, had grown on Hoggle after a time.

James looked solemn as he picked up Jared's simple gold crown from its stone pedestal in front of the steps to the throne, and placed it on his head. "...For me it is a deep personal loss. So, it is with a heavy heart that I assume the throne." He began making his way up the three small stairs to Jared's throne. "Yet, out of the ashes of this tragedy, we shall rise to greet the dawning of a new era..." James dusted off the seat and turned around at the sound of the throne room doors opening slowly. The people in the room gasped as Sarah's mother drew her daughter closer to her. Hyena rogues filled into the room, grinning snidely; their shadows cast eerily on the walls. " ...In which fae and hyena rogues come together, in a great and glorious future!" James sat down in his new throne, eyes gleaming with triumph, as the throne room doors closed, the fae nobility looking with apprehension at their new king.

Atop a chandelier in the throne room, a tiny yellow finch with a crown of white feathers sat, dejectedly, as if shaking its yellow head sadly.

To Be Continued…