LOL! I am in such a giddy mood right now! The sun is shining, it's almost Halloween, and the temperature's dropping! I love the cold weather! Don't look at me like I'm crazy! Just enjoy the next chapter, AFTER I explain a bit…
At the time I wrote this chapter, (I handwrite them first) I was listening to my N-Sync CDs and wrote a parody of "Drive Myself Crazy" for Jareth and Sarah! (Mostly for Jareth) And yes—the goblin band that sings it is a spoof of the actual band! ;) I think it'll amuse you. Enjoy!
"Yes, Jack Skellington; it's me! The man who made Sally from bits of flesh and pieces of cloth! But she loves YOU, you oblivious twit!"—Dr. Finklestein, The Nightmare Before Christmas (it was a deleted scene, by the way—VERY funny!)
Chapter 2: The Goblin Minstrels
My name's Toby; I'm 5. My sister saved me from turning into a goblin when I was just a baby, but the Goblin King still comes to talk to me. It's okay, we're friends. He doesn't want to turn me into a goblin anymore; in fact, he keeps some of his goblins in my closet to watch me while I sleep.
Lately I've been having these weird dreams; I don't know why, but I think they have to do with Sarah. When I told Jareth about them, he told me not to worry; Sarah had goblins in her closet, too—three friends she made in the Labyrinth. She tells me about them all the time; I hope I get to meet them someday.
I'm confused, though—if I'm not supposed to worry, why did Jareth leave so suddenly last night?
I better talk to Sarah about Jareth and the dreams I've had so far; I've got a feeling that something bad's about to happen, and I've got to protect her if I can.
Sarah wandered upstairs to her room after Dad and Irene settled back in; her room was now what used to be Toby's nursery and was decorated pretty much the same way her old room had been. The bed was on the left wall from the door, her music box standing on a bedside table drawer next to her alarm clock. There was also a fancy clock with Roman Numerals on the opposite wall from the bed. Her vanity desk stood across from the door to the left of the window-door.
She walked in and turned on the light, immediately after which she gasped loudly and slammed her back against the door, her heart leaping into her throat.
There were goblins in her room! Not the usual ones that hid in her closet, not Hoggle and her friends, but the humanoid kind!
There were five of them—all men—wearing green clothes and black capes and black shoes and gloves, their skin was all shades of green, and they were all scattered in various parts of the room. One of them had a goatee and baby blue eyes and another had short, spiky hair. If goblins had boy bands, this was what they looked like.
Sarah stared at them wide-eyed and speechless; the goblin with the goatee laughed.
"You were right, bro," he said, "My goatee does scare all the girls!"
"Maybe if you'd put a lid on the horns once in a while, you wouldn't look so much like a thugged-out gargoyle," smiled another one.
"Excuse me," Sarah found her voice, "but…who are you guys?" The blond one with blue eyes stepped forth with a sweeping apologetic bow.
"Forgive the intrusion, milady," he said politely, "but do I have the honor, in behalf of my brothers, of addressing the lady Sarah Williams?" Sarah blushed; no one but Sir Didymus had ever called her a lady before.
"Yes," she nodded, "I'm Sarah." She decided to take a leap of faith. "Were you sent by the Goblin King?"
"I'll say we were," smiled the blond with a sweep of his cape, "We are the king's personal minstrels. My name is Stunji…" He bowed again. "…and these are my brothers: Yoej, Nelca, Shric, and Juck." (And yes, I did mix up their names, too!)
"Hi," Sarah half-smiled and waved awkwardly, "Nice to meet you guys."
"We were sent by King Jareth himself with a message of music, milady," Stunji explained as he took her hand like a gentleman and led her to her bed, "He would have you know the state of his feelings in the aftermath of your battle in the Labyrinth."
"His feelings?" she flared up, "He kidnaps my baby brother and puts me through his stupid labyrinth just to get him back, and now he's trying to guilt trip me? Is he really that self-centered?"
"He heard you outside, Sarah," said the one with the goatee, "He heard everything you said about him from the school to here. You have the option to refuse the message, but he asked us to be insistent."
Sarah's stomach took a suicidal jump to the floor.
"He heard me?" she asked with a red face.
"He knows you miss him," said Stunji quietly, "It's none of our business what goes on between you and the king; we simply do as we are ordered. He only told us all that to negotiate with you. Will you hear our message, dear lady?"
She was about to retort that there was nothing at all "going on" between Jareth and herself, but the soft and gentle tone of the leading minstrel had ruined it and she couldn't find it in her heart to refuse him.
"Of course I will," she said, "You're obviously loyal to the king and love what you do, and you must've gone to a lot of trouble just to come and serenade me, so yes. I will accept the king's message and hear your song."
"Thank you, my lady." Stunji stood up straight. "Okay, guys; just like we rehearsed."
The music seemed to come from nowhere as the goblin minstrels situated themselves around her; Stunji was in front of her and hummed his part of the introduction.
Dancing in your arms
so close together
in a crystal masquerade
Now I pace around
my lonely castle
thinking of you every day
I miss your eyes
I miss your spark
and I cry
alone in the dark
(Chorus!)
I lie awake
I drive myself crazy
I drive myself crazy
thinking of you
Made a mistake
when I let you go, baby
I drive myself crazy
wanting you the way that I do
(wanting you the way that I do)
(Okay, so the chorus was original; sorry!)
I was such a fool
to take your brother
knowing that you'd take him back
So I kept you there
inside the Labyrinth
'cause I wanted the time to last
And now I'm left
with all this pain
I've only got
myself to blame
Oh!
(Repeat chorus)
As they sang to her, Sarah remained sitting upright on the edge of her bed. Surprisingly, nothing they had said so far surprised her; she knew why the Goblin King had stolen Toby, distracted her with crystal ball dreams, and made a last desperate attempt to keep her in his realm. She knew very well.
He loved her. As plain and simple as it was, that was the truth; Jareth loved her and had proven time and again that he would've done anything for her! Could he really still love her so much, after she had defied him, conquered his Labyrinth, broken his peach spell, laid his guards to waste, invaded his castle, and bested him at the very cost of her dreams, and all in thirteen hours?
Apparently, he could. In that, Sarah felt something akin to comfort and hope—comfort that she was never alone, that her friends were always within reach, and hope that she would someday find herself again in the enchanting world of the Labyrinth.
She wiped her eyes when the minstrels finished; she hadn't felt the tears falling until it was too late to stop them.
Stunji knelt on one knee before her with a hand over his heart.
"I trust you enjoyed the song, dear lady?" he smiled gallantly.
"I did," she gasped, trying not to sob, "I'm sorry; I shouldn't be crying like this."
"Nay, fair one," he objected as one of his brothers handed her a box of tissues, "We are rather pleased with your reaction; your tears are a gracious compliment to our hard work, proof that our song has touched your noble heart. We thank you for your tears, for they are the salute of a 'job well done' to a minstrel." Sarah chuckled a bit at the goblin's eloquence.
"You're welcome, Stunji," she smiled, "all of you. You're wonderful minstrels."
"Thank you, milady," they chorused.
"Sarah?" said Irene's voice as her door knocked, "What's with all the noise? What are you doing in there?"
Quick as a wink, the goblin minstrels were either under Sarah's bed or in her closet as her stepmom walked in with her hands on her hips.
"Honestly, Sarah," she shook her head, "Can't you keep that music of yours down? You teenagers with your silly boy bands…"
"Don't be silly, Mama!" Toby's voice piped behind her, "Don't you know goblins when you hear 'em?" She moved to let him in.
"Goblins?" she said flatly, "Is that what you think, Toby?" He shrugged; he knew it was okay to talk about goblins in front of his parents, since they never believed him and his five-year-old mentality.
"Well it wasn't elves," he rationalized, "They're more sophisticated than goblins and we're too far away from the beach for it to be mermaids."
"All right, all right," Irene rolled her eyes, "You win; it was goblins. Now please tell them to keep it down." She left the room. Toby spun around and looked right at Sarah.
"I didn't miss 'em, did I?" he asked fearfully, "Are they still here?"
"Yeah, they're still here," Sarah nodded, "It's okay, guys; she's gone."
They slowly crept from under her bed and in her closet, poking their heads out first.
"Who's the kid?" asked the one with the goatee, Shric. Sarah held Toby's shoulders.
"Guys, this is Toby," she introduced, "Toby, these are the king's goblin minstrels."
"Nice to meet you, everyone," the boy smiled, "I hope you were nice to my sister." The goblins laughed lightly.
"Toby!" Sarah reproached, "Where are your manners?"
"It's all right, milady," said Shric, "We've heard about the young prince Toby. We're honored to meet you, sir."
"Me, too," Toby nodded, "I heard you guys singing. I'm sorry I missed the whole thing."
"Well, I'm not," Sarah gripped him chidingly, "You can go back to Jareth now and tell him his message is well received."
"Have you a token to send with us?" asked one of the other goblins.
"Um…" said Sarah, "Not this time. I'm not sure it's a good idea to encourage him so soon."
"That is your business," Stunji bowed politely, "We will return to him now. Thank you for your patience, fair lady, and good night."
They disappeared in a confusing manner that Sarah couldn't figure out (the truth is I just couldn't come up with one, sorry).
"Sarah, I've gotta tell you something," Toby tugged on her hand, "I had a weird dream when I took my nap and I think I should tell you about it."
"All right, my little goblin prince," Sarah grinned as she tossed him on her bed and grabbed a stuffed bunny, "What was your dream about?"
Toby laid across from her on his back holding the stuffed animal version of Sir Didymus over his head, which was pointed in her direction so that she looked upside down to him.
"I was a prince," he started, "or a knight, or something. Either way, I was six feet tall with a sword and wearing chain mail. I was facing down a couple of mysterious warriors in black cloaks.
"One of them asked me, 'Where is the girl? Where is the princess?' I had no idea who he was talking about, so I asked him. He said, 'We seek the princess of the Goblin Kingdom, she who conquered the Labyrinth.'
"I knew they were talking about you when they mentioned the Labyrinth, but I didn't want to blab on you, so I said to them, 'There is no princess of the Goblin Kingdom that I know of. As for the girl who conquered the Labyrinth, you'll not find her here, either.' I was telling the truth, too, 'cause you weren't in my dream."
"What did they say then?" Sarah asked with genuine curiosity as she moved her face over his to look at him.
"They asked if I knew where they could find you," he said as he met her eyes, "and the way they said it, they wanted to fight. I told them again that you weren't there, so they came at me with battle axes! They were tough guys, but I handled 'em! Then Merlin woke me up and that's when I heard your minstrel friends."
"Poor Toby," Sarah mused as she smoothed down his hair, "Weren't you scared?"
"Of course," he answered, "scared for you."
"What?" she blinked, "Me?" Toby rolled onto his tummy and looked his sister straight in the eyes.
"Somebody's after you, Sarah," he said seriously, "The guys from my dream? I think they were spies, scouts that were sent to find you and spy on you through your dreams, but they can't find you, so they're trying to get past me first! But I beat 'em, Sarah! I'm not gonna let anybody hurt you! And if they come back I'll beat 'em again, just for you! And even if they do get through me, they'll have Hoggle and Ludo and Sir Didymus to deal with! Then, of course, there's Jareth and the rest of the goblins; I don't think anyone can get past the Goblin King…except you."
This news disturbed Sarah; if all that was true, then someone was basically using her brother to get to her! Who was evil enough to invade a small child's dreams and try to use them as a gateway to her own? Not even Jareth was that bad.
"I can't think of anyone who would want to spy on my dreams," she mused, "except Jareth."
"He's not doing it," the boy said dismissively, "It's not his style, for one thing, and he wouldn't attack me, even in dreams, for another. Those guys weren't goblins, Sarah; they were gargoyles, I think. Besides, Jareth creates dreams, not invades. Like I said, it's not his style."
"Hmm," was Sarah's only reply. That was all true; Toby obviously knew Jareth as well as she did. So how come he never came to see her?
She sighed; she needed to get out of this house for some air. She needed to think.
"Toby," she said wearily as she slid off the bed, "I'm going to the park; I need to be alone for a while."
"Oh, but…" Toby sat up on his knees. "I don't think you should be there all alone."
"Don't worry about me," she smiled, "If I get lonely, I'll just call my friends."
As she left, Toby's worry for her grew; someone was out to get her and she needed the best protection there was. He walked out to her small balcony, where a beautiful and familiar barn owl perched on the railing. Toby smiled and pet his head.
"I know you told me not to worry," he said quietly, "but I'd feel a lot better knowing you were out there watching her. Please go with her, and make sure she comes back safe." The owl blinked and took flight. Toby watched it go and then another beautiful bird of prey landed on the corner of the rail. The boy's eyes widened.
"Who are you?"
Author's Review:
Duh-duh-DUUUUH!!!! I told you it would get good! Who is this mysterious new bird? Who's stalking Toby and Sarah? Who's chubbier, Perry Mason or Scotty from Star Trek? The answers to the first two questions will be answered in the next chapter!
Oh, wait! Movie references!
Let's see…The "just like we rehearsed" is from Finding Nemo! Yay!
And that's all the movies, I guess. And yes—the goblin minstrels' names are mixed up versions of the guys of N-Sync! Wheeeee! The song was a (mostly) parody of "Drive Myself Crazy" from the blue CD they put out in the 90's (don't remember what it's called).
Please leave a nice review and get a free cookie! Halloween shaped!
Happy Halloween, everybody!