Well, it's that time of year again! Santa Claus, Frosty, all those wonderful Rankin/Bass movies that charm children of all ages, and lots and lots of SHOPPING! That's right, buddies: IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!! (Not 'Holiday,' Christmas!)

I'm so sorry I didn't get to do a Christmas fic this year, but anyone who's a Teen Titans fan can check out my story, "The Titans' Christmas Miracle!" It's pretty cool, I think! I wrote it in '05 or something like that. Anyway, here's my (snort) "carefully" selected Christmas quote. Please enjoy this chapter and have a very Merry Christmas (or Chanukah, or whatever you happen to celebrate.)

"I shall return for you, my love, on Christmas Day."—Dido, Christmas Day (one of my fave Christmas songs, 'cause I'm a total sap)

Chapter 6: Clouds of Smoke
My scouts have failed to take their posts within her dreams and the boy is stronger than I accounted for. It makes me curious. Why can't I find the girl? What is she to him?

Luckily I have the unicorn, so I'll see her soon enough. And then…heh…we'll see.

"I don't know why the gargoyles are trying to invade Sarah's dreams," Jareth started as he sat backwards on the bed, "but I'll tell you all I know." All eyes were on the Goblin King and said more than their silent lips.

"Toby," he started, "this will come as no surprise to you, but you are a very special boy. You're unusually perceptive for your age, even without your powers."

"Powers?" Toby's eyes widened, "You mean like Sarah has?" Jareth nodded.

"You're my heir," he smiled, "Of course you're going to have powers of your own. You fought gargoyle scouts through your dreams protecting your sister. That is one of your powers. You kept them at bay and out of her dreams. It's true that Sarah has her friends and some goblins guarding her at all times, but the gargoyles seem to be using you as a loophole—or trying to. But you have tremendous magic within you, and they can't get past you."

"Then why did their king leave me like this?" Toby asked, "Why did he hit me so hard?"

"Because as powerful as you are," the king answered, "you're still a child. You can only do so much. The gargoyle king is an adult fae, like me and Jemna. He has more magic than you do—far more—and he's dangerous. It disturbs me that he's come to you himself and in such wrath."

Sarah grabbed Toby's little hand in an overprotective impulse; Hoggle patted her arm reassuringly. Jareth couldn't look at either of them and Toby noticed it.

"Jareth," he asked as he placed his other hand on his friend's arm, "Who is the gargoyle king?" Jareth looked at Toby with dark eyes and turned his head away.

"If you don't tell them, Jareth," said Jemna, "I will." She was back in the room, leaning by the window again. Jareth spun his head back and stared daggers at her; it made Sarah jump a bit and she looked curiously at the Elf Queen, whose eyes were as intense as Jareth's were.

"Sarah," Jemna spoke up uninvited, "the gargoyle king is our brother."

"Blast it, Jemna!" Jareth snapped. Toby grabbed his hand to calm him down.

"Your brother?" Sarah switched between them, not sure who to ask. "How many of you are there?"

"Three," Jemna answered promptly and walked over beside Sarah, "In my family there's myself, Jathan, and Jareth, in that order. I rule the elves, Jareth—as you know—rules the goblins, and…Jathan rules the gargoyles." She lit another flowerette, light blue this time.

"What does he want with Sarah?" Toby asked, still gripping Jareth's hand. Jemna released a cloud fragranced with impatiens.

"I don't know yet," she answered, "I may have said too much for a child like you to hear, but since you've been visited, you may as well know. I'm sorry if I've upset you."

"You didn't upset me, Your Majesty," Toby shook his head, "I'm glad you told me. It makes sense now."

"I wasn't talking to you that time, Toby," the queen replied, holding her flowerette up by her head. She was looking at Jareth and Sarah did, too; his head was turned from all of them, his wild yet soft hair acting as a thick curtain trying to conceal his emotional turmoil. Toby sat up slowly, scooted over to him, and hugged him around his arm. Jareth looked down at him and gently placed a hand on the child's head.

Sarah stood up and walked over to him; she wasn't sure how he'd interpret the gesture, but she wanted to make him feel better. She tentatively touched his shoulder and he looked up at her. Her hair was hanging over one side and she was smiling gently.

"You're not the first one to dislike your brother," she said quietly.

He stood up staring in her eyes, accepting her words of attempted comfort.

"At least yours is still an innocent child," he murmured before passing through her like a plane through a cloud; she felt his emotions as strongly as she could feel her own. He felt ashamed that her brother's attacker was his own brother and increasingly annoyed that he was poking into his business by trying to get to her. She heard a question in her head from his own thoughts: 'Why is he doing this?'

He was out the door before she could stop him; mesmerized, she turned to Jemna, as if the elf queen knew all the answers. Her light blue flowerette was between her first two fingers, positioned next to her head, its smoke waving upward like fire. Her eyes were full of wonder; she was obviously thinking, but what about?

"What?" Sarah blushed uncomfortably.

"Has he done that before?" asked the queen as she placed her flowerette in her mouth.

"Yeah," Sarah answered casually, "So?" Jemna removed her flowerette and exhaled.

"Nothing, it's just…interesting," she answered, "I've never seen him pass through a soul before. Now, then…" She put her flowerette in her mouth and strode to Toby's bedside, removing a pendulum necklace just like her earrings on a long gold chain.

"Toby," she asked, holding the chain at opposite ends, "How would you like me to break that nasty little fever of yours?"

"I don't have to forget about anybody, do I?" he responded.

"What?" Jemna asked.

"Nothing," said Toby, "Yes, please." Jemna shook her head in a "whatever" manner and hung the sharp pendulum over his nose with one hand.

"Lie still," she instructed, "and recite something to me." The pendulum spun faster and faster until it whirred like a top; Toby could feel the fever drawing to his nose as he murmured another Shakespeare quote.

"Now is the winter of our discontent
made glorious summer by this sun of York
and all the clouds that lowr'd upon our houses
in the deep bosom of the ocean buried."

By the time he was done, the last warm ray of his fever had been soaked up by the magic pendulum; it was red now. Jemna snapped it back up by pulling the chain taut; the chain disappeared on impact, leaving the pendulum in mid-air. The queen slowly moved her hands in on it on opposite sides like she was trying to catch a fly or kill a mosquito while it turned over and over on its side like clock hands. The closer her hands came, the faster it turned, until her hands cupped together. When she opened them again, the glowing red pendulum was gone. Toby, Sarah, and Ludo applauded her.

"You'll feel a little clammy for a while, but that'll go a way, too," she smiled as she removed her right earring, "Let's take your temperature, shall we?"

She pressed her pendulum earring to the center of his forehead on its bottom slant.

"97.5," she nodded, satisfied, "Perfect. You've been a lovely patient, little prince. I daresay you're fit to play with your dog outside!"

"Awesome!" Toby piped and kicked back the covers to shake her hand. "Thank you very much, Queen Jemna! I can't wait to show Mama!"

"Toby, wait!" Sarah said, then shook her head.

"He's a lively chap, he is," Jemna said, "Eh, Hogsmeade?"

"Hoggle! It's Hoggle!" the dwarf shouted and hopped up and down, "You're as bad as Jareth!" Sarah looked up at Jemna.

"You're Highness?" she said.

"Call me Jemna," said the queen.

"Jemna," said Sarah, "There is one thing you haven't told me…Your brother, Jathan…How come he can't find me?" Jemna looked at her for a moment, then released another blue cloud of smoke.

"Can you see me?" she asked.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because of the smoke."

"Exactly," the queen smiled, "The reason Jathan cannot find you is because you are too strongly protected by Jareth; his magic surrounds you like a cloud of smoke, hiding you from sight of danger." She fingered Sarah's hair thoughtfully. "You'd better see to your brother." Sarah nodded and left.

"My lady, that was generous of you to heal young Toby," said Sir Didymus, "Wilt thou be staying with us long?"

"Hopefully I'll be leaving tomorrow, Sir Didymus," she said, "I have urgent matters to discuss with my brother, if I can get him away from Sarah for longer than two minutes."

"Hmm," he nodded, "A task not easily accomplished, I find."

"Eh, shut up, Didymus!" Hoggle glowered and stomped off to grumble.

"Is he jealous?" Jemna asked quietly.

"No more than her father would be under like circumstances, Your Highness," he answered.

"I'd better go find Jarry," she sighed in a puff of blue smoke, "Do keep watch, won't you?"

"Certainly, good queen!" chirped the knight, "Everything's under control!" He went over to the window with Hoggle and looked out to the front yard, where Toby was chasing Merlin and trying to ride him.

"C'mon, Merlin!" Toby whined, "You're supposed to be Ambrosius! Come back!"

"I say, that's a very good impression of you, Ambrosius," Didymus muttered humorously.

"Here, Toby!" said Sarah, "I'll be Ambrosius!" Toby climbed on her piggyback style and yelled, "Charge!"

"But Sir Didymus!" Sarah smiled, "We're surrounded by scary goblins! Awoo!"

"Come come now, Ambrosius!" said Toby, imitating Didymus, "There's a treat in it for you!"

"If you say so, brave knight," replied Sarah, and she ran around with him, being watched by two birds in a tree—the owl and the hawk.

'You passed through her soul, and not for the first time, I'm told,' thought the hawk to the owl, 'Does she know what that means?'

An abrupt takeoff was the owl's only reply; the girl was a touchier subject than the hawk thought.

'Hm,' she thought to herself, 'Guess not.' She watched Sarah and Toby playing happily in the yard together, her gaze intense.

'Blast it, Jathan!' she thought frustratingly, 'What are you playing at?'

Author's Review:
Don't worry; Jathan's identity will be revealed in the next four chapters or so. Patience, please!

Let's see, references…

Toby's little recitation was the first soliloquy from Shakespeare's Richard III; it's one of my favorites! Well-read for a 5-year-old, isn't he?

His temperature of 97.5 is a tribute to my favorite radio station!

Jareth's passing through Sarah (as you all know) is the same thing he did in the movie and will be explained in the next chapter. I'm gonna make it really cute! ;)

And I think that's it for this one. Once again, your humble servant wishes you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year! As a Christmas bonus, here's another Christmas quote!

"Going for a new recreational saucer sled land speed record: Clark W. Griswold, Jr.!"—Clark Griswold, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation