I'm Sure That Wasn't My Fault
Chapter Two – A Glitch In The Works (it wasn't the goblins, either)
Disclaimer: Still owns neither. Owns this idea, though.
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Jareth had, of course, been watching in the stands since before the task had even officially begun. It only stood to reason that a king would survey his country, a master craftsman watch his work at work.
He had excelled when it had come to creating magically similar devises that reversed gravity. The way that the champions had sometimes needed to seem to double back on themselves to get to where they wanted to go had come naturally to him. The sphinx, on the other hand, had been a stroke of luck and brilliance. It was rather hard to find them Underground nowadays, and had been for a few hundred years. It had come as rather a shock to find one living happily Aboveground like he had.
Sarah had been rather put out about the spiders, though. He had had to reassure her that it was rather unlikely that while it was not as though the beasts were exactly going to be afraid of the wizards like normal insects, they weren't likely to last too long up against weapons such as wands, either.
For the most part, everything had gone as planned. There had been a number of incidents, but nothing that the wizards themselves had not been able to deal with. Wizards could deal with wizard trouble, after all. . .
What he hadn't expected was for things to go wrong so close to the end. If he had been the type, he would have said that it hadn't been fair.
People weren't supposed to go off vanishing in his labyrinths or mazes simply without warning and without any provocation from him, personally.
And so now here he was, glaring at a piece of ground a few feet away which was still wet from the previous night's rain despite the heat of the summer sun, as if glaring would bring back the child (children) that had been stolen.
Sarah was going to be livid.
Speaking of which . . .
Footsteps nearby brought with them a being whose aura sung half of humans and part of Faerie. They did not sound pleased.
The Goblin King sighed.
"I suppose that you are going to say something inane about this being me getting a taste of my own medicine, are you?"
The aura faltered. Didn't come any nearer, didn't come any closer.
"Actually, I wasn't. I was going to say that this is what you get for being stupid, but whatever. I guess you can't just break someone of a bad habit like that so quickly."
Neither spoke as the assorted teachers gathered around them, asking questions and interrogating. Nothing they said could or would help those who did not understand Labyrinth magic. Once they finally broke free from the crowds that had congregated at the mouth of the maze, Sarah glared at the twists and curves of his handiwork.
"You know, Sarah, I am quite sure that it wasn't my fault. . ."
"I know," she said abruptly. "Perhaps if it had been I wouldn't be so worried."
The girl did have quite the soft spot for Champions.
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AN: And so it ends. Unlikely to continue. Was originally meant to have a lighter tone, but oh, wel. . . not much you can do when it's a scene like that.