8 Caracea

As her head descended under the waves Sarah instinctively held her breath, but almost instantly she let it out and attempted to breathe. Under any other circumstances it would have been a stupid move, but this was the Labyrinth, normal rules did not apply here and as she knew she would, Sarah had no problem breathing underwater.

Sarah carried on walking down the path, amazed at the creatures that were swimming around her. Some of them she recognised, seahorses, rainbow fish, turtles, crabs, but some were completely new to her. She saw a creature walking along the seabed beside her, it had about ten pairs of lobes on which it was walking, but then it had the same number of spikes sticking out of its back, and its head and tail pointed down towards the sand. Another was about a meter in length, and almost as wide, but it was completely flat, with patterns along its body resembling ribs going right from the head to its tail.

As she walked forward studying these creatures with fascination she suddenly realised her feet were no longer immersed in water. Looking down it was unclear what had happened but as she continued to walk forward she suddenly emerged into an enormous air pocket underneath the sea. Stunned she looked up and she could still see the water above her head and reaching up could put her hand into it, causing barely a ripple when he skin entered the water. Confused, but not entirely surprised, she decided the only plan of action was to continue forward. It was only as she looked further along the path that she discovered a small village stood at the bottom of the incline on which she stood. It reminded her slightly of the goblin city surrounding the castle at the centre of the labyrinth, houses built in seemingly no order but instead scattered all over the place. The houses were made of stone, although they looked decidedly more run down and like they were about to collapse. In fact the whole place had a feeling of abandonment about it, and yet there were creatures everywhere. On closer inspection she realised that although a lot of them had shells on their back, or had tails like seahorses, they were all in fact goblins. Amused she set off walking towards this village and just as she approached the first house she heard a sound that truly filled her heart with warmth for the first time in a very long while.

"Yea verily, I do believe we should start with this one."

"Sir Didymus" Sarah whispered breathlessly before rushing around the corner of a house towards where the voice had come from. It was only as she turned the corner and saw Sir Didymus stood there that she felt the first stirrings of guilt and apprehension. It had been a long time, a very long time, since she had last had any contact with anyone from the labyrinth, would they feel any animosity for her because of it. For a while they'd tried to contact her, but she had ignored their calls, and now she was back. Would they understand why she'd had to do it, would they forgive her? She didn't have very long to think about this however as just at that moment Didymus spotted her.

"Why my Lady, what are you doing here? Oh forgive me my rude tongue, I am simply surprised by your presence. How does thee?"

"I am well Didymus, I think, I'm not quite sure, but I'm glad to finally find a friend here, I was beginning to think you were avoiding me."

"Avoiding you, no, I was merely unaware of your return to the labyrinth. Why would you think I would be avoiding you fair maiden?"

"Well I haven't contacted you in so long, and I know you tried to contact me on more than one occasion, and I'm sorry for not answering, it's just…"

"There is no need to explain Sarah, you no longer needed us, I understand that, and of course a knight such as myself would never hold a grudge, I am always here for you."

"No Didymus it wasn't that. I did need you, more than I could understand. But I felt torn. I was living Aboveground, but my heart was here, with you, and Hoggle, and Ludo and Ja… well my heart was trying to live in two places and it was too much. I love you, all of you, but I had to live up there, with my family, and it was too tough to try and pretend that part of me didn't belong down here with you, my friends. I was trapped between two worlds and it was killing me, I had to sever the link with one of them, and I knew I couldn't leave Toby, so I gave you up, and I'm so sorry, I've missed you every day since I made that decision, but I felt it was something I had to do. Can you ever forgive me?"

"You need not even ask. Sarah you are loved by me as much as I am loved by you. We have all watched your life aboveground, we know the hardships you suffered there, your silence hurt, but we respected your decision. There is nothing to ask forgiveness for. I am your friend now and forever, as are Hoggle and Ludo and the one who must not be named." Sir Didymus answered a rather sly smile. "But I must know fair Lady, why do you return to us now, and why not tell us first so that we could meet you, it would have prevented you wandering into this desolate place that is Caracea."

"I'm afraid that was not my decision Didymus. Something happened Aboveground and when I woke up I was outside the labyrinth, I don't know why I am here, and once here I had no clue as to how to contact you."

"That is a dilemma I must say, I suggest we head back up to the main labyrinth and seek out Hoggle and Ludo and direct ourselves towards the castle in order to solve this ever so strange mystery and return you to your correct world shall we."

"My correct world, I wish I knew where that was." Sarah whispered.

Something in Sir Didymus' face showed he'd heard what she'd said, but he made no move to discuss it, instead he simply called out.

"DEVON, DEVON COME HERE BOY!"

"Devon?"

"Yes well by loyal steed Ambrosius turned out to be a little more coward like than a loyal steed should be. When faced with the fearsome trip beneath the waves to reach the land of Caracea he ran back into the forest and no amount of scolding nor praising could convince him that the chivalrous task of helping rebuild this desolate town was worth the trip through water. As we all know, the journey itself is harmless, but you know horses, they have an unexplainable fear of water, and so it was that I called on my trusty second in command Devon. Now where is that faithful animal? Ah here he is."

Didymus finished just as a Jaguar came running around the side of a building crouching low to dive beneath Sir Didymus, throwing him onto his back and racing off through another set of buildings and around a bend. For a while Sarah stood there speechless unable to react to the sight she had just seen. Never in her life had she seen such a beautiful, sleek, swift creature in all her life. She was still staring stunned at the place she had last seen Sir Didymus and Devon when she felt a knock between her legs that threw her upwards and looking down she saw Devon's head just as she was thrown onto his back behind Didymus by the impact. For a few seconds she sat there breathless as the powerful creature beneath her ran at a dizzying speed through the various houses, zigzagging in at out with awe-inspiring precision, only to be pitched into fits of laughter as Didymus shouted "Heigh Ho, Silver" with a flourish of his hand.

Sarah quickly realised they were heading uphill and braced herself for impact as she saw the liquid roof descend on her, but only felt a slight resistance as they shot through it and within a few seconds the trio were out of the water heading into a dense forest.