13 BEAUTY

Instead of having to climb up the cliff, this time Hoggle simply turned left and led them it. They'd only gone about a hundred meters when Hoggle suddenly disappeared. Literally. One minute he was walking a few steps in front of Sarah, the next he'd turned right and was gone. For a few seconds Sarah, Sir Didymus, Samael and the entire Firey gang stopped and stared. Sarah didn't know why the Firey gang had followed her, but they had. One of them was constantly pulling at Sarah's hair. He seemed fascinated that although no body parts could come off, her hair could come out, one strand at a time. Unfortunately he hadn't yet figured out you couldn't put them back, much to Sarah's annoyance. One minute he was repeatedly plucking hairs out of her scalp, the next he was prodding her in the head trying to put them back in, and no matter what Sarah did he would not stop. Even when everyone stopped moving due to Hoggle's mysterious vanishing act, he carried on with his torment. Meanwhile, the others stood trying to figure out where Hoggle had gone, only to stand there open mouthed when they saw his head, but not the rest of his body appear out of the cliff wall.

"Well, are you coming or aint ya?"

Seeing Hoggle's head floating out of a rock was weird enough, but to have him speak was enough to make the Firey's run for cover, much to Sarah's relief. Sarah opened her mouth to ask how Hoggle was doing that, only to shut it instantly, realising what a stupid question that was in the Labyrinth. Instead she watched the head disappear and then just followed it through the cliff wall, only to bang her head as she realised the invisible opening wasn't quite tall enough for her to walk through standing up.

Bending down slightly she tried again and this time found herself in a small tunnel, it was only about a metre wide and the walls around her were made of rough stone, as though it had been crudely carved out of the cliff, "which it probably has" Sarah thought. She looked ahead but she couldn't see the end of the tunnel, instead, after looking back to check that Sir Didymus, Devon and Samael had both followed her, she set off following Hoggle down the tunnel.

After a few minutes of walking she saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel. It brought to mind some morbid thoughts, but Sarah dismissed them as soon as they entered her head, this was not the time. Instead she continued down the tunnel, watching the light come closer until suddenly she reached the end of the tunnel and the sight that met her eyes took her breath away. The tunnel opened out into an enormous cavern, the bottom of which was filled with a massive lake but for a moment she couldn't look at the cave, all she could do was stare at the ceiling. Above her head were thousands upon thousands of what looked like giant stalactites. The entire roof of the cavern was covered in them, some of them were the size you'd normally expect to see, but there were hundreds that were colossal. She could see many that were at least fifty feet long, and about six feet wide at the top where they were suspended from the ceiling. But it was not just their sheer size that amazed and awed Sarah, each one seemed to be shining with an ethereal light, as though a thousand spirits were trapped in them each casting it's own unearthly glow. There seemed to be no explanation for the source of this light, and for a while all Sarah could do was stare in wonder at them, unable to move or speak due to the sheer beauty of what she beheld. It was only as she felt a slight nip at her leg which made her give an involuntary yelp of pain that she realised she'd completely phased out for a while. Looking down she saw Devon with his mouth dangerously close to her leg and she saw blood running down her leg from the wound he'd just given her. About to get angry at this she opened her mouth only to be silenced by Sir Didymus,

"My lady please forgive us, but your mind had wandered, you've been standing there staring at the Mysteriques for over fifteen minutes, we've been calling your name but you weren't there. I'm sorry, we should have warned thee, the Mysteriques have a mesmerising quality, many who come down here have much trouble leaving. They're used by Jareth as a distraction technique."

"Like the ballroom…" Sarah whispered, slowly being sucked into the beauty of stalactites she now knew were called Mysteriques only to be brought back by another sharp nip from Devon.

"Excuse me fair maiden, but I do not understand your meaning." Sir Didymus asked

"The ballroom, when I came here before, Hoggle gave me the peach from Jareth, and I lost my memory and went to the ballroom. That was a distraction right, meant to stop me from completing the Labyrinth?"

"I fear you do not understand the true nature of the Labyrinth, you were never meant to fail, and no, the ballroom was no distraction, in fact Jareth created that especially for you, and he has never used it since."

"Now I'm really confused."

"Jareth has the answers my dear, you just have to be patient."

"I suppose, now lets move on before I start daydreaming again, those Mysteriques are so beautiful, it's hard to tear myself away, and my legs are going to be ripped to shreds by Devon if I stay here much longer."

With that they began walking down the slope towards the lagoon at the base of the cavern.