Old enemies
Brunga rolled over to hide his face from the scorching glare. He felt like a piece of dried-out leather.
Sarah handed him a small cup of water. "Go easy on it. There's not much."
He gulped the water and sat up. He looked up at Sarah blearily as she sat next to him. He saw several fairies holding onto her shoulders, gazing up at her adoringly.
He hissed and swung the bottle toward one, knocking it from Sarah's shoulder. The fairy crashed into the ground with a small shriek.
He drew his arm back to strike again when Sarah grabbed him. She pried the bottle from his hands and tossed it away as the fairies hovered near her, glaring daggers at the goblin.
"Brunga, I forbid you to hurt the fairies," she said. Sarah turned to the fairies. "They will not harm you and you will not harm them. We're all friends here."
"But they're nasty little things" Brunga cried. "If you don't get them first they'll eat your eyeballs while you're asleep."
"We do not, we eat flowers," said a fairy. "That's just something the King said."
"They've been telling me a lot of things, Brunga," Sarah said, setting him down. "Now, I need you to bring some creatures from the Labyrinth here. I can't go because Ja-" she cut herself off and looked toward one fairy. She frowned in concentration for a moment then turned back to the mystified goblin and continued,"But the fairies will go with you. They will be contacting their sisters in the city while you find other goblins and some other creatures I'll describe to you. If you do this for me, I promise I'll be able to make the King leave you alone and not put you in the bog or anything else. Can you do it?"
The goblin stared at her and the fairies by turn. "Go with them? But if you says so..."
"How far is it — how long will it take you?" she asked.
"A couple days to get there, a few hours to get into the Labyrinth and get caught by the King and-." Sarah cut him off. "If you're careful he won't catch you. He'll have other things to worry about."
After Brunga and the fairies set off, the goblin trudging across the dust, the fairies clinging to his back, Sarah walked around the ruined structures once more. It had been a circle of small but elegant, two- or three-room structures. She imagined how trees would fill the spaces between, the scent of herbs rising from under foot.
She walked to the fountain and began scooping dust with her hands. After many hours of labor and tedious handfuls, it was clear revealing intricate and elegant tracings of stonework. She took the small flask of water that was all she hadn't sent with Brunga and poured it into the center.
The water spiraled in and disappeared. Sarah concentrated and waited.
With a quiet sound, water spurted up and began filling the top of the fountain.
"Couldn't wait to restore things, could you?" asked a cool voice behind her.
She turned to see the Goblin King, his sparkling clothes unmarred by dust, leaning against a ruined wall.
"Someone has to," she retorted.
"So you remember now," he said, sliding toward her. Looking in her eyes, he reconsidered. "Or maybe not. How much do you remember, my dear?
"I must say it's been ever so interesting, you remembering almost nothing, blundering through Faery like a mortal. Rather gauche of you, I think. But you've never had much regard for my opinions."
Sarah felt pinned by the barrage, punctuated with thrusts of his naked hand toward her.
"How can you be so self-righteous when you let all this go to waste?" she demanded. "You play games while creatures suffer, not to mention all the suffering you've caused with your disgusting bog and oubliettes."
"Suffering that I caused?" he asked. "Beauty that I wasted? It was you, my dear queen, who caused all this by leaving. Had you stayed and fulfilled your duty, this would still be as it was."
He advanced on her, pressing her back against the fountain.
"But you chose the fool's leap, a mortal life," he spat. His eyes caught hers and she saw desolation within.
Before she could catch her breath his lips caught hers. He crushed her to him, desperately kissing her. His hand slid down her waist to her thigh.
Jareth hissed and pulled away from her, staring at his hand. Sarah followed his stare and winced to see scorch marks on his hand.
"Cold iron, Sarah?" the Goblin King asked, holding his arm awkwardly before himself. "You bring weapons into Faery. So it is to be war between us. Very well." He turned and vanished into the dusty gloom.
Sarah heard a pattering through the thundering noise of her heart. She turned to look at the fountain behind her. Its flow had increased and small plants were growing in the top, a few bedecked with tiny yellow flowers.