Disclaimer: Okay… these characters or concepts of the Labyrinth are in no way, shape, or form mine. (Turns to look at a representative from Henson Associates, Inc holding a gun to her back indicating to continue) And yes Jim Henson is the almighty ruler of the Labyrinth. (Looking back at him) There are you happy!
AN- Okay well with Norehnka gone I'm feeling so unloved. Guys it really doesn't take two seconds to say, "It's good" or "It sucks" or "Get a life." Thank you for my quickie notwritten. It's nice to know you are still reading. So I've promised longer chapters and here's the beginning of the end. The moment you've all been waiting for.
Chapter 13: Hard as Stone
Larizel in a blink found herself at the front gate of the Labyrinth. The gate was large and seemed too heavy for her to push, but she tried anyway. It wouldn't budge. "You've got to be kidding me." If she couldn't even get in, the challenge would end here without ever beginning. She paced for a moment before a notion came to mind. Closing her eyes she pulled the power slowly from inside her. A lavender crystal formed in her hand. She held it out before her, speaking out the command. "Let me into the Labyrinth." To her disbelief the gates opened slowly making an eerie creaking moan. She was just planning on striking the gate with the crystal. She smile to herself 'That was so much easier.' With a wave of the crystal sliding over her hands to one another she crossed her hands over and it was gone.
Stepping through the gates that slammed shut behind her she looked both ways down the corridor that seemed to go on forever. To her right the path was scattered with tree branches, but there was no sign of a tree. The walls held strange fungus like creatures that followed her every move. 'How strange' she thought. To her left the path was clear of debris. She looked right once more and back to the left before deciding she'd go left. "Who in the world would want to go right? It looks like it hasn't been traveled ever. I would probably die when a stick jumped up and bit me or something." With her decision made she tossed her hair over her shoulders and jogged quickly down the straight way. She ran until she was out of breath. "Oh come on. You have to at least give me some sort of chance." She screamed up into the air pretty sure they could hear her. She contemplated on what she could do, looking up at the top of the wall. "Maybe I can jump the wall." She grabbed one of the bricks that poked out from the others and placed her foot on another. Lifting her weight the wall folded over as if she was too heavy for it to hold and shrugged her off. "How am I supposed to do this?" Placing her back to what she expected was solid brick Larizel yelped when she found herself falling through the wall. Landing hard on her rear-end. She giggled to herself as she looked once more down two corridors. This time they didn't go on forever. "Well, that was easy enough."
She decided to go the opposite direction from her first choice and immediately found herself surrounded by endless stonewalls that broke and opened showing her for the first time a maze rather than a riddle. Everywhere she turned she had options she needed to decide which way to go. She glanced over the towering walls and was rewarded with the sight she searched for. Picking the path to her right she headed off in the direction of the castle to immediately find a dead-end around the corner. Turning back around she took the other path that also seemed to be in the direction of the castle. A few turns and chosen paths later she hit yet another dead-end. She turned back around again and thought she was retracing her steps when she wandered into a large commons centered with a sundial showing that she had already used over two hours. "Dammit, time moves so quickly when you are racing it." She spun around in a circle looking at the six paths she had to decide from. She knew she didn't have time to keep picking the wrong path by random and moving towards the castle seemed to not help her cause. She noticed a stone thrown carved into what looked like books. There were creepy stone statues on either side of the doorways. Some looked like toy solders, others perhaps a maiden, and Larizel caught a glimpse of what looked like a fat stone gnome, but the strange old man distracted her with his white hair growing out of his nose as he was making his way to his throne. "How strange?"
The old short man had an annoying hat that looked like a bird as it rambled on from the top of his head. He took a seat on his throne of stone books and looked up at Larizel. "What is a young woman like you doing in the Labyrinth?" The bird chimed in. "The same thing that every young lady in the Labyrinth is trying to do." The old man sighed and continued. "What can I do for you?"
"Well," She figured what could it hurt. "I need to get to the castle, but I keep running onto random paths in the direction of the castle, but it seems to be to no avail."
"I see… so you are trying to get to the castle" The bird chimed once more. "Quite the conclusion, no?" Turning his eyes up to the bird. "Quiet." The bird sighed as the old man continued. "Sometimes to get closer to something you must…" "Turn away" The old man groaned. "Turn away." The bird chimed again. "He's a bird head." Bickering with the bird once more. "Will you please be quiet?" He raised his voice and the bird rolled its eyes.
Larizel turned and looked at the two paths that lead away from the castle. "Which way do I go?"
"The way that goes to the castle of course." "He's such a help huh?" Larizel annoyed turned towards one of the paths and started to walk away when the old man grunted at her. "Uh hmm." He held out a little box with a slit in the top. The bird chimed. "Please leave a contribution in the little box."
"For what?! All you've done is waste my time." Larizel was furious. "You have been no help at all."
The bird raised his annoying voice. "She's not a sucker." The old man huffed. "I need a new hat." "No I need a new head." The bird shot back, and with that Larizel left taking the closest path to her.
Sarah and Jareth sat in the throne room. Sarah draped herself over his throne to egg on his annoyance. They both watched Larizel through the crystal with concentration. Jareth smiled knowing that she was finally on the right track and Sarah growled striking the crystal with her hand and allowed it to shatter on the ground.
"She has less than four hours left. She won't make it." Sarah stated it in confidence.
"Well she made it much further than you in that time and she didn't have any help." Jareth pointed out bringing Sarah once again to an un-amused state.
"What did you just call that?" With a thought the ground opened underneath the old man dropping him into an oubliette.
Larizel found herself standing in front two doors guarded by the blue and red knights she remembered from the book. "I must be moving backwards you were further back in the book."
"Oh and how would you know?" The top red knight inquired.
Larizel shrugged. "Well I wouldn't".
"Exactly" The red knight shot back
"So how do I get through?" She stepped over to the top blue knight.
But the lower blue knight answered causing her to take a hop back. "Well it depends, where do you want to go?"
"Oh God, to the castle. Everyone is always trying to get to the castle." She stomped her foot lifting her hands into the air.
The top blue knight replied. "Well that's going to be difficult."
"Why?!" She was losing her patience.
"Cause we can't let you through." The bottom red knight spoke as if she should have already knew the answer.
Larizel's eyes were starting to show a light glow to them. "And why not?!"
The two bottom knights answered. "Because her majesty has told us not to." They all answered in unison as if repeating Sarah's exact words. "No one heading to the castle may pass."
Larizel had enough of their games and she was frustrated by her lack of time. Her voice took on a very dangerous tone. "Is that so?"
Taking a crystal in her hand there faces completely changed going from playful to scared. The top blue knight was the first to speak. "Pardon us madam we did not know you were Fae. The castle is this way." As the blue door opened she walked down a short tunnel opening into the hedge maze. She held a sly smile on her face. 'This is so much easier than I thought it would be.'
Sarah swung around at Jareth in fury. "YOU DROPED ME INTO THAT OUBLIETTE ON PURPOSE!?"
Jareth shrugged. "I sent a friend to help you, didn't I?"
"You sent a friend to take me BACK to the beginning. It was his treason to you that he helped me."
He smiled wickedly and took a gloved hand to her cheek. "My dear I was trying to save you from what you have become now. It was generous of me and done for completely unselfish reasons."
Sarah jerked her face from his fingers her eyes darkened and turned her attention back to the newly created crystal ignoring Jareth's quiet snickers. "Just 3 hours left and she's only made it to the hedge maze. She still has a long way to go my dear Jareth. Keep snickering you're about to lose all your powers, enjoy them while you still can."
The hedge maze lay out before her. For whatever reason it felt more welcoming than the stone. Maybe because the hedges were alive… well sort of. The hedges had dark colored wood with nearly black leaves, but still she could almost feel them breathing. She could feel herself getting closer to the castle, or was it that she felt herself getting closer to Jareth. They seemed to have gotten very close since they first met. Perhaps he was calling her to him, directing her through the maze. She opened her senses to the Labyrinth welcoming it to her and asking for it's guidance and to her surprise she had found it.
She walked her way through the hedges as if she knew exactly where she was going, though she wasn't really sure that she did. She twisted and turned through the woven hedge garden. If she didn't feel the soul inside her pull her down one path and up the next she would have sworn she was lost. All at once she found herself in front of two doors.
Sarah looked up from the crystal glaring at Jareth. "What did you do?"
"Whatever do you mean? I have been right here with you the entire time. What could I have done?" He nonchalantly took a seat on the ledge of the window looking out over the Labyrinth.
Standing in fury she stalked over to him. "No you helped her through the Hedge Maze. Either that or she is using Fae magic to maneuver the Labyrinth."
"And what if she is?" He lifted an eyebrow to her.
Sarah balled her hands into fists shaking in anger. She felt she had been tricked. "But That's Not Fair!"
Jareth's wickedness got the best of him. "Ah, so you say, but you didn't say anything about her not using any of her powers. Technically you didn't say I couldn't help her either. Don't you know better than to leave anything open to interpretation."
For a brief moment she felt a possible defeat, but quickly soothed herself. 'Just over two hours to go there's no way she can make it, she won't make it. It's not possible. Even if she uses magic, even if Jareth helps her… she can't be here on time.' She gazed back into the crystal watching the girl stand before the two doors with intricate doorknockers.
AN: It really was difficult for me to write the actual Labyrinth chapters. It's hard to rework a masterpiece. Each section I had to come up with something similar but different from the original. In fact the two chapters after these was written before the Labyrinth chapters. The second half of the Labyrinth game is just waiting for your reviews to beckon it. Only four chapters left.
