Chapter 2

It was a long night. Paul was surprised she could even stay awake for as long as she was. She needed to get back to the pond, anyway, before it was morning. She didn't mind walking back so late at night, she should probably be used to doing it by now. It was just that this had been her... fifth night at work, and there had been people who wanted to see her dance again. She didn't know why, she knew she wasn't what most men would call hot, but it might have been the fact that her chest naturally protruded nicely. And she had a large ass. Maybe they liked that. She had no idea. She'd gotten several tips, and one guy had asked her if he could 'be her friend'. She had, of course, refused, much to his disappointment. She had learned quickly what that meant.

She was very tired. Thus was the reason that she did not notice the intruder in the pond. She changed into her pajamas right in front of him. He, of course, didn't notice, nor saw a thing, being as it was that he was unconcious. Paul went to sleep.

-

In the morning, Paul groggily went to the pond to wash her face. Once she was done with this and tossed her black hair back out of her eyes, she happened to glance to her right. Had she not trained herself not to scream while here, for fear of being found out, she would have done just that. But instead of screaming, she gasped loudly and jumped back, nearly falling into the pond herself, which would not have been good, since she had never learned how to swim. Having heartless parents did that.

There was a man lying in her pond, his eyes closed as though he were sleeping. Half of his body was in the water, and half of it was out of it. The part of his body that was in the pond was floating slightly. She couldn't tell if he was breathing. She freaked out. Jesus Christ, there's a dead guy here! What the hell happened, how come I didn't notice it last night?! What the hell am I supposed to do?! He's dead! Oh, my God!

These were a few of the many jumbled thoughts that shot through her brain as she stared at the man and looked around frantically, then stared at him again. This was not good, this was definitely not good... There was a groan. She couldn't suppress a yelp, and so she did it quietly. He was dead! But he was making noise! What the fuck?!

Jareth sat up slowly, rubbing his head. He looked around carefully, through squinting eyes, and then noticed the girl backing away from him on her back. He blinked. He couldn't see all too well, and what he saw, he thought was... "Sarah?"

Paul froze. "Wh— what?"

Jareth looked closer at the frightened young lady. "You're not her at all, are you?" he said, sounding mildly disappointed.

"Um... Um...," squeaked Paul.

"No, you aren't... Oh, well." He tried to stand up, felt as though he would pass out if he did, and dropped back down with another groan.

"I... You... I thought... Weren't you just dead?"

Jareth blinked at her again, thought for a moment, and then said, "Nnno, I don't think so..."(A/N:there were supposed to be three ns for those of you who care)

"Oh. Um... Okay..." The poor girl felt rather stupid suddenly. She tried to relax, and managed to look over the man in front of her. Weirdly done up long blond hair, two different colored eyes, dressed funny... Who was this guy? "Who are you?" she said slowly.

He shrugged, as though who he was wasn't of much importance to him... or something. "My name is Jareth. I'm from..." he considered this for a moment. The situation presented to him was not one in which he should tell the truth, he decided, for fear of confusing the girl before him even more than she already appeared to be. He finished with, "Well, I'm not from around here. Where is here exactly?"

It was Paul's turn to blink now. The guy hadn't really needed to tell her that he wasn't from around here, he had a British accent. She told him the name of the reserve they were in.

"Ah. Right." He had no clue what was going on, did he? He looked at her as though studying her carefully. There was a strange buzzing sensation going on in his skull and he didn't know if this was because he had somehow miraculously found whatever person he had been looking for in the first place, or if it was because he had been hit on the head with a large rock. Then he saw something. He didn't know why it caught his eye, but it did. The necklace she was wearing. Maybe it was because of the sunlight glinting off of it. The amulet that hung from the leather cord had a reddish tinge to part of it, the part that appeared to be some kind of sun-like symbol. This was being held by a kind of dragon claw, which had a green tinge to it. The tinges the two parts of the amulet gave off apparently were natural and were in the metal itself. He stared at it until she noticed and quickly grabbed it, shoving it into her shirt.

"What?" she said uncertainly.

The man shook his head quickly and looked back to her face. Yes, she was very confused. "Who are you?" he asked her, in response to the same question that had been asked of him.

Still uncertain, she said carefully, "Um... I'm Paul."

"Isn't that a man's name?"

"Yes, it is. But it's what I'm called."

She was still wary. And now Jareth knew that the buzzing sensation was indeed his sensing that this girl was the person he had been looking for.

After a long time, they had gotten used to each other, and were in the process of having a conversation, when Paul glanced in the direction of a watch lying next to her bag. She jumped up. "Oh, shit, if I don't leave now, I'll be late for work!"

While Jareth looked at her questioningly she pulled her clothes on over her pajamas and started packing her things away quickly. After a moment, she seemed to see him sitting there for the first time. "Oh! I'm sorry..."

"That's all right. Er... Would you mind very much if I came with you? It's just, I don't know where we are exactly, and I don't want to wind up wandering off to find out."

She stared at him for a moment, confused again, but then said with a shrug, "Yeah, all right, come on. Wait, your head..."

"It's all right, I feel much better now." he said truthfully. Slowly he eased his way onto his feet again before testing his walking. He was fine. Before they left she gave him a hair tie to at least calm down the mess on top of his head. It took a while to get all of it in. Once that was done, he looked fine. He wouldn't make people worry in the club, they got wierdos who dressed funny there all the time for some reason. Then he followed her, and on the way, she pointed out the different places they passed.

When they finally got to the club, she led him to the bar and he sat down. "Hey, sweetheart," said Jim, the bartender.

"Hey. Look, this guy is a friend of mine and he's never been here before, so just tell him what we have and give him whatever he wants, okay? I'll pay for it myself when my shift's up."

"You got it." And she went to punch in.

About ten minutes later, Jareth was having his third drink. It was around this time that the bartender smiled and nodded to the stage, which Jareth had completely failed to notice since he had gotten there. "Ever know what your friend does here?"

"No. Should I?"

Jim answered with another nod to the stage, which Jareth finally turned to as a man with a microphone announced, "And now, our youngest dancer, the girl all of you came here to see... Morganna!" And out from the back of the stage walked a smiling Paul. She hopped up and grabbed onto the pole in center of the stage, spinning around it. Jareth knew what that meant. He raised his eyebrows and turned his entire body to face the stage, leaning back, smiled and took another sip of his drink. He might grow to like this girl even faster than he thought he would... He would have to anyway, wouldn't he? After all, she was the one that was supposed to help him get his throne back.

What he didn't know was that he was right. But he was also wrong. There were three others he needed. It would just be some time before they met them. He watched Paul's performance with interest.

Author's note:

Yeah, that was that. Pretty good, right? Right? And the end was mysterious. Not really, but oh, well. Review, please!