Thy Bog Overfloweth
Ch. 7
Jareth couldn't believe it. He stared at the paper clutched in his hands, and if the storm outside grew slightly more intense, well, that wasn't him. It was coincidence, to be sure, and not the fury at her idiocy.
Did she not remember being kidnapped yesterday? He knew she had short term memory loss, but it wasn't that bad. Yet, anyway; Sarah assured him that by the time she was thirty, she'd be as forgetful as anything.
Still, though, she hadn't reached that point. Jareth wasn't sure she ever would, if she kept acting like this.
What is the use, he seethed, of putting up wards for her safety if she just leaves her shelter without any rhyme or reason? Does she want to be taken again?
He'd strangle her and put her out of her misery as soon as he caught up to her. He really would.
The Post-it note (which he'd woken to find stuck on his forehead) fluttered to the ground, forgotten, as the Goblin King opened the window with the wave of a hand and leapt through, transforming into a fair-sized golden eagle. Slidge scurried out from under the bed to pick it up. He couldn't read very well, but the note was concise and Sarah had been teaching him. He read aloud to the empty room,
"Jareth,
I had to go out and run some errands, since we'll be leaving for my dorm room in two days. Stay here, I left food and coffee for you.
Sarah"
Slidge scratched his head thoughtfully before disappearing to talk to Hoggle. Hoggle always knew what to do.
Sarah walked alongside average-looking woman down an average-looking road in an average-looking town. Then she took her nineth step away from the barrier around the house...
And like a switch was thrown, everything average was suddenly so beautiful it almost hurt.
The woman, Chame, still walked beside Sarah. Now, however, she had grown taller; her skin had taken a silver cast to it; Chame's hair was now green-black and threaded with delicate vines and leaves. Chame had a regal bearing to her, a kind cast to her features and a mysterious glint in her eye.
The road was now a path in a grove of trees and flowers, all in bloom and in wonderful technicolor. Sarah gaped as they rounded a corner and reached a dainty waterfall of iridesent light, or so it seemed. When Chame stepped upon it, the "light" turned into a crystal stepping stone. Sarah hesitated, unsure if the odd liquid would extend the same courtesy to a human. When she finally did take a small step, the crystal bloomed beneath her foot with an inviting warmth, and Sarah smiled.
The town was now Chame's gardens, a gift, Sarah was told, from the Dryads as a coronation present. Chame kept up with the garden herself, preferring to work the land with her own two hands than with magic or hired workers. The fertile earth responded readily to its caretaker's touch, and the garden flourished. The rest of Chame's holdings were in similar shape, but as Chame had put it, "This place is my home, and I care for it most, even if it isn't fair to play favorites."
Chame pulled the curtainous branched aside and waved Sarah to a table resting by the trunk of a weeping birch. "So," the Fae woman began, "how long have you known my son and what information do you have that we can use against him?"
Only mildly stunned by Chame's directness, Sarah thought, I do believe I'll like her...
Jareth was Not Pleased, At All. He'd flown all over town- the bookstore, the library, the grocery, the park, the path she used when walking Merlin, a little whimsical trinket shop that she liked to browse, her dorm at the college (which was actually two towns away, but Jareth was rather agitated by this point and had flown out there on the off chance that might have been where Sarah had disappeared to) and the damn girl was still MIA. The spell he'd wrapped around her when she'd been questioning him the night before hadn't been set off, so Sarah wasn't in danger... Yet. There really was no telling what Jareth would do to her should she pass beneath him now. Maybe he'd strangle her. Perhaps he'd lock her away in a place outside of time, where she wouldn't- i.e., couldn't- escape. It was possible that he'd strand her ass in an oubliette, despite them all being flooded with Bog water (if you could even call that water).
Jareth banked sharply to the left, hovering a moment before landing upon a branch outside Sarah's house. There really wasn't much he could do, for now. But he had plenty of time to think about exactly how he'd rip her a new one once Sarah returned.
Hoggle was Not Pleased, At All. That rat was staying with Sarah? Why? The royal Fae were truly only six very large families that mingled and mixed and became to jumbled they were hard to tell apart. The Goblin King could have stayed with any one of his cousins or aunts or uncles or parents or even his grand-parents. It would have been better than staying with Sarah, simply because Sarah didn't live in a castle and Sarah didn't have servants.
Hoggle paused in his furious pacing to stand in front of his mirror. "Sarah! I need ta speak to you!" Hoggle demanded. When the mirror remained blank, Hoggle repeated himself, to the same effect. Slidge quietly snuck away to go visit Sarah as the dwarf started yelling, half-angry, half-panicked, at the mirror.
As such, Slidge missed the scene made by Hoggle and Jareth finding each other at opposite ends of Sarah's mirror. Hoggle fell backwards, startled, while Jareth started questioning Hoggle about Sarah's whereabouts.
Neither of the two men heard the women and Goblin laughing at the two as the three watched through a scrying pond.
Slidge, when he appeared on Sarah's shoulder, had been welcomed into the little group. The Goblin had slid down to sit on Sarah's lap, and Chame had levitated the chairs into the sunlight by a pond. Most of the plans had been made and would soon be underway, and Sarah had asked hundreds of questions. The most important of these questions wasn't asked until the two women had settled after laughing at Hoggle and Jareth. The question was simple, in comparision to the others.
"When is Jareth's birthday?" Sarah asked suddenly. Chame wiped a tear of mirth from her eye before answering.
"August twenty-fourth, Sarah. Do you want to know his zodiac sign while we're at it?" Chame teased lightly. Sarah grinned and shrugged.
"Why not?"
"A very good answer for any question. Eh, my son is a Leo... and it's gotten him into trouble plenty of times! Oh, but isn't you birthday coming up, Sarah? How old will you be and when? Maybe I'll plan a party for you, too!"
"I'll be twenty-one," Sarah told her new friend with a grin, "and I'm not telling you when until you promise not to throw a party for me. I never did like being at big gatherings, and you'd probably go as over the top with an impromptu party as with a carefully planned one."
Chame pretended to look shocked. "I would never! But... Yes, fine, I surrender. I won't throw a party for you." If there was a little gleam in Chame's eye, a certain lilt to her voice, Sarah didn't notice it- but Slidge did. Slidge chuckled a bit before climbing off Sarah's lap to go romp around.
"April seventeenth," Sarah admitted. Chame shot her a startled look.
"That's less than two weeks away! Does anyone else know?"
"My family and Hoggle."
"You know what I mean, Sarah."
"No, he doesn't know. And I'm not going to tell him, either."
"Why not?"
"Why would I?"
"Well, what happens when you celebrate your birthday and he doesn't know?"
"I'll drag him along. I just don't want to make this a big deal... Hey, look, Hoggle's giving Jareth the third degree. Turn up the volume a bit, please."
"What are ya plannin' ta do ta Sarah?" Hoggle started angrily.
"None of your business, Hogwash-"
"Hoggle!"
"-Whatever. Why were you calling Sarah?"
"B'cause I found out yer stayin' with her!"
"And this concerns you because...?"
Because yer a rat! Hoggle thought venomously, but he said nothing aloud.
"Why were you askin' where Sarah is?" Jareth cursed at Hoggle's question.
"She ran off..."
"You LOST her?" Hoggle roared.
"I didn't lose her, she wandered off," Jareth snapped.
"So yer tellin' me you wouldn' leave her alone and now she ran off? Smart girl!"
"She said she was out doing errands," Jareth managed through gritted teeth. "Haggle, this is serious."
"Hoggle! An' it means ya should know better than ta bother her now."
"She was kidnapped yesterday, Hoglet. I can't leave her bloody well alone!"
"Hoggle, and what do ya mean, kidnapped? Sarah was kidnapped? By who?"
"I don't know!"
"Should I go home and break up the fight?" Sarah asked, smirking at the two men.
"Not yet, dear. It is amusing to watch them flounder."
"Point taken."
"Why do ya care, anyway?" Hoggle asked suspiciously.
"Because- because... because I do! What's that have to do with anything?" Jareth sputtered. What is it about Sarah and her... her... minions that they goad me out of being regal? Jareth lamented.
"What are ya plannin' with her, then?"
"I'm not telling you, you miserable little scab," Jareth snarled.
At once, Hoggle was no longer the cowering subject before his king. He was a friend looking out for his friend, and he was standing up against some unpredictable force that the two had encountered before. Hoggle may have been a coward, but he was a loyal coward, and knew when to take a stand.
"If ya can't tell me, ya won't be gettin' very far in yer plans," Hoggle said stiffly. "I'll help Sarah ta figure it out, an' then ya won't be able to do anythin'."
"Right. What are you going to do, tell my mother? Lay off, Hogscuble."
"I won'. I won' let ya harm Sarah."
"I don't intend to!"
Hoggle smiled like a parent who'd tricked a naughty child into confessing. "Well, then, tha's a 'hole new can o' worms, now ain' it?"
Jareth, realizing he'd been tricked, said nothing.
"Now it's time to send you home."
Sarah thought for a minute. "Could you please drop me off at the end of my street? It'll be more convincing."
"Not a problem. Slidge, it's time to go! Come, let us take the scenic route."
The scenic route, as it turned out, was to walk back to the waterfall and walk downstream. The crystal stepping stones carried the women (and Slidge, who perched on Sarah's shoulder) to a living cavern. It was a cave made of roots and leaves with shade plants growing and blooming in a fantastic array of deep shades, not the light and airy colors outside but dignified and bold shades of red and green and indigo. Sarah reached out to touch one of the buds before thinking of the fairies. She drew her hand back regretfully, half-wishing she could see if those petals were as soft as they looked.
Chame noticed, and said softly, "Maybe you could raise some seedlings after this thing is over. Jareth would be suspicious if..."
"If I came home with Underground plants. Yes, I suppose that's true. They are beautiful, though. Are they hard to grow?"
"It depends on the plant. Some of them won't bloom Above, some of them adapt well, some of them grow better Above but are native to the Underground."
"Really? Like what?"
"Bamboo, for one. It grows explosively Above, but it orginated here. Some dragon took a few shoots Above to make their new den more like home, and it just... spread. Morning glories are Underground plants, too, and so is asparagus."
"You know, I kind of always figured broccoli was Underground, but I never thought about asparagus."
"Most people don't. Here we are, the corner of Main and Nyxin. Fare well, Sarah. You know the plan."
"Until next time, Chame." Sarah's response was as formal as Chame's, but the women smiled at each other as old friends do, and parted easily.
Sarah had some problems with Jareth's temper, and Hoggle didn't help at all- in fact, Hoggle seemed to be baiting Jareth, which baffled Sarah. Obviously something had happened between the time Chame shut down the scrying spell and the time Sarah got home. Or maybe it was just Act Weird Day. Then again, every day was Act Weird Day for Sarah.
Oro: I considered putting in more of the plotting, but I figured, nah, they'll figure it out as the plot progresses. And I'm sorry about how it jumps around, but they really are connected in a way and you need to see both sides of the actions- Sarah's and Jareth's. Keep in mind that Chame and Sarah are aware about what Jareth and Hoggle are up to, but Hoggle isn't in on the plan yet and Jareth won't be privy to it for a long time (till August, in fact).
Jareth: (still not allowed to see story) This really isn't fair.
Quill: I really do not care. Oro: Today, on Thy Bog Overfloweth, we examine that mysterious phenominon of disclaimers, that feeling you get that you don't own- (looks around, apparently stricken with sudden paranoia)
Today, on Thy Bog Overfloweth, we examine that mysterious phenominon of disclaimers, that feeling you get that you don't own anythin-
(looks around, gasps, panicking)
Today, on Thy Bog Overfloweth, we examine that mysterious phenominon of disclaimers, that feeling you get that you don't own anything but original characters and-
(stops again, nearly having a heart attack)
Today, on Thy Bog Overfloweth, we examine that mysterious phenominon of disclaimers, that feeling you get that you don't own anything but original characters and plot-
(runs off to find local milkman)
Sarah: Woah. Deja vu.
Quill: Yeah, she doesn't own that, either.