Chapter 5

It was one of those afternoons that the sun lazily dripped its gold light down, spilling itself thickly on the land as honey does on a piece of toast. It hung in a cloudless sky that was bluer than a baby's eye while a warm breeze soothingly brushed the air, hinting at the long awaited arrival of summer. Down below, trees hung low in the weight of their numerous rich dark leaves, but the flowers still wore their spring costumes of all shapes, colors, and sizes. The creatures of the Labyrinth forever wandered about, forever clueless of where they were going; they were not, however, bothered in the slightest about that fact but instead pasted the day away in carefree bliss. Even the goblins chose to stay down in the Underground, abandoning their favorite game of pestering the humans who lived up above. Today, they all agreed, was just too fine of a day to leave, so all of them scampered and yelled and fought and pulled pranks down below. All of them, but one little one with emerald green eyes.

Poor Ravie was trapped within the four stone walls of the Royal Study, force to fill in documents next to the ever silent and looming figure of the Goblin King.

It had been about a month since she had begun her new post. About a month, about thirty days, and as each one of those days crawled by, Ravie could feel her sanity slip farther and farther away. Only two things kept her from snapping- her friends and the books. Her friends gave their encouragement, showering promises of games and fun; all promises ended up empty, however, as time and time again Ravie was dragged to the Study while her friends could only promise once again.

The book though, were the true hero in Ravie's life.

Only the books kept up their promise. The history books, fiction books, books about myths, legends, warriors and long ago wars, these kept her mind ground, kept her entertain, kept her knowing there was more to life than just stupid meaningless documents, and more than ever kept her from running out screaming and jumping head first into the Bog of Eternal Stench.

Though today they didn't quite seem to be enough.

The bog certainly can't be worse than being stuck here, Ravie glowered as she threw a finish document on the tiny finished stack. Her ears drooped back as she then longing looked through the window, her heart tightening restlessly as she felt the warm sunlight and the gentle breeze beckoning so irresistibly. She let out a sad little sigh, knowing that at this very moment her friends would probably be meeting up in the woods right in front of the Goblin City Gates to play her favorite game.

Her mind suddenly considered diving out the window.

Oh no, not again! Ravie thought scowling, shaking her head viciously. Now I'm surely more insane than that crazy fox knight ! Argh! Get a grip, you idiot! If you just hurry up and finish, you might be able to play a round!

Revived with sudden new energy, Ravie turned her gaze back only to feel as if she'd been deflated. The documents towered in front of her, literally. Their light creamy color appeared demonic in the soft golden light and its disarray of jutting out corners seemed like claws whose sole purpose was to tear apart all the joy and happiness in Ravie's life.

Holding back her anger (which proved to be quite a feat), Ravie bitterly reached for a new one with disgust, wishing vigorously that she could set this pile, and all that would come after it, ablaze. She hated these documents, hated them with a passion, because they were so stupid and so pointless that Ravie would much rather stab out her eyes than to look at another.

She, in fact, came very close in doing so on one of her first days at her new post. It was all because of a thirty-two paged trading record between the Goblin Kingdom and its neighboring Kingdoms, which may seem logical, but it truly wasn't. Goblin's never traded with anyone or anything- only steal whatever it is that they want or need from either the humans of the Aboveground or the other kingdoms. This trading record then had no reason to exist, no propose at all, and yet Ravie still had to waste an hour of her life reading and filling in the boring dreadful thing all because the Goblin King threaten her when she told him it was utterly pointless.

And he might be the worst problem of them all.

Ever since their bargain, the Goblin King hadn't spoken so much as a few barked commands at her. Not that Ravie had expected them to get chummy or anything, but she was dying for some conversation or anything to make this awful heavy overbearing silence die. It had gotten so bad that she had begun to look forward to the moments when Marcus would march in to grab their finished work. At least then she could talk to someone for a few minutes.

At that train of thought, Ravie slammed her head down against the desk in dejected defeat, knowing that she could not have sunk any lower than she had just done at this moment.

The act did not go unnoticed.

"What are you doing?" The Goblin King growled from his seat next to her.

"Nothing, Your Highness." Ravie mumbled, her face still pressed up against the reddish wood.

"Then get back to work."

Knowing very well that she should not test him when he used that threatening snarl, Ravie lifted her head back up and once again stared glumly at the paper in her hands. Her eyes did not seem to work, however, as Ravie's mind wandered once again in the vast meadows of infinite thoughts. She couldn't help but wonder about Mimion, Fifo, and Copperpot. They surely must be in the woods by now, Ravie thought drearily. They must be playing Color Tag by now. I wonder who they got to replace me? I wonder if they even remember who I am.

As her thoughts of misery gave way to thoughts of frustration, her restlessness began to act up as restlessness does when one's mind does not wish to perform a task. Ravie quickly found herself plagued with the inability to focus while under the predicament of needing to shift her position every complete of minutes.

"Quit moving." The Goblin King's voice split in the air, causing Ravie to stiffen.

She then tried to force herself to sit still, honestly did, but after a few more minutes Ravie couldn't help but shift herself once more.

"Do you know how annoying that is?" He snapped, glaring at her, "I can't focus on my work."

"Oh, you weren't focusing on your work before I started shifting." Ravie muttered to herself but it had not been quietly enough.

"What did you say?" He growled venomously.

Not seeing any point in denial, Ravie then, with her long white quill pen, pointed to a paragraph on his document, saying smartly, "You've been staring at that same spot for ten minutes now."

The Goblin King bit his cheek a moment before saying, "And since you've been apparently watching what I've been doing, I can only assume that you haven't been doing your work either."

"How can I read a chicken report?" Ravie said defensively, "I mean, come on, how can I believe this when most Goblins can't count past twenty nine?"

"You give them far too much credit." The Goblin King smirked, "Most cannot count past ten."

"But they're close! Eleventeen, twelveteen, I think that should count."

"I'll count it the day that eleventeen and twelveteen become actual numbers." He said, returning back to his paper.

Ravie looked back down on hers and after a moment of silence suddenly broke off into giggles.

"What?" The Goblin King snapped.

"Nothing." Ravie giggled, shaking her head and calming herself down.

After he muttered something under his breath and Ravie finally composing herself, they went back to reading the documents. Only another moment of silence would pass, however, until the Goblin King muttered "Oh screw it." and signed the document with a flourish of his pen.

"How many of the papers do you do that for?" Ravie asked innocently.

"None of your business." He growled, putting it on the finish pile and cracking his knuckles.

"Can I do that?"

"What? Crack your knuckles?"

"No, say 'Oh screw it' and give it to you to sign."

"Only if you want to be kicked into a wall." He grinned cruelly.

To Ravie's horror, the words flew out of her mouth before she could stop herself, "And just out of curiosity, do you actually carry out your threats?"

The look he gave her was one that sent shivers down her spine and she wasn't surprise when he flicked the back of her head.

"Of course I do." He growled as Ravie gingerly rubbed the hurting spot, "Though most of the time, goblins listen to me to begin with and don't talk back."

"Sorry Your Highness." Ravie mumbled.

Jareth watched the little green-eyed goblin return to her work a little more keenly and was surprised at the pang of guilt he felt at her hurt expression.

It had to be done, he reasoned with a shake of his head, she's getting far too bold and if she's not afraid of me, then she's going to spread it like a disease. And goblins are such a pain to control when they're not afraid of you.

Drearily returning back to his work, Jareth grabbed the next document on the to-do pile. As he read through it, vaguely comprehending that it had something to do with the population of goblins, he found himself, rather quite quickly, having to resist the ever rising temptation to sign without finishing. Reluctant to show the goblin just how often he actually did sign without reading, Jareth fought back the urge with a scowl. That scowl suddenly turned into a grin, however, when he came across the word 'twelveteen'; Ravie, to Jareth's extreme relief, was now too focused on her work to notice one of his rare grins.

After finishing the chicken count document, Ravie gave it over to the Goblin King and reached for a fresh document. This paper, however, was so strange, so bizarre, and so pointless that Ravie could only stare at it in bewilderment. Then she began to wildly flip through the pages.

"What are you doing." Jareth asked as the wild page flipping caught his attention.

"Hardwood flooring?" Ravie muttered incredulously.

"What?"

"Hardwood flooring." Ravie said louder this time, looking at him with confusion, "It's a document on hardwood flooring, but we have no hardwood floors!"

"I'm certain we have some..." Jareth trailed off as he tried to come up with an example.

"Is there a room somewhere in the castle?" Ravie said, very close to laughter, "Because all goblin houses have either stone or dirt floors."

Jareth, who wasn't able to come up with anything, yanked the document from Ravie's hands and started to scan it.

"I don't think they even know what hardwood flooring is." He finally said, trying his hardest not to laugh while Ravie looked as if she were about to burst.

Jareth then muttered a spell under his breath and the document suddenly burst into flames, causing Ravie to jump about a foot into the air.

"You can do that?" She exclaimed.

"Light things on fire? Well of course."

"No, just light a document on fire!"

"Marcus will never know the difference."

"Don't bet on it."

"Well, it's not like it'll affect the whole kingdom." He said with a roll of his eyes.

Ravie couldn't respond because she was too busy laughing.

She was caught completely by surprise, then, when the Goblin King abruptly barked, "Get back to work."

Looking up at him with wide startled eye, Ravie was just as surprised as he was when she heard herself say, "Yes, because now we've just wasted eleventeen minutes."

This, to Ravie's delight, caused the Goblin King to burst out laughing.

"Why are you so keen on talking?" He asked as he tried to compose himself.

With a shrug, Ravie answered, "Because these documents are so boring! I need something to spice up this work time."

" I was under the impression that goblins cannot multitask."

After a little bit of thought, Ravie said slowly, "Well, I suppose that's true for most, but I have found that I can. After all, how else could I have gotten all my work done and bother Marcus at the same time?"

"I thought being a pest was just your personality."

"Ouch! That hurt!"

"Just go back to work." He commanded with a shake of his head and this time the little green-eyed goblin obliged.

As the working silence settled back in, Ravie was happy to find it much lighter and much easier to bare. While she enjoyed it, Jareth did not. He realized his mistake; He was doing it again. He was talking to her and she was getting far too comfortable around him. This couldn't happen. This shouldn't happen, but for some reason, Jareth couldn't really bring himself to care.