Sam wanted to ask questions but decided that it was best to ask questions later as he and the dwarf ran for their lives. Hoggle nearly tripped but Sam caught him just before he hit the ground and the two continued to run.

"Oh, the cleaners! The Bog of Stench, you sure got his attention!" Hoggle yelled and Sam nearly groaned. It was all good that he had managed to get the king's attention but it had been short lived and not the type of attention he craved. He wouldn't mind just being around Jareth for just a few more moments, staring into his eyes, maybe tasting those lips of his…

Sam snapped out of his thoughts as he saw a false wall and diverted his path to ram into it. Hoggle joined him in pushing the wall down as the cleaners kept closer to them. For a second, Sam was sure that the wall wasn't going to fall and that he and Hoggle would be the ones getting cleaned instead of the hallway but it fell away and a large smash and a dust cloud. Sam laid on the fallen wall for a few seconds, trying to accept that he and Hoggle were alive, and stared up at the swirling dust which danced through the small beam of light that came down from a small hole that lead up toward the surface. The bar of light was the spotlight which the dust danced through, glad to be free of its place on the wall.

"Oh, just what we need," Hoggle said as he stood up and dusted himself off. "A ladder!" Hoggle started to climb but realized that Sam was still on the floor. "Come on! Get up!" the dwarf ordered and the boy slowly sat up. "Good, good. Follow me!"

"How can I trust you?" Sam questioned, remembering the way that Hoggle had seemed so willing to sell him out and the fact that he apparently wasn't going to help him at all. "You said that you were going to take me back to the beginning." He understand the want to please the king but that wasn't enough to sell out a friend, was it? To go back on a deal?

"I wasn't. I was just telling him that to throw him off the scent." Sam's brow furrowed, doubts still running rampant in his mind,

"How can I believe anything you say?" Hoggle let out a frustrated huff,

"Let me put it this way: What choice do you have?" He had a point. Sam had to re-solve the labyrinth and find a way to defeat Jareth. And anyone who could pull off pants like that would be hard to beat. At anything,

"You're right." At the top of the ladder, Hoggle looked up at Sam and shook his head,

"You see. You've got to understand my position. I'm a coward," he gestured to the castle, "and Jareth scares me."

"What kind of position is that?" Hoggle turned and started walking, Sam at his heels,

"No position. That's my point." He started to slow his pace, "You wouldn't be so brave if you've ever smelt the bog of Eternal Stench. It- It's-" He shuddered and groaned.

"Is that all it does is smell?" Sam asked. That didn't seem too bad. I mean he had smelled some pretty disgusting rooms from some other teenage boys. There were some that smelled like something had died and had began to rot after rolling around in rotten eggs for a week.

"Believe me, that's enough. But the worst thing is, if you put a foot in the bog of stench, you'll smell bad for the rest of your life. It'll never wash off," Hoggle explained as he slowly climbed the ladder. Sam kept waiting a few rungs behind him since it took the dwarf much longer to climb due to his size. "Ahh! Here we are!" Hoggle said as he climbed through the hole of light and out into the open. Sam slowly followed and climbed over the side of a vase in a garden.

"Here we are, then. You're on your own from now on," Hoggle said, standing with his hands on his hips as he observed the garden.

Sam stared down at the dwarf in shock. That was it? "Wait a minute," Sam shouted as Hoggle began to waddle away. "Hoggle!"

"I said that I would take you as far as I could!" Hoggle replied.

Sam growled, feeling cheated. "You nasty little cheat!" Hoggle looked mildly offended,

"Now don't try and embarrass me, I've got no pride." Sam narrowed his eyes and almost smiled when he saw the mesh bag at Hoggle's hip. Making a split second decision he snatched the bag of glittering gems and jewelry while saying,

"Oh yeah?" The dwarf stood still as the gnarled tree he resembled before starting forward sputtering,

"But-but them's my jewels!" his surprise metamorphosed into anger and he barked, "You give them back! Give them back!" Hoggle was swinging his arms in punches that never reached Sam because the latter was keeping Hoggle at bay by pushing the dwarf's head so he didn't move, all the while Hoggle was shouting, "Give those back! Oh give those back to me!"

Sam nearly laughed at the dwarf's childish behavior as he pushed the struggling dwarf back so he fell down. With a smile, Sam turned around and looked for the castle. Spotting it in the distance, he nodded slowly. "Now. There's the castle," he mused aloud, staring at it, keeping the jewels above Hoggle's height so he couldn't grab them. "Which way should we try."

Hoggle stood, trembling with rage and an annoyed look on his wizened look. He marched toward Sam, staring at the jewels in the boy's hand. "Them's my rightful property!" He shook his small fists, "It's not fair!" Sam arched an eyebrow at the dwarf, after he was transported here due to use of the wrong magical phrase after a half-sister that had stolen what attention he had, plus giving him the closest thing to a migraine possible from her screams; then having the most alluring creature in all of existence distracting him from an almost heartless rescue made him answer,

"No, it isn't. But that's the way it is."

"Ohhhh..." A new voice drifted into audibility from behind, making both of them spin around. An old man hobbled toward them with a… decapitated ostrich on his head? Sam frowned, staring at the hat and wondering just what had impelled the man to do such a thing.

"Um… Excuse me," Sam said unsurely, "please. Can you help me?" The old man sat down in chair and looked up at the two figures that stood in front of him.
"Oh! A young boy!" he said in surprise. Sam nodded, partly wondering why that was a such a surprise. The hat cooed and Sam jumped. Had that hat just talked? But it was just a hat and it was a bird at that. That shouldn't be possible but a lot of this shouldn't be possible. For example, such an exquisite creature as Jareth shouldn't be able to single, not that Sam was complaining.

"And who is this?" the wiseman asked, gesturing to Hoggle.

"My friend," Sam replied, glancing down at the smaller man. Hoggle stared up at him, confused as Sam looked back at the strange man.

"Oh. What can I do for you?" the man asked, leaning back in his chair.

"I must find a way to defeat your king in order to get my younger sister back and find a way back to the castle at the center of the labyrinth. Do you know how?" Sam asked. Hoggle made a weird sound as Sam finished his question and it was then that he realized that this was a really dangerous question to be asking, especially when Sam didn't know just how loyal the citizens of this maze were to their king. The man didn't seem to register that, he responded,

"Ah" a noise which his bird head mimicked in a higher, scratchier tone, "oh, so you want to get to the castle." Sam opened his mouth to include the "defeat Jareth" part, but the ostrich head interrupted,

"How's that for brainpower, huh?" The man glared up through his generous white eyebrows that fell over the sides of his face,

"Be quiet!" The bird hat, for its part, didn't look the least bit ashamed of his interjection, only rather disappointed,

"Aw, nuts!" the weathered old man turned his brown eyes back to Sam and looked down his prominent nose,

"So, young man, the way forward is sometimes the way back." The bird snorted, voicing Sam's initial thoughts,

"Aye! Will you listen to this crap?"

"Will you please be quiet!" the man's voice wasn't really equipped to shout admonishments to a hat, but the wheezing sternness got his point across, the ostrich looked down,

"All right." The hat looked slightly hurt at the man's rush to quiet the hat but also annoyed.

"Ok?" the man asked, looking upward as if trying to see his hat.

"Ok," the hat replied, still looking slightly hurt and refusing to try to even look at its owner. Sam tried to hid a grin as he imagined the two as two small children.
"All right," the man said, looking satisfied at the thought that he wouldn't be interrupted again.

"All right, sorry," the hat replied, an indignant look still on its face. The man looked slightly annoyed for a moment again.

"Done?" the man asked.

"Yes," the hat said but Sam had a feeling that it wasn't. It would likely only be quiet for a few seconds and then it would be trying to give advice again.

"Quite often, young man, it seems that we're not getting anywhere when in fact…" the man began again and then paused, trying to find a good way to finish his advice. The hat sighed and piped up again.

"We are," it finished.

"We are," the wise man replied, nodding his head.

"Well, I'm not really getting anyway at the moment," Sam replied, gesturing around him. He hadn't really gotten any advice and he wasting time. He didn't know much time he had left but he knew it probably wasn't enough, especially if everyone was going to be as helpful as this man.

"Ha!" the hat snort. "Join the club." It glanced down to see how the old man would react but was greeted by a snore. Sam stared at the man who had fallen asleep in a matter of two seconds.

The hat sighed and shook its head. "I, uh, I think that's your lot. Please leave a contribution in the little box," it said as a shaking hand held out a small, wooden box with a slit in the top.

Sam looked down at the box, trying to think about what he could give to the hat. He looked down at the bag at he had attached to his waist while the hat and wise man were fighting. He stared at it unsurely as he grabbed it. Hoggle noticed his actions and the dwarf's eyes widened.

"Don't you dare. Them's mine!" Hoggle said, pointing a finger at Sam. Sam nodded and dropped the bag and examined his hands for something else to give.
His eyes landed on a simple circlet of copper on his middle finger, he shrugged and pulled it off,

"I guess I can spare this." And he dropped it into the box where it landed with a thud.

"Gracias, señor." Hoggle still looked sullen and he grumbled at Sam,

"You didn't have to give him that, he didn't tell you nothing." Sam was already walking away, and Hoggle continued his muted tirade. Sam could just hear the Hat say,

"Well well, then. There go a couple of suckers." That was greeted by another snore, "Ah! It's so stimulating being your hat." Sam chose to ignore this, rather than be offended by the missing appendage of a decapitated ostrich. Hoggle broke the brief silence that had settled over them after the exchange with the hat,

"Why did you tell him I was your friend?" Sam looked down at him,

"Because you are, not much of one, but you're the only friend I've got." Though he wouldn't mind 'making friends' with Jareth. "No stop that!" he hissed at himself, Hoggle didn't notice,

"Cor! Huh." Sam looked up, a sound wafting into his perception,

"Did you hear something?" Hoggle shook his head, "No, that's all right." But Sam kept looking around,

"Friend, Huh! I like that. I ain't never been someone's friend before." That's when a scream ripped the air making them both jump.

"Oh! Goodbye!" Hoggle said, trying and running away from the direction that the scream had come from.

"Wait a minute! Are you my friend or not?" Sam shouted, suddenly scared of being alone. Was someone being hurt? Or was it some kind of battle cry? Did the goblins have battle cries? What would happen if the goblins caught him? It didn't seem likely that such a thing would happen considering that they didn't seem very capable of much from what Sam had seen in the throne room but surely they could fight, right? Would they take him prisoner? And what would they do with him if they did; take him back to the castle?

Sam found the idea doubtful but he was slightly curious now. Did the goblins ever have to take prisoners and what were the punishments? Was Jareth that one that usually did the punishing? That couldn't be too bad, right?

"What is wrong with you?" Sam whispered to himself, trying to get rid of the thoughts that suddenly attacked his brain about ways the king could punish people.
Hoggle had waddled quite a distance away and finally replied to Sam's question. "No! Hoggle ain't no one's friend. He looks after himself, like everyone else. Hoggle is Hoggle's friend!"

Sam blinked, shocked. Hadn't the dwarf just been saying how nice is was to be called someone's friend. He honestly had no loyalty and he was just as much of a coward as he had said. "Hoggle! You coward!" Sam called after the retreating form. Honestly, why did he fear Jareth so? The only thing to fear about him was those alluring eyes of his and god, those pants.

"That's it, I need a timeout," Sam muttered as he turned back to the path in front of him. "Later, however," he added as another roar practically shook the ground with its intensity. He was pretty sure that no goblin could make that noise, war cry or not.

"Well, I'm not afraid," Sam decided. "After all, everything isn't what is seemed around here. Maybe the thing making so much noise is nice?"

Sam crept further into the hedge maze that he and Hoggle had just entered and around a corner. There was a more open area here and he stumbled backwards when he realized that there were four goblins surrounding something that was hanging a trap that was attached to a tree. Sam frowned and the creature roared and tried to swat the goblins that were surrounding. However it kept missing and the goblins just laughed at its attempts. They really were such horrible creatures, they didn't deserve such a fantastic looking king.

"Try this for size, Yeti!" one of the goblins shrieked as it suddenly swung forward a stick that had an odd creature on top of it. It had human looking skin but it had a strange head. The head was much larger than its skeletal thin body. It had three fingers and backwards looking feet with talons which helped it cling to the stick. It reminded Sam of the head of a T-Rex with squinty, purple eyes or some other dinosaur and he saw that it had sharp teeth that were used to bite the fuzzy creature that was apparently a yeti?

"We got you now, fuzzball!" another goblin agreed as they cackled. The monster yowled in pain as it was attacked again. Sam looked around the thick green hedge that blocked his view. The "Yeti" was a massive creature with thick brown fur and large, floppy ears. The goblins cackled as they continued to attack the screaming creature. Despite its odd appearance, Sam hated to see what was happening at the hands of the very undeserving goblins,

"If only I had something to throw!"

"Bite him on the teriyaki!"

"Saki to him! Saki to him!" they continued to cackle as the monster screamed again. Sam looked down as something nudged his foot. A smooth, rock, the size of his fist. He snatched it up and let it fly. It hit one of the goblins squarely on the helmet with a clank. The creature's helmet spun around on its head,

"Oh! What happened? Who turned out the lights?" He started swinging the pole with the tiny biting creature around wildly, "I can't see!" In his own confusion, the goblin bit one of its fellows,

"AH! Why'd you bite me?!" another goblin chimed in,

"Who bite who?"

"I can't see! I can't see!" Another rock nudged Sam's foot, he almost smiled as he threw it. Another goblin's helmet spun on its head,

"We're under attack!" The goblin that yelled started running in blind, hysterical circles. Another yelled,

"Retreat!" All four started running away from the clearing, leaving the beast they had caught in their trap.

As they ran, Sam had some last trailing comments that were slightly confusing. One asked who had bit him, as it he was actually expecting someone to admit that they had done so. But it was the last one's comment that confused him so much.

"Oh, my aching sushi!" one called as they others shrieked and forced their mounts to hurry away. Sam stared after them, confused about what the goblins thought sushi was and also wondering just what the mounts were. He hadn't gotten a very good look at them but he had more important things to be concerned with than the goblins. The yeti was flailing around, trying to free itself and was growling.

"YARRGH!" it said as Sam slowly walked toward it. "YARRGH! YARRGH!" it whined as Sam reached him and examined the creature in front of him.

"Hey, stop that," Sam said softly.

"YARRGH!" it growled again, swiping the air but it seemed to pause and think about Sam's words. "Hmm?"

"I'm just here to help you and that's no way to treat your rescuer," Sam said in the same soft voice. It seemed to be soothing the yeti just as Sam had hoped and it no longer seemed quite as concerned about freeing itself. "Don't you want me to help you down?" Sam asked.

"Ludo," the creature said in a deep, rumbly voice that made Sam think of small, falling rocks for some reason, "down."

"Ludo?" Sam repeated, tilting his head so he was staring into the creature's brown eyes. He smiled softly, "Is that your name?"

"Ludo," the creature repeated. Sam nodded.

"That's a nice name," he said as he backed away to get a better look at the situation. "You seem like a kind creature. I just hope you are what you seem to be," he said as he thought he found a way to disable the trap. The rope wound over a branch but was attached to one of the roots of the tree that poked out of the ground.

As Sam moved to untie the rope, Ludo began to growl away.

"Hang on a second," he called as he bent down. "I'll get you down." His hands fumbled around for a moment, trying to loosen the knot enough so he could untie it. It took a moment but once the knot was loosen, it just unraveled, surprising the boy so he didn't grab it like he was planning to.

Ludo tumbled to the ground onto his back, the rope falling down with him. Sam scrambled to his feet, regret filling his body.

"Ludo, are you alright? I'm sorry!" Sam said as he crouched down beside the yeti who was slowly sitting up.

Ludo groaned, "Oh. Ah. Huh," he said, staring at Sam. "Oh. Friend?"

Sam smiled. "That's right, I'm Sam."

"Hrrh, Sam," Ludo said. He drew the name out slightly but it made Sam smile. The creature reminded him of a small child, older than Tabatha but not quite in school yet.

"Sam, friend. Yeah." Ludo nodded his large head slowly, letting the words rumble out in a leisurely cadence. The slight smile that had been playing at the corners of Sam's lips widened, even though he needed to focus, he put his hand on Ludo's massive shoulder and said,

"Now, just wait a second. I want to ask you something, Ludo." The beast turned his head to face him,

"Huh? What?"

"Do you know a way to find a way to the center of the labyrinth?" Sam briefly wondered if it was too much to ask, but he decided to try, "or how to defeat the king?" Ludo mulled this over, allowing indecisive noises to resonate into the world until,

"No..."

"You don't know either? I wonder if anyone knows..." he trailed off. Jareth probably did, though the likelihood of that playful predator would end the game so soon was near nonexistent. Although, there were other games to play... "Stop it!" he hissed at himself.

"Well Ludo, would you mind helping me find someone that can help me get through this labyrinth?" he asked. The friendly, brown creature nodded, giving Sam a smile and the two set off, following the stone path that the goblins had taken as they had fled.

The two walked for a while until they reached a wall in which two wooden doors stood. Both had decorated knockers with two brass faces. One had the round handle in its large, pointed ears, mean eyes, and a small nose. The second one had a jutting mouth from the handle in it, droopy eyes that looked a little stern and a large nose.

Sam regarded both doors, thinking that it was strange to have them here but at the same it time it made some sense; well just as must sense as the rest of this place. Although where the doors led was a true mystery but Sam could only hope that they didn't lead back to the beginning.

"I wonder where these doors came from," Sam mused. Maybe Jareth had just added them in for no reason at all? Well Ludo, which door should we choose?" Sam asked.

Before Ludo could reply, another voice cut them off. "It's very rude to stare!" a loud voice said. It was apparently the knocker with the handle in its ears. It regarded the two with a glare.

"Oh! I was just wondering which door to choose, I'm sorry if I appeared rude," Sam replied quickly, flashing the door his best smile.

Mumbled grunts suddenly came from his right as Sam turned to see the mouth of the second knocker moving but its speech was garbled by the metal ring. Sam stared at it, trying to make sense of the sound he had heard. Hs df asa pft? Or was it mh dh hsa pft?

"Don't talk with your mouth full!" the first knocker admonished.

"I'm nt tlking wth my mth fl," the second knocker said, letting out an annoyed puff. Sam understood that sentence and quickly stepped forward.

"Here, let me," he said as he grabbed the knocker and pulled it out of his mouth. He passed the metal ring over to Ludo as he stepped back once again.

"What did you say?" the first knocker asked as the second pursed its lips and wiggled its jaw.

"Oh, it's so good to get that thing out!" the knocker with the large nose said.

"Now, what were you saying?" Sam asked, remembering how he hadn't been able to understand the first sentence the knocker had said.

"It's no good talking to him," the knocker said, shifting its gaze to its companion door who was staring off in the distance, apparently not paying attention. "He's deaf as a post."

"Mumble, mumble, mumble. You're a wonderful conversation companion," the first knocker said, rolling its eyes. It had been paying attention but just didn't understand what was being said. The poor knockers probably hadn't had a decent conversation in years considering one couldn't speak very well and one couldn't hear.

"Well all you do is moan!" the second knocker said.

"No good," the first knocker sniffed. "Can't hear you." Sam smiled, enjoying the two knockers talk. They were honestly quite funny.

"Where do these doors lead?" Sam asked, remembering his first thoughts from seeing the two doors.

"What?" the first knocker yelled, still unable to hear. Sam wondered if there was a way to remove the ring that in both of its ears but it didn't look like it would just pop out as the other one had done, he looked at Sam and replied,

"Search me, we're just knockers." Sam sighed,

"How do I get through?" Ludo growled his assent as the first knocker said,

"Huh?"

"Knock and the door will open." Sam looked between the two doors with their queer knockers, trying to decide which one to go through. Ludo was following the motions of Sam's head, making deep throated rumbles of indecisiveness. Sam's hand hand hovered briefly over the knocker protruding from the first knocker's batlike ears, but changed his mind.

"Ah!" Sam took the ring from Ludo-which he had put in his massive mouth- and hung it over the second Knocker's head.

"Figured you didn't want this back in your mouth, considering."

"Ah, well, Thank you!"

"What?" Sam swung the ring and a knock resounded across the old wooden door,

"Come on, Ludo." The beast grumbled and shook his shaggy head as he followed Sam into the thick, dark foliage that lay behind the door.