Chapter 7

When Sarah turned around Jareth was no longer there. She didn't understand why her heart sunk a little in her chest when he wasn't there, but she ignored the feeling.
Avoiding to think about how he had nearly kissed her, Sarah ran down the staircase to the bottom. She stepped right out to what was supposed to be the throne room.
Jareth was sloppily sitting in the throne, one leg over the armchair. Around him was a chaos of goblins running everywhere with small weapons and all talking loudly at the same time.
Many of them fell over when the castle shook. Jareth absentmindedly thumped a riding whip on his boot, completely ignoring the chaos around him.

Sarah hadn't moved when the two doors across the room from Jareth flew open. Hoggle, Ludo and sir Didymus on his dog horse bursed in.
"Ah. Hoghead." Jareth said, unsurprised.
"Hoggle!!"

Sarah didn't care about all the goblins that fell when she ran across the room to her friends.

"Sarah! No, wait! Oh, stop that." Hoggle complained when Sarah threw her arms around him in a tight hug after getting down on her knees. He was smaller than she remembered.

"Hoggle…" she said again, tears in her eyes.
"Yes, yes. I'm same ol' Hoggle. Will you stop that now?" he said bothered, but she could still hear the happiness in his voice, though he tried his best to hide it.
She let go after a while.

"I've missed you so much." she said and got to her feat. Hoggle smiled at her.
"Ludo." Sarah hugged her big fluffy friend and buried her face in his fur.
"Sawah friend." Ludo said happily.
"Sir Didymus!"

Didymus bowed to her, which was just as well. He still smelled from the Bog of eternal Stench. She didn't really want to hug that smell.

"What are you all doing here?" she asked smiling.
"Well, saving you of course!" he said and moved out of the way from the doors and waved to her. "Come on!"
"Sarah," Jareth stood up from his throne and started to walk over to them, which caused Hoggle, Ludo and sir Didymus to back nervously.
Sarah looked at him, unfrightened, but then she remembered the event in the tower and lowered her eyes.
"I'm willing to make an agreement similar to our old one," he said, slightly amused. "If you manage to find your way through my labyrinth again, you may go home."

Sarah blinked a little surprised.

"Really?" she asked, but then looked suspiciously at him. "What's the catch?"

Jareth smirked coldly.

"If you don't make it, Sarah," he walked around her, but stopped when he was next to her and leaned in to her ear. "You have to stay in the underground. Forever."

Sarah felt her stomach turn, but kept a straight face.

"All right. Fine. I've managed to go through it once, I could do it again." Sarah said coldly.

Jareth walked away from her and sat down on the throne in the same position as before.

"Don't take my labyrinth too lightly, dear Sarah," he said, as if he was hiding something. "A lot has changed during these seven years. You won't find it quite as easy as before."

Without saying anything, Sarah turned her back to Jareth and began to walk.

"Oh, and Sarah."

She turned her head to him again.

"I won't make this easy for you. And as before, you have thirteen hours."

Feeling even more nervous, Sarah continued to walk again, followed by her friends.

"Are you all right, Sarah?" Hoggle asked as soon as they were out of the Goblin City.

"Yes, I'm fine. How about you? Are you hurt?" she asked and gave them a worried look.

"Fear not my lady! Every cut and bruise from battle makes only stronger and braver warriors to protect maidens such as thee!" said Didymus lightheartedly.

Sarah smiled a little and walked with Hoggle as they took a right into the labyrinth.

"Hoggle," Sarah said in a low voice.
"Hm? What is it Sarah?" Hoggle asked, looking up at her.
"Why haven't you come when I called?" she asked unhappily, looking down on the ground.
"Oh, how we tried, my lady," Sir Didymus said sincerely. "But it was a battle I'm afraid we could never win."

Sarah looked at them a little shocked.

"What? You couldn't come?" Sarah asked.
"Mirror bad." Ludo said complainingly.

Hoggle walked with his eyes fixed on the ground and with a grumpy expression.

"Hoggle, tell me what happened!"

Hoggle snorted.

"It's just as they say. We couldn't go through your mirror. We could hear and see you… But you neither saw nor heard any of us." he said with a tone that matched his grumpy expression.

"But how did you know I was here?" she asked surprised.
"We saw Jareth when he was in your home through your mirror," Hoggle explained, but then he looked guilty. "I'm sorry we couldn't come sooner…"

Realizing how much they must have hurried to save her, Sarah smiled thankfully.

"Thank you Hoggle. And don't worry about not being able to come. It's not your fault." she said and smiled to him.
Hoggle sighed and smiled back a little.

"At least you're back now." he said, but then his smile disappeared.
"What's the matter, Hoggle?"
"I'm helping you to go home again." he muttered.

Knowing Hoggle, her probably wanted her to stay in the underground.
Sarah smiled a little, but said nothing. She wouldn't be able to make him feel any better.

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Okeee~
I promise that I will hurry to upload a new chapter since this was… kinda boring.
I promise it will get better! ^^