Chapter 8

The labyrinth was much darker than she remembered. They walked nonstop all day and long into the night talking about old times and what everyone's been doing these past seven years.
They met no obstacles on the way except for small pixies when they were walking through a swamp after six hours of walk.

They hadn't seen the pixies at first until Ludo accidentally stepped on one of them. In result they were chased by dozens of small, light green, angry pixies with blue eyes that tried to bite them with small, extremely sharp teeth.
They were all in pretty bad shape when they finally got out of the swamp, leaving the pixies behind.
Sarah got bitten in the hand, Ludo was pretty much bitten everywhere.

"Pixie bad. Pixie no friend!" he complained sadly.

Sir Didymus's noble steed Ambrosius had sprinted away as soon as he smelled danger, so sir Didymus were just in bad shape because of hurt pride for missing 'a most challenging battle of evil versus good'. Hoggle had bite marks too, only that he was too proud proud to admit that they hurt. But he wasn't too proud to mutter when he thought that no one heard.

"Stupid swamp pixies… Just wait til' I come back with my fairy spray…"

Other than that, they weren't attacked by anything.
Sarah thought that to be very odd.

Didn't Jareth say that it couldn't be so easy this time? That the labyrinth would be more dangerous? I don't understand…

Now they had four more hours to go.
They came to a forest looking place where they took a rest.

"Did he really mean what he said before?" Sarah suddenly asked.
"Who?" Hoggle asked, not understanding.
"Jareth! About the labyrinth. That it's more dangerous than before?"
"Oh," Hoggle said as he leaned his back to a tree. "Yes, it is."
"But why? Wasn't it dangerous enough when I was here?" she asked, feeling the anger coming crawling.
"I guess it wasn't. When you defeated Jareth all those years ago, he decided that the labyrinth wasn't good enough. That it was too easy. So now it's filled with more magic. Darker magic and more dangerous creatures."
"The better the battle!" Didymus happily called out. Ambrosius cried a little next to him and hid his face under his paws.

Ludo was already sleeping. Sarah was leaning on his comfortable fluffy arm to keep warm.

"I think it's been pretty quiet except for those swamp pixies earlier." Sarah said and rubbed her no swollen left hand with the bite mark by the thumb.
"Yes, fortunately for us." Hoggle said. "But it's during the night you should be most carefull."

Sarah nodded while she yawned. She hadn't got nearly enough sleep for almost two days and was beginning to feel the result of it.

"Do you think we'll make it? Out of the labyrinth I mean." Sarah asked tiredly.
"Yes, if we keep our luck. I'm sure we'll make it." he said grumpily, but still managed to smile a little to her. "You should sleep, Sarah."
"No, I'm fine." Sarah said, trying to hide the tiredness in her voice.
"It's okay. I'll keep watch. If anything happens I'll wake you up." he said.
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Now go to sleep!" Hoggle said impatiently. He still felt uncomfortable whenever he made her happy.

Sarah smiled a little and shut her eyes as she leaned her head on Ludo's arm.

"Thank you, Hoggle." she mumbled before she fell asleep.

It was still dark when Sarah opened her eyes again.
She was cold and her head hurt as well as her neck because she was now leaning against the hard bark of a tree.

What happened to Ludo's soft and warm fur?

"Hoggle, how long have I been sleeping?" she asked as she tiredly sat up.
She got no answer.

"Hoggle?"

Still no answer.
She felt cold down her spine as she looked around to see that she was alone.
Quickly she got to her feet.

"Hoggle?! Ludo?! Sir Didymus?!" she called into the dark, silent forest.
No answer. No sign of life what so ever. Not even wind in the trees.

Suddenly a loud crack sounded in the darkness behind her.
She spun around, but saw nothing.

"L-Ludo?"

Another crack. This time from the side. Closer.

"Sarah!! RUN!!"

Sarah's heart stopped when she heard Hoggle's voice call from deep inside the darkness.

"Hoggle!!" she yelled back, terrified.
"RUN!" he yelled again, even further away.
"Hoggle, where are you?! Ludo?!?! Sir Didymus!??! "

Instead of getting an answer, she began to hear the sound of something running. Like paws. Big paws, quickly running around her in the darkness where she couldn't see.
Sarah froze from fright. Only Ludo's feet could sound that heavy, and he certainly wasn't that fast. And he didn't walk on four legs.

Suddenly everything got quiet. There was no sound again, except for Sarah's own nervous breathing and racing heartbeat.

"H-Hoggle…?" she whispered toward the trees.

There was nothing at first. But as Sarah's eyes got more accustomed to the intense darkness, she thought she saw something moving. Up and down, as if it was breathing.

That's when it jumped out.
Sarah screamed as the big wolf- looking creature landed a few feet away from her.
Its body was covered with short, dark grey fur. Its back was sharply curved, all the links of its spine sticking out from under its skin.
Its face was like a dogs whose nose had been grotesquely pushed into its face, its eyes a bright yellow.
The paws was not of a dogs. It was big monkey feet with long, sharp black claws. The long tail and its thin long legs made it look out of proportion. Its thinness made its ribs stand out disgustingly much. Its big ears sat on the sides of its head, pointing up in a sharp edge like devil ears.

Sarah was paralyzed. Completely unable to move or make a sound.
Terrified she looked at the big creature that looked back at her.

Come on Sarah! Move!

They just stood there, looking at each other when the creature suddenly drew back its upper lip, revealing rows of sharp, discolored teeth.
It growled at her before it let out a loud, spine freezing roar that put Sarah in control of her body again.
Without wasting one more second, Sarah began to run through the forest, the creature following quickly behind. She could her its heavy paws hit the earthy ground and its razzling breath coming closer.
when she looked back her whole body went cold from fear. There were two following her now! The new one was smaller and thinner than the first.

She ran so fast and so long that her legs and lungs began to hurt, but she ignored the pain, fearing for her life.
Suddenly she got out of the forest and was now running with high stone walls om both her sides. She panicked. She had nowhere to turn! It just continued straight ahead as far as she could see.
She wouldn't be able to shake them off… It was over…

Toby…

Sarah kept pushing herself to run. The pain in her legs and lungs got worse for every step she took and caused her eyes to flicker.
The creatures kept coming closer. Sarah could almost feel their breaths on her neck.
She had felt it coming, yet she could do nothing about it. Her legs gave up.
She fell down on the hard stone ground, gasping for air. Every breath hurt her lungs.
Exhausted she turned around to see the creatures stand above her.
Sarah's sight was now so bad that she could only see their bright yellow eyes, shining in the darkness.
Giving up, she closed her eyes, face to the ground and waited…

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Thanks for all the comments you've been giving me!! I'm really happy that you like it.
Chapter 9 coming soon. =D