Desperate and little scared that Jareth may be following her, May climbed the ladder at an intense pace. By the time they had reached the top she realized that the king had stopped pursuing her for the time being. The exit of the ladder was through a large brownish vase. May swung one leg out and nearly fell to the ground. It had taken a while but the impact of falling down into the oubliette was catching up with her. Carefully she touched the ground and examined herself. From what she could make of it she had five bruises on her arms and one on her chest. Her nose had stopped bleeding though it was still sensitive, she most likely expected that she had cut her knee upon impact for there was a damp bloody patch on her jeans. She looked back over at the vase to see Hoggle emerging from it.
"Ain't you a vision of beauty." He scoffed.
"Yeah, yeah" May returned while batting her hand. They seemed to still be in the labyrinth, surrounded by a mixture of hedges and brick walls.
"May, This is where I leave you."
She turned around to see the dwarf looking down. "I'm a coward, and I can't help you anyways."
"Hoggle." Fear swept over the young woman. She had allowed Hoggle to befriend her, and now she was paying for it. The sound of clanging interrupted their farewell, an old man with a chicken(?) head hat walked passed them.
"My, my young lady how the labyrinth has treated you." The old man said with concern.
"Yeah, you look dreadful." Mocked the hat. May smiled kindly to the man and gave the evil eye to the bird.
"And who are you?" the old man asked.
"I am May, and this is my friend Hoggle." She placed her hand on the dwarf's shoulder. He looked up at May her words echoing in his mind.
"And what might May and Hoggle be looking for?"
"A route to the castle, at least…" May looked over at Hoggle then back at the old man, "I am."
"Sometimes, the only way forward is the way back." The old man said while walking towards a cement throne.
"The way back, huh.." Though her breath was wasted for the old man had fallen asleep.
"Please put your contribution in the little box." The bird explained while clinking the box against the side of the chair. May reached to her pocket and felt the outline of the golden ring, then changed her mind. She grabbed one of the three silver decorative chains that hanged from the side of her corset and yanked it off. Hoggle looked at her with confusion. She dropped the chain into the poultry's box.
"Whatcha do that for?" Hoggle asked as they started to walk away.
"I'll never get the blood out of this corset anyways." May pulled out the golden ring and smiled at it, then placed it back into her pocket.
"Did you mean it?" Hoggle mumbled under his breathe.
"Mean what?" She replied while moving the hair away from her eyes.
"About me being your friend?"
"You are. It's weird, and it's not really a normal friendship. But we are friends. Wouldn't you say so." That sweet voice that came and went had returned and it filled Hoggle with joy.
"Yeah, I guess we…" he was cut off by a devilish growl.
"You're on your own!" and with that the little coward disappeared through the hedge walls.
"Good luck, friend." May whispered as he ran away.
The castle was all a buzz, the children grew more and more goblin like with each passing minute. Jayden had dominated over a small group of weaker goblins and was playing "King". While Estella appealed to the understanding of the goblins. She liked being in the castle, it was like she could express herself better here then back home. But what was home? The more time the children played goblin, they had started to forget about their real lives. Jareth had returned to his castle, and Jayden had quickly changed his game of "King" to a game of "Prince". The Goblin King stood in front of his guard her redness still smeared across his lips.
"Your Majesty!" a clumsy stick-like goblin came shuffling over to Jareth's side.
"What?"
"Are you injured?" the goblin said being distracted by the red on the King's face.
"Of course not! You think the likes of her will get the best of me?!" The king said while grabbing the stick goblin's throat.
"No! no. You will most definitely conquer her…"the goblin was running out of air. Jareth let go as the second meaning of conquer ran through his mind.
"So what is this news, you oaf?!" The King mocked.
"The children are forgetting at a steady pace, the peaches you feed them before you left are taking affect."
"Good, carry on then." Jareth still not completely in the right mind walked out onto his balcony overlooking his mighty labyrinth. He had never known the existence of May before, she just happened to be there when he decided to take the baby's babes. She had no connection to those children, and yet she only ever referred to them as her own. The idea of a family without mutual blood was something the Goblin King could never fathom let alone understand. He looked into one of his crystals to take another glance at the mysterious woman. She stood before a great and mighty beast with several new fresh cuts on her already bruised skin. She placed her hand out to the suspended beast and slowly dropped him to the ground. The beast looked her over and mumbled out "friend."
How different she was from Sarah and yet so similar.