Bright sunlight streamed down, warming her face. Sarah opened her eyes and blinked. A beautiful orange and magenta tinted sky was above her, a few whips of cloud drifting lazily across it. She wasn't sure if it was sunrise or sunset. The girl sat up slowly, cautiously checking her person for any damage she might have sustained. Nothing spurted blood or had fallen off. It might have sounded a bit ridiculous to check for those sorts of things, but then again, people didn't travel to different dimensions that often. Unless they were Sarah, who seemed to own the franchise.
Sarah pulled herself to her feet and looked around. She was in what looked like an overgrown garden. Untrimmed hedges towered above her, peppered with exotic looking blossoms. The garden beds were filled with a mixture of flowers and weeds, tangled so thoroughly that it was impossible to tell which were supposed to be there. A dry fountain stood in the middle. It was shaped like a woman, but with a serpent's tail instead of the legs, and scaly, dragon-like wings outstretched over her.
Maybe it's a mermaid, she thought, cocking her head slightly, An evil mermaid. An evil, flesh-eating anaconda mermaid. Lovely. Sure hope we don't run into one of those.
Speaking of "we"…
Sarah turned, looking all around the garden. There seemed to be no one around. To her left, a bush rustled.
"Leija?" She called out, walking towards it, "Turnok? Is that you?"
The hedge rustled again, its leaves noticeably shaking.
"Jareth?" She asked, her voice a bit quieter.
The bush-or whatever was in the bush- replied by more shaking. Sarah moved closer, step by step. Was it another strange creature that called the Labyrinth its home? Or was it a troll? She didn't know what trolls looked like. Trolls could look exactly like the shrub she was approaching for all she knew.
Sarah swallowed, and tried her best to sound intimidating.
"Whoever you are, if you jump out and scare me, I'm telling you right now, you're going to end up with a nasty black eye."
The bush stopped shaking. Suddenly, a head popped out. A dog's head, to be precise.
"Ambrosious!" Sarah cried out in relief, crouching down beside him. "I thought you were a troll! What are you doing here? Where's Sir Didymus?"
Ambrosious gave a small, sheepish wag and tilted his head.
"You ran away, didn't you?" She sighed, petting his head, "As brave as ever, I see. But I guess you're the reason Sir Didymus has survived this long. Do you know where he is?"
He whined, and gave another halfhearted wag.
"No, huh? Oh well. I guess I was stupid to think things would be that easy."
She stood up and started walking towards the only obvious exit, glancing back at the cowardly dog-steed.
"C'mon, let's go. Jareth and I came out together, so he couldn't have gotten that far."
As it happened, she was right. The Goblin King had only exited a little way from where she had, a few walls away. Her voice was carrying on the wind. Jareth lounged on a nearby boulder to wait. Since she was so close, it didn't make any sense for him to try to find her. Better to wait here, for her to come to him. Besides, he needed some time to sort himself out.
The trolls were marching on his kingdom, and Edorin was already there. Judging by the barrier spell, he was already in the castle. Jareth clenched his teeth. The Troll Lord, in his castle. How could he have let this happen? It was all her fault. Yes. This whole mess was her fault. Hers. That stupid, beautiful girl. Sarah had wandered carelessly into his world, and turned the whole thing on its head. She wasn't supposed to be so smart. She wasn't supposed to be so pretty. He had counted on her to be a selfish, sniveling little wretch like the rest of them, to cower properly in his presence. But she had been different. She had changed. In a few hours, she had stopped sniveling, stopped cowering, and become selfless and brave. And he had fallen in love.
Then the damn girl had gone and ruined everything. He had been reduced to an animal; starving, bedraggled, helpless. Jareth had wanted to die when she saw him like that. Worse still, she had saved him. Why couldn't she have been kind, and crushed his head with her dainty little foot instead of humiliating him so? On a brighter, but not unrelated, note, surviving meant that he had a chance to wring the life out of Turnok's bony neck for asking for Sarah's help in the first place. Although, if he hadn't asked for her help, Jareth would never have gotten the chance to actually hold her.
Even now, his face was still hot and flushed from the experience. Which was the other reason he had chosen to wait for Sarah to find him, instead of risking her noticing his red countenance.
Unexpectedly, Jareth saw something green flash out of the corner of his eye. Immediately, he was on his feet.
Not twenty feet from where he stood, a black wolf had formed out of thin air. It stared him down, as if evaluating prey. Then, it was abruptly engulfed in green sparks. When the magic had finished, Jareth found himself facing the Troll Lord. He was tall and lean, the same build as the Goblin King. But his hair was jet black and hung over half of his face, and reached the middle of his spine. His eyes were a piercing shade of blue, and rivaled the icy depths of any glacier. His face was angled sharply, his cheek bones protruding from his pale skin. Most found him unnaturally handsome, although Jareth would gladly slit his throat before agreeing with this sentiment. The Troll Lord didn't share the Goblin King's extravagant taste in clothes. He wore a long, green robe with gold trim, a single ruby pendant, and that was all.
They faced each other; Jareth, with face contorted in anger and fists clenched, the newcomer seemingly indifferent, with a posture that clearly stated he was not expecting much of a fight.
"Edorin," Jareth hissed.
The raven-haired Fae regarded him coldly.
"I see that your temper has not improved."
"Oh, I'm being polite right now," He replied, grinding his heel into the dirt, "Stand there much longer, and you'll see how appalling my temper can get."
"Is that so?" The Troll Lord said, "How amusing. I must admit I did not expect to see you here. The Goblin King was rumored to have vanished."
"You know what they say about rumors," Jareth retorted. He abandoned his defensive stance in favor of his normal posture, and attempted to keep his voice slow and even. "So tell me, Edorin, by what authority are you here? Or have the trolls finally given up their rules, and started invading whatever kingdom they fancy?"
Edorin's face remained emotionless.
"By the authority of my morals."
Jareth gave a bitter laugh.
"Morals?! That would be a lot more convincing if you had any."
"Do not assume that I do not have principles, just because I do not choose to express them as colorfully as you do," He replied coldly, "And they demanded that I intervene."
"How thoughtful of you," Jareth said sarcastically, "Remind me to send you a fruit basket. Now, please get the hell out of my kingdom, if you'd be so kind."
Edorin ignored him, choosing instead to gaze around the small alley in which they were standing.
"How tragic, that you have allowed the Labyrinth to fall into such disrepair. And not just the Labyrinth. The entire Western Realm is on the brink of pandemonium. It's disgraceful."
Jareth felt the hair on the back of his neck prick. The urge to attack was so overwhelming that he had to dig his nails into his own flesh just to contain it. Edorin picked a dry leaf from a sprig of dead ivy on the wall, considered it, and let it float off his palm on the breeze. The raven-haired Fae once again met the Goblin King's seething glare with his icy stare.
"You have always been an atrocious ruler, Jareth. Your selfishness, your vanity. But even I did not fathom that you would fall so low."
Jareth's eyes narrowed.
"What are you talking about?"
"Your infatuation with a human girl," Edorin said icily, disgust filling his voice, "Don't think I don't know. I saw it for myself. To have offered yourself to a mortal…it is nothing short of unspeakable."
"That's none of your concern!" The blond-haired Fae shouted, reeling. The reminder of her refusal was like salt water on a fresh wound.
"Oh, how very wrong you are," The Troll Lord said, his abnormally blue eyes flickering dangerously, "I have turned a blind eye to the irresponsibility of the goblins for far too long. But no more. I will purge this realm of the chaos you have caused, even if I must cut down every last goblin to do so."
"Over my dead body, you self-righteous bastard!" Jareth cried indignantly, thrusting his right hand skyward. Spires of crystal split the ground open, seeking to impale their summoner's foe on their tips. But he was no longer there.
"I prefer it that way," a cold voice answered in his ear, "In fact, my conscience demands nothing less. By the way…aren't you left handed?"
Before Jareth could turn all the way around, Edorin had seized his left arm, wrenched it up, and squeezed. The already-fractured bone snapped in two with a nauseating crunch. Jareth screamed.
The corners of his lips twitched upward.
"I thought so."
Edorin released his arm and watched with sadistic enjoyment as the Goblin King fell to his knees in agony. He stared down at the fallen Fae, his cruel blue eyes boring into him.
"How disappointing," He murmured.
"Jareth!"
Both looked towards where the voice had come from. Sarah was sprinting down the alleyway, a white dog at her heels. She had just rounded the corner when she had heard his cry.
"So that is the human girl who has been a thorn in your side," Edorin said, conjuring a ball of green electricity in his hand, "Allow me to remove her for you."
Seeing him face her, wielding the magic orb, Sarah screeched to a halt. Her eyes were filled with fear. The Troll Lord raised it above his head, preparing to cast his spell. But before he could, another crystal shot out of the ground. Edorin saw it at the last moment and turned, so instead of piercing his chest like intended, it instead stabbed his shoulder. The Troll Lord hissed in pain, jerking himself from the glittering spear, and putting a hand to the bleeding gash. In seconds, he had transformed back into a black wolf, and then disappeared in a shower of sparks.
"It seems you are not as weak as I thought," Edorin's disembodied voice echoed in the alley, "Let's see how well you fare against your own Labyrinth when you aren't the one controlling it…"
DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUN! Sorry to end this chapter so suddenly, but it's getting late, and I need my beauty sleep. Bah, who am I kidding?! I'm going to go watch Saiyuki episodes on Netflix…I'm such a hopeless anime addict…T_T
I decided to make Jareth left-handed since, in real life, David Bowie is left-handed. Plus, being left-handed is cool…(I'm just a run-of-the mill right-hander). Anyhoozle, you can expect the next chapter to be out within a few days because I have my lovely little outline! *fanfare sounds* A special thanks to everyone who has reviewed my humble little fanfic so far. Your reviews are what motivates me to keep writing! I guarantee the more reviews I get, the faster I'll crank out the next chapter, because I'm so concerned about upsetting people (sad, but true). And remember, REVIEWS ARE WHAT KEEPS JARETH FROM TOSSING ME INTO THE BOG OF ETERNAL STENCH! He's already ticked off about me breaking his arm… _ save me!