Chapter 8
You Remind Me Of The Babe
Hoggle and Ludo had decided to rest before continuing their journey, and despite Jareth's insisting they wouldn't back down from it. Hoggle and Ludo were sound asleep — Jareth was taken aback by the realization that Ludo actually did not snore — but Jareth was awake, and his thoughts were swirling out of control. His situation was quite dire at the moment— if he lost or beat the Labyrinth, both of them would lose nevertheless. If he didn't reach the castle in time, Sarah would die and Jareth would lose both his love and his power. If he did beat the Labyrinth, Jareth would lose his love anyway, and Sarah would return to her life of destruction. Jareth closed his eyes, trying to think of a way to prevent Sarah from losing her life, but at the same time keeping her with him. He'd have to persuade her somehow.
Yes, because persuading her worked so well the last time, sneered his conscience. You only offered her everything you have, but that clearly wasn't enough.
Jareth couldn't help but darkly agree with his conscience. Then again, last time he had been a pretentious, menacing person… he was not anymore, and Sarah knew that.
And yet she's still refusing to even like you a little, added his conscience in a singsong voice. You must not have changed as much as you think.
Jareth quietly told his conscience to shut up before drifting into sleep.
Meanwhile, Sarah was lounged over in Jareth's throne. She rather liked it, actually— the armrests and the back support consisted of one long, sharp bone, and attached to it was red velvet draping that Sarah thought suited Jareth's character well. Now she sat in it like Jareth would, with one leg draped over the arm, her gloved hand over her mouth as she lay deep in thought. She had only just met the goblins, who were scattered around the room laughing and grunting and throwing things at chickens.
Sarah shivered in her seat. A single memory kept surfacing; she was lying on the bed, Jareth over her with one hand on her breast and the other pleasuring her, his gifted lips skimming over her skin, eliciting the symphony of moans and whimpers and sighs from her throat—
Sarah shook the memory out of her head and glanced up at the clock; the tall hand was resting on the six, and the short hand between the four and the five. Jareth had six hours and a half hours left until his time ran up.
"Hey Miss King!" squawked a goblin amusedly from the crowd. Sarah's train of thought broke off and she glanced up dully. "You remind me of the babe!"
Sarah blinked confusedly. "What babe?"
The entire crowd laughed and hooted, like what she'd said was hilarious. Inside joke? Sarah thought to herself confusedly.
"The babe with the power!" piped up another goblin, and all the others looked at Sarah hopefully, as if waiting for her to say something important.
Sarah's expression turned cross. "What power?"
The room exploded with laughter again. Now Sarah was extremely annoyed— she saw why Jareth hated these irritating little creatures. She felt a tug on her (Jareth's) riding pants, and looked down to see a young goblin staring up at her with enormous eyes. She was clearly female, with a chubby face, only one boot and a mitten on her head.
"Power of voodoo!" the little goblin said softly.
"Who do?" garbled another goblin in the crowd.
"You do!" shouted another.
"Do what?" Sarah demanded.
"REMIND ME OF THE BABE!" the crowd roared, and everybody burst out laughing again. Sarah stood there, confused.
"Stupid Goblin King," she muttered, sinking back onto the throne and glancing back down at the little goblin. "And what's your name?"
"Sufi," she squeaked, pulling her mitten tighter over her overlarge ears. "Your Majesty!"
"Sarah," insisted Sarah, smiling. "Call me Sarah."
"But I can't!" squealed Sufi, shaking her head vigorously and making her ears flap back and forth.
"Sufi, I am not the Goblin King," Sarah reminded her. "I'm not a pompous jerk who thinks he can take advantage of someone," she added darkly, her look souring. "You have nothing to fear from me."
"You mean, yous won't kick us out of windows like His Majesty does all the time?" Sufi said, her eyes full of hope.
Sarah's expression turned horrified. "He kicked you out of a window?"
Sufi nodded vigorously and beamed as if it was no big deal. "He did it right after I asked hims if yous was ever coming back to visit. He really did miss yous, Your Majesty," she added. "I heard hims tell the dwarf that right after yous didn't come back with hims to the castle!"
Sarah's face fell immediately, which Sufi emulated. "I'm-a sorry!" she said in a worried, high-pitched voice.
Sarah sighed and leaned back in her throne. "It's okay," she said darkly. "You did nothing wrong." Sufi stayed quiet, her expression still tumultuous, and Sarah sent a reluctant smile in her direction and added, "Don't worry, I won't kick you out of the window."
Sufi granted her a toothy grin, before asking, "Magic dance?"
Sarah frowned again, this time confusedly. "What?"
"Magic dance!" she exclaimed, gaining the attention of the other goblins, who looked thrilled at her words.
"Magic dance!" they all chanted in delight, and Sufi began bouncing up and down on her only boot, her ears flapping up and down.
"Dance magic, dance!" she squeaked, and the crowd of goblins began imitating her one-footed dance and sang, all of them off-key, "Jump magic, jump! Put that magic spell on me!"
Sarah couldn't help but laugh at the scene — they all did look rather ridiculous hopping around on one foot, smacking into each other — and clapped her hands at the performance.
"Bravo," she chuckled.
"Come dance, Miss King!" squealed Sufi, tugging her pants again. Sarah giggled like crazy and followed Sufi into the crowd of hopping goblins.
"Jump magic, jump!" they started to sing again, while Sarah took Sufi's tiny hand and began to hop on one foot, laughing hard at how ridiculous they all looked. She hated to admit it, but she was having a blast. "And baby said…"
"Just fear me, love me… do as I say, and I will be your slave!" Jareth pleaded, holding out a crystal ball to her.
Sarah smiled, stepped forward and took the crystal. Jareth's face lit up immediately— she was finally his, she'd accepted his offer… until Sarah's smile vanished immediately, and the crystal slipped from her fingers and smashed into shards on the stone floor. Jareth stared at it in amazement, and then Sarah stepped forward and caressed his cheek. He immediately forgot the broken crystal and shuddered as Sarah's soft fingers skimmed over his skin, making his longing for her grow…
Her other hand roughly shoved his chest, pushing him backward. Jareth stumbled and fell off the edge of the floor, and now he was falling… falling into nothing…
Jareth woke with a start and whirled his head around, looking for Sarah instinctively. He finally calmed himself, remembering that that was a long time ago, and Sarah had not pushed him away. Well she sort of had, but not particularly in that manner.
Shaking wisps of dusty blonde hair from his face, Jareth sat up properly and nudged Hoggle and Ludo sharply with his boot. They both grunted, before waking and rising as well, Hoggle sending Jareth a groggy glare.
"Time to get going," Jareth ordered, rising to his feet and dusting off his breeches.
He immediately walked off without waiting for Ludo and Hoggle, wondering just how much time he'd wasted. Hoggle and Ludo stumbled after him quickly, trying to catch up, and with his fast pace they reached the end of the tunnel quickly. Jareth noted with amusement that the wall was still pushed down, and that the Cleaners had ripped the iron doors right off of the wall.
"Let's go this way," Jareth suggested, continuing down the tunnel instead of making a right. He felt Hoggle's glare on his back and said lightly, "I shall tell you exactly what I told Sarah, Higgson— the Cleaners would not have actually harmed you. And that wall fell down deliberately."
"Of course," Hoggle suddenly realized, and Jareth felt a stab of appreciation toward the dwarf. "Yeh would never have hurt Sarah," he added, and the appreciation vanished. Was the dwarf incapable of thinking of Jareth as more than just a menace? Unfortunately he was right— his main concern had been Sarah's safety. "Err… Yer Majesty?" Hoggle began tentatively. "What did yeh do at the castle all that time?"
Jareth didn't flush, but a pink tinge did appear in his pale cheeks, and his expression turned slightly giddy. "We argued, Hograin," was his simple reply, before resuming his trek.
Hoggle and Ludo exchanged curious looks and continued to follow him down the dusty tunnel. Jareth saw light at the end of the tunnel, and to his amusement he saw that the Cleaners had not only ripped off the iron door, but had also ran straight through the wall. Jareth stepped through the opening and saw that he was in the damp, dense forest on the edge of the Labyrinth. He tried not to breathe through his nose — the smell of moss and dirt was absolutely revolting — and followed along the little path made by previous runners, Hoggle and Ludo hot on his trail.
"There's a wall not too far from here, Yer Majesty," said Hoggle. "How are we going to get over it?"
"Remember, Higgins," said Jareth quietly, trying not to wake anything that might be lurking around in the bushes. "Sarah rearranged the Labyrinth. We must wait and see if that wall is still there."
All of a sudden the trio heard boisterous laughter, and Jareth heard Hoggle mumble, "Oh great…"
Jareth was reminded just how little of his Labyrinth he knew, for he had no idea what lay ahead of him. They turned the corner to see a bunch of fuzzy little red creatures bouncing around up and down. Jareth's jaw dropped in shocked when he noticed three of them were smacking each other with disconnected limbs.
"Fieries," Hoggle muttered. "We shouldn't go this way, Yer Majesty."
"It's the only way we can go," Jareth said. "Why, are they harmful?"
"Just remember one thing: if they ask yeh to play, say no," Hoggle said darkly, before leading the way. Jareth followed him warily, eying the pack of Fieries with caution.
"Heeey, it's dat Mista King!" screeched the fattest one of them all, and the rest of them all turned their beady eyes to stare in amusement at the trio.
"His head's huge," said another. "Hey King, take off your head!"
Jareth's brows furrowed together in confusion, and he wondered for a moment if they were asking him to go insane, before he remembered that most of them had limbs misplaced and was suspicious that they were being quite literal. His suspicion was confirmed when they all began taking off their heads and smacking them around like volleyballs. Jareth tried not to look at the scene as he passed them, for it was quite sickening.
"How about you, Lumpy?" shouted a head that had landed in the bushes, directed at Ludo.
"Ludo no lumpy," grunted Ludo, sounding hurt. Hoggle wanted to cheer him up, but couldn't reach his arm, so instead he patted his elbow. They shuffled past the pack of guffawing Fieries, eager to get away from them. Hoggle was hit in the head with a leg, which made the Fieries laugh harder. As the trio got further and further away from them, their laughter quietened until finally all that the trio heard was the eerie rustling of branches and leaves and the squawking of hidden animals. They reached the end of the path, and Hoggle was surprised to see that there was no wall anymore, there was only a stretch of field.
"No more wall," said Hoggle in shock, and Jareth squinted to see further off in the distance.
"It looks like… the junkyard is coming up soon," Jareth noted curiously. "Under normal circumstances, that shouldn't be for another hour or so."
"Sarah's been doin' lotsa work, I see," Hoggle grumbled, starting off toward the junkyard. Jareth sighed and followed, knowing full well that after this was over it would take a lot of work to get Hoggle to forgive Sarah.
A/N: The 16th I go on vacation and won't be spending much time on the internet, so if the update on the 21st doesn't happen, you can finally chalk it up to me being away instead of me being forgetful :3