"Sky's Eclipse"
Chapter 30
By Aiijuin

*Disclaimer: I don't own anything Jim Henson or Labyrinth. Gröeg was originally designed by Brian Froud and catalogued by Terry Jones in Brian Froud's "The Goblins of the Labyrinth". This fanfiction is rated M for some harsh language and adult situations. Gavin King is Jareth, the Goblin King, for those who have jumped into the middle of the story. The names: Torok, the Troll King and Eunice St. Clair are characters borrowed from the 1986 movie Troll, but are not used in context with the movie inside my fanfiction in any way.

CHAPTER NUMBER DISCREPANCIES HAVE BEEN FIXED: This story has a Prelude, which doesn't count as a chapter, but Fanfiction . net automatically assigns numbers, so Chapter 2 in ff . net is Chapter 1 in my story.

Chapter 30: Taken for Granted

Sarah pondered calmly over the little silver amulet within the palm of her hand. Solving Grimm's Wood didn't seem to concern her anymore. However, as time ticked down to the one-hour mark, Jareth was beginning to emotionally unravel…

Gavin turned to Sarah and said with exasperation in his voice, "Look, Darling, forget about the amulet! Why would you listen to the ramblings of a troll anyhow? They probably lie."

"As do goblins, I'm sure," Raquel interjected quickly.

Gavin shot Raquel a nasty look. Raquel pretended not to see him. Sarah expressed her opinion by admitting, "I would vastly place my trust in the advice of common trolls and goblins far above the kings that rule them."

"Ouch!" Raquel squealed loudly and pointed mockingly at Gavin.

This broke Sarah's attention on the amulet. She turned to face Raquel and asked, "Are you okay?"

Raquel saw that Gavin was glaring at her again. His eyes were practically slits as he dared her to say one more wrong word. Raquel blinked innocently and lied, "Oh, no. The baby kicked me. That's all."

Gavin, who had been taken back by Sarah's stinging remark from seconds before, had moved farther away from her in disdain. Not noticing his separation from the group, Sarah returned her attentions back to the charm. Something about it called to her. She smelled the amulet and commented, "Honeysuckle. This used to be kept in a silver box with a glass top, and the box was inlaid with freshly cut honeysuckle."

Gavin glanced down the bridge of his nose with his head held high and shouted from a distance, "A dream, Sarah? Did you dream about this?"

"I'm not sure," Sarah responded quietly.

Raquel asked, "Well… who do you think it belongs to?"

Sarah answered, "My guess would be the Goblin Queen."

Completely caught off guard, Gavin stammered, "G-Goblin Queen? Sarah where did you hear such a…?"

Raquel interrupted Gavin, "Wait! There's a…a"

Hansel spoke over Raquel and Gavin, "When did you discover a Go-…"

The trio of tagalongs, Gretel excluded, stepped over each other in conversation as their questions finished simultaneously. Gavin finished, "…thing?"

Raquel finished, "..Goblin Queen?"

And, Hansel finished, "-blin Queen?"

Sarah turned to the entire group and explained, "If you've ever visited Jareth's castle, then you'd know he was a very poor housekeeper…."

Gavin winced.

"Chickens, goblins, and barrels of ale spread all over the floor, is pretty much only a minor indication of how desperately he needs a good 'spring cleaning'. However, where his castle lacks cleanliness, it makes up for in its amazing historical records."

Recovering from Sarah's accusation, Gavin asked enthusiastically, "How so, my Dear?"

"Well, essentially, Jareth never throws anything away. Anything that he orders to be removed from his sight, becomes involuntarily stuffed in the catacombs far beneath the castle."

Gavin interrupted, "Wait! The castle has catacombs, now?"

Sarah laughed and nodded, "Yes, although I doubt the Goblin King realizes they're even there."

"Indeed," Gavin rubbed his chin and muttered.

Sarah stopped walking and continued, "I discovered a multitude of scrolls and other artifacts that had been collected down in the catacombs for many centuries. Most of the scrolls were undecipherable, while others were jammed below heavy objects and I could not free them. I did come across a very interesting record that was written by a human of unknown origins. It was written in Old English and described the Goblin Queen in great detail. It was incomplete, so I'm not sure what happened to her, but I know there was a Goblin Queen."

Gavin tried to push past Sarah in order to goad her forward, but she held out her hand to block him. When he couldn't maneuver beyond her, he argued, "It's probably some random scrap of paper that was picked up by the goblins as they traversed from realm to realm."

Sarah raised her eyebrows, "That's a very interesting theory, Mr. King, but I'm not willing to take anything for granted here. Nothing ever is as it seems when concerning the Goblin Kingdom, and it would be foolish to believe otherwise."

The opposing viewpoints swelled between Sarah and Gavin, until their rational disagreement became an all-out-shouting-match, yet Sarah would not relent. She was certain that there had been a Goblin Queen, but Jareth, who was Gavin, insisted that she was chasing empty dreams.

Raquel took a seat on the grass, and Hansel followed suit. The two turned to each other and exchanged glances empathetically. They were growing weary of the couple's company. Neither wanted to entertain thoughts of Goblin Queens or Kings. All they wanted to do was escape from this horrible place and part company from Sarah and Jareth forever. Raquel turned to Hansel and said, "I have an awful feeling that we're never getting out of here, Hans."

Hansel nodded in agreement and checked his sister's pulse. Gretel's heartbeat was erratic and her breath was becoming shallow.

"…And then I'll SHOW you the proof you need…" Sarah spat a final retort back at Gavin who glowered toe-to-toe with her.

Gavin sang derisively, "Yes, but first you have to escape from the Troll Kingdom…"

Sarah turned to Gavin, puckered her lips, snapped her fingers, and shouted, "Piece of cake!"

Jareth wondered if Sarah had finally lost her mind, since they hadn't moved in fifteen minutes and it seemed like the Troll Kingdom just dragged on and on. However much to his surprise, Sarah turned around, stretched out the magical troll torch before her, and said, "Look down."

Hansel and the others looked down. Before them stood a gigantic precipice. It spanned kilometers downward into profound darkness. The only way that anyone could tell there had been anything at the bottom, was because Jareth's Labyrinth glowed white in the moonlight.

Moonlight, thought Raquel excitedly. There is actually a light in the sky at last!

This was because unlike the Troll King, Jareth had enjoyed the sight of the full moon. He ordered it appear every evening over his lands. Torok on the other hand had kept his kingdom under almost constant cloud cover, which is why until this point everything had been completely dark.

Gavin was so ecstatic that he completely forgot his anger against Sarah. He embraced her and then pecked her on the cheek amorously. Sarah pointed to him with a warning finger and said, "We're seconds from entering into the Goblin Kingdom. Please don't start off on the wrong foot by making Jareth jealous, Mr. King. I'd like to smell decent for the remainder of my life, if you don't mind."

After much effort and some snickering at Sarah's comment to 'Gavin', Raquel finally stood up and shrugged over-emphatically, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's Go!"

Sarah wretched her lips in amusement and asked, "So, does anybody know where we can find a really long ladder?"