After leaving the house, Nell had bid her goodbyes and hurried off to the castle. She suspected that Jareth would be going spare without her. How wrong she was. Jareth was caught up in his own little world in the throne room. He quickly composed himself, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nell slide into the room. He laughed and said, "Nell, are you okay?"

"Yes your Majesty. Sorry I've been gone so long; the queues in the shopping district were horrendous!" She exclaimed out of breath.

Jareth laughed once again, he knew she was lying and he knew the reason why. He knew she had been helping Sarah, and he was grateful. Instead he suggested she go have a rest before she have some food. Nell was appreciative at the gesture, but assured him that she was needed around the castle. He began to chuckle and waved her off.

Something is not right here. I've never seen him laugh so much in the space of a few seconds. Nell thought.

She immediately canned the idea down to thinking he had found the stash of peach wine again, and indulged himself before tea time. She smiled smugly at the idea and decided to busy herself with cleaning out the corridors of goblins that had fallen asleep.

Her thoughts soon turned on Sarah, she had hoped that she would have come to the castle at once and stayed there. She wished she could have shown her the gardens. She really liked Sarah, in the short amount of time that she knew her, she felt that she could trust Sarah and felt like she would become one of her closest friends. She hadn't known her the last time she was here, but she did wish she would have run into her. It would have been nice to get to know her sooner, but it was a bittersweet friendship. Sarah would have to return to the Aboveground sooner or later.

Sarah gasped with adoration. Hoggle was right, Didymus and Ludo's garden was nothing compared to his. Hoggle's was an explosion of colour, a rainbow paradise contained in this little village in the goblin city. The garden was full of huge trees, giant and small flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruit. The smell of honeysuckle and lavender swam through the air and she wildly looked around to find where it was coming from. She saw instantly that the honeysuckle was entwined over the door and the windows; the lavender in little boxes scattered around.

"There's all sorts of herbs, veg and fruit that'll cure anythin' in this garden." Hoggle smirked seeing the reaction on Sarah's face.

"Yes, my lady. Why Hoggle grows all sorts of plants to cure whatever ails someone. Goblins usually suffer with over indulging in alcohol and such, so they come to Hoggle for some milk thistle. He also grows vanilla pods for sleeplessness, insomnia and the like. He has his own private fruit, vegetable and herb gardens for food nestled behind that willow tree. Anything you can think of, Hoggle may have it here." Sir Didymus grinned.

"But, how is that possible?" Sarah asked. "I mean, all these various plants grow in different climates in the Aboveground."

"My lady, you are forgetting that you are in the Underground. Nothing-"

"Is what it seems." Interrupted and finished Sarah. She was sick of hearing the same thing; she had to remember those little lessons she learnt the last time she was here. The bigger lessons had stuck with her, like not taking anything for granted, but remembering that anything is possible always seemed to slip her mind. She thought too logically in the Underground.

"Why you're quite right my Lady," replied a beaming Sir Didymus. "Dost thou staying at the castle, fair maiden?"

Sarah looked confused, then she realised she would have to stay somewhere until she could get back home. The day lasted longer down here, but it would quickly turn to night. She hadn't thought of what she was going to do and after hearing Sir Didymus mention the castle, she shuddered and realised she didn't want to face Him anytime soon.

"Well, I… hadn't thought of that…"

"You can stay here," Hoggle replied quickly. He didn't want Jareth to intervene, heck he didn't want him to know Sarah was here, but he thought that the goblin King would know either now or soon that Sarah was back.

"Oh, Hoggle! Thank you so much. If you're sure it wouldn't be any bother or trouble."

"It's no bother or trouble at all Sarah." Mumbled Hoggle, he started to blush. Sarah bent down and hugged him. "Don't kiss me!"

Sarah laughed, let go of him and stood up. She hadn't taken much notice of Hoggle's house; she was more interested in the garden. They all made their way inside the house, it was similar to Didymus and Ludo's house, but with more books and more wooden, stone and crystal carvings. She looked around in awe at the sight of the carvings. The wooden carvings were elaborate creations of flowers and twisted trees; the stone carvings were complex creations of Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus, other goblins and dwarves, what looked like gnomes, but the crystal carvings were so striking and magnificent. The crystal carvings were intricate and delicate and were depictions of –what Sarah assumed to be Fae – she saw one that caught her eye. It was slightly bigger than the others and glittered and was sparkled with shades of blue in the light; it was a figure of a Fae. A Fae with unruly hair, tight cloves and held a tiny spherical crystal in its hand. It was Jareth.

But I thought Hoggle hated Jareth!

"Oh wow," Sarah gasped. "Hoggle? I… I thought you hated Jareth?" At both the thought and the mention of His name from her own mouth, her stomach gave a jolt. She frowned and subconsciously scratched her arm.

"Oh, well, you see," Hoggle replied mumbling. "Jareth scares me an' all, but he is our King. And a good King he is too! I'm not old enough to remember the previous King, but I have heard horror stories."

"Horror stories?" Sarah laughed.

Hoggle scowled at her. "Yeah, he hated his position as King, a mean ruler he was too! I don't know much, and most of us can't talk about them, like I said, I can't remember much of his reign. That and it's Fae politics." He said mockingly with a disgruntled look on his face. "Forced most of the creatures here into slavery, but that was before the Labyrinth was built. O' course that's Jareth's own creation."

"The Labyrinth wasn't always here?"

"No, it was just an expanse of land with goblins and other creatures hiding around. When Jareth came into power, he built the Labyrinth, the city, the forests, the rivers, everything. He changes it from time to time, keeps the secret passages the same o' course so we all know where we're going. But if he does change it, he calls a huge meeting with maps he's drawn up and points everything out."

Sarah was intrigued at the thought of the Labyrinth being Jareth's own concept. She thought it was quite fair and, dare she say it, nice of Jareth to forewarn the goblins if changes had been made to the Labyrinth. She wondered why a man would construct such a complex object. She dismissed the thought as being used as a collective task for the Runners who had to win children back, to learn their own lessons. But as she dismissed the thought, her attention was turned to something else near the crystal imitation of Jareth. It glistened and gleamed in the light, it was pure white in contrast to the one of Jareth. It was the embodiment of movement in such a passive figure, an arm was lifted into the air, the other hung gracefully at the other side. The skirt of the figure was long and billowing and swished as though being blown in the wind or as if the character was dancing. The hair was long and curled elegantly into a cascading waterfall of hair, with little rosebuds and flowers dotted around the curls. But the features, the features were incredibly familiar. Sarah gasped. The figurine was of her. She wanted so desperately to reach out and touch the figurine's smooth cheek, but hesitated in fear of breaking the fragile thing.

"Oh, Hoggle," She gasped. "It's… it's… beautiful."

She felt tears creep up, and became momentarily blinded by them, until they escaped her eyes and they slid graciously down her cheeks, sparkling with the wonderment she felt. Her heart warmed at the thought, she began to blush ever so slightly and started to choke on her own tears and the words of gratitude she wanted to say that had built up in her throat.

"It was nothin'" Hoggle mumbled, his head looking at the floor, shuffling his feet into the floor and slowly turning red.

She smiled brilliantly at Hoggle and felt like she was truly home. Here were people she generally knew cared for her, and she cared for them. She knew they were true friends. She kind of hoped that she would never have to go home, just to stay here with all of her friends.

But then, she suddenly felt sad. She couldn't ever stay here forever. Her life was Aboveground with Toby and her father. And although she didn't want to admit it, it was with Karen as well, as vicious as she could be from time to time. She rejected the idea, for now, and decided to focus on the present. As she was caught up with her own thoughts, Sir Didymus had marched off muttering about a celebration, a feast and a party; Ludo had obediently followed which a grumbling Hoggle decided to trudge after. Sarah was left on her own, but she didn't feel alone or lonely, she felt loved, she felt her friends' presence in the village and her heart warmed once again.

Sarah was overwhelmed at what she saw. There were several, large, round wooden tables in the middle of the square of the village mounted with mouth-watering food and drink. Her stomach growled and grumbled and she remembered that she hadn't eaten anything all day. She was delighted at the effort her friends had made, and she felt completely blessed that she was lucky enough to have met these creatures, despite the unfortunate chain of events that had led her to meet them. She gushed as she saw Hoggle sprinkling something on the ground, even though he was muttering under his breath. But to her surprise, large green shoots shot from the ground and blossomed into large purple flowers in front of her eyes.

"My Lady, art thou in need of anything?" came a voice behind Sarah. She spun around and saw Sir Didymus wearing… a party hat? She had to stifle a giggle.

"Oh, no, Sir Didymus," she began smirking. "I just came out here to see if anyone needed any help. But it looks like everything is sorted."

"If thou'st bored, my brother is over in that little cottage there, amusing the several goblin children that live there," he beamed.

"Thank you. Sir Didymus, may I ask you something?"

"Why of course, anything for you my Lady," he bowed.

"What exactly is Hoggle doing? Those can't be flowers; flowers take time to grow…"

"Ah, those, my dear, are a special species of flower. See how they bloom? 'Tis a magical species, specifically for parties."

Now Sarah was puzzled. Didymus saw the look of confusion on her face and grinned at her.

"Uhm…"

"Fear not! They do no harm. They are simply decorations, not actual plants, they disappear at midnight!"

Now it seemed that getting used to the Underground was going to take time, she had to adjust and couldn't be astonished by (what seemed usual, trivial things to everyone else) entities that thrived in the Underground. But she didn't have time. Unless she was stuck down here for good.

A/N: Happy New Year guys :)

Wow, it's taken me ages to update. I need some inspiration.

I feel so awkward when writing dialogue. Does anybody else feel that way? It may just be that I'm used to describing things and I'm not a writer, more a painter and such.

Anybody spot the Edward Scissorhands reference? ;) Congrats to those who did :)

Irene is the actual name for Sarah's stepmother, but I've always called her Karen and so many stories on here have called her Karen, so changing it to Irene doesn't feel right to me.

Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing. It's nice to know people have taken the time to read this (at the moment) small story. I am hoping and praying that it works out the way I want it, which will involve several sequels (emphasis on hopefully!)