Rolling slowly, gently forward, Sarah smelt the air, and thought that if she had any doubt that this was happening, that was what would have convinced her. After all, she had never smelled things in dreams, and if she had, there was something... different in the air, something that she had never encountered anywhere else.
She tried to remember the entrance of the Labyrinth. There had been the pond that Hoggle had been pissing into, and the wall with the yellow-brown tufts of grass surrounding it. And in that wall had been double-doors. Last time, she had needed Hoggle to open them for her.
She heard footsteps, and suddenly her progress was halted.
"You are blind, and this chair is going to fail you at the first set of stairs," Jareth said.
Sarah let out an incoherent sound of annoyance.
"Would you let go of my fucking chair," she snarled, "and let me worry about how I'm going to get around obstacles?"
She pushed hard on the wheel-rims, and then suddenly she was shooting forward. She slowed herself down enough that she would have a better chance of detecting obstacles before she hit them full on, but did not stop. A rustling sound just in front of her warned her of a shrub, and so she carefully manoeuvred around it, twigs raking against her left arm. Her right front wheel hit a rock, and she paused, backed up a little, and then moved around where she felt it to be.
She rolled a little further forward, and then suddenly the ground felt flat beneath her wheels. She felt her face stretch in a triumphant grin, and she rolled slowly forward, listening and feeling for any changes in the texture of the ground she was rolling over. She worried for a second that for all she knew, she was about to roll straight into the pond, but discarded this worry. She would survive a little embarrassment, if that was what happened. She could hear the light whirring of fairy wings and tiny giggles, so she knew she was getting closer. Then she felt long grass, milliseconds before she ran gently into the Labyrinth's outside wall.
Yes!
She manoeuvred her chair so that it was running parallel to the wall, and begun to roll forward, reaching out every now and then with one hand to check the texture of the wall. She had to be patient, but patience was a lesson she had learnt soon after the accident. It was learn patience or fall slowly into despair, and Sarah refused to do that. After a while, Sarah felt an edge. She stopped, and turned to face the wall so she could better trace the surface.
This was it. The entrance.
"Are you still there, Jareth?" she asked, not really expecting an answer.
"Yes, Sarah," he replied, in a tone Sarah had trouble interpreting.
"Wish me luck?" she said.
Sarah fully expected Jareth to scoff at her, but instead, she heard him speaking in that odd tone once again.
"Good luck Sarah," was all he said.
And then suddenly, the doors creaked open, and she knew she was alone.
She rolled forward until she was touching the first inside wall, then paused as she heard the doors slam shut behind her.
"Well, no turning back now," she said aloud. Sarah allowed herself a maudlin smile. "Last time I'm pretty sure this was where I said 'come on feet'. Ha. So much for that."
Still, she pushed herself forward, and in much the same way as she had on the last layer, slowly rolled herself forward, trailing one hand on the wall beside her in order to find the next entrance.
She was actually surprised how quickly she found it this time. Last time she remembered running around for the better part of half an hour to find an entrance, but this time she found it in what she was sure could not be more than five minutes.
Strange. Then again, she supposed she was in the perfect position to completely ignore optical illusions. Perhaps at least in this area, her weakness had become a strength. Funny.
Soon afterwards, Sarah rolled over what felt like a branch. Once she had ascertained that this had not caused her wheelchair any damage (it would not be the first time she had damaged the spokes on some unseen obstacle,) she picked the branch up, thinking she could use it as a makeshift cane to feel her way, and get a little extra notice before she hit obstacles on the ground. She was soon glad for it, as she was able to avoid a number of what she supposed were fallen bricks and other branches by having that forward probe.
It was only a short while later that Sarah encountered her first set of stairs.
She leaned forward with the stick and counted them. Four.
Well. That shouldn't be so hard.
Sarah bit down the urge to say "piece of cake" aloud. Since her first run, she had become acquainted with the concept of of Murphy. She suspected that "anything that can go wrong will go wrong" took on a whole new meaning when magic and a vengeful Goblin King were taken into account. It was best not to tempt fate or Goblin Kings by speaking such words aloud.
Carefully, she lowered herself out of her chair, and moved so that she was sitting on the second step.
She leaned forward, grabbed the light aluminium frame of the chair and lifted it over her head, slowly swivelling, before she placed it on the highest stair. She picked up her branch and placed it so that it was lying horizontally against the backrest, then climbed the remaining two stairs in an awkward shuffle.
Having reached the top, she pushed the chair so that the wheels were oriented parallel to the stairs (the last thing she needed at this point was to roll down them,) and hoisted herself into the seat. She settled herself, and smiled grimly.
"I'm coming Toby. I promise."