Sarah leaned, now entirely unseeing, on the balcony rail in her room. She traced the rail with her fingers, trying to figure the length of it in her mind. Same distance as it had been for the past two hours. She was sick of this, being such a burden to the Goblin King. Why couldn't she ever take care of herself, even in her world, she couldn't do much more than what she is here.
"Dangle," Sarah called into the open room. She heard a shuffle and a small presence come nearby. "Yes Sarah?" she asked sweetly. Sarah did he best to face the exact direction the sound was coming from, she reached down, and by luck grasped the little female goblin's hands carefully.
"I need your help. Jareth told me he doesn't know when the poison wares off, it could last for months. But please, there must be something in the Labyrinth that could fix this for me. You must know of something?" Sarah asked, pleading with her. Dangle shuffled her feet, nervous.
"I does know of a cure, but it's super difficult to get to it. His Majesty would never allow it, Sarah. Even if we could get ya out of this castle, how ya gonna manage moving about through the Labyrinth? Jareth knows everyting' that goes on, he'll notice it right soon if yer' movin about his mazes and all." Sarah bit her lip, she didn't want to be a burden to him anymore, she wanted to show him she was strong, just as determined as she used to be.
"There must be a way…" Sarah's voice trailed off trying to think of any way around it.
"There might be one way…if we could keep he'm busy for a full day, and not let he'm look at his Labyrinth even once, ee' might jus not realize it at all!" she said with excitement, her accent showing through more than usual.
Sarah looked a little doubtful at first, but as she heard the confidence in Dangle's voice and decided it'd be worth it to trust her. She took Sarah's hand and led her into the castle, careful of where Sarah was going, she took her time leading Sarah. A door opened and Sarah could hear the goblins clambering about.
"Oi! Shut yur' trabbers and listen to me!" Dangle yelled and the others immediately shut up and listened. "We gots us some big plannin' to du's, and we're gonna need a few of em' guards as escorts for Miss Sarah! Go grab the fuzzy fellar' and the foxy dog lookin' ting! The rest a ya's gets planning on keepin his Majesty busy all days long. He can be a' checkin the Labyrinth termorrow! Not once! Gots it lads?" She asked and they all howled in agreement.
"Right then! Get a move on! We ave' to get Miss Sarah out of ere' soon as she wakes up! Move out!" Dangle ordered and Sarah could feel them all disappear from the room, one by one until it was only Dangle and herself left.
"Come on then Miss Sarah, we best be getting' yous to bed, it's late. And his majesty will start to ask about you!" she grabbed for Sarah's hand and led her back through the numerous hallways. Dangle began to slow as they walked.
"Sarah, I don't know if you this, but be mindful of yer' thoughts around his Majesty, he can read minds at his will," Dangle whispered to her and Sarah heard a wooden door creak open and she was lead into her chambers once again. Dangle moved about the room, grabbing a nightgown for Sarah to sleep in after her bath.
"G'night Miss Sarah, I'll see you in the mornin'," Dangle called and shut the door behind her. Sarah stood out on the balcony, enjoy what she could feel was the soft night air. She felt herself blink and each time wished she would see the world again once around her.
"This is ridiculous," she sighed to herself and leaned her chin onto her arms, still standing at the rail.
"I've been here over a week and I can't do anything but get myself into some kind of trouble," she huffed in annoyance. 'I should see if the Library here has any books on the myths and legends of the Underground when I get my sight back,' she thought to herself and took a deep breath of the life around her, sensing the magic that coursed through the Underground into each living thing. The smells brought old memories to the surface of her last trip into the Underground. The little worm, the moving walls, the oubliette where Hoggle had saved her, the tunnel where she had challenged Jareth, the Wild Gang, the Bog of Eternal Stench, and the peach.
'That dance,' Sarah thought and drifted through her dreams of the dance she'd shared with the Goblin King, the masks of numerous people around her, the decorations lining the walls of the crystal her mind was lost in. She smiled and relaxed onto one leg when a pair of arms wrapped around her, giving her a start at first.
"Sorry Love, I thought you heard me come in," he said. She could hear the laughter playing in his voice.
"What were you thinking about?" he asked as he led her over to the bed, it was well past midnight and the entire kingdom was asleep by now. She smiled to herself and shifted around comfortably as she was laid onto the bed.
"Nothing in particular, just a dream is all," she lied and buried her face into the nearest pillow, engulfing her nose in his wonderful scent. It had a spice smell, reminding her of incense she smelled at a shop back in the other world, but it was laced lightly with the smell of leather. Wanting to intoxicate herself on it she took in another deep breath, dulling her regular senses. Before she could take another breath, however, she heard a glass shatter near the window.
"Jareth?" she asked fully upright and listening for anything. She heard his breathing and knew he wasn't hurt.
"Sorry, I dropped a crystal that's all," he said reassuringly, and she felt the bed move from his weight and he lay down upon it. Reaching out blindly he caught her hands and pulled her to him. His soft poet's shirt reeked of his addicting scent and she rubbed her face against it.
"Darling, not that I mind, but what are you doing?" he asked with a smile in his voice.
She breathed in again before answering him,
"Your scent is addicting. I feel like I'm using it as a drug." She laughed at the end, thinking how foolish she must have seemed to him. His lips pressed into her forehead.
"I suppose I can understand that," he said climbing into the red silk sheets next to her, pulling off his gloves at the same time. The shattered glass sound echoed in her ears, it wasn't like his Majesty to ever drop something, let alone miss catching it entirely. She took his hand, trying to seem subtle about it, and felt over the separate fingers. There weren't any cuts she could feel, and they didn't feel shaky as though he'd dropped it by accident. Which could only mean, he'd been looking at something in it that startled him so much it fell from his hand.
"Jareth," she said quietly, seeing if he was still awake.
"Yes?" he replied his voice lazy and on the verge of sleep. Sarah faced her head up, hoping she was looking into his eyes.
"What were you looking at in the crystal you dropped?" Her eyebrows furrowed in thought. Nothing frightened a Goblin King right? He had magic, his Labyrinth, Fae warriors, goblins flooding the castle. He was the epitome of a Dark Lord from what she had heard from Dangle's stories. He could be as cruel as he could patient. Passing servants she'd talked to told her about how incredible he could be at finding solutions to preventing war, as well as the tantrums he would throw when people refused to listen to his ideas. Some of them had indeed been frightening.
After her meeting with Moirah she asked Dangle about the dark time she had mentioned. Dangle seemed to have known Jareth for a very long time. She told Sarah it was a very harsh time for the Goblin Kingdom because he had been suffering of a broken heart, and what he felt was how the Labyrinth responded. He had violent stages that caused any one who went into the maze to be killed almost instantly. Dangle's words played back through Sarah's mind as she waited for an answer from her King.
"He is a fantastic king, always thinking for his people. But understand, he's a fair and just king yes, but a very young one at that. He's only been king for a few hundred years, that's very short in Fae lives so to many he still appears incompetent and prone to anger fits. Moirah was possibly hired by another ruler to gain access to the crown because he's a young king, so many think he can easily be swayed in his decision. Quite the opposite in fact, when he makes a decision, he sticks with it entirely. Getting him to change his mind is what's difficult."
Sarah listened to the night air, and his breathing. He was still awake, but he wasn't talking. It must have been something truly terrifying.
"Jareth? What is it?" she asked again, propping herself on her elbow. His hand traced down her face very suddenly, causing her to pull away at first. His thumbs passed over her eyelids lightly, sending a sharp tingly sensation through it. She squinted in pain for a minute before it passed. Blinking she opened it, her breath caught in her throat, she could see; almost. The light was opposite, she sat unmoving as she tried to understand what she was seeing.
"The light…it's all opposite," Sarah said as she sat up and began looking around the room to place things. The windows were glowing bright white even though she knew it was well into the middle of the night. She blinked and it remained the same shade. All the objects in her room in shades of blue, green, black, and other dark colors. Her head tilted as she though when it hit her like lightning.
"I'm seeing in negative," she said it as a fact. Not upset, not even annoyed.
'This'll certainly help getting about the Labyrinth now,' she thought to herself and turned to Jareth, who's face now riddled with confusion. Had he been reading her thoughts? Did he know her plan to get to the Northwest River for help? She sat rigid for moment before his face cleared.
"Negative huh? Well, that was my first attempt at a sight spell, you'll have to forgive the result," he said running his hand through his tousled locks. She breathed deeply, he didn't seem to know, nor suspect anything yet.
"I don't mind, I can see for now, even if it feels a little odd," she looked around again, trying not to be scared of the almost demon eyes Jareth now possessed towards her. Jareth stirred tiredly and lay down to sleep. Sarah, on the other hand, stood up and began walking around the room, now enchanted with the world that lay before her.
"Aren't you going to sleep?" he asked muffled by a pillow. She touched the glowing blue flower on the balcony which she knew regularly was red. It was incredible, it was an entire different understanding of the land near her. The impatient Goblin King let out a long sigh which she took as her cue to hurry the hell up. Sarah turned around to see his face pulled up into a smirk.
"What could you possibly be gloating about?" she asked as she slowly walked over to him. He reached his long arms out to her and pulled her gently onto his lap. She liked sitting her in his grasp, she felt like she belonged somewhere, that she still had someone left for her in the universe.
"That you're enjoying my mistake so much, it's amusing," he whispered rubbing his face into her hair. She rolled away from him onto the bed and snuggled up tight in the sheets. A smile spread across her face as she heard a low rumble come from Jareth while he moved closer to her. He reached around and wrapped her, almost crushing her, against him. She tried to wiggle away but he held a bit tighter.
"I lost you once, I won't make the same mistake again," he said and relaxed only slightly. Sarah turned in his arms to face him, tracing the now dark black features she was looking at with her hand.
"You won't lose me, I've no one else for me in the world," she explained and hugged him tightly before falling asleep into the night.
Sarah's crazy, like Jareth's really going to just sit by and let her leave...right?
next one's a lil' shorter simply because Ch. 8 is a little longer. Exciting, Exciting! :D
If you guys have any events maybe you'd like to see happen let me know about them please! I'd love to try and incorporate them!