Oh my...

It was Satuday and after having watched a marathon of the extended Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, they'd discovered the early hour and Sir Didymus and Hoggle had taken Sarah Underground. Then up to the roof of the castle to watch the sun rise over the Labyrinth. Sarah had watched in awe as the Labyrinth seemed to wake with the sun; entire walls and corridors stretching out in several directions while the grounds were shifting upwards reaching for dawn's early light. Sarah smiled as she imagined the Labyrinth as a monstrous cat, stretching with its back arched and its forelegs extended out, reaching for the sunlight.

As the sun slowly rose, a commotion down in the training yard beside the barracks had turned their down to the grounds. Her friends had barely glanced at what was going on before turning their attention back to the sunrise. and the Labyrinth. Sarah, however, stared wide-eyed down at Jareth in a trance that was an odd mix of horror and wonder. Jareth was there surrounded by several beings that seemed to be made of the shadows themselves. Jareth looked like a suicidal maniac as he fought shirtless, the only armor he wore was the highly ornate yet functional, greaves and sabaton on the outside of his dragon hide pants and boots, along with his ever present, dragon leather gloves.

His sabaton came to short but lethal points at the toes and heels that he occasionally used to stab his opponents with as he kicked at them. Without his shirt, he was even better than she'd pictured him when she's seen him in that tight, grey tshirt in the mall the first time he'd taken on a human glamour in front of her. Lean, mean, working muscle like some of the men in the Cirque du Soleil videos that she liked to watch, though Jareth's form seemed to hold sharper angles and was more defined as was typical for Fae, Goblins and everything else in the Underground. There were points where Sarah's eyes couldn't track him, her mind only comprehending, or more truthfully, making up what had happened after the fact, based on how his opponents were laid out behind him after they fell.

The first time she'd seen his "Erlkönig" face, she stopped breathing a moment at its ethereal, yet utterly terrifying beauty. But the Goblin King's face in a state of bliss as he surveyed his lands was nothing compared to the joy and determination that was on it now as he cut the shadow men down. Given that her friends had just turned the other way as if nothing was out of the ordinary, she guessed that Jareth did this regularly. There were other palace guards there but they were a fighting only a few of the shadow creatures at a time while Jareth was taking variations of groups of ten to twenty at different intervals. At first Sarah thought that he was killing them but then realized that the shadows would fall only to rise again some minutes later. Which was the cause of the variations in numbers as he fought.

Sarah wasn't sure how long she had watch but she could not take her eyes off of him. She smiled as Jareth and his men all finished up, talking and critiquing each other as they walked of in the direction that she knew lead to the outside entrance to the kitchens. From what she could see Jareth was not only giving criticism but also receiving it good naturedly in turn. His men did not clap him on the back as they did each other but by the way they were all laughing and talking with one another she could tell that they all greatly respected one another's opinion. Just before they turned out of Sarah's line of sight, Jareth paused and looked around, his senses finally picking up that he'd had an audience other than his guards.

Sarah turned her attention back to the Labyrinth just like Hoggle and Sir Didymus, in the hopes that if Jareth did chance to look up at were she and her friends were perched on the roof he'd not think they'd been the ones spying. As the seconds ticked passed, peace, serenity and awe filled Sarah once again as she watched the Labyrinth in the early dawn. Sarah didn't look in Jareth's direction again, at least not until he suddenly sat down with a clatter of armored legs beside her in all his bare chested, sweaty glory. Startling Sarah so badly that Jareth had to catch hold of her arm as she nearly pitched forward off the roof in a scramble to get up. He pulled her back down next to himself on the roof and beside her friends. She nodded to her friends' inquiries, confirming that she was okay before ripping into Jareth.

"Where in the freak did you come from!"

Jareth replied with a shrug, "I climbed up."

"Wha-"

"Goblin, remember... What are you doing here, Sarah?"

"We came to watch the sunrise over the Labyrinth," Sarah tried to appear nonchalant with a shrug of her own, "I've never watched it from this height before... It was beautiful, no, beyond that. The way the Labyrinth moves..." Jareth wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was staring at her, leaving Sarah to thank any and all gods and goddesses she could think of that she wasn't blushing and was completely calm again as she kept her face relaxed and her gaze unerringly on the Labyrinth.

"Aren't you affected at all..." Jareth murmured from beside her which cause Hoggle to snort and Sir Didymus to try covering his smile with his paws.

"What?"

"I'm half naked woman!"

"What! Oh for the love of- Way to ruin the moment, Jareth! Hoggle, Didymus take me home! I'll make us breakfast, and you, Sir! You are not invited!" Sarah growled the last as she jabbed Jareth in the chest with a finger. Jareth leered at her most wickedly as his hand snapped up to grab her wrist and its offending finger only to catch nothing at all as Didymus popped himself, Sarah and Hoggle back to Sarah's studio.

Jareth sighed as his hand came up to rub where Sarah had poked him, vowing to the air, "I'll get you for that Didymus... Royal adviser or no, no one takes my prey from me."