Hi everyone. Almost done with this story now - I'm writing on the last chapter, so it will probably end up being 26 chapters long, once I've proofread and edited it all. Right now I'm trying to decide how much of an M-rating I want - what do you think? Any preferences? :)
Kaytori: No family in this story - sorry :) As for manipulating the castle, I don't think he's ever thought about it. He can cast illusions on the existing rooms (like making the throne room into a populated ball room), so maybe the need never arose. A love spell...? No, I think he meant using his own irresistible goblin king charm - he IS pretty full of himself, isn't he? :D
"I think we need a break," the Goblin King said tiredly and dragged a hand though his already unruly hair. "You've made progress, but we're not really improving today anymore."
Sarah threw a frustrated look at the drawing before her and agreed. "Alright, we'll stop for now. Would you like some tea, if I make some?"
Jareth shook his head, but gestured for her to go on anyway, and then he disappeared in a wink. Sarah rolled her eyes at his always dramatic exit, and then got up and started down towards the kitchen to make herself some tea. She knew from experience that it was impossible to know when Jareth would be back – it could be five minutes or five hours - so she might as well make the most of her break from the rigorous training.
Sarah had been living at the Castle beyond the Goblin City for almost two weeks now and it was getting familiar so she could find her way around easily in the labyrinth hallways, even without the aid of the magic crystal. Her favourite spot was the small garden she had found before her transformation, but the kitchen was agreeable as well – at least after she had cleaned it up and forbidden the goblins to ever set foot it in again. Now it was her domain so she could keep it spotless and make the few things she needed. Jareth had been right – after the transformation, she had needed very little food, and since she was already in the habit of not eating much, she mostly made teas in different flavours with leaves that the goblins and Hoggle brought her from all over the Labyrinth. Not all of them were safe to consume, but with the aid of her heightened senses she had no problems recognizing and dismissing the dangerous ones. Occasionally, she would make a meal for her and Jareth – fish or chicken with complicated sauces and unfamiliar spices – but he ate even less than her and she did it only for entertainment and familiarity.
Hoggle was there in the kitchen, sitting in his favourite chair by the fireplace. With the goblins banned and Jareth never bothering to come down, this was where they often met, and Sarah would share her thought and plans with him. She was not going to settle for having only Jareth in her life, talking only to him - she wanted to open up the castle for the guardians as well, as many as possible. If creatures as different as Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus could become her friends, there must be others out there, who she could get to know in time. She had asked Hoggle about Ludo and Sir Didymus, but he said Ludo had left the Labyrinth some time ago to return to the Wilderness beyond, and the little knight was on a quest for Jareth in the furthest end of the Labyrinth and would not be back for another month. So right now it was just the two of them.
Hoggle looked up as she entered. "Oh, there ye are," he greeted her and pointed to the boiling kettle of water already on the fireplace. "Thought ye'd be here about now, so I set up so ye could make the tea."
"Thanks, Hoggle," she said and found the pot and leaves, before she joined him at the table. "You're a life-saviour."
The dwarf huffed and averted his eyes. "Just looking after me little girl, aye? How are ye today?"
"I'm still hopeless at visualizing clothes," she said and made a face, thinking about today's training. "We are still only working on a simple cloak, but I can't get it right – it keeps falling apart the moment after it has been created. And today, it ended up bright yellow!"
She and Jareth were working on her shape-shifter abilities, and his first task to her had been to develop her owl form and be more aware and precise when making the change. Her owl had improved much – better wings, sharper eyes and a more even silver-grey colour. Last week he had declared himself reasonably satisfied with it, and they had proceeded on to human shapes – her first task to just remain in her green dress, but to add a floor-length black cloak to it. But the cape had yet to be black or floor-length… or even stay more than a few seconds – she just couldn't get it right.
"It'll come, Sarah," Hoggle said and patted her hand. "If he can learn, then surely ye can, too."
Sarah told herself the same thing every day, but it was still frustrating to watch him perform it all so easily and then struggling so much to control the power within her. Hoggle got up to get the boiling water from the fireplace and pour it into the pot. The sweet scent of chamomile and dried apples filled the air, and Sarah leaned back and tried to relax.
"Hoggle, I don't know what to think about Jareth," she confessed and looked into the fire. "He confuses me."
"Mmm?"
"He's actually respecting my wishes and treats me as an equal most of the time." Sarah took a cup of tea and blew on it to cool it down. "He's still arrogant and cocky and too full of himself, but he seems to be content with just being my friend."
"For now, Sarah," Hoggle warned darkly. "He wanted ye as his wife, and what Jareth wants, Jareth gets. Never forget that."
Sarah frowned. Maybe she shouldn't have told Hoggle all about what had happened between her and Jareth in the throne room. The dwarf seemed unable to forget it for a single moment and when he had been forced to speak to Jareth since, he did so in an angry and rebuffing way. Jareth seemed not to notice, but Sarah did and was concerned about causing the added tension between them, especially when she wanted the guardians to come to the castle more often and not hate or fear Jareth.
"Hoggle," she tried and sipped her tea, "be nice - we're stuck here together for all foreseeable future. Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance? I won't be marrying him, but I do think he needs a friend."
"Don't say I didn't warn ye," the dwarf countered and huffed as he got up. "Gotta go, those fairies don't get cleaned up by themselves, now do they?"
"Are you still after the fairies, Hoggle? What did they ever do to you?"
He frowned at patted the large bundle of fake jewellery at his belt. "They steal me precious things, that's what they do. Nasty little buggers. Just yesterday another piece went missing. I'm sure it's them. They have an eye for shiny stuff, they do."
After Hoggle left, Sarah refilled her mug and brought it with her as she walked through the silent castle corridors towards her room. Just outside the kitchen door, something sparkly on the ground caught her eyes, and when she bent to investigate, she found one of Hoggle's bracelets there. So much for fairies stealing his things, she mused and put the bracelet in her pocket, so she could give it back to him later.
Sarah didn't use her room much, as her need for sleep had also greatly diminished, but she liked to go there to read and practise the shape-shifting in privacy. Today, she went to the large mirror near the fireplace and looked at herself carefully. During the training, she had brushed too close to a fireplace and the white shirt under the green dress had a dark dirty mark on it. She smiled at the opportunity for more practise, and as she concentrated for a moment and gathered her magic, the mark disappeared seconds later, and the sleeve looked clean and fresh again. Another small measure of progress - she no longer needed to transform into something else first as in the beginning in order to brush up her appearance.
As convenient as it was, it was also the hardest part of her transformation to accept – that she would look like this always. She hadn't had a bath in a week or brushed her hair even once, but in the mirror, she could see her hair was still shiny and clean, and she knew she smelled fresh and flowery and just a bit of magic. She was getting tired of seeing herself in the same green dress every day and took it off in the evenings, but when she awoke after a few hours' sleep, she would always find herself wearing it again. It was maddening to think about.
A loud rap on the door interrupted her thoughts and Jareth looked in through the open door.
"Sarah, I'm going out in the Labyrinth for my daily flight." He let his gaze stray over her and the mirror and lifted an eyebrow. "I thought it might be good for you to practise your owl on a longer trip – unless you would rather stay here…?"
She blushed and shook her head, embarrassed at being caught in front of a mirror like a school girl – again! "No, I'd love to join you. Where are we going, then?"
Twenty minutes later, they were flying side by side over a maze of hedges. Jareth had started them out at a slow pace, but soon increased his speed, and Sarah was concentrating intensely on following him and trying to match the beat of his wings. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the light breeze only made the air more manageable, so flying became easier. She was almost sad when Jareth descended and flew in circles down to a fountain surrounded by more hedges, but then she noticed the a small crying goblin huddled in a bundle next to it.
"Yara, are you lost again?" Jareth said after transforming into his casual white shirt and blue breeches. He didn't sound angry or mocking – his voice was kind and overbearing. "I thought I told you to stay near the castle?"
The goblin nodded and looked up at him with big yellow eyes. "Yara sorry, Your Majesty. Yara follow a chicken here, but chicken go 'way."
"Yes, right," he said and shook his head. Then he conjured a crystal ball and held it up. "C'mon – catch!"
The moment the little goblin touched the crystal, she disappeared without a trace, and Sarah changed into herself to be able to speak. "Where did you send her? Not an oubliette, I hope?"
Jareth frowned at her. "You think I would do that? To one of my goblin subjects?"
"Well, maybe not," Sarah admitted and gave him a tentative smile. "Though you did send me there…"
"She is safely home in the goblin city," Jareth sighed, "just like last week and the week before that. I round her up quite often on my trips – she is forever getting lost." He transformed back to an owl and took off, and Sarah hurriedly did the same in order to keep up with him. They couldn't speak as owls, but Sarah could sense from the way he beat his wings and curled his talons that he was upset with her, and she promised herself she would apologize the next time they landed.
She never got the chance, though, as he wouldn't have been able to hear it anyway. A group of fierys were screaming at the top of their lungs due to a big lumbering creature that looked like a troll stealing their heads. Jareth swooped down and quickly stopped it by grabbing the net with the heads back and then sending yet another crystal at the troll, which vanished instantly. The fierys whooped in joys and went to collect their heads, and Jareth looked up at Sarah, who had not even had time to land.
"This one went to an oubliette, my dear," he said coldly and then took off again.
Stop after stop, Jareth went down in the Labyrinth and handled all kinds of smaller and larger emergencies. Goblins, who had fallen down from a tree and were hurt, a Sphinx who had broken a wing, a StoneFace who's mortar was crumbling and needed repair and yet another lost little goblin. Sarah seldom had time to transfer to human state before he was off again, and at the end she was falling behind, struggling to keep up with him. Finally she gave up and landed in a forest clearing, where she instantly went human and sat down in the long soft grass, stretching her arms and legs to get the owl-feeling out of them.
"I just need a moment," she said, when he landed beside her and transformed as well. "Just let me rest for a little bit."
"But of course." He sat down on a nearby rock and stared off in the distance.
Sarah opened her mouth to say something, when she was interrupted by an insistent tug on her skirt and saw one of the Labyrinth's small blond fairies pulling fiercely at the embroidered silver thread of her dress, which glinted brightly in the sunlight. She shook it off, but it still continued, and finally she had to hit it flat on with her hand, and it flew up to her and tingled angrily, baring its teeth at her, before it flew away to find someone else to bother. She turned back to the Goblin King.
"Jareth, I'm sorry if I offended you," Sarah wanted to wipe the cold look off his face. "I wasn't thinking – of course you are not sending the goblins to the oubliettes."
He nodded stiffly but still didn't look at her. She shook her head and tried again.
"All those goblins and guardians and this huge Labyrinth… How do you know who needs help – is it part of the Labyrinth magic?"
"It allows me to feel where I'm needed," Jareth confirmed. He hesitated a moment, before he turned towards her with a strange look on his face. "Sarah, I wanted to ask you…"
"I wish the Goblin King would come and take you away – right now!" The loud shrill voice echoed across the clearing, and Sarah jumped to her feet and looked around, but no one was there.
"Is that what I think it is?" she asked, and Jareth nodded briskly as he rose as well and turned once on his heels, transforming in a second from his casual wear to a dark foreboding Goblin King outfit with a long black and silver cape and a spiked collar.
"Excuse me," he said and faded out, disappearing in front of her eyes, before she could ask any more questions, and Sarah envied him, not for the first time, his ability to teleport as she eyed the distance to the Castle which she would now have to manage on her own. Well, at least she had wings this time.