CHAPTER 1

Sarah had just got home from working as a Research Assistant for Professor Gainbridge in Yale University in the Research Development Department. Her day had gone slowly and she was doing nothing but running from department to department for her professor all day. By the end of the day, her feet were tired. Normally she would be looking up information in the research library or school library, but not today. The professor was giving a speech on the new breakthroughs in the Chemical Engineering Department. In the last three days she was running around like crazy getting the last minute facts and figures.

Sarah walked through her front door of her parents house on Friday evening and was looking for a weekend of peace and quiet. Nobody was home because they had gone to the lake for the week and asked her to house sit for them while they were out of town. Sarah kicked off her heels and went to her old room and laid down on the bed. She was out like a light and fell into a heavy sleep not waking up all night.

—--

It was thirteen years after Sarah had run the Labyrinth, and it just so happened to be on the night of her anniversary. An entity that glowed from a green mist coming up out of a well in a very old ancient room that was inside a set of catacombs. The mists materialized in the form of a long blonde haired woman in a gray gauzy cowl hooded robe. She faded out of the stone room and reappeared in front of a New England Dutch colonial house on a sloping front yard at night in the shadows. She moved to the side of the house and opened the window of a room with the movement of her finger to a two inch crack from outside. The entity dissolved into a green glowing smoke that drifted through the window into the room. The entity's mist hovered over the woman lying prone on the bed in a deep slumber.

Sarah dreamt that she was surrounded in a huge dark gray stone room with a giant black hole in the floor of a room with no doors. She looked down into the large pit of blackness. It was completely bottomless. She called out to the darkness, "Where am I?! Where is this place?!" Sarah looked around confused.

A voice spoke in a monotone feminine voice, "You are standing on the threshold of your destiny."

Sarah asked stoically, "Where does it lead to?" Sarah peeked over the edge.

The voice said, "Underground."

Sarah was frightened and yelled, "No! I won't go back there! I refuse to go through that maze again!"

The voice said, "Calm yourself. You will not have to run the Labyrinth again. You will find your destiny of who you will become. You can no longer deny your future in the Aboveground. You were chosen to be something… unique to the Underground. Just step into the abyss and have faith you are doing the right thing to save the realm of magic."

Sarah said frowning, "I don't believe in magic anymore. I gave it up. I don't wish and I don't dream of the fanciful whims of magic anymore."

The voice sadly spoke, "Then you doom the Underground to death. Magic cannot survive without the belief of its champion. You had thirteen years to be gone from us to grow up and mature. But there is only thirteen years we could wait for your return. Would you let our world die and the belief of magic in your own world also?"

Sarah said confused in indecisiveness, "I would not want the Underground to die, but I have a life of my own now. I have a career, a home, car and family."

The voice solemnly spoke, "And we only have you. Those other things, in the Aboveground will not last forever and will be forgotten in time. Our world goes on unending with the good and the bad if you are part of it. The Underground needs you, Lady Sarah Williams."

Sarah asked with hope in her voice, "Will I be able to visit my family if I am to go to the Underground?"

The voice said sadly, "You will be able to watch over them, but you cannot go back, that is unless you become the Goblin Queen. You would have to marry King Jareth to be able to do that. The exposure to magic will change you. You will become that which magic makes you into after enough exposure builds up inside of you."

Sarah hesitantly replied, "Can I think about it?"

The voice spoke with empathy, "There can be no more time, I am sorry, Lady Sarah. You must decide tonight. When you wake up our fate will be sealed and decided because the anniversary will be over and time will have run out. You could not have been approached earlier or later. It had to be on the thirteenth anniversary only. I am sorry because there could be no other way until there is another champion and you were the only one in four thousand years." Sarah was so torn. She had no time to think about it and she had to decide now. She didn't want to destroy the entire world of magic. What of her friends and Jareth whatever he was? They would all die.

Sarah asked curiously, "What about the last champion before me?"

The voice explained, "The last had gone into the fade. The replacement was to be chosen in a one hundred year time frame. You were the only one to win with the right amount of faith in belief, kindness of heart and intelligence. You were chosen by the Fates." Sarah was so frustrated and knew she had no choice because she could not let them all die out.

Sarah said and sighed resigned to her fate, "What do I have to do?"

The voice said stoically, "Jump into the pit with a leap of faith like you did to save your brother." Sarah took a deep breath, closed her eyes and fell forward with a rush of wind.

It spun her around so fast she couldn't open her eyes if she wanted to or she would throw up. There were no colors or light through her lids, but just pure black darkness rotating her around and around. It was endless. At some point she finally lost total consciousness.

A raven of unusual enormous size was sweeping through the darkness searching for his prey. The green entity was following Sarah as she fell head over heels through the abyss. The raven saw the girl and the green entity enveloped her in a green bubble as they fell to protect her from the raven.

The entity said to the mind of the raven, "Be gone, Argus, this one is not for the Unseelie to claim." The raven screeched out with talons extended, rupturing the green bubble and started fighting with the entity. They threw green and orange balls of magic at each other. Sarah was thrown off in a different way but straightened out and resumed falling.

The sky opens up into a round black disk portal. It was a heavy gray cloud filled hazy snowy day. Sarah fell straight down into a fluffy bank of snow. A large lumbering white female giant dragon saw the sky portal open up and something dropped out into the snow on the other cliff over to the other side of the ravine. She happened to come outside of her cave at that moment. The dragon took flight. She flew to the other side of the ravine and saw a dark haired human woman in the snow that was starting to cover her. The human was still alive somehow.

The female white dragon took her front claws talon and carefully unburied the woman. The dragon thought, 'She must be of importance to have fallen from the sky and still be alive. Not many would have lived or hit the ravine bottom or the cliffside. Perhaps, I will take the human to keep it warm until the one comes to claim her.'

The dragon picked up the human woman with her claw carefully to not scratch or harm her and flew up into the air across the ravine to her lair in the cave. There was a large amount of gold items strewn about in huge hills and a lava pool in the center of it all keeping the cavern warm from the winter. The dragon deposited the woman on a hill of gold coins, she flattened out with her tail. She pulled over a piece of fur to cover the human woman with. The dragon climbed into her gold with just her head sticking out.

—--

The green entity finally got away from the raven and went after Sarah to try to catch up with her fall. She was nowhere to be found. She couldn't have died because the entity's magic was still ok. The entity knew Sarah must have been thrown off course and could be anywhere in the Underground and fell through any portal leading to anywhere in the Seelie realm. The entity could not sense her. She has to be somewhere shielded. Until Sarah resurfaced, the entity could not sense her. Sarah was on her own.

—--

Sarah was rising up out of the inky blackness slowly. She felt herself surrounded in warmth. She opened her eyes to see a rock ceiling with some stalactites. Sarah blinked a couple times and sat up. She was shocked as hell looking around. She was inside of a cave filled with gold and a raised pool of lava in the middle. Sarah studied every detail and froze when she spotted the head of a dragon sticking out of the gold piles. It freaked her out.

Sarah started trying to remember everything she knew about dragons. She knew they liked treasure, they could range in behavior from lawful good, chaotic evil or unlawful evil. If it was unlawful evil she was screwed. White dragons liked the arctic areas, were slightly smaller and could breath frost, ice or both. You never steal from them or insult them. This one had scales of an iridescent white mother of pearl. The dragon was very beautiful.

Sarah stood up and started walking as deftly as possible to look outside the cave entrance. She could hear the wind whistling outside. She just wanted a look.

The dragon spoke in a feminine voice, "Leaving so soon?"

Sarah stopped and turned around. She smiled at the dragon that had one eye open to look at her. Sarah replied, "Of course not. I heard the wind whistling and just wanted to look outside. Besides, it's too cold for me out there."

The dragon chuckled and said, "Yes, you're right it is. Take your look, human and come back." Sarah smiled and looked outside. She knew, that she was never going anywhere without the dragon's help. It was a straight drop down into a ravine. Sarah went back and sat down on the fur she was covered with.

The dragon asked, "Is your curiosity satisfied, little human?"

Sarah chuckled and said, "Yes. You have a smart safe cave up here."

The dragon moved to swing her head around to look at her and asked curiously, "How is that?"

Sarah simply answered her, "It's very strategic in having it on a mountain with a straight drop to a ravine."

The dragon said contemplating her answer, "I like that answer. I'm going to go get some sheep to eat. I can bring one back for you to eat?"

Sarah said, smiling at the dragon's generosity, "That is very kind and thoughtful of you to do for me. I have to cook meat to eat. If you could, would you bring me back a stick to cook it with? Do you also have a knife to butcher it with? I will only need a bit to last me a couple days, but you can eat the rest of it if you like?"

The dragon replied thinking how the human was not scared at all of her, "No you can keep it frozen by the entrance then it will keep you eating longer. Humans must have delicate stomachs to cook their meat. What else do you eat to live?"

Sarah answered thoughtfully, "Fruits, breads and vegetables with water."

The dragon said, "Yes, I'll see what I can do." The dragon pulled out of her hoard of treasure and stood up and stretched.

Sarah asked respectfully, "What is your name? My name is Sarah."

The dragon answered proudly, "My name is Valira the White."

Sarah asked, smiling at her, "Is it ok to call you Valira?"

Valira was surprised at how respectful the little human was and answered, "I like that you ask me respectfully, Sarah. Yes, Valira is fine." Sarah smiled at her. Valira went to the cave entrance as Sarah was careful to stay clear of her big tail as it swished from side to side. Valira dove off the cliff.