I've updated the last chapter by adding more to it. I recommend giving that a read-read. And I suppose it's been so long since I've updated you might have to give the whole thing a read-read anyways. Hopefully, I'll actually stay active on here for awhile, but life... Anyways I hope y'all enjoy ~Quirky Books
Rewriting Fate
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Sarah was fuming, Hoggle had just left her. And that wretched Goblin King had taken 3 hours away from her. Then as if this wasn't enough, he sent a terrible contraption after her. The 'cleaners' Hoggle had called it. But it seemed to do more damage than good. Making more of a mess if anything. Sarah, rolled her eyes. What a backwards place this was.
A loud roar shook Sarah from her thoughts. Taking a deep breath she determinedly took a step towards it, then another. Soon enough she came to the source of the noise.
A large, red-ish orange, horned beast was hung upside down, suspended in the air by his feet. While a group of goblins tortured him by poking him with sticks with odd little creatures on the end. The small creatures bit and nipped and the beast who cried out in pain.
Sarah's fright was replaced by sympathy and a want to help the poor beast. She looked around helplessly, in search of something, anything she could use to create a diversion.
"If only I had something to throw," she cried out mainly to herself. The beast let out a low guttural roar, continuing to cry out.
As if by magic she felt something bump against her foot. It was a rather large stone, she was certain it hadn't been there a moment ago. Deciding not to question it too much, Sarah bent down, picked the stone up and threw it at one of the goblins. Hitting it square in its helmeted head with a loud clang.
The small creature stumbled forward and knocked into one of the other goblins, causing him to fall backwards into a third goblin. Sarah threw another stone. The goblins are this point we're in a disarray and began to squabble amongst themselves. Hitting each other with their sticks.
After a moments time they'd left the giant beast as they continued to attack one another. Sarah walked closer to the hanging beast and began to try to untie him. He struggled and roared at Sarah.
"Do you want down?" Sarah asked as she took a step back.
"Ludo, down." The creature responded slowly in a low voice.
"Ludo." Sarah dreamily repeated to herself. "Is that your name?" Sarah's eyes clouded over.
Long ago……
Sarah stood at the entrance of the Goblin city by the gigantic gate. She looked out at the labyrinth surrounding the city. How she longed to explore it, something about it called to her. But she'd made a promise to Jareth -she wouldn't step foot into the labyrinth. He said it was a dangerous place full of creatures that might cause her harm. At first she found this hard to believe, she'd met quite a few of the Underground's creatures and while strange, they seemed harmless. But Sarah soon learned that many of the Underground's inhabitants had a very different definition of harmless than she did. While they wouldn't do anything to harm her by their world's standards, they might certainly do something by hers.
But even still it had been a hard promise to keep. Sarah often found herself walking along the labyrinth's edge, tempted to enter. Anytime Jareth saw this behavior, he quickly whisked her away with a distraction. Some ostentatious ball or festival "they just had to attend," a private dinner, or some other sort of entertaining event. But still only distractions, very good ones at that.
But Jareth wasn't in the Goblin city today or if he was Sarah hadn't found him and he'd certainly not come to find her. In fact it'd been a few days since she'd last seen him. She hadn't seen him since the night of their kiss. She'd visited the Underground every day since then and had seen no sign of him. And while she was used to seeing him from time to time in his owl form, while home, she hadn't spotted him once.
Still, just the thought of the kiss reddened her cheeks. But it also saddened her. Was that kiss the reason Jareth seemed to be avoiding her? What if it hadn't met to him what it'd met to her? Perhaps he felt so disgusted by the kiss and by her just the thought of her seeing her again made him sick. Perhaps he regretted it.
Those thoughts sent Sarah near tears. She liked Jareth so much and had begun to feel rejected by him. It hurt almost enough to keep her from going back to the Underground. Almost.
A loud cry sounded from the labyrinth. It sounded like something was in pain. Sarah took a cautious step forward. It sounded like the cries weren't coming from that far within the labyrinth. Probably just a few steps in. Not that far at all. Surely, she could just step in, help the poor creature. Then step right out again.
She weighed her options and listened as the cries turned into a low whining. Her mind was made up. She couldn't leave a poor helpless creature in pain.
She stepped into the labyrinth. As soon as she did the air changed. A cool breeze ruffled her hair, causing her to shiver. A strange electric energy filled her. Something about being in the labyrinth felt right.
Without even thinking she began to make her way through the labyrinth, easily making her way through each twist and turn. With each step each cry and whine grew louder. She was getting closer. It was as if something within her was telling her exactly which way to go.
After only a a few minutes she found the source of the cries. A giant, orange red, creature sat in the middle of the path clutching it's foot, a giant thorn appeared to be sticking from it.
Sarah held her breath. Maybe it'd been a bad idea to come here, to break her promise to Jareth.
Nonsense you'll be fine, she thought. Something was telling her she could trust this strange creature.
"Do you need help?" The creature looked startled by the sound of Sarah's voice, but responded nonetheless.
"Help Ludo."
"Ludo." Sarah repeated. "Is that your name?"
Present day……
Sarah awoke from her dreamlike trance confused her mind was clouded. What was that? She touched her head. Just as quickly as the vision? memory? hallucination? came it went.
She shook her head. "Sorry, I'll let you down now." She untied the rope and tried to help ease Ludo's fall. "Do you happen to know how to get to the castle?"
"No." Ludo shook his head while looking down.
"We'll that's alright. We can find it together." She offered her hand to help him up. Together they began to make their way through the mysterious maze.
Hoggle had against his better judgment ditched the girl. He needed to speak to Jareth in private.
"Hedgword. What is this? I gave you one task, to watch Sarah as she travels through the labyrinth. And yet you run away from her." The king had found him and if it had been under normal circumstances Hoggle would've been frightened. But there was no time for the king's ramblings.
"Oh, can it, you rat. Sarah's not alright, she's remembering things. And-"
"She is?" The king interrupted him, intrigued. His heart soared, maybe by now she'll have remembered everything. They could be together the way it was meant to be.
"Don't look so happy about it. She's not ready yet. It's not good for her-"
"Surely, Sarah is a little overwhelmed right now. But when she remembers everything her confusion will clear." Waving a hand and dismissing the dwarf's concern. "If she remembers everything I can quit with this charade and just ask her to stay."
"Jareth. How do you know she'll want to stay?" Hoggle looked at the king hoping he would realize what a big mistake he was making. "Things are different. She's not the same Sarah from all those years ago."
"ENOUGH! I am tired of your foolish ramblings." Hoggle winced as the Goblin King continued shouting. "Not the same Sarah? How can you say that, when you've seen her with your own two eyes? When you've been in her presence? Do you think I've made a mistake? Confused my Precious for another?" The King's shouts turned into a broken croak. He fell back into a large rock formation. "She's the same. And we will finally be together."
Hoggle turned away feeling embarrassed and sad for his king. It was obvious he was blinded by his love for the girl and it was affecting his decision making. His choices, no matter how misguided, clearly came from the hurt and pain he felt all those years back.
The Labyrinth had nearly crumbled into nothingness after the first Sarah. The King had almost succumbed to his heartbreak. Until one day things changed and went back to normal, like nothing ever happened.
Jareth held a hand to his forehead, trying to block the sunlight and ignore the shadow of doubt the dwarf had filled him with.
"I happen to know she's the same and she'll stay. I have made a deal with The Fates." Jareth responded matter-of-factly, standing upright and regaining his composure.
Hoggle gasped and stumbled backwards. "No." The Fates were known for their trickery. Messing with them was asking for trouble. "Damn you. Don't ya know what this means? This could be bad. Very bad." Oh what a mess. Hoggle wants no part of this. Hoggle was beyond frightened of what this could mean.
Letting out a cool laugh Jareth responded. "What's done is done. Don't lose your head. Hedgewort."
"I ain't lost my head." Hoggle's hands shot up to either side of his face, just to be sure. "But to go making deals with the Fates?" He shook his head.
"You must think low of my intelligence." He shot the dwarf a nasty look. "I didn't have them change anything. Only a fool would try to unwrite what's already been written. I only asked to see what'd been wrote."
This did little to lift the dwarf's unease. He'd often been called paranoid and a coward. But he had is reasons. And any business with The Fates scared him.
"Sarah and I are in the stars. It's meant to happen. That's how I know she'll stay."
"If yer so sure, why's not wait? I'm telling ya it's too soon."
"I'm tired of waiting. I've waited a long time for this. Now if you know what's good for you, you'll get back to Sarah. And you'll give her this." Jareth, tossed the dwarf a peach.
Hoggle caught the peach. Looking at it peculiarly. "What's this for?" He looked up, Jareth was fading away in a cloud of glitter.
"A gift. It'll help her as she remembers things." He'd faded away completely and now only the echo of his voice remained.
Hoggle shuddered again. Damn him and this whole mess. He only hoped Jareth was right. He didn't have a good feeling about any of this.
Unknown to the Goblin King, someone else had visited the Fates shortly after he did. And they too made a deal, only they did rewrite what had already been wrote. While, The Goblin King and Sarah's fate had been written in the stars. The stars had been moved.
