I thought I'd feel more than this… but I don't. Shock, maybe? thought Jacen as he sat against the wall of the cabin. It wasn't the most comfortable position, the large logs weren't kind to his bruised back, but for the moment he was grateful for their sturdy thickness between him and the outside.
There was a little bit of light coming from the fire in the cookstove. It might have been more prudent to bank it for the night, but it was the only light source they had, all the candles and lamps having been smashed. It was quiet in the cabin, the only sound being the soft snores of the two men sleeping on the floor in front of him.
I'll heat up some water in the morning… give myself a good wash. I've got tree sap and Goddess knows what else smeared all over me.
That turned his mind to another idea. Heat… we can stack some large stones on top of the cookstove, heat them up and wrap them in some of those towels we found in the loft… like a makeshift heat pack…
For the last hour, he'd been running things through his mind, trying to think up solutions for their present problems. As his thoughts started to turn in circles, he decided to concentrate on the sounds around him.
Strange, haunting cries… some small mammal, no doubt. Chirps and buzzing from various insects. The croak of frogs…
He'd agreed to take first watch because he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, at least not for a while. Once his watch was up, he had a feeling that the painkiller he took was going to hit him like a hammer to the head.
As he sat and listened to the music of the forest, he could pick out more sounds. Growls, barks and howls… far away. Aside from the occasional bear, the predators of this area tended to be on the small side. Certainly nothing large enough to be a credible threat to an Othánas, even an injured one stripped of his magic.
His mind skipped over to food… more specifically, what they were going to eat over the next few days. They only had a couple more undamaged cans, mostly gravies, vegetables and fruit. They would need meat of some kind, either fish or game. Fishing they might be able to do… even if they used one of the poles to make blowguns, there were still four more of them. None of them had two working arms, but one could hold the pole while another worked the reel…
Cooking the food, now that was the real problem, and one they hadn't given much thought to when they all agreed to go on this little excursion. Anduin could do a fish chowder, and any idiot could fry a piece of meat or stick it over a fire, but aside from that, none of them knew how to cook anything.
Bah, if you had to eat it raw, so be it. You're in no position to be picky, Jace…
He remembered past trips with Dad and his uncles. He'd been surprised to find that all three of them knew how to cook, and quite well. They'd laughed when he'd asked, recounting some tales from their sabotage days, hunting game in the woods and cooking it over an open fire. In their youth, all three of them would help Jacen's grandmother with dinner on occasion. There was a mix of wistfulness in their faces at the memories and sorrow at the remembrance of them.
Of course, back in the day, Dad could probably fight off a Fae warband, seduce a dozen maidens, tryst with each one, cook a gourmet meal, fight off another warband, then pause long enough to sip a cup of tea.
That was unfair. He knew it was. Dad performed wonders, yes. But… not without help. Garthan and Randel were just as responsible for the founding of the Kingdom, the safety they all enjoyed, the optimistic future for the Goblin people, and neither one of them were any more powerful than Jacen was. Randel was the one who journeyed for five years to find this land. Jareth would have died in the evacuation if Garthan hadn't gone back for him and dragged him to safety, back to the Labyrinth.
Power. Like Toby said, it was a double-edged sword. Dad was Dad, to him and Karina. To his mother… a lover and husband. Just Jareth, to his family and friends. Even his subjects looked upon him with admiration and affection.
Outside of the Kingdom, however, he was a figure of fear and (to some degree) loathing. Even people who had no cause to be afraid of him were terrified of Jareth, the Goblin King. And Dad… he was a lot more sensitive than anyone really gave him credit for. It hurt him to some extent that he was so feared and hated. He'd never asked to be the boogeyman that he was seen as by so many. But he was.
Toby had a point… how many times was he able to obtain a valuable trade agreement or avoid a conflict because he wasn't Jareth? The very power that helped him save his people and establish the Kingdom was almost a detriment during times of peace…
And if Jacen had a lot to live up to… didn't Jareth too? His own legend (as far as Dad had always said) was so fantastical and unbelievable that no living being could ever have performed the miracles that were attributed to him.
He recalled that last conversation he'd had with Dad… the sadness on his face when he'd admonished Jacen to keep from envying him. It didn't occur to him until just this moment that Jareth would have traded every ounce of his phenomenal power, just to have had a normal life. To have his parents back, to have an ordinary existence, free of the horrors and the responsibilities that his early years had been filled with.
Maybe… maybe it's Dad who envies me…
His thoughts were interrupted by an overwhelming feeling that something was wrong. He sat up a little straighter, straining his ears for any sound.
Sound.
That's what was wrong… there was no sound. The nightsong of the forest had ceased entirely. It was dead quiet outside. Even the insects had fallen silent. And while the windows had been covered, he could still feel… watched. Observed. Like there was something out there… and it wasn't friendly.
He held his breath, his head almost aching with the strain of his ears.
There… a footstep
It was furtive, as if whatever it was had been sneaking up on them. It was right on the other side of the log wall, right behind his back. He could hear the slow, quiet footsteps as they proceeded toward the front of the cabin. This was no forest creature he knew… not a deer or even a bear… this was… smart. And… bipedal.
Moving as silently as he could, he placed his hand over Anduin's mouth, enough to quiet any noise he made. Instantly, his eyes snapped open and he looked up at Jacen. Removing his hand, Jacen put a finger to his lips, then pointed to the door. Anduin's eyes unfocused for a moment, trying to listen… another step. His wide eyes met Jacen's again briefly, before he started to sit up. Jacen took hold of his good arm as quietly as he could, pulling him into a seated position. By the time he turned to Toby, Jacen could see that he was already awake, his eyes on the door.
Each of them pulled out their knives, holding them at the ready. The door had been nailed shut, but… a determined creature could probably burst through. Toby slowly rolled over to his knees, rising silently and tiptoeing to stand beside the door.
The footsteps stopped. Jacen had this crazy mental picture that the monster was standing right outside the door, its ear pressed against it to hear within…
Then, to his utter horror… he saw the doorknob turn.
Toby heard the creature shift its weight, the boards of the porch creaking softly. Whatever it was, it was heavy… and big.
Through the small sliver of opening at the top of the door, a cloud of stench drifted into the cabin. Toby wrinkled his nose as a scent reminiscent of a pigpen permeated the air. Then he heard the slow twisting of the doorknob. He tightened his grip on his knife, watching as Jacen and Anduin did the same. Anduin rose silently to his feet and padded over to the other side of the door, unspoken between them their determination to protect their Prince should this creature break through.
The knob stopped turning and Toby could hear the creak of the wooden door as the creature slowly pushed on it. He counted two or three pushes before it stopped, and the knob turned the other way… as if the creature was slowly letting go of it. In the silence, they could hear the furtive footsteps retreating, going back around from whence they came. After about ten minutes, the forest came alive again, the animals seeming to discuss this strange visitor in their hoots and growls.
"What the hell was that?" hissed Anduin.
"I told you that was no bear," Jacen hissed back. Neither one of them seemed to want to raise their voices above a whisper.
"We're lucky it was just curious. I'm not sure we could have done much with these knives," said Toby as he moved away from the door.
"Curious, my ass. That thing knew we were here. It was trying to sneak in and surprise us," said Jacen, grimly.
Anduin looked at him with a measure of shock, "Jace… what's with you? I've never seen you so…"
"Scared? Damn right. That thing wants us dead."
"We don't know that…" started Toby.
"How's your magic level?" asked Jacen, his expression fierce.
Oh, shit… thought Toby as he met Jacen's gaze. "Lower than earlier. You're right, that's what's draining us. But we don't know it's motivation… I mean, it's just an animal…"
"An animal that can open doors?" interjected Anduin. "Only a primate can do that and we don't have them here Below. Besides the humanoids that is. I might have even thought it a forest troll except we're at too high of an elevation for them."
"It's not a mountain troll, either," said Jacen. "They stay up in the snow and they don't smell like that thing did."
"If it had been a mountain troll that broke in here, we wouldn't have seen all that destruction," Anduin returned. "It would have just stolen what it wanted and left. No, this is something different."
"And… how the hell did it know how to open a door?" asked Jacen. "I mean, if it's an animal, it wouldn't know what a doorknob was or how to operate it."
Toby nodded at them, "I see your point. Well, we can't do much about it right now. It's too dark outside and I know I sure as hell don't want to go out there and look around until after sunrise. But I think the first thing we do at dawn is make us some weapons."
Jacen opened his eyes and looked around wildly, forgetting for a moment where he was. At the same time, he'd started to sit up, also forgetting about his broken wrist, which reminded him with a lightning bolt of pain that shot up his arm. Muttering a few obscenities, he managed to wrestle himself into a sitting position.
Toby was stirring too, although he avoided putting any weight on his injured arm as he sat up. He hadn't noticed it last night, but Toby's face was quite bruised, as was Anduin's, and he could only imagine that his own looked similar. Even without his injured arm and ankle, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this sore and beat up, not even during the most vigorous combat lessons.
Anduin was puttering around the cabin. He'd started some sort of breakfast for them, something canned, no doubt. It was sizzling in the frying pan at the moment, and the scent made his mouth water.
He sat without moving for a bit, trying to get his injured wrist to stop screaming at him. Anduin noticed that he was awake and moved over toward him.
"You okay, Jace? Do you need the painkiller?"
Jacen shook his head, "I don't want to take it… not yet. We've got a lot to do today, and I don't want to sleep through half of it."
"I agree," said Toby, his voice still hoarse with sleep. "I'm not even sure I want to take them tonight, either."
Anduin nodded in agreement, although Jacen could tell that he was hurting, perhaps even more than he and Toby were. His arm and shoulder were bound, immobile, but from the pinched look of his lips, Jacen knew that the pain was still acute, and with every movement he made, it got worse. Anduin turned back to the stove, scraping the contents of the frying pan into the three soup bowls from the night before.
"Sorry… I didn't want to go to the lake and clean these… not alone, anyway."
Jacen shrugged, "It won't kill us to eat from a dirty bowl. And I wouldn't want to go out there alone, either." He rolled his neck a bit, hearing the creaks and pops of his muscles as he did so. Taking a quick self-inventory, he glanced over at Toby. "My power is only at about a quarter of its usual level. Yours?"
Toby rolled his head around his shoulders as Jacen had. "About that level, yeah. Our visitor didn't come back, at least not on my watch, so I don't think I lost anymore since last night."
"No, it didn't," said Anduin. "Come back, I mean. And my level is the same as yours. Not enough to transport, but I could probably conjure a thing or two."
"Do we want to do that, though?" asked Jacen. "It might have moved on when it sensed that we didn't have a lot of magic. Conjuring might bring it right back to us."
Toby took a moment to look in his bowl, "What in the ever-loving hell is this?"
"Corned beef hash," replied Anduin. "At least that's what it said on the can."
Jacen made a face at his bowl, "I'm glad to have it, it saves us having to hunt or fish. For this morning at least. But… what's with all the Aboveground food? Dad knows how to cook, so do Randel and Garthan. Why the cans?"
"Oh, that's Sarah," said Toby. "She stocked the cabin with stuff we used to bring on our camping vacations, back in the day. Sort of a way to relive the old memories, I think. I don't remember having this stuff before, though." He sniffed the bowl delicately. "It smells better than it looks." He gingerly took a bite, then smiled slightly. "Tastes pretty good, at least." After taking a few more bites, Toby spoke while still chewing. "The thing is… we can either wait until our power levels are high enough to transport, which would probably be tomorrow. Or… use what power we have now to get some things we need."
"If we use the power now, we have a better chance of getting through this situation, at least until we can transport," said Anduin between bites. "We might want to have just one of us conjure, while the other two refrain, so their power levels can keep growing."
Toby chuckled, "The first one to reach transport level pops back to Caladh and brings the cavalry."
Jacen frowned thoughtfully, "That might work… and at least we'd have some more gear if we need it. Yes, there's a chance our visitor will sniff out the magic and come back, but it might do that tonight anyway. And if we have our power levels somewhat restored at that point… it could drain us and leave us in the same situation we're in right this moment."
Toby groaned, "Arrgh… I can just picture us saving our power and that thing draining it away while we sleep. I'm with Anduin… we need to conjure some stuff. I say… I'm the one that does the conjuring." When Anduin was about to object, Toby put up his hand. "I'm the least hurt one of the three of us, and the one in the best position to be left behind. If I use my power to conjure, we still have yours. You, Jace… you need to recharge and get the hell out of here the moment you have the energy. Even if it's only to Silverton."
"As if I'd leave you here…" started Jacen.
"You'd have to," said Anduin. "I agree with Toby. Jace… you're the Goblin Prince. The heir. Can you imagine the mess you'd leave behind if something happened to you up here? I don't mean just politically, like we talked about last night. I mean… what do you think that would do to your mom and dad?"
"You have parents too, Anduin. Who would be just as grieved—"
"But I'm not the Prince. And they would understand and find solace in the fact that my duty is to protect this Kingdom. I do that here, in this situation, by protecting you. Just as Toby will. You must do your duty to the Kingdom by surviving."
Author's Notes:
Here, we get to see a bit more into Jacen's feelings of inadequacy. It's hard for him... he admires the hell out of his father and wishes he could be more like him. It was only after Toby and Anduin expressed their preference to be led by him and not Jareth (at least in this situation) that he starts to see that he has gifts of his own.
This is also where Jacen finally starts to understand that Jareth's life (at least up until he met and married Sarah) was not a bed of roses. Power comes at a price. In some ways, it cost Jareth his family, his childhood (and certainly his adolescence). And while his own subjects admire him, he is feared and hated outside the Kingdom (something that hurts his feelings, even if he doesn't show it). It's also hard to live up to your own legend. You can't make a mistake; you always have to have an idea of what to do. There can be no weakness. Jareth is expected to pull a magical miracle out of his hat, without any thought as to whether it is even possible. This is an intense pressure and one that Jacen had never thought of before.
And... he starts to see that contrary to popular belief; Jareth didn't act alone. The wondrous things he has done were all accomplished with help. Jacen can now see that no one man can carry the burden alone... he has to have support, and it is perhaps the ordinary people around him that deserve the credit more than he does. Jareth had always thought so, but this is the first time that Jacen truly understands this.
At any rate, you should get the idea that father and son are going to have a heart-to-heart talk when all this is over.