**Don't own anything.**
Chapter Nine
The Valravn
Sarah decided that being a tree was both ridicules and maddening. Of course while it was happening there was not much to think of other than the sun and the earth. However when Jareth let her mind go and she blinked back to being herself she always felt somehow violated while also a bit cheated.
Jareth smirked and leaned against a tree. He did that every time too.
"Do you have to do that?" She demanded unfairly. She knew he did but she was tired, afraid and angry at her lack of control in the situation.
"I already explained this." He replied, squinting up at the sun high in the sky.
"Give me some warning then, before you start man handling me!" She griped.
Jareth laughed, "Man handling?"
"Yes, man handling." She sniffed. Her face felt too warm, her stomach fluttery and her heart too fast. He was affecting her and she hated it. Hated that he could stir up her emotions and cause some very Not Okay desires in her.
"Time moves on and so must we." He insisted, standing strait again as he adjusted his pack.
Sarah sat on the nearest rock. "I need a break." She informed him. It was the third day in this forest and she was not used to this much walking. Never thinking herself out of shape before she now knew how wrong she was.
He stared down at her, annoyance clear in his face, "Sarah," he began.
"I'm Tired!" She insisted as she opened her bottle of water and drank.
Jareth placed a hand on his hip, a mocking smile on his smug face he watched her drink.
Jerk... she thought yet remained watching him. Flawless face, starling magical eyes, strong, confident shoulders...
She hated her own mind. What the hell was wrong with her? Was she that desperate that she would want someone like him? Sarah stood, angry at herself. At him. At whatever cruel thing ruled fate and decided they would end up stuck together.
Jareth didn't say anything just started walking again uncaring and oblivious to Sarah's internal struggles.
She glared at his back. She tried to remember every bad thing he ever did. Remembering his horrible actions when she was younger. Remembering his treatment of Hoggle.
Despite her best efforts that was not what her mind kept returning to.
Instead she saw him standing in a ballroom like some enchanted prince from a fairy tale. She saw him offer her everything before she turned him away with those fated words. Her mirror, it was a lifeline all these years, one he said he let happen. She saw the concern on his face after the Aramok attack, how he offered to keep her family safe by keeping her with him.
Despite her very best efforts to look at this goblin King and see a villain she just couldn't, not anymore.
"It's not fair." She mumbled in despair at the unwanted feelings that refused to go away.
"You know," Jareth began looking over his shoulder at her, "I wondered when you would say that."
Sarah felt like she had run into a brick wall. "What?"
"Well, it was your favorite thing to say all those years ago." He said with a dramatic sigh, "I must say. I am quite disappointed Sarah. I thought you had grown up."
Sarah's mouth fell open. Her emotions cascading wildly from something far too close to affection to hurt and sorrow and then to anger and rage. How dare he? All her warm feeling for him vanished in the heat of her anger, "You are heartless, you know that?" She said stomping past him so he wouldn't see the effect he had on her.
She continued walking, refusing to stop even when he called after her. Unfortunately he was remarkably fast on his feet and was soon at her side. "Sarah," He said.
What the hell was his problem anyway? Sometime it felt like his words were a stick, one he was poking her with just to watch her pain. She didn't even look at him. If her loved ones very lives didn't hang on her staying with him she would have left right then.
"Sarah!" he said again, this time he grabbed her arm.
She jerked it out of his grasp, "Don't you touch me," she hissed at him.
He actually seemed to recoil from her anger, his face showing neither enjoyment or annoyance. In fact he sighed, looking down at his feet like a naughty child. "I didn't," he began.
"I don't care." Sarah snapped at him cutting off whatever he meant to say. "What you think about me doesn't matter. I am here to keep my family safe, that's all Goblin King, your opinion of me means nothing!" she lied. The words covering the truth that she did care. Despite herself she really did care and it made her so angry!
"So I am not allowed the chance to make amends?" He asked quietly.
Sarah folded her arms in defiance and glared at him with all the anger she could muster. "I would never trust what you say, so it doesn't matter, does it?"
Jareth laughed without mirth, "Always the villain with you?" He asked.
"Well I wouldn't call you the hero." Sarah replied in all honesty as she turned from him and started walking again.
Jareth moved past her, leading the way again, "I do what I must to maintain balance within my realm Sarah, if that makes me a Villain," he shrugged, "so be it."
"Yes well, I am sure in your kingdom its all well and reasonable to kidnap children," She began, struggling to keep up with him again. The wind picked up and Sarah was grateful for its cooling effects on the hot day, wishing it could cool her emotions too. "And then torture their caregivers as they try and get them back." she continued.
Ahead of her he stopped as the path began to wind its way up a small incline of tumbled rock. He said nothing just watched her as she closed the distance between them. "Unreasonable, rude and manipulative," she mumbled, his eyes on her felt like a spot light but her anger at him didn't diminish beneath its glare, "Setting traps and false leads," she complained.
He laughed, startling her and for a moment she met his gaze. "I suppose, in your very mature and esteemed fifteen year old mind it made more sense just to give him back when you asked?"
"I was very mature for my age thank you!" She huffed, only to feel foolish when he laughed again.
"You were just like every other selfish human who came before you and like every stupid and selfish human who came after." He drawled, like it was some common knowledge and boring as well.
"Humans are not selfish or stupid." she insisted. "You are the bad guy here."
Jareth grinned openly and kept up the pace. Not slowing despite the rapid incline that was turning into a cliff. "I am benevolent and very understanding considering what I must deal with. You should be grateful I was the one who answered your wish Sarah. There was a time when Humans didn't dare wish at all for fear the answer."
"There was a time, bla bla bla." Sarah mocked, despite her shortness of breath at the climb. "Well clearly that time is long gone, no one believes in fairy stories anymore. What power you may have had is gone now."
"Not gone. Left. Washed their hands of you and abandoned this realm." Jareth at last paused, leaning against the nearest rock.
That gave Sarah a moments pause in her anger. He spoke like he was not included with the rest of them. "But not you though? Couldn't manage to leave us alone? Needed babies?" Jareth huffed and folded his arms. Sarah almost grinned, she had managed to strike a note with him! "What kind of evil villain kidnaps babies anyway?" She wondered as she at last reached his stopping point and paused to take a drink.
"Is it kidnapping when the child is offered up freely?" Jareth wondered, his face a still calm, somehow void of any emotion that managed to be more intimidating than his anger.
Sarah glared at the horizon, refusing to acknowledge that he had a point. "You know what I don't want to know your evil plans, I'm just glad I got Toby back." His magic filled the space between them. It shocked her into silence, and despite her anger at him she recoiled back into the rock face as Jareth took a deep breath as though to calm himself.
"You know nothing!" He ground out between clenched teeth as he turned on his heel and moved on.
"How could I?" She demanded back. "When you took my brother you refused to give me a strait answer. All I knew was I had thirteen hours to get him back."
Jareth stopped so sudden that he skidded on the gravely earth. "I have the misfortune of ruling a realm that is in direct contact with yours." He said, spinning on his heel to face her again. "Magic calls to the Fey realm, demands an answer and despite the fact that humans long ago lost their ability to use magic, a wish is something that cannot be ignored." Jareth threw his hands up in annoyance and then pointed at her "A wisher must be tested, must prove that they deserve the child back. It is the law that binds the wisher as well as me. You were one of the very FEW mortals who managed to win and prove you deserved that boy!"
"Is that supposed to be an excuse?" She wondered.
Jareth scoffed and started walking again, following the small track around the rocks and toward the trees again.
"Who the hell gave you the right to decide something like that?" She continued to ask. "He wasn't even mine, you would have turned him into a goblin! How would I have explained that to my parents!?" That very thought had gone through her mind more than once all those years ago.
Jareth stopped again at the tree line and laughed. "None of you would have even remembered he existed had you lost. As for turning him into a goblin, that would have been a waste!"
For a moment her stomach dropped as she remembered some of the older fairy tales, ones where children were eaten... Sarah felt ill and looked up at him in horror.
Jareth's face twisted in anger. "Do you truly think so little of me?" He asked as though he knew what she thought. "For your kind a single child means little. You humans have scores of children, thousands born every day." Jareth ran his hands through his hair, the air around him still cracked with agitated magic but it was calming down. "Humans take their children for granted. For the Fey it is counted as the greatest gift for a single child to be born to a couple."
The anger she felt was little more than a whisper now as a new understanding dawned. "You take them in, don't you. Adopt them?" She guessed.
Jareth nodded, "Though I personally have not, many come asking." He sat again on the rock and sighed.
He always stood alone in her mind. Little more than a figure, to stand in the part of villain. Looking at him now that seemed so remarkably sad to her. He was a king but beyond that she knew nothing about him. What kind of family did he have, if any? "Do you have siblings?" Sarah wondered suddenly.
His face fell, like if she had physically hit him rather than just ask a simple question. Jareth blinked once and the look was gone. "I am my mothers only child." He said,
Sarah heard the words but they felt off. That was such an odd way to say that, as though he intentionally excluded his father from the equation. Her wondering pushed aside at the sight of him. His eyes were wide, his face pale as he looked over her head.
Sarah turned following his eyes she looked for whatever had him in a panic. Before her a vista of trees, a low sun on its way to night and a few clouds tinted with gold. "What?" she asked.
"Don't move." He whispered.
Sarah still couldn't see what he saw but out of fear she obeyed completely frozen in place. Jareth moved until he stood right behind her, "There is a white bird." He said in the barest of whispers.
Sarah scanned the horizon again, the trees as well until she spotted it. It was large, about the size of a raven but stark white sticking out among the green of the trees. "Is it bad?" she managed to ask.
"Valrven, perhaps." He said taking her hand he inched backward towards the trees. "Or just a white raven."
Fear wrapped itself around her as she watched the distant bird. "A bird?" she wondered.
"They look like a bird but are not."
"What do we do?" She asked.
"Get among the trees." Jareth replied as he slowly started moving again.
As the shade of the trees covered them Sarah heard the distant caw of the bird. Three times it called and with each note Sarah felt dread wash over her as Jareth quickened his pace.
"Jareth?" She asked but he just kept his pace. "Is it bad?" She pressed, slightly out of breath as he hurried on.
The Caw of the bird sounded again now in front of them. Its caw repeated like an echo three times once more. Jareth stopped so sudden that she bumped into his arm. Just beyond them a white Raven sat, head cocked their direction as it watched them.
"Jareth?" Sarah whispered now sure it wasn't good at all.
The wind picked up, shifting the trees around them. His hand held hers tighter and Sarah felt herself go very still. His magic moved around her, and with another caw it flew right at them faster than any normal bird could.
Jareth shoved her down and the huge bird, screaming its anger as white claws just missed her head. "The dagger!" Jareth hissed as he hit the bird with his left arm. His other open like a claw.
In a mad scramble Sarah pulled off her pack and took out the long Knife Jareth gave her that first day. Another angry Caw sounded as the bird turned, gaining altitude no doubt for another attack.
"Here!" Sarah said, holding the knife out for him.
Jareth only shook his head, "Defend yourself, there are always three!" He said not taking his eyes off the Raven.
Sarah stood, her back against Jareth's as she scanned the woods around them the knife in hand. Before she felt better with it, now she felt like a child holding a butter knife against an adult with a gun. Directly in front of her two more white birds sat among the dark green of a pine tree. "Found the other two." She managed.
Her entire body shook with dread as she looked at them. Large white ravens were not as foul looking as the Aramok had been but these had Human eyes and the extreme wrongness of that made her mouth dry and her blood cold. Again the birds called, and now Sarah knew why it was three caws. Each one called once as if speaking to each other.
Almost faster than her eyes could follow they flew right at her. Sarah swung her knife wildly, making the ravens dodge and flap their wings in a mad dash to stay clear of the sharp edge. Behind her Jareth used Magic to fight. She saw nothing but could feel it. Like standing with her back to the ocean as it smashed against a cliff.
The two before her swept wide, one in each direction. She couldn't follow both at once and so as she swung at the nearest one, which only veered sharply away at the last second, the other was on her faster than she could recover. Its claws dug into her back, making her cried out in pain.
A burst of light sent the bird flying away again with an angry cry. Jareth stood at her side, the one he was fighting most likely dead she hoped.
They circled with more caution now, like they meant to attack as one again. Jareth seemed to know this and also decide he wasn't waiting. He abandoned her side charging the raven on his side.
"Jareth!" Sarah cried in fear at his abandonment but the bird on her side knew an opportunity when it saw it and was on her in a moment. Stabbing a bird that is determined to claw out your eyes is beyond difficult. She tried to swing at the thing but it kept dodging only to then claw at her when she swung too far. Painful scratches and deeper gouges stung and burned all over her exposed arms, along her neck and even on her face. It was all so insane, like she was in the old movie birds. It was just a stupid flying feather bag! Was she really going to let it claw her to death? Her desperation turned to anger so sudden and sharp that she surprised herself by managing to catch its left clawed foot and pulled it to the ground swinging the knife, without thought, deep into its feathered breast.
It's blood was hot and sticky as it oozed over the hilt of the knife and her hand that held it. Its voice warbled in a dying caw.
Sarah let the knife go, eyes wide in shock at the sight. She scrambled back and up onto her legs again. Spinning on her heel Sarah looked for Jareth and the other Bird.
On her left Jareth came out of the trees, his face drawn, eyes scanning the sky, the trees. He lost it. She knew without him saying a word. Her legs became shaky, her adrenaline draining away. Across the clearing watching his face, the blue of his eyes bright. His face paled, he looked behind her and she spun fast and saw the bird flying right at her.
She had nothing to defend herself.
It was Death on white wings and it meant to see her in her grave. It felt like time slowed as Jareth turned to her, his eyes wild and full of pain he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him. As their bodies slammed together Sarah heard a sizzle pop, the earth beneath them suddenly gone and they were falling. It was black and cold and then the world materialized around them.
They crashed into the rocky earth, rolling with the momentum across a small clearing.
**End**
**Poor Sarah and the feelings she is developing for him :( Up next, a short peek into the underground again, stay tuned and review**