CHAPTER 5
After a week passed of not talking to Jareth, Sarah decided that she was leaving the castle and the Goblin Kingdom. She wanted to see what else was out there. Her friends, she found out, had gone away to the mountains where Ludo lived with his family. So nothing was keeping her there other than being all alone.
Sarah started grabbing everything she could in her warm clothes in black to match her mood. She wished for anything she needed outside of what she already had. She had black winter boots and a heavy black wool cloak with her black leather lined gloves. She got dressed and located her other bags quickly. One bag she had held her hunting weapons in, the second was her survival backpack and tent and third she filled a large duffle bag with changes of clothes and undergarments and her jewelry box. She made sure that she took everything she could for survival.
Sarah forced the door open moving the snow away and looked out over the balcony. She was about four stories up. She pulled out a retractable grappling hook from her survival kit and a rope from out of her backpack. Sarah put on all of her gear in crossbody bags and hurried using the grappling hook, lowering herself down two floors at a time. She was on the ground, retracted her grappling hook and ran for the Labyrinth walls. She grappled the wall, pulled herself up and started going as fast as she could moving from one wall to the next as they aligned in the one direction of north according to her compass that seemed to work here in the Underground.
A raven of unusual enormous size was sweeping through the sky searching for his prey. The raven saw the girl jumping across the labyrinth walls.
An entity's voice said to the mind of the raven, "Be gone, Argus, this one is not for the Unseelie." A green bubble shield erected over Sarah while she was running along the wall she didn't look up to notice. The raven screeched out with talons extended, rupturing the green bubble over where Sarah was running. A green mist rose up from the labyrinth and started fighting with the entity up in the air. They threw green and orange balls of magic at each other. Sarah became terrified and confused on which way to run. Suddenly, the giant raven grabbed her and all her belongings and flew her up into the sky soaring higher and higher over the clouds. Sarah wrestled with the talons around her and took out her knife and started slashing at both claws the raven screeched dropping her. She fell through the air towards gray clouds below. Sarah thought she was going to have a heart attack and passed out.
It was a heavy gray cloud on a hazy snowy day. Sarah fell straight down into a fluffy bank of snow. A large lumbering white female giant dragon saw the sky 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 fae woman in the snow that was starting to cover her. The fae was still alive somehow.
The female white dragon took her front claws talon and carefully unburied the fae 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 woman to keep her warm until someone comes to claim her. This woman's magic feels strange and her unusual hair color is odd too.'
The dragon picked up the 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 of treasure and a lava pool in the center of it all keeping the cavern warm from the winter outside. 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 fae woman with. The dragon climbed into her gold with just her head sticking out.
—--
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 took off her baggage that luckily was still strapped to her. She stood up, walked as softly as possible to look outside the cave entrance. She could hear the wind whistling outside. She just wanted to take 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 and come back." Sarah smiled and looked outside. She knew that she was never going anywhere for now and a headache was coming on again. Besides, it was a straight drop down into a ravine. Sarah went back and sat down on the fur she had been covered with.
The dragon asked, "Is your curiosity satisfied, little fae?"
Sarah chuckled and said, "Yes. You have a smart safe cave up here. I may be fae but I was a human over two weeks ago."
The dragon moved to swing her head around to look at her and asked curiously, "You think my cave is smart and safe?"
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. If you were human, why are you fae now?" Sarah explained briefly what happened for the last three weeks to her starting in the Aboveground to now.
The dragon said, "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 the meat to eat it. If you could, would you bring me back a stick to cook 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 woman was not scared at all of her, "No you can keep it frozen by the entrance then it will keep you eating longer. You must have a delicate stomach to cook your 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 about that too." 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 woman 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.
—--
A couple hours later, Valira came back with a net full of items, a sheep and a branch off of a tree in her other claw. She was shocked and surprised watching Sarah stacking gold coins as high as she could without them falling. Sarah turned and looked at her smiling and said, "Hi Valira, I was bored and was trying to see how high I could get without toppling them over. I counted 143 so far. I'm not very good at it after several dozen tries. I always had trouble stacking cards into towers too. How did it go out there?"
Valira said, confused by her behavior, "I find you curious, Sarah. Most humans or fae would be filling their pockets with my gold but you are just counting and stacking it like a game. Why is that?"
Sarah said giggling, "Well, first of all, it's very rude to steal from your host in their own home. Second, I am not a stupid greedy human or fae fool to ever try to take anything away from a dragon. It's a very ignorant thing to do. Most of all, I'm not that kind of a person and have always been considered different."
Valira sat down her net, branch and the sheep and asked, "Tell me Sarah, most are afraid and terrified but you haven't acted like that from the second you woke up."
Sarah went over and looked at what she brought her net and said, "You did wonderfully, Valira. This looks marvelous. I come from the Aboveground but have been fascinated by magic and all of the myths and legends of the past from there. There is not a lot of information but I searched for as much as I could find."
Sarah took a bucket and the barrel outside she found in the caven so it could fill with snow. She took out a knife from her bags, started to skin the sheep and cut the legs off first to hang up outside. She talked as she worked to get her food organized. She had worked a part time job at a small butchers shop a long time ago and paid attention.
Sarah said as she worked, "Being I'm the Champion of the Labyrinth, I guess because I won my brother back after stupidly wishing him away in a temper tantrum as a child, I possess different magics. I know how to use my wish magic but I am unfamiliar with fae and labyrinthian magic. I'm not sure what else I have after the transformation."
Valira said, astonished that she was the champion, "Really? I have never heard of another champion but you when you won not long ago. It was talked about all over the Underground if us dragons even found out about it."
Sarah told her, "It has already been thirteen years." Sarah got the bucket of snow and sat it near the little lava pool to melt.
Sarah said thinking about her answer, "The Goblin King said I was given thirteen years to mature from a child and had no choice because he was going to claim me through forced sex. I guess all the fae enslaved us humans that way. He molested me in my sleep while I was trying to heal from a head injury I received from him slapping me and his employee backhanding me in the face too. I hadn't even been here a full day conscious. I was very angry. After I transformed he tried to get me to be his paramour after everything he pulled on me, hitting me, molesting me, threatening me and omitting information to manipulate me." The dragon saw the magic swirl around Sarah as she was getting upset.
Valira said, astonished, "I think you need to calm yourself, Sarah. I see the magic surrounding you and think you are leaking it from being upset."
Sarah smiled big and said, "I'm sorry. The last thing I remember before I woke up here was that I had left because I was tired of being alone for over a week with nobody to talk too and left. I was running on top of the labyrinth walls and an enormous raven swooped down. I remember it was fighting the labyrinth and magic was flying around me. It captured me in its claws and took me up higher than the clouds. I hacked on it with my knife and it let go. I fell but passed out at some point."
Sarah started washing off her hands after she set her mutton shanks and chunks of meat outside to freeze in the snow that was cut up the best she could in meat chunks on the smaller sticks of the branch to freeze. She wrapped up the rest of the sheep in the skin and asked Valira if she would like the rest. Valira had her set the carcass and all in her mouth then back away. Sarah did as she was told. Valira crunched it all down and swallowed.
Sarah went over to the sacks of root vegetables, squash and dried fruit with several loaves of bread. She made a bag of what to keep in the cave and outside of the cave in the net. The dragon was surprised because they were told that the Aboveground people were stupid and helpless. This one was practical thinking and methodical in the way she did things to organize her food preservation.
Sarah said after she came in to start cooking her food to eat, "Thank you so much for doing that for me. It is very appreciated and thoughtful of you, Valira." The dragon was flattered by this female telling her and showing her respect through gratefulness and appreciation. Yes, this was a different kind of human/fae.
Valira said in response, "Yes, you are a very unusual human/fae female, Sarah. I like you. It was no problem and it feels good to be appreciated and trusted. Most humans would never have put the carcass in my mouth trusting me not to chomp them down with it."
Sarah smiled at her over her shoulder and said, "I guess mutual trust is a good foundation to build a lasting friendship." Valira chuckled.
Valira said, "Yes indeed. It will be refreshing and different to trust a human or fae because they have either tried to kill us, steal from us or have been a light snack."
Sarah looked at her and asked, "Why on earth did you save me, Valira? It just seems to be an unusual thing for you to do being that humans and fae are not reliable it seems from your experience."
Valira thought about her answer and said, "I'm not quite sure why I did it. I saw you fall out of the clouds. I went to see what it was and found you alive and uninjured. It seemed unusual that you would have survived the fall from the sky and to have not hit the ravine bottom or the cliffside. It was an act of fate so it seems. I decided to bring you back until someone comes to claim you or to see why fate saved you." Sarah nodded.
Sarah was putting her meat, water and her potato cut up in a pan with salt. She kept the pan and salt in her survival kit. She sat near the lava as it cooked and said, "Well, I am for one glad you did. Besides, I am not very filling for a snack and I'm mostly just skin and bones. With my luck I would have a bad aftertaste anyway." Sarah giggled and Valira chuckled at her.
Valira said, "Silly, girl."