Back to the Labyrinth (closed for Tx_Liquor)

The click clacking of her keyboard strokes echoed through the darkened room. The only illumination in the room came from the computer monitor that cast an eerie white against her face, yet made her green eyes glow with seemingly magical iridescence.

She leaned back in her chair and stretched her neck for a moment before looking at what she wrote. It was to be her thesis for her Creative Writing degree. While she had always thought she would become an actress, over the past few years she had discovered her love and talent for weaving fantastical tales. It had started innocently enough, telling stories to her little brother Toby and occasionally his friends when she babysat them. It wasn’t until one of the parents heard her telling one of her stories that it was suggested that she started to write them down. She had been hesitant at first, but the more she wrote, the more easily words flowed from her pen.

Now she sat in the dark staring at her monitor, having been so enthralled in her story, she had not even noticed the suns descent below the horizon. She had surprised herself at what she had chosen to write. She had struggled at finding a topic or story for her novel length thesis. After writing down and throwing away a thousand ideas, the realization came to her that she had her own story to tell, one far more personal that imagined fairies and ogres. She turned her memory back to when she was 15, a time when she was admittedly bratty and had detested her brother whom she now loved dearly. Her brother that she had, at one time, given away to a Goblin King so that she would be the only child, the treasured child, and not the maid/nanny that she had felt like.

It had been a long time since she had thought back to the Labyrinth. While most days she felt it had to be a dream, there were others where she was absolutely certain she had been taken to another land. She had, for a very long time, thought that Toby remembered none of it, after all, he was only a baby at the time. However, she noticed his strange fascination with glass orbs, whether it be as simple as a fish bowl or a bubble gum machine, he seemed to stare at them waiting for something happen until he turned 5, then the fascination dissipated.

When she had decided to write the story of the Labyrinth, she was surprised at how quickly her memories came flooding back. The feeling of the stone under her feet, the damp cold of the oubliette, the strange smell of Ludo’s fur when she hugged him, and of course, Jareth. She had never before or since met anyone like him. She closed her eyes for a moment and suddenly had a brilliant flash of his eyes, eyes she had not seen in years. One a brilliant blue, the other almost back with a blue ring.

She sat up, startled at the sudden and powerful memory. She rubbed her eyes and chalked it up to exhaustion. She got up from the computer and walked over to her bed. Still fully clothed in a blue floral print dress and combat boots, she fell back into the bed ready to pass out, however, she felt as if she never hit the bed and was instead falling asleep as she felt. She tried to keep her eyes open but it was seemingly impossible as this gentle fall lulled her into a deep sleep.

Jareth sat upon his throne, ankle hanging over one of the arms. To the narrow minded the back of throne was little more than a half circle to make up the arms and the back. However, the shape represented a crescent moon. It was a symbol of potential and growth. It was a reminder that Jareth was always meant to be more than he was today.

Sitting there tapping his riding crop against his leg he contemplated the state of his kingdom. To call him King of the Goblins now was like declaring him the captain of a sunken ship. It was just a title, and nothing more.

As he sat, contemplating the fate of his kingdom a strange buzz dance across his spine and forcing him to his feet before he even realized what was going on. Looking around he smiled and took a step down his throne. "After a hundred years of entropy, it appears we will have our revenge." Jareth smiled, though his tone hinted at something darker stirring under the mask of the Goblin King.

Sir Didymus looked up from his cup, eye red and breath smelling of honey wine, and barked once before lowering his head to the table to sleep. Jareth, however, would have none of that. "Go the Castle Gate and greet this one properly."

Sir Didymus sighed, for the last person he wished to see was the woman who'd cast him aside as a tired childhood toy. "As you command." He said, throwing back the rest of his drink and staggering to his furry feet.

"Oh, and Sir Didymus? If she kisses you..."

The small fox perked up with a smile, wishing he could return to the sweet and peaceful Bog he once guarded. It was, after all, the place where Hoggle was sent all that time ago. "Yes?" He asked, hopeful.

"I'll make you a fancy new suit." Jareth smiled seeing the confused look on Sir Didymus' face and added, "From Ambrosius' skin!" And to that Sir Didymus shuttered in horror.

Thankfully he only had to turn around and find he was at the entrance to the Labyrinth. Jareth was kind enough to send him there but is was more horrid that he remembered. Before it was dark and gloomy, but not the dead trees had rotted to dust or were consumed by insects. The stone work seemed to shift and writhe until one say it was a layer of worms feeding off the slime that had grown along the outside of the walls.

The large body of water was replaced by a dark pit that seemed to go on forever, and the grand doors that were once the entrance to the Labyrinth were little more than a curtain of rubble clinging to the arches. In all of this ruin it was easy to find Sarah, as she was the only thing of beauty left on a canvas of decay.

Slowly Sir Didymus approached and crouched low to speak to her.

"M'Lady? M'Lady." He moved around hoping to see her eyes open and spoke again, just as he had all those years ago. "M'Lady."

Sarah was suddenly jarred awake, almost as if she had landed against something hard. She slowly opened her eyes to a gray sky. I looked as if the sun was trying to break through the foggy sheet only to be blocked again by an angrier looking dark gray/blue cloud. It was if a storm was about to come.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes a moment when it dawned on her that she was outside; and she had no idea how she had gotten there. She jumped as she heard a voice very near here and stood quickly backing away. She stared at Didymus in in shock for a moment, her mouth opening and shutting a few time before she looked up and saw the Labyrinth.

“No.” She said and looked around and then back at Didymus. “This can’t be real…I must be dreaming.” She said and then pinched herself so that she would wake up. Instead of returning to her dorm, thunder sounded and she had nothing to show for her efforts save a bit of pink skin.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. If she really was where she thought she was, she had no idea how it could have happened. Toby was far too old to be turned into a goblin and until now, she thought this land destroyed. She opened her eyes once more, her green eyes clearer now. She still didn’t believe it but felt she might as well play along until she woke up from this dream that she was convinced she was having.

She turned to the small dog that stood before her. “Didymus! You are as dashing as ever.” She said as she knelt down and opened her arms to hug him. He looked different now. Older, a bit less feisty, something seemed off about him but she chalked it up to it being a dream.

“I didn’t know this place still existed…It doesn’t seem like…He…” She couldn’t even bring herself to say his name, “didn’t keep it up very well, if he even still exists.”

Sir Didymus lit up like a fire that had fuel thrown on it. He managed to grow inches taller, which was an accomplishment for the tiny creature. His fanged smile spread across his face and he bobbled his head in pride. "Well, M'Lady. I'm glad to know I'm not forgotten. We had feared you wouldn't remember us. Any of us." He trailed off in thought.

“Didymus! You are as dashing as ever.”


"Oh, M'Lady. You give this tired hound new hope. If only I could believe you." His tone hinted of defeat. He took a breath and tried to cast off the dark mantle that had fallen over him suddenly. Clearing his throat he bobbled his head again and tried to stand tall once more. A fairy approached, with pretty fluttering wings and Sir Didymus swatted the annoying creature away absently.

“I didn’t know this place still existed…It doesn’t seem like…He… didn’t keep it up very well, if he even still exists.”

Didymus looked around, as if seeing the Labyrinth for the first time. In truth, he had no memory of ever being on this side of the wall. He had assume this is how the entrance had always looked, but it made sense that the outside had changed as much as the inside. It was simply something he'd never thought to even question, and now he found himself wondering if it was important to know that the outside looked unkempt. He even swatted at another fair and turned back to the woman he'd been sent to greet.

"Truth be told, M'Lady, I've never left the walls. But I can only assume this has changed as much as the inner space of it all." He swiped his gloved paw through the air, and even Sarah was starting to realized there was more than one fairy buzzing about. Didymus continued, "Once you were released, he never again took another child. None can say why, really, but without the goblins to upkeep the place."

It suddenly occurred to him that he and Sarah were not just swatting at, the same Fairy, but there were two of them... no three! FOUR! At least a dozen fairies were now clicking around and actually laughing manically. A few of them nipped at Sarah's face and one jabbed a small spear into her shoulder before flying back and regrouping. It was like being under siege by a hornets nest, only hornets didn't fly in battle patters and fight try to stab you with small spears!

"M'Lady!" Sir Didymus started to bark at the fairies, his long mace like sword being pulled from his belt and whipped through the air with lightning accuracy. The first attacker he struck cried out in pain after a sound like that of crab leg being snapped open. "Run, M'Lady!"

She smiled when the little dog came into her arms and let her hug him. Something about the act seemed to return a piece of her heart that she had not known was missing. It really was a wonderful dream. She pulled back and looked him over and swatted away something that was near her face. Sure he was older than she remembered, she wondered why. She had only known him as a younger dog and she wasn’t sure why her dream would make him older.

She stood back up as he spoke and swatted at something again moving slightly. “How has it changed? This dream is making things seem much different than I remember them, but then again, I suppose I’m different too.” She said and then slapped something that landed on her arm. She pulled her hand away to see what I was, only to see a smushed fairy pressed against her arm.

She peeled it off with a bit of disgust and noticed the rest of them as Didymus did. Just then she felt a bit on her cheek. She put her fingertip to her cheek and then drew it away only to see blood on it. Why wasn’t she waking up?

She turned around to see the swarm as Sir Didymus cried out and ran with him towards the crumbling walls of the Labyrinth’s entrance. The doors barely hung on their hinges and the pond was gone, so they couldn’t jump into the water to escape. She grabbed Didymous and ran for the doors. She pulled and pulled on them, trying to get them open and she swatted them away from herself, small bite marks gathering on her bare arms.

“Damn it!” she cried out and finally put Didymus down. She pulled at a plank in the door and finally broke it free. She swatted at the fairies and then picked up Didymus, despite his noble his protests to let him fight, and tossed him through the small hole and then squeezed through it herself. Just as the swarm started towards the opening she had made, she managed to put the plank back in place.

Their tiny thuds were heard against the wood. She looked around and saw a large log and grabbed it with one hand, shimmying it against the broken plank holding it in place. She stepped back and looked up, waiting for another aerial assault only to see this portion of the Labyrinth covered in thick thorns, choking out the light save one brave beam or two.

She looked at her arms and then looked to Didymus. “Are you ok Sir Didymus?” she asked as she squatted next to him, wishing wasn’t in a dress. It was the first time she realized she was in the same clothes she had been in, a black and blue rose babydoll dress with black combat boots. She looked up at the noble dog, her eyes clear and questioning.

“This IS a dream isn’t it?” She asked as her doubts started to take hold.

Sir Didymus looked around, and as in the first time she was here, the Labyrinth seemed to just stretch on for a mile in each direction. He was silent for a long time, eyes to the thorns above that spread out like a canopy of barbed wire fence for a dozen yards on either side. When it was clear the Fae army wasn't crazy enough to follow them into the Labyrinth he finally let out a breath he'd forgotten he'd been holding.

To Didymus this area must have smelled like a home cooked meal. To Sarah it was was if a closet full of clothes had been opened for the first time in two dozen years. The stuffy smell of dust, mildew and wood was only enhanced by the smell of ash and moss. The vines themselves were covered in a thick layer of ash that had to be flaked off like ice after a freeze. If water in the cold could make an ice mold of a leaf, what would it take to make ash do the same thing?

"I hope it's not a dream, M'Lady." Sir Didymus was finally answering Sarah's question. "If it were, that means you have truly forgotten me and my mind is nothing but a liar and a tease."

He looked around and found to spare bits of wood from the door. "Ah. Here we go. Help me, M'Lady. We must get you further into the labyrinth where it is safe. My duty is to escort and protect you, and so I will do so until my last breath." He acted feisty but there was still defeat in his tone.

He looked around and attacked one of the vines with his metal weapon, knocking a thorn loose from and causing it to fall to the stone ground. As it hit part of the bark fell away revealing a metal blade housed inside. "There. Take that with you. You shouldn't wander these parts without a weapon. The Entropy is strong this far out, now come. We have less than 13 hours to get you to the castle." And with that he took two steps forwards and seemed to walk right into the wall.

Sarah turned her attention towards Didymus. His words stabbed into her heart and she wondered why she had stopped thinking about him. It was easy to forget about people and places when you didn’t see them, but her adventure with the gallant canine was something she thought she would never forget. She blinked away a tear and turned to look down the seemingly endless corridor of the area they now found themselves in.

It was depressing now, and a bit scarier than she remembered. She remembered the little worm who had helped her before. Surely he was long gone by now. She stealthily wiped away a tear before looking back towards Didymus, only to be handed a thorn that was as cold and sharp as a dagger. She nodded as he explained to her the reason for the weapon.

“Surely the Goblin King wishes to see me, why else would he have brought me back?” She asked as she was slowly starting to accept that this was no dream. When she thought of him, her feelings tumbled over themselves whenever she thought of him. None of them concrete or clear, just a messy Monet of emotion. Perhaps he was old now, Didymus seemed to have gotten older, perhaps Jareth was no more than an old man now.

“How quickly can we get there? If he wants to see me let us get it over with.” She imagined him as a shut in of Howard Hughes proportions. She followed his movement where they then found themselves in the gardens. She remembered that useless old man and his hat being there. All that was left of him was a skeleton and few feathers. The once beautiful bushes were now blooming black roses in beds of thorns.

“Perhaps you should become ruler Didymus. You are quite wise. You would have never let this happen.” She said, scared at what other things she may see on their journey.

Didymus looked around the area they were in now, as if trying to determine the best route. He thought about where they needed to go and could even see the castle, like a faded picture on a shelf. It was so small and seemed impossible to get to.

And yet that meant nothing in the Labyrinth. Didymus turned away from the castle and looked at a archway behind Sarah. The black thorns and roses had grown over the opening like a fence. While there was an opening that didn't reveal the tunnel that Sarah and Sir had left, it did seem impossible to walk through without great effort and a lot of wasted time.

Turning back he gestured at the skeleton and opened his mouth as if to speak, then skipped over and examined the remains for a moment. "Hmmm." Looking to Sarah he opined, "I think he's asleep." Taking his staff Sir Didymus tapped the hollow skull several times saying. "Excuse me. Excuse me! Wake up!" The bone fell from the dead neck and rolled towards Sarah's feet.

"Good! Now that you're awake, I wanted to know if you could tell us how to get to the castle." After a long pause the talking hound looked up with a sigh, "I'm sorry M'Lady. As you can see I'd make a horrible king. I can't even get people to answer a simple question."

A sound, like a dinner spoon on a drinking glass rang out int an even cadence.

Tink.
Tink.
Tink.
Tink.

As if like a metronome. Unsurprisingly the crystal orb jumped over a hedge and struck the ground, then repeated the same movements and denying the laws of physics. It didn't even fall as quickly as it seemed it should but it seemed to be approaching Sarah and Didymus as if strolling up to them.

At first Sarah thought it was Jareth, making a cocky entrance. Would he have changed? Would he look old like Didymus? She widened her stance and straightened her spine, prepared to deal with the man that had stolen her brother all those years again. However, to her utter shock, it was not Jareth but a giant boulder that now threatened to smash them.

Suddenly the only route left was the tunnel as Sarah turned and ran, grabbing Didymus and running with him in her arm towards the dark and mysterious cave. Her footsteps echoed I what seemed to be an old abandoned cobble tunnel. She could hear the trickling of water in the distance…was this a sewer?

She didn’t have much time to contemplate where she was as she tried to out run the boulder. She had just made it in a few yards when she tripped on something sending Didymus flying forward. She began to fall towards the ground she looked back and could see the boulder coming closer and closer. She had no doubt she would die either by impact or resulting injuries. As her side hit the hard cold ground she watched as the giant boulder came rushing towards her. By instinct she curled her feet in, crying out as everything around her seemed to shake and spew dust, she closed her eyes and cried out and fear.

When everything stopped moving she finally opened her eyes. She looked around and saw Didymus ahead, safe but a bit shaken. She then closed her eyes again and slowly turned her head towards her feet. Had they been dismembered completely? With shaky hands she waved the smoke from the kicked up dirt and dust away from her feet. As she looked down she discovered there very tip of her right boot, the bit without any toe in it, was stuck under the boulder. She held onto her leg and pulled a few times. After the fifth full tug she rolled back, her boot free, save for the deep gouge in the toe.

She laid back and closed her eyes. When she opened them again she felt as if she were floating. She floated to a standing position and was surround by a dark sky in shades of deep purples and blacks, and thousands of stars.

“What is this?” she said as she looked around for Didumus. She felt as if she were walking, only at a fraction of the gravity she was used to. Something tasted sweet on her tongue when she breathed. “What is this place?” she asked as she started to become relaxed.

As Sarah freed her foot, sir Didymus helped by tapping the large rock with his elongated scepter of a weapon. What he lacked in power, he made up for in speed in and enthusiasm. It wasn't until she was free that Didymus turned to check on her boot saying, "Yes. His antics have grown quite unpredictable in the last century or so. I would like to think he was only trying to scare us... but I'm no longer sure anymore."

Sir Didymus looked as if he were already asleep and snapped his head up, "Oh... yes... the Violet Nebula. No one... has ever... found-" and with that he was sleep. A haze of color misting around him like a blanket.

Jereths' voice echoed through the sky, the stars brightening and dimming with his words. "This is a place of eternal sleep for my subjects. But you are not one of mine... Not yet."

Somewhere in the distance a music box began to play... Once Sarah could make out the direction it seemed one of the flicking stars wasn't a star but a candle in a window. With Sir Didymus out cold she'd have to carry him or leave him here to never wake up. Was Jereth testing her? Was he planning on her being weighted down by Sir Didymus? Did he expect her to save him, or did he expect her to think this far ahead and decided NOT to take him? Which was the trap?

Regardless, Sarah couldn't just float in a colored sky forever. The taste on her tongue was also coming from what looked like a banquet table that the candle was sitting on. The promise of food, drink and warm fire was just a few hundred yards away.

The space in which she found herself acted almost as a drug. She had felt these effects before, but they were so long misplaced that she could barely heed the warning her brain was trying to send her. It seemed so far away and unimportant. Her companion was happily asleep and relaxed, there was no reason to wake him.

She found herself moving towards the music she heard, it’s sweet soft melody drawing closer, each note a gently pull. She soon found herself in a room, elegant and warm. A large fireplace glowed warmly, the smell of crackling wood and rich food from the table soothed her senses. She looked down and found herself in a black satin slip dress, her hair piled on top of her head, dark red lipstick on her lips. She felt confused. A wine glass called to her and she picked it up and sipped it. She then looked around.

“Where am I?” she asked, her voice softly confused. “I know….I know this is some trick…” She told him, and it was true, though very little of her seemed to want to pull away. “How do you still exist?”

The Goblin King's voice seemed to echo through the room, but he himself was not seen. "I exist as I always have. Time for me is nothing but thoughts, punctuated by memories."

A shadow moved just off Sarah's left, but there was no evidence that it was a person or creature. There was nothing in the room that could be or have made that shadowy figure. From almost behind her Jareth said, "How long it's been." But he wasn't there when she looked.

The tell tale sign of a glass of wine on the table, the crimson liquid sliding back down one side into the pool of pinot as if someone had just set it down after taking a sip. "I watched you call your friends from my realm. I watched you free them time and time again. How sad they were, when you thought of them, no more. How crushed the were to see... how cruel you really were!"

A large feathered bird, white as a ghost, dropped out of the tall shadows already in flight and shot across to the other side of the room where a pair of french doors opened revealing a terrace with a starlit view of what looked like a city, or the entire world. But it wasn't her city or her world. It was Jareth's.

It was the Labyrinth.

She spun as a shadow appeared near her side and then disappeared once more. It was as his voice taunted her, trying to confuse her already fogged logic. She began to collapse and found herself seated at the grand table, a glass across from her being filled. Once suddenly appeared in her hand and she sipped it instinctively.

She listened and tried to clear her head as he spoke of her past, of how she had slowly forgotten her friends. “It became too….difficult to cross over….” She said, the sips of wine making her head swim. “They told me I was crazy…..made me take pills…until they all disappeared…” she said and then finally looked up in the direction she had last heard the voice coming from.

“You never came…” she said, as brief flashes of thoughts and feelings she had once harbored for him flashed into her brain. Did he know them? She hoped not. Suddenly a white flash darted through the shadows and opened the French doors at the end of the room. She walked towards them, her steps slowed by the wine, until she finally reached the terrace.

It was a city like no other, a city familiar, and yet not, was illuminated before her. “The Labyrinth?” she said and turned to try and see him. “Why have you brought me here!?” she yelled at him, the effort causing her to collapse to the ground. She looked up and tried to keep her eyes open to find his face, but it was becoming more and more difficult.

As Sarah focused on Jareth, the figured suddenly collapsed into a pool of dark cloth, the hood now holding a small goblin that was little more than a round head-body with limbs attached. The dark skinned creature laughed mockingly and bounced away faster than should have been possible.

His voice, however, continued all around her and yet close to her at all times. "I watched over you. I entered your realm as nothing more than a glimmer from the corner of your eye. I was the feeling of someone in the room with you. I was there when you awoke and looked out the window, knowing I was there and not seeing me."

"You refused to see, so I remained unseen. Even now, you still reject me. You still... refuse to see." his voice faded as if he were leaving.

A pair of hands reached out, they were cold and almost waxy, but they helped steady Sarah. A child like voice, unable to determine gender, asked "Are you alright, m'lady?" They spoke like Dydiums but they were clearly not.

The fae figure, hairless save for long flowing dark red hair, was trying to help Sarah up. He wore garb of dark green with gold thread designs of leaves and branches. At his waist was a short sword and each arm was wrapped in leather straps with various buckles and designs - almost as if he'd picked up belts and simply wrapped them around his arms.

Sarah took hold of the arms now extended to her, a strange feeling of loss washing over her as Jareth’s voice seemed to be leaving. She started to panic until to arms were held out to her. She looks at the strange creature and accepted it’s help. It was it’s voice that reminded her fogged brain of her friend.

“Didymus!” she called out, looking around as the room as it seemed to shift and change. She reached her hands out feeling around for her friend. Her eyes then turned back to the creature before her and she then cursed herself. She had told him he had no power over here, and now here she was, longing to see his face, to hear his voice. She had fallen into one of his traps and she didn’t know if his intentions were to maim or kill.

“What does she want from me?” she implored of the creature.

"He?" The fae creature asked, clearly confused and uncertain. "Do you mean, the heartless one? The King." Even though the little elfin person was speaking with enthusiasm he was still speaking in a hushed whisper of a tone.

"No one knows the wishes of the Heatless one. No one has seen him in ages." He moved around, quickly and looked over Sarah's clothes. "Do you… have a sash? Sashes likes sash." He gestured to his arm, indicating the collection of leather belts along his arm.

A sniff, then another brought his attention to the food in the room. "Oh. Is this home, M'Lady? May I have a treat?"

Sarah looked at the fae with confusion. She managed to stand and held onto the back of a chair. She took a moment to clear her thoughts and then glanced towards the balcony and the labrynth below.

“How did I come to be here. I must find this heartless one of which you speak. I need to get home.” She said, her aggravation and anger starting to simmer in her stomach. “And I need to find my friend. I was brought here by some magic, do you know how I can get back to where I once was?” she asked as she scanned the table. She found a sharp knife and made an impromptu sheath out of a heavy napkin and then realized that in her dress, she had nowhere to put it.

She turned to the fae. She regarded him for a moment. “May I borrow one of your pretty sashes?” she asked. While they were small it looked as though one might be big enough to go around her thigh to hold her knife. She had to find Didymus and find out what game Jareth was playing, so that she could beat him at it.

Sashes shook his head. "I don't know where you came from, M'Lady." He waited, looking over the food and back as if still waiting for permission.

"M'Lady wants sash?" He seemed confused, and hugged himself as if the idea made him cold. Then he looked at the food and a light brightened his expression. "Yes. Yes, M'Lady wants sash for treats. Sashes will trade." He dropped from the chair with a grunt then bounced over to Sarah.

Quickly removing a thin leather belt he unwrapped it, then tugged a bit. In addition to being wrapped they also seemed to be layered. This close Sarah could also see some around his shins but oddly enough he didn't wear a belt where one would expect. His tunic flowed free around his waist and even his little cloak seemed to be nothing more than a swatch of cloth tied around his shoulders and under his arms.

Back on the balcony the dark robe moved, then puffed up, then thrashed as a voice cried out. "Ha, darkness! I think me surrounded? Take that. And that!" The cloak thrashed about as Sir. Didymus lashed out with his baton.

Meanwhile Sashes spread the belt out at Sarah's feet and gave it a long look before he bounced back over to the table. With a grunt he climbed up into the chair and looked around as if trying to decided what he wanted to pick. "I take these." He took some fruits and started to line them up. Some he set side by side and others he rotated as if making a design. At first it seemed like an odd ritual but soon Sarah realized he was replicating the surface area of a belt. Once satisfied with what he clearly perceived to be a fair trade he nodded.

All the while Sir. Didymus fought the vast material enveloping with laughs and cheers as he clearly out dueled his loosing opponent. Yet there was still no sign of damage to the think cloth.

Sarah waited patiently for the creature to respond and was rewarded with what seemed to be a trade. The fae could have had all the food and jewels in the room for all she cared and which she would have offered had she thought he had more information on where they were and the plight in which she now found herself. However, it seemed, like many of the other creatures in the Labyrinth, his knowledge was only of himself and his current surroundings.

Just as she picked up the belt Sashes had traded her for, she heard her friend’s voice. She strapped the belt around her thigh as she looked around for his figure and found it trying to escape the darkness which now was only a cloak, but a formidable one. Sarah ran towards Didymus to come to his aid. She was about grab at the cloak when a warm ball of light moved from within her palm and then crashed into the darkness, obliterating it completely. She looked at her palm for a moment, unaware of how such a thing could have happened. She then shook her head and placed her sheathed knife in the belt around her thigh.

“Didymus!” she cried out as she knelt and hugged him to her. She then examined him, checking to see if any damage had been done to her friend. “I feared I had lost you!”

Sir Didymus' brows knotted and his mouth eased open in awe. After a frozen moment of looking a Sara he said, "Lose me, M'Lady? You cannot lose me. I have been tasked with being your guide. It is I who fears losing YOU." As if realizing he was close to Sarah he quickly shoved away.

"No, no! You must no show me affections. He will not allow it!" Taking another step back he turned and sniffed the air. Another sniff. "Is that… is that wine?" He asked, longingly as a starving man were smelling food.

"Yes." Whispered Sashes. "You can have if your trade with M'Lady."

Seeing the small fey Didymus was alter and on guard. "Stand back, M'Lady! I will protect you from this knave!" He growled and barked then feinted a lunge at Sashes. The small roguish creature folded up his small cape to keep his food and dance back to keep the table between himself and his attacker.

At first Sarah was put off that Didymus pushed her away but then she remembered the consequences of her shown affection with Hoggle and she had no wish to go back to the bog or worse. She let him scamper off towards the table and then enter into an altercation with Sashes.

She walked over and pulled Didymus back gently and then stood between them. “You may both have as much food and drink as you like, though I cannot be responsible for its effects. Avoid the wine…” She told them and then paced in front of the huge fireplace that lined the wall. She looked around to see that there were no doors. It seemed that the only exit was that of the balcony.

She walked out onto the balcony and looked down. The height seemed impossibly high, she didn’t think there would be any way for them to escape without killing themselves in the process.

“Damn it Jareth, why do you have to make everything so difficult.” She muttered under her breath. She then turned to look at the room once more, turning thoughts over in her mind.

“Hmm.” She said to herself and then started to tap along the walls. As she tapped, the wall seemed to sound solid…until she reached the far left corner of the room. She then picked up one of the heavy silver candlesticks, tossing the candles into the fire place, and then started to bang it’s base into the hollow sounding bit of wall until it started to break away.

“Ha!” she exclaimed, satisfied to find a way out as she pounded away at the wall. “Didymus, pack some bread and fruit, we’re getting out of here!” she told him as she tossed the candlestick to the ground and started to pull away large chunks of wall. She, of course, had no idea what she would find on the otherside, but it was a step forward, wasn’t it?

The dark hallway was almost grey and clouded with cobwebs. It reached outward into darkness as it extended further than the eye could see. The only light was the occasional small creature wearing armor that would run past with a candle on it's head and either drop down and crawl through a hole in the wall or leap up and climb a rope into the ceiling.

These little metal minions seemed to have no purpose other than casting light and shadows across the darkness, though it was hard to tell if they made the darkness better or worse. Didymus looked past the opening and whispered, "It's the niching."

Sashes picked that moment to lean in and nod, "Yes. Sashes know Niching. This is worst of all niching." He turned to get between Sarah and the opening, trying to urge her to back away, "No, M'Lady. This bad. Very bad. This take you to the Black Heart. You can never go there."

Sir Didymus turned to get between Sashes and Sarah now saying, "But, M'Lady. I was tasked with taking you to the center of the Labyrinth. If this rube is correct, then this is the path you must take."

"No. Sashes will not let you go! The Heartless one lives beyond!"

Sir Didymus spun on Sashes and drew his sabre. "Go, M'Lady. I will hold this naive off!"

Before Sarah could react, all three were pulled into the Niching as if by a great force. As they flew through the little minions were now flying back and fourth from one side of the walls to another... no flying. Jumping.

Sarah, Sir Didymus and Sashes were falling. The webs, like dense collections of cotton and silk were keeping them from all plummeting at a dangerous pace. Still, the fall seemed to take several minutes, which is an eternity when you have no way of stopping yourself.

A splash of water and Sarah was suddenly in a deep pool lit with blue lighting. It wasn't difficult to surface once she realized she wasn't in her large gown. Now she wore a form fitting set of black cotton trousers, leathery boots and a leathery corset. All of which would be wet the moment she surfaced, but when she did she found herself in an oasis. The pool she'd landed in was illuminated by blue plants, almost like lily-pads, that glowed softly. The rocks around the pool were flat but rounded from years of water erosion but made for a safe and probably comfortable place to sit and dry off.

Sir. Didymus sprang from a collection of wild flowers, each glowing it's own red, yellow and orange. He sneezed sending glowing pollen into the air and the patch work of glowing spores across his body. He was the perfect light source now. "Ah, excellent." He said, with not sense of joy, "I am a walking torch."

From overhead a dark tree branch rustled and Sashes swung out hanging on for dear life. "Sashes doesn't like falling anymore. Someone get Sashes down?"

She was trying to break up the fight between what appeared to be now two traveling companions, when all three were sucked away through the Niches. She screamed as they flew through the darkness, sputtering is they fell through a succession of cobwebs, slowing their pace, though flying creatures made it frightening none the less. Just as she thought they would never reach the bottom, she fell into a deep pool.

The water bubbled and swirls around her, and as she surfaced, the water seemed to harden under feet and she was dry. She looked down and realized her clothes had changed, her breasts now pushed up high and her waist thinned by the corset. There was something strangely alluring about the feeling of being in this corset, but she did her best to not let it sway her mind.

She walked across the surface of the water until she reached land. She looked around at the strange glowing flora and fauna around her, reaching out to touch one of the glowing flowers. Just before she touched it, she heard a rustling in the bushed and reached for the knife she had strapped around her thigh, only to find it missing. In a rush she picked up a broken branch and held it up, prepared to defend herself, only to find that the great beast was Didymus. Just as she relaxed Sashes sprung forth from the tree and she almost hit him with the branch.

She relaxed her arms and sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them again with a flash of anger.

“Where are you, you coward!” she yelled out. “You brought me here and now you are too afraid to face me!? Come out Jareth, enough of this stupid game!”

"Not a game. A Test!" Hissed the voice of Jareth from everywhere at once. "And not for you, but for me." The bark of a tree pulled away and turned to reveal Jareth, the goblin king himself. He looked as if he hadn't aged a single day.

His white shirt almost glowed it's own soft light and was a stark contrast to the cape and cloak he wore. As he approached, it was clear the cloak was oven from blackened vines and spiked with thorns. How he could wear it without piercing his back was a mystery for now.

Almost absent mindely he reached up with a single hand and took a, now fearful, quivering Sashes from the tree limb and placed him gently on a thicket of blue and green glowing flowers. "I wanted to test myself. I wanted to test my power... over you."

"Look around you, Sarah. How much as changed in the hundred years you've spent forgetting us. How many fortunes unowned and heartaches unmended? How cold is the night and dark are the shadows?" He closed in and reached up as if to grab Sarah but didn't, "My will is a strong as yours and my kingdom still greater! YOU have no power over ME!"

She heard his voice boom around her as she held the tree branch up like a baseball bat. When she turned to see Jareth emerge from the tree she could do naught but stare. In the years spent between her youth and now she had changed in many ways, her body had developed more, her mind had grown and questioned itself, and now, she looked at the primary question that she had tried to push to the back of her mind. She swallowed hard as she looked upon his face, not a line, not speck of it had changed in the slightest. It had remained sharp, hard, and alluring.

She relaxed her arms slightly as her eyes flickered at his words, as she doubted herself. While his face had not changed, something else in him had, though she knew not what to call it. Hi will had always been strong, but now it was edged with something darker. After a breath she finally let her arms fall; she still held the stick but now it’s tip rested on the ground.

“One hundred years….” She said and remembered that time worked differently in the labyrinth. “One hundred years and still all you can find to fill your time with is the past and a young girl?” she asked him, doing her best not to feel intimidated by him and his thorny cape.

“You have me here now, what is it you want? If I am so despicable, why have you dragged me back here?”