Return to the Underground - part two!

As soon as Toby spoke the words that he wished to see the goblins' home, he felt the air on his skin freeze. All motion stopped, and his eyes watered, unable to close. A moment later, and his big sister's bedroom was gone. He was in a ... a... well, he guessed it was a house, but it was like nothing he had ever seen before.

The room he was in was dingy, like whatever land he was in hadn't yet discovered primary colors. Everything was sized almost perfectly for him. Toby was small, even for a ten year old, and here he was surrounded by tables and chairs made for his height, windows that started waist high on the wall, a petite fireplace with a nasty colored rug that was just the right size for someone of his lenght to sprawl out on... the room was a marvel. He smelled a scent in the air, something like old dusty leather mixed with chicken cooking; it was not unpleasant. The room wasn't very bright, but he could see that it was daylight outside. He looked down - he was still in his pajamas. He looked up.

Three goblins were standing a foot away from him, watching him with big round pingpong ball eyes and slightly oily skin. Toby recognized them as the same ones he saw in his house, back home.

Home. He had a feeling he was an awfully long way from home.

Toby turned around, expecting to see Sara there with him - but there was no one else in the goblin hovel. Toby slowly turned back to the goblins, who seemed to be waiting for him to say something - anything!!

Toby pulled himself up to his full four feet and two inches, and as he had been taught, said, "Thank you very much for inviting me to your lovely.. to your charming home."

The goblin in the center whose name was Foldor, the one who back at the house had been playing ill, neatly fell backwards in a faint, and hit the floor with a dull thud and a cloud of dust.

The two remaining goblins whose names were Tum and Brie dropped their goblin jaws. Their googly eyes bugged out even further. They looked like they were possibly considering pouncing on the boy.

Toby did not know quite how to take this, but he managed to smile and say, "My name is Toby. What are your names? Is that man on the floor alright?"

Brie managed to get a word out. "Boy chose to come with goblins! Boys always have to be stolen, and boy wanted to come with goblin?"

Tum stuttered, "Boy said thank you to goblin?"

From the floor, Foldor muttered, "He thinks my house is charming! Did he notice the frescos?"

Taken aback, Toby put his little hand on his chest. "Are you talking about me?"

"You boy! You Toby boy! You are not ordinary boy! You PRINCE!!" Brie could hardly contain himself and starting jumping up and down.

"No, I'm just a boy..." Toby began, but was drowned out by Brie and Tum's chanting of "Prince! Prince! Prince!"

Within moments, other goblins were sticking their heads in the windows and doorway, seeing the goblins jumping and pointing at Toby and taking up the cry, "Prince! Prince! Prince!"

With a bit of a scuffle and poor Foldor being hopelessly trampled in the dirt of his floor, the goblins as one mass hoisted Toby onto their shoulders and carried him out into the streets, screaming "Prince Toby Boy! Prince Toby Boy!". Goblins poured out from everywhere, holding mugs of some greenish fluid up when they cried his name, some goblins in dresses holding up little mini-goblins swaddled in greasy gray cloths, trying to show them this new sight. As they paraded down the street crying his name, Toby thought he could get used to this.

And - just for a moment - he forgot about Sara.

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Surely Toby was not in Jareth's castle again, thought Sara. That was predictable, and she didn't think her quest this time was just to retrace her steps. This was an entirely new experience - this would be an entirely new adventure.

Despite her concern for Toby's welfare and her anger at the Goblin King for getting them into this mess (who had put those goblins in her room anyway?), Sara began to feel a plesant anticipation. She had mastered this place before, and it had taught her volumes. She looked forward to what this encounter would bring. After all she was much older and hopefully smarter and certainly more sure of herself. This could be fun - as long as Toby was alright.

Sara got down to the entrance of the labyrinth. She was hoping to run into one of her old friends who could give her a hand.

To get in to the labyrinth you have to know the exact way to look at the door. From the labyrinth you proceed to a succession of mazes, tunnels, even past the Bog of Eternal Stench, until you come to the gates of the Goblin City. At its center lies the Goblin King's castle.

Ten years ago Sara had ran and ran, looking for a door. Then she met a worm who explained you couldn't take anything for granted in the labyrinth. He had directed her to go right, through the wall, and she had entered the huge maze complex.

"So where is that door..." Sara tried to remember and assume the alert attitude necessary to get by in the Underground. Take nothing for granted. Be ready for surprises. What you are looking for may be right in front of your face.

Sara almost tripped over a fallen branch that sparked with a glittering dew. She paused and leaned against the stones. Was that a little hole inbetween the stones? In the miles of labyrinth wall, what were the odds she would come back to the same spot?

She tried an experimental, "'Ello?"

A moment passed, and she heard a tinny, somewhat British voice calling, "Ello! Is that Sara??"

A fuzzy blue worm in a little hat and scarf emerged from the hole in the rocks - rather, he crept. His speed was a little slow for someone on a quest.

"Sara! Why it's good to see you again! What has it been, ten years? How are you? Welcome! Welcome!" The little worm was showing great excitement with a big smile and a tail that wiggled ever so slightly.

"Hello there! It's good to see you too! I was just thinking about how much you helped me years ago." Sara wanted to shake hands, but couldn't figure out how, so she just put her hands in her pockets.

"Oh, that was nothing. It was a pleasure. I hope you enjoyed the labyrinth."

Sara thought. "Well, yes, yes I guess I did enjoy it, although I never really thought of it that way. Thanks to you I got inside and solved the labyrinth in less than 13 hours." Sara smiled, remembering. "But how are you? How is the missus?"

The worm frowned. "Sadly, lady, you never got to meet her. She left me, she did. Said she found a fairy who would grant her her dreams." He sighed. "Can't say I mind much - she was a bit of a bore, for a worm."

Sara grinned. Seems like there were a lot of smooth operators around her. But she had to move on, so she said, "I'd love to stay and visit - really I would - but, do you suppose, could you help me get in again?"

"I understand. People like to move on, that's what my wife said. Well then, like before, look right over there," and he motioned with his head. "Look twice, and that wall's a door after all."

So it was. Sara looked, and looked again, and the impenatrable wall was now part of a corridor. She smiled, "Thanks! Hope to see you again sometime! Now let's see..." she started away from the worm. "Last time I went right - so this time, I'll go left!" and she strode around the corner.

"Sara, no!" But she couldn't hear him anymore. "Oh why didn't she remember! You don't go that way, NEVER go that way! She'll be right inside the castle!" He shuddered as well as a worm could and shook his head. "Oh bother, my scarf has come loose again and no one here to fix it. Wish I had some fingers, I do."

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Jareth sat in his throne room, alone. The Goblin King wasn't surrounded by his minions at the moment, and he idly wondered where they all were. His guards were still in place, but the rabble that made up his court wasn't there.

The castle was made all of stone. The throne room, at the center of the castle, was round, with a floor of two hights, so that there was something of a pit in the middle. Supplicators could kneel there, but usually it was just filled with goblins picking their noses and laughing when Jareth told them to. His throne was a semi-circle of metal and ivory. He could sit erect it in, imposing, but usually he sat sideways, with a leg thrown over the arm. That was where he most liked to think, and now with the goblin masses absent he had an opportunity to do so.

Why indeed had he brought Sara here? Why had he sent his goblins to lure her? He had watched her for years, but never tried to sort out why. He had not considered what he expected to happen when she arrived.

Jareth closed his eyes. It was evident she hated him. Granted, THAT he understood. Years ago he had tried to ensnare her, had taken her brother, had forced her to work her way through his labyrinth and had thrown many hardships at her. But then, he had taken many brothers away from their impatient sisters. Sara had been the first to resist, the first to not give up. Other girls had let the child's disappearance be a mystery. A few had gone mad. But Sara was the first with the courage to defy him, and try to undo the consequences of her careless wish. That had intrigued him.

He thought back... Sara had befriended creatures of his realm, escaped his goblin army (although really, that wasn't SUCH a feat), and had found him and Toby in his castle. She had neatly stepped over every challenge he put in her way. At one point in her journey, he had drugged her into a waking dream, had taken her thus to a grand mirror ballroom and a masquerade ball. He had sung to her and danced with her - his primary attempt was to show her the fantasies she loved as reality. But she had broken free of the dream and realized the truth. Once in his castle, she realized again that stone walls could be an illusion, and reached the child he had hidden.

Jareth had been in shock. He tried, one last time, to capture her, to woo her. He had offered her the fulfillment of the dreams and fanatasies she spent all her time on back home. But she had rejected dreams for the love of a baby. She had shattered him.

He couldn't understand it any better now than he had then. He was the king here - she acknowldged it, but would not see him as her master. Of course he was the master! But she would not bow her head. She would play by his rules, but she would not do his will.

In a kingdom of goblins, the king did not know quite what to make of a woman with a will as strong as his.

Jareth opened his eyes, and started rapping his ebony cane against his boot. Sara had once been here, in his castle. She had infuriated him - and captivated him. He wanted to have a conversation with her. He wanted her to be as captivated with him. But she would never, never be his subject.

He dropped his cane - it echoed with a clatter against the stone walls. Perhaps... perhaps he wanted her to become his equal?

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Sara followed a corridor into a tunnel, dark and dank. She was optimistic. The first time she went through the labryinth, it had taken hours until she reached any tunnels. Shuddering at the moistness she was touching, she ran her hands along the walls as she went, feeling for any loose bricks or hidden doorways. There was nothing, and she was running out of light.

Finally, she reached a old wooden door at the end. She fully expected it to be locked, but there was only a leather strap holding it closed. She moved the strap, took a deep breath, and walked inside.

She hit her right shin into a wooden box. She gave a very ladylike grunt as she did, stopped short, and waited for her eyes to adjust to the semidarkness. The old wooden door had swung shut behind her.

Was she in an oubliette? She knew the labyrinth was pockmarked with those little holes, mini dungeons really. But there was no damp feeling to the air. Rather there was a slight smell of dust - it was a little musty, and quite cool.

Sara began to gradually make out a doorway, some thirty feet away - she could tell by the cracks of light coming out from the sides of the door. But where was she, that she emerged from a dark tunnel into a dry room where it was fully lit on the other side?

In the semilight, she thought she could see well enough to examine what was in the room. It might be of some use to her.

She bent down to examine the offending box she had walked into. It was a crate, really, with slats on the sides and open on top. She reached in, and being so close noticed a sweet smell coming from the contents... They were round, soft and slightly fuzzy. She picked one up.

It was a peach!

Last time in the labyrinth Jareth had drugged her with a poisoned peach. Now she knew where he kept them! She carefully walked around to the shelves on the wall. They held burlap sacks, tied shut - by feeling them, it seemed they held beans or grains of some kind. There were also glass jars sealed with wax, and considering this was the goblin kingdom she was happy it was too dark to see what was inside. Apparently she was in some kind of storeroom or pantry. That meant whatever was outside that door was someone's home, probably the kitchen.

But who in the labyrinth would have a full sized doorway? Goblins were short. Hoggle was short. Ludo was large, but he didn't live indoors. The only creature she had ever come across here who was her height was...

Peaches. She was in Jareth's pantry. She was in Jareth's castle. The journey that had taken her 12 hours and almost killed her 10 years ago had taken 15 minutes.

"This place is full of surprises - I knew that," she said to herself. Although her mouth watered for a peach she didn't think it was wise, and was just about to go for the door when she heard a noise. She froze, and listened. Footsteps. Footsteps made by heavy boots. And they were coming closer.

Her eyes darted around the dark room. Where could she hide?

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Jareth gave up his pondering. This, this human was driving him crazy. He wanted to have something to eat, but his castle was deserted.

"Goblins. Never around when you need them. ALWAYS around the rest of the time!" He got to his feet. "Well, I haven't lived here for seventy-two years without knowing my way around. I'll get it myself." He went off through the southwest arch down the hallway, his bootsteps a staccatto clop on the stone floors.