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The Queen of The Goblin King
Chapter Three

Karen shooed the girls upstairs to change while she gathered up towels and sunscreen for their day at the water park.  As soon as they were up in Sarah's room, Sarah closed and locked the door to which Shophin snickered and said,
"What, scared that your little brother might try to sneak a peek?"  Sarah smiled and said,
"No, I just want to be able to do something in a bit of privacy."  Shophin tilted her head to the side in confusion and said,
"So do you want me to leave, or...?"  Sarah shook her head as she took out her two piece suit saying,
"Oh no no no, I just want to send a message to my friends."  Shophin smiled then, knowing who Sarah meant, and in fact was very excited at the prospect of getting to see this as Sarah sat down at her vanity with a note pad ready to begin writing.

Then Sarah went still and placed her pen down as she picked up an envelope that certainly hadn't been there when the girls left.  Shophin watched as her friend read the hurried script on the front, then tear into the thing and begin to read the contents of the message.  By the look on Sarah's face it was very serious and as soon as she set the letter down she went to her closet and began gathering herself some old jeans and a simple t-shirt, then rushed to get dressed.  Shophin picked up the discarded letter and began to read the poorly written and misspelled script,
"Deer Saira,
U need to cume back right away!  The King is vary sick, and the Laberinth is diing.  We dont nowe what to do, we need yor help.  Cume back as soon as u get this!
                                                                              Yor Frends."

Shophin would have laughed at the horrible spelling and bad punctuation if it weren't for the fact that the message was so urgent and Sarah was in a tizzy trying to find her tennis-shoes.  As Sarah laced up her old tennies she looked at Shophin and said,
"I have to go, if things are as bad as my friends say they are, then there is no telling what I'll be facing when I go back."  She looked her friend in the eye as she went on,
"So if you want to stay h-"
"Are you kidding?!" said Shophin, making Sarah stop in her tracks as her friend went on,
"No way you're leaving me here when there's trouble in the Underground.  I'll go and  help you as best I can, and besides...I've always wanted to see the Labyrinth and all since you first told me about it."  Sarah gave her friend a smile and said,
"Well it won't be anything like what I told you, but if you want to help and you're willing to deal with whatever comes our way while we're there, then get in some pants, shirt and tennies shoes."  Shophin nods and quickly went about getting her things together and changing into the extra clothes she had brought from her house.

She was almost ready to go when she turned to Sarah and said,
"What about that party and the day at the water park?"  Sarah smiled at her friend and said,
"Time passes differently in the Underground then up here in the Aboveground.  Days, even weeks down there are only hours, maybe just minutes here.  I guess it depends on the will of the realm's ruler."  At the mention of Jareth, both girls were brought back to reality and that they had to get moving.  Sarah put a few things in a small bag to take with her, a flashlight, first aid kit if it was needed for their journey through the now dilapidated Labyrinth, and an extra change of clothes.  Shophin also packed an extra set of clothes and after they were ready both girls stood in front of the mirror on Sarah's vanity.

Holding her friend's letter in her hand, Sarah spoke to the mirror, saying,
"I wish for the goblins to come and take us away, right now."  As soon as those words left her mouth the mirror turned a smokey gray, the reflection of themselves and the room behind them first becoming different shades of gray, then shadows until they completely disappeared from the surface of the mirror.  Sarah looked at her friend and said,
"Are you sure, cause after this there's no telling when we'll be back, or if we'll come back, even if we do help Jareth get back on his feet."  Shophin smiled at Sarah and said,
"I'm with ya till the end, and I think if there was any place I'd like to be trapped in, it would be the Underground."  Sarah smiled at her friend and looked ahead as the mirror swirled and the image of a dark tunnel is formed.

Shophin took a deep breath and looked at Sarah, who nodded and said,
"Just walk toward the mirror as if there is nothing in your way, it helps if you close your eyes at first."  At first Shophin just stared at Sarah, but steeled her self as Sarah walked through the vanity and then the mirror as if nothing was there.
"Ok...." Shophin said to herself as she looked at the mirror.  She took a few deep breaths, slug her bag over her shoulder, closed her eyes and walked quickly forward.  The next thing she knew, Shophin heard Sarah yell for her to stop just before she ran into a stone wall.  Falling on her behind and rubbing her face Shophin finally opened her eyes thinking that she should have known it wouldn't work.  That the whole tunnel in the mirror thing was just a trick of her mind, but as she looked at the ground, instead of the peach colored carpet of Sarah's room, she found dirt.

Looking around her, the place looked to have been a structure of some sort, but was in such shambles, with scorched stones, crumbling walls which were over grown with moss and weeds.  There were pieces of coral looking plants in places where there used to be a wall, which looked as if they had at one point contained some kind of orb or bulb at the ends, but were now empty and lifeless.  Sarah lifted one of the coral-like limbs to look at the empty end of the plant with sadness in her eyes, as she said,
"These used to be filled with eyes that were able to see and follow those who walked by."  She looked up at Shophin as she gently placed the plant limb down as she went on,
"Hoggle told me that Jareth could see what they see.  In a way they were like security cameras, they'er able to see and remember everything that would pass by or change in their area of the Labyrinth."  Shophin placed a comforting hand on Sarah's back saying,
"We should get moving Sarah.  If we're going to help your friends and Jareth then we need to get to the castle, so which way do we go from here?"

Sarah looked around her and said,
"Well, with the Labyrinth in this state, I may not be able to recognize certain points in order to guide us through safely."  It was at this point that Shophin sighed and looked around her.  She gasped when she saw that the far wall had changed and now had two over turned doors made of wood.  Walking up to the doors and looking through the frames they used to inhabit, Shophin said,
"Do you think one of these doorways will lead to the castle?"  Glancing toward her friend, Sarah sighed and said,
"No, the doors that might have done that are made of metal, not woo...wait!"  She hurried over and looked carefully at the fallen doors, and said in a panic,
"Oh God! Help me turn them over!"  Confused and curious as to what Sarah was on about, Shophin helped her friend turn the first door over.  On the front of the door was a faced knocker which at one point had had a ring with a knob for the knocker threaded through it's ears.  Now the ring was broken and the whole of the knocker was very rusty to the point of being barely recognizable.  But Sarah seemed to know exactly what it was, and her eyes seemed to fill with tears as she tried to wipe some of the rust off.

A muffled sound came from the other door, causing Shophin to jump with a slight yelp.  Sarah was instantly beside the door making the noise saying,
"Help me get him up!"  Shophin didn't have the time to ask what she meant by 'him' as she helped her lift the other door up and prop it against, what used to be, its frame.  The mumbling was coming from another knocker on the front of the door, which had its knobbed ring in its mouth.  Sarah sighed in relief and quickly took the ring out of the face's mouth, saying
"Thank goodness, are you ok?"  The knocker took a moment of moving its lips around to test the feeling in his lips and then said,
"Oh, thank you so much.  I'm as good as can be expected for being turned over for months on end.  I was beginning to think no one would come to get me repaired."  The knocker went silent for a moment taking in the two girls in front of him.  Then recognition seeped into his face as he looked at Sarah and said,
"It's you!  How did you get back into the Labyrinth, is our King once again taking children from the Aboveground?"  Sarah smiled at the knocker and shook her head, saying,
"No, no he hasn't, although he's the reason my friend and I are here." she nodded to Shophin who waved at the knocker with a shocked look on her face.

The knocker arced a brow at her and said,
"She doesn't have much to say for herself does she?"  Sarah smiled and explained this was Shophin's first time to the Underground, and seeing a knocker speaking wasn't what she was expecting.  She then looked through the doorway the door used to occupy and said,
"Can you help use find our way to the castle at the center of the Labyrinth?"  The knocker shook his head saying,
"Sorry, I'm just a knocker, but if you can find the goblin that comes through to check on the boarders along with a small fox-like creature on a large sheepdog-"  She perked up saying,
"Hoggle and Sir Didymus."  The knocker nodded as he went on,
"They'll be able to help you, they know all the paths through this place."  Sarah sighed and said,
"Do you know where they would be, or what time they do their rounds?"  He thought for a moment and said,
"They should be out this way before too long.  They do a patrol in the morning and then again later on in the evening.  I'm not sure where though, you may have to wander around near the outer parts of the Labyrinth to catch them."  She nodded then looked to Shophin saying,
"It looks like we'll have to hunt my friends down to get to where we need to be."  Shophin nodded as Sarah picked up her things and said her goodbyes to the knocker, promising that she would send someone to repair him and his companion as soon as possible.

An hour later Sarah and Shophin were near what Sarah believed to be the front entrance of the Labyrinth.  The place was in a state of complete destruction, with overgrowth on every wall with small nest-like structures clustered in small groups throughout.  A few minutes later they found the main entrance that Sarah had entered on her first time through the Labyrinth, and Sarah suggested that they rest for a while and wait until they catch sight of Hoggle or Sir Didymus.  Shophin had just set herself down on near by rock, when something bit her hard.  She jumped up with a yelp saying,
"Something bit me!  What bit me?!"  Sarah looked around her friend, and as she looked the bite over she felt something bite her as well.  Instantly she swiped at whatever it was, hearing it hit the ground she looked down to see what it was.  A small, pissed off looking fairy hissed from its position on the ground, outraged at being swatted.  Sarah growled at it, making it whimper and crawl away to a nearby bush.  She turned to Shophin, who had a look of disbelief and anger on her face, and said,
"Fairies are some of the biggest pests around here, and it looks like they've somewhat taken over this area.  So watch yourself, and if you can swat one before it bites you do it, because their bite causes the skin to raise, redden and itch worse then misquotes."  She pulled out some disinfectant as she spoke and dabbed a bit on Shophin's bite and her own.

It was when she was putting the stuff away that they both heard the sound of something galloping toward them.  Sarah stood up and looked around the entrance area and to the outer plains near by.  Soon a small red fox-like creature came into view riding a large, long haired, grey and white sheepdog.  Shophin nearly laughed at the sight of him, but Sarah ran out to him calling to him,
"Sir Didymus, Sir Didymus it's me, Sarah!"  The creature brought his stead to a halt saying,
"My Lady?!"  Sarah came up to him and knelt next to the dog placing his rider in a hug.  The creature, now dubbed Sir Didymus, said,
"My Lady, it is so good to see you.  Sir Hoggle sent for thee and here you are...and not alone."  The last was said as he noted Shophin looking around the entranceway to the Labyrinth.  Sarah smiled and said,
"This is my friend Shophin, she's come with me to help get the Labyrinth back on track."  She stopped then and looked at Sir Didymus with sadness in her eyes and said,
"What happened, Didymus?  Why hasn't Jareth been tending the Labyrinth?"  Sir Didymus sighed and said,
"I shall guide thee and thy friend to the castle and to Sir Hoggle, he shall explain all to thee."  Sarah nodded and turned to Shophin, who had already grabbed their things and was headed out to meet them.

The Queen of The Goblin King
Chapter Four

It took several hours for the small company to reach the Goblin City.  The place was no better then the junkyard outside its walls.  The streets were filled with waste and discarded bits of clothes, tools and other everyday items.  It was as if a bomb had dropped and no one had bothered to clean up after.  The houses were in disrepair, some lay in rubble with only the foundation to show where they once stood.  Sarah was almost in tears at the sight.  Sure it hadn't looked like the bustling streets of her town, but it had been somewhat clean and ordered with its structures solid and maintained.  And as Sir Didymus lead the way through the filth streets both Sarah and Shophin caught glimpses of small ugly creatures scurrying from one house to another, down alley ways, and into half destroyed buildings.
'So this is what has become of the Goblin City.' Sarah thought to herself, but nothing could have prepared her for what had happened to the castle.  It looked as if it had been laden with dirt and ash, with thorns and weeds growing beyond the gardens to wrap around the whole back and left side of the place, like the plants were trying to swallow it up.

Sir Didymus lead them up the steps and inside to the main hall, which was completely devoid of life, with the thrown turned over on its side.  Even the light coming in from outside was dismal and gray as Sir Didymus lead them on up the main staircase to find them some rooms.  There was little difference in the look of the other levels of the castle to the thrown room below.  Nothing moved threw the halls, and there was dirt and dust gathered all over the floors, while cobwebs and moth-eaten curtains lined the walls and windows.  Shophin noted that though the place was in shambles now it must have been a sight to see when cleaned and polished to its full glory.  It wasn't too long before she and Sarah were given rooms next to each other and just down the hall from where the Goblin King had shut himself off from his realm.

Shophin's room was dusty and had the small of being vacant for quite some time.
'Maybe Jareth doesn't entertain much.' she thought as she went about clearing a few spaces of cobwebs and opening the curtains so she could look the bed over.  It was a mess of course and could use a good dusting as well as a set of clean sheets and a comforter.  So without anything else to do until Didymus returned with Hoggle, Shophin cracked her knuckles and get to work.  First she dusted, and then looked in a nearby closet just outside her room for a broom, dust pan and mop.  It took several hours of hard work and patients, but finally everything was clean, the bed had been stripped and now she was just waiting for someone to come by so she could ask for some clean sheets.  So far she hadn't seen anyone, not even a mouse.

It wasn't too long before Shophin gave up and went to Sarah's room to see what she was up to, and to ask her when they would be allowed to see Jareth.  After all, his home was dying around him, he had to know that shutting himself off from his realm and people was causing the place to waste away.  If what Sarah had told her was true, then Jareth was connected to his land in a very intimate way, or at least it seemed to be proving so.  For it seemed that, however the King felt or wanted things to be, they would be.  And from what she had seen of the place, Shophin could only imagine what kind of thoughts were going through the King's head if any at all.

A knock or two later found Shophin and Sarah sitting in a window seat next to Sarah's bed overlooking the once beautiful garden.
"So when do you think we'll be allowed to see the King?" asked Shophin.  Sarah sighed and shook her head, saying,
"I'm not sure, but I want to see Hoggle before doing anything.  He's the only one I know of that was allowed to remain in the castle as one of Jareth's servants after I defeated him."  She looked out the window just as a flash of lightning pierced the sky and thunder roared as she went on.
"Though I have my suspicions as to why Jareth kept him around, I'm sure Hoggle would warn me if Jareth's intent had been to find a way to hurt me."  Shophin scoffed and said,
"He seems to be doing a fine job of it without the goblin's help."  Sarah looked at her friend confused, and Shophin rolled her eyes saying,
"Don't play innocent with me, I saw the look in your eyes while we walked through nearly every part of the Labyrinth.  You were practically in tears the entire trip, not that I blame you.  From your stories and descriptions I was hoping my first visit to the Labyrinth would be an adventure through it, not a mission to save it from dying out.  And the whole reason it's like this is because its King is in some sort of funk that he refuses to work through!"

Sarah smiled at her friend and said,
"True, but you have to remember that I'm the one who turned him down."
"Doesn't matter!  That's no excuse and you are not to blame for his choices.  He should have known that you would have no idea what he was offering you, and if he really did love you couldn't he have waited?"  Sarah sighed, but she nodded, if just for the sake of getting her friend to calm down.  Still, Sarah couldn't help but feel responsible for what had happened to the Labyrinth and its inhabitants, wherever they were hiding.  Though by all accounts she couldn't blame them, after all their home was slowly crumbling around them.  Finding a safe place to hide if the need arose was the first thing she would have done.  The girls were drawn from their thoughts by a knock on Sarah's door, and a short gnarled looking dwarf-like goblin waddled in.  Shophin recognized him as Sarah's good friend Hoggle, and smiled as her friend embraced the goblin.

Hoggle gave Sarah a sad smile saying,
"I'm so glad you're here Sarah, but who's your friend?"  Sarah turned to Shophin and said,
"This is Shophin Moore, a friend from school who has just as much of a passion for the fantastical and magical as I do.  Shophin this is my friend and guide from my first journey through the Labyrinth, Hoggle."  Shophin smiled at the goblin and held out her hand saying,
"It good to finally meet you.  Sarah has told me so much about you and the Labyrinth, but to be honest I was hoping to come at a happier time.  How have you all been holding up since this all started?"  Hoggle bowed his head in thanks to her concern and said,
"We've all been doing the best we can with what we have, same as we always have, but things have become much worse in the last few months.  Jareth refuses to come out of his rooms, or even open his windows to allow the whole of his kingdom access to his strength.  It's why everything has been crumbling and dying, or overgrown and overrun either by fairies or weeds all over the realm.  Even the Bog of Eternal Stench has overflowed into the lower parts of the Labyrinth, ha...and I can tell you nothing will ever grow in those places ever again."  Both girls were taken aback by just how serious things seemed to have gotten over the time Sarah had been gone, and that wasn't even the worst of it, as Hoggle went on to say,
"But all that is nothing in comparison to the fading of the boarder lines that protect the realm from invaders, whether passive or hostel.  If Jareth doesn't replenish the flow of power to the boarders, we may very well have a full out assault on the Labyrinth."

The girls sat in shocked silence for a few moments, and then, just as Sarah was about to ask who would attack the realm of the goblins; there was a panicked knock on the door.  Hoggle answered it to find a young she goblin with a pile of clean towels in her hands looking as if she was both troubled and in trouble.  She was so flustered, that when the door opened completely she jumped, but upon seeing Hoggle she sighed and said,
"Oh thank the stars in the heavens you being here!" she was out of breath as she tried to speak.  But Hoggle held up a hand and said,
"Come on now...just calm down and tell me what's the matter?"  The small she goblin took several deep breaths before speaking again, saying,
"Oh sir, I went to fill up his majesty's usual evening bath, but when I knocked there was no answer.  So I went in to see if 'en he was asleep or in need of help and...oh mister Hoggle sir!"  Tears streamed from her almond shaped eyes down plump cheeks as she went on.
"He was just laying there sir, he's just sprawled out on the bed shivering like he's got the chills, and when I reached out to cover him with a sheet I found them to be soaked through with sweat sir.  I felt his head and he's burn'en with a fierce fever, and I don't know what I should do.  So I came look'en for you sir."

It was at this point that everyone followed the she goblin down the hall to Jareth's rooms.  The sight that greeted them was a very thin and very pale looking Jareth spread out on the bed as if he had lost his footing and just lay exactly where he had fallen.  The dark burgundy sheets were soak through with perspiration and the black comforter was no better.  Though there were a few candles lit the room was nearly black, so Shophin pulled back the velvet curtains to let what light could be had with the coming storm brewing outside.  Hoggle asked the she goblin to fetch more candles, to make sure the bath was indeed filled and to fetch Ludo to come up and help.  Turning back to the girls he said,
"Would you two mind helping me until Ludo gets here?"  Neither of the girls needed to be told twice as they moved in to help remove Jareth's clothes and to start stripping parts of the bed.

Once Ludo and the water came Jareth was ready to be placed in the bath, and the girls would finish stripping the bed and cleaning up the room in general.  For the place was even worse then a pigsty, with discarded clothing pooled on the floors of both the bedroom and the sitting room which conjoined with the bedroom with a curtain dividing them.  There were numerous trays of half eaten food, and several empty bottles that had at one time contained wine.  Still with little to no words spoken about what they found, or how it made them even more determined to help Jareth regain his strength, the girls picked up the messes.  They swept, wiped, dusted, mopped, polished and washed as they went, until the rooms were once again clean.  Then they made the bed in old perishable white sheets, but they were fine enough to give great comfort to the one who slept among them.

It wasn't too long after they had finished their making of the bed, that Shophin noted that the whole color scheme of the room seemed to have changed with the clearing of all the clutter and swopping of sheets.  Fore now, the floors were a sterile white marble with light cream boarders, the curtains around the bed as well as the windows were now a sheer white.  The whole room seemed to take on the look of a hospital with all the clean whites and cream colors strewn through every piece of furniture and cloth covering.  As she turned to Sarah to ask what had happened, Hoggle answered her having seen her looking around, saying,
"Depending on the King's moods or whatever purpose the room is to serve it will change itself accordingly to the needs or wants of those who inhabit the room."  Shophin sighed and said,
"Wish someone had said something before I went about changing the curtains and such in my room."  The pieces of cloth once called curtains were nothing but moth eaten scraps by the time Shophin came in.  Now knowing her room's theme could change based on what she wanted or needed, made her excited to head to bed that night.

But from the looks of Jareth as he was carried out of the bathroom by Ludo, clean and in a fresh pair of leggings.  He looked even thinner if that were possible.  Shophin sighed as she helped Ludo and Hoggle place Jareth in the bed, and Sarah placed a cold cloth on his forehead to bring down the fever.

Description
The Queen of The Goblin King
Chapter Three

Karen shooed the girls upstairs to change while she gathered up towels and sunscreen for their day at the water park.  As soon as they were up in Sarah's room, Sarah closed and locked the door to which Shophin snickered and said,
"What, scared that your little brother might try to sneak a peek?"  Sarah smiled and said,
"No, I just want to be able to do something in a bit of privacy."  Shophin tilted her head to the side in confusion and said,
"So do you want me to leave, or...?"  Sarah shook her head as she took out her two piece suit saying,
"Oh no no no, I just want to send a message to my friends."  Shophin smiled then, knowing who Sarah meant, and in fact was very excited at the prospect of getting to see this as Sarah sat down at her vanity with a note pad ready to begin writing.

Then Sarah went still and placed her pen down as she picked up an envelope that certainly hadn't been there when the girls left.  Shophin watched as her friend read the hurried script on the front, then tear into the thing and begin to read the contents of the message.  By the look on Sarah's face it was very serious and as soon as she set the letter down she went to her closet and began gathering herself some old jeans and a simple t-shirt, then rushed to get dressed.  Shophin picked up the discarded letter and began to read the poorly written and misspelled script,
"Deer Saira,
U need to cume back right away!  The King is vary sick, and the Laberinth is diing.  We dont nowe what to do, we need yor help.  Cume back as soon as u get this!
                                                                              Yor Frends."

Shophin would have laughed at the horrible spelling and bad punctuation if it weren't for the fact that the message was so urgent and Sarah was in a tizzy trying to find her tennis-shoes.  As Sarah laced up her old tennies she looked at Shophin and said,
"I have to go, if things are as bad as my friends say they are, then there is no telling what I'll be facing when I go back."  She looked her friend in the eye as she went on,
"So if you want to stay h-"
"Are you kidding?!" said Shophin, making Sarah stop in her tracks as her friend went on,
"No way you're leaving me here when there's trouble in the Underground.  I'll go and  help you as best I can, and besides...I've always wanted to see the Labyrinth and all since you first told me about it."  Sarah gave her friend a smile and said,
"Well it won't be anything like what I told you, but if you want to help and you're willing to deal with whatever comes our way while we're there, then get in some pants, shirt and tennies shoes."  Shophin nods and quickly went about getting her things together and changing into the extra clothes she had brought from her house.

She was almost ready to go when she turned to Sarah and said,
"What about that party and the day at the water park?"  Sarah smiled at her friend and said,
"Time passes differently in the Underground then up here in the Aboveground.  Days, even weeks down there are only hours, maybe just minutes here.  I guess it depends on the will of the realm's ruler."  At the mention of Jareth, both girls were brought back to reality and that they had to get moving.  Sarah put a few things in a small bag to take with her, a flashlight, first aid kit if it was needed for their journey through the now dilapidated Labyrinth, and an extra change of clothes.  Shophin also packed an extra set of clothes and after they were ready both girls stood in front of the mirror on Sarah's vanity.

Holding her friend's letter in her hand, Sarah spoke to the mirror, saying,
"I wish for the goblins to come and take us away, right now."  As soon as those words left her mouth the mirror turned a smokey gray, the reflection of themselves and the room behind them first becoming different shades of gray, then shadows until they completely disappeared from the surface of the mirror.  Sarah looked at her friend and said,
"Are you sure, cause after this there's no telling when we'll be back, or if we'll come back, even if we do help Jareth get back on his feet."  Shophin smiled at Sarah and said,
"I'm with ya till the end, and I think if there was any place I'd like to be trapped in, it would be the Underground."  Sarah smiled at her friend and looked ahead as the mirror swirled and the image of a dark tunnel is formed.

Shophin took a deep breath and looked at Sarah, who nodded and said,
"Just walk toward the mirror as if there is nothing in your way, it helps if you close your eyes at first."  At first Shophin just stared at Sarah, but steeled her self as Sarah walked through the vanity and then the mirror as if nothing was there.
"Ok...." Shophin said to herself as she looked at the mirror.  She took a few deep breaths, slug her bag over her shoulder, closed her eyes and walked quickly forward.  The next thing she knew, Shophin heard Sarah yell for her to stop just before she ran into a stone wall.  Falling on her behind and rubbing her face Shophin finally opened her eyes thinking that she should have known it wouldn't work.  That the whole tunnel in the mirror thing was just a trick of her mind, but as she looked at the ground, instead of the peach colored carpet of Sarah's room, she found dirt.

Looking around her, the place looked to have been a structure of some sort, but was in such shambles, with scorched stones, crumbling walls which were over grown with moss and weeds.  There were pieces of coral looking plants in places where there used to be a wall, which looked as if they had at one point contained some kind of orb or bulb at the ends, but were now empty and lifeless.  Sarah lifted one of the coral-like limbs to look at the empty end of the plant with sadness in her eyes, as she said,
"These used to be filled with eyes that were able to see and follow those who walked by."  She looked up at Shophin as she gently placed the plant limb down as she went on,
"Hoggle told me that Jareth could see what they see.  In a way they were like security cameras, they'er able to see and remember everything that would pass by or change in their area of the Labyrinth."  Shophin placed a comforting hand on Sarah's back saying,
"We should get moving Sarah.  If we're going to help your friends and Jareth then we need to get to the castle, so which way do we go from here?"

Sarah looked around her and said,
"Well, with the Labyrinth in this state, I may not be able to recognize certain points in order to guide us through safely."  It was at this point that Shophin sighed and looked around her.  She gasped when she saw that the far wall had changed and now had two over turned doors made of wood.  Walking up to the doors and looking through the frames they used to inhabit, Shophin said,
"Do you think one of these doorways will lead to the castle?"  Glancing toward her friend, Sarah sighed and said,
"No, the doors that might have done that are made of metal, not woo...wait!"  She hurried over and looked carefully at the fallen doors, and said in a panic,
"Oh God! Help me turn them over!"  Confused and curious as to what Sarah was on about, Shophin helped her friend turn the first door over.  On the front of the door was a faced knocker which at one point had had a ring with a knob for the knocker threaded through it's ears.  Now the ring was broken and the whole of the knocker was very rusty to the point of being barely recognizable.  But Sarah seemed to know exactly what it was, and her eyes seemed to fill with tears as she tried to wipe some of the rust off.

A muffled sound came from the other door, causing Shophin to jump with a slight yelp.  Sarah was instantly beside the door making the noise saying,
"Help me get him up!"  Shophin didn't have the time to ask what she meant by 'him' as she helped her lift the other door up and prop it against, what used to be, its frame.  The mumbling was coming from another knocker on the front of the door, which had its knobbed ring in its mouth.  Sarah sighed in relief and quickly took the ring out of the face's mouth, saying
"Thank goodness, are you ok?"  The knocker took a moment of moving its lips around to test the feeling in his lips and then said,
"Oh, thank you so much.  I'm as good as can be expected for being turned over for months on end.  I was beginning to think no one would come to get me repaired."  The knocker went silent for a moment taking in the two girls in front of him.  Then recognition seeped into his face as he looked at Sarah and said,
"It's you!  How did you get back into the Labyrinth, is our King once again taking children from the Aboveground?"  Sarah smiled at the knocker and shook her head, saying,
"No, no he hasn't, although he's the reason my friend and I are here." she nodded to Shophin who waved at the knocker with a shocked look on her face.

The knocker arced a brow at her and said,
"She doesn't have much to say for herself does she?"  Sarah smiled and explained this was Shophin's first time to the Underground, and seeing a knocker speaking wasn't what she was expecting.  She then looked through the doorway the door used to occupy and said,
"Can you help use find our way to the castle at the center of the Labyrinth?"  The knocker shook his head saying,
"Sorry, I'm just a knocker, but if you can find the goblin that comes through to check on the boarders along with a small fox-like creature on a large sheepdog-"  She perked up saying,
"Hoggle and Sir Didymus."  The knocker nodded as he went on,
"They'll be able to help you, they know all the paths through this place."  Sarah sighed and said,
"Do you know where they would be, or what time they do their rounds?"  He thought for a moment and said,
"They should be out this way before too long.  They do a patrol in the morning and then again later on in the evening.  I'm not sure where though, you may have to wander around near the outer parts of the Labyrinth to catch them."  She nodded then looked to Shophin saying,
"It looks like we'll have to hunt my friends down to get to where we need to be."  Shophin nodded as Sarah picked up her things and said her goodbyes to the knocker, promising that she would send someone to repair him and his companion as soon as possible.

An hour later Sarah and Shophin were near what Sarah believed to be the front entrance of the Labyrinth.  The place was in a state of complete destruction, with overgrowth on every wall with small nest-like structures clustered in small groups throughout.  A few minutes later they found the main entrance that Sarah had entered on her first time through the Labyrinth, and Sarah suggested that they rest for a while and wait until they catch sight of Hoggle or Sir Didymus.  Shophin had just set herself down on near by rock, when something bit her hard.  She jumped up with a yelp saying,
"Something bit me!  What bit me?!"  Sarah looked around her friend, and as she looked the bite over she felt something bite her as well.  Instantly she swiped at whatever it was, hearing it hit the ground she looked down to see what it was.  A small, pissed off looking fairy hissed from its position on the ground, outraged at being swatted.  Sarah growled at it, making it whimper and crawl away to a nearby bush.  She turned to Shophin, who had a look of disbelief and anger on her face, and said,
"Fairies are some of the biggest pests around here, and it looks like they've somewhat taken over this area.  So watch yourself, and if you can swat one before it bites you do it, because their bite causes the skin to raise, redden and itch worse then misquotes."  She pulled out some disinfectant as she spoke and dabbed a bit on Shophin's bite and her own.

It was when she was putting the stuff away that they both heard the sound of something galloping toward them.  Sarah stood up and looked around the entrance area and to the outer plains near by.  Soon a small red fox-like creature came into view riding a large, long haired, grey and white sheepdog.  Shophin nearly laughed at the sight of him, but Sarah ran out to him calling to him,
"Sir Didymus, Sir Didymus it's me, Sarah!"  The creature brought his stead to a halt saying,
"My Lady?!"  Sarah came up to him and knelt next to the dog placing his rider in a hug.  The creature, now dubbed Sir Didymus, said,
"My Lady, it is so good to see you.  Sir Hoggle sent for thee and here you are...and not alone."  The last was said as he noted Shophin looking around the entranceway to the Labyrinth.  Sarah smiled and said,
"This is my friend Shophin, she's come with me to help get the Labyrinth back on track."  She stopped then and looked at Sir Didymus with sadness in her eyes and said,
"What happened, Didymus?  Why hasn't Jareth been tending the Labyrinth?"  Sir Didymus sighed and said,
"I shall guide thee and thy friend to the castle and to Sir Hoggle, he shall explain all to thee."  Sarah nodded and turned to Shophin, who had already grabbed their things and was headed out to meet them.

The Queen of The Goblin King
Chapter Four

It took several hours for the small company to reach the Goblin City.  The place was no better then the junkyard outside its walls.  The streets were filled with waste and discarded bits of clothes, tools and other everyday items.  It was as if a bomb had dropped and no one had bothered to clean up after.  The houses were in disrepair, some lay in rubble with only the foundation to show where they once stood.  Sarah was almost in tears at the sight.  Sure it hadn't looked like the bustling streets of her town, but it had been somewhat clean and ordered with its structures solid and maintained.  And as Sir Didymus lead the way through the filth streets both Sarah and Shophin caught glimpses of small ugly creatures scurrying from one house to another, down alley ways, and into half destroyed buildings.
'So this is what has become of the Goblin City.' Sarah thought to herself, but nothing could have prepared her for what had happened to the castle.  It looked as if it had been laden with dirt and ash, with thorns and weeds growing beyond the gardens to wrap around the whole back and left side of the place, like the plants were trying to swallow it up.

Sir Didymus lead them up the steps and inside to the main hall, which was completely devoid of life, with the thrown turned over on its side.  Even the light coming in from outside was dismal and gray as Sir Didymus lead them on up the main staircase to find them some rooms.  There was little difference in the look of the other levels of the castle to the thrown room below.  Nothing moved threw the halls, and there was dirt and dust gathered all over the floors, while cobwebs and moth-eaten curtains lined the walls and windows.  Shophin noted that though the place was in shambles now it must have been a sight to see when cleaned and polished to its full glory.  It wasn't too long before she and Sarah were given rooms next to each other and just down the hall from where the Goblin King had shut himself off from his realm.

Shophin's room was dusty and had the small of being vacant for quite some time.
'Maybe Jareth doesn't entertain much.' she thought as she went about clearing a few spaces of cobwebs and opening the curtains so she could look the bed over.  It was a mess of course and could use a good dusting as well as a set of clean sheets and a comforter.  So without anything else to do until Didymus returned with Hoggle, Shophin cracked her knuckles and get to work.  First she dusted, and then looked in a nearby closet just outside her room for a broom, dust pan and mop.  It took several hours of hard work and patients, but finally everything was clean, the bed had been stripped and now she was just waiting for someone to come by so she could ask for some clean sheets.  So far she hadn't seen anyone, not even a mouse.

It wasn't too long before Shophin gave up and went to Sarah's room to see what she was up to, and to ask her when they would be allowed to see Jareth.  After all, his home was dying around him, he had to know that shutting himself off from his realm and people was causing the place to waste away.  If what Sarah had told her was true, then Jareth was connected to his land in a very intimate way, or at least it seemed to be proving so.  For it seemed that, however the King felt or wanted things to be, they would be.  And from what she had seen of the place, Shophin could only imagine what kind of thoughts were going through the King's head if any at all.

A knock or two later found Shophin and Sarah sitting in a window seat next to Sarah's bed overlooking the once beautiful garden.
"So when do you think we'll be allowed to see the King?" asked Shophin.  Sarah sighed and shook her head, saying,
"I'm not sure, but I want to see Hoggle before doing anything.  He's the only one I know of that was allowed to remain in the castle as one of Jareth's servants after I defeated him."  She looked out the window just as a flash of lightning pierced the sky and thunder roared as she went on.
"Though I have my suspicions as to why Jareth kept him around, I'm sure Hoggle would warn me if Jareth's intent had been to find a way to hurt me."  Shophin scoffed and said,
"He seems to be doing a fine job of it without the goblin's help."  Sarah looked at her friend confused, and Shophin rolled her eyes saying,
"Don't play innocent with me, I saw the look in your eyes while we walked through nearly every part of the Labyrinth.  You were practically in tears the entire trip, not that I blame you.  From your stories and descriptions I was hoping my first visit to the Labyrinth would be an adventure through it, not a mission to save it from dying out.  And the whole reason it's like this is because its King is in some sort of funk that he refuses to work through!"

Sarah smiled at her friend and said,
"True, but you have to remember that I'm the one who turned him down."
"Doesn't matter!  That's no excuse and you are not to blame for his choices.  He should have known that you would have no idea what he was offering you, and if he really did love you couldn't he have waited?"  Sarah sighed, but she nodded, if just for the sake of getting her friend to calm down.  Still, Sarah couldn't help but feel responsible for what had happened to the Labyrinth and its inhabitants, wherever they were hiding.  Though by all accounts she couldn't blame them, after all their home was slowly crumbling around them.  Finding a safe place to hide if the need arose was the first thing she would have done.  The girls were drawn from their thoughts by a knock on Sarah's door, and a short gnarled looking dwarf-like goblin waddled in.  Shophin recognized him as Sarah's good friend Hoggle, and smiled as her friend embraced the goblin.

Hoggle gave Sarah a sad smile saying,
"I'm so glad you're here Sarah, but who's your friend?"  Sarah turned to Shophin and said,
"This is Shophin Moore, a friend from school who has just as much of a passion for the fantastical and magical as I do.  Shophin this is my friend and guide from my first journey through the Labyrinth, Hoggle."  Shophin smiled at the goblin and held out her hand saying,
"It good to finally meet you.  Sarah has told me so much about you and the Labyrinth, but to be honest I was hoping to come at a happier time.  How have you all been holding up since this all started?"  Hoggle bowed his head in thanks to her concern and said,
"We've all been doing the best we can with what we have, same as we always have, but things have become much worse in the last few months.  Jareth refuses to come out of his rooms, or even open his windows to allow the whole of his kingdom access to his strength.  It's why everything has been crumbling and dying, or overgrown and overrun either by fairies or weeds all over the realm.  Even the Bog of Eternal Stench has overflowed into the lower parts of the Labyrinth, ha...and I can tell you nothing will ever grow in those places ever again."  Both girls were taken aback by just how serious things seemed to have gotten over the time Sarah had been gone, and that wasn't even the worst of it, as Hoggle went on to say,
"But all that is nothing in comparison to the fading of the boarder lines that protect the realm from invaders, whether passive or hostel.  If Jareth doesn't replenish the flow of power to the boarders, we may very well have a full out assault on the Labyrinth."

The girls sat in shocked silence for a few moments, and then, just as Sarah was about to ask who would attack the realm of the goblins; there was a panicked knock on the door.  Hoggle answered it to find a young she goblin with a pile of clean towels in her hands looking as if she was both troubled and in trouble.  She was so flustered, that when the door opened completely she jumped, but upon seeing Hoggle she sighed and said,
"Oh thank the stars in the heavens you being here!" she was out of breath as she tried to speak.  But Hoggle held up a hand and said,
"Come on now...just calm down and tell me what's the matter?"  The small she goblin took several deep breaths before speaking again, saying,
"Oh sir, I went to fill up his majesty's usual evening bath, but when I knocked there was no answer.  So I went in to see if 'en he was asleep or in need of help and...oh mister Hoggle sir!"  Tears streamed from her almond shaped eyes down plump cheeks as she went on.
"He was just laying there sir, he's just sprawled out on the bed shivering like he's got the chills, and when I reached out to cover him with a sheet I found them to be soaked through with sweat sir.  I felt his head and he's burn'en with a fierce fever, and I don't know what I should do.  So I came look'en for you sir."

It was at this point that everyone followed the she goblin down the hall to Jareth's rooms.  The sight that greeted them was a very thin and very pale looking Jareth spread out on the bed as if he had lost his footing and just lay exactly where he had fallen.  The dark burgundy sheets were soak through with perspiration and the black comforter was no better.  Though there were a few candles lit the room was nearly black, so Shophin pulled back the velvet curtains to let what light could be had with the coming storm brewing outside.  Hoggle asked the she goblin to fetch more candles, to make sure the bath was indeed filled and to fetch Ludo to come up and help.  Turning back to the girls he said,
"Would you two mind helping me until Ludo gets here?"  Neither of the girls needed to be told twice as they moved in to help remove Jareth's clothes and to start stripping parts of the bed.

Once Ludo and the water came Jareth was ready to be placed in the bath, and the girls would finish stripping the bed and cleaning up the room in general.  For the place was even worse then a pigsty, with discarded clothing pooled on the floors of both the bedroom and the sitting room which conjoined with the bedroom with a curtain dividing them.  There were numerous trays of half eaten food, and several empty bottles that had at one time contained wine.  Still with little to no words spoken about what they found, or how it made them even more determined to help Jareth regain his strength, the girls picked up the messes.  They swept, wiped, dusted, mopped, polished and washed as they went, until the rooms were once again clean.  Then they made the bed in old perishable white sheets, but they were fine enough to give great comfort to the one who slept among them.

It wasn't too long after they had finished their making of the bed, that Shophin noted that the whole color scheme of the room seemed to have changed with the clearing of all the clutter and swopping of sheets.  Fore now, the floors were a sterile white marble with light cream boarders, the curtains around the bed as well as the windows were now a sheer white.  The whole room seemed to take on the look of a hospital with all the clean whites and cream colors strewn through every piece of furniture and cloth covering.  As she turned to Sarah to ask what had happened, Hoggle answered her having seen her looking around, saying,
"Depending on the King's moods or whatever purpose the room is to serve it will change itself accordingly to the needs or wants of those who inhabit the room."  Shophin sighed and said,
"Wish someone had said something before I went about changing the curtains and such in my room."  The pieces of cloth once called curtains were nothing but moth eaten scraps by the time Shophin came in.  Now knowing her room's theme could change based on what she wanted or needed, made her excited to head to bed that night.

But from the looks of Jareth as he was carried out of the bathroom by Ludo, clean and in a fresh pair of leggings.  He looked even thinner if that were possible.  Shophin sighed as she helped Ludo and Hoggle place Jareth in the bed, and Sarah placed a cold cloth on his forehead to bring down the fever.