FicWad

The trio walked in silence, Sarah and Melissa staring around themselves at the falling walls.

"Are we going to get to crawl out of the vase, Mom?" asked Melissa.

"I don't know, honey. It depends on which way we go."

Hoggle heard the exchange and answered, "We can't go that way anymore. The vase has since vanished."

"Oh", whispered Sarah. She silently wondered what else was gone from when she last visited. "Are those creatures with the detachable limbs still here?"

"No," Hoggle replied. "Jareth blamed them, as well as other creatures, for you leaving. Anyone or anything that was blamed was exiled from the Labyrinth. Us being excluded, of course." Here, Hoggle grinned. "He wanted to get rid of us, but he knew he'd never have another chance with you if he did. So instead, he's banished us from the Goblin City."

"But that's where we must go after we find my daughter!" Sarah cried. "How am I to get through the city without you?"

Hoggle shrugged. "We'll worry about that when it's time."

Sarah sighed, knowing that there was still a long journey ahead of them. "How much has the Labyrinth changed? I mean, there's only so many places Lauren could be."

Hoggle snorted before building up to his broken laugh. "It's changed quite a bit since you were last here, Sarah. And now there are more places where she could be. Not to mention more creatures in the Labyrinth."

"Well, they'll help her find her way, won't they?" Sarah queried.

"Not likely. They'd probably hold her up, actually."

"They're not dangerous, are they?"

Hoggle paused, not wanting to worry Sarah before deciding to be truthful. "What do you call dangerous?"

Mother and daughter collectively gasped. "But, we're not going to see them, right?" Melissa asked worriedly.

"We'll avoid them if we can, though I'm sure some are unavoidable."


After they broke through to the surface, the trio looked around. Hoggle looked for whatever creature he was on the lookout for, while Sarah and Melissa looked to study their surroundings. Sarah had no clue where in the Labyrinth they were; she couldn't see the castle, and nothing looked familiar to her. Rotting wood was scattered over a plain of dead grass and bare ground. Gnarled weeds knotted their way around whatever they could find to get nourishment, creating a dangerous tangle across sections of the ground.

"Where are we?" Sarah whispered.

"This was the forest where you met the Fireys," Hoggle answered, ready for the question to be asked. "Hopefully, we'll be able to avoid the Bog of Eternal Stench this time." Hoggle led them across the cracked ground, dust and dirt lying on the thick stones. In her mind's eye, Sarah looked and saw how things looked before the devastation. She couldn't help but think that she had single-handedly caused so much damage to a beautiful place. Sarah then shook her head slightly. Jareth had caused this damage, not her.

Melissa, on the other hand, was trying to imagine the beauty her mother had spoken of. She had yet to see anything she could call beautiful in the Labyrinth, only a sort of grayness and ruins. Everything lacked the life that her mother had spoken of and were merely shells of what had been. Being a little more practical than her own mother had been at her age, Melissa wondered if some of the things her mother remembered where in fact from her own imagination.