Chapter 4 - Lost Friends

Chapter Four: Lost friends



"I didn't think he could run that fast," Stephanie said looking in the direction where Hoggle had run off.

Chantal looked towards all the hands in the passageway. "Shall we continue on our way?"

"Yeah, but which way??" Stephanie agreed looking at the hands that pointed in different directions.

Chantal turned to Jareth. "What do you think?"

The Goblin King looked at the castle and looked at the ways pointed out. He thought for a moment.

"This way," he said suddenly heading toward a passageway.

Chantal followed him, Serek sitting on her shoulder, tail wrapped around her neck as usual.

"Hey, wait up!!" Stephanie said running after her friend and the Goblin King.

"Don't get left behind Steph!" Chantal giggled. Stephanie stuck her tongue out at her friend.

The three of them pushed their way through the pointing hands. They poked the girls and tugged on their clothing, but didn't stop their progress through the passageway.

Once on the other side, Chantal readjusted her shirt. "Touchy little guys aren't they?"

"Yeah, tell me about it," Stephanie said, her hands behind her back, tying up the ribbons of her waistcoat.

Jareth, ahead of the girls, was adjusting his coat.

Chantal looked around. "Now which way?"

Jareth didn't say a thing and continued down a new section of the Labyrinth, one of the directions pointed by a hand.

"I guess this way," Stephanie said, following Jareth.

Chantal shrugged her shoulders and followed her friend and the Goblin King. "Follow where our royal king takes us."

"He seems to know more where to go than we do, maybe it's instincts," Stephanie said quietly to Chantal.

"You are probably right Steph. it just kinda feels like we are playing follow the leader. If we are here to help, why are we following him around all the time?" Chantal asked, she gripped onto her necklace and began playing with it, almost nervously.

"Maybe," Stephanie started but then was lost in thought. "I wonder..." Finally she shrugged. "Perhaps it has something to do with how to get into the castle."

"It could be. Why doesn't Jareth just zap us right to the castle?" Chantal asked Stephanie, but loud enough for the Goblin King to hear.

Jareth stopped suddenly and spun around. His expression on his face held a hint of annoyance. " I cannt just 'ZAP' us to the castle because there is a spell or barrier that prevents me from using any kind of magic to get near the castle."

"'Tay, 'tay! I didn't know. I guess I should have but I didn't think of it," Chantal rambled trying not to look the Goblin King in the eye. "Shall we continue?"

"Yes, and haven't I said that before?" He said as he turned and looked back down the corridor.

Serek tightened his grip a little bit as Chantal shook her head.

Stephanie was still in thought. She wondered how he sensed where the right path to the castle was. Instincts as she suggested, but even then...

"It's just like how I felt that something was wrong with the Labyrinth," she blurted out her thoughts.

Chantal turned and looked at her friend and nodded. She could also feel that something wasn't right here. It felt different than the first time she had been here.

The Goblin King had stopped for a moment and stared at the two girls. This was the first time that mortals had sensed anything from the Underground; espicially ones that are not from his realm.

"Oh?" he asked obviously intrigued.

All Chantal could do was nod, she couldn't explain what she felt.

"Just like when you went to get Chantal. While I was looking for the entrance, I got up to the wall and I placed my hand on it when a chill went up my spine," Stephanie said as she walked closer to Jareth.

Chantal approached the wall and placed her hand on it. Nothing felt strange or unusual to her at the moment.

The Goblin King watched, his eyes narrowed in thought as Chantal approached the wall. He watched her confused expression.

"And you?" he asked.

Chantal shook her head. "Nothing. Though it might just be the outer walls to keep people out," she suggested.

"You might be right," Jareth paused to think about it.

All of a sudden around a hidden corner, came flying this black dog. It ran past the Goblin King and the two girls without stopping for a second look or sniff.

Stephanie looked at the vanishing dog for a moment. "That dog looked familiar," she said.

Just then a voice yelled, "Bebe!" Which was "baby" in French.

A long light brown haired girl came bolting around the corner after the black dog. She was running so fast that she didn't see the group in front of her and rammed right into Jareth.

Chantal's eyes grew wide. Another human in the Labyrinth?

"For bloody hell! No one ever watches where they are going anymore?" Jareth grumbled as he recalled the last time Stephanie had ran right into him making them both fall to the ground. He turned around and stared down at the new girl.

The girl had bounced off Jareth and fell backwards onto the ground, landing on her rump. She was now rubbing her hands and started looking around. The new girl had winter black boots that went to her knees, light blue jeans and a long sleeved red shirt; her thick navy blue winter coat was tired around her waist by the sleeves.

Jareth made no attempt to help the girl up.

Stephanie had pushed Jareth out of the way. "Bianca??"

"You know her, Steph?" Chantal asked her friend then looking down at the girl.

"Yeah. She's one of my friends from school," Stephanie held out her friend's glasses that had fallen off.

"Oh! Hi!" Chantal said smiling.

Bianca took back her glasses and started cleaning them. After she was done, she smiled at Chantal. "Hi." She said, then turned to Stephanie who was holding her hand out to help her.

"Was that your dog that just ran by?" Chantal asked pointing in the direction the dog has run past.

"Ya." the girl said. "She ran off. I figured she was chasing something; a goblin perhaps now that I think of it. I chased after her and ended up here. So anyways, um ya..."

"Looks like you need some help getting her back," Jareth commented.

"Ya," Bianca looked away from the girls and focused her attention to the Goblin King, who she had bumped into. Her eyes widened in fascination.

"Oh hi!" she said extending her hand to Jareth, who only raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, pretty hair..." she murmured, pointing at him.

Chantal's eyes grew wide for a moment. "I have an idea!" Stephanie turned to look at Chantal, Bianca still stared at Jareth.

Chantal giggled. "We use Serek to spot and chase the dog back this way!"

"That's great!!" Stephanie agreed.

"Who's Serek?" Bianca asked.

"Bob is Chantal's dragon purple thingy," Stephanie giggled.

"Bob?" Bianca was was really confused now.

Serek stuck his head out from Chantal's hair and squeaked.

"Oh, he's so cute and fluffy and soft." the young girl said extending her hand and petted Serek carefully on the head.

Jareth mumbled. "Really Stephanie, call the dragon by what Chantal had called it, instead of confusing the poor girl."

"This is Bob slash Serek, " Chantal giggled. "And it's okay Jareth, he knows both names."

"Eh," the Goblin King said as he walked past the girls, as though he didn't care anymore.

"Don't mind him," Stephanie said. "It's not his day right now." Bianca blinked and nodded, a bit confused.

Chantal held out her arm and Serek crawled over to it. "Can you find the black puppy, Serek?"

Serek squeaked and launched from Chantal's arm. Stephanie watched Serek leave, then turned to Bianca.

"This place is so cool, except for the really stinky pond. Oh! It was so gross," Bianca said pinching her nose.

"Glad we haven't passed that way yet," Stephanie agreed.

"It shouldn't take Serek too long to find your pet," Chantal told them. "He's had practice finding Jayce for me in the bush behind my house."

Stephanie grinned. "So we continue right or should we wait for Bob to come back with Bebe??"

"Wait for Serek to chase Bebe this way. It shouldn't be long now," Chantal said as she stood on the tips of her toes trying to see down the passageway.

Stephanie started toying with her pendant again, Jareth crossed his arms over his chest waiting patiently as he could as Bianca continued to stare at him. Something glinted upon his chest, catching Bianca's eye. It was his pendant, which was an odd sicle shape, a mix between gold and copper in color; with an odd design in the middle.

"Oh I want it! I want it!" she said as she eyed the pendant, which made the Goblin King raise an eyebrow again, glancing oddly at the new girl. Stephanie held in a giggle with the same look on her face.

Chantal shaded her eyes and squinted. She spotted a dark object coming their way, very fast.

"Get ready," Chantal warned. Serek came flying right towards them with Bebe right in front of him.

Stephanie stepped back. Chantal looked back at the Goblin King. He just stood there, arms crossed, waiting patiently. She turned back and watched the approaching pair.

Bebe approached, growling at Stephanie as she passed her and headed towards Jareth.

"Beeeee!" Bianca called as she walked over to her dog. Bebe lowered her head, and came to a stop in front on her owner. Bianca had a hand on her hip and the other was waving in front of her dog's face as she reprimanded her pet in French. She then reached down and grabbed Bebe's collar, clicking on her leash so that she wouldn't get away again.

Serek glided over to Chantal and landed on her extended arm. "Good job Serek!"

"So Bianca," Stephanie said. "how did you get to the Labyrinth??"

"Well like I said, I was taking Bebe for a walk in the deep snow at Gilies Lake. Since there was no one around, I took her off her leash and she must have seen something and ran off. It was weird. Then the next thing I knew, I'm running down a sandy hill instead of trudging through snow." She paused. "Chased her all over the place too," the girl finally finished.

"I know what that is like," Chantal said rolling her eyes thinking about her own dog.

Stephanie smiled. "Now that all this is over with, maybe we should continue??" she said, hinting towards the Goblin King with her eyes.

"Yes, if you please," Jareth mumbled.

Bianca looked at Stephanie. "Where? What? I'm confused."

"We're going to the castle at the center of the Labyrinth," Stephanie said. Then realized that it sounded more like a quote.

"And if you want to know why, this guy over here kinda got locked out somehow and needs our help," Chantal said rolling her eyes, pointing her thumb at Jareth.

Jareth mumbled something under his breath.

"And don't mind that, " Stephanie said to Bianca. "He's being doing that a lot lately."

Bianca turned to Chantal then glanced at the Goblin King. "Locked out?" Bianca snickered. "What happened?" she asked, trying not to laugh out loud. "After all isn't he supposed to be powerfull and stuff?"

Chantal shrugged. "We aren't positive. But one thing's for sure, Steph promised to help the Goblin King out."

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