Chapter 9 - How Cute!

Chapter Nine: How Cute!



The group walked in silence. Chantal handing Serek, who was now upon her shoulder, a piece of cookie. Stephanie, not too far off, was looking for secret or hidden passageways. Jareth, walked behind the two girls, his hands behind his head, looking upwards. They had been walking for an hour with nothing much happening. He actually wished for something exciting to happen.

"Anything at all..." he mumbled to himself.

The girls turned around when he spoke. He stopped walking, his hands still behind his head. A confused expression on his face.

"What?"

"Did you say something just now??" Stephanie asked.

"Just said my thoughts aloud." the Goblin King replied.

"Here he was giving me strange looks when I talked to myself, when he himself is doing it too," Chantal said rolling her eyes.

Stephanie smiled, turned and made her way into the beginning of another hedge maze. It was a change of scenery from the stone maze they've been walking in for the past few hours.

Stephanie turned a corner and Chantal followed.

Suddenly something jumped in front of the two girls. Chantal screamed as Stephanie gasped in surprise and took a step back.

The creature was greyish green in color. It was a little taller than a goblin. Strange large thin ears protruded from its round head. Large dark greenish yellow eyes stared at the two girls. The eyes had no pupil. The body was covered in a simple khaki colored cloth. Long arms and fingers dangled at its sides. Small feet left uncovered. A tiny gurgle came from the small mouth.

"Aw. How cute!" Chantal exclaimed.

"How sweet," Stephanie nodded.

Suddenly Chantal and Stephanie were pulled aside and Jareth stood between them and the creature.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?" Chantal demanded angrily of Jareth.

The creature opened its mouth, revealing rows of pointy teeth and let out a horrible scratchy shriek. Several other creatures similar to the one that shrieked, possibly the leader, came down from the trees and from behind bushes.

The 'leader' quickly stepped forward, jumped and took a swipe at Chantal but Jareth was far much quicker than the creature. He stood before the girl and raised his arm to block the attack at shoulder level, but the attack was a still a hit.

The Goblin King quickly turned around.

"Run!" he told the girl, his expression very calm and serious.

As Chantal ran past her friend, Jareth grabbed Stephanie's hand and started running. The hissing creatures in hot pursuit.

Another hideous shriek came behind them, the group of creatures had shrieked all at once. Some creatures had run in front of them and had climbed the hedge walls, swiping at Jareth and the girls as they ran by.

Stephanie ducked her head, she couldn't see where she was going. She ran where Jareth was leading her. The sound of cloth being ripped was heard.

By the time that most of the creatures had gave up on them, Stephanie and Chantal had scratches and claw marks on their arms and faces, none of their clothing was ripped or torn. Jareth had a cut on his face along with scratches. On his upper left sleeve, was a hole where one creature had managed to get close enough to slash him.

Stephanie was sitting down on the ground, her heart pounding in her chest, Chantal sitting on her heels, Jareth was leaning on the hedge wall, his hands on his thighs, all were breathing heavily. Not a creature in sight.

"Here." Chantal said catching her breath. She had reached into her bag and pulled out the two water bottles.

"Great!!" Stephanie said grabbing one of them from her friend's outstretched hands and took a big sip. "Thanks." and held it out to Jareth as Chantal drank from the other bottle.

Jareth raised an eyebrow, looking at the bottle in Stephanie's hand.

"What??" she asked shaking the bottle slightly, the water sloshed around. The Goblin King looked at her. "Oh come on!! It's not like I have freaking cooties or something!!"

"Cooties?" he asked. Stephanie sighed and wiped the tip of the bottle with her waistcoat.

"Never mind. Here. Better??" she asked as he took the bottle. Stephanie gave Chantal a 'can-you-believe-this-guy?' look. Chantal shrugged.

"So, are we getting a least closer to the castle? Since we were sidetracked for a few minutes there." Chantal asked as she placed the water bottles back into her bag.

"As you've said, we have been sidetracked." he replied.

"So we should go back and retrace our steps then?" Chantal said.

"We could but since the Labyrinth does change, we might as well find a new way towards the castle. It shall be better to use that method."

Stephanie looked at Jareth and nodded. "He's right. We might as well figure out how to get to the castle from here instead of going back and losing our way and throughout Jareth will tell us which way will be wrong just by sensing it."

Chantal nodded.

"Good. Let's get moving shall we?" he said gesturing for them to pass him. He winced slightly. Chantal did not noticed but Stephanie had seen.

They walked in silence, minutes have passed. Chantal and Stephanie once in a while, spoke to figure things out on what to do once they've reached the castle.

"He's bleeding." Stephanie said suddenly, her voice low. Chantal turned to look at the Goblin King.

"What?" he asked confused at their stares. 'What have I done now?' he wondered.

"You're bleeding." Chantal pointed out getting concerned at Jareth's slowly blood soaking sleeve.

"And?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Well obviously you're hurt." Chantal concluded.

"It's nothing." he grumbled, obviously not liking girls getting all concerned about a cut. He turned away and continued down the path.

"It doesn't look like nothing." Stephanie said getting a closer look. He was surprised to see her next to him suddenly.

"I've said it's nothing." Jareth said moving his injured arm away as though Stephanie had grabbed onto it.

"At least let us take a look at it." Chantal said as the Goblin King tried to walk by the girls.

"My injury will not slow us down. Can we please continue to the castle? Time is running out."

"Stubborn." Chantal mumbled under her breath.

Stephanie walked in front of Jareth, making him stop short in his tracks. A slight shocked expression was on his face for a brief second.

"Sit down Jareth." Stephanie said her arms crossed.

Jareth raised an eyebrow. He tried side stepping by her but she just blocked his way. Stephanie did an expression: raising her eyebrows and a slight shake of her head, meaning: 'Well??'

"Ah bloody hell!" the Goblin King grumbled as he turned and headed towards a boulder and sat down. Chantal grinned at Stephanie, who was walking up to the Goblin King.

"You don't happen to have a first aid kit in there do you??" she asked her friend.

"Nope. Sorry."

"That's all right," Stephanie replied. "We'll just have to use what we have." After a moment of thought. "Do you have any scissors??" Chantal shook her head. Stephanie frowned.

"What do you have in there??" she asked as Chantal dug into the depths of her bag.

"Wait! I do have something." she pulled out an object and handed it to Stephanie. "I do have this pocket knife though." she smiled.

"Good. Thanks."

Jareth was still grumbling when Stephanie came back to his left side. She turned to Chantal, rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Hush Jareth." Chantal giggled.

From what Stephanie could see, the cut was slanted on his sleeve. "Well you can help me out by taking off your coat."

With a sigh, he removed his coat.

Stephanie grabbed Jareth's sleeve and looked amongst the blood. "Okay," she said to herself. "I'll have to rip your sleeve in order to make a wrap." Stephanie said as she started pulling at his sleeve. Jareth watched as Stephanie struggled. With a loud rip she finally managed to rip the sleeve at the seam, at the shoulder.

"Oops, too short. Sorry man." she said holding the sleeve in her hand. She turned to her friend. "Here, hold this." Chantal grabbed one end of the sleeve, and with the pocket knife, Stephanie started to cut the sleeves into strips.

"There." Stephanie said and went back to Jareth. "Move over a bit." she said to the Goblin King. "Chan can you pass me-" a water bottle was in her hand.

"Way ahead of you." her friend smiled.

"Thanks." Stephanie smiled back. She chose one strip of cloth from her lap, twisted the cap and turned the bottle over to wet the cloth. She set the bottle on the ground beside the boulder.

Stephanie grabbed the Goblin King's arm again and wiped most of the blood from his upper arm, trying to locate the wound. The wound was below a strange slanted looking scar; and fairly deep. She switched pieces of cloth and pressed harder to clean the wound.

Suddenly Jareth's arm jerked with a sound in his throat, he winced.

"Sorry." Stephanie apologized. She continued to clean the wound. After a few strips later, she gestured to Jareth's other arm.

"Well I'm out of cloth from this sleeve. Chan, can you cut the other sleeve for me and we'll use the rest of the strips for later."

Jareth pulled at his sleeve and managed to rip it exactly the same as the other. He handed it to Chantal who took a few minutes to cut it into long strips. She handed a few to her friend as she finished cutting.

"Hold this there." Stephanie said to Jareth as she placed an end of the strip on his arm, he held it in place with a finger. Stephanie was concentrating on not wrapping the piece of cloth too tightly or loosely as Jareth watched her. He blinked his greenish blue eyes.

"Done!" Chantal said behind her friend. "I'm putting them in my bag 'tay?"

"Sure. I'm almost done with your water bottle." Stephanie said as she finished wrapping Jareth's upper arm. "Just have to tie this now." she smiled to herself and was tying the ends together into a knot. "Not bad for someone who doesn't even like the sight of their own blood huh??"

"At least you are useful for something." Jareth said chuckling, it was cut short.

"Ow!" he winced, for Stephanie had tightened the knot too roughly.

"I'm sorry." she said in a tone to show that she wasn't really sorry at all. Chantal grinned as Stephanie grabbed the bottle and poured some water onto her hands, washing Jareth's blood off them. She wiped her hands onto the sleeve she previously ripped, left it on the boulder and handed her friend's bottle back.

"There. With that done we could continue." Chantal said zipping up her bag. Stephanie agreed, looking at Jareth who was adjusting the collar of his coat.

"Thank you." he said, his voice low. He was not used to thanking people, apparently.

"You're welcome."

Serek chirped trying to get Stephanie's attention. She laughed. Suddenly his head turned in one direction. A low growl escaped from him.

"Did you hear something??" Stephanie asked Jareth who turned to face her.

"Hmm, yes." his said his eyes searching along the hedged walls.

"Come, let us not linger." Jareth said grabbing Stephanie's wrist and placed a hand at Chantal's back. They slowly continued their way.

"They're still following us, aren't they? Hidden, but you can faintly hear them." Chantal asked.

"I know." his voice calm. "Don't run. They'll know that we sensed them."

"I don't like this!" Chantal said in a hushed whisper. "I don't like this at all!"

"Silently." Jareth warned walking all the more quickly, his grip still firm on Stephanie's wrist.

"If you run now, I can lure them away." he said suddenly.

"Wha-?" Chantal started at the sudden plan.

"Blood is what they are after. I can lure them until you get to safe distance. Go! Now!" he said pushing her ahead and letting go of Stephanie's wrist. "Make sure you stay together! Do not get separated!"

Chantal ran off followed by Stephanie as a shriek rang out from behind them. Chantal turned a corner and kept on running. "Come on Steph!"

"Yeah, I'm going as fast as I can!!" her friend replied behind her. Their surroundings were mere blurrs as they ran.

Stephanie turned a corner sharply, bumping into a stone wall and fell to the ground. She quickly picked herself up and ran on. She had run into a stone section of the large maze, making her way through the many corridors. By this time she had lost track of Chantal.

"Damn." she swore. "Now what??"

A shriek made her spin around.

"Why not??" Stephanie said and turned around and ran off. She turned corners and went past hidden passageways. Her side started to hurt, she wanted to stop a minute.

She got her wish, she had run into a dead end.

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