The dove had seemed strange from outside the window, its eyes seemed to be so human like, and its white feathers looked so much cleaner and purer than that of any other dove Brendan had seen before. He closed his eyes and covered his face, certain that this was his last minute of life. As he braced himself for death, Brendan felt regret, sadness and guilt for what he had done to Laura. Why did he ever think of that? Sure she was a pain, but Brendan realized, now that she was gone, that he had overreacted way too much.
A minute passed by since the window had opened, and everything had gone silent. Even the laughter. Timidly, Brendan opened his eyes to see a human figure standing before him on the window sill. If the figure was male or female, he couldn’t tell, but being in its presence was awkward and unnerving.
A large lightening bolt trickled across the rainy sky, producing enough light for Brendan to examine the intruder’s features. Blonde hair swirled in the wind around the personage’s head. It wore a strange necklace with a large decorative piece that looked like a bird’s foot with only two talons. The Goblin King, as Brendan concluded it must have been, wore also a dark green cloak and was nearly five inches taller than he was, although it seemed to be more like a yard difference.

“Where’s my sister?” Brendan said quietly, trying to act braver than he was.

The figure paused for a moment before answering. “You know where she is. You wished her away.”

“I- I didn’t mean it at all. I mean, I wasn’t thinking, but now I really want my sister back.”

“Oh? You didn’t?.. How sad. I wanted to have some fun.” Complained the dark figure, losing its fearsomeness and masculine voice.

“What?!” A goblin behind the vanity shrieked. “Your highness, what are you talking about?”

“Your highness?’ You think I’m the Goblin King?”

“Wait, then who are you?” A rat-like goblin asked in a squeaky voice, confused at the reaction his master had given.

“Just me.” The figure said. As this was said, the impostor grabbed a handful of hair and ripped a mask off to reveal a more feminine face. The girl still had the blonde hair the mask had, but it didn’t help to make her look less fearsome in the shadows.

“Er... how did you get here? You’re supposed to be in the castle.” Another goblin crawled out from under the crib, shocked that in the Goblin King’s absence his daughter had somehow came.

“It’s fine! I know what I’m doing... for the most part,” Zyris said as she wiped the sweat off her face with a doily on the vanity. “Besides, I have to learn how to do this correctly sometime, don’t I?”

“When Jareth finds out, you’re gonna be in big trouble!”

“My dear servant, erm... Knokle, would you like some peaches when we get back to the castle?” The girl asked the goblin threatening to get her punished, a threat itself.

“Don’t change the subject!”

As the goblins were lost in an argument, Brendan crept a safe distance away from the strangers.

“Uh... Hello? Can I have my sister back now?” The frightened boy asked sheepishly. By now, Brendan had thrown away his sneaky plan to get rid of Laura and go to the labyrinth, and simply wanted his sister back.

“Of course you can’t!” A large birdlike goblin yelled. “You have to go through the labyrinth if you want your brat back!”

“The labyrinth?” Brendan asked, not believing what he was hearing. “Where is it?”

“It’s right there.” The heir pointed out the window. Brendan went to the sill carefully, and saw the maze. It looked like he had always thought it would. “You have thirteen hours to get to the castle. If you don’t make it in time, your little sister will become one of us forever.” The boy turned around to see the nursery, but only saw the goblins, Zyris, and a leafless tree.

As Zyris gave Brendan his quest, a clock with thirteen numbers appeared on a tree behind him.

“It doesn’t look so hard. I’m sure I can make it with time to spare.” Brendan said hopefully.

“It’s much harder than you think. Do you still want your sister back?” Zyris warned.

”I can’t leave her.” Brendan responded.

“Of course you can. If you leave her with us, I’ll give you this.” The blonde produced a crystal and showed it to Brendan.

“A crystal?” What kind of exchange is that? Laura for a crystal? That’s stupid!

“Much more than a crystal. It will be like a servant to you, a friend and so much more.” Zyris put it closer to Brendan’s face. “I can’t give it to a boy who slaves away under his sister’s wrath, however.” The brunet looked at the crystal closely. As he did, he saw his enemy’s eyes. One was a misty blue, the other a silver. All my dreams could come true with this. He stared deeply into the crystal, before he regained his senses.

“I... I need my sister more than a crystal.” Brendan stammered.

“Fine. Have fun with that.” The goblins and Zyris slowly vanished before Brendan’s eyes, and he was left without a clue of what to do next.

The challenger could see the first wall around the labyrinth, so he decided to start walking around the walls to find an entrance. As Brendan walked about, he looked at the scene. The walls looked very old and worn, and the ‘path’ around the walls was simply dirt that had been walked on so many times it was now tightly packed in the ground. There was an occasional bluebell or weed sprouting from crevices between the wall and the ground, but nothing telltale of an entrance.
Brendan was getting tired of walking. There wasn’t anyone to talk to, nor were there any animals. As he walked on continuously, Brendan saw a faint glimmer of something in a flower. The teenager dashed over to the flower, to discover a tiny green fairy sitting on the flower.

“Hi little fairy.” Brendan greeted kindly. “Do you know how to get into the labyrinth?” The fairy looked at him for a second, then flew away, not at all caring about Brendan’s question. Or so it seemed.

A small goblin armed with a spray can came charging over, killing the fairy and proceeded to spray Brendan. The goblin was clad in a horned helmet, and its left eye was noticeably bigger than its right, making him look quite pecular.

“Aah! Quit it!” Brendan cried out as the goblin was spraying him.

“You the biggest fairy I seen!” The goblin exclaimed with a huge, psychotic smile, still spraying the ‘fairy.’ The spray smelled like a wet, moldy carpet fused with asparagus.

“I’m not a fairy! I’m a human!” Brendan claimed, shocking the goblin so much that he stopped and jumped away.
The goblin’s mouth was now agape, as if Brendan said that his pants felt like cheese balls and frogs. How can anyone mistake me for a fairy?

“Yo- You really human?” The goblin got the courage to ask.

“Yes. Is that bad?” Brendan was trying to wipe off his hair a bit.

“Oh, no, no, no! I just never see a human before.” The strange-eyed goblin said in a panicked tone. “What you doing here in the Underground?”

“I need to get to the castle. My sister’s there.”

“Oh. Why aren’t you in there then? My name’s Flopslurt.” The goblin introduced himself.

“I’m Brendan.” He introduced himself in return out of sheer politeness.

“Ah. Brendan... what a... human name!” Flopslurt attempted to compliment Brendan. He understood what the
goblin meant, and happily nodded his head. The creature didn’t appear to have much brain power.

The goblin started once again to focus on killing more fairies, when Brendan interrupted the peaceful yet awkward silence while Flopslurt was stalking a fairy.

“Flopslurt, can you show me where the entrance to the labyrinth is?” Brendan asked, hoping for a positive response.

“I could, but I busy doing Hoggle’s job. If I leave, Hoggle hurt me, then I faint.” He sprayed yet another fairy.

Brendan didn’t know who Hoggle was, except that it was the name of a person in the book his mother and he read constantly, but he had to get in! “Well, can’t you just spray fairies you see while showing me to the door... or gate... or bridge?” Brendan refused to take no for an answer.

“Yep.” Flopslurt agreed. Brendan started walking, expecting the fairy killer to guide him. The dark-haired boy turned around to find Flopslurt staring down a very brave fairy, getting prepared to spray it.

“Flopslurt!” Brendan called. The said goblin got startled, and accidentally sprayed his eyes.

“Oww! Why must my eyes feel hurt so bad?” Flopslurt wailed in pain as he toddled over to where Brendan’s voice was. Since he couldn’t see, Flopslurt simply gave Brendan directions and some really strange descriptions of different parts of the never-ending wall.

“And the gate!” Flopslurt exclaimed. “The section of wall with a rock in front of it.” Brendan put the helpful goblin down and looked for a rock on the ground. Amazingly, as there was only one visible rock, he spotted it, looked up from it, and where there was once a wall, a gate now stood.

“Thanks, Flopslurt!” Brendan said excitedly before slamming the gate shut for no apparent reason.

“Eh... You welcome? I love you, macaroni!”
∞

Brendan looked to the right, then the left. They both looked the same, dirty pathways with high, stone walls on either side, logs, twigs and clumps of weeds on the ground. As if he seriously thought an inanimate item would know, Brendan picked up a medium sized stick and tossed it in the air. Whichever direction its pointy end was facing he would go. It pointed to the left, so Brendan started that way, hoping it wouldn’t take a long time.
Fifteen minutes later, Brendan was no closer to the castle then when he first got in here. “What do they mean by ‘labyrinth?’ It doesn’t even have corners or openings or anything but a long walkway!” Brendan complained loudly to himself. “How is anyone supposed to find their way through here?”
Despite his want to just stop and do something else, Brendan continued to walk on. Even though he didn’t like his sister being a royal pain all the time, he couldn’t let her down, he couldn’t allow her to be turned into a goblin. If he did, he would be as bad as a murderer or a kidnapper.

“I’m tired of this!” Brendan exasperated, and promptly started to run down the path, to find a way into another area. After he ran out of breath, he leaned against the right wall and sat down, frustrated that he couldn’t outrun the walls. As he leaned against the wall, it started to move backwards. the boy quickly moved away from it until it finally came to a stop. When it did, there was actually an opening to another part of the labyrinth.

Brendan rushed into the new area. It looked almost like a garden one would find around a museum. With flagstone used for the walls and ground, and even the strangest statues, such as a group of hands pointing in all different directions without words.
This area of the labyrinth had the luxury of steps, and the different paths you could take were much more easy to spot. But something disturbed Brendan greatly, as he was going through the maze. “How many hours do I have left?”
∞

Back in the castle, Laura was in the den area of the castle bawling among the group of ragtag goblins. Zyris could hardly blame the baby. Compared to what she had seen of the child’s bedroom, the den in the castle was quite messy, perhaps even frightening to the human.
The den had, underneath all the goblins scrambling about, scraps of uneaten food, bones, chicken feed (for the chickens that the goblins used for target practice), dirty plates and bits of paper. There was also a nice little hole in the middle of the den that had pillows and such for any children who were taken to sit in until their thirteen hours were up.
The greatest thing in the room was the Goblin King’s throne, one of the most awesome works of art in the labyrinth, at least according to Jareth. It was a half circle, which was made out of bone, and had cloth on it. The way the throne was made, you could easily put your head on one side, your feet on the other, and not be in the least bit uncomfortable.
Goblins were rushing about and screeching more actively than usual today, and were finding more mischief to cause, looking for uneaten food, or playing with their crying guest. As they did all this, Nogwart stayed close to Zyris.
Jareth had an odd habit lately of sleeping in his room every few days and then going to take a bath immediately after he awoke. Nogwart was worried about what Jareth might do when he wakes up to find a child in the castle. Somehow, Zyris had managed to take the Goblin King’s necklace off his neck while he was asleep, which was a very hard thing to accomplish, as Jareth usually would strangle anything that made a sound while still in his sleep.
Zyris watched her goblin servants with a bored but content gaze and thought of how stupid so many of the goblins were. It simply amazed her that although they could do the basics of living, eating, breathing, talking, moving and sleeping, that they basically had no lives.

“Nogwart, when I rule the Underground, I’m going to find a way to make goblins smarter.”

“What’s wrong with me?” Nogwart griped, “I’m a lot better than most of these nincompoops.”

Zyris pointed at a goblin who was attempting to build a kite out of a skull an a tiny twig. “I wasn’t talking about you. I meant them.” Nogwart sighed in relief.
The goblins had a real knack for breaking anything, even the ‘unbreakable’ things in the Aboveground, such as super-strong plastic, if they were given the opportunity. For this reason, Zyris hadn’t went to sleep. The heir took promises very seriously, and would dislike herself greatly if she broke a promise, even if it was on accident.
She didn’t want to go to her room, as when Jareth discovered what had gone down, that would most likely be the first place he would look. That and she had no idea what to do about the human baby, so it was a bit better to have about forty people who didn’t know how to take care of humans than just one or two around. Safety in numbers, right?
As the two were lounging with nothing else to do, a goblin shot a good sized piece of glass at a chicken, just barely missing. The other goblins (even Nogwart) found this overused prank still hilarious in the utmost degree, and started to howl with laughter.
Zyris sighed and changed her current position on the throne. She would love to get all the lower goblins brain transplants. One of the goblins over the laughing fit nudged his superior on the arm and was holding the little human. The blonde smiled slightly and gently took the baby from the goblin, playing with her.
The human wasn’t that bad to tend to. Of course, the goblins and their future ruler had no need to worry, as the Goblin King would probably figure out what happened soon. Zyris was sure when she had returned that he wasn’t sleeping as deep, so she refused to go return his necklace to where it had once been.
Since the blonde hadn’t dared to try, the castle goblins refused as well. What was the point if the heir herself wouldn't dare to attempt? Although she was typically calm, the teenaged girl could be quite bold if it suited her purpose. Most of the lower goblins didn’t know how to be quiet at appropriate times, so they would most likely get her in trouble if they attempted to help anyway.
As the room was filled with laughter, Laura finally began to smile. However, the Goblin King had just gotten out from his shower to find his necklace missing, not something to be happy about. Woe on his heir and the stupid, lower goblins.