Brendan, Cecil and Portsmal had just exited the murky depths of the forest. As they went further away from the forest, the brighter the sun’s rays became. At the end of the forest was an odd looking door. It had no doorknobs or knockers, and had obtained some strange looking scratches.

“This looks like the back of a door. What are we supposed to do now?” Brendan felt discouraged.

“Don’t get so arsed, mate. Can you give me a lift?” Cecil’s optimistic replies were the only things that kept the brunet from going mad.

“H-” Brendan attempted to ask, but was interrupted by Cecil slithering onto his shoulders. “Urgh! Cecil, get off! You’re way heavier than I am!” Brendan growled at the naga. He was still sitting on Brendan, entirely focused on a small hole in the towering stone wall surrounding the door.

“Cecil, quit being stupid!” Portsmal grabbed his friend and threw him straight through the hole. The human and troll both winced as they heard Cecil land on the other side with a grotty sound.

Cecil got up, grew his legs out again, and went toward the front of the door. The door was made in an elaborate way. It had a terrifying picture of a lion on it, which seemed to be watching each move the the naga made. He didn’t like the door at all.
Cecil timidly slid to the door, and tried opening it to be answered with an earthshaking roar from the lion on the door. Cecil jumped nearly four feet out of fright.

“You! Water salamander!” The lion angrily spoke to Cecil.

“Uh, it’s naga.” He politely corrected.

“Whatever! Quit pushing my buttons! It’s really annoying.” The lion looked like he belonged in an oubliette.

“But... You don’t have any buttons to push...” Cecil pointed out.

The lion’s eyes were flashing red now. “I don’t pay you to criticize me!” the golden-haired lion said in an disapproving tone.

“But I don’t work!” Cecil argued.

“Oh. Well there is that problem... But still! You’re intruding  and invading my property and et cetera, so ROAR!” The lion was infuriated by the present conversation.
∞

On the other side of the door, Portsmal and Brendan were waiting impatiently. They had been waiting for a time much longer than it took to open a single door. Finally, Portsmal couldn’t wait any longer.

“Cecil, you stupid naga!” The troll whipped out his club as Brendan got a good distance away from him. “Quit! Screwing! Around!” Portsmal had started to batter the door.
∞

The ironically stupid lion had a rather large urge to strangle the ‘water salamander,’ who was still trying to open the door. As he made another noble attempt, the lion stretched out his large paws to attack the naga, but howled in pain and fainted.
Cecil looked at the fainted lion. He poked it with a stick for a few seconds, and then carefully opened the door. He had heard thumping sounds before the lion fainted. When he opened the now-slain door, Cecil got his face shoved in by Portsmal’s trusty club.
The naga whined in pain, twirling around on the ground. “Umph! What was your business whacking me like that, mate?”

“Shut up. Let’s just hurry up and go to the castle!” Portsmal bellowed loudly over Cecil’s howling. The troll’s command got Brendan and Cecil to leave eagerly. The three were in the hedged maze Brendan had got taken out of earlier. The boy realized this and exclaimed “I know this part!” and led his friends quickly through the path he had went through before.

Eventually, Brendan and his mythological friends made it to the three boulders. The boulder that Brendan had commanded to move had returned to its normal position.

“Which path?” Brendan asked, his green eyes sparking with new energy and hope.

“The left!” Cecil pointed to the said path, as the boulder in front of it rolled to the side. Portsmal hastily started to lead the way through the path.
∞

In the castle, Jareth and Zyris were laying in the den, bored to death of the goblin’s repetitive doings, and of Laura sleeping. Zyris got out of her father’s embrace and looked at the clock. Still seven hours? She looked at Jareth, who seemed to be sleeping, and started off toward a hallway that led to the castle’s gates.

“Zyris?” The Goblin King called.

Zyris turned around to see Jareth still with his eyes closed. “What? I’m not doing anything!”

“Really? It looked to me like you were going to go out of the castle. Of course, you would never do that, because then I would have to immerse you in water temporarily.” Jareth informed Zyris. The heir’s eyes became fearful of Jareth’s punishment.

“Right. Never in my life would I dream of going out when you don’t want me to. Except for earlier today.” Zyris had to get out of the castle for a little bit. She still had one way. “I won’t be punished for going to my own room, right?” She asked as she headed up the stairs to the rooms.

“No, but please give me back my crystal before you do.” Jareth opened an eye to make sure his daughter wouldn’t even dare to try and trick him. Zyris took the said item out of her shirt and threw it into the room. It bounced easily in ways breaking the laws of physics until Jareth decided to catch it.

The monarch suddenly thought of a lovely idea. “Zyris, please come back in here.” He said, examining his beautiful, clear crystal. He heard a loud groan of complaint as she ran back down the stairs.

“What now?” She crankily responded.

“I just thought you might like to come with me.”

“Where?”

“Where?’ The labyrinth of course. We’re going to give Laura’s big brother a little visit. What was his name?”
∞

“I haven’t bathed in two fortnights.” Portsmal randomly announced to his two, shorter friends.

“How nice of you to share. that’s quite grotty.” Cecil replied sarcastically.

“What’s a fortnight, Cecil?” Brendan asked, half disgusted, half curious.

Cecil shook his head in disproval. “You don’t want to know. I smell like nautilus. Did you know I use them to make my mash?” Cecil was now being just as open as Portsmal.

“Eww. I’m never going to eat your mashed potatoes again.” Cecil’s ingredients grossed out even the large troll.

They were traveling through the last part of the hedges, which seemed to go on endlessly. Cecil was getting slightly annoyed at seeing the same scenery for such a long amount of time. He had now went ahead of Portsmal and Brendan, longing for a change in hedges.
Suddenly, Cecil stopped without any warning. Brendan and Portsmal nearly landed on him. Cecil didn’t seem to realize what he had done to his friends and was looking with amazingly large eyes of adoration at... A cupcake.
A cupcake? Yes. Why? Because the cupcake, with pink frosting and blue sprinkles, was there. What’s so astounding about a cupcake? Cecil is obsessed about cupcakes. Oh joy.
After a few moments of seeing Cecil do cupcake-watching, Portsmal started to drag his buddy around the sugary evil, praying that he would just forget about it soon. Cecil started crying at being separated from his dearest. He somehow managed to slip out of the troll’s steadfast grip, and bolted back to ‘his’ precious cupcake.

“What are you doing, Cecil?” Portsmal cried. “This isn’t a time to be staring at cupcakes!”

As Cecil was charging over to the cupcake, with Brendan and Portsmal close behind, the confectionary item never seemed to get any closer. The party of three were definitely getting closer to the end of the hedge maze as they dashed through sharp turns, curves and bends.

“Cecil, stop running!” Brendan gasped. His strangely colored friend could run longer than he could. The group finally ceased running at a large, open area. There was still only one path to go on. However, as Cecil had finally caught up the cupcake, two similar voices were laughing sinisterly. From the path that Brendan hadn’t went in yet, Zyris and Jareth causally appeared.

Brendan could now understand with perfection how the two members of royalty were related. They shared the same hair, face, laugh, were nearly the same height, and both had an aura of royalty, knowledge and fear encircling them.
The two separate parties were silent for a good, long while as they looked at their enemies closely. Finally the Goblin King, in all his elegance, decided to break the seemingly everlasting silence, at least in a kinder way than he usually treated challengers. The monarch quickly walked to the brunet with an almost pleased expression on his face.

“You must be Samson.” Jareth greeted. Brendan looked at him in annoyance.

“Judson... Peterson...” Zyris tried to correct her father.

“Once again, my name-” Brendan attempted to communicate.

“Harrison, isn’t that it?” Zyris exclaimed excitedly.

“No. I am BRENDAN.” The brunet finally asserted himself for once.

“Really? I thought that you would have a more ridiculous name. After all, you can tell by a person’s name or their looks if they are intelligent or not.” Jareth smirked at Brendan, who didn’t know if he had been complemented or insulted.

“What do you want?” Brendan asked, resisting the strong urge to flee. Being in the Goblin King’s presence, it was more than a little bit disturbing.

“Now, why would I want anything?” Jareth inquired, pacing back and forth. Zyris sat on a wall near Brendan and Portsmal. “Brendan, how do you like my labyrinth?”

“Actually, it’s easier than I was told it was.” The boy replied in an almost cocky voice. Jareth frowned at this remark.

“Who told you that?” The Goblin King asked in an angry voice.

“M-my mother.” Brendan stuttered. The monarch didn’t even look even slightly friendly at this point.

“And what is your mother’s name?” Jareth inquired curiously.

Brendan moved away from the Goblin King before he answered. “Sarah Wil-” And that was all it took to make Jareth go berserk.

“Well, here’s two special treats for you. Here’s number one.” Jareth produced a clock, and reset the clock from six and a half hours to three.

“Hey! What did you do that for? You’re cheating!” Brendan argued against the Goblin King.

“I’M cheating? This happens to be MY labyrinth. YOU wanted YOUR sister to go away, then YOU wanted to get HER back. YOU are a challenger here, and as YOU are nothing but a mere challenger, I can do anything to YOU or ANYONE in MY labyrinth that I desire.” Jareth stated loudly.

“But that wasn’t fair at all! What did I do to deserve three hours of my time chopped off?” Brendan complained angrily at Jareth.

“A lot of things. But I don’t feel like listing off everything.” Jareth glanced at Zyris for a second, nudging his head toward the path Brendan had just came out of.

Zyris and Jareth had apparently made a plan of some sort, as when Jareth looked at her, the heir thrust a crystal down the path.

“What was that?” Cecil asked, expecting something more... Exciting than hearing something land in a hedge far away with a THUNK.

“Your second gift. Two for the price of one, you know.” Zyris winked at Brendan in a malicious way.

“What’s the price, then?” Brendan looked at the heir inquisitively.

Zyris and Jareth leapt up onto a wall. “Your life, unless you can run faster than you can get devoured.” Jareth pointed to the path. The party looked and saw the hedge maze eating the hedges, becoming bigger each time it ate something.

“I suggest you freaks start running. If you value your lives, that is.” Zyris commented. “Of course, I suppose we could use your faces for new decoration in the castle when you get outran by it.” Jareth shot an unappreciative glance at his daughter.

“Have fun. Remember that you only have three hours left.“ Jareth and Zyris seemed disappear suddenly, without warning.

“I think we should start running now.” Portsmal advised wisely, and started off into the safer pathway. Cecil forced Brendan onto his back and charged off, just behind the troll. As the group of mixed races bolted through the raging hedges,  Brendan could have sworn that he heard laughing. Yes, there was laughing, but it was in the   far-off castle, roaring. He shrugged it off.
∞

A large group of goblins were accompanying Zyris and Jareth in a smaller room. Jareth was watching the boy and his companions run through the maze for their lives, while Zyris held a giggling Laura.

“You think he’ll give up soon?” A gray goblin asked. Some other goblins had been murmuring about it.

“He should. He should’ve given up a long time ago.” Jareth concentrated on the crystal’s image.

“I think he’ll die before he gives in to defeat.” Zyris guessed. The boy was very brave, after all.

“Yes. Isn’t it foolish? Thank goodness we are not humans. They are so confusing and naive.” Laura grabbed a handful of Zyris’ hair as she was trying to listen to the Goblin King’s conversation.

“He’s not very naive, Father. Just stupid” The heir argued.

“Oh? What makes you think so?” Jareth asked, amused at his daughter’s response.

“I don’t know, but there’s a difference between stupid and naive.” Some goblins had to muffle their laughter.

“What an interesting concept, Zyris. Tell me about it again after this is over.” Jareth smirked.

The goblins broke into laughter again. As the room became louder and louder, Jareth and Zyris’ concerns about the human coming to the castle in time vanished temporarily. The lower goblins weren’t upset in the very least about the human coming this far, however they were stupid to begin with. They still had three more hours, and hours tend to go by quickly.