Alien King

Chapter 2

As the sun slowly set behind the horizon, Jareth tossed his final tool back into the chest and rolled his sleeves back down, brushing the dirt and grease off his hands.

"A well done job. Thank you, Miss Carlisa." He said to his helper, an exhausted redhead, as he crawled back into the ship and returned the tools to their closet.

"Carly." She corrected him as she wiped the sweat from her brow and pulled her hair up into a messy bun, following him into the ship. "No problem."

"Are you hungry?" Jareth asked as he stepped over to the sink and tapped the faucet, water instantly gushing out. Lathering his hands with a clear soap, he washed them, the grease and dirt disappearing down the hole. Rolling up her sleeves, Carly asked,

"You a good cook?"

"Good enough to feed myself on occasion. Someone has to cook when the castle chef is having another litter and I don't trust anyone else." Jareth remarked as he dried his hands and began pulling odds and ends out of the cupboards, frowning at the lack of variety.

"Castle." Carly repeated incredulously as she washed her hands. "Don't tell me you're a prince or something."

"A king, if we wish to be exact." He casually said as he tossed his cloak towards a wall and it hung there, suspended in mid-air on nothing visible. "I have been for have a while now."

"King of what?" She hesitated to ask as she looked at the cloak. "What are you?" She whispered in amazement as she walked around the floating object.

"An interesting use of pronouns there. I notice I am a 'what' not a 'who'." He smirked, pausing in his creation of their meal and watching her inspect his little bit of simple magic. "I could tell you all of my titles but I suppose they wouldn't mean much to you. So, allow me to compare myself to something you might be familiar with. Have you ever heard of a Fae or an elf?"

She nodded softly. "Yes."

"What you called elves or Faes and adopted into your mythology were us. Your people turned us into gods and goddesses and we gave up contacting you on an equal level and establishing trade and communication. We left you to your own devices and have been planning another visit." He tossed a few things into a bowl and began stirring.

"How is this possible?" She whispered to herself as she leaned against the wall. Covering her eyes with her hand she spoke, "Just yesterday, you didn't exist. Now..."

"To your knowledge. We've existed as long as your race has." He corrected, pulling out some canned meat and a pan from the cupboard. After opening the can and dumping the contents into the pan, he poured the paste from bowl into the pan and added some water before leaving the meal to simmer on the stove.

"Boy, I am so uneducated." Carly mumbled as she slid down to the floor. "Or am I just imagining it all?"

"You're not imagining it all. And neither are you uneducated. None of your world know the truth." He knelt down before the confused girl. "Here. You look cold." He grabbed his cloak from hanging in the air and tucked it around her, carefully covering her in the cloth to keep her warm. "Shock does horrible things to the human body...Or so I've heard."

Carly huddled the cloak around her, burrowing herself into the material.

"Shock ain't the word for it, Hun. Multiple that by a hundred and you might come close to what I'm feelin'."

"Perhaps I shouldn't have sprung it on you so quickly. Here." He created a crystal and changed it into a hot cup of punch. "Drink this. It'll keep you warm until you've recovered." He handed her the cup and returned to the meal, beginning to boil more than he liked. After eying his creation for a second, she nodded softly and sipped on the drink.