It's Only Forever

New Territories

 "Oh, wait a minute — I didn't get your name!" Sarah exclaimed to the goblin as she walked through the woods. It had been a while since she found it, and she found as she had only been thinking of it as 'it' that she was deliberately being rude. It wasn't the first impression she wanted to aim for, even dealing with the same creatures that assisted Jareth in kidnapping Toby back then.

"You ask me this now?" the goblin replied, sounding slightly disgruntled.

She giggled, "I'm sorry, I've been lost in thought — but, you could have just told me. I mean... you must know my name after all the ruckus I caused in the Labyrinth three years ago."

"Aye... I hadn't thought of it either! Our king never refers to us by name — perhaps never even remembers. We don't dare question it."

"I guess he has so much business to conduct that it's hard to pay attention to much else," Sarah said, uncertain as to why she was even defending the Goblin King. She hadn't wanted to come back to the Labyrinth with him in the first place! "I'll be living here in the Labyrinth, too. I'll make sure to remember everyone's names, and to remind Jareth to use them.... So, your name? And gender, if that's not too rude to ask?"

"Not rude at all. I'm a male specimen. Call me Serboa."

"Sir.. Boa?" she hesitantly pronounced, painfully reminded of Sir Didymus.

"No, no — Serboa. It's one word."

"Oh... Serboa. I like it."

"Uh hah! And be sure to remember it like you promised!" he shrilly declared.

She giggled, "I will."

Sarah continued walking in a straight line, and made sure to look around often. She did not want something sneaking up on them. What she did notice was that the trees were beginning to thin out, and change into grasslands. A path opened up through grass as tall as Sarah, and she walked through it with the hope that there would be an ending to it.

"Aye, watch it!" Serboa screeched. The grass had become a lot taller than Sarah by then, some of the strands of grass leaning over into the path. One of them had smacked both of them in the face before she realized it was there.

"Sorry!" Sarah said, pushing many strands out of the way. "At least there's a path here... I hope it doesn't go around in circles as well."

"You never know... it might just do that."

"I know," she mumbled.

"Wait...." Serboa said softly. Sarah immediately stopped, surprised that he had used such a quiet tone. His ears twitched as he looked around. "Someone's com — eeeeek!"

Sarah was swiftly engulfed by a pair of arms. The warmth and strength that surrounded her was foreign, but surprisingly welcome as she slowly came to realize who it was.

"Jareth?!" she said in shock, struggling to keep Serboa in place on her shoulder. Well, she found him! But she certainly hadn't expected such a reunion.

When he pulled away, he instantly glared sternly at her. "I told you not to go off the path!"

'That downgraded pretty quickly,,' she thought irritably. "Really, Jareth. Really?"

He crossed his arms over his chest, a disdainful sneer on his lips.

"I'm not a child," she snapped at him, wondering why it felt like everything was such a tug-of-war with him. As if he still saw her as she had been when she was fifteen, holding onto childhood memories and idolizations of her absent mother. "Anyways, if I hadn't gone off the path, we'd still be walking around in circles!"