It's Only Forever

Ambrosias and the Shakana

 "Danger lies ahead!"

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Go back while you still can!"

"This is not the way!"

"How did we even get here?" Sarah asked in perplexity, staring at the stone faces around her — the false alarms. "This is a more dramatic change than the path from the forest into the grasslands."

"At least we're going in the right direction," Jareth replied, stepping gingerly around the corner.

Once they'd found themselves in the caves, they'd deemed it safe enough to release each other's hands. The imprint of his warmth remained in her palm, however, even as the breeze wafting through the halls they walked through made her shiver.

"Beware!" another one shouted.

"Will you all shut up?" Serboa screeched as Sarah turned the corner behind Jareth.

"You will be destroyed!"

Serboa growled, as vexed as any goblin can be without the ability to run up to each of the faces and slap them.

"Well, is it just me or are there more of them?" Sarah asked, noticing the growing number of faces. "I don't remember there being so many."

"Things change under new rules. Perhaps Jocelyn is even more cautious about intruders coming in than she needs to be...." Jareth said.

"I second that.." she stated. "I don't know what she's afraid of, but... — what was that?"

A familiar growl had echoed through the caves ominously and they all paused in their tracks. In waiting for another sound, there was nothing else, and they glanced at each other nervously. Serboa's ears twitched and his eyes widened. "A Shakana..."

"What's a Shakana?" Sarah whispered.

"A creature; part lion, part goblin — I only heard stories that they were these mischievous sorts of hunters... smart enough to find a way to catch their most difficult prey."

Sarah's mind reeled — that creature that she and Jareth had found when they entered the Labyrinth must have found where they were. "What... what does it eat?" she asked nervously.

"Anything it catches," Serboa's body shook as he spoke. "Those creatures are built on speed."

"We can't do what we did before," Jareth said, looking down the cave tunnel as he spoke. "If it's as cunning as it's made out to be, it'll know our possible escape plan..."

"Okay, we'll figure that out when it comes down to it, but...." Sarah glanced at their surroundings, her anticipation heightening by the minute. "Why hasn't it shown up yet?"

Just then, something roared, and into view came Ambrosias running at top speed. Skirting around the corner behind him came the Shakana, huffing and puffing loudly as though it had been running for a long while.

"Ambrosias!" Sarah shouted, filled with both the relief of finding him and the fear of the creature catching up to him.

The dog gave a distressed bark as he ran past them, Sarah and Jareth immediately following close behind him. The caves were filled with an unending amount of twists and turns, riddled with bumps along the way that Sarah nearly tripped on multiple times. If it wasn't for Ambrosias' experience in running away from the dangers Sir Didymus faced, she figured, she wouldn't have nearly as much luck with her balance. Watching and mimicking the way he moved made everything simpler.

Serboa, meanwhile, began whistling an upbeat tune as they ran, seemingly unaffected by the trouble they were in.

It irritated Jareth to no end. "Will you stop that whistling?"