It's Only Forever

Luck or Fate

 Ambrosias sat down suddenly, dramatically unseating Serboa from his saddle so he fell to the ground in an unceremonious heap. Instead of shouting at the poor dog, like Sarah expected in consideration to his hurt leg, he'd said, "I understand completely, Ambrosias. Really."

"What's the matter?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed as she looked around at the group.

Ambrosias' pants had become heavier the more they wandered through the Labyrinth, and they even continued as he sat there with his back facing Sarah. Serboa and Jareth had gone quiet a while ago, eyes droopy and shoulders slightly slackened. Autumn, meanwhile, didn't bound around with as much energy as she'd had before, though she remained upright and even tilted her head in curiosity as though wondering why everyone had stopped moving.

"It's almost dark out, we're all exhausted, and we need some rest," Serboa replied.

"But — but we have to keep going," Sarah insisted, a wave of anxiety washing over her at the prospect of stopping so soon.

Though her feet were tired, and her stomach had growled on multiple occasions, they had been on the move for no more than nine hours. Due to having made it to the center of the Labyrinth within thirteen hours before, she refused to take any unnecessary breaks. Nothing was more important to her than to save her friends and Jareth's goblin subjects.

"Ambrosias... please get up."

Ambrosias whined and didn't move, only looking at her with sad eyes over his shoulder.

Jareth put a hand on her shoulder, "Stopping every once in a while won't hinder us —"

"Do you really think Jocelyn will think about her prisoners? Will they get food, sleep and water to keep them alive, or will she let them rot? I can't —"

"This is the first time you're talking nonsense," he interrupted sternly. "Even if we get there after days of nonstop traveling, we're not going to have the energy to go up against her! Sarah, listen to me —" she'd turned her head away in frustration and Jareth now took hold of her chin, turning her head to face him. "We — our entire group, including yourself — aren't immortal. We'll do what we can to save them, but we can't do that by depriving ourselves of basic necessities."

"I went thirteen hours in this Labyrinth with only one bite of a peach that —"

"Exactly. Jocelyn never gave us a time limit and, for now, that's a good thing. When you were solving the Labyrinth, you didn't have the luxury of taking a few days... although technically I shortened it so it was eleven hours —"

"That was still unfair —"

"I still wonder what your basis for comparison was."

Sarah couldn't help but laugh at the end of their short bicker, turning away from Jareth as he smirked knowingly. Then she sighed, admitting to herself just how right he was. "How are we going to find a place to stay, anyways? We're kind of stuck in this tunnel, and I doubt we'd want to stay here."

Jareth nodded in agreement, "I agree. We would have to move forward at least until we're free of this tunnel. From there, we'll find an area to rest and take turns keeping watch... I wouldn't put it past Jocelyn to attempt attacking us in our sleep."

Serboa growled exhaustively, slowly sitting up. "I am inclined to agree with your —" he paused. His ears suddenly perked forward and backward, his eyes wide again.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked, fearing that it wasn't going to be good news.... It wasn't.

He scrambled onto Ambrosias' back screeching, "The cleaners!!"