Labyrinth Fan Fiction ❯ Think About It ❯ My Work ( Chapter 1 )

[ A - All Readers ]

My first experience concerning The Labyrinth, Jareth the Goblin King, and all her inhabitants, a few of which I highly doubt any of you know of.

Disclaimer: For all tangible purposes, I own nothing of the Movie entitled Labyrinth save for a legally bought DVD, so don't sue me because I am doing nothing wrong.

IT IS IMPERATIVE AND IMPORTANT THAT YOU READ THE NEXT 3 PARAGRAPHS!

What I want people to realize, is that the first time I wrote this, I was confused as to what and who and why I am what I am. Misunderstandings and lies and things kept hidden from me forced me to go on what I had been told about myself. (NOT concerning the labyrinth part, only when in the first one I had expressed being a demi-goddess of sorts which I now know is not even close. It's been a while since I wrote it, things have changed and so have I. I am no longer the girl who wrote it, I am older, wiser, a better writer, and am better at taking criticism. I ask that you read this with an open mind…and that if do not like it after the first few paragraphs, then stop reading the bloody thing! You can't all be idiots after all!

It's been so very long since I first wrote this down…You must forgive the first time I posted this, I'd written from memory and with many distractions, and of course, I was still new to the world or writing then.

I'll warn you all now, that for the record, you could in fact call what you are about to read a Mary Sue. I know that I sound like the most basic of self insertions so do me a favor and don't point out the obvious in a review, or more specifically a flame. If you find spelling and grammatical errors, I apologize, spell checking and peer editing is bound to miss some things you know, and no one is perfect after all. And please remember, things are never what they seem…so is this fiction or is it fact or is it both? All I ask is that you read it with an open mind, not the one society has beat into you.

Now that we've got THAT out of the way…Shall we begin? I believe we shall.

(((((((((((((((((To truly start then?))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

My name is Aviarianna, and I have been known as many things over the years. Avaria is what Jareth, the Goblin King forever chooses to acknowledge me by ever since the day we first met even though he knows full well that I prefer and go by Avi (ah-vee) Alas, I have not yet been able to keep him from using that elder version of my name. At least when we were still on speaking terms…which we have not been on for some time and I fear we may always be at odds like this. I decided that the story I wrote about my first meeting with him, which I wrote and posted a few years ago and which I now see as nothing more than a journal entry fraught with spelling and grammatical errors, needed revising.

My basic description, so that you do NOT imagine some perfectly gorgeous blonde with blue eyes and all that jazz is the following. I am plump, not skinny, not curvy, not fat, but plump, I always have been and I probably always will be. I've got pale skin mainly because I abhor the sunlight most of the year and I've got freckles absolutely everywhere! My eyes are my best features, they are a pretty chocolaty brown BUT have on occasion gone amber and even a burnt orange, and I kid you not for it's freaked out people on some occasions. My hair is a natural dark brown and if I brave the sunlight enough I get natural auburn/red highlights, at the time of the meeting I'd venture a guess that I was about 5”3 to 5”4 give or take, I had a constant light blush to my cheeks too and my mouth has always, forgive the description, been a bit pouty…I don't have full lips or anything like that but they do seem to be constantly in some form or another of a pout. It's annoying really…I continue to look innocent when I am anything but.

Now, I am a witch in the sense that my religion, or what I choose to practice is Wicca, so technically I am a Wiccan but I am a witch in the sense that I do not belong to a coven. I practice alone, I meditate alone, and I do most of my festivities either alone or paired with one of the few people I trust who is also a witch, but more so a Jester. Do not ask me about that, I know as little as you. As such…I may be trapped in a human body, but I am not technically human and that is as much as you're going to get unless I decide to add the information in somewhere else so deal with it. Just know that my meeting with Jareth opened up a plethora of possibilities of worlds and people to me. It also opened my curiosity to an even wider state which caused Oglum to become wary of there powerful little asset. Control over me began slipping after Jareth grew fond of me and me of him in a brotherly/sisterly kind of way.

But to truly understand this, we have to start at the beginning. Before I really knew much about the truth of the world, before I knew Jareth, or any of the creatures and people I do today, I was a fifth grader at an elementary school living a miserable life. I'm not skinny, and I'm not popular, I never have been and I never will be and I'm fine with that. But at this point in time, I was trying to figure out why nobody seemed to like me for I had exactly two friends in the entire world and still I was lonely for I was nothing like them. I was strange, odd things always happened around me and then, Dwayne came along and introduced me to the group known as Oglum…an organization responsible for keeping humanity locked in it's illusionary little cocoon known as “reality” and boy oh boy was that ever the wrong choice for me.

Oglum, my dear readers was at first something I'm sure most of you would love to be a part of. You get to meet incredible creatures like vampires, demons and werewolves to name a few, you deal with councils and missions and training and all sorts of neat stuff. Unfortunately, you end up signing your life away because secrecy is incredibly sacred, as in; you tell, you die. And believe me…once I realized what I had signed up for by swearing an oath on the katana that I already owned, I had a few regrets.

I later found out that Dwayne, also know as Dartak, had transferred schools on purpose to find, specifically, me. I learned that I was meant to be the Empress of the group, which as royal as it sounds means I was the head of the group, yet there was still a council that I had to answer to, and they handed down missions to me and my group. I was only the leader in the sense that I had to handle all the things the regular hunters, assassins, whatever you want to call them, guardians, I suppose, weren't aloud to. Such as…diplomatic things, meetings, etc.

So there I was, already beginning to harden from receiving less training than I was supposed to and then being sent on missions that I was lucky to come out of alive, at barely thirteen years of age. And suddenly…they send me on a diplomatic mission to take care of the some thing in the Underground, known to many as the Fae Realm, or the Realm of Faery in which presides the very being and the very land I was to see too.

“It is about time you learned how to truly be a diplomat young empress, so off with you King Jareth's realm, there is much between us and his kingdom that must be fixed and brought up to date. As Empress it is your duty to handle such things and this is the perfect opportunity to learn from the experience. Off with you.” Is what they said to me about 5 seconds before they sent me off to the Labyrinth with the shove of a bag of files and checklists into my hands and a push through the correct portal bearing door. Mind you that is not an exact quote, It's been quite a while since that first initial meeting and my memory is not what it once was, I'm very sorry about that but it's as close to what was said as remember, I merely had to fill in a few blank spots with a word here and there.

Still with me dears? I do so hope you are for it gets a bit more interesting from here on in.

It is a bit vague to me these days, it's been so long and things have certainly changed so much since that day that it's sometimes painful to remember. It was strange to me though, the first time I'd ever laid eyes on the real Labyrinth and in so doing, swept my gaze beyond it to the goblin city at its center and the castle beyond the city. The maze is incredibly large, spanning from border to border in a confusing kaleidoscope of several kinds of stone, forests, hedges and of course, many many creatures and traps. I still sometimes wonder why they chose me, not just for the mission, I knew that I was the one sent because it was my duty to handle diplomatic things, but I still wonder why it was me for this empress roll. But back to the meeting, it was to be nothing more than pure business and yet, that's not how it ended up at all.

Barely thirteen for a week(though I now know my aging a bit better but that's off subject) and yet there I was with the instruction still fresh in my head. They expected me to discuss with Jareth several things, including things that needed to be fixed in and out of the Labyrinth, but mostly in it, situations that needed to be handled before they got even more out of hand which again, mainly had to deal with the Labyrinth but also with this realm, making sure paperwork, and yes there is paperwork, was all up to date, checking the books and all that jazz. I was also to gently bring up the subject of Sarah Williams, one of the few people to actually make it though the labyrinth within the time limit and without major injury. Now up to that point, I knew pretty much…nothing about Jareth, or the Labyrinth. Only what I'd been told, which wasn't much but I had plenty of supplies with me in the forms of checklists and such.

I'd only seen the movie once before and even then, I'd been rather young and of course, I'd never tried out “The Words” before either. And yet, there I stood on the same sandy, sparsely vegetated hill that so many idiots had stood on before, overlooking the vast maze that made up The Labyrinth. In the far distance I could see the spires of the castle I was to shortly be seated in, gleaming in the sunlight and damn was it warm! In Jareth's realm, temperatures don't fluctuate very much and it's usually around 80 degrees as in the same 80 degrees California is likely to get in spring and summer. As embarrassing as it was to be sweating there in my shirt, jeans and tennis shoes(Hey…it was pretty short notice after all.) it was more embarrassing to know that at the moment, I had a crush on Jareth, albeit was David Bowie playing Jareth but still, it's the principle of the thing and I will be frank with you all, Jareth, the real Jareth, is quite a handsome male specimen. David Bowie did him little to no justice in the movie but of course, this is completely off topic and I can happily say that my crush on Jareth ended years ago.

I had no room for crushes then however, this was a strictly diplomatic visit!

As mentioned before, I was in nothing more than a pair of flared jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of tennis shoes. Was I nervous? Hell yes I was nervous but as I'd already gone through plenty of shit, I was good at hiding it save for the constant blush on my cheeks, but the damn blush to this day never goes away anyhow so it doesn't really matter. I had a messenger bag slung over my shoulder, the same bag that had been shoved into my hands right before I was shoved into Jareth's realm and it held everything I would be relying on for this diplomatic, and I use the term loosely, duty of mine. It also held various files concerning various complaints from the inhabitants of the labyrinth and the city, and a few files that just plain needed to be returned to him. I was completely loaded with stuff that would either help me, or incur his wrath but for the moment I merely stood gazing at the vast maze waiting for the esteemed Goblin King to appear.

“Gods I hope he shows up soon…”I thought to myself, the heat was, well, hot and there was little to no shade where I was. Being directionally challenged, I wasn't exactly keen on moving from my spot lest I get lost. I had just finished that thought when I felt a strange breeze behind me while my not yet honed senses picked crudely up on a powerful presence and I turned to face him, noticing first how much taller he was then me, which caused me to curse inwardly but outwardly I was all business. “Hello Jareth, glad you could finally appear.”

“And you would be the representative from Oglum, I presume?” He stated more than asked as he smirked down at me. I'll not lie; it was a very sexy smirk to me at that moment, now I just find it to be arrogant and annoying and just plain Jareth. I stepped back then, not in fear or intimidation or because of his, quite frankly not surprising, lack of respect towards me because I knew that I did in fact out rank him because of the simple reason that the ranking went me, under the council, and all else under me although he did outrank the normal hunters. But that is beside the point which is that I stepped back merely so I could take in the full image of Jareth. The extremely tight leggings of a stormy grey left nothing whatsoever to the imagination, not that I minded then, though now I really do. The white poet shirt allowed some of his chest to show along with his strange, odd sickle shaped pendant which was also free to gleam in the sunlight. There was a mahogany waist coat over the shirt and he wore black riding boots over the leggings. All in all it was, as I have learned, one of his normal outfits.

Not to mention the way his hair has been since he was a child, as I learned later on as well.

It was obvious that he did not know just who I happened to be. Now for those of you, who know Anime, think of me as a bit of a female Vegeta type person. I'm outwardly rather cold and indifferent at times, wearing a mask to hide fear and nervousness and while I do have quite a malicious streak, I am, or at least back then, I was nowhere near such a level of what can only be described as evil. And though I didn't know it then, I had the potential to be more powerful than even the council that held nothing more than rank over my head.

The whole situation was a learning experience for both Jareth and I, I like to think.

“You should show me more respect Jareth.” I replied dryly as I finally stared back up at him, meeting his eyes, which I was surprised to find out where mismatched, one was brown like mine, the other a rather lovely shade of the clearest blue I'd ever seen, cold and bemused as they were for Jareth is quite good at hiding his emotions as well. I am quite sure that some of my masking abilities I did in fact learn from him.

“And why,” he queried back at me, obviously annoyed I'd used his name instead of his title once more. “Should I show a little representative more respect, hm?” He looked me up and down, and I do admit I could have worn a more appropriate outfit had I been given the time and resources.

“Oh…they did not tell you who was coming? So sorry, does the name Aviarianna ring a bell?” I smirked while still conveying my innocent air. His eyes narrowed in thought, or at least I think it was thought because soon enough they widened as the realization must have hit him about just who he was talking too. I don't like to brag or anything, but you know it's not every day you can outrank and talk down to the Goblin King.

About the name though. Avaria WAS the shorter version of Aviarianna that I went by with the inner circle of Oglum, such as the Hunters and people I considered friends. As Jareth soon became family to me, Avaria was the name he called me but I grew tired of a name that was still so long and had such a daft pronunciation that I finally just chose to be called Avi. Short, sweet and to the point, not to mention the first 3 letters of my name yet Jareth feels it doesn't suit me though he refused to tell me why. Now that that is out of the way…we can continue on.

“My dear Empress of the Oglum, I do apologize. You are correct; no one told me who exactly was coming so naturally, I expected nothing more than a lackey representative, albeit they did specify that it would be a she.” He finally replied, the arrogance and I'm-Better-Than-You tone almost completely gone from his voice.

“Eh, it's fine Jareth. Now, how do we get to the castle? I swear if you make me go through that Labyrinth of yours I will do everything in my power to make your life a living hell.” Oh I was such a charming little thing wasn't I…

“My dear girl, I had no intention of using the Labyrinth. This is purely a business visit after all, in fact just close your eyes and we shall be at the castle momentarily.” He replied, probably ignoring the threat given to him by a 13 year old girl who out ranked him, how he could stand that little fact I still don't know.

I reluctantly closed my eyes, not being a very trusting girl since joining Oglum, and to this day I don't trust easily, if at all. He grabbed my hand and it was as if I was flying, or well, it certainly felt like it. Mind you my wings are still growing and being pains in the arse what with the pain, the itching, the burning and the unfortunate events where molting occurs. Down feathers found on the back of ones shirt, inside the shirt can be rather annoying. When I opened my eyes due to the sudden lack of the tingling, air rushing past feeling, we were in Jareth's throne room and Jareth was seated in his oddly shaped throne. There was a small yet beautiful table sitting in front of him of dark wood with carved legs that reminded me of waves on the ocean. Across from him was a large, comfortable looking and obviously leather chair where I promptly seated myself, pulled out every single thing that was in the messenger bag, spread it on the small table and we got started.

The two of us spent 12 bloody hours in that room, meals and drinks being brought in every hour or so by human and goblin servants alike. You see, sometimes the child wished away isn't exactly a child, and is too old to be turned into a goblin. Therefore they are generally given a place in the Underground as a servant or some other form of employment that works with their skills. And it was such a long 12 hours too, nearly half a day we spent and had it taken another hour, it would have been half a day for a day in the Underground consists of 26 hours instead of 24 as a day does here. I remember bits and pieces of it these days. Our little…chat, concerning Miss Sarah Williams was rather…vehement on Jareth's part. I was proved positive that Jareth had been in love the girl but he had not loved her, as confusing as I know that is. He had been enamored with her, her innocence and naivety, and her understanding yet human nature mixed with such a unique and wondrous imagination. And perhaps…her mortality had something to do with it as well for mortality to one who is more or less immortal, is a rather intriguing thing.

Miss Williams, if you do read this again, do know that while he is assuredly `over you' as people tend to put it, he has never forgotten you. No one there has, and certainly none of us ever have who've heard of your victory and rejection for lack of a better word, the real story, not the movie. There is still a place in his heart where the memory of you and your spirit and determination and beauty still reside, you should be very pleased.

When all was finally said and done, I found that I had somehow managed to make a friend out Jareth. As time went on, I ended up coming back under the guise that I was checking on his progress with fixing things such as the oubliettes and the bridge in the bog.(Which at times I really WAS doing, he's a slow one fixing the problems. And who in their right mind puts a wooden bridge in a bog like the BOES I ask you!) Making sure that the complaints of the inhabitants had not gone unanswered and to check up on the books and collect copies of paperwork for any other wishes, and believe me, they do happen. And some of those people are complete and utter idiots…sometimes, you realize that the child is better off and in better care in the Underground then in the hands of the moron who wished them away in the first place.

Sometimes I was rather relieved to know that the runner had not made it in the time limit, as sad as that is to admit, it's quite true. You've no idea how many abusive people have wished away someone and how much better off the child was as either a goblin, or a human inhabitant depending on age.

Soon enough though, the guises stopped and I just came to Jareth's castle, which is in fact surrounded by gardens and THEN the Goblin city which is beyond the walls of the gardens and orchards, for purely visitation purposes. Considering I could spend three to four days in his castle and only a night would pass here, it was a wonderful thing to do to get rid of stress. Unfortunately…things went downhill with Oglum, and I suddenly found myself, as I may or may not have mentioned before, bound without given reasons, cut off, connections blocked, and unable to return to a realm where I had someone that felt more like family than anyone ever had. A place I considered home was suddenly inaccessible to me.

I'm still trying to make things right again…but it's gotten so hard and things between Jareth and I have changed quite suddenly. Someone tried to kill him with iron, which I'm sure you all know can be lethal to a fae in large amounts. After that happened, something changed about him, he no longer felt like family and I am no longer sure as to where I stand with him. I'm not sure about what to do anymore…and I miss him terribly, after all, Jareth to me was family and I still want him to be family.

Well…I hope you've enjoyed my recollections. And I hope that you've, as I prompted, read this with a very open mind. Weather or not you believe is up to you and please remember as you get ready to flame me which you undoubtedly will do ne? You have had every opportunity to stop reading and move onto something else, it's not my fault you found this interesting enough to read till the end.

Think about what and why I've written before you type in your comment and click that button to send it, that's all I ask.

Namarie (Farewell in Elvish, though I cannot remember if it is Sindarin or Quenya, so sorry.)

Aviarianna O' Lorien