Labyrinth Fan Fiction ❯ To Defeat the Rotting Labyrinth ❯ Disillusioned ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Hoggle came out of nowhere, appearing behind her out of thin air. He gasped, and Sarah turned around quickly. “Hoggle!” she exclaimed excitedly, and advanced on him. She stopped in her tracks as she got a good look at him though.
He looked old. He carried a cane, and had more wrinkles and lines than he did when she first met him. He didn't have hair anymore, save for a friar's bowl around the top of his skull, saved in thin wisps. Her eyes turned sad. “How long have I been gone, Hoggle?” she asked softly. She understood that there was a difference in the passage of time between the Labyrinth and her world, but she didn't know how much.
Instead of answering, he stared at her. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, and offered a prayer to anything that took mercy on him. Her question processed, and he coughed. “A hundred years, give or take a few,” he replied gruffly, and shuffled forward to greet her properly. “Come, Sarah, give an old dwarf a hug.” Sarah knelt and hugged Hoggle carefully, not sure on how fragile he was in his age. She stood back up, and he smiled, observing her and nodding his head up and down. “Yes, yes, you've grown. You're a woman now. I'm proud.”
Sarah smiled at him, but remembered her reason for being here. She turned and looked at the castle. “Hoggle, what's wrong here? What happened?” She turned back to him, her eyes concerned and worried.
Hoggle replied uneasily, sitting down on the edge of the decrepit pool. “The King has not been himself lately... has not been himself for a very long time, I should say.”
“What's wrong with Ja-”
“Don't say his name!” he warned.
She scowled. “What's wrong with him, then?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips.
He glanced around nervously, expecting the Goblin King or someone else to come out raging. He whispered quickly, “The Labyrinth is connected to his life force. You see how it has changed, rotted, blackened... We think he's dying.”
Sarah looked up at the far away castle, and slowly nodded. “Good,” she said assuredly.
“Not good!” he snapped. “If he dies, we all die. All the goblins, the creatures, the entire kingdom – me, Ludo, and Didymus too.”
She blinked at Hoggle, and frowned. She crossed her arms. “So who sent me the note?” she asked and frowned at him. “Who took Sylvie?” she demanded.
Hoggle blinked at her. “Didymus is the only one who knew the magic right enough to send that to you. You have no idea what we went through to get just that much down. He caught us, that's why it's cut off. We had to write it while the spell was going on. He knows every piece of magic that goes on here.” He wrung his leathered hands, and looked around again suspiciously. “Damn, Sarah, we sent that seven years ago...”
“And Sylvie?” she prompted, tapping her foot.
He looked at her again. “I don't know,” he said truthfully. “I had no hand in it. I wouldn't do that to you. Didymus has been getting more desperate lately, you might ask him. I doubt that the King had anything to do with it, he hasn't taken new children in a long time, since before the kingdom began to rot... The castle's been closed for just as long. We can't get inside anymore. No one's seen him in years.”
Sarah turned around and looked at the gates. They were black, larger and more intimidating than she remembered. She stared at them for what seemed like a long time. “Do you know if he's still alive at all, Hoggle?” she asked, her voice distant.
He shrugged his old shoulders. “I don't know. We like to think so, or else we think we'd all be dead now. Like I said, the castle's been closed for a long time. Nobody's seen him.”
“What can I do to help?” she asked, and looked down at him. She corrected herself, “Is there anything I can do?” Her face was mournful.
His eyes were sad, but hopeful. “Find him. Get into his castle. Find him, see what's wrong. None of us have the power that you do, the power over him. Maybe he'll talk to you.” He shifted his weight, and removed a map from his jacket, and handed it to her. She looked at it curiously. It was a plain piece of parchment with a diagram of the front of the Labyrinth, with two black, labeled dots that read Hoggle and Sarah. “This should help, but everything is worse in there.”
Alarmed, she turned back to him. “What? You're not coming with me?” She felt more scared than she had been a few moments ago.
Hoggle backed away a few steps and held up his hands. “He can't know you're here. If I disappear for a few days, he'll know.”
She advanced on him. “So then whisk me up to the Goblin City, don't make me do this alone!”
“I can't,” he said apologetically, his face twisting. “Any magic done to, for, or by you, and he'll know. You have to hoof it. The Labyrinth has turned blacker, yes, but there are still some inside who would help you.” He put a hand on the map and pulled her down to his eye level, ignoring the tears in her eyes as he explained the map. “The black dots mean you no harm. Red dots mean trouble, avoid them if you can. If you can't, use this,” he said, and handed her a club that had been hanging at his hip. “Whatever you do, never say the King's name. If you need help, try calling for me. I might be able to get away for a few minutes.” He looked around nervously again, and he started to walk away. “Good luck, Sarah.” And then, he was gone.
Sarah looked up at the big, black gates. She took a deep breath, and approached them.