Your Eyes Can Be So Cruel

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So, the chapter is le fixed, sorry about all the hubbub. I'm thinking perhaps I was trying to give it too much at one time or something.

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The wind howled, screamed, and whistled through the air. Sarah shivered uncontrollably in the knee high snow. The blizzard around her made every inch of her skin sting. Her eyes watered from the snow that flew around her head. She rubbed her arms vigorously as she tried walking through the snow, though every step stung and forced an odd pain through her legs.

She stumbled onward, trying to make it to the dark shadows she saw in the near distance, that she hoped were trees. Perhaps whatever it was would at least break the wind a bit so she could focus a little more.

Her teeth chattered, and she hoped to god she wouldn’t crack a tooth.

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The little hovel was deathly quiet as Jareth and Hoggle looked at the spot that Sarah had once occupied. Hoggle looked on with dismay, and Jareth with a certain amount of pleasure.

“You’re not going to hurt her are you?” Hoggle’s eyes glistened.

“Not any more than she hurts anyone else.” Jareth’s eyes were hard and cold.

Hoggle squirmed a little from foot to foot. “And…uuhh…will you be tellin her?”
The dwarf no longer looked at him. This was probably a very good thing for the dwarf, considering the smile that found its way to the Goblin Kings lips.

“Come now Hogshead.” The crop tapped lightly on his thigh. “Would I tell on you to your precious Sarah?” He chuckled darkly, the dwarf shaking slightly at the sound. “Afraid she won’t be you friend anymore if she found out?”

Hoggle jumped looking all the world like a deer trapped in a corner with the wolf’s teeth a few inches from its throat. “I didn’t do anything wrong! I didn’t know! You tricked me!”

“Oh, did I now?” Jareth tapped him in the chest with the end of the crop. “And I suppose the next thing you’ll tell me is it isn’t fair.” He gave him one more hard jab before spinning about, the heel of his boot grinding softly in the sand on the floor. “Perhaps you’ve learned some very bad habits from that friend of yours.”

“She wouldn’t do that.” Hoggle muttered softly.

“No?” Came Jareth’s amused response, “Then why so afraid?”

Then the Goblin King was gone, and Hoggle was left to worry and wring his hands. He hoped Sarah was ok, because if Jareth had hurt her, he wouldn’t care much what Jareth did with him after he was through giving that over stuffed bird what he deserved.

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Sarah’s eyes had now started to blur. She had fallen twice, face first into the snow. She hated snow, as if one couldn’t get cold enough with just rain. No, there had to be something that started off looking pretty, and then was bitter and cruel in the end. Sounds so familiar, she thought bitterly. She was only a few feet away from what now were definitely trees, but nothing like evergreens. They were gnarled and twisted. They sparkled brighter than the snow, and it may have been her eyes, but the limbs looked soft. Like it was covered in fur instead of leaves.

She made a few more stumbling steps before once again falling into the deep banks. She looked down at her hands and arms. They were covered in goose bumps and blazed a bright red from the cold. Her silk pajamas were soaking wet and now thoroughly stuck to her body, slowly icing over where it clung.

“I wish I was warm” Sarah half choked, looking up at the trees in a dreamlike way.

She knew she was going crazy the moment the leaves started to fall. The fell slowly, and floated on the air like dandelion blossoms. The ones she used to pick and wish on when she was young. Wishing got you into so much trouble when it actually works it’s always something bad. Sarah was brought back from her reverie when she noticed that the leaves were floating towards her. How do they float so slowly when the wind is blowing so hard, but her thought didn’t get far because the first batch of white leaves brushed against her.

Can leaves be white? And why are they soft?

A few more fell towards her. They were the size of snowballs, and….soft? Yes, they were soft. They were as soft as the fur they looked like. Plus they were warm. Oh god, they were warm, and had tails, and purred. Sarah’s eyes fluttered closed as she was slowly covered by the leaves. The leaves that purred. What a funny thing for leaves to do.
Weren’t they supposed to rustle? Sarah giggled to herself, she had lost all the feeling in her feet, and now she was just so tired. She couldn’t stay awake any longer, especially with all the purring. Why? Why do they purr?

She giggled again, snuggling into the cushy mass of fur that had swarmed around her.

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The pile undulated and shook. Then they rolled together through the snow, small fox like tails twirling around like propellers. They purred and hummed to each other in order to change direction and speed. The fleshy thing they carried that had asked for help kept making funny noises, that they couldn’t understand, but they did not mind it. It stayed still and had a magic that tasted very pleasant to them.
The snow beneath them puffed up where ever they rolled, creating dust like clouds that made it look as if the fleshy thing floated. Which the younger ones found very amusing since this fleshy thing obviously could not float. It didn’t even use its sticks very well.

They continued to roll through the snow until they got to the forest. The young ones bouncing along them all the way there. They went to puddle that the other fleshies seemed to like so much. They didn’t like it much though, but that was because the puddle made strange noise and had large bubbles. Not to mentioned it didn’t smell very good. Too strong. Magic not soft. Magic was too hard here. But fleshies always looked better after sitting in the puddle.

There was a series of a purrs, clicks, and hums. A few held on to the fleshy by her arms, than the rest pushed her into the puddle very slowly. The fleshy made a bad noise, but the fleshy started smelling like flesh again and not cold stuff. Cold stuff was nice though. The little ones didn’t seem to mind the puddle. They were still curious so they followed the fleshy in, spinning their tails until the puddle was all over the fleshys face. The fleshys eyes opened slowly and then it made that awful noise again.

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Sarah shrieked again. She was surrounded and apparently being held up by tribbles with fox tails. Oh, that was it. She had died, or was dying, and hallucinating like she had found the worlds greatest acid. Then again she was in the Underground again, which was really much like an acid trip anyway, right?

The several balls of fluff that had hold of her arms let go, and they fell into the water. Water? Sarah looked around the mounds of white fluff to notice she was no longer in the snow. The snow was still there, several hundred feet away, but she was in a forest. A forest filled with the same trees she had fought towards, but these were not covered in the balls of fluff. They were covered in red lotus flowers, which glowed lightly. The soft glow of them made the bright gold glitter on the black bark of the trees blaze all the more brilliantly. She was in an entire grove of them!

Sarah gasped as her limbs started to sting violently with the rush of feeling that had started to return to them. That is when she noticed she was in a hot spring. A few of the flowers had fallen from the tree and floated lazily around her. A few of the white puffs twirled around the flowers making small whirlpools in various spots. Sarah sighed contently.

It felt warm even outside of the pool. Perhaps warm enough for her sopping wet pajamas to dry. She saw a rock close to the edge, and slowly peeled the silk away from her body, throwing it on top of the sparkly rock.
It didn’t look like the small…things…that helped her had eyes anyway, so it shouldn’t matter much.

“Thank you” She whispered, smiling at the smaller ones that grazed the top of the water. The larger ones seemed to stay as far away from the water as possible.
There was a chorus of hums and purrs that literally made her body hum in response. She gasped as she started to feel warm from the inside out. She closed her eyes at the feeling, standing in the center of the spring where the water was the deepest. It just barely reached the tops of her ribs here so she was decently covered.

He can be so cruel, Sarah’s eyes watered as she hugged herself tightly.

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Jareth sat in tree a few feet away. His owl head twisting and turning. He had no idea how Sarah got the Bo-Ru to help her, but he had to admit he liked their style. Perhaps he should have thrown her in the snow field sooner.

He admired the way the Glotus reflected off of her skin and the small drops of water rolled along her body like liquid fire. His white feathers ruffled in response to his own thoughts. Perhaps it was a good thing she had beaten his Labyrinth all those years ago. Perhaps staying in the Underground when she was younger would not have allowed her to…blossom as she had.

He flew gracefully down from the limb he had perched on, falling down into his human form once more, but he stuck out from the scenery in a plume of white silk. It moved with the sighs of the trees of the forest, making him seem much softer than he ever would be. Though Sarah seemed fond of her illusions. She always liked the fairytales, wanting to pretend she wanted the white knight, when in reality she felt a secret thrill whenever the villain would appear. He smiled to himself as he slowly moved towards the young woman, now lounging against the side of the pool, her head thrown back with her hair flowing over the rocks. The chocolate brown mass was quickly drying, and almost glowed along with the rest of the forest, but of course it would.

He soundlessly knelt beside her head. All the Bo-Ru inched away from him, stacking into a massive pile of white fur. His eyes moved to Sarah. The water barely covered her body, and her lips, pink with the heat were slightly parted. How sweet and vicious those lips could be he thought idly, as he allowed his white gloved hand to trail down her throat.

Sarah’s eyes snapped open in alarm, but for the briefest moment he saw something else there. Perhaps, but now there was only alarm and anger. He smiled down at her, his canines flashing.

“You look more comfortable than humbled” He spoke softly, deadly. “Perhaps I’m not being harsh enough. I may have gotten soft in my old age.” He held her eyes, watching as so many emotions flowed through them at his few sentences.

“Your eyes can be so cruel.” She whispered, almost to herself, as if she was looking through him, and not entirely there in the moment.

His hand wound its way into her hair, wrapping it in the locks, he pulled her quickly up from the water, and eye level with him.

“Much more than my eyes can be cruel Sarah.” His lips were mere inches from hers. She shuddered, her eyes almost filled with enough tears to spill over onto her cheeks, but they didn’t.

She had never cried for him.

But she would.