From: "alorindanya" <[email protected]>
Date: Tue Jul 23, 2002 1:40 am
Subject: Linda's Wish Ch.2/?


"Linda's Wish"
by Alorin Danya

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1 (Henson owns all the characters you
know).Chapter 2/?


Chapter 2: What's Said Is Said

The night-light always on when Sarah slept gave the room a soft
orange glow as Linda stepped inside. She felt a slight chill in the
room and at first thought it was from her nerves, but then noticed
the curtains to the single window billowed from the night breeze.
The crickets sang outside; Sarah liked the sound and each night
wouldn't let the window be closed so she could hear them. But the
crickets bothered Linda and rubbed her nerves even more as she stood
over her sleeping daughter.

Sarah looked hot, her forehead moist from a fever and tiny pieces of
her hair, fallen out of her pig tails, were clinging to her damp
cheeks. Linda stifled a gasp when Sarah moaned in her sleep. That
was something else about the child; talking in her sleep, waking
everyone up at all hours thinking something was wrong when she had
only been dreaming. But it was expected for the child to be
comforted; she was supposed to be pampered and cared for because she
was too little to do anything for herself. Linda hated that the
responsibility of that care always fell on her. Why did she was to
be the one to sacrifice what she wanted because her husband was too
weak to tell his bosses he was doing too much work? Why was she the
one who had to put aside her wants for Sarah? Maybe she should have
listened to Milly those years ago. If Sarah wouldn't have been
borne, Linda could have had done so much more in her life.

"I wish the goblins would come and take you out of my life so I can
live my dreams for once."

The light went out in Sarah's room at that moment, and Linda thought
it was merely from a limb knocking down a power line from the sudden
rush of wind from outside. But a mere power outage wouldn't have
caused her heart to pound like it was presently doing. No. She
realized it was something more when from Sarah's bed there came
strange noises like a dozen snorting voices, something Sarah couldn't
sound like no matter how sick she got. Then Linda heard things being
moved around her in the pitch-black room and she jumped as something
brushed passed her legs. But then it all suddenly stopped and the
power returned.

"My, that was not a nice thing to say."

Linda gasped as she heard the rich, accented voice and saw a strange
but hauntingly attractive man standing in the room. But his gaze was
not kind and it frightened her, "Who are you? How did you get in
here?" Taking a timid step back with each word, she stuttered, "I'll
call my husband."

"I'm sure he'd enjoy seeing what you've done." He said, taking a step
around Sarah's bed.

Looking around for other means to protect herself, Linda's eyes
flashed to her daughter's bed and she gasped when she didn't see the
child there. She frantically looked around the room, but Sarah
wasn't there. "Oh god. What have you done with...?"

"You called my minions, so they took her." He took a threatening step
towards her.

Realization that the story was true struck her, "You're the Goblin
King…but you aren't a goblin."

This king grinned a feral grin, though his mismatched eyes still held
their fury. "Very observant of you. I am Fae, though I rule those
rancid creatures. And now your daughter will become one of them,
unless you want to save her."

Linda's mind suddenly went blank; she couldn't decide what to do. "I…
I don't know."

The Goblin King placed his hands on his hips, his black cloak
billowing in the breeze, like the curtains, "I'll give you a choice
then. If you find your daughter worthy enough to be saved from such
a detestable state then you may try to reach her. I will give you
thirteen hours to solve my Labyrinth and reach the castle where your
daughter will be. If you decide you don't want her, all you have to
do is give up."

Linda suddenly found herself on a sandy hill overlooking a large
stone maze, the king's castle looming what seemed like miles away.

"I have to go through that?" Linda asked exasperated.

The Goblin King produced a crystal ball in his fingers, gliding it
across his hands as he spoke, "You can either go through it and try
to regain your daughter or take this."

He stopped moving it and held it out to her. It looked the same as
any crystal ball she'd ever seen, but maybe it wasn't that at
all. "What is it?"

"Your dreams." He cocked his head, "That is why you wished Sarah away-
-isn't it?"

Linda gasped, "You know her name."

"As well as I know you are Linda."

"How?"

"Magic. The second you began the wish the magic told me all about
your pathetic attempts to improve your career." He stood close to her
and gazed at her with false sympathy, "Tell me, did Sarah interfere
with your plans?"

Guilt flowed through Linda's veins, and also the determination to
prove him wrong. Who was he to judge her reasoning? She glanced
once again at the maze before boldly turning her eyes to his, "I'll
get Sarah back, you'll see. Just show me where to get started."

With a stern face, he pointed to a clock with thirteen Roman Numerals
with a look of disgust, "You have thirteen hours to solve the
Labyrinth. Find your own way in."

No instructions, no further mockery and he was gone, having faded
away right in front of her.

"Hey," She shouted, "Wait a minute. That's not fair. How am I
supposed to get in!!?"

Linda huffed and stood gawking at the maze, looking at it not so
bravely as she had a moment before. Looking at it now, she thought
it too immense to travel in only half a day. She looked for any
entrance to the fortified walls but saw nothing resembling a gate or
a door. But she did see a small and stubby figure walking outside
the wall.

"Hey. Hello." Linda started yelling as she ran up to the little man.

He turned out to be an ancient dwarf; his leather vest was
surprisingly decorative and his white hair stuck out on all sides
under his leather cap. He seemed to be gardening, spraying the weeds
along the stone wall with some strange liquid that made the dragonfly
looking bugs fall twitching to the ground. The dwarf seemed pleased
with each kill as he kicked dirt over the little corpses every time.

"Interesting job you have there," Linda commented to get his
attention.

"I hate fairies," he grumbled.

"Fairies?" She looked at the little mounds of dirt. Sure enough,
there were two hands, two feet and golden hair to each one. She knew
fairies to be good creatures and he was killing them, "You're
horrible."

"No. I'm Hoggle," He huffed.

"What'd fairies do to you, huh? Why kill them?"

"That's what I do."

"Isn't every life precious?"

Hoggle laughed lowly, "You're one to talk. Wishin your baby away.
You'd better get inside if you're gonna save `um."

"I don't see any doors. How do you get inside the Labyrinth?"

"You gets in there." Hoggle pointed to a portion of the wall in which
doors were hidden and they opened up towards them.

Linda stepped inside, only to find a path that seemed to never end,
left or right. She turned to ask the dwarf which way she should go
but the doors were already shut behind her. She chose to go left,
but after walking five minutes down the infinitely straight path, she
began to get discouraged. There were no turns, so how in the world
could this be a maze? Discouraged, she moved to lean her back
against the wall to think, but it suddenly wasn't there. She
stumbled to the ground, scraping the palms of her hands on the
gravel. Linda groaned as she stood up, brushing the dust off her
jeans and adjusted her V-neck shirt, despite the stinging in her raw
hands. Once she glanced up, however, she noticed she was in a new
path. She took a few steps to the old path, making sure she wasn't
seeing things. Sure enough she saw the wall dividing the two paths
and quickly moved on her way down this new sight of well-carved and
polished stone.