AN: I did write this chapter in only one day, but I really would like 
reviews on it since I have Ludo and Didymus in it...two characters 
that I have never written about before, so I'm not sure if I captured 
them, or even the Wiseman and his hat well. Please advise me of any 
changes. You here at jsfanfiction are the first to see this and I 
won't post it anywhere else until I get a little feedback. Thanks 
bunches.


Chapter 7: Straightened Priority

Linda didn't know how long she had been sitting in the stone throne; 
all she knew was that she must have zoned out with her guilty 
thoughts. Sarah had never laughed like that around her; Linda had 
never given her a reason to. But now the child was crying, the cause 
of Linda's return to reality. Sarah sounded so scared. This cry was 
unheard of by Linda, and it suddenly made her frightened for her 
child. She had no idea what the Goblin King was actually doing with 
her daughter; and it had never occurred to her before that moment 
that Sarah could be slowly transforming into one of those horrible 
creatures. Sarah's crying didn't last for but a few minutes, and when 
she stopped Linda's heart was filled with dread. Either Sarah wasn't 
upset anymore or something had made her shut up. 

Linda jumped up, searching the walls and openings around her for the 
right path that would take her closer to her daughter. The castle was 
right there, she could see it over the hedge, but there were no 
openings in that direction. She was about to pick one when out of it 
came two strange looking creatures. The huge furry one made Linda 
want to run away just from the sight of it, but before she could 
move, she was addressed. 

"Ah, young woman." The other, an old looking...man with a strange 
hat, stated, "A word..." 

It wasn't until Linda saw his hat blink that she realized it was 
alive too. She shook the absurdity of the creature from her head, 
then looked at the man blow him, "I don't have time, I need to get to 
the castle now. Can you tell me how?" 

But the man kept on walking as if he'd forgotten she was there, that 
he had spoken to her first. His hat seemed to pay attention, looking 
first at Linda, then to the Wiseman, "She's rright behind you. Wherre 
arre you going?" 

Linda rolled her eyes, "You said you wanted to talk to me. If you 
aren't going to, just tell me where the castle is." 

The Wiseman kept walking, but his hat turned it's head back to 
her, "Well, might as well follow us. He won't talk 'til he's 
settled." 

Linda wasn't sure if she should waste her time with these...things. 
But maybe if she spent a minute or two to squeeze some answers out of 
them, she could find how to get through the Labyrinth quicker. She 
was just about to take a step to follow when she was knocked aside by 
the large monster. 

"Hey, watch where you are going!" Linda yelled at it. 

"Sowwy." It softly growled as it moved on to follow the man. 

Linda hissed to the air as she followed them, jogging a few steps to 
catch up with the old man. She tried to get him to talk to her, to no 
avail, but the bird creature was attentive. 

"The castle is over there," she pointed, "but I don't know which path 
I should take to get there." 

The bird clucked to itself, "How am I supposed to know? I'm only a 
hat." 

"Have you been there?" Linda flopped her arms and stopped in her 
tracks, "Is there even a way to it or is this whole thing pointless?" 

"Everything has a purpose." The old man groaned as he eased himself 
into his throne. 

Linda marched up to him, "Just tell me how to get to the castle. I 
don't have much time." 

"In a hurry arre ya'." The bird chirped. 

"Yes! My daughter is there and I think something bad has happened to 
her." 

"To get to the castle, you must find your priority." 

"My priority is to get to Sarah." 

The Wiseman raised his eyes to her, "Is that so...then you must know 
your right hand from your left." 

Linda furrowed her brow, "What are you talking about?" 

"Do you know your right hand from your left?" He asked slowly. 

The bird noticed Linda was still not understanding, and it pipped 
in, "Look at your hands." 

"My hands?" Linda shook her head but looked them. "What am I supposed 
to see." 

"What is different between them?" 

Both hands had tiny scratches from the times she had fallen down in 
this crazy maze, but the thing that made them different was her 
ring, "One has my wedding ring." 

"And is that a symbol of your priority?" 

"My ring?" Then to herself, "My marriage. No, I haven't really worked 
for it in a long time." 

"Then your right hand holds your priority." 

"Where is he going with this?" Linda asked his hat. 

"He's lost his crackers if you ask me." 

"Be quite!" The old man shouted above him, "Young woman, what do you 
hold in your right hand?" 

"There's nothing there." 

"Then what you seek will fill it." 

"Sarah?" 

He nodded to her, "If you claim it to be your priority. Empty hands 
wither the heart. Often, one must hide from their right hand what 
their left hand is doing." 

Linda looked back to her hands. He was right. This whole time she 
had thought Sarah was her problem, when all along is was merely her 
marriage; Sarah was merely a scapegoat. She didn't want to have 
Sarah in the picture because that meant she would have to stay with 
Robert. But Sarah had nothing to do with her marriage; she could 
divorce Robert anytime. If only she would have wished correctly, it 
could have been Robert in the girl's place and she wouldn't have even 
fought for him. 

"How do I get to my daughter? Please, she can't be changed. It's not 
her fault." 

"Ludo will show you the way." 

"Ludo show?" the mountain of a beast groaned. 

"Yes, to the castle." 

The beast started to walk off towards an opening into the hedge, and 
Linda looked back to the man with confused eyes, "I just came from 
there. Are you sure he knows the way?" 

But the man had fallen asleep, and his hat chirped, "I wouldn't 
follow that yeti." 

Linda turned to follow him anyway, "At least I'll get somewhere." 

"Hey, you haven't paid yet!" The bird's voice sharply thrilled. 

"Paid?" 

"Wisdom doesn't come cheep. You gotta leave a contribution." 

"He didn't tell me anything of use." Linda protested at the sight of 
the catch box that suddenly was in the old man's hand.

"Yes, he did. You didn't know where you were going before, and now 
you do." 

"But you said that…" Linda pointed towards Ludo, "that thing didn't 
know the way." 

"But now you know where to go, what you are looking for." 

"That's no different than when I first started. Sarah was always the 
reason I came." 

"Ha, dat's what you think." The bird smirked wickedly, if that is 
what you could call his expression, "You came to save yourrself. 
Nobody who rruns the maze comes because they 'love' the one they 
wanted to be rid of. You have to learrn to do that. Have you?" 

Even though she knew it wasn't Sarah's fault she had problems in her 
life, love was still something she wasn't sure she had for the 
girl, "I don't know. But I know I've got to get to her and get her 
out of this place. I don't care what the book said." 

"Eh? You've seen one of 'da books?" the bird asked. 

"Yeah, it's how I found out about this place." 

"So what d'it say?" He seemed very interested. 

"That Sarah belonged here...and I would be a star." Now that she 
remembered the book, Linda tried to remember what happened in it. 
Yes, the character of Lyla had gone through the dangers (ha) of the 
Labyrinth, but she lost her daughter. If the 'bird' was right, that 
the book didn't lie, were her efforts pointless? Was Sarah destined 
to stay here forever and Linda just had to accept it?

It shrugged, "Huh. The books neverr lie. But you'rre gonna get herr 
back anyway." 

"How do you know that?" Linda asked suspiciously. 

The bird cleared its throat, "You'd better catch up to that yak if 
you want to get to the castle." 

Linda gave him a side-glance before sprinting off to follow the 
creature Ludo. 

"Hey, wait up." Linda caught pace with him, "Are you sure you know 
where you are going?" 

He just grunted. 

"What kinda answer was that? Is the castle this way?" 

He grunted again and kept walking. Linda decided to take her chances 
for the moment and follow the beast.

"What name?" 

Linda looked to the creature above, "Huh?" 

"What name?" it asked again. 

"Linda." 

"Winda. Winda." It kept repeating her name over and over again. 

His mispronunciation of it was cute at first, but he wouldn't stop 
saying it and it started to annoy her. 

"Ludo...that's your name right? Cut it out, 'kay. We all know my 
name now." She thought it was funny, but the creature did not; he 
grunted a bit harshly. So she thought she'd bring up the subject of 
her quest, "So how far away is the castle from here?"

He stopped a moment and looked around the path they were on, then 
looked at her hopelessly.

"No…Oh no." Linda shouted at him, "Don't you tell me we are lost." 

It nodded, then said almost sadly, "Lost." 

Linda's hands flew into the air, and she walked off without 
him. "Great, just great!!! What am I supposed to do? I don't even 
know how much time I have left." 

"Well, my lady, perhaps I can be of assistance." Linda turned to find 
a dog dressed in a striped medieval vest, something that would have 
been worn in Shakespeare's time. His blue cap was like some page hat 
and had a yellow feather along one side. If it weren't for the patch 
over his left eye, she might not have been so wary of him--that and 
in his hand was a short lance, of which's end he rested on the 
ground. This knight was on the back of a sheepdog, riding it as if a 
horse. But behind him was a wall with two promising looking doors 
with faces for knockers, one with the ring attached to the ears, the 
other had the ring within it's mouth. She could have sworn they were 
actually looking at her. She shook her head and faced the…dog. 

"What...who are you?" Linda corrected herself, thinking maybe the 
creatures in this place they didn't think themselves as strange; she 
was the one out of place.

"Didymus, lady." He took off his cap and bowed slightly to her. 

"You know how much time I have left?" she asked hopefully. 

"Of course." He brought a pocket watch out of his vest, "it is the 
hour of six." 

"I have only been here six hours!?" Linda almost made herself swoon 
from the info, "I feel like have been here for ages." She started 
towards the doors, "Will one of these take me to the castle?" 

"Halt!" Didymus snapped, blocking her path. 

"What? Let me pass." She tried to get passed him, but he smacked his 
lance into her shin. "Ouch. What was that for?"

"I cannot allow you to pass."

"Oh yes you will." She tried to shove past him, but he and his steed 
were surprisingly stronger than she.

"Who dost thou think you are, the king?" He shrilly asked.

"It's your King who's making me go through this," She huffed. 

"Oh, I see. Well then, I shall take you to him." He said with a 
sweetness, moving his steed around her. 

Linda was amazed, "You will?" 

"Yes," He laughed, poking her with his lance, "As my prisoner." 

"What?! Why?" 

"No one comes through this land without being punished by the Goblin 
King." 

He poked her again, making her jump, "Hey, watch it. I'm not being 
punished, I'm trying to save my daughter." 

But he ignored her protests, prodding her on. "Start moving."

Linda had no choice but to obey him, unless she wanted a lance 
through her back. She had a feeling that if she could only get to 
those doors, one of them had to have a path to the castle, but 
Didymus forced her further from them. She didn't know how long she 
was pushed through the hedges, probably half an hour, but she counted 
the number of right and left turns he directed her to make and 
figured they were only going in circles. Once she thought she spotted 
the two doors she had seen earlier, and she knew she had passed a 
particularly distinct obelisk at least twice; a crack on the left 
side of its pedestal was always the same. Didymus had at both passes 
skipped an opening to the right of it. 

This time she planed to go that way and make her escape. As soon as 
she reached it she sprinted through and kept running. She heard her 
captor ordering her to stop, but he couldn't find her again and she 
was thankful his voice got further behind her. After five minutes of 
weaving in and out of bushes, however, she had to stop. She couldn't 
breathe and her side hurt from running. She hated running in this 
place, but it seemed to be the only way she could go anywhere.