My peaceful darkness is interrupted by a scratching sound near my head. I roll to one side and whispers fill my head. When I try to roll to the other side, and blinding light fills my vision. I kick around, trying to get comfortable again, but my body is already waking up, and sinking back into a deep sleep is impossible now.
Angrily, I wrench open my eyes.
"She's awake!" Someone cries.
"Go and get the King! Go and get the King!" Another cries.
"Would you idiots shut up! She's just wakin' up and she doesn't need you yappin' in her ear!" A friendly voice shoos them off.
Slowly I open my eyes, and I see several peoples standing over me, staring down at me with wide eyes. I recognize Ludo, Hoggle, and Sir Didymus among the group, and slowly, my lips pull up into a smile. Oh, how I've missed their faces.
"Hey Kiddo, how ya feelin'?" Hoggle asks, pushing past a few Goblins to come sit at my side.
"I don't know. I'm a bit confused I guess." I say.
"That is understandable, fair Maiden." Sir Didymus amends.
"Sawah..." Ludo says putting a big hand on my head.
I am still lying on my back, and my body feels like I can't do much more than that. So I just turn my head so that I can get a better look at things.
"What happened?" I ask.
"Beats me," Hoggle shrugs, "One minute I am disappearing in the Library, and the next I am standing at the edge of the Labyrinth, everything in one piece again. It took me all day to get here, and I picked up ol' fuzzball and the knight along the way. Seems no one remembers anything after disappearin'."
"How long have a I been here?" The sun is up, so that is a good thing, but who knows how long I have been in the bed asleep.
"Best we can tell, two days." Hoggle says.
"Two days?! No, that can't be right! I couldn't have been asleep that long!" I protest.
"You were very sick from what we here, my Lady. They haven't been able to wake you up this whole time." Sir Didymus informs me softly, removing his hat like a gentleman.
"What about Toby?" I say suddenly remembering that I had lost him in the cave in, "Is he okay? Where is he?"
I try to rip the blankets from myself so that I can go look for him, and everyone leaps forward to hold me down. My hands are completely numb, so I can't push them back as they force my body to lie back down again.
"Not to worry, Sarah," A new voice pipes in, "Young Toby is quite all right."
The King come around the corner of the doorway with Toby in his arms. When he sees me, Toby's eyes light up and he hops down, running to my side.
"Sarah! You're okay!" He says, launching himself into my arms.
"No, you're okay!" I say, hugging him so tightly that he squeaks.
"Yeah," He says pushing me back, "I fell through the floor, and then I woke up in a pretty garden! There were faeries there, Sarah!"
"You didn't touch them did you?" I ask, horrified, remembering what had happened that last time I tried to get close to a faerie in the Labyrinth.
"No, Mr. Goblin said I wasn't allowed to play with them." He sulks.
"That's good, Toby, you listen to Mr. Goblin and stay away from those faeries. They are mean, and they will bite you." I warn him.
"Okay, Sarah." He says with a big smile.
The King, who had been standing still all along, finally moves a little, only to come a little closer to the bed. He remains silent, and doesn't attempt to come any closer than a couple of feet.
He has changed a lot since the last time I saw him. His hair has grown down his back, probably from now cutting it for three years while being stuck in owl form, and it is completely straight. I'm surprised he kept it like this. His outfit is surprisingly played down as well. He wears a simple white blouse and brown vest and... pants that actually fit him!
He smiles when he notices me staring at him, and I look away, trying not to meet his mismatched eyes.
"Why can't I feel my hands?" I mumble, trying to distract myself.
"Well," The King says strutting forward, "Let's see. First you let them get cut by something in the Labyrinth, and let me remind you that nothing in the Labyrinth is even remotely clean. Second, you failed to clean the wound as you should have before it got infected. And finally, you left it long enough to allow you to develope a fever capable of killing a grown bull."
"That doesn't explain why they are numb..." I point out, unamused.
"That would be because I treated them with large amounts of medicine that you humans require." He says, irritated by my lack of interest.
"Why would you do that?" I ask.
"Because it was easier than having them removed." He says with a toothy grin.
"So now I can't use them to eat, or do anything else until this wears off. And I don't suppose you know how long that is going to be." I give him a pointed look.
"I do not." He informs me.
I turn my attention back to Toby, choosing to ignore him for now. There is no chance that I am in the mood to fight with him right now, and I would love to have good things on my mind now that everything is settled.
"How are you feeling Toby?" I ask.
"Okay, they have good food here. There is lot's of fruit, and the Goblins like to play hide and seek with me." He smiles.
"Hey, we weren't playing! We were trying to hide from you and you kept finding us!" One of the Goblins yells.
"Toby," I say sternly, "Have you been chasing the Goblins around?"
"No, Sarah!" He says innocently.
"Liar!" They all yell.
I just roll my eyes at him. This is why dad won't let him have a cat, and the fact that Merlin would chase it around the house more than Toby ever could. At least here they are keeping him entertained, even if they don't want to.
"My Lady, are you feeling at all famished?" Sir Didymus asks.
"I don't know, I'm not really all that awake just yet." I say.
"Sawah... sad?" Ludo asks, tilting his massive head to one side.
"No, no, it's nothing like that, I'm just-"
"Would you guys give her a break? She just woke up and she still doesn't know what's going on!" Hoggle yells at them.
They all fall to silence and Hoggle glares at them while sitting beside me on the bed. On my other side Toby and one of the Goblins are playing with my hair, which is surely tangled from sleeping on it for two days, not to mention not showering...
"All right, why don't we all leave Ms. William's be while she recovers from her long rest? I'm sure food needs to be prepared and the bathing chambers readied..." The King waves a hand and all the Goblin's take off out the door.
My friends don't move from my side, and the King stops at the door, staring at them expectantly.
"Come, come now, all of you, out." He commands.
"But I don't wanna go..." Toby whines.
"Ludo stay." Ludo says, flopping down onto the bed and nearly throwing me onto the floor.
"I said out! Or so help me I will bog the lot of you!" Hoggle doesn't needs to be told twice, and he grabs Toby to go with him. Ludo doesn't move from my side on the bed, so it is up to Sir Didymus to drag him from the room.
"Come now Sir Ludo," He tells him, "We must let the Lady rest, and in the mean time we shall stand guard for her room!"
Once they are out the door I lay back and close my eyes as it swings shut. This might be weird for me, sleeping in a castle where I had tried so hard to avoid, but I am just so tired right now, that I could sleep anywhere.
Just as I am drifting off, the bed begins to sink to the left of my head. My eyes shoot open at once, glancing to the side.
The King sits comfortable by my pillow, staring down at me with an entertained expression. I suppose I never did see him leave the room with the others, and he moves so quietly that I never heard him coming over to me.
"I thought you said everyone needed to leave so I could rest." I point out, tempted to close my eyes again.
He meets my gaze and refuses to look away.
"I am not the others, and I saw it fit that the two of us speak without the company of all your 'friends'." He says.
"There's nothing to talk about." I say, breaking eye contact to roll over onto my other side so that my back is facing him.
"Then I suppose you do not wish to know how the castle came to be fixed, how your friends came back from the unknown, and how I became my wonderful self again?" He asks, trying to get a reaction out of me.
"Nope." I say, blowing him off.
"Come on, I know that you must be curious...." I can feel him leaning over me.
"Not in the least bit."
"Well, the, maybe I will just have to tell you anyways. After all, it is a fascinating story, and you play a major role in it." He says, leaning back, "You see, after the princesses kiss woke the handsome King from his spell, the King was then able to give his power back to the Labyrinth from which he had stolen. And with that, the Labyrinth was restored to its former glory."
"Very interesting." I say sarcastically.
"Indeed it is, but the story doesn't end there... The King then had more to deal with then just the Labyrinth, because the princess had gone and gotten herself sick, and that needed to be looked after, along with her mischievous brother. So the tired King had to set about finding medicine for the princess, and taking care of the little Toby while his sister slept."
"Cool..."
"Yes, but the princess was very stubborn, and would not thank the King for his help. So the tired King had to go about helping her without so much as a thank you, despite all that he had done for her..."
"Oh would you cut out the dob stories!" I say rolling over to face him, "If anyone should be thanking anyone it should be you. I'm the one who broke the curse and risked my life to do so, so I think if anyone needs to be thanks it is me."
He looks at me, and his smile turns wicked. He leans forward seizing my chin and bringing his lips down onto my forehead. I can only sit in shock as he gives me a soft kiss.
"Thank you very much princess..." He whispers.
I can't help the shiver that passes through my body, and I know he notices when he pulls back and smiles knowingly. Blushing, I turn my back on him. This is so weird, I mean, it was weird when I was 15, but now I am old enough to actually care about being kissed.
"Does that satisfy you?" He chuckles.
"Yes." I say, my face completely red.
"Good, then perhaps you could be kind enough to thank me as well? After all, I did go through a lot of trouble to make sure your brother did not remember anything short of his falling through the floor. That would have been rather traumatic." He says.
I think about it for a moment, and sigh. He has a point. After the spell was broken, he didn't have to help Toby or I, nor did he have any reason to, and yet he healed me and helped fix up Toby so that he won't have to remember anything.
"Thank you." I say, turning over for a moment so that I can look him in the eye.
He smiles a genuine smile, and stands from the bed.
"Well, I suppose now I should let you get some more rest. I will bring you back some food in the next hour, and in that time hopefully I will have enough peace and quiet to bring myself back to normal. Did you know you can't groom yourself as an owl? Such an inconvenience..." He shakes his head as he walks towards the door.
Before he leaves he gives me a quick wink, and shuts the door behind him. I throw the covers back using my arms and stand out of bed on wobbly legs. I notice that I have been dressed in a green dress that dangles around my ankles. I don't even want to think about who it was the got me dressed...
Instead I just walk over to the mirror and focus on fixing my hair. The King will send someone with food soon, and hopefully I will be able to eat it myself...