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Chapter Text

CHAPTER 1

‘She left. Damn it! How could she leave? How could it have all gone so wrong? She slipped right through my fingers!’ Jareth kept thinking to himself these things as he flew back through the barrier to his realm. His wings flapped as he came through the window and landed in his throne room. He suddenly turned back into his fae form. Jareth sat down on his throne stretched out, brooding and pondered over the entire day.

He tried to figure out where he went wrong. He thought, ‘It took almost two years to get her here and I waited for fifteen years on top of that. Sarah now had a thirteen-year protection on her. I hope she will mature and age well during this time. She will be twenty-eight by the time the protection the Labyrinth placed on her from her win will be lifted. She had been given Labyrinthian and Wish magic now. By her barely touching my crystal at the end gave her the wish magic when it popped on her fingertips. That was my magic. Sarah earned the Labyrinthian magic from winning her run and being the only human to achieve such a feat in all the history of the Labyrinth for several millennia. The creative little minx hybrid. Her abilities were not anticipated at all. I tried to stop her at the end to give her the crystal with the wish magic. I thought perhaps she would make a wish sometime and then I can find a loophole to approach her sooner before the thirteen-year protection would expire. Luckily she got a brief touch, and my crystal made contact at the end before she vanished back to her mundane human life. I wanted her to stay here and let me mold her into a woman that would suit my needs and eventually my desires. I could quench my sexual impulses on her young, supple body. Hmmm… I need heirs, and she is an intelligent child of prophecy that is perfect for my needs. Now, all I can do is sit, wait, and watch her until then.’

Jareth was not the most patient of his fae kind but had no choice this time in dealing with Sarah.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Sarah had returned from the Labyrinth, she had become more focused on her life. Sarah grew up, basically becoming an overachiever. The encounter with the Labyrinth changed something inside, and she found that it did come with its advantages. It was like the floodgates opened and her learning abilities and retention exploded. Over the next few years she had buckled down in school, got along with her parents better, and took care of her brother without complaining so much. Her mother had completely dropped off, never called, visited, or called her anymore eventually by the time she was seventeen. Even birthdays and holidays were not recognized by her mother anymore. The last time she heard from her, her mother said to grow up and stop taking everything so personally. So, Sarah became impersonal when she thought about her mother. It was a self-defense kneejerk reaction to her mother's indifference.

She continued on living her life, graduating high school with flying colors ahead of time with honors. It was as if something changed or was stimulated after her Labyrinth run. Whatever it was, it made amazing and extraordinary changes in Sarah.

Sarah’s father, Robert Williams, had her tested and found that she had extremely high test scores from several different IQ tests. Her father wanted her to go into college and study law. Her SAT scores and IQ testing were much higher than the 98th percentile. Sarah qualified for numerous grants, loans, scholarships and specialty programs at MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and many more of the top flight schools in the country.

She found herself living in her apartment after her great-grandmother on her father's side of the family died. Her great-grandma left her an inheritance at eighteen because she was always so good to her and thought of her on birthdays and holidays. Sarah stayed with her a lot, helping her when she could, until she passed away. She had bonded to her grandmother as the only person who understood her. Her Irish great-grandmother was the one who would tell her Celtic fairy tales and folk stories passed down from generations from her rich history from Ireland in her father’s lineage. Sarah loved her stories about the Tuatha Dé Danann because it gave her insight on Jareth's people, the fae.

She moved to Oxford, England to study at Oxford University. She started studying for four specialized master degrees in Celtic Studies, Archeology, History, and Classics. They were all focused on the Celtic world in culture, history, languages, and literature. Sarah had done fieldwork such as archaeological digs, surveys, excavations, analysis and research. She was doing impressive work and had come to be recognized by the major Universities in the British Isles as an authority at being included in new discoveries. Her research papers and thesis/dissertations for her degrees were getting published. Sarah graduated at the age of twenty-five with perfect 4.0 and 4.2 GPAs on all of her master's degrees. Her father told her congratulations and good luck finding a job in her field. She decided not to tell him of the six job offers she had already received because he was being so negative because she didn't like the thought of being a lawyer instead.

Sarah had job offers before she even graduated from universities such as Glasgow, York, Cardiff, Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin. She took a job at Cambridge and dove in deep. She was one of the top research archeologists on staff. Sarah gave monthly lectures, went on all the new digs, and had complete access to all artifacts. She was quickly becoming an authority in her field at twenty-eight years old and consulted with the older big shots renowned in the field of historical British Isles and legends there by association.

Being she was so busy, dating young men was never a high priority on her list of things to do. Although her colleagues all noticed every day that she was an incredible beauty. She had been asked out a lot, but she was never interested in a relationship. When she was younger and lost her virginity, the young man became obsessed with her to the point of stalking her. Moving to the UK served her well to get away from that situation and more. She was glad to have left the United States because of her father. He was always forcing her to go out with his partners or their sons before she immersed herself into her first two years of school at Harvard, from seventeen to eighteen years old. Sarah's father pushed her away, eventually because she wouldn't take up law and financially didn't need him anymore. The inheritance Robert thought pettily should have been his from his own mother instead of going to Sarah exclusively. To say Robert was not a greedy lawyer would be a lie. It was like he just lost all interest in her all together once Sarah moved away to the UK. He had wanted her to date all those young men to benefit himself in his manipulations to climb up the ladder of success to his advantage, even if he used his daughter to get there by association. Her lack of cooperation was a disappointment to him, instead of seeing her self achievements to be proud of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One day in her twenty eighth year, out of the blue, her mother called her. Linda wanted her to come to a Hollywood red carpet Golden Globe Awards event because she was nominated.

Sarah wondered why her mother would contact her after eleven years of complete radio silence and asked her something like this so blatantly out of nowhere. Sarah asked curiously and dryly, “So tell me mother, why would you call me after eleven years and want me to come all the way to California to see you get an award, because it's not like it's your first award anyway?” Sarah treated her “at arms length”, because she had her mother's type ‘A’ narcissistic personality down and never would trust her again.

Her arrogant mother said, “Because I want my daughter there to watch and to have others see my successful, beautiful daughter at my side supporting me.”

Sarah asked skeptically and curiously, “Do you have a role coming up for a motherly character that you want?”

Linda happily said excitedly, “Why yes, how did you know? It's going to be spectacular. I'm sure I will get it when the world gets one good look at you and how successful you turned out.” She rolled her eyes at her egotistical mother's attitude and intentions to use her own personal success and thought it so very typical to do so. Linda was using her like an abandoned resource to recover and further her career.

Her mother was so very transparent and Sarah said indifferently, “Sorry mother, I am not available as one of the top archaeologists in the UK. My time is demanding on current projects, research, and artifact recovery. Frankly, I just don't have the time to be indisposed, drop everything in my life, and fly halfway across the world to watch you get your award. Good luck with that. I'll talk to you in another eleven years. Goodbye.” She hung up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linda looked at the phone and blinked in shock and surprise that she was so blatantly dismissed by Sarah after all this time. She turned to the other person in the room and said, “Well, that didn't work whatsoever. I told you I hadn't talked to her in over eleven years since she was seventeen. Sarah basically blew me off. She said she was too busy to take the time. Can you believe it? I was sure she would like the attention from me and the Hollywood elite.” She was standing in an opulent penthouse loft decorated in complete elegance and designer taste.

A tall lean man in a gray tailored three-piece suit and a tie with a fedora hat on and an overcoat over his arm was standing in the vestibule by the lift. His tailored suit was double-breasted, with broad shoulders and a draped cut that offered comfort and a distinguished look of the 1930’s to 1940’s. His mismatched eyes under the brim of his hat peered at her in skepticism and his blonde hair was showing in a ponytail down his back. Also, his subtly pointed fae featured ears, sculpted slanted brows, and sharp facial features were shown from under that hat in shadow.

He said with a smirk on his handsome face coaxingly, “We made a deal, you and I, Linda and you have yet to pay up after twenty-eight years. I expected you to deliver her to me yourself before I had to do an intervention even back then. You chose to push your daughter away for your career and run off with another human leaving her in your husband's full custody. It made it hard for me to get at her because of that and the laws of the fae and humans were restricting. You were the fae criminal sent here to the Aboveground all alone, stripped of power, and altered to look like the humans. All for trying to murder your brother over inheritance of your father's estate in the Pixie Kingdom, favoring him as the male heir over you. The deal was that I get you your career started in this realm to be famous with my magic, give you a dash of luck, and you deliver your daughter to me after her thirteenth year birthday occurred. You told me to go get her in the beginning from your ex-husband when she turned thirteen. I did that by putting that book on the bench where she would play in the park to lure her to make a wish and patiently waited two whole years for her to come to the Underground. I had to wait until she was finally fed up with your ex-husband who got his ex-secretary, then new wife pregnant. It took almost a year after the birth for Sarah to crack under the pressure.”

Linda walked over and poured herself a glass of wine from the crystal carafe on the bar in the corner of the room. She said to him, sighing arrogantly, “Yes, it took you two years before you got her in your clutches and she outsmarted you at every turn in your Labyrinth. That was not my fault that you could not trap her within the rules. You knew she would be beautiful and so very brilliant being half fae, and you were the one to underestimate her as a human child to not be that brilliant. Not everyone in the Aboveground has a daughter with four specialized top university master's degrees either. My daughter has become, at such an early age, a resource to the universities in the British Isles in Historical Archeology. The detective I hired said she was at the top of her field and an authority on all recovered artifacts in league with those old duffers in the field, or some such nonsense. He said she has discovered artifacts almost as far back as the time when our people came here to this world almost four thousand years ago. It is not my problem that she won your little game, Jareth, and had Labyrinth protection for thirteen years afterwards. Your Labyrinth was the problem back then until now, stopping you, not me. If her protection expires at midnight in a week, then go get her yourself. She's twenty-eight years old now, and I'm sure you can handle that. I have never inhibited you from taking her, Jareth, though I didn't realize that signing the full custody to Robert made a difference in your pursuits against abduction back then. I only wanted for him to take her off my hands legally is all I was doing.”

Jareth was frustrated with Linda, the Labyrinth and all of the obstacles he faced trying to acquire his payment for the one favor he gave Linda in exchange for her priceless daughter over the last twenty-eight years.

He narrowed his eyes and said dryly, “If I don't get her this time into the Underground and exposed to the raw magic keeping her there, I will return and remove everything I have given you and watch your life completely unravel before your eyes.” Her head snapped up in fear and looked directly into his eyes knowing he was not making an idle threat but a promise. He disappeared from the loft in a swirl of fine glitter that dissipated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sarah was foretold to Jareth by the Labyrinth when the child was to be born. It said that she would be his equal in strength and greatness, but cryptically like a prophecy always is.

The Labyrinth had told him, “One will come from the fae genetic bloodline that walks with one foot in each world. She will be of the fae on the maternal line, and of the Nuada lineage blended in the human bloodlines on the other. This child will be born of extremely high intelligence, abilities, and gifts blessed by the gods of the Tuatha Dé Danann and Danu herself. In the realm of the humans in the year 1971, by a fae mother and human father with traces of the extinct fae line, this child of power will save the fae race of people giving them back what they lack now. He who stands by her side will powerfully rule this realm with her equally.”

Jareth had decided that he was going to be that man because not only was he the Goblin King, but also the High Prince and only son of the current High King Jeor. He refused to allow anyone else to usurp his rightful ascension to the High Throne after his father. That was when he had gone in search of all of the fae sentenced for crimes and sent to the Aboveground. He looked for those who were female and had his goblins tracking them. Only three fae females had given birth to children at the time within the same year. Only one had a daughter. The child had the very dark hair of the father and the vivid green eyes of the fae mother as a hybrid. All of the fae Aboveground were criminals banished there with the altered looks of the humans. That was when he met Linda Williams.

Linda married a lawyer for the money and social standing it could give her. She never thought she would get knocked up, as the humans say. She was surprised, but her new husband couldn't keep himself off of her body once she had sex with him. Robert was enamored as in the fae bond with humans in the Underground where they were thralls, and would be emotionally and physically addicted to the fae once having sex with them. It was how the fae controlled them in the Underground.

Even though after Linda went through the alteration there seemed to be a residual enamouring effect that was still there but not as strong and permanently overwhelmingly bonding as it is in the Underground. Being the fae were naturally sexual beings, it was in their nature to be highly sexual. Still, it was an unwanted pregnancy, but she felt stuck to stay to raise Sarah until she was approximately ten years old. Then, she found another sexually attractive human that was an up-and-coming actor, Jeremy. Linda began an affair with him behind her husband's back.

There were not that many humans in the Underground, and they mostly all lived in the Goblin Kingdom. The humans that were children that the Goblin King changed and were completely fae, unless they were defective by severe illness, severe injury, or birth defects. They would then become baby goblins. The fae changelings from the Goblin King’s human children were well sought out for spouses by the fae aristocracy because they had less fertility issues. The few humans that were obtained outside of the Goblin Kingdom were slaves and breeding stock to the royal or noble aristocracy fae that possessed them. It rarely occurred with the common fae people and business owners in the four other kingdoms. The aristocracy used humans as an elite indulgence. It occurred less frequently in the Goblin Kingdom among the lords and ladies. Most humans lived among the population of the Underground inhabitants in the Goblin Kingdom because of the protection and freedom afforded them with some rights only within its borders. The Goblin Kingdom was a mix of fae, elven, goblin, and humans with a stray dwarf or leprechaun. The rest of the sentient beings and creatures were randomly mixed in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jareth had returned to the Underground reluctantly after his encounter with Linda. He couldn't go back up to the Aboveground until he got another wish-away. He was stuck until the week expired and a wish-away would come, whichever was first. So he sat tapping his riding crop on his boot top stretched out on his throne, thinking hard back in his Fae/Gothic/ Victorian/Georgian style clothing once again.

Jareth thought pensively, ‘I have her room all ready adjoining mine, all her clothes in the armoire ready to go and servants to take care of her needs. So I am ready on my end. Once I get her here, I'll need to enamor her and make the bond before the Underground can change her completely because then she will be under my control and enthralled already.’

He felt the Labyrinth reaching out for him in his mind. It asked in a monotone way of speaking, “My king, you are troubled?”

He said back in his mind through the connection, ‘I am contemplating my retrieval of Sarah.’

The Labyrinth said softly, “My Champion is returning to the Underground? Her protection has not expired yet, my King.”

Jareth said confidently, ‘I am going to make my claim after the expiration and a wish-away comes. I will then make the fae bond with her. I'm sure she will fight me, but it is necessary.’

The Labyrinth stated, “That will not work, my King. The bond will not take to her being. She is different and though she appears human, is not human. She does not know that she will change to full fae once exposed to enough magic. My Champion was bitten prior to her run by a fairy queen that used her incisors, injected her with venom and chose her. Now she possesses fairy venom laying dormant in her blood along with her fae blood. It will absorb the magic once exposed, cause the change to develop at a faster pace, and be a most powerful transformation. Her capacity for magical storage will expand. Making her a more powerful magical being in the Underground.”

He asked curiously, ‘So what you are saying is as long as Sarah remains in the Underground with the venom in her blood, she will change faster. Once the magic reaches maximum absorption in her blood even after the change to fae it will then cause a power alteration?’

The Labyrinth said monotone, “Yes, my King. Her power behind her magic will increase significantly.”

He asked frowning, ‘How can I control her if she is that powerful if I cannot enamor her?’

The Labyrinth said, “You cannot and will not interfere with my Champion. Her path is before her, and you will not be able to change that, or I will interfere myself. I will shield her from you until she can stand on her own if you try to interfere with her development. She is my champion and always will be.”

Jareth was shocked and surprised at the Labyrinth's reaction to him trying to control Sarah. He said puzzled, ‘What do you mean? You would bring her here behind my back and not give me access to her?! I am your King! Your fealty is to me!’

The Labyrinth said sternly, “My King, my fealty is equally to both of you. At this moment in time, she is also a child of prophecy. I will protect her even from you if you give me cause, until she has achieved her natural development into what she is destined to become. You will not threaten or dominate my Champion, my King. Her fealty is already mine, not yours or to the Goblin Kingdom. It has always been to me exclusively from the moment she beat the game as a runner. You were not aware of this because nobody has ever beaten the game before and she is deemed worthy with all of the requirements.”

He said frowning, ‘How am I supposed to get her to be mine then?’

The Labyrinth said monotone, “You will have to set your entitlement aside when dealing with her, or she will come to hate you and be with another to rule the realm.” That did it. He got angry about not being the heir.

He yelled angrily, ‘I am the lawful heir! Sarah will not come; step over me to be with another and usurp the High Throne from me?!’

The Labyrinth said stoically, “Then you must change and try harder than you ever have had to in order to woo and fall in love with her. You were infatuated with her during her run as a child and tempted by her before. Now, she has grown into an exquisitely intelligent, beautiful adult woman. You know how to temper yourself, my king, and use your charm and wiles to hopefully win her heart. You must build trust with her and be able to hold on to it without the sexual indulgences you have been used to. She is not a naive child any longer, or a human woman you can manipulate. She will be able to see through any deception or lack of loyalty to her own disappointment, if you are not careful to abide honestly and set your manipulations aside. All the while, you must earn the right to be loved in return and be at her side. That is how, my king.” Jareth frowned and had to go think of a different strategy to approach this and get what he wanted most of all: her body, heart, and some control in his favor. All in that order.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 2

A week had passed, and it was during the day time, but on the eve of Beltane. Beltane was the day when the thinning of the veil between their worlds occurred and was Sarah's anniversary date from her Underground experience. Sarah's thirteenth-year anniversary had finally arrived from leaving the Underground.

It was the morning on May 1st, 1999, and Sarah was digging in a new place that was exposed in a farmer's field southeast outside of the city of Limerick in the county of Limerick, Ireland. An accidental sink hole had opened up to a cavernous set of catacomb mazes, thereby exposing a network of ancient tunnels found below in the ground. The complex was huge and being explored to where they would lead along with the clearing of rubble and shoring up the structure by engineers for safety. The archeologists were working together with the researchers in cooperation with the engineers to secure the site. They were trying to complete the work in the exposed rubble before moving inside the tunnels, giving the engineers time to secure areas. Sarah thought the entire network of tunnels had to lead out to somewhere on the surface.

She had already been through all of the registrations and permits between the country, county, city, and liaisoning with the universities. The site was secured with guards, and she was there making sure everything was documented, recorded, and photographed properly before removal to a university laboratories. The researchers, archaeologists, engineers, and geologists were all over the site, excited at the new dig site and the discoveries. Artifacts were being discovered daily and recorded. She had it all organized and going like clockwork, impressing her superiors with her professionalism.

One of the engineers came up to Sarah as she was down in the dirt, brushing layers of dirt carefully to not disturb anything worth discovering. She was in her digging clothes and had her long dark hair braided down her back.

The engineer asked, “Miss Williams, can you come see the tunnel that we just opened up to a new room?” Sarah looked up at him with a smudge on her cheek of dirt. The man thought she was the prettiest woman he ever saw with her green, mesmerizing eyes. She nodded, stood up to brush off the dirt, told the archeologist next to her to finish up the recovery of her dig area and grabbed her backpack full of tools; she called her survival kit, with her camera putting it around her neck.

They went down a steeply constructed wooden planked incline to enter a dark tunnel under the farmland. They had set up LED lights ever so often to illuminate the way. He led her deep inside the bowels of the maze down to the left, winding around, then to the right with a flashlight. It was muddy, and it had rained for three days a few days ago, so everyone was in their knee-thigh rubber boots. They came to the inaccessible deep area that was opened up now. She entered a room, as the engineer was inspecting a few areas in the vicinity. Sarah found that it was so fascinating and compelling. She took out her headlight and strapped it around her forehead. She then started aiming her head flashlight at the relief sculptures, or relief carvings of sculptures carved straight into the rock walls. It was definitely a Neolithic part of the Stone Age with ancient chisel marks. It could definitely take the dating back to anywhere from three to seven thousand years ago. She began snapping pictures of everything and then getting an even closer look at the tri-spirals and the typical carvings of the birth and death cycles of life similar to Newgrange Mound and most locations across all of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and all of Ireland. There was one peculiar relief she took a picture of on the one stone wall. It had eight triangles around a spiral pointing outwards like compass points, but in the spiral’s center, there was a hole filled with dirt that could have been overlooked as a stone divot. Sarah took off her camera and put on the lens cap. She got up close looking at it, started taking a tool to pick out the loose dirt packed in the little hole. She closed her eyes and blew until she had gotten most of the dirt out of it.

The engineer yelled from outside of the room, “We found this area quite stable, Miss Williams! How are you doing over there?!”

She was smiling big and said, “I'm doing great! It's fascinating to see such incredible picture reliefs!”

She looked all around and up close to the compass-point-looking design. She found a hole in the wall with hard packed dirt filling the hole that turned out to be the size of your fist. Curiously, Sarah started picking out the dirt. Inside there she found a blue glowing object surrounded in dirt. She was fascinated with feeling a strange tingle coming off of it and knew it was buried in the hole deliberately. It was almost like the pocket in the stone wall was chiseled out on purpose for this very object to be stored here. It was a perfectly round ball of some sort that was slightly smaller in diameter and circumference than the size of a baseball. Not only that, but it felt odd in her hand, almost vibrating as soon as she touched the skin on the palm of her hand. The blue ball was fascinating to her. It glowed in a neon blue iridescence and had moving swirling patterns on the surface when you turned it, causing the swirling pattern to flow in different directions almost like a liquid look. She put it in a cloth bag, carefully wrapping it up. She was mesmerized by it because she could feel a powerful sensation coming from it as soon as it made contact with her skin. Furthermore, she put it in her backpack for safe keeping, zipping up the pocket and putting the backpack back on herself. Something was very strange about that ball, and she didn't want the scientists in this world finding a magically infused object like that. It could throw off the balance of power in her world if not careful. She needed to see if she could figure out what it was for.

She turned back to the compass point relief on the wall with the small hole in the center. Sarah had cut her index finger earlier outside in the debris they were searching through on a pottery shard, though not thinking, she stuck it in the hole. It was about two inches deep, taking her finger up to the second knuckle.

Suddenly, the wall completely evaporated and disappeared into a black void and she lost her balance at the sudden loss of stability. She fell straight through the stone threshold and kept falling forward through into the pitch-black nothingness. She cut a loud blood-cuddling scream as she fell through, dropping her camera at the threshold before she crossed over into complete blackness.

In the other room the engineer got startled, ran into the room hearing her scream, and all he could find was her camera. The beautiful woman was completely gone. The engineer couldn't for the life of himself figure where she could have gone in the solid small stone room. He shouted out for her, then panicked. Nothing. Several others came running as he was shouting. Nobody could understand how she could just up and disappear like that in a sealed stone room. The authorities were contacted, and an investigation turned up nothing whatsoever. The universities were confused and upset about losing such a brilliant lead historical archeologist in the field, but under such eerily, mysteriously strange, and unusual circumstances. It was an unsolved peculiar mystery even years later, as time would pass in the Aboveground.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sarah took a deep, sharp breath, closed her eyes, terrified holding it. She kept falling forward with a rush of wind tumbling her until she tried to right herself, falling forward. It had her falling so fast she couldn't open her eyes for a few moments, even if she wanted to. A fleeting thought passed in her mind, ‘There are no Helping Hands to catch me this time in an endless abyss. Funny, how would that come to mind at a time like this?’

She was afraid that she would throw up from the rush of free falling like this endlessly into an abyss. She opened her eyes and saw there were no colors or light in her vision, but just pure black darkness rotating her around and around. It was going on for eternity.

Her descent downward was endless as she fell head over heels and tried to straighten out through the endless dark void. Her biggest fear in her mind she asked herself was, ‘How hard will the landing be, and would I splatter like a bug in the windshield of a car doing a thousand miles an hour?’

Inside her mind she heard a voice saying in response softly, ‘Calm yourself, Sarah Williams, my Champion, you are traveling through a portal crossing time and ethereal space. Follow your path, Labyrinth Champion, for the Underground entrance awaits you to find your destiny, child.’

Sarah didn't know what to think, when the words finally hit her full force in complete panic, ‘Holy Shit! I'm going back to the Underground! No! No! Noooo! I can't go back there! My life! I want to go back to my life! My job! I love my job! Please no!’ She started screaming again in frustration and fear as she fell into an even bigger panic. Her arms and legs were flapping, running and moving in midair like a cartoon character wanting to retreat after falling off a cliff and wanting to go backwards in a mid air free fall.

The voice in her head said, ‘Calm yourself, I said, my Champion. Take a deep breath. There is no going back. You found the portal entrance all on your own. It is your fate to return to the Underground on the day of Beltane. The exact thirteen-year anniversary date of your run. You are and always have been connected to the Underground.’

She thought inside her mind, terrified and wanting to cry in desperation, ‘Who are you? I'm so scared to go to the Underground, and what of this void and the landing? Will I die landing on impact? Please, I beg you not to take me back there. I'm afraid. He tried to trick me into staying as his slave. I am afraid he will find another way to try to manipulate me to be under his control.’

The voice said softly to her in reply, ‘You are safe, my champion. I will not let harm befall you in your final destination once you enter the threshold. You possess the “Eochair Chumhacht Ársa” (Key Of Ancient Power) now, and your fate is set. Nothing will harm you because the gods will not permit it. If you need to talk to me Sarah Williams, call my name “Gaia” in your mind, and I will then always hear your thoughts that come to me. I can explain and help you on this journey you must take. We are connected here and you are my Champion Of The Labyrinth. I will be your guide, Gaia, the Labyrinth and the Goddess of Magic.’

Sarah thought, ‘Oh dear God, I must have taken a crazy pill. This can't be happening again. I thought I escaped this place forever and paid my due.’ In her memory she remembered Jareth, the Goblin King saying, ‘It’s only forever, not long at all.’

Suddenly, Sarah saw a pinprick point of dim light in the darkness, like a star point rushing towards her. She closed her eyes before she fell through the hole and hit the ground. She only bounced once, face down, thankfully with her head turned to the side, or she would have broken her nose. It was like she fell from ten to eight feet to the ground with a great thud. It still hurts. Sarah instantly was groaning and gasping desperately for air, as the wind had been painfully knocked out of her lungs. She just laid there with her eyes closed on the hard packed dirt trying to refill her lungs with air in her desperation.

Once her mind calmed down and the panic subsided from the whole experience of falling out of nowhere, she was breathing normally once again. The scent of damp earth with ripening mushrooms hit her hard in its scent of musty mildew wherever she was. She just laid there still for a long while and was thinking while organizing her thoughts. Likewise, she convinced herself that this time everything would be different and a far cry from believing things were like a fantasy fairytale of her teenage memories. This time it was going to be so very real.

Sarah knew she wasn't a petulant teenager anymore wishing away her baby brother, but a full grown, mature, educated woman still haunted by the memory of that wish. The apprehension she felt wasn't from the book she found, the creatures and beings she met along the way, or even the time she spent in the Underground running the labyrinth, changing her life for the better. She knew it was a hard lesson of life letting go of her past to move forward and grow up while learning insightful information about herself from the complete experience. She truly did have it guide her because it was so profound and affected her whole direction of her life. The apprehension was from the reality of knowing that magic exists and the people in the Underground possessed that control and controlled it like Jareth the Goblin King. She wasn't stupid or naive enough to know that he would be the only one in the Underground to have such abilities, and if he did along with others, she would be at their mercy. He also may want payback or to possess her. She definitely wasn't looking forward to any of that.

While she was in her own world of the nonmagical humans, she realized the weight of responsibility it carried with the knowledge that magic really did exist elsewhere. Nobody would have believed her if she talked about it, first. That isolated her for a time in the beginning. In her life’s reality, Toby had been ripped away from her life like carving out a piece of her heart, as one would a chunk of roasted turkey on the dinner table. She lost him long ago through the manipulations of her stepmother, Karen, over the inheritance she received and how she should have given it all to her father. Then, her father causes an even bigger rift between them because of her not conforming to his every demand of trying to get her to date his partners or their sons at his whim. He basically wanted her to “put out” and sleep with them if it boosted his agenda. He didn't deny it when she confronted him about it one night after one particularily bad date, where she damn near got raped and threatened. She luckily got away from the guy after breaking his nose and fractured his arm in defensive Krav Maga training moves she learned at seventeen years old. Boy, was she glad that she took those classes too.

This time she wouldn't be here to rescue Toby, but she was here to follow her path and destiny, so the voice said in her mind. This time was going to be different, good, bad or both; she just knew it.

She rolled over on to her side with her backpack still on, while groaning and knowing she would have several bruises from that full frontal landing. Sarah's headlamp was still on, seeing a cave interior. She sat up straighter slowly and eventually got to her feet with a loud groan.

She asked, out loud upset, “Why can't I go back to my home?”

A voice in her head replied, ‘Because you are exposed to raw magic the moment of your fell through the portal. By sticking your finger with traces of blood inside the keyhole of the portal lock, it opened it for you because of your blood. You are a fae hybrid that appears as a human. Your mother was fae sent above to serve her criminal banishment for committing a crime in the Underground and altered to look human. Your father was human, but his line carries the remnant traces of the fae tribe of Nuada that stayed behind with the humans above. They were the only fae with their dark hair that are now extinct. You will become a full fae as soon as the raw magic has built up enough being absorbed inside your being from exposure.’ Sarah was shocked about that bit of information, to say the least. Her mother being a fae did not surprise her because she actually fit the description and was very arrogant, manipulative, and narcissistic.

Sarah asked out loud, curiously looking around in the cave with no sign of a presence, “If I am to be fully fae, how am I to protect myself here now until then? I have no weapons on me, money or fae magical knowledge, only common sense and defensive survival training from my world. I know how to use a bow, knives, hand to hand combat, and can get by with a sword if I have to. Without money I can't get one though.”

The voice said in her mind answering her, ‘Use your wish magic and it will bond to your being. But be cautious and responsible of the wording when you wish to not make mistakes, or the results could be disastrous. Be very specific. The gods will provide for you on your path also. Have faith, Sarah Williams,; the gods placed you here and will make sure you find your way.’

Sarah thought about a quote she once read by V. E. Schwab, that said: ‘The old gods may be great, but they are neither kind nor merciful. They are fickle, unsteady as moonlight on water, or shadows in a storm. If you insist on calling them, take heed to be careful what you ask for and be willing to pay the price. And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark.’ She definitely wasn't sure if she could be safe with the old gods, but they brought her back here and what choice did she really have.

She said in sheer surprise, “I have the ability to perform wish magic? That's incredible. I have not made a wish since being here. I was afraid to ever make a wish and complicate my life like that ever again, so I avoided that word. My mirror never worked after that one night also. I never saw my friend Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo again.”

The voice said with a hint of pity, ‘My Champion, I must tell you something that may upset you. The three had never existed except through your run. They were part of your imagination and personal magic. You were part fae within your being and had a need. The magic had interacted with you during your run because your mind created and needed them. Your allies were your manifestation of the need for companionship, assistance through the run trying to counter and work against the direct magic being used against you on a subconscious level. It was really quite brilliant how you were able to do that without your own knowledge of the ability to manifest in a self contained magically charged environment.’

She said confused and frowning, “But they said if I ever needed them to call them and they acted like they knew the Goblin King. I tried for days to call them in that mirror and they never answered which upset me. Now you say they weren't real?” It upset her and her heart was aching for never being able to ever see her fruends again.

The voice answered, ‘Only through the magic did they exist for you. You are special, my Champion, because your magic was laying dormant inside but still created for you what you needed during the game. My king, Jareth, had to interact with them because they were part of the game from your side of it in your mind. He had to play within the rules and they were a part of it. He tried to counter manipulate the one called Hoggle to send you back to the beginning, but even as it worked to a degree through King Jareth's intimidation, your magic he found, was stronger in bonding them to you.’

Sarah asked frowning, “Jareth was real?”

The voice said, ‘Yes, my Champion. My king is very real.’

She asked curiously, “Where did that book come from on the bench in the park then? He was the owl watching me during the day in that park too, right? I thought perhaps something was wrong with the owl being sick to be acting that way. I ask because I remember him turning into the owl at the end when I was sent home and refused his offer. From time to time over the years I felt like I was being watched, was I?”

The voice said, ‘My king put the book there for you to find. He has been captivated by you even back then, before your run. Yes, he was an owl in the daylight, and yes he has been watching you over the years from time to time.’

She growled, saying, “Yeah, usually while I was bathing and undressing mostly. That's going to stop right now. I ‘wish’ for no fae to be able to watch me or track me through their magic.”

Sarah then said, “I ‘wish’ for a bag of the best currency in the Underground.” A black large leather bag appeared at her feet. She crouched down and opened it.

She exclaimed, “Wow! Gold coins.”

The voice said, ‘Yes, that is the currency here, gold, silver, and copper coin in increments of ten to one with gold being the highest. You must avoid the fae sexually until you change. They may choose to try to enamor you to them as a thrall with the fae bond through willing or forced sex with them. The fae are highly sexual and sometimes force humans to have sex with them because it is how they accomplish the possession of servants and slaves. It is a common practice for the royal and noble fae to do this. The common fae are not as prone to do it, except for the highwaymen and bounty hunters that sell them to the auction houses. In the Goblin Kingdom, it occurs less often among the royalty and noble titled fae, mostly. There are no suction houses in the Goblin Kingdom either. My king had them abolished long ago. You are in the Elven Kingdom, where it doesn't occur much at all, but the bounty hunters are everywhere looking for humans to make a profit selling them. The fae bond will not work on you. Once you change it will no longer be an issue, my Champion.’

Sarah thought, ‘That is so crass and craven of the aristocratic fae to enslave humans like that here. Is it only the fae who uses humans like that?’

The voice said, ‘Sorry to say, no. The centaurs and orcs in the Shadow Kingdom use them for breeding stock and labor. It is another side of the trade that is even worse. The most heinous is the Unseelie use them for torture, sex, slavery, and food in some cases.’

Sarah was surprised that the entity heard her musings. She shuddered at that thought and figured that it just seemed typical that she ended up in a world where humans were treated like a lower lifeform. She took off her backpack and started looking for a nylon blue bag and put the whole bag inside of it, pulling the drawstring.

Suddenly, a beautiful emerald locket 75x50 mm (3x2 inches) silver oval appeared floating on a long chain in front of her face. Sarah took it and noticed that it had a large 25x18 mm emerald cut green emerald set in the center with fancy vine leafy scrollwork going around the entire cover. A second long chain had a tiny silver key on it.

The voice said, ‘This is an infinite space item, inside the door is a void that will hold any amount you wish to put inside of it. Wear it and keep your valuables safe while traveling, my Champion.’ She took both and put them around her neck.

She said, smiling and looking at how beautiful it was hanging between her breasts over her breastbone, “Thank you… Gaia.”

The voice said, ‘If you need me just say my name, Gaia, inside your mind. We have a bonded connection and I will hear you. I will leave you to start your journey. Goodbye, my brave Champion.’

Sarah said looking around, “Goodbye and thank you, Gaia.” She took a look around inside the cave. She started looking for an exit.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 3

Sarah was in a cave that was all cobwebs, mildew, and hard packed dirt with water trickling from somewhere. She looked with her head lamp still strapped to her forehead at the necklace details around her neck better. It looked very old and had delicate Celtic scrollwork with runes on it. She noticed that in the back was a hinged door with a tiny little keyhole. Sarah took the key and unlocked the door. She saw a black oval hole about 70x45 mm. She put her finger through it, and it didn't come out the other side but disappeared completely. She locked it back up and put it inside her shirt.

The ceiling looked low ahead, so she stooped over a bit and started walking. Sarah was ducking as she went to try and find an exit, while brushing away cobwebs. She was wandering through the maze of tunnels, which felt like hours. She turned a corner and went into a room of pure dusty gold. Sarah could stand up in this room and looked around in complete shock. There were silver kettles, gold pots and very old wooden crates filled with gold and silver coins, nuggets, ore, dust and four huge wooden sea chests filled with tons of cut gemstones. It was all thickly coated in dust and dirt.

She sat on a stack of gold pots and thought about what the voice, Gaia, said to her. The voice of Gaia said she had the gift of wishes and warned her to be careful of the wording, so she would need to count all of the gold coins in this process. She stood up and opened up the door on her locket. Sarah turned the locket over in her hand and nothing came out of it, so it must be empty. She took it off, placed it in the center of the floor and wished all of the gold and silver nuggets, ore, and dust into her locket, even if it needed to be broken down to fit.

The dust kicked up; she covered her mouth and nose with her long-sleeve shirt while squinting. The objects in the room started shifting, and the nuggets flew up into the air, forming a stream emptying of the vessels it was stored in. It went straight into her door in the medallion. Gold and silver ore rocks started to break loudly with a popping and snapping noise. It all was flowing in a steady stream in midair into the medallion along with the gold and silver dust. Sarah was stunned watching the magic do all of this.

After a long while, it finally ended and Sarah looked in the empty pots and chests, wishing all of the cut gemstones into the medallion next. Chest lids flew open, banging loudly, and tons of cut gemstones flew into the necklace. Once that was finished, she incrementally wished coins by the ten thousands down to ones. She collected 137,523 gold and 27,469 silver coins. Sarah filled her front pockets of her jeans with gold coins in each pocket, then emptied the bag she wished for into the locket. She wished for the pots and kettles made of gold and silver to break into nuggets and go into her necklace.

When the room thinned out, there was a longsword glowing in the corner with an old wooden dusty table of ten wooden boxes, three jeweled daggers (amethyst, emerald and ruby), four books and seven scrolls. She adjusted the buckle on the longsword’s baldric to put the scabbard on. Sarah opened the ten boxes and felt magic, just like the blue ball that was stronger she found from the cave before she fell through the portal. She could still feel it inside her backpack. The magic was coming from the elaborate, beautiful, fancy pieces of jewelry inside the wood boxes. There were two wands, two in a set of mirrors, a crystal ball on a dragon stand in boxes, seven scrolls in wooden tubes, and what she assumed were four spell and potion books that were written in another language that were not even a Proto-Indo-European dialect before Celtic languages came to be used. She wondered if it was fae or elven language specifically because it was so intricate and elegant of a refined script. She wished for a bag to contain it all. A big black leather valise, that looked like a thick bag style of the 1800’s with a handle at the button closure appeared at her feet. Sarah packed it all inside the bag, and the room was completely empty of items of value.

She left the room, continuing to find an exit. After so long, she wandered around the cave in a maze of tunnels until she saw a light ahead. She tripped over something hard and heavy, like a stationary rock. She looked down in the light from her head light and found a large kettlepot. It had a thick layer of soft dirt on top. She scooped the dirt off, and it was filled with gold coins. Sarah was smiling at the amount of gold there was as she wished it into the locket of one thousand gold coins even and thought she had no need of wishing for that bag of 500 gold coins before because the cave had provided plenty for her to survive. She wandered around over to a dim light. It was an overgrown entrance. She started to hack at the vines to squeeze through with the sword and found it cut through it like butter, which was very astonishing and remarkable. Sarah knew she would have to be careful with the sword because it was so sharp and probably enchanted because it glowed.

When she was finally out of the cave, she saw nothing but green plants everywhere. It was an incredibly moist, humid, and mossy lush beauty in the cool side of a temperate climate. Sarah was looking at the forest floor of ferns and low ground-growing plants with mushrooms in clusters. It was an ancient forest that had a magical feel to it, but with a rich dampness. It smelled good of fresh, fertile plants and decaying wood. She could hear the crickets and frogs from probably a nearby bog. There were owls and trees creaking and making sounds as she moved through the thick foliage and ferns. There were little flicks of light moving through the forest air. She swore she saw a dryad tree nymph walking in the shadows at a distance between the tree trunks. The tiny lights flitted from place to place randomly. The trees were very primordial and gigantic, like the size of houses or rooms engulfed in leaves, mosses, and winding vines over eons. It was as old as time itself. Sarah was in awe looking at it all with its cathedral-high tree canopies. Navigating the Underground felt like it was going to be different this time, like a feeling in her bones. It wasn't a game this time and humans were considered to be of even lower status without magic. Sarah stopped and wished for a black cowl-hooded cloak to conceal herself for safety purposes. She had no idea who she might be seen by at this point.

She knew she had to get moving because she didn't want to be so exposed when it would get dark outside. As she walked through all the ferns and plants on the ground without a clue where to go or what direction to go in. Sarah was looking for a path, but there wasn't one. She needed to find shelter for the night.

She was getting tired and decided to sit under a Hawthorn tree to rest. Sarah had read, and her grandmother had said that it was a tree of protection. She leaned up against it, sliding down to sit and closed her eyes just for a little while to rest because she felt very exhausted, drained, sore and weary.

Unknown to her, as she took a short snooze, several fairies came out of a knothole in the tree and were dancing around her, giving her their protection once they sensed and looked upon her one index finger, noticing she had a fairy bite from a queen on it. They knew she was special, so they kept her safe while she was there. She awoke about a couple hours later to the sound of a hoot owl hooting in the Hawthorn tree that the fairies tried to shoo away. Sarah looked around warily because it was very dark outside now.

Suddenly, a glowing little fairy with dragonfly wings about three inches tall flew up in her face and hovered. It smiled and Sarah put out her hand for her to land on her palm. The little two inch fairy landed smiling at her.

The fairy said in a tinkling voice, “You are welcome to rest here. We will watch over and protect you from harm. You are special.”

Sarah said softly to her, “Thank you, Why am I special?”

The fairy said seriously, “You have a fairy queen's mark upon you. Do you not, upon your finger?” Sarah looked at her index finger on her right hand with the bite scar from the fairy she tried to help before her entering Labyrinth before her run thirteen years ago that Gaia had mentioned. The scar never faded or went away.

She said curiously, smiling, “I guess I did get bitten long ago trying to help a fairy that had fallen. My name is Sarah. What does this mean, this mark?”

The fairy said giggling, “I am Twilight. The queen would not have used her fangs unless you were to be of importance in our realm and injecting you with our essence. Sarah, you will change eventually when the venom makes the magic build up inside you. It is curious because it is almost never done, especially to a human. Are you lost?” The little fairy was adorable with her strawberry blonde hair with a wreath on her head and tiny clothes made up of flower petals with a glossy sheen that sparkled.

Sarah said giggling and smiling at the cute little fairy, “I guess so. I came to the realm through an unknown portal to an unknown destination. Can I ask you questions about this place?”

Twilight said friendly, “Sure. If I know the answer.”

Sarah asked curiously, “How many kingdoms are in the Underground?”

The fairy said frowning and thinking, “Eight and the Highlands, where the High King is. So actually nine.”

She asked curiously, “How are humans treated here?”

The fairy frowned, shaking her head and said, “Poorly. The fae rule five kingdoms they enamour and use them for slave labor. You are safe with us right now, but when you leave our tree, you run the risk of capture by a fae bounty hunter. There are not a lot of bounty hunters around here, but they are here in this kingdom too.”

She asked curiously, “What kingdom is this one we are in?”

Twilight said honestly, “This is the Elven Kingdom. The fae rule Pixie, Fairy, Unicorn, Goblin and the Highlands Kingdoms. There are Elven, Dwarven, Leprechaun, and the Shadow Kingdoms also, but they rule themselves. There is also a Water Kingdom but they are ruled by the Mer-people and only concern themselves with water matters when dealing with the fae.” That was what Gaia said, that she was in the Elven Kingdom.

She asked softly, “I will only ask you one more question. Where is the nearest city, village, or town?”

The fairy said, looking away from her, “There is one in that direction.” She pointed in a direction. “You will not be safe anywhere being human. The wealthy fae forcefully enslaves the humans with mating rituals to bond them.” Sarah remembered Gaia saying the fae enslaved them through sex, forced most likely. She shivered, not wanting anything to do with that part.

Sarah thought about it and said, “I ‘wish’ to have a full waterskin of water, a fresh, tasty ham and cheese sandwich with light mayonnaise and mustard on it, wrapped in paper or cloth with a perfect eating apple.” A sandwich appeared with an apple in her lap. The fairy watched in awe.

Twilight said still in awe, “You have the power of wishes…. Only the Goblin King has that power, and you now.” Sarah was hungry and started to eat, unwrapping the sandwich inspecting the inside of it first before taking a bite.

Sarah said to Twilight after chewing a bite, “I will stay until dawn, if it's ok with you, and go find that town you said was nearby. I thank you so much for everything you told me. You are a good friend.”

The fairy smiled and said, “I am glad I got to meet you. You rest now. We will watch over you.” Twilight flew up away to join her friends. Sarah ate her food, laid down, and went to sleep at the base of the tree on her backpack, and head resting on the valise.

Day 2

When dawn came, Sarah got up from her nap and found a place to go to the bathroom. She said goodbye to the fairies in the tree and headed across the meadow in the direction Twilight had pointed to.

The walk was fairly easy and the sky was overcast with threatening rain. Sarah figured it was going into fall season here. She found bushes of raspberries and blackberries along the way. They were very recognizable so she ate handfuls of the plump berries. She drank from her waterskin and put it back on her shoulder with her backpack she was carrying and the big valise.

She walked through the forest until it finally opened up into a beautiful meadow of white and purple wild heather with dots of light flickering and darting around quickly like busy little bee insects. You could see their glow because it was still overcast. There were so many points of light dancing and zooming everywhere from place to place, it was amazing, but she thought maybe they were hurrying to get whatever it was done before the rain would fall. She looked across the huge meadow leading out of the forest into another set of woods in the distance.

Sarah thought that this place was incredibly beautiful. A bug flew into her face, and it was a fairy that had a glow like the others. She looked closer and saw just how tiny these fairies were compared to the ones she saw Hoggle using repellent on outside of the Labyrinth and the ones last night. It was the size of a firefly.

The little fairy fluttered into her face again. She said, being friendly, "I am sorry to intrude, but I am lost and need help to get to the town or village before the rain. May I ask permission to pass? I don't want to cause your people a problem. Can you show me where to go so I don't harm anyone?" The fairy flew down hovering over her finger on her right hand. Sarah put it out for her to look at.

She said seriously, "I was bitten by a bigger fairy queen that was bigger than you are about thirteen years ago." The fairy lighted on her palm and looked at the tiny scar on her fingertip. The fairy then flew up in front of Sarah.

She asked kindly, "Is it ok if I follow you so I don't cause a problem?" The fairy flew up and down and started flying in a direction. Sarah followed her. They navigated through the meadow slowly across to the other side.

She smiled and said, "Thank you for your help, my friend. Be safe and blessed be." The fairy flew back to the meadow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gaia was in the catacombs deep under the Labyrinth in the most ancient part of the entire structure. The entity lived inside of an ancient stone constructed well that was not easily accessible to most creatures.

Gaia said through the link in the mind of Jareth who was in his study going over paperwork, ‘It has begun.’

Jareth stopped writing, looked up in surprise and asked in his mind, ‘What has begun, Gaia?’

The Labyrinth said, ‘The prophecy begins.’

He replied, asking anxiously, ‘What has happened? Do you mean Sarah?’

Gaia said in its monotone voice, ‘Yes. My Champion has found an obscure entrance through fate, a portal, and fell through it. My Champion is safely here in the Underground, starting her path of destiny.’

He frowned and asked, ‘Why did you not bring her here to The Castle Beyond The Goblin City? I have everything set up for her to be comfortable here.’

Gaia said, ‘My Champion will be able to explore the Underground and learn for herself directly from its people. She will adapt on her own.’

Jareth snapped angrily, ‘This is not acceptable! What if she meets someone else and I never get a chance to bond in any kind of relationship with her! What if she needs help to understand something? I wanted her here to do these things!’ He produced a crystal to see where Sarah was, and it was black. He stood up and threw the crystal against the far wall, smashing it in his temper.

Jareth yelled in his mind, ‘Why are you keeping her from me?! Did you block my crystals?! You never denied me like this or acted like this before. I cannot locate her.’

The Labyrinth said in a monotone voice, ‘My Champion must develop on her own and deal with the inhabitants to learn. Your time will come, but you must wait a while longer because you are not ready and must learn discipline in the use of your entitlement. My Champion used her wish magic to make it so no fae could see or locate her. She knew you were invading her privacy over the years and felt it.’

He blanched at her knowing he was doing that, but he should have known she may have been able to sense it being half fae. He said growling, ‘I have waited for twenty-eight years total for her to be mine. I had her once after fifteen years, then lost her for thirteen more years. Why are you hindering me?’

Gaia said monotonely, ‘Because if she comes now, you will lose her with your plots and schemes to find the upper hand over her. You are not better than her, my king, but equal. Until you come to understand and realize what that means, she shall remain elusive to you through fate.’ He was spitting mad and flounced down in his desk chair again pouting and pondering.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sarah traveled through more forest and trees until she came to a road. She walked down the dirt road for a long time and then saw at a distance a town way up ahead. Thunder cracked overhead, and rain started pouring heavily from the sky. She looked at herself and quickly wished her rubber high leg boots would become comfortable black leather leak proof knee high boots in a men's style of the Underground and for her black cloak to also be waterproof. The rubber boots changed into buccaneer-style or pirate boots to the knee. Sarah pulled the cowl hood over her face and proceeded into the town carrying her valise, waterskin, and her backpack.

The sun was down, and it was dusk when she reached the town. People were looking at her harder than normal. She guessed that they don't get a lot of strangers wandering into town on foot. She was noticing the different businesses as she passed by looking for an inn or tavern to find a room to stay in.

Sarah saw a sign that said in Irish Gaelic “Ostán” (Inn). She was glad she had studied the Celtic languages in Gaelic to know what it was she was reading on the signs. The signs on the businesses were all in Gaelic, but it seemed there were some Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Brythonic, Cornish, and Breton. It was extraordinary. She was amazed that they spoke English mostly here. Sarah bet they all had their own individual languages among the different species too. It must be British English was like the common language. She would find out soon enough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She walked into the inn. The innkeeper was an elven man behind a counter with spigots coming out of the wall behind him and a room full of tables and chairs on a wooden planked floor that was worn. He was tall with light blonde hair, bigger ears that were tapered longer than a fae and light blue eyes, bigger with more slanted eyes. He had his hair braided on the sides for his face pulled back to keep the hair past his shoulders. The innkeeper had braids on each side of his neck also with a bead on them hanging down his chest. He was dressed in an all-medium brown leather vest and pants, with a chocolate brown cotton shirt. He was a very handsome man, in an ethereal way. Sarah figured from her reading that almost all fae and elves must be beautiful people, and now she knows they really are. They were lean, lithe, muscular, and attractive, just like the fae, with subtle differences in their characteristics and demeanor.

She thought to herself, ‘I think that at least the more youthful men probably are this attractive. The only differences, it seems, are the ear size and they look a little more…..exotic. The fae have more human-like characteristics and features, it would seem, even though they were all humanoid types. The magic was different though. It almost has a tangible taste or feel in my senses coming from them. I could see it identifying them separately from each other as I get used to it. The fae as I recall felt more of a strong, out-of-control chaotic magical feeling to them by comparison. This elven man’s magic feels more….. peaceful or natural in his environment, perhaps. This is so fascinating to learn about them all and the differences between them. They are such beautiful people.’

The innkeeper looked up from his task behind the counter and asked gruffly, “What do you need?”

She said in a low voice, “A room for two nights.”

He asked curiously looking at her and tilted his head a bit, “Your magic feels different; let me see your face before I rent you a room.” Sarah looked up at him.

He gasped and said in warning, “I see why you hide yourself pretty little human. You are too pretty to wander around alone with the fae bounty hunters out there in the woods. They might try to bond with you by trying to force you to have sex then sell you. You must be very careful, lovely one.”

She said seriously, yet surprised at his kind words, “I would appreciate it if you don't tell anyone who or what I am. I need discretion for safety, please.” He smiled at her politeness.

The innkeeper nodded and said, “Indeed. I understand. I will not tell anyone. I am Farlin. Welcome to Thallansin (Over There).” He put his hand out smiling.

She shook his hand and said, “I am Shara.” She decided to mix up the spelling of her name a bit for now.

Farlin smiled and said, “You must be from very far away, Shara. You talk differently, and you're polite which is very unusual for here.”

Sarah smiled at him and said, “I am from quite far away, indeed.”

He said kindly, “Two nights is one gold, four silver. Room eight.” She gave him two gold from her front pocket. He gave her the key and six silver coins back in change. She smiled now, knowing the currency was ten to one gold to silver, and Gaia mentioned copper coins too. Sarah nodded her head and went up a set of stairs to a hallway at the left. She found the door with a Roman numeral eight on it. She unlocked the door, put her bags on the bed with her cloak and sword, and started looking around.

The room had a four-poster bed, a pump with a drain in the floor, and next to a wash stand with a pitcher and bowl. There was a latrine with a lid in the back corner of the room with a bucket full of what looked like tree moss. They had a metal tub by the window for tipping it to empty through the window sill and a large kettle on the hook swing arm over the fire in the fireplace. It had a large dipper for bathing and hot water heating to transfer in a bucket by the hearth where there were stacked split logs.

Sarah put her cloak back on with the hood up and locked up her room. She was exhausted, but hunger was driving her. She went down the dim hallway illuminated by candle wall sconces. It was dark outside now while raining with a crack of thunder now and again. She desperately needed to get herself some dinner. Sarah made a wish to not allow anyone to enter her room until she removed her baggage.

She sat down at the counter on a stool, and Farlin asked smiling, “What will you have Shara?”

She smiled and said discreetly, “Dinner and wine.”

He told her before going back to the kitchen, “Seven coppers.” Sarah sat a silver down on the counter. Farlin came back with a plate of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes with a big piece of fresh baked bread with butter that he sat it down in front of her. She smiled at him. He poured her wine and took her silver.

She said smiling, “Keep the change.” It made Farlin smile big at her.

The meal was very good and filling. Sarah went back to her room and locked the door. She put a small wooden chair under the door because it blocked the keyhole. She took a bath, but only rinsing her body and hair really well to get the sweat and any dirt off of her. Furthermore, she would need to buy soap tomorrow for herself and her clothes to maintain cleanliness here. Sarah rinsed her clothes out well and let them dry hung on pegs, or she laid them out in front of the fire with the screen up in place. She went to bed naked that night.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 4
Day 3

In the morning, Sarah woke up a bit disoriented and then sat up trying to remember everything that happened to her, so far. She went to the bathroom and got dressed in her cleaner clothes, boots, and weapons, put on her cloak, and went downstairs to get breakfast. Sarah had also filled her pockets with gold again to outfit herself completely and buy everything she would need today.

Farlin brought her tea and a big breakfast this time. She had eggs, some kind of meat, potato cakes, and two fluffy, buttery biscuits. He even brought her black current jam for her biscuits. She was in heaven and ate every bite. Sarah started to feel better and not as weary. She thanked him for her meal and ventured out to see the town shops.

She walked into the building that looked like a stable and had the sign "Gabha" (Blacksmith) on the front. It was four doors down, and the fae blacksmith said, "What do you need?"

He had on a brown leather apron that was well worn and black pants with a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his red long hair pulled back into a braid down his back. She thought that he must be what a regular fae looks like, no different than the innkeeper elf. She had, after all, only seen Jareth and a few fae women from the ballroom dream.

She asked kindly, "I need a horse. Do you have any to sell?"

The fae man smiled a little and said, "Let me show you what I've got." Sarah followed him to some stalls at the back of the stable.

He proceeded to show her four horses he had. There was one, a mare, that looked like a Cleveland Bay with a rusty reddish brown color with black points, large head, and muscular build. She was five years old.

There was a gray gelded dappled appaloosa. He was very beautiful in his spotted glory at two years old.

The next was a solid white mare horse with dark brown eyes. She was white as snow. The mare was four years old.

The last one was a stallion buckskin with a golden coat color with a black mane and tail, and black legs. He was gorgeous and three years old. The fae warned her the stallion was spirited, mean, and a biter.

He was beautiful. Sarah went up to him and put her hand out to let him smell her. The stallion whinnied and stomped his hooves. She touched his nose, and the horse calmed instantly. She began petting and rubbing her hands all over him as she went inside the stall with him. The fae warned her but she wasn't listening. The horse snorted and started nuzzling her neck. The fae watched with his mouth open amazed at the horse's contradictory behavior. Sarah kissed his nose and whispered loving words to him, and the horse was softly nickering back at her.

She said softly, “I think you like me. I like you an awful lot too. You're so very handsome and beautiful. I think you need to be my friend and go places with me. I'll get you your own brush and come visit you later tonight. Maybe I'll have a carrot or an apple for you, my Mistr. That's your new name, Mistr, it means handsome in the Breton dialect.”

She bought, Mistr, the stallion buckskin that came with his own tack all in black, a leather saddle, fringed large saddlebags, a halter, a bit and bridle reins adorned with silver conchos for twenty-eight gold total for the horse and tack together. Sarah also bought a short bow and a quiver of twenty arrows, a hunting knife with a sheath and a whetstone to sharpen it.

The fae blacksmith said the horse was mean, and that's why the previous owner sold him to get rid of him because he was a bother. The blacksmith said that he suspected the fae man who sold him was beating him because, if you look closely, he had scars under his coat. Sarah looked and saw the scars on his hind quarters and neck. She frowned, hugged and kissed the nose of the big, beautiful horse, then waved goodbye to him. It was sickening to her for anyone to harm such a beautiful animal. Mistr responded immediately once she touched him. She took the very large empty saddlebags with her.

Sarah walked over to the sign that said “Gréasaí” (cobbler). She bought drawstring leather bags of various sizes, a small set of black leather saddlebags, two black leather valise bags for clothing, four heavy wool blankets, a coiled rope and a waxed canvas tent about 5(w)x7(l)x5(h) feet wide. It was white with a floor waxed canvas that came with its own waxed canvas bag with wooden dowels and silver stakes. She bought a pair of medium brown leather knee-high lace-up boots, a horse brush, and a wide black leather belt with a large silver buckle that had rings to attach items to be carried on it. She even got a new black leather baldric for her sword and scabbard because the original was very old and not sturdy. She made trips taking things back to her room.

Sarah then went to the men's clothing store, “Thanial’s Éadaí” (Thanial's Clothing). She outfitted herself in an all black and brown leather men's separate outfits of matching pants, vests, and waistcoats after trying them on in a curtained booth. She got various cotton and linen shirts, leggings, a couple flannel nightshirts, and a pair of lined black leather gloves. Sarah put it all in one large valise and large bag.

She then went to the women's clothing shop, “Kaline’s Siopa” (Kaline's Boutique). She got full skirts, peasant blouses, several women's bloomer panties, a few outside and inside corsets, even washable padded rags for feminine hygiene when the time came. There were soaps for clothes and bathing, makeup, perfume, ribbons, hair combs, ribbons, a comb, brush, mirror, and two pieces of cloth to use as a towel and washcloth. Sarah took everything back to her room.

She spent the whole day planning ahead. She went to the market and bakery to get a whole inventory of dry herbs, spices, salt, flour, barley, honey, tea, dry and cured meats, dry goods, fresh foods, a mix of fresh herbs, baked goods and storage containers for her food, like jars and such. Sarah decided her oversized waterproof backpack was ideal for food to be in and a decent leather bag for other things. She got a small skillet, two small pots that fit inside each other and utensils.

She went back to her room and reorganized and packed up everything. Sarah even wished all of her baggage to be black, even the tent bag, to match. She was ready and packed to go. This was her last night in the town of Thallansin. She had bathed thoroughly and had her clothes all washed up, dried, and packed away for morning. Sarah took a long, hot bath and scrubbed from head to toe. She washed her clothes to hang from the strong rope she had bought. She was completely outfitted and prepared for the morning. Sarah sat on the side of the bed and was looking over the blue ball she found in the stone room with the portal. She wondered what it was for and remembered that Gaia had said in her head while she was falling, ‘You possess the “Eochair Chumhacht Ársa” (Key Of Ancient Power) now, and your fate is set.’

She thought to herself holding the ball and moving it from side to side watching the patterns swirl on the surface like liquid iridescence, ‘This item is the only thing I brought with me other than my normal things in my backpack. Gaia must have been referencing this. I wonder what that means because it translates to Key Of Ancient Power and I'm seriously concerned about it.’

Sarah thought directly calling out in her mind, ‘Gaia?’

Gaia answered, ‘Yes, my champion.’

She asked in her mind, ‘Gaia, what is this blue ball I found in my world by the portal? You said in my mind as I fell, that I possess the “Eochair Chumhacht Ársa”. If I am correct, that means Key Of Ancient Power in the ancient Garlic language from my world? It was the only unusual thing I brought with me, so I assume you mean this item?’

Gaia said, ‘You are truly an astounding intelligent being, my champion. Your attention to detail is fascinating. Yes, hold that item dear in your protection. It is an ancient artifact that had been laying dormant in that place where the portal was hidden for several millennia. You will need it later on your path for a purpose the gods intend.’

She nodded and put the ball in a smaller, thick leather bag and put it back in a special place in her baggage. Sarah said in her mind, ‘Thank you, Gaia. Goodnight.’

Gaia responded, ‘Goodnight, my champion.’

Day 4

When Sarah awoke, it was sunny outside, and she got dressed after her morning ritual of going to the bathroom, getting dressed, washing her face, brushing her teeth and hair, putting on her weapons and cloak. She had braided her dark hair down her back and was dressed in all black leather with her weapons belt on. She left her magical longsword's baldric with her bow and quiver on the bed to go get breakfast. Sarah brought Mistr up after and packed him up after eating breakfast and saying goodbye to Farlin. Sarah had wished for maps of all of the kingdoms and an overview map of the entire Underground the night before to see the layout of towns and cities she would travel. Farlin gave her directions across the Elven Kingdom until she reached the Fairy Kingdom. She was grateful and gave him ten gold for the information to his surprise.

After hours of riding down the road, Sarah spotted a rabbit, she took the bow on a sling on her back and dismounted the horse. She aimed and shot the rabbit. Sarah gutted and skinned the rabbit, leaving skin, entrails and the head for the local wildlife. She hung it from the end of leather strips she had in her supplies to let it drain on the ground as they rode on. She had taken Bushcraft classes in the UK on survival, campsite finding, shelter building, foraging, bow hunting, fishing, knife skills, flora and fauna identification, water purification, and animal tracking. Sarah found it all interesting and fun. Who knew she would have to rely on those skills one day.

When she stopped to go to the bathroom, she was out foraging and found an abundance in the fall of wild raspberries, black walnuts, wild carrots, and chanterelle mushrooms. She collected them all and put them in gallon plastic bags from her former backpack kit from before. They would make great leftover storage. Sarah had to make camp for the night, so she eventually found a good place at dusk by a brook. She collected wood and rocks from the brook for the fire pit. She got water and put on two pots to boil, tossing in some barley and a pinch of salt. Sarah cleaned the greens, mushrooms, and berries up in the brook, along with some fresh vegetables. Then she found a slab to wash off and chop them up on. She put the rabbit on a homemade spit over the fire. She was eating well tonight. Sarah made a wish to make sure nothing can come into the perimeter of her campsite, horse, and herself. After she ate, she laid down and went to sleep.

Day 5

She woke up and looked around her and saw nothing but trees and a brook. She went out of the tent to go to the bathroom. Sarah came back and washed her hands in the brook and filled her one pot up for tea. She drank her tea and ate her leftovers. She made a rabbit sandwich with thin sliced cheese for lunch in a plastic bag.

Sarah packed up the horse, and she had her cowl hood up, riding off to Amárach (Tomorrow). Around noon, she came across the town with an inn. She watched for what kind of people lived there from the woods. It looked like mostly elves with a few fae again.

She casually rode to the inn and got a room for two nights with a privy, pump, and tub without the fae innkeeper checking to see if she was fae, elf, or human. Sarah paid for seven silver a night. She boarded her horse for five coppers a day. She went to her room, where she dropped off her bags. Sarah wished that nobody could come in her room for as long as her baggage was still in it. She locked up and went to get food.

She sat down at a counter, and the fae innkeeper asked, "What do you want?"

Sarah replied kindly, "Wine and a meal?"

He said firmly, "One silver." She put out a silver coin. He took it and poured her wine and went to the back kitchen off the bar area. He had a large pot pie with chicken. She took a bite and groaned. It was so tasty.

The innkeeper chuckled at her reaction. He said, "My wife is a great cook."

Sarah said, nodding, "I would have to agree. This is the best chicken pie I have ever had."

He smiled and said, "I'll let her know." She nodded, realizing that common fae and elves were just like regular people probably with enhanced abilities but relatively normal.

He said friendlier, "I'm Jonell; my wife is Sillia." He put his hand out and Sarah shook it.

She said smiling, "My name is Shara." Sarah put out her hand to shake. She changed her name a bit.

Jonell shook her hand and said, "Welcome to Amárach. How long have you been in the Elven Kingdom, Shara?"

She said, shrugging, "Only for a little while now. I'm from very far away."

Jonell said curiously, "I can tell you don't talk like anyone here, but different. At least we understand each other. Did you come by ship?" Sarah nodded her head.

He said, pondering, "That is a far distance then. You must be very careful out there, because they pinch human women and sell them to the fae auction houses in the cities. It's a cruel and terrible trade. Hope you're not human under there." He looked down, trying to see under the cowl hood. She looked up and let him see cautiously and a bit nervously. He gasped.

Jonell said cautiously, "I see why you are hiding. That would draw more attention than a female traveling alone." He reached out and pulled her hood over her face.

He said with concern, "You be careful out there, Shara." She nodded.

She asked curiously, “Do you know your way around the Fairy Kingdom? I'll pay you if you do?”

Jonell earnestly said, "Of course I do. I'll start today and write it all down."

Sarah smiled and said, "You're so very kind. I appreciate your help." She avoided the words thank you deliberately because she would be indebted to him if directly stated to a fae.

Jonell felt good helping the young human woman trying to protect herself while traveling alone. She was polite and friendly. It made him smile. He knew what could happen to the girl out there because it was dangerous, especially her being human, and there are so many fae hunting them. That was why his family lived in the Elven Kingdom to get away from such cruelty. He and his wife did not want their children to be like some fae that go into bounty hunting or prey on people as highwaymen, though there are even human highwaymen in bands that roam. She was lucky to be in the Elven Kingdom because they were not all cruel to humans, but the bounty hunters still try to abduct them from this Kingdom as well.

Sarah asked him where the market was. Jonell told her, and she left to go get what she needed to supply herself, if anything, to see what they had here. She went to the market and bought nuts, a different cheese piece, and fruit. She was happy to have so many things to choose from while traveling to eat properly in the fall. Sarah will come back tomorrow and get any fresh ingredients. She bought a cloth shoulder strap shopping bag to carry it all.

She stopped at the bakery and got breakfast cakes and cookies. The breakfast cakes were full of nuts and berries packed in a disk-stamped shaped cake. It was dense and filling. Sarah took everything back to the room and went to the clothing shops. There was one for men and another for women, like always.

She went to the women's store and bought cloth for more washcloths and towels to use along with sewing accessories like scissors, thread, and fine needles. She even found strong rum for disinfecting in case she got a wound in the market. Sarah went to her room and organized what she had bought and started sewing up washcloths and towels for bathing by cutting them out and hemming them. She went to get dinner and then came back to the room to make hot water for a bath. She soaked in the tub and washed off the dirt from traveling overnight. Sarah slept hard that night.

Day 6

The next day it rained, but Sarah still got her last-minute things packed up and her towels and washcloths all sewn up. Sarah got a small wooden cutting board; dry beans, potatoes, carrots, green beans, kale, fresh cherries, blueberries, and apricots were put in plastic bags from her kit. She went back and spent the rest of the day organizing her baggage to condense it down to its smallest, by utilizing all of its space. She liked keeping fresh fruits and shelled nuts to snack on in the small saddlebags she put just below the horses withers where it was handy. She had apples and carrots for Mistr also.

Jonell came by and dropped off the directions of the Fairy Kingdom. Sarah thanked him and put ten gold in his hand. He was shocked and surprised at the human girl’s generosity and truly liked her. She was all set to survive comfortably for now.

Day 7

The next morning, Sarah went and got breakfast and brought Mistr up to the inn. She brought down her baggage and packed up the horse after dropping off the key to Jonell and said goodbye to Sillia also. Sarah was headed northeast; according to her compass, she brought in her kit from the Aboveground, her world. She was lucky that it just happened to work the exact same way. She was going to a city called Nádúr. It was the capital city of the Elven Kingdom and would take two days to get there so she would only have to camp for one night.

Sarah rode and stopped for bathroom breaks and to eat a bit of lunch. She rode on until she came upon a good spot for camping under several trees clumped together that would shelter her. She staked her tent and unpacked the horse, stowing her gear in the tent. Sarah unsaddled Mistr and went foraging for wood, stones and found wild onions. She was dragging up all she needed and wished for a trough of water that never gets dirty or runs out for her and Mistr.

Sarah filled her waterskin back up and filled her two small pots for cooking. She cut up the dried chicken, kale, and green beans and boiled them with a bit of barley. Sarah added spices, wild onions, salt, and pepper. She boiled tea and let it all cool off. It looked like it was going to rain, so she wished the perimeter safe from all threats while she and Mistr were camped here.

When the rain started, she had finished eating, washed up, packed up her leftovers and cooking equipment quickly. She wished the tent was completely waterproof and put everything inside. Sarah tied the flap closed and laid down on her bedroll. She started looking through the books and scrolls while snacking on some fruit, shelled nuts, and a breakfast cake later on. There was thunder and lightning all night. She slept through most of it.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 5
Day 8

She woke up and stretched. She put on her boots and went to the bathroom. Everything was wet or muddy, but it had stopped raining for now. Sarah wiped down Mistr, saddled him, and packed him up. She wished the tent was dry, clean, and broken down in its own bag after tying down everything on the horse.

She tied the tent down and rode on. Sarah wished her cloak waterproof and spread it over her belongings as much as she could when it rained again. It was a dismal day, but she was glad there was no lighting or thunder anymore.

That evening Sarah rode into the city of Nádúr the capital of the Elven Kingdom and it was a lively town with much happening around her. It was six o'clock and dinnertime, but there were people all around going from here to there. She found a decent-looking inn and took her belongings into the inn. She asked the elf innkeeper for a room for a week, and he said she got the last room. He was a handsome elven man with golden blonde hair with startling green eyes with a ring of darker green around his irises. He was tall and wearing a black cloth vest, green moss-colored poets shirt with black pants. The elven innkeeper even had small hoops in both of his earlobes and an ear cuff band on one ear above the lobes.

Sarah took her bags up to room twelve at the end of the hall. It had running water and flushing toilets. She locked the door and went to board Mistr.

When she came back, she saw her room door open and pulled her knife and stealthy snuck up behind a man kneeling, digging through her open bags, and put both arms behind his back and tied them with a long leather thong she instantly wished for. She learned through common sense that fae need hands to cast spells and inhibiting the hands was safer around them.

Sarah whispered in his ear, "Your dead fae. How dare you enter my room to steal. You are a cowardly thieving bastard."

She knotted both of his hands behind his back together, giving it a small jerk as the man groaned. She then held the knife close to his neck by the carotid artery. He had found the boxes with the magical jewelry. Sarah checked his pockets and took everything he had of hers and his own off of him, leaving it in her room on the floor.

She whispered in his ear, "Now it's time for you to get humiliated. Come on, jackass up on your feet. I 'wish' this fae had no magic and couldn't commit another crime for the rest of his life."

The fae man screamed like he was dying, then he started crying and sniveling, feeling the magic torn from his body. She locked her door and wished it was secured. Sarah thought, 'I guess it taught me a lesson to not forget to wish the rooms and places I stay at secure from now on.'

She shoved the man down stairs as everyone looked at her as she kicked the legs out from under the man until he was kneeling in front of her in the Common room down the stairs from the hallway.

She said in her low voice, "This fool was rummaging through my bags while I was boarding my horse. He didn't think I'd be back so quickly."

Sarah kicked the guy in the kidney with her boot and said, "Did you stupid? Answer me!" He whined no and was shaking his head.

She said, sneering, "To whom or where did this idiot belong to or come from?"

The innkeeper said amusedly wiping his hands on a cloth, "He rented the room next to yours alone, two days ago. Tomorrow's the beginning of the festival, and he must have been here to pinch pockets and steal from my patrons." The elven innkeeper was drying off a washed mug.

She said boldly, announcing to everyone, "I suggest anyone renting a room upstairs check and make sure your items are still there before I take my restitution out on him." Sarah heard chairs move against the wooden floor as people went to their rooms. The innkeeper told her the government didn't involve itself in petty crimes, so the local people had to deal with the justice themselves. People came down and reported a list of things taken and some were fine with everything intact. She asked the innkeeper to come help her locate everything the thief had. They found everyone's belongings, and the innkeeper returned them to the patrons.

He came back and found Sarah had rounded up everything of value the man had, which fit in a valise bag and the fae was still immobilized. The fae thief had four bags of mixed jewelry, four bags of gold nuggets, a big bag of cut stones, twenty five pocket watches, and a jewelry box. She took his purse and all the things he had on himself.

Sarah said out loud, "I 'wish' for anything else that is of value in this room to be put at my feet." A floorboard flew off and six bags came out, a wall panel popped off with eight bags flew out, and four items from behind the flushing toilet. The innkeeper was in shock.

She incredulously asked, looking over at him, "How long have you had this place?"

The elf said in shock, "Eight years."

She said smiling, "I will help you here and find everything stashed in each room that doesn't belong to the patrons, owners, or employees? In return, I want only 25% of it. I want 100% of this imbecile's stuff though. I'm just glad everyone else got their stuff back." The elf innkeeper pulled down her hood and gasped at her beautiful face, dark hair, and green eyes. Sarah looked at him sternly.

The innkeeper put it back up and covered her face like before. He grinned. He never saw such a capable, beautiful human woman with wish magic and thought, ‘Only the Goblin King possessed such magic. She talked funny too. I wondered where this human woman came from?’

She said sternly, "Now that your curiosity is satisfied, is that ok?"

The innkeeper chuckled and said, "That's more than fair. My name is Yarrow." He reached out to shake her hand.

She said flatly, "Shara." She shook his hand and then said, "I swear my honesty to count it up and split it up fairly." The elf was so intrigued by her.

Yarrow smiled and said, "Of course, that will be fine. Thank you, Shara. Now what do we do with this fool?"

Sarah said sternly, "I made sure he has no magic any longer and can't commit a crime again. I guess let him hightail it out the door, and you keep your room money."

He nodded and said, "That sounds fair. A fae without magic is a human that just looks like a fae." She nodded.

She and Yarrow put the bags on the bed in her room from the fae thief and put the rest on the floor of her room that just showed up. Sarah had a feeling she was going to be counting forever if one room revealed that much stashed in the floor and walls. She was going to need her wish magic to help her do this.

Day 11

Three days later, Sarah had cleared the entire inn’s patron rooms, including the Common Room area, kitchen, and store rooms, by going room to room. Sarah counted over 29,710 gold, 6,724 silver, 17 bags of jewelry, four jewelry boxes, two large bags of cut stones. She split it all up. Her cut was 7,427.5 gold, 2,681 silver, 4 ¼ bags of jewelry with a large bag of cut gemstones. Yarrow had 22,282.5 gold, 8,043 silver, 12 ¾ bags of jewelry, a large bag of cut gemstones, once all four jewelry boxes were emptied. Sarah kept the biggest jewelry box and kept the items she liked in it once she went through her share.

She had a total of 147,950 gold and 30,150 silver coins in her necklace and now 8 ¼ bags of jewelry to sell because of the four bags from the thief too.

She bagged up everything for Yarrow's cut, and that totaled 44 ½ bags in gold at 500 each and one with extras, 16 bags of silver and 12 ¾ of jewelry. Sarah helped Yarrow move over the bags to his room, where he took off the wall panels and put his entire stash of gold and silver in the walls. He removed the wall panels in his built-in closet to put the jewelry in, but it would only hold ten bags.

He closed it up and said, "Here Sar, take these two and three quarter bags for yourself. You are an honest and fine human woman. I will be selling the jewelry around town after you leave." She took the bags from him and walked back into her room and put it on the bed. Yarrow followed her after putting the panel back up.

She said earnestly, "While you're doing that, think about getting a magical infinite space item to keep all that coin in and sleep with it always on you like a talisman. Ask around privately to the jewelers you sell to who may have one."

Yarrow looked surprised at her and asked, "Is that how to do it? I never thought of that before. There is bound to be one available in a capital city. You're brilliant!" Sarah blushed.

She said smiling, "Just making sure you're safe. Try to do some nice things with some of that and make this the best place to stay in town." He reached out and kissed her on the lips. It took her by complete surprise, and she started kissing him back after a few moments.

He broke the kiss and said, "You're the only woman I have ever trusted in my life. Stay here with me, Shara?"

She said fondly, "I can't because I have to follow my path.” Sarah kissed him on the lips on her tiptoes. Yarrow wrapped his arms around her and held her close to his body.

He said fondly, "You're the most amazing woman I have ever met. I'll miss you, my sweet, wonderful human lady friend, and I'll never forget you as long as I live." He hugged her and put his forehead to hers. She held him, patted him on his back and head. Yarrow was a really nice man. She was so thankful for running into these kind hearted men so far. Sarah knew if she stayed, she would never see the rest of the Underground.

Besides, she wanted to see more. She wanted one day to see the Pixie, Fairy, Unicorn, Goblin and Highland Kingdoms also. He let go of her and kissed her lips once more before he went downstairs to the Common Room.

She started sorting out everything of the previous and new items. Sarah had a total of eleven bags of mixed jewelry to get rid of. She pulled out the sets of jewelry in them and put the chains to the side. There was so much. She kept a few nice sets and pieces of jewelry. Then put the expensive in a pile and mid-range in another. Sarah started making small bags of a mix of each to take to each jeweler. It took her the last few days to get rid of it as different people until it was all liquidated. She collected 17,539 gold for it all. She had 164,956 gold now. Sarah was astounded by the total and how fast it's adding up.

Day 14

Sarah used her last day to restock on anything at the market and bakery. She got candied roasted nuts, pastry, and cookies from the bakery. She got fresh updates on her fruit and vegetables. Sarah was packed up and ready the night before.

She had taken a long soaking bath and washed her hair perfectly clean. It felt good to be clean all week with plumbing. She washed her clothes and had them up drying and air drying her hair. There was a knock on the door. It was Yarrow. He smiled at her, and she let him in, smiling back.

Yarrow said, sighing and looking around at her clothes laundered and hanging up on a strung rope around the room, "I see you're all ready to go in the morning. I'm going to miss you, Shara."

Sarah said, fondly, "I know. I'll miss you too."

He said, softly, "You sure are pretty with your dark hair down. It's so long. Can I touch it?" She nodded.

He reached out and ran his fingers through it with both hands. He then captured her lips and started kissing her passionately. Yarrow’s one hand left her hair and pulled her body against his. She didn't know what to do. Sarah knew he wanted to make love to her, but it would just be harder to leave emotionally because he was so kind. She had spent the week getting to know him, and he was a really good guy. She broke the kiss and pushed away from him. His hands fell to his side and was inquisitively looking at her.

She said, sighing, "If we continue it will just make it harder to leave in the morning, and I don't want to cause both of us more problems that are already there by me leaving. You're a wonderful person, and I'm not like some people that have sex at the drop of a hat or coin. Not that I think that of you. It's just that I have very strong emotions when I share myself like that with someone and can't turn them off so easily. I would rather not leave with a broken heart because I have to leave now no matter what happens. I hope you understand what I mean."

He nodded his head and said, "I do understand and I know that you are right. You are so very different from anyone I have ever known being so responsible like this too. It is like you're a person with a destiny because there are no humans with magic but you. I hope you find everything you're looking for one day. You have made me a very wealthy man, and if I invest, I can make this inn grand. It's all because of you helping me. Who knew there was money and valuables stashed everywhere? Frankly, I wonder how many other inns have that same issue."

Sarah giggled and said, "I'll be checking every place I stay in from now on." They both laughed.

Yarrow kissed her once more, pressing his forehead to hers which she figured must be an elven sign of affection. He said softly, with his eyes closed and then opening, "I'll see you in the morning, sweet Shara." He stepped back and smiled at her. She waved goodbye and locked the door as he left. She sighed and laid down after putting another log on the fire with the screen up.

Day 15

Sarah woke and did her morning routine to get ready. She folded clothes and packed them away from last night's laundry. She put on her cloak and went down to get breakfast.

There were a few people eating at the tables, but the counter was empty at the moment. Sarah sat down at the end. Yarrow came out and smiled at her. He went back in the kitchen and got her a tea with a jar of honey and a spoon. He went to the kitchen and brought her a fantastic breakfast of eggs, steak, potatoes, and a stack of pancakes with jelly and butter. She put two silvers out, one as a tip as usual for him.

She said surprised, "Wow this looks great. Thank you and tell Darill also."

Yarrow smiled and said, "Can't let my favorite patron go without a hearty breakfast. I'll miss you, Shara. I hope one day you will come back to Nádúr and stop in to see me." He patted her arm and took the silver coins.

Sarah said giggling, "I will if I come back this way, my friend. I'll miss you too, Yarrow, and the wonderful plumbing here." He chuckled, and so did Sarah. She ate and went to get Mistr saddled and brought up to the inn. She went upstairs and grabbed her bags. Yarrow followed her and kissed her passionately one last time.

He pressed his forehead to hers and said softly to her, "Be safe, beautiful Shara. I really will miss you a lot until I can find a woman I can trust like you." Sarah gave him the key and kissed his lips.

She smiled and said, "You take care and be happy for me." He nodded and took a couple valises from her hands and followed her to her horse outside. She tied everything down and mounted up.

Sarah said smiling down at him, "I'll always remember you too Yarrow. Blessed be, sweet man." She rode off out of the city.

She was headed for the town of Spéirbhean Crossing (Sky Oak), a two night camping distance. Sarah traveled along, watching for highwaymen and anything unusual, but stopped for lunch and was feeding her horse an apple.

Eventually, Sarah found a good place to camp. She set up her tent and put everything inside of it and made a wish to keep all things out of the perimeter of her camp and horse. She started a fire by wishing for wood and stones. Sarah got the horse comfortable with hay, a water trough, and unsaddled. She petted and talked fondly to him, showing her love to him while brushing him down. Mistr loved her affections, nickering softly and nuzzling her. She would talk to him as she rode him while softly singing to him, fed him apples and carrots with the occasional lump of sugar also to let him know she loved him.

She started to make tea and a stew from dried mutton meat with a mix of vegetables and barley in two small pots. Thank goodness for this was another uneventful night traveling.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 6
Day 16

Sarah had a full busy morning trying to get everything packed up after eating. She only stopped for lunch with Mistr and bathroom breaks.

She stopped in the evening at a beautiful spot by a lake, big trees, and a rock outcropping formation. Sarah set up camp and got a good fire going to cook dinner. She got comfortable and fished for her dinner. She skinned, gutted, and filleted her lake perch. Sarah put it in the skillet with garlic oil and some fresh herbs. She ate heartily that night.

After the sunset, Sarah relaxed watching the sprites on the lake dancing and making little splashes here and there. The moon was big and full, shining brighter on the lake's reflection. She loved the peaceful beauty of this spot, until she heard a horse or more than one horse nearby. Sarah pulled up her cowlhood and grabbed her bow, aiming her arrow at the riders on foot approaching her camp. There were four of them, and they walked up without their horses casually. She could feel them, almost empathetically of the dark intentions they held, especially approaching her at night as four to one. When they got closer to her fire, she saw they were all fae and she knew what they were. Bounty Hunters.

She whispered, "I 'wish' for all four fae men to have their hands bound, have to tell me the truth and be forced to sit down across from me by the fire."

The men all started to yell and shout, "What did you do that for?!" "What's going on?!" "What the hell?!" As they were compelled to sit where they were designated across from the fire.

As their butts hit the ground, she asked, "So, tell me gents, what were you thinking of doing to me, approaching my campsite in the dark like that, four to one?"

They struggled and said at the same time, "Rob you.","Rape and rob you.","Rob you.","Steal all of you belongings, rape you and then kill you."

Sarah looked amused and said, "That is such an honorable profession you four are doing. I'll be right back."

She walked over and brought their horses over to the fire and unloaded them completely, taking them and staking them securely by the lake and the plentiful grassy area. She sat down and started going through their belongings. Sarah found six bags of mixed coins in their large saddlebags, four jewelry boxes full of jewelry, twelve pocket watches and some gold and silver nuggets in three medium-size bags, and two small bags of cut stones.

She said sarcastically, "My, my, you boys have been busy and very naughty. This is quite a haul to be carrying around. Do you have more on you?" They all said yes in unison.

She stood up, turned around and whispered, "I 'wish' all the valuables and weapons these four men have were piled next to me when I go to sit down." Sarah went to sit down again. Everything that was on the men flew out of their pockets and untied from their belts and landed next to her.

The one man asked curiously, "How are you doing all of this?" She chuckled.

She said amused, "Now I can't tell you all of my secrets. I am going to make it now that you can't commit a crime again or hurt anyone deliberately because you will lose all your magic. You will be nothing better than humans that look like fae if you do. I 'wish' these four fae men could not participate in stealing, raping, swindling, harming anyone or thieving their property because if do they will lose all of their magic completely." The magic surrounded the men, and they looked completely shook up.

The one man whined, "Oh by the gods! He's got wish magic!"

The second one said aghast, "How can you have that only the Goblin King has that in the whole Underground?"

She said menacingly, "Yes, wish magic. I'm not from here; I'm from very far away." They groaned.

The third one asked, "Are you a witch?"

Sarah chuckled and said, "I could be a monster in disguise for all you know, but I am not. You will be banished with ten gold in your pocket and your horses except for one, and you will be sent to Gorias, the capital of the Unicorn Kingdom. I suggest you find honest jobs or you will be magicless. I 'wish' these four fae and three of their horses, except the white mare with the black mane and tail, were sent to Gorias with ten gold in each of their pockets and all of their clothes, personal items except valuables I have removed and camping supplies." They all vanished. She wished the perimeter of the campsite was secured again.

She stood up and walked over to the mare and started grooming her. Sarah patted her and said, "I am going to call you Àlainn (Lovely). It means lovely, sweet girl." Àlainn was a pretty horse, brown eyes, solid white with a black mane and tail. She put all of the loot in the tent to go through. Sarah went into the tent and started sorting.

Much of the jewelry was some top-notch items. She filled her big jewelry box with the best stuff for herself. She dumped everything in her locket and any extra coins in her purse. There were four big bags of gold and silver nuggets with 967 gold, 2096 silver, 353 copper coins, six jeweled daggers, four small bags of gemstones, and two large bags of gold dust. Sarah looked at the 12 pocket watches; she kept the best one. It was twenty-six hours, gold, heavy, nicer made with a heavy gold chain with an alarm chime and a ruby on the door. She kept two prettiest jeweled daggers for her boots and put the rest with the jewelry. There was a built-in sheath that was perfect to conceal them. She locked up her locket and laid down to get some sleep.

That night the little tent illuminated extremely bright for a few hours in the woods confusing the animals in the vicinity. Sarah didn't notice or even wake up because she was in a very heavy induced deep slumber.

Day 17

Sarah woke up and went to the bathroom outside and noticed handfuls of hair were in her panty bloomers. She freaked out. All she could think is that she transformed. She took off her panties and pants and shook them out as well as her shirt. All her body hair had let go. When she was done,she went back to the tent and pulled out her mirror. Sure enough she was fae. Sarah was in complete shock looking at her reflection that looked like someone else, kind of. There was nothing she could do about it now and was surprised that her hair was still dark. Her eyes were bigger and a bit slanted like her eyebrows; her ears were definitely pointed now too. She likes how her ears look because they look delicate in the shape they are now. Sarah got busy getting fed and packed up. She would still have to conceal herself being a woman and an untrained fae in the ways of magic.

By the time she had got into Spéirbhean Crossing, it was well after dark. The town was literally huge trees with roped sturdy walkways from massive tree to tree in a network above the ground. It was amazingly intricately designed with shops and businesses on all the trees going around in circles with a network of stairs and bridges around from tree to tree. On the ground were stables and blacksmiths. She went into one. An elven man was pounding on a piece of metal on an anvil of sorts. He had dark hair in a ponytail and a leather apron on.

The blacksmith asked looking up, "What do you need?"

Sarah said in a low voice, "Boarding for seven days and a soft bed."

The elf said kindly, "I will help you up on the lift when you are ready. You should stay at the Flùr a 'fàs Inn (Blooming Flower). I will show you where. They have the best beds in town." She said thank you because he wasn't fae.

The lift was on a weighted pulley system platform. She was lifted up to the walkways and went where the blacksmith told her. The inn was rustic but very nice and a bit fancy with plants and flowers vining everywhere. Plants were hanging on hooks on the ceiling like canopy to the ceiling. Their vines surrounded the room and hung in random interesting patterns from little shelves here and there. The plants were tied loosely everywhere on the walls, not touching the hardwood floor. The tables were interesting and made out of old tree stumps with roots for legs and a small vase with a flower on each one. The rest of the room was laid out like most would imagine traditionally with the counter at the back with stools and keg spigots on the wall behind it. There were about a dozen people scattered about in the room.

The innkeeper was an elven woman and she said, "What can I help you with?" The woman had black hair and blue eyes, and was dressed as a peasant in a white blouse and black corset with a long dark brown skirt.

Sarah asked kindly, "May I get a room for seven days?"

The innkeeper said, surprised by her politeness, "Six gold, three silver. Room seven." She handed her the money. The innkeeper gave her the key, and she started to walk down the hall.

The woman called out, "Come back and get a hot meal!" She looked back and nodded her head.

Sarah opened the room and thought it was the nicest room she ever stayed in so far. It was clean and had a big bed with extra blankets on the foot of it. Best thing of all is, it had running water, a tub and a toilet with paper, which was amazing in itself up in a tree. It had to be magic, right?

She wore her cloak, wished her room was secure from anyone else entering, and went to eat. The Common Room part of the inn got dead quiet when she walked in the room; she just ignored them and sat at the counter.

The innkeeper lady asked, "What can I get you?"

She replied politely, "Wine and a meal, please?"

The innkeeper came up to her with a green salad and a roast chicken dinner with potatoes. The elven woman sat the plate and bowl down, then poured her wine.

The innkeeper smiled at her and said, "My name is Nóinín (Daisy)." Sarah nodded and looked her in the eyes. Nóinín quietly gasped at seeing a dark-haired fae.

She said softly, "Nóinín, I am Shara from very far away from here. I travel as a man for protection to get from one kingdom to another. I don't want anyone to know I'm a woman at this moment, but I will be dressing as a woman while I am here."

Nóinín said matter of factly, "Why don't you just use the great portals in the middle of all of the capital cities to travel to any capital city in the Underground Kingdoms. You just say the city's name when you walk through. It would be safer traveling, because then you could travel to all the kingdoms easier. Didn't ya know any magical person can use them here?"

She said surprised, "No I didn't. I haven't been here very long. That is actually a quite brilliant idea. Thank you so much, Nóninín." The woman smiled big at the praise. The elven innkeeper went to start serving others.

Sarah ate her dinner and went to her room to get settled in. She started a fire to warm up the room. She got out her nightshirt, towels, and bathing supplies. Sarah took a long hot bath, washing herself thoroughly to get all of the hair from her body off of her, then washed her hair. She was looking at herself in the mirror while drying her hair by the fire, trying to get used to her appearance now. After a while, she braided her hair over her shoulder and laid down to sleep.

Day 18

When Sarah woke up, she got up and grabbed clean clothes to wear after going to the bathroom. She decided it was time to go get breakfast for herself. Sarah brushed out her long hair, braided up the sides to tie in the back to hold her hair back and put on a bit of makeup. She dressed all in black, because she felt more secure in black colored clothes since coming to the Underground when she was nervous around people. It was just something she needed to get used to now that she was no longer human. She wore a long-sleeve peasant blouse, leggings, skirt, and outside corset. She put on her belt, added coins to her purse, tied a bag of fifty gold that went in her skirt, gloves, and her cloak.

Sarah locked up and walked down the hallway and sat at the counter. Nóinín saw her and smiled big asking, "Good morning, Shara. Tea and breakfast?"

She smiled and said, "Yes. Do you have honey?" The elven woman nodded and came back with tea and honey. Then she came back with eggs, venison, beans with buttered biscuits and strawberry jam. She gave her two pieces of silver and loved the meal. Sarah relaxed and enjoyed her breakfast.

When she was done, Sarah stood up and said goodbye, thanking Nóinín. She pulled her cloak around herself and went out to the shops. After visiting the jewelers, she bought a gold ruby protection against magic ring and a sapphire telepathy ring for 87 gold.

She went to the market looking at what goods they had and found they had a lot more variety in dry vegetables, fruits, spices, and herbs than the towns before. Sarah decided that she would come back to stock up on the dry and fresh food later on, but she bought some bottled juices for herself in her room. She wandered around looking at all of the shops.

She went back to the inn and took her new stuff in her room. Sarah went to get lunch. It was mutton pot pie and was delicious. When she got back to the room, she laid down and took a nap. It was relaxing here in this town.

Day 24

The week spent in Spéirbhean Crossing was fun and a very nice place. She sang in the evenings and danced with some very handsome elven men. The people who lived there were friendly and accommodating to her. She had stocked up on dry goods, fresh goods, bakery goods and anything else she thought she might need because the variety and quality couldn't be beat compared to the other towns she had visited.

Sarah was good to go in the morning. She got a bath, all her clothes were washed up and packed. She went to sleep comfortably through the night.

Day 25

In the morning, she woke up, laid on her side, and looked out the window for a while. Sarah had loved her stay in this town, and if she ever wanted to stay somewhere peaceful, this place would be it. But, she knew she had so much more to see and experience ahead of her. She got up, got dressed, and was ready to go. She got dressed in her all black leather, and had her hair braided, and put down her back in her shirt.

Sarah told herself that she wanted to know if there were items stored here in these inns that were forgotten or left behind. She wished for all hidden objects that don't belong to patrons, owners, or employees to appear in the inn. There were three rotted potato sacks. One had four bags of gold coins in it, one had five scrolls in tubes, three books, and a box with a wand in it and a box of magical jewelry. The third one had four more bags of gold dust. She kept the books, wand, magical jewelry, and scrolls and combined everything into her belongings with an extra bag to take. Sarah was leaving the bags of gold coins and gold dust for Nóinín. She wished away, the rotten bits of potato sacks gone. She went to get breakfast.

She sat down and Nóinín came out of the kitchen, smiled, and went back to get tea, honey, and a spoon. Sarah put two silver down like always. Nóinín said quietly, "I am wishing you a safe journey, in case I get busy."

She said seriously, "I need you to come to my room after I eat. I have something for you." The elven woman looked surprised and curious, saying ok and gave Sarah a good breakfast of eggs, mutton strips, potato cakes, and two buttered biscuits with jam.

After she was done, Nóinín went with her to her room. She closed the door and showed her the gold coins and gold dust in the bags. Sarah said, "I found this with special magic that located any hidden objects in an establishment that did not belong to owners, employees, or patrons. These belong to you, my friend because they were found here. I hope it helps you. I think the coins are 2000 to 2100." Nóinín stood there speechless. The elven woman leaned over and hugged Sarah.

The elven lady was choked up a bit and said, "Shara, you are the most honest and wonderful friend. That is an amazing talent you have. Thank you so much. You bet this will help me."

She smiled and handed Nóinín the key to lock it up until she could move it all to her room. She picked up all her bags and walked out as Nóinín locked it. They walked down the hall.

Nóinín lightly embraced Sarah and said, "You be safe in your travels. An elven blessing: ‘May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far.’”

Sarah said fondly, patting her back, "Thank you for everything." She smiled and went out of the inn to the lift.

~~~~~~~~~~

When the horses were both packed up and she was on the road to Faoithalamh (Below Ground), she remembered what Nóinín had told her: that the next town was an underground community. She had said that only part of the town was above the ground, and there were big, huge trees older than the ones that were there. The tree and root system under the ground had businesses, and the inn built around and among them. She thought, looking at her map due east, 'This will be my next town, Bláthphéitseog (peach blossom), and it will only be a night's camping away.'

Sarah stopped to eat lunch and got to the bathroom. She continued on until it was time to camp. She found a place to camp in a tight group of trees by a brook. Sarah set up the tent and the horse with what she needed and wished the perimeter to be secured. She got a fire going and fished, catching a fat trout. Sarah skinned, filleted the fish, and put it in her skillet with a bit of garlic oil, salt, pepper and dry dill. She boiled barley and added dry mushrooms and cheese with some butter she took with her.

A voice came out of the darkness around her as she began to eat, "What are you doing traveling alone? Are you fae, human, or elf?" It was a man. She hated people interrupting her dinner. Sarah took another bite and a sip of tea.

She said menacingly, "I am Death; if you want to test me? Come closer to the fire so I can see you."

The male voice said hesitantly, "No, I'll keep my distance for now. You know that you are vulnerable to attack. You didn't even know I was here." She took another bite, delaying answering him.

Sarah said stoically, "You can't penetrate my perimeter anyway. Try if you like, but I am far from vulnerable." The person shot an arrow, and it landed on the leaves.

The man said flatly, "I believe you now." She ate some more.

She asked curiously, "What do you want? Are you just a thief or highwayman?"

The man in the dark said, "No, I am a hunter." She took a bite of food and then a sip of hot tea.

Sarah wondered and said, "A hunter of what?"

The man said emotionlessly, "Humans and game, if I can find them. Depends on what I am paid to do."

She said apathetically, "So you're an enslaver or bounty hunter looking for unprotected humans, right now?"

He said indifferently, "Yes, I get 200 gold for a human female, 125 for a male and 500 for a child." She thought, 'He is a filthy fae bounty hunter. He is selling kidnapped people from the Elven Kingdom.'

Sarah said seriously, "There is no human here, so move on, kidnapper. As you can see, I'm eating dinner, and you are disturbing me."

The hunter said amused, "How can I be sure? That smells good by the way."

She said stoically, "You'll just have to take my word for it. If you're not sure, that is your problem, not mine."

The hunter said, getting frustrated, "Why do you not take down that hood instead?"

She shouted, getting angry, "No, you're just going to have to wonder! I do not have to prove anything to you, hunter of humans!" The man walked up to the perimeters edge and squatted down, peering at her and picking up his arrow. Sarah saw him from under her hood. He would be considered a handsome fae with dark blonde hair and green or hazel eyes. He was dressed all in black.

She said callously, "That's the best and closest you're gonna get, bounty hunter."

The man said curiously, "You talk strangely. Where are you from?"

She said, perturbed, "Far away. It takes a long time to get there. That's why I talk differently."

He said matter of factly, "You could still be a human under there, so make a crystal."

Sarah rolled her eyes. She knew this guy was not going to stop or go away. She tried to see if she could make a crystal with her right hand. Sarah concentrated, made a seagreen crystal appear in her right hand and concentrated to pop it. It did and made her smile.

He said convincingly, "I believe you now. Why are you hiding your face, and why are your crystals in color?"

She shouted menacingly, "None of your damn business, bounty hunter! Move on! I grow weary of your prattling on with your questions! I am not here for your entertainment tonight! Go away or I will make you leave!"

She said perturbed, "I am a fae from faraway. You have no idea what I am capable of." Sarah was getting tempted to wish him away or better yet wish him to the Goblin Kingdom. Yeah, that's what she will do.

The man said frustrated, "I know you are hiding something."

She said aloofly, "How about a trip to the Goblin Kingdom?"

The man said incredulously, "What are you talking about? My work is here in the Elven Kingdom because they are more tolerant of humans and don't do slavery. Perfect place for humans to hide."

She said smugly, "Or the Goblin Kingdom. They are pretty tolerant from what I've heard."

The bounty hunter said condescendingly, "Those humans can't cross the border to the outside of the kingdom. They are untouchable to the rest of us in other kingdoms. Only noble fae in the Goblin Kingdom can enamour them. You really aren't from here, are you?"

Sarah rolled her eyes again and said detachedly, "Nope. But you're gonna love this. I 'wish' for this fae man with his horse and belongings to be transported inside the Goblin Kingdom." The man yelled and disappeared. She put away her leftovers and wished her pots were cleaned. She put everything away.

Sarah said to herself sighing, "I'm glad that jerk of a man is gone." She got up and went inside the tent. Sarah got situated and went right to sleep.

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 7
Day 26

The next day, once she was packed up, fed and had gone to the bathroom, she rode off to Faoithalamh (Below Ground). She made a stop for a couple of bathroom breaks and would sing softly to herself and her horses, while riding. Towards evening, she made it to Faoithalamh. Sarah went to one of the stables and boarded her horses brushing them down while feeding them a carrot each. When she came out with her belongings, she saw people walking out of a stone tunnel on an incline coming out towards the stables from out of the ground. You could see small stone pillars or columns sticking out of the ground here and there with smoke coming out of them. It must be chimneys.

There were massive trees the size of large buildings that went up just as high in the sky. You couldn't miss finding the place because she saw them at quite a distance all day when there were clearings in the trees while she rode toward it.

She walked toward the stone entrance, and it went down quite a ways. It leveled out, and there were streets and buildings with large tree roots winding around like vines circling and going down into the ground deeper and farther. They had built an incredible community down here with a reinforced stone ceiling, and you could see the chimneys go up through the top. The light was from large lanterns like flower bulbs attached organically from the tree roots. They glowed brightly. All Sarah could think is that plants and trees must love being around elves. She passed by a bakery, cobbler, jewelry store, market and everything you would have in a town. Sarah planned on looking around tomorrow to see what they offer in the shops.

When she made it to the inn, that was called The Stag's Head Inn. She walked in, and everything came to a silent stop in the busy place with music that was playing. She figured they must not get many strangers. Sarah walked up to the innkeeper, and he was an older-looking elf about fifty years old, but who could tell real age here. He was in a green shirt, brown vest, and green pants, with his shirt rolled up to his elbows.

He asked her, "What do you need?"

She said in her low voice, "Two nights stay?" The people were whispering.

The man said, "Nine silver a night. Room three." She gave him two gold, and he gave her the key and change.

The innkeeper said trying to look under her hood, “Your magic feels different than most. I can't tell if you're fae or elf under there, young fellow. My name is Kellen.”

Sarah took down her hood and the room gasped, "I'm Shara. Pleased to meet you, Kellen." People were still whispering. She put out her hand to shake it, and he did.

An elven handsome blonde man that was sitting at the counter got up leaving his ale and said, "Let me help you carry something." She said thank you, smiling at him kindly.

He picked up half her bags and followed her down the hall. Sarah opened the door to another really nice room. It had plumbing too. She thought the elves were very good with hygiene inside of the towns. She took off her longsword and bow, putting it on her bed. Sarah pulled her long braid out of her shirt.

The man had set down her bags looking at her and said to her in a friendly manner, "My name is Garrick. Get settled in and come get some dinner. Kellen had his wife Frannie make mutton and dumplings. It's her specialty." Garrick was a very handsome and good-looking elf, smiling at her. He had dishwater blonde hair to his mid back and dark, sparkling gray eyes. His hair was braided at the temples in three strands and pulled back to keep the long hair out of his face. Garrick was dressed in all brown leather and had a cream-colored shirt under his vest with the ties untied, showing a smooth-skin chest.

She smiled at him and nodded her head and said, "I am Shara. I will. Thanks again." He left thinking she was the most beautiful fae he ever saw with dark hair like an elf with green eyes that looked right through him. He smiled and left, going back to the counter in the Common Room.

She removed her cloak, her bow, her baldric, and sword, unbraided her hair, brushing it out and pulling the sides back by using a hair tie. Sarah said a wish to secure the room. She went down the hall in her full men's black leather outfit with a black long-sleeve t-shirt under the vest and waistcoat to the Common Room of the inn.

She sat down next to Garrick at the counter. Everyone was watching her, and it was a bit unnerving. The innkeeper, Kellen, asked nicely, "What can I get for you, young woman?"

Sarah replied smiling, "Wine and a meal? Garrick said your wife had a special meal made."

The innkeeper smiled and said, "It's one silver. Frannie sure did her best as always." He poured her wine and went and got her a plate of the best smelling chicken and dumpling dinner. She took a taste and groaned. Garrick and Kellen chuckled.

Garrick said grinning, "See I told you."

She said, smiling at him, "You are right." The band started playing music finally.

Garrick asked, grinning at her, "Where do you come from? You talk differently."

Sarah said seriously, "I am from very far away. It takes a long distance to get here." She had to be careful now that she knows she's fae from lying. So, she will have to get creative in word play. Kellen and Garrick nodded. She continued eating.

Garrick said curiously, "It must be hard traveling in disguise all the time."

She said chuckling, "It is, but I have managed. I am going to the Fairy Kingdom capital city of Rince (Dance) for a little while." He nodded.

Garrick said smiling, "I am going in a couple days to Rince as well. They are having the Harvest Festival in a couple weeks. I want to enroll in the archery tournament. There will be a joust, fairy rings, and vendors all week too. Hopefully you will get a room at one of the inn when we get there. They fill up fast."

He looked at her and said, "You know it is safer if we travel together."

Sarah smirked at him, coyly, while taking a drink of wine. She flirtingly said, "We will see, Garrick. I will be busy tomorrow looking at things at the market and shops tomorrow to see what this town offers. I will be stopping here for meals. Actually, I've never been here before and want to see the town.” He smiled at her casually flirting with him and realized she really is different from other fae women here, being aloof but still flirting with him. Most fae women were constantly fishing for compliments from him. The elven woman would fawn all over him and hang on his every word.

She thought going with him wasn't a bad idea because at least they camp and keep each other company while they traveled. Sarah finished her meal, excused herself, and went to her room.

She got out everything to bathe and her nightshirt. She took a hot bath and relaxed. Sarah washed her hair and washed all her clothes to hang up. She dried her hair in front of the fire and got in bed.

Day 27

Sarah had gone shopping and was looking in the stores at what they offered. She found at the jewelers an amethyst ring that was for invisibility. She bought it for 60 gold. Sarah had gone to meals in the pub or common room part of the inn and got to know Kellen, Frannie, and Garrick better. That night, Garrick walked her to her room after listening to music and dancing with her throughout the evening. He was charmed by her quirky personality and beautiful smile. He kissed her hand, goodnight, and her door. Garrick suddenly acted on impulse, pulled her close, and kissed her softly, putting his forehead to hers and sighed.

He said softly, “Goodnight, beautiful charming Shara. Thank you for a wonderful evening.”

Sarah smiled at him and said, “I hope your feet will recover in the morning. I really didn't mean to step on them so much.” He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose and walked back to the common room of the inn smiling to himself.

Day 28

She woke up the next morning and smiled because she remembered dancing last night. It was so much fun. She got up and got ready.

She had herself dressed and ready to go in her dark brown leather waistcoat, vest, and pants with brown lace-up boots. Sarah went to get breakfast but paused and wished for hidden objects again. Two old-looking pirate chests appeared. The big one had gold and cut stones in it. The second had 8 books, 3 jewelry boxes, and a box with a glass ball inside it. It had a crystal cluster inside of it suspended inside it. She kept the things in one chest, condensing them down and filling her bags, and wishing for another to hold the rest. The money chest was huge and heavy. She wished the empty chest away. Sarah was giving the big chest to Kellen. She left for breakfast.

She sat down, and Kellen saw her. He brought her tea with honey and then brought her a plate of eggs, venison, potato hash, and buttered biscuits with jam.

Garrick was already eating his breakfast. He smiled and said, "Good morning, Shara."

Sarah said to both of them, "Good morning gentleman. I need you both to come to my room when we are done, if you please." The two men were friends for a long time, and she found that out yesterday. She wasn't worried if Garrick was there.

Kellen asked curiously, "Is everything alright, Shara?"

She said smiling and nodding her head, "Everything is just fine. I have something for you, Kellen. I think you'll be surprised."

Kellen looked at Garrick with his eyebrow raised and said, "Ok, I'll have Frannie watch the counter for a few minutes." Sarah ate her breakfast enjoying every bite.

When she was done, Kellen and Garrick followed her to her room. She shut the door and walked over to the closed chest and said, "I have special magic and can find hidden things by whatever means. It is not the owner, employees, or patrons property but from inside the inn only. I have been checking inns I stay in for a while now. It revealed this." She opened the chest and Kellen and Garrick were speechless.

Kellen sat on the bed stunned. He said seriously, "You saved me, Shara, girl. I was going to have to sell because we were struggling. You just saved Frannie and me from giving up and having to go live in Nadur with her aunt." Kellen looked up at Sarah with tears in his eyes.

He stood up and hugged her and kissed her forehead saying, "The gods gave me a blessing indeed when they sent such an honest and lovely girl as you to my inn. You see there Garrick, I told you we just needed to pray harder to the gods and look, they sent a beautiful girl to save Frannie and me."

Garrick said stoically, "They have indeed. Go get Frannie to come in here. She’ll bust a button when she sees." Kellen kissed her on the cheek and left slipping out the door.

Frannie came in and said, "What's this I gotta see?" Garrick showed her.

Frannie was stunned and said, "Where did it come from?" Garrick told her the story Sarah told, and she squealed in excitement. Everyone laughed.

Frannie said with watery eyes, "You saved our lives, Shara. Kellen and I will never forget you, girl. You are always welcome here anytime. You come back one day, ok?" Sarah walked to her and hugged her.

She gave Frannie the key and said, "It was just a bit of magic. Lock up until you can move it safely.” Frannie nodded. Sarah put on her weapons and cloak, pulled her cowl up, and grabbed her baggage, and started walking to the room door. Garrick followed quietly. They walked out, and Garrick grabbed his bags from behind the counter. Kellen and Frannie wished them both well and hugged each other as Sarah and Garrick walked out of the inn headed to the stables above.

Garrick was quiet on the way to the stables. They both got their horses saddled and packed up. She had Mistr and Álainn ready to go. She and Garrick rode out of town together, headed to Rince by way of Bláthphéitseog (Peach Blossom). Sarah wondered why he was so quiet.

As the morning waned, not a word was said, so she started singing. Sarah sang and was releasing healing magic. Garrick saw it's like little tendrils floating through the air dancing around them…..

“The Bonny Swan” by Loreena Mckennitt

A farmer there lived in the north country
A hey ho and me bonny o
And he had daughters one, two, three
The swans swim so bonny o
These daughters they walked by the river's brim
A hey ho and me bonny o
The eldest pushed the youngest in
The swans swim so bonny o
-
Oh sister, oh sister, pray lend me your hand
A hey ho and me bonny o
And I will give you house and land
The swans swim so bonny o
I'll give you neither hand nor glove
A hey ho and me bonny o
Unless you give me your own true love
The swans swim so bonny o
-
Sometimes she sank, sometimes she swam
A hey ho and me bonny o
Until she came to a miller's dam
The swans swim so bonny o
The miller's daughter, dressed in red
A hey ho and me bonny o
She went for some water to make her bread
The swans swim so bonny o
-
O father, o daddy, here swims a swan
A hey ho and me bonny o
It's very like a gentle woman
The swans swim so bonny o
They laid her on the bank to dry
A hey ho and me bonny o
There came a harper passing by
The swans swim so bonny o
-
He made harp pins of her fingers fair
A hey ho and me bonny o
He made harp strings of her golden hair
The swans swim so bonny o
He made a harp of her breast bone
A hey ho and me bonny o
And straight it began to play alone
The swans swim so bonny o
-
He brought it to her father's hall
A hey ho and me bonny o
And there was the court assembled all
The swans swim so bonny o
He laid the harp upon the stone
A hey ho and me bonny o
And straight it began to play alone
The swans swim so bonny o
-
There does sit my father, the King
A hey ho and me bonny o
And yonder sits my mother the Queen
The swans swim so bonny o
And there does sit my brother Hugh
A hey ho and me bonny o
And by him William, sweet and true
The swans swim so bonny o
-
And there does sit my false sister Anne
A hey ho and me bonny o
Who drowned me for the sake of a man
The swans swim so bonny o
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When she finished, Garrick said emotionlessly, “You have a lovely voice. You released healing magic as you sang, did you know that? Are those songs from your homeland?”

She said blushing, “Yes, they are from my home, and thank you. I didn't know I released healing magic while singing. Interesting.”

He said eyeing her seriously, “I am sorry back there for getting so quiet. It is just very few people I have ever encountered in my life, shock and surprise me anymore.”

She asked seriously, "You're lucky then, because most people from time to time shock the ever living hell out of me. Are you what my people call jaded? Are you like those hardened people caused by the wrong kind of people with ulterior motives coming around and deceiving others?”

He said frowning, “Yes, actually, I am. It has been my experience that most never give, unless there is something to gain from it. You know, don't you?” Garrick sounded suspicious.

Sarah paused, looked over at him confused, and asked puzzled, “Know what?”

He said snidely, “Who I am, of course.”

She looked questionably at him and said, getting upset, “I've only been in this part of the realm for not quite thirty days so far. Why do you say it like that? Who are you then, because I haven't got a clue what you speak of, Garrick? You presented yourself as an elven man I just met. Why are you not that and being dishonest? Are you deceiving me in some fashion?”

He was set back by her response but masked himself and said slyly, “You knew I was royalty, didn't you? Is that the only reason you gave that money to Kellen and Frannie? To impress me?” She looked at him in complete shock with her mouth open at his accusation.

Sarah thought, ‘What an ego! Like I have an ulterior motive to be with him by being nice to his friends? What a jackass!’

She shouted at him angrily, “To impress you?! You?! My, my, you have a big monster-sized royal ego to feed, don't you?! I don't need anything from you ever, Garrick! To be kind to someone is my own business, and you were not even a factor in my decision! I don't need a royal pain in the ass around me, Garrick! I have had that experience before, and whomever and whatever position you have, I don't give a gods be damn! You really think I would only be kind and honest to somebody to impress the likes of you?! I have never been so insulted in my life!”

She veered off and headed away in a full gallop as fast as her horse tethered pack horse could keep up. Sarah made a fair distance away from him. He frowned watching her ride away from him. She was headed to the city in the same direction but away from him.