The Labyrinth natives and world belong to Henson Productions Stephan and Lucas to their listian owners Greek Mythology gave me Eris, Apollo, Aphrodite, Zeus, and Medusa If I missed anything, I'm really sorry--peach me good:)
Please enjoy!
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A tall, beautiful brunette was standing over a table, looking into the golden bowl of water that stood on it. The room, the floor, even the cloth wrapped around her was a pure, almost blinding white. She chuckled pleasantly to herself.
"How is it you play godmother to a mortal line, Eris?" puzzled a handsome young man beside her.
She rolled her eyes at Apollo. "Leave it. They aren't mortals, either. The Underground is different," she said, her green eyes portraying a hint of what she was: the goddess of discord and confusion.
"And don't tell me even you don't find the Heralds...special." They were wild eyes, made even more so by the calm, lovely face they were placed in, and she turned them back to the water.
He scoffed. The god of the sun was not interested. "All the same, women, even goddesses."
She turned to him, and even his strong nature was thrown by the look she gave him. "You dare compare me to my sisters?" she demanded, eyes narrowing. "Those vain, selfish, ignorant--" Thunder rumbled above her. She subsided moodily, then went back to the bowl of water.
Apollo clucked his tongue. "You'd do better to remember you're not among the favorites, after that golden apple mess."
Eris smiled. "It was worth it. And in my capacity as a goddess, I can still do damage. For instance..."
The girl walking with Aeris was so beautiful it was hard to look at her for any amount of time. Even Jareth was dazed, though he hadn't been won. Stephan was a different story, but it appeared that the girls had lost him for the time being in the Firey Forest.
She had dark, smooth skin, with delicate Mediterranean features. Her wide, deep eyes shone like black gems in the setting of her face. Her hair was braided much as Aeris had worn hers once, and her clothing was little more than a large piece of cloth twisted around her body. Not exactly modest, but in its simplicity, it magnified the beauty of the already gorgeous girl who wore it.
"I don't know how I got here," she said. Her face was confused and distressed, but underneath, Aeris read the vanity that was ready to spring up at the slightest notice. "I went to sleep in my bed. I woke up there."
Aeris nodded, still trying to get some kind of image of where the girl was from. Lucas had spent most of the morning trying to figure it out himself, then called on the young Herald for assistance. The girl had been found earlier that day, sleeping quietly on the Goblin King's throne, somehow unimpeded by the hard rock it was made of. She was a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Or a very light piece of material, as far as Stephan was concerned, and that was most of the reason for the walk through the forest. Aeris had found it impossible to work with the young man following every step the girl made--and invariably getting in Aeris' way.
"Alright, we've been over it a dozen times, I know, but did anything unusual happen? Did you say anything...make a wish to the Goblins or anything like that?"
"What?"
Aeris shrugged hopelessly. "You don't even know what those little monsters are, do you?"
"You mean, the things all over the..."
"Castle, yeah."
"Castle?" was the question the girl returned.
There was definitely a language barrier. By virtue of the Underground's magic, her speech was made understandable to those around her, but what she lacked knowledge of, like castles and Goblins and such, she couldn't communicate. To Aeris, she was an endless series of impressions...words she couldn't fathom the meaning of, names she had never heard but seemed commonplace in the other girl's mind, beautiful buildings with long, elegant columns, and none of it anything like the Underground or the Aboveground she knew.
The girl was talking again. "It is impossible that you could not have heard of my home. Athens, Athens, Athens!"
There was arrogance in the voice, and Aeris puzzled deeply, trying to find some semblance of recognition, but got nothing.
"Oh," the girl sighed, holding up hands. "Sparta then, have you heard of that?"
She shook her head.
"I don't believe you!" The girl turned to run off, but Aeris grabbed her wrist.
"You'd better not run off like that. There are all kinds of things out here." She thought of the crazy Fireys.
The young woman frowned at her. "I have escaped Aphrodite. I am charmed."
She assumed Aphrodite was some monster, perhaps an Aboveground menace. Everything else about Medusa's world was so strange she didn't even bother to wonder at it. At any rate, Aeris didn't like it one bit.
"Tell me more about where you come from. I want to get you home as soon as possible," she said, trying and failing to keep the irritated edge out of her voice.
No questions yielded any useful answers. Some of the things Aeris was talking about were completely out of the other girl's grasp, and even if they weren't, Medusa's answers were just as mysterious to the Herald. There seemed nothing to do but return and hope Lucas had an idea. Back at the castle, Stephan was waiting with roses for Medusa.
"Oh, for me?" she drawled, ignoring Aeris' questions about just who this Zeus was, taking the flowers and smelling them.
Aeris gave Stephan a stern look. "I'm trying to help your father. Would you mind staying out of my way?"
"With relish," he said, with distaste that was worthy of Jareth. He offered his arm to the girl. "Why don't we take a stroll through the castle? I'll show you the different rooms." She took his arm, shooting Aeris a poisoned look. They walked away from her.
Jareth came out of the castle past them. "What is going on here?" he demanded of the Herald. "I thought, I suppose mistakenly, that you were interviewing her, not playing matchmaker."
"They did it themselves. I wash my hands of that girl. Everything she's talking about...I've never heard any of it!"
"Wait, wait. What is she saying?"
She shook her head. "It's...Well, ever heard of Zeus? Aphrodite? Do you know where Athens and Sparta are?"
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. The fact that he was knee-weakeningly handsome when he did that didn't escape her notice, but its being an everyday occurrence made it quite a bit easier to shrug off. "I think there's a book..."
"What?"
"A book I saw. Athens is in Greece, Aeris. An ancient city in the Aboveground."
Stunned, Aeris followed him into the Library. He pulled one volume after another off the shelves, shaking his head as he looked at them, tossing them aside for more. WORLD RELIGIONS, CULTS AND CULTURES, TALL TALES AND LEGENDS.
"Here!" he finally called triumphantly. "This one!"
It read GREEK MYTHOLOGY across the cover. She opened it, and there they were, pictures of people dressed exactly like Medusa was, the cloth and the sandals. Jareth picked it up and flipped through the pages, and began reading.
"Zeus is the king of the gods that Medusa's people worshipped. I use past tense because...well, the power that Medusa's people held has long since passed from the Aboveground. Only their descendants remain, in a country called Greece, where Athens is still a city. However, much of their artwork and the legends of their religion survive, not to mention incredible wonders of architecture."
"And their gods?"
He flipped some pages, and after a long silence, responded. "Very real, as real as you or I, but they were not exactly gods in the sense you'd think. More like a twisted, immortal sect of the Underground that broke apart years ago. In the Aboveground they are very powerful, and have chosen for themselves the representation that suits them best. There is a god for each aspect of humanity."
She nodded. "Makes sense."
"Aphrodite, Aeris, is the goddess of beauty and love. There are so many here...Medusa!"
"She's a goddess?" cried Aeris, leaning over to look.
"No, no... She's mentioned though."
"Tell me," she insisted.
Jareth raised his voice a little, reading the passage to her. "Medusa: the gorgon. Once she was a beautiful but vain girl in the Aboveground. She went so far as to claim herself the equal of the goddess Aphrodite, who, in a rage, transformed her into the hideous gorgon. Her hair became a mass of poisonous snakes, and her face so hideous that no mortal could look upon it without being turned to stone."
"Creepy," said Aeris. "But that's not who we have."
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe it is. There's no denying she's vain."
"But she said she'd beaten Aphrodite."
Jareth turned it over in his mind. "Does she seem terribly bothered by being here?"
Aeris thought about it, then shook her head. "She looked a little upset by it, but she seems to kind of like the Underground. She's not in any hurry to get home."
"Herald, I have a feeling her presence here has just put us in a lot of danger. I don't know how she came. Perhaps another god or goddess is protecting her. But if this is who she is, and the story has yet to change, then I would make the assumption that Aphrodite does indeed accomplish this transformation."
"You'd have to be pretty upset with someone to turn them into a monster." He gave her a sideways glance. "You'd be surprised."
"So...just how far would this Aphrodite go to get it done?" They exchanged a look of dawning horror. Without a word, they shut the book and rushed to find Lucas.
"Clever thing, isn't she?" said Eris.
Apollo shrugged. "Quick on the uptake, I suppose. Doesn't even know who you are. Or any of the rest of us." He seemed a little pouty.
"Doesn't matter." She waved her hand at him. "Aphrodite will be putting in her appearance soon. That vain little harlot just isn't the sort to give up...especially not in a beauty contest."
Medusa was in the Mirror Hall with Stephan. As entranced with her as he was, he was beginning to get bored with her endless compliment fishing, and he had realized what a tragic mistake it had been to bring her into a room lined with ornately framed mirrors. She was admiring her pretty figure in one, unabashedly putting her hands on her hips and turning slowly around to see herself.
"I'll say it again," she told Stephan. "Aphrodite has no beauty to compare to my own--it was her jealousy, not my words that drove her spiteful action."
Lucas froze in the doorway, hearing her words. "What is this?" he demanded of her.
Medusa, startled, turned to the Goblin King, and then cast her charms at him, a slow, flirtatious smile lighting her face. "Why, Stephan was showing me around the castle."
"You can have her," Stephan told Aeris, stalking to the exit, tossing his roses behind him. "Ever heard that beauty is only skin-deep, Medusa?"
The girl only gave him a confused, slightly irritated glance and turned back to the king. Lucas' face darkened considerably. "You spoke of having beaten Aphrodite. She is your goddess of beauty?"
Medusa nodded nonchalantly. "I suppose so. Of course, she's not the prettiest girl I've seen. Well, you must want to know about what happened...one morning, as I was looking in a pool of water, I realized just how beautiful I was, and I spoke. I said 'Indeed, I am as lovely as Aphrodite herself,' and the next thing I know, the heavens are thundering and the priests are saying that I've brought the wrath of the goddess down on myself. Obviously not, if I'm here."
"I'd like to state, for the record, I do not think you're charmed," said Aeris. "Perhaps you have yet to realize that Aphrodite could find you here."
Medusa utter a short laugh. "I bid her do her worst."
The flash of light and clap of thunder that resounded in the room blinded and deafened all there for a moment, and when they could see again, there was a new figure in the room, a woman with curling blond hair falling all around her, covering her nudity. She turned to look curiously at Lucas, Jareth, and Aeris. She was stunning, infinitely more beautiful than Medusa, her radiance making that girl seem plain. Briefly, Aeris imagined she must look like a hag compared to the two of them.
"Medusa, you will be punished," the woman told her.
The girl looked up at the ceiling. "Gods, save me!" she cried, stretching her arms up.
"I think not. Unless I'm mistaken, it was the one-time intervention of my sister to vex me that sent you here. But I, a goddess, am far above time and distance. And you, mortal girl, will now bear the punishment for your vanity."
"Wait," said Lucas. "Don't. If you mean to make her a monster, as they told me you do, then what?"
The woman turned, her gorgeous face crossed by a puzzled frown. "I hadn't thought of that, actually. I was just going to vanish. I guess that's out of the question now."
Aeris rolled her eyes. What was *wrong* with these girls? "Look, why don't you just put off this monster thing until you've cooled off?" she suggested.
"Certainly not. She has committed a grievous sin."
"Sin," scoffed Aeris. "Vanity or daring to compare herself to you?"
Aphrodite puzzled for a moment, then shrugged. "Don't know, don't care...wait a minute. What do you mean by that?"
Aeris smacked a hand to her forehead.
The realization dawned slowly on her face. "You think I'm stupid don't you?" shrieked the woman. "I'll have you know I'm a goddess--"
"Not the one of wisdom, I'm sure," she muttered.
"Aeris," hissed Lucas.
She let out an angry squeal. "Fine! Fine! We'll just see who's so smart!" And then in another thunderclap, Aeris' world went dark.
There was stillness all around her, and even though she kept blinking, her vision remained dark. "What happened?" she demanded of the room.
A soft sound like a rush of air answered her, and then something sliding across the floor. She reached out frantically, blinking hard, trying to dispel the black. Her hand instead touched stone, and she could feel Jareth's chest, and the pendent he wore, all frozen in a statue. "Medusa?" she called.
"Here," said a low, almost dangerous voice. "What has she made me, Herald?"
"I can't see you, Medusa. I think...I think I'm blind. You made them stone," she said, feeling Lucas there too.
Her agonized howl spiraled up through the room, vibrating through Aeris' being. "Please," begged the girl. "Make me like I was!"
"I...I can't."
A weird, hissing, screeching sound grated over Aeris' ears, and she realized that Medusa was crying. "Gods," she was saying, in her broken, pleading voice.
"Medusa," said another voice.
"Who's there?" demanded Aeris.
"My name is Eris. I am the goddess of discord and confusion. And you will hear more from me, my child. But now I take my leave with this monstrosity. It is strange, is it not, that such a lovely creature as Aphrodite could conjure up such hideousness?"
"I'm blind," she said numbly. "I wouldn't know."
"So you are. But your friends stand in mute testament, as will many mortals in the Aboveground. My sister's punishment will be far-reaching. But take heart, for this is a magic place, and it is good magic. Nothing cannot be undone. Seek beauty, my child. And write it in the water."
"What?" she cried, but silence answered her. The sounds of Medusa's sobs were gone as well, and Aeris knew she was alone. She attempted to take a step forward, but instead fell over, and lay on the polished floor, feeling the cold stone against her face and listening to the silence around her in the dark. She began to cry.
"Not exactly how you planned it, eh?" jested Apollo.
Eris shot the god a glance that would have rivaled the gorgon's. "No, it's not. Aphrodite was simply too foolish to just leave it at Medusa. I'm done with that monster, but Aeris has yet to figure out the way to return them to normal...and herself. It's about beauty, Apollo, what lies inside someone. It's what she can see even though she can't see."
"A strange test."
"A good one."
Aeris stood, puzzling the words over and over in her mind. Seek beauty and write it in the water. What water? And what beauty? She reached out, searching with her fingers, and grasped the doorframe.
"Goblin!" she cried at the top of her lungs.
A panting and scurrying of feet answered her, and one of the kings minions was there. "Your bidding?" it asked. It sounded like one of the smarter ones. She hoped.
"Bring me some water," she told it. "A small basin will do. And hurry!"
She waited, slipping down to sit against the door frame. The goblin returned slowly, and she heard the water sloshing in the bowl.
"Put it right here in front of me," she commanded, and then ordered it to leave, listening until it was gone before she reached out for the bowl, touching the water.
It felt different. She realized it was because she was concentrated entirely on the touch, and she rubbed her fingers together in the water. It was silky, clean, somehow a pure feeling. She liked it. But she was still puzzling over how to write beauty in the water. The water was beautiful, though, and she kept touching it, her thoughts drifting strangely. She was thinking of beauty, what made something good to look at...but what made something good to touch, good to know? And she spoke aloud.
"Lucas...he's kind and strong and wise. He listens to me, and everyone else around him worth listening to, and even some who aren't. He's good."
The water was getting warmer. She thought it was probably just her imagination, the temperature becoming more familiar as she kept her hand in it. She kept talking.
"And Jareth is beautiful, because he's mysterious. He's intelligent, and sometimes good, but he's like walking into a white fog." There was no mistaking it now. The water grew almost hot. She took her hand out, shocked, the answer coming to her. "Maybe that's..." She put her hand back into the water. Though her eyes couldn't see it, her Herald powers suddenly gave her a glimpse of it. The water was changing colors, from blue to purple, to almost red. She put both hands in.
"And me. I'm beautiful. Because I'm am myself."
The water became a brilliant white, so bright she could sense it though her darkness. She put her hands to her eyes, the liquid dripping down like tears.
She opened her eyes to a gorgeous world of color, and the laugh that bubbled up inside her she would never forget: sheer joy at being able to look at her universe again. She looked into the water, the white light shining up out of it. She picked up the bowl, still laughing, and splashed it over the stone figures beside her, and they instantly came to life, moving and breathing, wondering at her laughter. They had no knowledge of what had happened.
Aeris told them the story in the throne room, sitting in the indention in the stone floor. She caught a glimpse of the throne room sometimes that was disturbing--the place in tatters, goblins everywhere...but she brushed it aside repeatedly to tell the story to them.
Lucas spoke first after she finished. "How did you figure it out?"
"I don't think I did," she said, her brow furrowing. "I think...well, I think I had some help from somewhere."
"Convey my thanks the next time you hear from them," he told her, smiling.
"It worked out, just like I knew it would," Eris told Apollo, grinning triumphantly.
"You needn't lord it over me. I never said it wouldn't. I was a bit skeptical is all."
He walked away from her, half-marching as he always did. Eris' grin lowered into a smile of deep satisfaction...and planning. She turned back to the golden bowl of water, where Aeris was collecting her things to go home.
"Oh, you'll be hearing more about me. It's time you knew about your godmother, my dear."
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Believe in me,
Alexa