Once again, Amry had found herself flung unexpectedly onto a hard stone floor. She groaned deeply, starting now to really feel the effects of all her falling. Carefully, slowly, she pulled herself up onto her feet. As Amry did this, she had a chance to take in her new surroundings. Where ever she was, it wasn't the hall anymore. She was back above ground, in the midst of a place that resembled the stone maze she had first navigated; same brown-grey laid stone beneath her feet, same confusing twists, but the walls were hedges. Green hedges, bushy, tall, and thick.

Where she was standing was a flat clearing small and round in shape, with a few odd stone ornaments that looked like empty heavy planters here and there. Why had she ended up here? Was she in the painting? This didn't make much sense...

Worriedly rubbing her sore calf, Amry's eyes fell on the dangling crystal hanging off her chest...curious; she stopped massaging her aches and examined it. Rotating it in her fingers. Not a scratch, or a chip, or even a smudge, and she hadn't exactly been easy on it.

Behind her, watching, waiting stood Jareth. He had carefully stepped back from Amry before she had gotten up, allowing himself to go unnoticed until he decided he wanted to be. Lazily he leaned against one of the carved planters near a hedge wall, arms neatly folded across each other. He looked as if he had all the patience in the world, all the time in the world by the way he stood, staring unabashed at Amry's unaware back. However, it had been his vast impatience that compelled him to manipulate the girl so she would touch his painting, and even now, well hidden, his impatience ate at his core. Jareth was very good at controlling his emotions, when he wanted to.

Except for this one, the gentle quiet emotion that disturbed his concentration as he watched Amry. One he would just have to try to ignore.

Abruptly, Amry stiffened, as though some extra sense had tingled, and she turned around. Jareth made no attempt at moving, or hiding his stare. Now his gaze was met by a pair of startled deep brown eyes. He remember looking into them at the dance, and a painful memory of Sarah found its way to his thoughts...

Amry was staring back at him in a softly amazed sort of way. Her eyes were surprised, her mouth slightly ajar.

His hair was silken silver gold, layered unevenly with odd long strands laying against his long pale face. Two eyes of opposite hues and pupil sizes steadily observed her, oddly full of emotion in contrast to the stone-set expression on the thin lips, controlled breathing and set jaw. Usually, makeup on a male is obvious and somewhat ridiculous, but on this man the pale coloring around the eyes seemed to fit, blending so naturally with the owl-like features it took Amry a notice to recognize it as such. He was tall and lanky, slight of build. His knee-high black boots, soft grey leggings, and open chested white ruffled shirt hanging loosely looked only fitting. His overall appearance was easy, laid back and subtly seductive, somehow a manifestation of how Amry had always thought of magic. There was something oddly familiar about him...

She didn't notice the hanging silence until he blinked, the action breaking the spell of entrancement. Amry then registered two things; one, this was the man from the painting, and two, he seemed to be waiting for her to speak first. Now she shifted uneasily under his silent gaze, not sure what to say to a man such as this.

It was Jareth's rule to always let the other make the first move during the first encounter. This way, he could observe actions, attitudes, and thoughts and could respond accordingly, in complete control of the situation. His eyes were shining with amusement; it always was entertaining to watch the first reactions to his presence.

This was how it was suppose to be. Jareth felt more in control now things were back in the familiar order.

Amry felt her mouth go dry, and hastily attempted to wet it. She felt the man's glare like a heavy weight, and his passive state made her uncomfortable.

Finally, she managed to force her tongue to work././

"Umm...could you help me, maybe? I'm trying to get through this labyrinth, and if you could point me the right way..."

She trailed off. The figure before her's expression was still blank and observant, not acknowledging her question or even the fact she had spoken in the merest flinch. She sank back into her silence, and her wonderment at this man. He was beautiful, like Amry had imagined such things as unicorns being, with eyes that ensnared you...those eyes. Hadn't she seen them somewhere before?

The man's arms suddenly moved, startling Amry. His wrist twisted gracefully and from nowhere, a round full transparent sphere rolled snugly into his palm. The man lowered his eyes, seemed to consider it, then returned them back to the watching Amry.

"Tell me..." His voice was quiet and full, softly accented "what do you dream of?" 

"What...what do I dream of? But, what does that hav..."

He interrupted, "Surely you must have secret wishes?"

His eyes were again burning into her. They were set, emotionless now except for the firmness of their gaze. Amry, looking deeply into them, nodded her head slowly.

"Well then...."

As he said this, he glided into motion, shifting his weight back to his legs. Maneuvering the transparent sphere to a rather precarious-looking position on the ends of his fingertips, he walked a few paces and then simply stood across from Amry, elbow bent and clear ball held upright, on level with his jaw. He tilted his head, hair shifting with the movement, eyes sure and certain. Certainty in doubt.....why was he so familiar?!?

"What do you dream of?"

Now, when someone asks a person out of the blue what they dream of, that person don't exactly feel compelled to answer with their deepest desires. But with the mention of her dreams, thoughts involuntary surfaced. Undeniable and present. Amry shifted her eyes down for a moment, feeling each thought, then returned them back to the piercing and questioning gaze.  What was she suppose to answer?

"Amry....I know what you dream of."

She didn't have time to wonder over how he knew her name before he continued.

" Yours are dreams of a different world. A world filled with something yours cannot give you...understanding. Your world is unseeing, cannot understand who you are inside. All you want is for a place where they can."

Her eyes had widened in shock, and her mouth unarguably agape. The accuracy, even the wording....Amry felt vulnerable, naked now, with the most secret part of her exposed.  Her mind went back to the events of late, the dance...it seemed that had been ages ago...and the crushing sense of alone...She backed up, feeling an unexplainable terror at him now. For a moment his beauty twisted into something cruel and sharp. She didn't want to talk anymore, or be stared into. She wanted to run.

Jareth took in the look on the girl's features...and marveled in his curious wonderment. For an individual who was suppose to be as different as the Fifth Parallel, how could her wants be so similar to all the others who had passed through this place? For some reason, he felt stronger for this knowledge. He would seduce her with promises of dreams, and crush her with their fulfillment.

The terror pulsed in her, but the cruelty she'd seen had come and gone in the blink of an eye. Amry wondered if she had even really seen such hardness in him, perhaps she had only imagined it. She felt calmed by this suggestion, and tried to swallow her fear.

"What if I could give that to you, Amry?.....What if I could give you your dreams?"

His voice was almost teasing. Her expression shifted from stunned to cautious curiosity.

"Do you see this, Amry?" He gestured the round clear ball on his fingers.

"This is a crystal, nothing more. But if you turn it this way, and look into it, it will show you your dreams."

As he spoke, the crystal seemed to leap free of the fragile leverage offered by his fingers, and airily sank down into the man's arms. He moved his hands in rhythm with the crystal, catching and twirling, rolling and swaying, the whole time Amry's eyes follow the dance.

The crystal then hopped lightly back on his fingers. He raised the crystal to his chest. His expression was serious. "And I can give it to you. Do you want it?"

He extended the crystal out toward her, taking a step closer so it was only an arm's length away. It would be so easily snatched....

She ran this over in her mind. Was she suppose to take it? A part of her longed to simply see what it showed, if it really showed her dreams...her longing was obvious on her face, and Jareth couldn't help but smile. But her hesitation unnerved him. Something didn't feel right to Amry...

"Why do you think you were brought to the Labyrinth, Amry? You are special. You have earned this gift..."

Amry regarded him. A conflict was going on inside her. She was rubbing the black crystal at her throat in her concentration. A voice in her head, strangely not her own, was crying out to her, growing louder and louder.

No....no...don't....no...

Something felt very wrong, like part of her knew this was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"I...I can't."

She didn't understand why. She didn't understand how.  But she understood she just couldn't.

A wave of fury broke over Jareth. So close...he had hoped to get her now, and save time. How could she refuse him?

"Then, try this path."

The tone was emotionless, deliberately empty. The hand holding the crystal was withdrawn, and somehow the crystal itself disappeared. He indicated a path to Amry's right with a sweeping gesture then and began to walk away.

Amry regarded him for a last time, then, still confused at this encounter, delved in the path he had pointed out.

Jareth paused before reaching the opposite side of the clearing. He glanced over his shoulder.

"And best of luck to you."

A different crystal, although it looked the same to the human eye, formed in his palm, and he swung it diagonally across the front of his body and released it over the opposite shoulder. Dreamily it soared over the labyrinth, finally sinking into a clump of hedges that connected to the path Amry had taken.

Then he proceeded forward and vanished into the maze.

~Meanwhile~

Sarah sat bolt upright in her bed. Her breath was ragged, words caught between each gasp...

"No...no...don't take it....no...."

Heavily she swallowed, and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. She put a hand to her head.

-She could leave the Labyrinth, but the Labyrinth never left her-

~