Drabble #143: Light at the end of the tunnel

[jalenstrix]

...we had a nice response to my last posted drabble prompt of Drabble 139, with entries by redwolf and commenting by me (your intrepid drabble proposer jalenstrix). (Once again, my real life nonsense got in the way this month of me completing my own drabble....sigh. Next time...)

As always, special labyfic love to redwolf for adding entries and comments for several previous drabble prompts. Huzzah!





For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:

Light at the end of the tunnel

What is this light? Is it daylight...or an oncoming train? Literal or metaphorical? Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.




Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit for this month of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:
Word count: # of words
$your_beautiful_drabble


I'll aim to get the next drabble challenge out on the first Tuesday of next month (Mar 5).

I'm also very happy to take suggestions if something in particular strikes your fancy -- comment on this post or PM me with your suggestions. You can see our current collected suggestions here.


Remember: Feedback is LOVE. So do reply to your fellow labyficcers' drabbles if so inclined. (Though be careful of concrit unless specifically okayed by the author beforehand. Authors generally write for love.)

Comments

Mediary

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

This wasn’t the first time a trading partner had used the Goblin Kingdom as a face saving solution for a tricky domestic problem.

Jareth had allowed the situation to run for the morning, meaning that Sarah had suffered through through the leering, innuendo, condescension and outright incompetence of a delegation lead who had been blessed with the right parents and a frightening lack of intelligence coupled with a belief in his own self importance.

Sarah had skipped lunch and headed to the training room where, under Bishop’s watchful eyes, she had taken her frustrations out on the heavy bag.

Jareth had found different means to channel his annoyance and, when she’d collected him from the studio, she’d found him giggling like a loon with Rook as they discussed imaginative demises for terrible guests. An art collaboration lay between them, the spiky abstract lines clearly conveying a sense of violence and menace. She expected that wherever it ended up, it would give the owner nightmares.

Stealing herself as they approached the meeting room, Sarah let her magic wash over her as she transformed into her Goblin Queen armour. She felt a frisson around her as Jareth did the same and their Guardians shifted to their enormous shadow forms.

They resumed their seats at the head of the table, with Rook and Bishop at their shoulders in silent menace.

It seemed that the puffed up little bureaucrat had not listened to his openly embarrassed team members, as he continued to imply that Sarah would benefit from sharing his bed. She was almost impressed at the lack of awareness from the man. As his companions backed away from him, Sarah’s magic very visibly crackled along her arms and the Guardians growled in a tone low enough to be felt through her chest.

“Lord Sunnack?” Jareth laid a gentle hand over Sarah’s to calm her as he interrupted the man’s astounding lack of clue with a polite query. Sarah recognised the tone. It was soft and pleasant and it did not bode well for anyone on the receiving end.

“Yes, your Majesty?” The man turned to Jareth for the first time.

“One of our Guardians has expressed an interest in you.”

“They have?” Sarah could see the avarice light his face as he contemplated getting his sticky fingers on one of the legendary Guardians of the Goblin Kingdom.

“Oh yes,” Jareth grinned widely, showing off his very sharp teeth. “They asked if I would mind terribly if they removed your eyeballs with a rusty spoon.”

The lord guffawed at what he assumed was a joke, until Rook stepped forward and placed a decidedly weathered piece of cutlery on the table with a solid clunk. The colour drained from the man’s face, swiftly followed by the distinct aroma of urine and a panicked scuttling for the door where he vanished. Sarah briefly wondered if Jareth had sent him back to his own Kingdom or bogged him before realising that she didn’t actually give a toss.

[jalenstrix]

Word count: 375

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.

I’d heard those words quipped often enough, but today I felt it in my bones. Though to be fair, maybe the light was more like an oncoming motorcycle (which could still be dodged). But it was most certainly not, as one might have hoped, a passage into freedom, happiness, and calm.

The dissolution was supposed to have been done today. It was going to be painful, and I was going to have to assume a magical Faerie mantle and raise four royal children to somehow not get killed by their extended Faerie family, but it was for the best, everybody agreed, it was the only reasonable way forward, etc. Jareth hadn’t been in his right mind since the iron poisoning, and the realm was being held together by the equivalent of metaphysical duct tape while we persisted in this state of limbo.

Hence, the intended final dissolution.

Which he managed to derail yet again. It would still move forward, but slowly and painfully, costing unknown additional resources. And definitely not happening today.

If he’d been in his right mind, I would have said Jareth was orchestrating a Machiavellian plot to extract my sanity from me one bloody chunk at a time. But he wasn’t in his right mind, and no one had a clue if he ever would be again, and my children missed their father, and I missed my husband so much it took my breath away if I thought about it too long, and just…fuck.

The Labyrinth’s presence curled gently into my mind, settling metaphorically on my mental lap. Tuna?

What?

Sometimes satisfying the body can help calm the mind. You haven’t eaten in ages, and protein is good for you.

But tuna?

Some part of you must have a yearning. Half the bog has transformed into a lovely stretch of water teeming with fish that appear to be tuna.

I put my head in my hands, smiling just a little despite myself. Well, at least it’ll improve the smell.

Small favors.

You got that right. I stood up and called out in the general direction the kids were likely to be. “My little loves, who wants to go fishing?”

[redwolf]

Would throwing tuna at Jareth derail his situation? You occasional have rains of fish and getting inundated with something the size of tuna should knock sense into anybody 🦊🧡

[jalenstrix]

I somehow doubt it, alas! But you never know... ;)

Re: Mediary

[jalenstrix]

Oh, how gloriously satisfying! Trust Jareth to know how best to deploy select cutlery.

Re: Mediary

[redwolf]

Never underestimate the educational uses of a decent spoon. Or that one you just found buried in the garden that's now sporting a nice bloom of rust. 🦊🧡