Drabble #235: Bottle

[redwolf]

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

Bottle

Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.

Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit 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

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Comments

Annulus

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

It had taken Jareth weeks to uncover the reason that inebriated, young men kept turning up in the Labyrinth when they hadn’t been wished away.

Their drunkenness was both a blessing and a curse. In the state they had been found, they were all happy to hold conversations with inanimate objects, so being returned Above barely dented their alcoholic stupor. Alas, it made questioning them an impossibility if you were hoping for useful information.

Sarah sat in the bower beside Jareth. “You have to admit it was genius.” She sipped her tea to hide her amusement.

“Yes, yes, very clever.” Jareth waved a hand in annoyed dismissal.

The goblins had managed to create a game that seemed to be a cross between a scavenger hunt and a game of chutes and ladders. Sarah had been horrified that Jareth called it snakes and ladders and was relieved the goblins hadn’t taken that name literally or their wayward visitors may have had more of an adventure than a drunken debate with a goblin where wildly different concepts of fouls were in question.

The ladders tended to be actual ladders that let a participant find an item or skip ahead. It was the snake or chute part where they had gotten creative by using fairy circles as portals to penalise a player.

“I don’t understand why they had portals leading Above.”

Jareth pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “I don’t think they do either.”

The problematic chute was supposed to take a player Above, with a second fairy circle in clear sight that would return them to a more distant locale in the Labyrinth to add time to their journey. This was not a problem if you were playing Underground, but it was a different matter if you stumbled in from Above.

“In their defence, it was hidden.” The fairy circle really wasn’t easy to find. Unfortunately, the goblins had failed to anticipate that placing their portal in a park near a popular pub would prove troublesome. Or that more than one person who had been kicked out at closing may have taken a detour through the park, before stumbling off the path to redistribute the evening’s intake of lager in the shrubbery. Heavily intoxicated humans were typically not aware of their surroundings enough that they would notice a fairy circle, and for that matter, they didn’t seem to realise their accidentally stepping through a portal would make hailing a ride home more difficult than usual.

“Fortunately, they were all still in possession of identity documents that allowed me to transport them home.”

Jareth had removed the Above chute from the game and any grumbles were silenced when he threatened to return it, but link it to the bog.

Sarah found it a little sad that there were several young men who had had the greatest adventure of their lives and, not only didn’t realise it while it was happening, but would never remember the time they stumbled into another world.