Sarah wasn’t happy with any of her designs for a range of ceramics about to come out of the kiln. She had gone looking to see if she could find inspiration elsewhere.

She had thought that helping Thadie would provide a useful distraction, but she hadn’t expected to travel beyond the city.

“What are we doing out here?” Sarah asked as she watched several goblins lay out large tarpaulins on the meadow, while others unpacked covered baskets.

Thadie had been quietly enigmatic about their task beyond telling Sarah that it would be mostly supervisory.

With the tarps readied to the goblins' satisfaction, they stood in a group, chattering excitedly as they watched the road. Sarah followed their line of sight to see an approaching coach.

It was the kind of vehicle Sarah would have expected a dignitary to arrive in, especially when she’d travelled in an open cart of supplies with Thadie and the goblin workers. She was more than a little surprised when a tiny goblin exited the coach and without a word, walked over to stand in the middle of the nearest tarpaulin. Before Sarah could question the actions, a rain of petals fell from the sky directly over the goblin. With a resigned sigh the goblin muttered something to another goblin who had hurried over to take notes.

As the petals formed a mound almost burying the goblin, the rain ceased. The tiny goblin waded through the petals to the next tarpaulin and the rain commenced once more.

“Those petals are a different colour.” Sarah also noted that they appeared larger in size than the first batch. As she watched, a group of goblins rushed in to gather up the tarpaulin and carefully decant its contents into one of the baskets, this was carefully labeled and the cleared tarpaulin returned to its place.

“Around this time of year Petal gets a wide array of different flora in her precipitation,” Thadie nodded to the basket. “That was Jacaranda, the next one is a dark red, possibly a rose varietal."

Sarah understood Thadie’s interest in collecting botanicals for her work with pigments, it was the goblin who was creating the collection that raised questions. “Why?” She waved her hand in the direction of Petal who had moved onto a third tarp.

“The nearest we can guess is that she intercepted a curse targeting a child.” Thadie shrugged. “Petal was brought to the infirmary unconscious and suffering short term memory loss.” Sarah grimaced in sympathy. It took a concerted effort to injure a goblin. “It wasn’t until she walked outside that the rain of petals started. She mostly keeps to the castle unless someone needs a fresh supply of mulch.” Thandie smiled fondly at the little goblin. “On the upside, it has given her an encyclopaedic knowledge of plants so we work together a lot.”

As Sarah watched the process repeat, she imagined a swirl of windswept flower petals twisting around a vase and silently thanked Petal for her efforts.

---

labyfic — drabble #239: gift
Part of the Balance!verse

Sarah grabbed Jareth’s arm and dragged him into an alcove. It was a tight squeeze with two people and Jareth was not at all adverse to Sarah’s sudden urge for them to be in close physical proximity.

Pressed Sarah into the wall, Jareth breathed into her ear. “Don’t think that I’m complaining, darling, but I have a meeting in ten minutes and I doubt the ambassador would appreciate being deferred again.”

Suppressing a groan, Sarah stilled her hands that had gone wandering of their own accord. “You are so distracting.” She grabbed a handful of very firm buttock as Jareth huffed a laugh into her neck. “Can you hear that?”

Pulling back to look her in the eye, Jareth raised an elegant eyebrow.

“Of course. Silly me.” They could hear a staff member being sternly dressed down for inappropriate behaviour. “I didn’t want to walk in on a disciplinary meeting.”

“So thoughtful of you,” Jareth crooned softly. “I am most appreciative of your actions.” He slid a hand down Sarah’s back, but froze as the overheard conversation got more heated. “Did that little bastard just try to play the nepotism card?”

“I think he also just made a claim to being untouchable due to a veiled allusion that you’re in a relationship with his mother.” Sarah frowned as she slowly parsed the overly flowery and pretentious speech patterns. “Who is this guy? I don’t recognize his voice.”

“I haven’t worked with him either. I met him once when he was introduced as a new staff member, he was so obsequious that he made an impression.”

Jareth described the young man and Sarah nodded. “Some of my team have mentioned an entitled twit. They were not impressed at his behavior. Out of interest, who is his mother?”

“You know her as well as I do. Remember that function with the boorish woman who kept interrupting conversations to laud the accomplishments of her offspring?”

Sarah thought back to the evening. “Is that what she was on about? I was so distracted by her gravity defying hat that I wasn’t paying any attention to her twittering.”

The young man’s protestations were being firmly shut down. It seemed that he should have taken notes from his mother before starting work, as the person he was trying to play superior with was the one who had recommended him for employment due to a complicated network of favours. He was informed that instead of learning the ropes, he had squandered his mother’s favour with his arrogance and entitlement.

“I believe this is our cue.” Jareth stepped out of the alcove, tucking Sarah’s hand into his elbow.

“You have no right to remove me. I’ll have your job.”

“I think not.” The young man spun to attack the newcomer and Sarah could see his life flash before his eyes as he realised who spoke. “You will be placed with the cleaning staff until you learn humility. The goblins will be providing correction if their standards are breached.”

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labyfic — drabble #238: guarded
Part of the Balance!verse