225 Regrets

"Tsk, silly girl. I am the man of course. It wouldn't be fair if you a girl had it worse."

"I am not a girl," she retorted, rolling her eyes at his remark.

"Then what are you, if you are not a girl? A man?"

"Stop joking around. We are in a dire situation here. We do not know how to get out of here," she cautioned him, but the smile in her eyes told him she wasn't been angry or anything.

If there was anything, she felt happy they were still together. "Speaking of which, where is here by the way? Everything looks strange."

She managed to turn in her kneeling position, looking for any possible clue as to where they were. When she couldn't fathom it, she returned her gaze back to his expectantly.

"Don't look at me like that! I do not know and cannot say for sure. Besides, I was knocked out before we left our camping ground."

As soon as he said those last words, his eyes darkened and he peered deep into hers.

Gulp!

Astrid swallowed hard under his intense gaze, something in his dark green eyes told her she was in trouble. Truthfully she wasn't ready for his trouble right now… definitely not another scolding, like she was a child or something.

"If only you had just listened to me and erected the barrier as I asked, we wouldn't be in this mess right now."

Jareth blamed her. He was somewhat angry right now. True, it was her fault. If only, just if only she had raised her hand and erected the barrier and do as she was told, neither he nor Snow would have had to suffer for it.

"I was beat. It was your fault for training me too hard and tiring me out. I was too weak to lift a muscle, my body needed the rest."

She tried defending herself even though she knew it was also her fault. She recalled telling him she wanted to stop the training but he teased her, calling her a child and lazy, making her continue the training.

"Sigh, you were just being lazy, accept the truth."

"Fine, I am sorry for being too tired to erect the barrier and put us all in this mess," she mouthed her yell at him.

Heaven knew that if not for their current situation, she would have screamed it out at him. Jareth only rolled his eyes at her, as his form of a silent reply.

All of a sudden he stopped and his gaze went past her head to outside the cage.

"I see you have finally woken up."

Astrid whipped her head at the sound of the voice only for her eyes to be met with a pair of dark ones standing close to their cage.

He smiled at her, opening his lips a bit, revealing his open tooth. His thick bushy brow creased into a frown at the sight of them.

His eyes moved to where she was kneeling close to Jareth and his frown deepened. He stood straight up and turned around.

"Why wasn't her rope tired to the pole? Why is she free?" he bellowed at the men.

His deep voice resounded in the areas, sending shivers down the spine of all those present. Even Astrid who was in the cage, couldn't help shake at his shout.

Jareth narrowed his eyes at the scene. He was already annoyed and this blabbermouth that had them tied up, still had the guts to still complain about how Astrid was tied up.

'What does he mean by free? Does he call your hands and legs being bound free? This man must be out of hi damn mind.' Jareth thought, his breathing became uneven with each passing minute.

He wasn't getting a good vibe here. The gaze the man gave upon seeing them close together was not a nice one. 'Is he angry she is with me?'

"Why is she close to him?" His voice rang out again, thus further clarifying Jareth's thoughts.

"Didn't you put them separate from each other? So why now are they close together?" he asked again, his eyes darting from one person to the next till it came to land at the man in the center.

"You, you were the one in charge of tying her." He pointed to the man, making him shake at being called out.

'Cowards.' Jareth said in his mind, disgusted by the fear they showed towards this man. Let for him, he would beat the living daylight out of him if he was released.

"Why did you let her stay close to him?"

'Is this guy out of his mind?' Astrid thought. 'What kind of a question is he asking anyway?'

"I thought since she wasn't a threat, there was no need for her to be bounded to the pole, that was why I did…"

Before he could finish explaining himself, the man hollered again, "You thought!"

"That's enough!" Another much deeper voice rang out, engulfing the entire place in silence at his voice.

"Leader!" the tall and arrogant looking man quickly lowered his head towards the path leading to where they were. "I did not know you were around."

"Silence."

Soon after that, a tall and huge man came into their view. The aura with which he ensued sent dread into all of their bones, freezing everyone in place.

Even Jareth could feel the atmosphere suddenly became tense at his appearance and felt a sense of dread coming from him.

The next thing he knew, the man's gaze moved to their direction as his eyes zeroed on Astrid.

'What's with them and her anyway?' Jareth couldn't help but think the men were behaving out of the ordinary.

"Bring them out." Without looking at Jareth, he suddenly ordered and tore his eyes off of Astrid. Jareth turned this gaze to look at Astrid and noticed she heaved a sigh of relief, letting out a breath he didn't know she had been holding in.

Apparently, she was affected by his strong aura just now, making her freeze under his intense gaze.

"Astrid, it would be alright. I promise I would not let any harm come to you or Snow," Jareth whispered to her reassuringly.

"Thanks and sorry for what I caused. If I had known…"

"Shh, it is okay. Too late for regrets now, right?"

The doors to the big cage pulled open and one of the men entered and walked o where they were, pulling Astrid up and taking her out. Another one followed suit and unfastened the ropes tying Jareth to the pole, then made him get up and pushed him out as well.

By the time they were outside, they were both forced back on their knees in front of the second man.

"Who are you?"

Everyone's eyes popped open at the question.

"Did he just…"

"No way?"

"No one has ever spoken to the leader that way."

Several murmuring arose around them because of Jareth's daring question. Even in his current situation, he still had the nerve to be brave and tough and pose an imposing cold aura around him.

Astrid turned her head to look at him, she was still finding it difficult to believe he just asked this strange domineering man that question. But coming to think about it, the imposing aura he exuded was as frightening as the man's own, sending chills into their bodies.

They just couldn't believe there was a person who could talk to their leader that way.

"Haha haha aha…" His wicked laughter followed suit after Jareth's question, making the murmurings to cease indefinitely.

"You do not have the right to ask questions here," he said, a wicked smile displaying on his face.

"Maybe if you and your men didn't ambush us and kidnap my friends and I, we would not have to be here or asking questions at that," Jareth retorted.

His irritation spilling out as he spoke. His dark green eyes staring into the man's black.

"We have a reason for doing that. Anyone found within 30 kilometre radius from our small village would be captured."

"And since when did such stupid rule spring forth? Who gave you the right to just snatch people? Are you the owner of the land, that someone cannot walk past it?"

Jareth rained series of questions at the man. To say he was pissed off was an understatement. He felt like making this man feel the pain they all had to endure a hundredfold.

How dare him to talk as though he owned the whole magic realm when this was supposed to be a free path for anyone heading towards the abandoned land of the sorcerers and Fortland.

"We do not bow down to anyone. We are the free ones, the lawless, the outcast everyone so desperately scorned on and were exiled without a second thought, with nowhere to go."

"Oh, so you are the miscreants, the wrong doers?"