~Chapter 5~
"Trouble Tree"

When the fish came through the water towards us, some of us swam up, towards the floor, while the rest of us swam down. Divided, the three fish had split off into different directions, chasing after us. The others reached the floor, and then began searching frantically for a way out. The turned and darted behind the maze, just barely out of reach of a fish. It began to circle fast around them.

"We've got to get out of here!" cried Rebecca.

"Look!" Betsy pointed to the wall directly ahead of them. "There!"

They swam towards some familiar characters...the door knockers from the movie. The fish spotted them.

"Knock and the door will open, right?" demanded Jess. The knockers remained mute. The fish closed in.

"Dammit!" Aradia reached up and pulled the knocker from the mumbler. It didn't budge. "They're not alive!"

Dreamin' reached up and pushed the knocker flat to the door, but no sound emerged. The water made knocking almost impossible. She shouted in frustration.

Suddenly, an ear-splitting crash rumbled the maze. In the floor, a small opening appeared as the tile fell away, and the Listians were being pulled to it. As the two fish nearby struggled to swim through the turbulence, the others pulled themselves through the opening.

They tumbled down a long slide, and all of them emerged on a grassy hill overlooking a bog. Not just any bog.

"Oh my god," moaned Kitiara. "What is that smell?"

"Do you have to ask?" Aradia stood, brushing herself off.

"Ah, jeez," said Katrina, her voice strange. She was holding her nose tightly, grimacing. "This is awful. I think I'm going to be sick."

Dreamin' shook her head. "Not me. I'm too tired from all the swimming."

Pyrephox flopped back on the grass. "We're missing half the group. What are we going to do?"

"Get the hell out of here, that's what," said Seona. "So up and at 'em, troops."

There was a lot of groaning and sighing, but in the end they stood tiredly and started down through the Bog of Eternal Stench.

"It's worse here," muttered Katrina, her voice barely above the strange sounds the bog emitted.

"No kidding! You'd think you'd get used to it after a while." Betsy took another deep breath and held it as they walked at the edge of the bog, holding onto trees so they didn't fall in.

"Everyone be careful!" warmed Mitz. "You know how it works."

"One step in this stuff and you'll stink forever," recited the group in unison.

"And I am truly delighted that you are so aware of the properties of my Bog." Jareth had appeared before them, smiling charmingly, crystal in hand. He blocked the path.

"Out of the way, Tightness," snapped Angel. "I've had quite enough of you for one day, thanks, and I'd like to get out of this stench."

"And good luck to you. Um...however...I see you haven't found the bridge yet?"

"Well," said Heddy, frowning, "Not yet. But we're going to!"

"I don't think so." He nodded his head slightly to the right, and they saw the big tree where Sir Didymus had been. There was nothing...even the rocks Ludo had called were gone. In the blink of an eye and an echo of laughter, Jareth vanished.

"Oh no!" Cymrey sighed. "Now what?"

"Now we think of something else," said Rebecca. "Although what that is, I've got no clue."

Fay shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what we can do. I mean, there's no bridge, no rocks, no Ludo to call the rocks... We're screwed." She fell back against one of the big trees, frowning darkly.

The tree swayed with her sudden weight against it. It groaned and creaked, the dead limbs high above shaking furiously, dropping a few faded, brittle leaves of the Listians.

They stood in silence, gazing up at the tree. The trunk stretched up into the blue sky of the Underground. Then their eyes traveled back down, to the distance across the Bog of Eternal Stench, mesuring silently. Mortelle grinned. "Ladies...and gentleman," she added, glancing at Gerrard. "I give you, the way across the BOES."

Having a plan and putting it into action are always two different things. The tree was dead, but it was tall, and the trunk was incredibly thick around the bottom. As they tested it, they discovered it was weak and rotting at one part, facing away from the bog.

"We'll push it," said Elysian Wynd. "There's eighteen of us, of course we can get it over. Let's just hope it'll catch the other side of the BOES without getting in the stuff. If it splashes..."

"Don't say it," Pyrephox told her, rolling up her sleeves.

They gathered around the edge of the tree, putting their hands against the bark. "One," counted Mitz, "two...three!"

The pushed against the tree as hard as they could, some with their hands against it, others lower, pushing off the ground, their shoulders against the tree. It started to make strange crackling sounds where the wood was weak. "It's working!," cried Heddy.

Then they heard and horrible scream echo out around them. It was the tree. The Listians froze, gawking helplessly at the giant that had come alive. The tree was moving on it's own, a mouth and eyes appearing a few feet above them.

"What do you think you're doing?" it shrieked.

"We need a bridge, please," asked Jess politely.

"Not out of me! I'm not taking a swim in that bog!"

Angel rolled her eyes. "But we've got to get out of this smell! What do you suggest we do?"

"Do?" asked the tree, leaning towards them. "I don't care what you do. Just so long as you leave me out of it!"

Kitiara shrugged. She didn't really feel like standing right beside the Bog of Eternal Stench and talking to a tree. She was hungry. She had been hungry for the past four hours, and enough was enough. Even with the appitite-killing smell of the BOES all around her, she had maintained a healthy yen for a little lunch...perhaps even a peach. She wandered off to find something, leaving the others arguing with the tree.

She hadn't strolled far from the group--she could still hear the tree's outraged voice in the distance--when she saw a beautiful fruit tree ahead of her. There were apples, pears, plums, oranges, even a few bananas..and of course, peaches. "Oh, yeah," she said, her eyes full of the promise of food. She started forward to pick the fruit...and halted suddenly, seeing what was on the other side of the tree. Jareth.

She heard him talking. "You! Get away from there!" And he waved his hand in a strange angle. "You little vandals just stay back!"

She heard the echo of the tree's voice behind her. All she caught was "You little vandals..." That was plenty.

"Jareth!" she shouted. "What are you doing?"

"Uh--I--" He glanced around once, his face not a little guilty. "I--" he stammered again.

Kitiara put her hands on her hips. "For shame, J. Really. Are you that afraid we won't get past your little maze?"

His surprised face fell into a frown. "Hardly. You needn't trouble yourself over my motives. I was only having...a bit of fun." He turned and began to walk around the tree and never emerged. The fruit tree, not altogether surprisingly, withered and died.

Kitiara sighed, her stomach growling obnoxiously. "Goodbye, fruit." She made her way back to the tree in a few moments. The Listians were having another go at the tree.

"Heave!" ordered Seona, and the Listians pushed against the tree again. This time, the tree gave, cracking and throwing splinters and dust over them. It crashed down, the top of it slamming into the ground on the other bank of the BOES. The Listians cheered together.

"I knew we could do it," said Dreamin'.

"The next problem is to get across," Cymrey pointed out.

This proved as easy said as done--in no time they were filing carefully along the tree, the branches offering support like railings as they picked their way along to the other side. Beyond that lay more forest, free of the smell of the bog, and the hope of finding the rest of the List...but what had become of that group is another story...

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