Barrier

"I'll have my revenge a hundredfold on you, Isadora. I would take all you have from you as you took my world from me," the Queen said to herself as she clenched her fists into a ball.

*********

The next morning, Jareth woke up first and scanned his surrounding. Everything seemed safe, he slowly slid down from underneath the wings of the White Tiger-Pheonix Beast and got up.

He looked at his sleeping team, the little white Tiger-Pheonix Beast snored but not so loud as it clutched itself on Astrid's arm.

Astrid slept so soundly without a care in the world, her face was so serene and pleasant to gaze upon.

He found himself staring and noticing every outline and features of her beautiful face. Later she stirred and covered her face bringing him out of his daze and blocking her beautiful face from his gaze.

He sighed and proceeded to his bag to get a pen and paper. He gently wrote down some words and rolled the small paper.

He made a small sound, calling for something and soon a messenger hawk came. But just as it got closer it hit an unknown substance and fell down. That's when Jareth recalled the barrier and rushed to meet the bird on the ground without thinking much about the barrier.

As soon as he got close to the bird on the ground, his head hit the invincible barrier and it felt like an electric shock, he fell down with a thud holding his forehead. This action coupled with the groaning pain of the bird woke Astrid from her sleep as she looked ahead.

Her gaze landed first on Jareth who was sitting on the floor and holding his head, then to the bird that lay on the ground, not too far from where Jareth sat.

Quickly, she got up and rushed to Jareth's side. She gazed at his forehead, seeing a bruise with little blood on it, but before Jareth could say anything, she dashed to the bird.

"Astrid, no!" He began to say but it was too late, she got thrown back as her body made contact with the invincible barrier. She landed a bit far from where Jareth sat.

He quickly got up and rushed to meet her where she laid on the ground. He got to her and knelt beside her, she just closed her eyes not moving.

"Astrid, Astrid... " still no reply or movement, "Astrid, come on talk to me." She didn't move.

By now the noise had woken the big White Tiger-Pheonix Beast up and it moved closer to the two, looking down at Astrid with a confused expression.

"Astrid, come on wake up," Jareth said, increasing his voice but you could hear the panicked in his voice.

"Oh no, this is not happening, come on, speak to me" he used his index finger to check for her pulse but didn't find anything, the shock was written all over his face.

"Come on, come on Astrid... How can you die by your own magic? This is crazy," he said and starts pumping her chest but after three attempts, still nothing.

"What do I do?" He said looking at the beast in front of them.

"Wake up Astrid," he shouted louder and that seemed to have woken up the little white Tiger-Pheonix beast and it looked at its surrounding. Seeming to understand a little, all it knew was that its mother's saviour was lying and not moving and the other person was worried.

It hurried to their side and looked at Astrid, then licked her face. She didn't move and it continued licking her face. It did for three mire tines and soon Astrid started laughing.

"Hahaha hahaha come on, stop it. Hehheeehe," she giggled as the little white Tiger-Pheonix beast licked her face one more time before jumping into her embrace. Jareth just sat there with an unknown expression on his face.

She sat up with the little white Tiger-Pheonix beast in her arms and her gaze trailed from the little white Tiger-Pheonix beast in her arms to Jareth and when their eyes met, his expression quickly changed to an angry one.

She giggled and out the little white Tiger-Pheonix beast down, "Oh come on, it's funny".

"You think it's funny?".

"Yes and no. I know I shouldn't have but the worry in your voice, I just couldn't ruin the moment you know".

"You... ".

"I'm sorry. Okay at first I was so dazed and weak a bit, I mean, I did use my whole body to hit the barrier. I was going to get up when I heard your voice, so I thought I should just... I'm sorry" she explained as she moved closer to him.

"Not funny one bit and I wasn't worried, you heard wrong, well why wouldn't you when you hit your whole being into the barrier like that. And by the way, what kind of barrier is that?" He said to her hastily.

She simply removed his hand from his forehead and gently touched the bruise.

"Ouch, that hurts," he said as he moved his head back from her reach.

"Don't be such a cry baby, let me take a look, will you... Hmm".

He let her take a look and she blew on the bruise a little and after some seconds smiled as she looked at his forehead.