Snippet #806320

On cue just as Jareth was getting into the air a small rock came hurtling out of nowhere directly at him.

The rock in question hit its mark well striking the bird just as it had gotten a good hold in the air and the span of its wings had fully extended out to catch the available up draft that should have carried it high above the bluff. The small rock however had hit clean and well just as Jareth in the form of the owl had gotten about fifteen feet into the air. The rock struck the unsuspecting owl sharply at what could have possibly been interpreted as just above it's right elbow had the wing been a human arm effectively fracturing the bone upon impact if not breaking it outright.

The owl gave a startled shriek in the sky as the impact and the loss of its right wing instantly crippled it in the air causing the bird to do a sort of aerial somersault before dropping out of the sky at an almost alarming rate of speed into the hard ground blow. Ironically if the rock hadn't done its job the fall certainly had. It seemed that the only thing that had saved Jareth from snapping his neck upon meeting the ground was the fact that about half way down as the bird dropped whatever enchantment that had been holding Jareth in the birds form was broken causing the man instead of the bird to literally fall the rest of the way out of the sky. Jareth hit the ground hard and not on his good side which further compacted any injury he had already sustained despite the armor he wore. Jareth rolled twice due to landing at an incline before his battered body came to rest face down in the dirt.

At first glace some might have thought after witnessing this spectacle that Jareth had been killed. However upon closer inspection it appeared he'd just been knocked cold which was probably a blessing considering he would have likely been in a world of pain had the Goblin King been conscious just then.

As for Ariadne, the witch had departed just as the stone flew and, along with Jareth's assailant, was nowhere to be found.