All that may be beloved

Family vacations could be a source of joyous memories of time spent with loved ones, but being in closer than usual contact with your near and dear for the duration could also be a trying experience.

When your offspring have melted crayons into the leather seats of your vehicle; the children who solemnly swore to stay close run off in three different directions; or your toddler is determined to hurl themselves into the enclosure of something large and hungry; wishing them away to the Goblin King starts to feel like the answer to retaining your few remaining shreds of sanity.

This confluence of families out of their comfort zone in a heightened state of stress meant that there were seasonal surges of wished away children from zoos, theme parks and all manner of child friendly tourist locations. While they saw little of these attractions while responding to a call, the goblins had a slightly wider field of play and could be quite excitable when something shiny caught their attention.

Eventually Jareth would cede to an adventure Above to quell the clamouring. Sarah wasn’t quite sure how he’d dissuaded them from swimming in the hippopotamus pond of the safari park, and privately wondered if the goblins would come off second best in that encounter.

Fortunately, things that went fast seemed to rate higher on the goblin scale of desirability than bothering wildlife. Water parks could be easily contained to allow the goblins free reign, but other locations needed to be isolated to a single ride.

“This is not what I expected of a go cart track.” Sarah looked at the tightly packed array of small carts that looked barely bigger than a child’s toy. Goblins were eagerly selecting their vehicles, as Jareth led her to the side of the track. Looking over the wall, Sarah could see that the gentle slope at the start made a hairpin turn to a steeper straight before tightly switching back to vanish into the surrounding trees. “How far down does it go?” She couldn’t see beyond the trees, but a cable car terminus was situated beyond the cart corral to ferry riders.

“It’s high enough that we won’t hear them if they make it to the end of the run intact.” Jareth grinned wildly and gave the signal to start the race. The clatter of the carts was swallowed up by the whooping of excited goblins as they rounded the first corner.

Peering into a crystal he materialised, Sarah watched as the bulk of the field steered through the course and around an occasional crashed individual, quickly learning that the brief joy of ramming a compatriot equated to a loss of speed. A clatter drew her attention to a downed goblin who had ported back to the start, cart in hand to restart the race.

“They appear to be having a whale of a time and,” Sarah waved towards another restarting goblin. “We don’t need to worry about carnage at the end of the race.”

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labyfic — drabble #223: whale
Part of the Balance!verse