Jareth's white, feathered cloak suddenly swirled in a gust of wind, tore off his shoulders and clung to you like a shroud. You heard — consistently — a baby crying. Some kind of clapping. You struggled to get out of his cloak, and when you did, you found yourself in the stone hall that led to the stairs of Escher. An angular figure detached itself from the wall and approached you.

You both walked the next two flights of stairs in silence. Two up, one down. And then three more down and one up. The silence on your part was irritated, on Jareth's part it was completely carefree. Have you gone up a few more steps — from the bottom up or from the top down? — and found yourselves in front of a dark doorway to nowhere.

Jareth tossed a crystal ball in the palm of his hand. You looked at him incredulously. As if reading your mind, Jareth opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly stumbled and fell into the darkness of the opening. Then you felt a hard push in the back and flew after the almost-ex-Goblin King. Having flown ten meters, it felt like you, mysteriously without breaking anything in the fall, collapsed on something ... cursing and surprisingly mobile.

Squealing, you jumped up, but, disoriented in the dark, swayed and fell on the straw. You weren’t sure cause of darkness, but It definitely smelled and felt like straw. While you were fumbling, trying to sit up and feel the walls with your hands, your fingers slipped over something silky and cold.

"Lovely," a deep voice sounded next to your ear. "I have to say that the frequency of your falls next to me is starting to amuse me."