(Happy Wicked Day, fellow Ozians! Here is the sixth installment of my Ozian Adventures series, the long-awaited [mostly by me] sequel to Of Saints and Sinners.)

(Hope you will enjoy it)

Dreams and Nightmares

The little thing was bouncing up and down, but she was not paying much attention. She was trying to stay out of everyone's way, appear as invisible as possible. Of course, having green skin made this task nigh impossible for Elphaba Thropp, especially when the Head Shiz-tress was parading her before the female students, asking them if they would volunteer to share with her.

She didn't notice the little blond thing until they were hand in hand. Now they pulled apart in simultaneous revolt.

The scene shifted and she found herself walking down a hallway, a horde of that little blond thing's mindless friends walking after her, mocking her. Now she was standing alone on a lighted dance hall, and the little blond thing had a name now. It was the name, the one that she had known and loved for so long, who had shared with her so many adventures...who had died in her very arms.

Galinda.

Now they were in her palatial room, her sitting on the blond's bed, staring up at her reflection in the mirror. Now she was holding the little blond thing as she wept on the train station, now they were running about a city of emeralds, followed them by the two of them huddling for fear in a dark attic. Images of their life together flashed before her eyes: everything that happened three years afterward, even down to the enraged fight in the fields of Center Munch and their last moments together in Kiamo Ko.

Suddenly they were in the mountains, and the little blond thing was with her again. She seemed to dance in and out of her memory, fading away at last in the shadow of an elderly man in a gray cloak that led her and the man she recognized as her husband away from the dark room.

Elphaba's keen mind took note of this. If the story was true, this was the last time she had seen Glinda (as she was now called) before they reunited just a few days ride from Fire Hill. She had to pay special attention to everything that happened next.

Now she saw herself atop Nessarose, as a horse, and a little blond thing was appearing. She was a light, almost, shining like a beacon of hope, but it was only on the surface. She was the same essence she had known, but it was very weak, like a ray of light reflecting off a small shattered piece of glass.

The glass image was now with them, comforting her, speaking words to her that only Glinda knew. The effect was almost perfect. They were back in Oz, but the Oz of the past. The little glass shard was continually reflecting the image of her beloved friend. Now they were alone together, fighting against the darkness. The little glass thing was shattered.

The images faded all together, and Elphaba found herself on the side of a mountain, looking out at the land below. It was wholly strange to her, and it made her smile. She was in the right place.

When she had leaped through the Time Dragon Clock, she could feel herself moving through the ether between the worlds, and was able to tap into her inate magic to project her own essence back through time and memory. She had to know why Glinda had said those last words to her in the cave just a few moments ago. She willed the memories into being, and examined them carefully. She was much more powerful than she had been that day in the attic, much more in command of her power. She could tell it to give her the memory she wished, find exactly what she was looking for, bring her spirit back into her body and then push her way through the realm of ether to the world she now looked upon.

It was totally alien, yet she could spot it from among the many as she floated through the ether. It was a world that was both strange and familiar, one she had visited but a few months prior. It seemed like a life-time ago since she had been here. It was a risk, especially in her condition, especially being in a place as savage and wild...

As Midgard.

But this was where she needed to be, because here was where the little blond thing became the glass shard. It was almost too much for her to believe. But she was there to the very end, cradling Glinda in her arms, and hearing her last words...

"I'm not...Glinda."

(AN: More questions than answers? Well, that's the point!)

(Tell me what you think of it so far, because there will definitely be much more in the works to come.)