Thanks to May (Rainstorm Amaya Arianrhod) for betaing this for me. Drabble about Liir and the Witch, not related at all to Dragonsnaking. This takes place probably around the fishwell bit of Wicked. I think. After. And that made no sense at all. Anyways, it was inspired by one of the prompts for April for 31Days on LJ. The prompt was Searching the Future, also the short lived working title of this piece.
Disclaimer: I own neither Elphaba the Witch or Liir or anything else mentioned in this. That belongs to Gregory Maguire, lucky person he is.
Liir wasn't sure why he was wandering up to the Witch's tower. Most likely she'd snap and snarl and chase him out with her broom. But Nor was ignoring him, treating him like he wasn't there because she was mad at him. He wasn't even that sure why. But he knew that he was stupid enough, and this was Nor.
Liir sighed like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He hated stairs, he hated trudging up all of them. Especially these, winding and spiralling. He was somewhat afraid of the shadows cast on the walls although it was day and outside the sun was shining. The Witch would think that stupid, so he simply wouldn't tell her. He wouldn't even want to confide in her, either, with her all hunched over and unfriendly looking. He wished for a father to love him. The Witch, maybe his mother and maybe not, hadn't shown him anything good. Yes, Liir decided, fathers were of a better sort. Fiyero was spoken of worshipfully in this household, by Sarima and her children and sisters. He knew that the Witch had known Fiyero, although Liir did wonder a bit why he'd liked her if he was as good as they had said.
He walked up the rest of the tower steps and into the Witch's work room. She was hunched over a tiny glass orb, a little toylike thing. He tried to silently observe her but Liir, who was told that he was clumsy daily, accidentally tripped and cursed under his breath.
The Witch spun up, the makings of a glare on her face. "Who-?" she said,and then glared at him. "Liir. What are you doing here?"
He shrugged. "I was bored and Nor didn't want to play with me."
"I wouldn't either," she mumbled under her breath. The Witch picked up the glass orb from where it had fallen, miraculously not cracked into pieces on the floor.
"What were you doing with that thing?" he asked her tentatively.
"Searching the future," she said absentmindedly, as if her mind was somewhere else, perhaps in whatever she'd seen in the glass orb. "Or the past, or even the present. It doesn't matter now. Go away."
He left miserably. Sure, he hadn't expected anything different- had he? Maybe some sort of affection, or a confession that she was his mother and the rumors floating around the castle were correct, or simply something. But he got nothing as usual.
Liir went back down to see if Nor had forgiven him yet.