Elphaba closed her book and watched as the sun started to set over the lake on the property of Colwen Grounds where her family, the ruling Governors of Munchkinland, resided. She was sitting under her favorite willow tree and was having one of the few moments she could get for herself.
If one approached her, they might have at first thought that it was a trick of the setting sun that made it seem like her skin was a green as the leaves of the tree she leaned against, but as they got closer, they would have realized her skin was actually green. She had been born that way and had been despised all of her life because of it.
Her eyes widened as she realized how late it was and she quickly stuffed her book in the potato sack satchel she had made for herself. She started to stand up, not seeing the man who approached her from behind.
"You were supposed to be home hours ago," her father said in a disturbingly quiet voice. His eyes had hazed over and the faint smell of alcohol lurked around him. "I would ask you what you've been doing, but I can see that now."
She gulped and gasped in pain when he bent down and grabbed her arm roughly. Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked them back, refusing to cry and satisfy her father by breaking down in front of him. He shook her, screaming at her unintelligibly as she just tried to block out the pain.
"Your job is to take care of your sister," he yelled, punctuating every syllable with a teeth-shattering shake. "I have made it clear before that your education and pleasure is secondary to taking care of her, and I find out her reading one of your books."
He threw her against the tree and she whimpered as the back of her head came into contact with the smooth trunk. Something hot and wet trickled down the back of her neck and Elphaba was sure that it was blood.
"Please, stop it, I'm sorry," she whispered, starting to beg. This was farther than her father had gone in a long time, and the last time he had gone this far had left her with scars she would keep for the rest of her life. "Please, stop, you're hurting me."
"No, I'm not going to stop until I think you're sufficiently punished," he growled, picking her up by the collar of her dress and throwing her back down to the ground. He slapped her across the face and dragged her out from under the willow tree, making her skin tear on rocks protruding from the ground. "I want to make sure you never do this again. I want to make sure that you never do anything again."
He kept dragging her closer and closer to the lake and she started to kick and thrash as she realized he wasn't going to stop. When he kicked her in the side, she stopped resisting because she felt one of her ribs crack.
"You are going to regret that you were ever born," he whispered in her ear as he picked her up by the collar and brought her close to him. "You have been a nuisance and a plague to this family since you came into this world. You don't deserve to live."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I won't do it again," she whimpered, aware of the large body of water directly below her. "What did I do to deserve this?"
"You were born," her father growled angrily. "Your green skin is an outward sign of your wickedness. You are the devil in the disguise of a human. You deserve to die, and die you will."
Then he let go of her. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as she dropped towards the water. She saw the smug smile on her father's face and the satisfied look in his eyes before she plunged into the water.
The shocking coldness of the water hit her like a slap in the face and she opened her mouth in surprise, letting the water fill her lungs. Trying to swim towards the surface, she kicked desperately, but only seemed to sink deeper into the depths of the lake.
She could see arrow-like shapes dart past her and felt things brush up against her. Her heavily booted foot hit the floor of the lake and the last thing she saw was a hand reaching out to grab her before everything went black.
Elphaba started coughing up water as soon as she regained consciousness. She was lying on her stomach by the edge of the lake and shakily got to her hands and knees as she continued to throw up lake water.
When she finally gained control over herself and stopped coughing, she looked up to see an abnormally tall Munchkin boy her own age laying on his back and breathing heavily. He wore only the traditional Munchkin breeches the working class wore, although there was a pile of clothes thrown carelessly on the ground only a few feet away from his head.
"What in the Unnamed god do you think you were doing?" he gasped as he sat up and stared at her incredulously. "If I hadn't come by the moment I did, then you would probably still be at the bottom of the lake, dead, with the fishes eating the meat from your bones. Did you purposely try to drown yourself or something? Don't you know how to swim?"
She shook her head and quickly came up with an explanation. "I thought I saw something in the water and leaned in too far," she said, hoping that the boy would buy it. "I was never taught how to swim when I was younger; my parents never saw the need for me to learn."
"Well, try to be more careful next time," he grumbled, pulling on a shirt and putting a worker's vest over it. "I won't be here to save you next time. I'm only visiting relatives here."
"There won't be a next time," Elphaba mumbled. "And thanks for risking your life to save me. If there's anything I can do for you…"
"Don't mention it," he said, looking away, embarrassed. "It was no problem." He turned back after a few minutes and squinted at her in the dim light. "Are you okay? You look a little green."
She laughed. "That's because I am green," she said. "I'm Elphaba Thropp, Third Descending of Munchkinland, and Heir to the Eminent Thropp. You are officially in Nest Hardings on the Colwen Grounds of the ruling class of the Thropps."
The boy's face blanched. "Your Excellency!" he exclaimed, bowing at the waist in the traditional Munchkin bow. "I had no idea…I apologize for being so rude. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Elphaba laughed again. "You just saved my life; I don't think there's anything more you can do for me. Although it would be greatly appreciated if you didn't tell anyone about what just happened. There would be…very big consequences if the wrong people found out, for both you and me. And as next governor-in-line, I do have a duty to protect my future subjects."
He nodded. "I never formally introduced myself," he said, bowing again. "I am Boq of the Northern region of Munchkinland. I live in the city of Center Munch."
"Please just talk to me like you were before," Elphaba said. "I really hate formalities. I think they're really stupid."
Boq visibly relaxed and smiled at her. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Miss Elphaba, but I have to go. My family will be worried about me. And I don't want to get blamed for kidnapping you if the Eminent Thropp sends a search party out for you."
She smiled thinly, pretending to be amused by the joke. The only reason her father would send out a search party would be for appearances. If he just dropped her in the lake while knowing she couldn't swim, it was almost certain that he wanted her dead, and he most likely assumed she was.
"Will I see you again?" she asked hopefully, momentarily banishing the thoughts from her mind.
"No," Boq said ruefully. "Me and my parents are going back home tomorrow afternoon and we're spending all tomorrow morning packing and saying goodbye to family. It really was nice meeting you, though."
"Nice meeting you too," she said glumly as he trudged away. She walked over to the willow tree, retrieved her satchel from where it had been dropped, and trudged back to the manor.
"Go get cleaned up," her nurse exclaimed when she saw Elphaba open the front door and track mud in. She could see the amazement and horror in her eyes as she called for a servant to come wipe up the mud. The nurse would ask what happened to her later, and she would have to make up a convincing story that didn't involve her father or Boq.
She quickly cleaned herself up, leaving her clothes in a pile on her bedroom floor for the maid to pick up. When she had first been able to dress herself, she had tried to do her own laundry, but the house staff had finally gotten irritated enough to tell her father. He had "talked" to her about it, and that was the end of Elphaba bringing shame to the family name by doing chores.
After putting a healing ointment on her cuts and bruises, she wrapped them up with bandages and pulled on a long-sleeved nightgown that reached down to the floor. She knew better than to let her little sister, Nessarose, or her little brother, Shell, see her injuries, so she took careful care to hide them as best she could. If too many of the wrong questions were asked, then her father would come after her again.
She was only fourteen years old.