(AN: This has definitely taken a very long while to update, but my Ozian Adventures shall continue! I hope that at least some people are reading them and enjoying them. Don't want to reveal too much, so just read ahead)

Back in Oz

The light slowly faded away, and the three Ozians and their horse found themselves once again sitting upon grass that was familiar. The bright red, butterfly roses that sat all around them, the still, humid air and the smell of standing water was unmistakable, even for ones who had never been this far south in their whole lives.

This was Quadling, the southern-most land of Oz.

However, as the Ozians got to recognizing their surroundings, they also saw that things were much different. The lack of any people or houses was believable, since Quadling was known for being as wild as the Vinkus. In fact, the only reason greater Oz - pretty much Gilikin and Munchkinland - gave this land of marshy fens any pause were the legends that rubies lay beneath the swamps.

The major difference was with the young woman named Elphaba Thropp. She was green again.

But the most shocking thing was, perhaps, that Elphaba was green and Fiyero, her lover, who was a Scarecrow in Oz, hadn't changed a single bit since how he looked in Midgard.

Fully human.

"Elphie," Glinda commented with a gasp. "You're green again!"

"I know," she breathed, looking down at her long, emerald fingers at the ends of her hands. Seeing Fiyero look toward her, she flinched as if struck and hid her face from him by turning away.

"No, 'Yero!" she cried. "Don't look at me, I'm hideous!"

"Fae..."

"Don't lie to me!" Elphaba was now sincerely sobbing.

Fiyero shook his head. It's not like we haven't gone around this particular bush before. I wonder why I'm not made of straw anymore...and I'm thinking, why am I thinking? Is something terrible going to happen because I'm thinking?

"Elphaba," he said, returning to using her full name. "Look at me!" He placed himself in front of her, both hands on her small, bony shoulders. Elphaba hung her head, keeping it out of view.

"The Elphaba I fell in love with," he began. "Was green, and I thought she was beautiful. That's you, Fae! You're not ugly, honestly!"

A single sniffling noise came from Elphaba's head.

Glinda joined Fiyero, placing her little hand upon Elphaba's shoulder.

"He's right," she said. "You're exactly the way we remember you."

The head of long, black hair slowly rose up, the oily black tresses falling aside to reveal the face. It was exactly how it had been before any of this had happened, before Kiamo Ko, before Middle-Earth, before Midgard: her face looked like no time had passed. Though she was still thin from days without food, she looked as healthy as a thin, green woman could be expected to look. There was nothing that looked abnormal or hideous about her face, even the rigid, angular shape of the chin, nose and cheek-bones held the same loveliness as before.

So why did she suddenly think of herself as ugly?

"Fae," Fiyero said. "I need you to stay with me. We're fine now, we're back home. Just be calm, okay?"

Elphaba nodded without saying another word.

"Uh," Glinda commented. "Which part of 'home' are we in, exactly?"

They looked around once again at their surroundings. It was all too alien to them, too unfamiliar.

"It's too hot," Glinda complained. True, there was a severe amount of humidity in the air.

"Well, that rules out Gilikin," Elphaba said. "At any rate, it doesn't look like Munchkinland."

"It's not the Vinkus either," Fiyero added. "We had some hot days down there, but it was always a dry heat."

Glinda gasped. The other two turned to her in surprise, as if she had been hurt.

"What if," she breathed. "What if we're in the mysteriocious lands of the South?"

"Quadling?" Elphaba queried.

"Sure looks swampy," Fiyero commented, taking a look at a near-by bog that chirped and warbled with Oz knows what creatures he had never heard hiding just beneath the surface. He heard a weak sigh and turned to see Elphaba raise her hand up to her forehead.

"You alright, Fae?"

"Hmm? Oh, I think so. I think I'm getting nauseous."

"It's probably the heat." Fiyero replied, tugging at his collar. "It's getting to me too."

Elphaba looked at Fiyero oddly.

"What?"

"You shouldn't even be able to feel anything," she said. "Not this humidity, not even this..." She hit his shoulder with her green fist.

"Ow." he said, rubbing his shoulder.

"You're..." Her words failed her as her head reeled from whatever was wrong with her.

"But how's that possible?" Glinda asked, understanding exactly what Elphaba was talking about.

"Can we talk about it later?" Fiyero asked as Elphaba swayed unsteadily where she stood. He put his arm around her shoulders to keep her on her feet. "This heat's getting to us really bad." He waved Glinda over to them. The little blond gripped Elphaba's shoulders with her little hands.

Fiyero, meanwhile, began tearing off his shirt.

"W-What are you doing?" Elphaba asked.

"It's too hot here," Fiyero said, as he took off his outer shirt. "We need to lose some of our clothes, we dressed for cold weather."

"Fiyero!" Glinda gasped. "What a thing to say!"

"I heard stories," Fiyero said, as he took off his under-shirt, the green Scarecrow shirt. "When I was a boy, about the first explorers from Gilikin to map the Vinkus. They suffered in the heat because of their heavy clothing. The heat is enough, but the humidity makes it feel ten times worse."

Both of the women said nothing, trying to wonder whether Fiyero's suggestion had merit or if it was just foolishness. Fiyero threw his shirt to the ground, bearing his muscular upper body for the two ladies to view: the real reason they couldn't speak a word.

"Come on," Fiyero said.

"Fiyero," Glinda gasped, her face flushing red.

"What?"

Silence filled the little glen in which the three Ozians stood, the only noises coming from the bog or the neighs from Nessa.

Glinda sighed then walked behind Nessa, leaving Elphaba by herself. Fiyero ran over to her side and kept her steady while the little blond began tearing apart her clothing. When she walked back out, it looked like she hadn't gone as far as Fiyero had. Her skirt was still intact, but the corset and various other accessories of her bodice were removed, with the top ends of two night-gowns as her upper covering.

"You're still going to be boiling in that," Fiyero commented. "And I wouldn't throw your clothes away just yet. We're going north-west, remember?"

Glinda nodded. Fiyero then turned to Elphaba.

"No." she refused.

"Please, Fae." he returned. "We don't need you collapsing from heat-sickness."

She shook her, resolutely determined to refuse his decision.

"At least lose the cloak, okay?" Fiyero suggested, removing the cloak from off her shoulders. It was not the one Glinda gave her that day in the attic of the Emerald Palace, but a different one. Elphaba sighed, but didn't remove anything else.

"So what now?" Glinda asked.

"If we're in Quadling," Elphaba sighed. "We should head north-west. Once we're at Kiamo Ko," She turned to Glinda. "You can go east back to the Emerald City, or back north to wherever you live."

"But you can't go to Kiamo Ko, Elphie." Glinda said. "You're still a villain to the people of Oz."

"We'll leave once we get there," Fiyero answered. "That was our plan, originally."

There was a moment of tense silence among the group. Both Elphaba and Fiyero knew that Glinda could not know where they would go, she would try to help them. They could not let her do that, because the people of Oz were not ready to accept someone with green skin. They had been indoctrinated by the Wizard and Madam Morrible for too long, and they still feared her. If word got out that they were back in Oz, it would mean the end for Elphaba and Fiyero, and even Glinda if they discovered that she was close to her.

It just dawned upon them what a terrible mistake it had been to be back in Oz.

(AN: As much as I LOVED LeiaEmberblaze's The Good Witch of the South, for the purposes of this story, Elphaba has never been to Quadling, nor have the others. That makes the story a bit of an adventure for the characters. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of surprises and twists later on in the tale.)