Merry Lurlinemas
Glinda the Good sat down on the floor of Kiamo Ko once more, and held a candle in her hands. The light shone bright against the unlit Lurlinemas tree that Glinda had in there since the first Lurlinemas without Elphaba or Fiyero. The tree was decorated in black and green ornaments from the Emerald City, and no presents lay under it.
Glinda was dressed in a cream colored dress with a red shawl draped over her shoulders. It was quite cold out and the snow was piling up outside the great walls of the castle.
Every Lurlinemas Eve Lady Glinda, The Good Witch, would go out on her own away from her servants and hide out in Kiamo Ko. No one was allowed to see her, and no one knew where she was. Everyone had feared that she had gone mad and would turn up dead one Lurlinemas, but two days later she would always return with a fresh smile on her face.
This holiday was no different. She had outwitted her servants and had walked by foot to Kiamo Ko from her Palace in the Emerald City. Glinda always needed this alone time to grieve over her friend's deaths that she could not get out of her head.
The only company she had now at the castle was Chistery and the rest of the flying monkeys who had remained to guard the castle even with their old mistress gone. They now considered Glinda their mistress.
Glinda liked the company of the flying monkeys; they made her smile.
Just then, Chistery came into the room, half-unbalanced as usual and he smiled at her.
Glinda looked back at the snow-monkey with a sad little smile, and nodded at him.
"Would you like something Miss Glinda?" he asked, his speech so much better than the first time Glinda had heard him speak. Glinda had left some books at the castle, and the monkeys had taken full advantage of it to learn to read and speak better.
"No thank you, Chistery," answered Glinda softly, "I would just like to be alone."
And with that, Chistery backed out of the room and into the long corridor into Elphaba's old room.
He was just settling down to a sad night with Lady Glinda's crying, as she did every year, when he heard a creak behind him.
"How long has she been there?" asked a voice from the shadows.
Chistery turned to see Elphaba and Fiyero emerge from the shadows of the room, and approach him.
"Since yesterday," answered Chistery by now accustomed to his old mistress's visits back to the castle with the scarecrow man that she loved. They came by whenever they could, but they could never reveal that they were alive to anyone else, including Glinda.
Only the monkeys knew, they all knew what would happen if Lady Glinda knew and that's why they lied whenever she asked about them.
Elphaba's face turned concerned, "Why? Has she finally gone mad?"
Chistery shook his head.
"No, she does it in remembrance of you, both of you," he added.
Both of their faces turned ashamed, and they looked down at their feet.
"You know we can't tell her, you know how bad that would be for us," whispered Elphaba as if to remind herself of that.
"It's just one night," said Chistery softly as he hobbled away from them and into another room.
Elphaba stood there with Fiyero's arm around her waist. Her ears pricked up as she could hear Glinda's voice traveling through the castle, crying.
"Fae, we should go," said Fiyero quietly.
But Elphaba didn't hear him; all she could concentrate on was Glinda's sobbing.
"I can't, we can't leave her like this, suffering because we're supposed to be dead," said Elphaba sadly.
"She should have gotten over our death's by now," said Fiyero a bit harshly.
Elphaba turned on him, her face sharp with grief.
"No, she shouldn't have! She has a right to grieve, and even more so because we lied to her! Don't you dare say that Yero!" her voice trembled as she thought of Glinda crying every Lurlinemas just for her and Fiyero.
Fiyero held her more tightly, and whispered in her ear.
"I'm sorry, that was mean of me. I didn't mean it. I just don't want to hurt her anymore. If we show ourselves tonight then leaving her alone again will be ten times as hard on everyone. I just don't think it's a good idea."
Elphaba knew that he was right, but she couldn't leave Glinda alone not on Lurlinemas. It had been 10 years since their deaths, and she was still crying over them. Glinda deserved to know the truth now.
Elphaba wrapped her dark black cloak around herself and let her hair down and she shook it out and then walked out of the room.
"Wait, Fae where are you going? Fae, don't!" called Fiyero following her to the room where Glinda was.
But Elphaba walked on anyways but she stopped at the doorway to the room where Glinda was. Fiyero came up behind her to listen as well, finally giving in.
Elphaba and Fiyero hid around the wall, and just listened, waiting for the best opportunity to tell Glinda that they were alive.
"It's all my fault. You're both dead because of me, how can I celebrate when I have that fact in my head all day," cried Glinda breathing in gasps.
Elphaba wanted to shout that it wasn't her fault but she kept her mouth shut.
"Oh Elphie," wailed Glinda, sobbing on the ground, "Can you ever forgive me?"
Elphaba swallowed hard knowing that this was the best time, and walked out into the room.
Glinda was there, with an unlit Lurlinemas tree near the window, and a candle in her hand. The candle's light was extinguishing because of the blonde's tears that were falling rapidly from her face.
Glinda could not see Elphaba because her back was turned to her.
Suddenly Glinda gasped when a hand landed on her shoulder. Turning, thinking it was Chistery she wiped her eyes and looked.
Those blue eyes were swimming with tears, and her mouth gaped open.
"E-El-Elphie?" her voice shook hard with trembles as she stared at her 'dead' friend.
"Hello Glinda," she said softly, kneeling down next to her friend on the floor, her green skin a bit duller than the earlier years.
The blonde's face looked confused, scared, upset, and shocked.
"Am I dead?" she asked, her voice not more than a whisper.
At this Elphaba threw back her head and cackled at the stupid-ness of Glinda that she loved so much.
"No, my sweet, you're not dead."
"Are you sure? But you're dead? And so I must be dead and-" rambled on Glinda as she got more and more hysterical.
"Glinda!" shouted Elphaba grabbing the woman by the shoulders hard. That seemed to wake Glinda up from the hysterical rant that she was about to go on.
"You're alive, you're alive," cried Glinda, the tears forming in her eyes again, "But how? Why?"
"It's a long story," said Elphaba grimly.
Just then Fiyero came into the room with that stupid romantic grin on his face.
"I think I can help there," he said sauntering over to the two women.
"Master Scarecrow, what-what are you doing here? I thought you disappeared to a life of simplicity after the Matter Of Dorothy happened?" said Glinda confused.
"Master Scarecrow… that's a new one Galinda," said Fiyero wrapping his arm around Elphaba.
"Galinda? Goodness, no one has called me that since-" Glinda stopped short, her face pale and looked at Fiyero.
A moment of silence passed by slowly.
"Fifi?"
He grinned, "Yes Glinda?"
"You're a- you're the Scarecrow," she said blinking as if this was a dream.
"Yes," replied Fiyero.
"You two have a lot of explaining to do," croaked out Glinda, her voice thick.
"Where would you like to start?" asked Elphaba.
The blonde opened her mouth, and let it all out. Ten years worth of anger, regret, sadness, and everything that came with it.
"Well let's start with the fact that you both are alive, and you didn't even TELL ME! And second, the fact that I have been grieving your 'deaths' for ten years now and not once did you send me anything to comfort me or tell me that you were alive just so that the guilt would go away! You have NO idea what I've been through these past ten years, and yet you sit here like it was just the day before you 'died' and everything was all right. How could you do this to me?" shrieked Glinda standing up, and pacing while she ranted.
She glared at both of them, looking more pretty with each yell that she made.
"Glinda, we wanted to tell you but we couldn't. We loved you too much to tell you the truth," said Elphaba, her voice breaking at the thought of hurting her friend like that again.
"The truth would have been nice than me crying every-night because I felt like it all was my fault! I trusted you two," she admitted, sitting back down on the ground in a huff.
"Gli-" started Elphaba when Glinda turned away and stared at the Lurlinemas tree, ignoring her.
Silence filled the castle for a long time with Glinda staring at the tree, and Elphaba and Fiyero waiting for Glinda to speak so they could apologize
"It wasn't a picnic for us either, you know," hissed Elphaba at Glinda a while after.
Glinda turned back to look at her, the snobbery in her face slowly deteriorating.
"I'm sorry alright. I was just upset," she mumbled smoothing out her dress, and then looking into Elphaba and Fiyero's eyes. "Can you forgive me?"
A smile came to both of their faces, "Of course we can," said Elphaba.
Elphaba embraced the tiny blonde and hugged her, tears threatening to fall from her face. Then Fiyero hugged her as hard as he could, and she smiled.
"So what do we do now?" asked Glinda.
"I think I can help out with that," said Chistery from the doorway.
They all smiled and followed him into the dining room. Once there, they were in awe of what they saw.
Candles of red and green colors were everywhere illuminating the whole room and the old iron chandelier that hung from the tall ceiling was decorated with pretty lights and candles. The table was covered with an elaborate tablecloth of a dark red with delicious food set on it. No one even noticed the grey dark walls of the castle anymore.
"Oh Chistery, this is… wonderful," gushed Glinda looking at the monkey.
He bowed to her and winked, "Anything for you, Glinda, and Elphaba, and Fiyero."
Then Glinda, Elphaba, and Fiyero all sat down at the table, and chatted away for hours upon hours catching up and remembering good times, and also telling her what had really happened with them ten years ago.
For all of them, they were dreading when they had to leave.
But they all procrastinated that point, and after dinner made their way into the room where the Lurlinemas tree was. There they all sat on the ground, together and lit a fire in the fireplace.
Elphaba, not Fiyero for he now had a terrible fear of matches, lit the fire, and put some candles on the tree.
The window behind it showcased the moonlight and they all stood back and looked.
It was a marvelous sight, the tree bright with candles and the night sky with the moon.
"Merry Lurlinemas Elphie and Fiyero," whispered Glinda curled up next to Fiyero who was besides Elphaba.
"Merry Lurlinemas Glinda," they both echoed softly. Glinda fell asleep soon afterwards, and a smile appeared on her face as she drifted off to sleep.
The next morning Glinda woke up on a cold floor in Kiamo Ko. She couldn't remember when she had fallen asleep last night, but she just remembered sleeping on Fiyero's shoulder with Elphaba next to him, and the lights of the tree, and the moonlight shining through.
Glinda looked around sleepily.
The tree was still there, and the lights but something was off.
Underneath the tree was a present wrapped in pink wrapping paper. Curious Glinda walked over to it, and looked at the little card attached to it.
It said:
To Glinda
From Elphaba, and Fiyero
She opened it slowly. Inside was a book that said on the top: TIMES AT SHIZ
Glinda flipped through the book, seeing brochures of Shiz University, keys to their dorm, essays that had gotten good marks, pictures from Fiyero's party, Galinda's flower clip, and tickets to the Emerald City.
Glinda went to the last page where an inscription was written.
Glinda,
We are sorry for leaving you again, but we visit Kiamo Ko often so hopefully we will see you again there soon. We miss you, and were so glad to see you again. Please don't be mad at us, but we are unwanted in Oz, and have to be safe. I made this book a while ago when I left you at the Wizards. I thought that you should finally have it. It's a scrapbook of our memories of Shiz. I hope you like it.
Take care of yourself, my sweet.
Till the next time our paths cross.
Elphaba, and Fiyero.
In that moment Glinda knew that she was alone in the castle once again. She pressed the book to her chest hard, as if to keep their memory alive in her.
It was Lurlinemas, and all of Oz was celebrating. Glinda knew she should be too, but she wasn't in the mood.
She had already gotten her Lurlinemas wish.
Every Lurlinemas Lady Glinda went to Kiamo Ko until her friends came no longer, and the flying monkeys died, and she herself passed away.
Some say that they can still see the lights of a Lurlinemas tree in the window of the castle, and laughter can be heard from the castle in the village below but no one is ever there.
Some speculate that it is a demon, while others thought about a being from The Other World.
But maybe, just maybe it is the spirit of Lurlinemas.
THE END
I know I should be working on my Glee/Wicked story and Too Strong, but the spirit of Lurlinemas got to me and I felt compelled to write this. Sorry it's so long. Hope you liked it, and Merry Lurlinemas everyone!
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