It was bitterly cold, of course that was to be expected during winter, but the yearly coming of snow and sub-zero temperatures did not sooth the Ozians goosebumped skin and chattering teeth, no matter how many times winter came. This was especially true in Munchkinland, the bread basket of Oz, where with winter came the inability for anyone to make a living. Of course Munchkinlanders weren't idiots, they had planned ahead and had stored enough food to last them through a long winter, they just wished they had another trade that their state was good for, something that could bring them extra money. Money was an issue in Munchkinland, ever since Gillikin had started growing Munchkinberries, the state's number one export, there hadn't been as munch of money coming in. Even the governer and his wife were feeling the strain, right now however they were dealing with another problem.

"It's coming!"

Melena Thropp was twenty-three, ivory skinned, green-eyed and aurburn haired, not to mention heavily pregnant. She was also the subject of much gossip amongst Munchkinlanders. If only she knew.

The brown eyes of her husband, Frexspar, the governer of Munchkinland, widened in shock. His tall frame was made taller as he straightened his back like a soldier adressing his commanding officer. His black goatee tingled, and a bead of sweat ran from his bald head to his neck.

"What?"

Of course he knew what. How could he not? With the weird cravings and mood swings and such, he just didn't expect for it to happen now, a month before the doctor had predicted. And this certain doctor was never wrong.

"The baby's coming!" she shrieked, red-faced.

"How?"

Frexspar instantly regretted the question.

"How? How? I'll tell you how, when you stuck your forsaken cock in me! Now get this thing out of me before I cut it off! Get the midwife! Now!"

"No need, I'm here"

Karil Gespar was an Antelope in her early thirties, by human standards, and in her strong hands she carried two buckets filled with warm water, drapped over her equally strong shoulders were two towels. She sighed as she adressed Frexspar.

"No need sir, I'm here" and then she added to herself, "as if anyone in Oz couldn't hear the ruckus going on in this house"

"That's great, now would you two please get this damned thing out of me!"

Karil sighed again, she was used to dealing with delirous women, this one should be no different.

"First, the 'thing' is called a baby, second you need to relax Mrs. Thropp" the Antelope was attempting to insert some of her experiences and logic into the situation.

Unfortunately, that only seemed to make matters worse.

"Relax?! Relax?!" Melena bellowed, "You try relaxing when something is forcing it's way out of your cunt!"

Karil thrust her hoof into her pocket and pinched the neck of small bottle, she presented the yellow-brown conncoction to Melena.

"Here drink this. Trust me"

Without giving it a second thought, Melena uncorked the bottle and drank the contents in one go, eager for anything that would stop the unbearable pain. Within seconds she felt very tranquil, and very sleepy.

The midwife, having used this mixture before knew what it did and how fast it did it, she was ready.

"Mr. Thropp, get behind her"

Something in the Antelope's voice told him he shouldn't question her demand, and he quietly and quickly got behind his wife. And a good thing he did too, because almost as soon as he did, Melena fell backwards.

"What did you do to her?" the governer gasped under the weight of his wife.

"Morpheus Leaves" she explained, "relaxes the body and knocks the drinker out, and I'd say this dose should do her for about eight hours. Let's get her to the delivery room"

"Will that be enough time to get the baby out?" Frexspar questioned as he and the Antelope carried the sleeping Melena to the delivery room.

"Yes, when I say this stuff relaxes the body, I mean it"

X

Nearly eight hours had passed in the delivery room. With it's pastel colored walls, the room was meant to provide a relaxing enviroment to the expecting mother, or in this case, father, since said mother was still knocked out. Luckily for Frexspar, the baby was almost out.

"I think I see a nose" he said.

"There's a curl. Come on, almost there" Karil said, "There we go!"

The baby was out.

"It's a healthy, perfect, lovely little-"

At that time the clouds shielding the room from the moonlight parted, and what Karil saw made her stop in mid-sentence. And then she heard a shriek. She was certain it wasn't Frexspar's, the scream came from a women, and it sounded like Melena.

"Great Oz!" the governer's wife gasped.

Frexspar stood there, apalled, "How can this be? What the hell is going on here?"

"It's-it's-" Melena couldn't get the word out.

"Green" Karil and Frexspar said together.

"Take it away" Frexspar said, his entire body quaking as he looked at the floor.

"But-"

"Take it away!" he bellowed at the midwife, "Take it, and kill it!"

"I will take this child away, but not to kill, to find a place where she can grow up with love" Karil said.

Frexspar looked up to glare at her, "Who in Oz could love an atrocity like that?"

Karil didn't reply as she left the room.

X

Two hundred miles away in the courtyard of the Cloister of St. Glinda, the doctor who had predicted the green child's birth, thirty-seven year old Sibyll Keslar smiled. She knew the date she had given Frexspar was wrong, she knew that the baby was going to be born a month earlier, in fact she had caused it. If she hadn't have, the child's condition would have started showing up on the mother, and Frexspar would have surely terminated the pregnancy by whatever means possible.

"It's happened, hasn't it?"

Amina Koro was fifteen, Arjiki, her chocolate skin and blue diamond tattoos a stark contrast to the white snow around the puddle where her barefeet were, and tall. At eight feet, Amina was a mountain of a young woman, and she was muscular too, her arms and legs looked more like those of a professional wrestler than a teenage girl, she weighed three hundred and twelve pounds, and forty-five percent of it was muscle. Strangely, this didn't take away from her overall beauty, and Amina, despite what she said, was very beautiful. Her eyes were an odd shade of yellow gold that had an animalistic quality to them, canine in fact, and her shiny black hair, done in a mohawk tributed the first Arjiki defenderesses.

"Yes. And something else is about to happen, your spring term at Shiz"

Amina's mental strength matched that of her physical abilities.

At fifteen, Amina was the youngest person ever to be in the sophster class at Shiz University. To test her intelligence quota the maunts had her take an evaluation test, and they were surprised when they got the results back. Amina, the tall quiet Arjiki teenager, who spent most of her time sculpting beautiful scenes from scripture and playing the harp had outscored the former record holder by over one hundred points.

"Must we talk about this? We're both aware that my acceptance is just one of Shiz's games" she said, "I'm just a fun freakshow for the students and teachers; the Arjiki Giant. Not to mention my other problem"

Sibyll sighed, "Ah, yes, that. But don't let it get to you, you're going to do great things for your tribe, it's your destiny"

All was silent.

Siblly's eyes suddenly went out of focus, Amina had seen this before. When she returned to herself Siblly smiled.

"We're about to have a very special visitor. I'll try to contact her caretaker and warp them here"

X

Karil was beginning to wonder if she was doing the right thing by taking the green child all the way to the Cloister of St. Glinda, after all it was freezing, and it was a two day train ride. Perhaps it would have been better for her to take the baby home with her. But now, it was too late to turn back, she was nearly to the train station in Center Munch. She started to feel dizzy, and then...

Karil, I am Sibyll Keslar, a maunt of the Cloister of St. Glinda and a soothsayer. I know of your intent to bring Elphaba here.

"Elphaba?" Karil whispered, looking down at the child.

Yes, her name is Elphaba, a fitting name for this child for it means, she who grows strong through struggle.

Karil had to agree on that one, Elphaba's life was already a struggle.

I am also a powerful sorceress, I will use my power to warp you and the child to me at the Cloister of St. Glinda. I promise neither of you will be harmed, I have done this before from much farther distances.

Karil wasn't sure what Sibyll meant, but she clutched the baby hard, and then she felt dizzy.

The sensation lasted for a moment and the sight Karil was before her was that of a very tall female Arjiki and a maunt.

The maunt smiled at her, "Hello Karil, and hello Elphaba"

X

Frexspar, who had been glaring at the ground was suddenly snapped out of his reverie by his screaming wife.

"I know, it's horrible. Green. How-?"

"Not that! Another one!"

Frexspar paled; another baby? Twins? What if this one was green as well? He'd take his chances and if there was something wrong with this one too, he'd kill it himself.

X

Karil stared wide-eyed at the Arjiki. Never had she seen a woman she tall or so muscular, she looked like she could break a grown male Bear in half with her barehands.

As if reading Karil's mind, the maunt answered, "Don't worry, the only thing she uses her hands for are to create beautiful sculptures. She is Amina Koro, and I am Sibyll Keslar"

"You're who spoke to me? Is there something you wish to tell me? About...Elphaba?"

"Yes. Something will happen, something that will change the face of Oz forever, and it has already begun. A man, not evil only misguided, will set out to punish those who have wrong him and his brothers and sisters. This child, when she grows up will stop him, along with her twin sister" Sibyll said.

"Twin sister?" Karil questioned, and then her fur stood on end, "Oh no. He'll kill it. If it's green he'll kill it"

"Frexspar Thropp will not kill the girl" Sibyll replied, "she will not be green, at least not entirely. These two will be known as the Emerald Witch and the White Witch, and when the time comes they will be reunited and their destiny revealed"

"Reunited? You mean Elphaba and her sister will be seperated?" the Antelope asked.

"Yes, and they will be reunited in the Other Land" Sibyll confirmed.

"The Other Land?" Karil gasped. She wasn't aware such a place existed, "Why?"

"The White Witch must be sent there to fulfill another part of the prophecy. As for Elphaba, you must send her back to her her parents"

Karil was flabbergasted, "Back there? They sent me away to kill this child, I am not endangering her like that. And how in Oz do you plan to take the other girl away?"

Sibyll smiled, "One of my specialities is memory wiping. As for Elphaba, I was destined to be her Guardian"

X

Frexspar stared at the baby he now held. She was normal, safe for her hair, which was bright green. He looked down at her and whispered, "Maureen". It meant bitter, and that his how he felt.

He heard something and spun around, careful not to awaken his now sleeping wife, and what he saw made his blood boil.

Standing there was the midwife and a maunt who was carrying that abombination.

"I told you get rid of it!" he bellowed, no longer caring if Melena awoke.

The maunt held his gaze.

"You will raise this child, this green child and you shall not harm her. You and your wife shall also forget about the girl named, Maureen"

Frexspar simply stood there, staring blankly into space. Sibyll took this time to switch the two girl's around, so that she was holding Maureen and Frexspar was holding Elphaba.

"Green will change to brown, until her reunion with her sister"

Karil watched in amazement as the baby's hair went from bright green to light brown in a matter of seconds.

"Can you?" she asked.

The soothsayer maunt shook her head, "No, fate does not allow it"

And then Sibyll was gone.

X

This place had an odd name, Hicksville, and this oddly named place was where the White Witch was destined to grow up. Sibyll knocked on the door of the small house, and a young woman with tear streaked cheeks answered the door.

"Y-Yes?"

"I am giving you this child, Maureen, to protect. Listen to what I am about to tell you; this is no ordinary child, she comes from another world, a world called Oz, and it is her destiny to save it. I know that what I say sounds crazy, but when her sister, who shares her destiny arrives, you will know that I speak the truth. You will know her sister when her see her, she is green after all"

And with that, Sibyll handed the baby to the shocked woman and shut the door.

Nancy Johnson stood there wide-eyed, both at what she had been told, and by the mere fact that she was holding a child that was more or less her's. Her husband, Eddy, had just walked back into the foyer.

"What's going on? What happened?" he asked.

Nancy was speechless.

Outside, a man in tathered rags smiled at Sibyll.

"These rags itch"

Orson Heany, like Sibyll was a Guardian. One who had been brought back from the dead in order to protect one of the Chosen, and he was protected one of Oz's two greatest Chosen Ones, the White Witch.

"You'll get used to them. Goodbye Orson" Sibyll said, and then she was gone.

Orson picked up the first thing he saw, a long squeegee, and began scrubbing a car window. He began humming to himself, and then the humming turned into singing.

"Honest living, honest living, honest living..."