Hello, hello, and so we meet again! This is the start of a brand new story. I recieved the idea for this story from Meltalviel, who is a bit busy doing her own things... although she beta-d this for me too!
This chapter does a lot of setting up. The plot will really start next chapter, but I should get that out before too long. So if it gets boring, hold out!
If I told you that I'd run away...
Elphaba Thropp ran as fast as she could. Not that she knew where she was going. Not that that mattered all that much. She just simply could not go home. It wasn't even an option. The hovels in the Quadling Country had never felt like home to her, but now the very idea didn't even exist.
She ran until her body screamed at her, begging her to stop. It was still early in the day, and the full heat of the Quadling sun would have been enough to make her sweat standing still. She ran until her muscles screamed, and she couldn't breath. She kept going. She couldn't think. It was a long time before she realized she had collapsed onto the marshy ground, with only her light cloak protecting her from the water that was capable of killing if it touched her skin.
Then again, maybe the cloak hadn't really saved her. Death didn't sound all that bad.
Stop it, Elphaba. You didn't go through seventeen years of hell to just give up now.
She sat up slowly, her body protesting. Every inch of her being screamed that it was done, and it didn't want to keep going anymore. But she and her body didn't quite agree on things. Her logic knew that she could not sit on that patch of marsh grass in the Quadling Country forever. It would have to rain, eventually.
So she stood up slowly, and walked. Her body found a rhythm, steady, slow, but constant. She survived purely on her desire not to fail. She counted her steps, which gave her mind something to do so she couldn't think. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Don't forget to breath. She went on auto-pilot, simply walking, as if she had a purpose other getting as farm from her 'home' as she could.
The current hovel she had been living in had been near the border to the City. She found the gate before the sun went down, and was able to slip past the soldiers guarding the city before night had completely stepped in.
She had no idea why she wanted to go to the City. It was a feeling more than anything else, like something was pulling her in. She tried to remember the geography of the Emerald City from what Nanny had taught her as a child. The northern area was the wealthy part of town, where tourists came. The Palace was in the direct center. South of the Palace... well, no one went south of the Palace if they could avoid it.
Elphaba was South of the Palace. Pulling her cloak around her a little tighter she settled into one of the decrepit benches that was placed along the street. The green paint was chipping off, slowly. She could see the natural wood underneath.
She folded her legs up under her dark blue skirt, studying the shadowy figures that appeared and disappeared. A mother with two young children clutching her tattered skirt. A gaggle of adolescents, ready to steal. Hungry men, begging. Women who had been forced to sell themselves for money.
Only then did it really hit her that she had bigger things to worry about than what would happen when Frex located her and dragged her kicking and screaming back home.
She vaguely considered going East to her Great-Grandfather's home. The Eminant Thropp liked her, or at least seemed to. She would be safe and dry, and the fact that Frex hated the man was an entertaining plus.
But then, her Great-Grandfather believed women were better off pretty and ignorant, letting their husbands speak for them. Elphaba just knew her Great-Grandfather had some lackey he would force her to marry, just so he would have some say in who inherited Eminence. She didn't so much care about the actual Eminence, and didn't want it. But she sure as hell didn't want to be forced into a marriage. She had always figured she would wind up the old spinster, and then one of Nessa's or Shell's children would be able inherit the title from her.
Being forced into anything was not what she needed right then. And plus, if she went to see the Eminant Thropp, he would surely notify Frex, and even if she wasn't forced to live with him, she would at least have to communicate with him.
So out of pure teenage rebellion and stupidity, she stubbornly sat on the bench, just waiting to be picked up by the Gale Force for whatever offence they could come up with.
Eventually, the night grew cold. She was glad the bench kept her off of the wet ground. She pulled the cloak around herself and began to doze. Surely, she could safely rest her eyes for just a moment.. she wouldn't sleep...
She stepped onto the platform. Her father handed her the simple suitcase that held two changes of clothes and a few books. He told her not to embarrass herself, or their family. After a moment, he added that he hoped she would do well, and awkwardly hugged her to him, in a gesture more for the surrounding group than from any desire to hug his child goodbye.
She picked up the suitcase and found her seat on the train. It was headed North to Shiz University. She would be starting college as well as a new life. She would be around intelligent minds that accepted her for her, and saw past her skin color. She would simply be Elphaba Thropp, and not the odd green girl.
"Hey, you!" A rough shaking jolted her awake.
"Wha-" Was her clever response. She wondered how long she had been asleep, and was puzzled at her oddly vivid dream. Shiz University? How in the world had she dreamed up that one? Shiz had always been closed to females, and the Wizard showed no signs of changing that policy.
"Shut up, girl, and come with me. You'll die on these streets if you stay much longer!"
She frowned. Who the hell was this old bat, and why did she care if she died or not? "But-"
"The rain will start soon, and you'll melt like sugar. C'mon now, follow Old Mother Yackle. She'll see your destiny gets tending to." She pulled the girl up by the wrist with surprising strength. "Hurry now, don't dawdle!"
"Who are you?" Elphaba tried to ask.
"Doesn't matter much. Destiny is what we're concerned with, yours in particular. And yours will end without a roof over your head!" Elphaba stared at the old woman. Part of her wanted to run screaming in the other direction. Part of her wondered how this Yackle person knew she was allergic to water. Part of her wondered if it all even mattered, and if she had anything to loose.
She followed the old woman into a little shack, and was soon asleep again.