Breath of the Dragon

By 18lzytwner

Chapter 1

With Glinda on her honeymoon, Elphaba soon realized that the Council, much to their chagrin, expected Elphaba to take over her duties. At first, she was nervous. Despite leading the Animals and succeeding in getting many to safety, running the entire country of Oz was not exactly the same thing. Then there was the wariness of the people.

One of the first things she had to do was to hold public court and hear the complaints of Ozians in business dealings or neighborhood issues. The first meeting there was hardly anyone who ventured to see the green woman. It was easy but it was disheartening that people were still avoiding her like the plague despite the fact that Glinda's evidence had been incontrovertible.

The next item was to attend Council meetings which were hostile to say the least. There were still staunch supporters of the Wizard and Morrible in the Council and the only way they could be removed was at the general election held the next year. It surprised her at how many still refused to speak with her despite the fact that they had proof of the Wizard's lies. She suspected that they were more anti-Animal and more pro-Wizard policy instead of actually liking the man himself. She hesitated to tell them that she was in fact the Wizard's daughter to see if that would smooth things over because she had no intention of upholding his policies.

"Mindy, what else do we have on tap today?" Elphaba asked as she collapsed into her chair in her office. Glinda's assistant was on loan to her whilst the blonde was away and when she got back there would be a hunt for the right assistant for the green woman.

"Financial reports and troop inspection so nothing fun," Mindy replied.

"I can see why Glinda picked you. Honest and to the point," Elphaba smiled slightly, the girl reminding her of herself. They were the same height and other than the shared brutal honesty tactics, the two differed physically. Mindy had red hair and very pale skin and weighted about thirty pounds more than the green girl. Not overweight by any means but certainly healthy.

"Thank you Miss," Mindy smiled.

"Please call me Elphaba when we're alone. I haven't been called my real name by many for so long, it's nice to hear it," the green woman said.

"Can do. Now the Royal Economy Advisor, Mr. Aziz, is going to want to speak about the state of things so you probably want to look these over," Mindy smiled and handed Elphaba a large stack of papers.

"Good thing I like to read," Elphaba smirked.

"He'll be here in two hours. We're due to inspect the troops after you are done with him but before dinner," the assistant explained.

"Ah I see. Where is Fiyero do you know? He knows more about inspecting troops and it would be good to have him assist me," Elphaba told her.

"I can track him down for you. I know he's still trying to smooth things over with the King and Queen," Mindy said.

"The Queen is surprisingly not the one I'm worried about," Elphaba conceded.

"Yes well when people try to kill you, it's hard to get past that, I would imagine," Mindy admitted.

"Yes the trust between you certainly goes out the window," the green girl smirked.

"I would think so," the assistant was about to go out of the office when there was shouting in the hallway and Elphaba immediately recognized it as King Haluk.

"Get away from the door Mindy," Elphaba ordered. The young woman backed away and the witch moved towards the door, her fingers crackling with magic.

To Be Continued…