Elphaba
There had been no funeral, of course. Officially, Fiyero Tigelaar was simply missing, probably returned to his wild home without notice.
The life of the bustling Emerald City continued on without pause.
Elphaba Thropp was also missing.
She'd disappeared without a trace, fleeing from her makeshift home with Fiyero's blood on her hands. She fled fast enough and frantically enough to lose her tail, the Cat Malky who'd been spying on the happy couple for the Wizard.
Student became rebel became lover became sister. A maunt, of the order of Saint Glinda.
...
Elphaba had been frantic with loss, and fled, her feet instinctively taking her to the pretty streets where Lady Glinda Chuffrey resided. Eventually, she came to her senses enough to realize what would happen if a woman dressed like a street rat, soaked in blood, turned up at the high society house of an old friend. So she turned away, down back streets, places where she didn't stand out. Still, some part of her knew that she'd be spotted anyway, that eventually her shame would be dragged into the light. Elphaba couldn't bring herself to care, and busied herself in daydreams where she and Fiyero had fled the city, and lived in a farmhouse.
Right next door to Boq, no doubt.
Elphaba snorted, but this expression of almost-laughter brought tears instead. From somewhere behind she could hear the even martial tread of the Gale Force, no doubt one of those patrolling foursomes she'd seen on her way into the city, seven long years ago.
Madness gripped her, and she was turning, ready to wave and call out to them, ready to get her blood and Fiyero's all over their pretty uniforms, all scarlet and blue.
Then her eye caught a name. A tattered board, hanging on the wall of a stone building opposite her.
'Saint Glinda's'
The other words were worn away, lost to time and neglect. Elphaba stole another glance down the street. The guards had stopped, they were chatting. Another moment and they'd see her. Another moment and she'd be lost.
Elphaba looked back at the sign.
Glinda Upland had been her best friend. Her first kiss. Hers to protect and coddle.
Now, all unknowing, she was her rescuer. Her hero.
Elphaba slunk backwards, dazed. Her tears ran over. She slid to the ground amongst the refuse of this back street, out of sight of the guard who would have ended her life. The ground was cold and hard, and the stink of humanity all around her.
Elphaba thrust grim reality away from her.
Instead she sat in the sun next to the Suicide Canal, with sweet Glinda beside her. Crope and Tibbet wrestled playfuly and Boq rolled his eyes and tried to look dignified. Avaric sneered off to one side, an amused smile on his lips. Fiyero watched it all shyly, rarely venturing a word, but part of the group unmistakably. Nanny knitted, and Nessa preached. Elphaba cackled.
Yero my hero. Glinda my sweet.
