~*~

There is far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

~*~

Both figures were much relieved when they began to see that the horizon was broken by what looked to Elphaba very much like large trees with dresses spreading out around their trunks in the shadows of the sunset- multitudes of them. However, the closer that they got, and as she shifted herself in her saddle to be able to see the strange sight better for herself, they arrived at a tall bluff overlooking what was instantly recognizable below them as the Arjiki camp. What had looked like trees from the back of her horse she realized were massive white tents.

The tents made a wide circle in what looked to be directly the middle of the vast plain spreading out below the rise they currently positioned on. Everything was flat beyond them for as far as the eyes could see, save the swaying yellow grasses that looked like they would be at least waist height to wade through. The tents themselves were ringed outwardly by several large wagons covered in the same white material as the tents were made of, but they looked more efficiently built for this kind of terrain than those that the Grasstrail train took from Elphaba's observations of the journey. After all, the Arjiki people were indigenous to the Vinkus and they had obviously learned to adapt to the surrounding environs. It was an environment that few could have managed without the proper training, she was realizing this quickly.

These tents that Elphaba could see were all of a similar shape with a tall point in the center and then two points to either side that were a little shorter than the center making a central area and two smaller portions to each side. The material was currently glowing almost pink in color with the kisses of the setting sun upon it. The only exception to this rule of shape was the tent in the very center, which was a large circular one which stood apart from the others due to its sheer size. It could have easily rivaled the downstairs portion of Colwen Grounds' manor house where Elphaba and Peerless lived, and such a thing was no small feat given that the house was exceptionally large. Her dark eyes grew in excitement and further curiosity as she took it all in.

Kayin smiled at her expression, seeming to find it amusing that she looked so overcome and shocked, though not in a negative way. "It is quite astonishing to see the way our people live for the first time is it not, Miss?" he asked.

Elphaba just nodded, "Just Elphaba." She said rather put off and surprised. She still hadn't adjusted to people calling her Miss or recognizing that she had officially agreed to take on the title of Thropp Third Descending, making her the heir to the Eminency in Munchkinland. Even five years with her grandfather had left her still surprised when people recognized her as someone important or paid attention to her. Back at home that had never happened unless in a bad way. Nessarose had been the one that got all of her father's attention from Elphie's earliest memories, she was the second thought. Kayin just gave her a friendly smile and nodded, he would remember that she preferred just to be addressed by her name. He always said that you could tell the good kind of leader or the stuffy kind by if they required a lot of formalities. The girl seemed a bit quiet but certainly intelligent and competent. The Eminent Thropp himself had not been here in Kayin's lifetime, but he'd heard many stories, primarily that the man was the best of the provincial rulers that had been seen in a long time. He respected other cultures and it seemed he had taught his granddaughter to do the same. At least that was Kayin's perception from stories, but he was quite enthused to get the chance to meet the man and his mysterious great granddaughter himself, for the couple had been the talk of Arjiki gossip and story the entire summer leading up to now.

Elphaba's eyes were wide with wonder as they neared the camp and she began to realize just how large the tents were. Even the grandiose size of the middle one that had appeared to be the size of Colwen Grounds' downstairs seemed to be magnified when they actually went around the bluff and down its side to be in the midst of the camp. Delicious smells, not of which were recognizable, accosted her nose and she took some deep breaths. The scent of food mingled with the delicious smells of fresh grass. The Land of Oz had been suffering from the drought for so long that Elphaba had nearly forgotten what a lot of fresh summer grass smelled like. The Vinkus had aquifers under much of it and thus did not greatly suffer from drought as did some parts of Oz (especially the Quadling).

She shifted her eyes around the camp taking in the other sights as she acclimated herself to her new location. Kayin led their horses through the camp of white and as they moved through the labyrinth like maze of tents with their flaps swaying lightly in the small breeze she saw small faces begin to appear at the break in the material at each tent, staring curiously up at them. All of the eyes made her feel distinctly awkward, but she did her best to merely ignore it. No one spoke, but she noticed the further they went they began to pick up a following of the youngsters following. These children looked to be all under perhaps eleven or twelve years of age with the median being perhaps six or seven. They were all dressed similarly the boys in skin pants the same as Kayin's and either shirtless or with long, loose shirts made of a kind of light tan colored cloth some shades darker than the white of the tents. The girls wore either pants just like those of the boys or flowing knee length dresses of the same material as the boys' shirts (it looked very soft and very comfortable to Elphie and she was slightly envious of their freedom to run and play in the grass.) Of course, little did she know yet, these clothes were a necessity in this part of Oz to combat the stifling temperatures of mid day in the Vinkus. Arriving in the sunset it was not nearly as warm as it had been in the stifling heat of mid-afternoon.

Elphaba smiled softly at the children, unable to resist their wide, white toothed smiles. Each of them had the same dark, rich color of skin as the boy on the horse in front of them, though in varying shades of darkness from a cinnamon to so dark as to being almost black. She also noticed in her keen observations that none of the small ones had the diamonds, which she supposed did make sense, who would tattoo a child after all? She looked quietly over her shoulder at them surprised as she realized that, as they gained number, the children were singing. "What are they saying?" Elphaba asked her Grandfather quietly, knowing that he was fairly familiar with the Arjiki language from visits here previously before she had ever come to Colwen Grounds.

He and Kayin both moved to speak at the same time, but he deferred to the younger man. "It is a song of honor, of respect for a leader. They sing it to honor yourself and the Eminent Thropp, Miss Elphaba." He said, grinning at her impishly, though still in a friendly way as he attached the Miss to the front of her preferred name, which just caused her cheeks to turn a shade deeper emerald, her personal form of blushing. Outside of the main tent in the back there was a giant spit over a fire over which meat was being seared. To Elphaba it looked like a whole cow, though Kayin assured her it was one of the large wildebeests that roamed this open land. One of the Arjiki hunters had brought it back that very morning. The smell of the meat churning on the spit reminded her that their rations on the Grasstrail Train had certainly been lacking as they had traveled incognito much of the way. They had had nothing fresh for weeks and her mouth watered, her stomach growling so loudly that it made her blush even deeper.

Peerless and Kayin both exchanged a smirk, "You'll have to excuse us for I'm afraid it's been a long journey and our fair has been meager at best. We've been fortunate most days to have sourdough biscuits and the roots and berries from the trail and dried jerky if we can get it. We're not afraid of a little hardship and roughing it but it can get tiresome after the first days of such an existence."

"I certainly don't blame you for I find myself more than ready to return to my comfortable hammock and a nice meal after a few days hunting." Kayin said.

Finally they drew to be some feet from the main tent, which they could see into as the flaps were swept wide and tied in such a way that they could see into it. Within the huge tent there were long rows of blankets woven in beautiful bright colors spread on the ground and hundreds of people had gathered here and were sitting cross legged on the blankets. At the far end of the only room of the tent she could see (for it had several rooms) there was a large chair made of what looked like woven vine and twine which was erected above any other seat in the room. A woman sat there, though Elphaba could not see her well due to the dimness inside of the tent. The inside was ringed with little lanterns strung from the main pole, but these had yet to be lit. Adjacent to the makeshift throne, for that was what she realized it was, there was a long trestle table. The table looked as though it had been put together in just that afternoon and would be taken apart again when they picked up camp to follow the herds of wildebeest, gazelle, and antelope that were here. The table stretched several feat – as long as three of this giant young man beside her for certain, and contained so many dishes of food. Elphaba didn't think she had ever seen that much food in her entire life. These people had adjusted to being able to do the best of everything while traveling across the plains of their vast land. No wonder they must think Ozian culture so very odd! Her eyes widened at the sheer amount of the food and she could only pick out a handful of things from this distance: ears of corn still in their husks which were burnt from being cooked directly in the fire wrapped in leaves and then split open, nuts, peas, cabbage, cassava, rice, beans fixed a million different ways, plates full of salted and peppered kale sliced open, a large dressed bird of some sort, spinach and meat, lemons and limes and oranges piled high in a big bowl, cooked apples stewing on some simmering coals, lentil stew, bright peppers and gourds and onions and tomatoes and relishes, some kind of filleted crab, prawn and oyster on the shell, melons so ripe and juicy it looked as though you could have squirted the juice across the tent, okra and collard greens, groundnut stew, skewers of delicious looking chunks of meet and bright vegetables, grains and loaves of dark bread and what looked very much to Elphaba like a crocodile, still mostly intact. Those were the things she actually recognized or guessed that she recognized. Everything else was unrecognizable Vinkus food that she couldn't place and didn't seem to have a Munchkinlander equivalent.

"It looks amazing." She said appreciatively. "Both of us would like to think you all for your trouble to make things so nice for us and I am sure that our visit here will lead to much cooperation and partnership between our peoples." She said, shooting a nervous look over at Peerless with a silent question in her eyes as if to say 'how was that?' and he merely nodded with a small smile on his face. He approved. However, her next movement was far from as suave. She noticed, vaguely, that the woman had descended from her vine chair and come to the front of the tent. Two bearers behind her waved large leafy branches to cool her. It was the perfect mixture of refreshing informality and royalty mixed to Elphaba's mind. She was quite a bit shorter than the taller men and was dressed in a long summer style dress with no sleeves that pooled at her feet. It was black with bright green leaves and yellow flowers on it and she had a crown of the same yellow flowers woven into her black hair. Her hair was as thick as Elphaba's own but even a darker black and was done up in an intricate kind of braid. Her eyes were deep and black as shoe leather with pinpricks of light in them. Her arms were covered with gold spangled bracelets and rings; she wore no shoes, but she did have toe and ankle rings of the same gold as those on her arms. She had high, clearly defined cheekbones similar to Elphaba's but a rounder face, had more curves. She wasn't as thin as Elphaba either and appeared to be perhaps middle aged.

Her gaze flicked to the boy that had joined the woman, though he hung back somewhat in the fringes of the tent. She could still see him however. He was taller than she and perhaps her age or a year older if that. He had had his hair shaved, but there were no diamonds, she noticed, maybe all grown men didn't have diamonds then? She filed this information away for future reference. He had the woman's cheekbones, but his eyes were of a lighter brown and his face was much more chiseled. He had strong shoulders and muscles and he wore skin pants decorated with design in quills and paint and little beads. He wore a shirt with no sleeves in it that showed off his strong arms and muscles. She detected something kind about the face and something familiar as well, but she couldn't quite place it.

Elphaba shifted to get down from her horse, lifting her foot over the saddle, as neither she or Peerless knew how to ride bareback, and moved to swing herself down, but her foot had not yet touched the ground when the other toe of her black boot slipped right out of the stirrup. Of course, the next actions were too fast a course to prevent as Elphaba slipped, the edge of her dress got caught on the saddle and stuck there revealing a white flash of undergarments and her stockings at the same time as her chin smashed into the saddle so hard she bit her tongue to the point of tasting the iron rust of blood. Her hands scrabbled crazily for something to hold onto but she found nothing and there followed a painful smash as she landed face down on the ground underneath the horse, which stamped loudly and whinnied, highly spooked and tore off through the clearing and into the burning sunset.

There was a deadly silence around the circle of people in the little clearing as Elphaba slowly sat up and leaned over and spat in the dirt by her – a mixture of the sand now coating the inside of her mouth and blood from having bit her tongue so hard. She looked up and was surprised and somewhat hurt to see the boy next to the royal woman was grinning. It wasn't really a mean grin she realized, albeit her wounded pride told her that any kind of a grin was not favorable given what had just happened to her.

Peerless was even grinning by now and, eventually, even Elphaba offered a rueful smile as Kayin offered a hand to help her off the ground and she took it gratefully and pulled herself to her feet. "We weren't sure if you would prefer to freshen up before you ate or not.." Kayin said with a small smile as if to explain the feast that was across the tent from them.

The two exchanged a short glance before Peerless spoke. "I believe we will take the food. Neither of us have anything but sourdough and dried jerky for weeks." He said as they moved towards the tent as Elphaba attempted to inconspicuously brush the dust off of the backseat of her dress while no one was watching her.

Elphaba's eyes took a few moments to adjust to the strange, dim light within the tents, but soon it seemed hardly necessary as boys ran around lighting the little lanterns that were strung to the upper portion of the tent and the inside of it began to come alive with the chattering of people. Elphaba felt pleased that, aside of the littlest children who were seated apart from the adults in their own area of the tent, no one stared at her odd verdigris. However, a good deal of the beginning of the meal she was left quite to her own devices, a couple of men swept Peerless off to another blanket to sit with them and she remembered his stories of coming here as a child with his own parents much the way he was bringing her here to learn about the other cultures of their world. Peerless believed that it was important to truly try to understand people if you wanted to have a successful diplomatic relationship with them and Elphaba felt that she understood where this idea had come from. How could you ever, for example, expect to talk to the Arjikis about problems of crowding within the Emerald city when the majority of them had never seen it and they lived in a place like this where the land was empty but for grass and sky and animals as far as they eye could see. How did you explain to them there was such a lack of water that people were starving when the grass here grew verdant and green in the rainy season when the land practically overflowed with water. In the dry season when the grasses were parched and faded yellow there were always natural wells and aquifers to get water from if you knew where to find them. The Arjikis followed the same migratory path every dry season, Peerless told her, and their camps were in the same locations every year. In the winter they settled in one area and remained. The Arjiki clan leader, the chief, had a large stone castle called Kiamo Ko that he had requisitioned generations back from the Ozian government. Elphaba thought, ironically, that Peerless had said at one time it had been a waterworks plant. No matter what, the place was beautiful and she had been here a very short time but yet she knew she would not regret the weeks that it had taken to get here. She understood, perhaps better than the majority of Ozians, that just being different didn't make you a freak. Aside from her green skin which would set anyone apart, she had been born in the wilds of nowhere Munchkinland inside an infernal clock that was the epitome of the pleasure faith and had almost resulted in the death of her strict Unionist Minister father, Frex, and then had been carted around with her family through the Quadling on Frex's mission to try to bring religion to the lives of the poor Quadling people, who were too polite to tell him they weren't interested in his religion or his morals. It was something that Elphaba had seen in a starling clear light by the time she was eleven years old, but Frex had never been able to see it… you couldn't make everyone like you- people are all different and if you wanted to work with someone you had to be able to accept him as a different person from yourself and embrace those changes and capabilities. It was what Elphaba was hoping she would take home from this place at the end of their diplomatic visit: understanding.

Kayin leaned towards Elphaba quietly, "These tribal dinners are a great deal, but I can see that the women have outdone themselves more than usual with yours and His Eminence's arrival."

"They didn't need to go to so much trouble." She responded a bit stiffly.

"Well don't ever tell an Arjiki that. The women are exceptionally proud of their hospitality and it's considered a grievous offense not to go to the utmost trouble for a guest in your home- personal feelings or not. So to say something like that would look quite terrible to an Arjiki. They do not understand Ozian customs sometimes, especially the housewives and mothers who never had the opportunity to visit your Oz."

She shivered slightly at how he said that 'her' Oz. "And how is it that you come to know the customs so well?" she inquired politely as possible, though an itching curiosity was burning within her to know the answer to that specific question.

"Oh.. my parents sent me to Shiz when I was sixteen. I was fortunate enough to sent my entrance exams a full year before they let most students. I attended two full terms there."

"You didn't go back the next year?" she inquired.

"No… My parents died and I have four sisters, someone had to provide for them and so I remained home. I don't expect I will probably ever go back to Oz, but it was a good experience at the time."

Elphaba was so abashed by the land mine she had somehow managed to step into that she avowed she wouldn't speak for the rest of the evening and quietly dedicated herself to staring at the plate of food she had been filling as they moved through the line at the trestle table and then took seats on the colorful woven blankets amongst the others who were similar to their age. Elphaba didn't know their names, but the blanket Kayin and she had seated themselves on was ringed with perhaps four boys and at least double the amount of girls. She would learn through the coming days that Kayin was one of the most eligible young men in the camp and wherever he was… a line of Arjiki hopefuls were likely to follow, though he seemed not even to notice this.

It was not long at all before one of the men moved toward Elphaba and offered her a large slab of some kind of meat. She would not have been able to place this unidentified meat if not for having seen the platter it was being served from. It was part of the crocodile she had seen earlier, for up close there was no doubting what it was as the specimen had been well preserved in its shape even through the cooking process, whatever that had been. The meat itself that had been carved from the animal was a white in appearance and seemed to have come, at least this portion, out of the tail. The man said something that Elphaba did not understand and Kayin responded for her. Reading between the lines, Elphaba could guess that Kayin had been telling the man Elphaba didn't know the Arjiki language because he then said in uneasy Ozian dialect, "You would be liking some, miss?" though he accent was unsure and his words strange (they reminded Elphaba almost of the speech of the Quadlings), his smile was warm and his eyes bright with the vigor of life.

"No.. thank you." She murmured, looking at the meat with a raised eyebrow. Arjiki delicacy or not given how rare it was to find a lagoon with crocodile population and the risk that was brought from attempting to kill and retrieve one of these animals, she wasn't sure she was brave enough to try it.

Kayin looked at her with an askance smile, "You don't like crocodile? It's a shame for its very good- tastes a little like chicken and crab- very tender." He reached over for one of the cuts of meat and snapped it into his mouth whole. Teenage boys certainly knew how to eat and such a thing could never be doubted by anyone. Elphaba thought that he looked something like that animal must have looked gobbling down an antelope when it had been alive and she wondered what its last supper had consisted of. It wasn't that Elphaba was particularly opposed to eating animals but… crocodile?

She shifted awkwardly and tried not to think about what he had been eating instead focusing on the other diners in the large group. Particularly the young man that had been standing nearest who she now recognized as the Arjiki tribal leader, Baxiana Tigelaar. She had scant memories of the woman from their visit to Colwen Grounds some years previous. She had been more interested in their son the tribal prince Fiyero. She hadn't really been interested in the stuffy concerns of the adult world then. She briefly remembered that Baxiana had not been the ruler then, but what was referred to as Queen Consort- the Chief King's wife and the mother of his heirs. She was unsure where the King was, though he didn't seem to be here and she briefly remember Peerless having received the news in a letter months old that had been lost in the mail train that Marillot had been killed in a stampede on a hunting party and that Peerless was invited to come to the memorial service. He had been in a bad mood for some time after as Marillot had been a dear friend from the time they had met as boys when Marillot himself was a tribal prince and Peerless had been preparing for his own rise to the Eminent Thropp position.

She was still focused on the young man when he abruptly stood from the blanket where he had been sitting near his mother and another man whom Elphaba didn't recognize. Her dark eyes continued to follow him as he began his trek across the tent. It wasn't until almost too late that she realized he was making his way towards her. When he arrived near where she was sitting, everyone had turned to see where the young man was headed. She looked up at him with an emerald blush creeping into her cheeks as she watched him curiously and a bit nervously. He bowed slightly and extended his hand to her, sweeping it around the tent, palm open. This seemed to be some kind of a signal because a still hush fell over the other occupants of the tent as they ceased to speak and, instead, devoted their attention to this figure. From somewhere in the background a quiet percussion of fists hitting drums began and the sound of what seemed to be woodwind instruments of some sort that she had never heard in the environs of Oz before. It was a sweet kind of music with a yearning note to it. She watched him curiously as he moved to the cleared space and began to dance slowly at first, twisting his body in rhythmical patterns that followed the music. His feet were bare and stamped on the grass as he began to move faster in tune with the tempo of the percussion on the large skin covered drums in the back. Elphaba could not tell if the drums were moving with his speed or him following their lead so seamless was the transition as he moved faster and faster. Soon he had begun to spin round and round and the sound of maracas shaking was added to the tempo of the music as he shook his legs out, causing the beads to flash in the firelight. His skin seemed to glow in the burnished kind of light from the flames. She shivered, her eyes drawn to his form and unable to leave it as though he were a magnet and she were mere iron shavings. Faster and faster he moved and she could feel her heart beating practically out of control. Her breath came in ragged gasps and she was losing touch with her surroundings completely beginning to whirl into a strange world of rushing and sound and color. It felt somewhat like she was inside a kaleidoscope she'd been given as a child from one of the Quadlings and it was both fear and joy and amazement. Her attention was so rapt upon him that she might have been under some kind of an enchantment as he danced, seemingly just for her, and the world spun away from her too quickly. Normally she might have been scared, but even now she was too overcome to be truly scared.

The tempo of the music reached a fever pitch as he spun and bent into odd proportions and he began to chant- the strange words of which she recognized only her name and that of her Grandfather's. His eyes met hers and they were gleaming bright in the eerie light here making her heart catch and skip crazily in a way she couldn't understand even if she had wanted to. She became aware of the pulse point in his neck that seemed to be pounding almost equally with her own heart. And then the music hit its breaking point and dropped off into a quiet lull as he slowly began to still his body like a toy top running out of energy, though with far more grace than such a toy had ever been able to bring until he was standing still in front of her, head bowed, eyes focused on his feet. When he did look up again, their eyes met for a long moment and though no words were expressed, she had the disconcerting feeling that he could see through her, right into her soul in some way she couldn't begin to explain. When she moved she noticed that her hands were shaking uncontrollably and her face was flushed. She swallowed a couple of times as he moved to sit back down in his place and the quiet reigned.

It was quite some time before she had the courage to speak, "What was that?"

One of the boys at their blanket guffawed loudly, "That was Yero's getting a little complex about your royal self." The comment, which Elphaba didn't understand in the least, earned the boy a glare from Kayin which made him quiet almost immediately.

"It was a dance of honor for your position in which he was introducing yourself and His Eminence to those who are here in attendance tonight and asking the Spirits to honor us with good favor and you with safety while you are in our lands. I wouldn't become too worried about it for it was just a custom of honor as our guest. Yero's never exactly showed any interest in settling down." Kayin responded. Elphaba wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or a bit disappointed at this information. This made several times in the same night that she had, to some degree, made a complete fool of herself.

Her quick eyes continued to journey around the tent taking in everything that happened and remaining fairly quiet and keeping to herself as was her custom. Some of the people sitting near her attempted to engage her in conversation after the dance, but, Elphaba, true to her introverted nature, said little in return. She felt too tired and too overcome to truly attempt to make conversation. Whatever she said here would be considered and might ultimately impact the success of their trip and it did need to be success with the turmoil in central Oz currently affecting everything. This visit was important and it couldn't be her fault it didn't succeed because she said something ridiculous or laughable, moreover, she wasn't particularly in the mood to embarrass herself once again as she had done earlier falling off the back of the horse – which still hadn't been returned to her knowledge and, likely, never would be. It always took Elphaba a little while to warm up and become acquainted with a situation before she felt comfortable enough to get to know others and interact with them. She could tell that this was her Grandfather's natural preoccupation as well, but years of practice had taught him to be as diplomatic as the finest of rulers and no one but Elphaba, who knew him best in the world, would have ever guessed that he was shy or that he was carefully sliding the bits of proffered crocodile onto the ground for the waiting mouths of the dogs who definitely didn't seem to mind the rather questionable nature of the offering….

_________

Did anyone sides me have major shivers during the dance? LOL I was totally like had the chills. This chapter was fun to write.. esp my visualization of Elphie falling off the horse. Some reviews would be nice so I know how this is going :) So far mission successful Nano number five is ahead of schedule!