"Elphie….. I'm so hot," Galinda whined, trudging behind the green girl with no sign of her buoyant energy from earlier.
Elphaba rolled her eyes and chose to ignore the suffering blonde, taking the time to readjust her glasses.
"And I really have to go…" Elphaba, who wasn't really impressed with the girl's complaining before, actually looked back at Galinda at that proclamation.
"Go do your business behind that tree. I'll wait for you," Elphaba instructed calmly, trying to sort the map out in the short break time that she anticipated she'd have from Galinda.
"I don't wanna go here…"
"Well, go anyway. I'm not holding your hand just so you can feel safe while you… you know," Elphaba waved her away albeit disgustedly.
Galinda huffed and puffed and stomped back behind the tree. Elphaba put her full concentration into the map, giving the blonde ample time to do what she needed to do.
"Elphie, I have a question."
"What?"
"Do you dig the whole before or after?" Elphaba's hands dropped from in front of her and she rubbed her face in complete disgust. However, she soon heard stifled giggles coming from behind the tree.
"Probably after, if I had to guess," Elphaba replied smugly, catching on quickly to the girl's antics.
"Oh… It's a bit too late, I'm afraid. I've already dug the hole before," Galinda awkwardly told her. Elphaba smirked deviously, knowing that she had clearly outdone the blonde in her attempts at trickery.
Before too long, Galinda reappeared beside the taller girl. Elphaba looked up from the map with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"You ready to go, Princess?"
"Yes. Yes, I am," Galinda replied, tossing her hair disdainfully. Elphaba couldn't help but allow herself to grin at the blonde's haughty expression.
They continued through the forest with minor difficulty, sifting through bushes and pushing past trees.
That is, until they came upon a mud-filled ravine with a rickety, old bridge extended over it. Elphaba raised an eyebrow and studied the map as Galinda hesitantly approached the edge to look into the large ditch.
In a very small depiction, Elphaba spotted the bridge on her paper. It was also the only short way to get to the cabin. The long way would take most of the day for them to arrive at the little house in the wood.
But, Elphaba considered, the bridge didn't look very sturdy and if it gave out with them on it, they'd be taking a nice and disgustingly sloppy mud bath.
She thought for a moment, gauging their options. It would be much more convenient if they could just cross over carefully rather than travelling such a great distance around the gap.
Elphaba folded the map and her glasses, tucking them both into her pocket. She then steeled herself and strode forward, clutching one of the posts holding the bridge up and testing the boards with her foot.
"We're crossing this?!" Galinda squeaked, her eyes wide as she grabbed Elphaba's arm tightly.
Elphaba prodded a bit more at the wood and she carefully stepped on it, placing her full weight on it. The bridge swayed a little, but ultimately held up considerably well for its apparent age.
"It appears that we are," she replied with a calming breath. Elphaba moved forward and the entire bridge shifted unsteadily. She grabbed the ropes acting as railing and she looked up at the distance she still had to travel to the other side.
She felt the unsteady shake of the bridge and felt Galinda grasp her upper arms with an amazingly strong grip.
Elphaba could feel the fear emanating off of the shorter girl, and she knew that they hadn't made it very far at all in relation to their ultimate goal.
So, by some miracle of emotion, a twinge of pity squeezed Elphaba's stomach.
"I'll go first to make sure it's steady," Elphaba spoke with an almost unsettled look in her eye, feeling a little off after she actually outwardly showed her compassion.
Elphaba moved forward a few steps slowly, and knew that she needed to somehow lighten the mood. She was already feeling very strange after her vocal expression of care for the blonde and she knew that Galinda was likely scared out of her mind.
"We wouldn't want Princess falling in the mud," Elphaba smirked and followed up quickly in an attempt to cover up her previous lapse of sympathetic sentiment.
"Would you stop calling me that?!" Galinda spat and Elphaba upon a glance backward noticed that the blonde indeed seemed very afraid. But the emerald-skinned girl considered the fact that Galinda was still on the bridge and attempting to make demands as a good sign.
Elphaba chuckled, tentatively advancing several more steps.
"You call me Elphie. Why can't I nickname you something, Princess?"
"Stop doing that!" Galinda stopped in her tracks, but Elphaba proceeded in her forward motion.
"What?" Elphaba prompted dumbly, trying to keep the blonde distracted. It wouldn't be good if she started freaking out at this point. They were already in the middle.
"You know what you're doing!" Galinda yelled angrily in response. Elphaba didn't pay much attention to the shorter girl, and just continued making her way across the ravine.
After a moment, Elphaba realized that she was the only one moving. She craned her neck to look at Galinda.
Galinda was only a little past the middle and she was looking down at the mud with a terrified expression.
Elphaba looked in front of her and saw that there were only a few more steps before she would reach the other side. She turned her body so that she was facing the girl some distance behind her.
Galinda looked up at Elphaba, completely unnerved by the shaking of the bridge.
"Hey, Princess, what's the hold-up?"
"Don't call me that, you greenie meanie!"
"What? I can't hear you over your wonderful new title," Elphaba teased, stepping backwards as the blonde moved closer.
Galinda was steadily moving nearer and Elphaba couldn't help but smirk at her roommate's determinedly concentrated anger.
It truly was a humorous situation. Elphaba couldn't help but wonder how many times in her life she'd have the opportunity to see the ever-perfect Galinda Upland in such an outdoorsy setting crossing a broken-down bridge in the middle of nowhere with a look of defiance set on her face that mirrored a full-cheeked chipmunk.
Elphaba felt her feet step onto safe ground, and she looked down for a second to check that she was surely on the other side.
Just as she did this, however, she heard a screech and Elphaba's head shot up in surprise.
There was no sign of a blonde on the bridge.
"Galinda!" Elphaba shouted, rushing forward and looking through the hole that was left by the missing board that Galinda had been standing on.
Below her, a wide-eyed Galinda sat up to her midsection in sloppy, goopy, disgusting mud. She was frozen stiff as she slowly took in what exactly had happened to her.
"Are you okay?!" Elphaba demanded, growing more and more concerned by Galinda's silence.
A sudden ear-piercing screech erupted from the girl below her and Elphaba winced, her nose scrunching as her whole face contorted into one of pain.
"MY DRESS!" Elphaba rolled her eyes, rubbing her ears with her fingers in an attempt to stop the ringing.
"I take it you're alright," the emerald-skinned girl replied, moving backward and stepping off of the bridge.
"No, I'm not alright! I'm muddy!"
"Well, look at the bright side. The top half of you is not muddy," Elphaba pointed out, heading to the edge of the embankment nearby the bridge and getting down on her knees in the grass.
"Come here and grab my hand. I'll pull you up." Galinda gave her a look that clearly expressed her feelings regarding the thought of actually walking through the mess.
Elphaba flexed her hand and raised an eyebrow in an attempt to hurry the blonde.
Galinda groaned and hesitantly attempted to stand without putting her hands in the thick, deep mud coating the ground.
Elphaba couldn't help but roll her eyes at Galinda's hatred of anything dirty. However, it was admittedly more disgusting than even Elphaba would've been able to gracefully handle.
Finally, Galinda stood up in the mud, trudging forward with the mud reaching her knees. Once she reached the bank, she reached up and took the green hand offered her with both of her hands.
Elphaba reached down and grabbed the blonde with her other hand as well, pulling upward with all of her might.
"Jeez, you really should lay off whatever you claim to be dieting on!" Elphaba ground out, dragging the blonde out of the ravine with every last bit of strength she could muster.
"I am perfectly lightweight! It's the mud!" Galinda complained offendedly. Elphaba chose not to respond and instead focused on trying to haul Galinda out of the ditch.
With one final yank, Galinda was successfully lying on the grass. Elphaba took a moment, resting on her back beside the muddy blonde.
She looked over at Galinda and brown eyes met blue.
"So, you're really fine?" Elphaba questioned, softer feelings filling her heart than the pure exhaustion she felt from pulling another body sharply upward.
Galinda looked down at what she could see of her pink dress.
"I guess I'm okay. My dress isn't, though."
"Okay. Good," Elphaba breathed, sitting up slowly. She grinned lopsidedly at the girl lying on the grass. "Because the look on your face was hilarious."