AN: As promised here is chapter two. I'll be back to post the rest of the story once it's all finished. A month perhaps? I hope you've enjoyed what you've read so far and thanks to those who have reviewed, added this to their alerts, and sent me such wonderful messages! Seriously, thank you for taking yet another chance with yet another crazy story of mine. :)
Chapter 2
Galinda Upland
Galinda Upland was never supposed to be born. At that time in Northern Gillikin it was most unfashionable to be giving birth to children whilst others were watching their own being eaten.
But Mrs. Edlyn Arduenna Upland was not about to turn her husbands advances aside, especially after he'd just bought her that lovely emerald bracelet she'd been eyeing. And if ever questioned about the new addition to the Upland lineage Edlyn would simply feign a giggle, excusing the whole ordeal on lack of planning. Her favorite line to reply with was, "How was I supposed to keep track of myself and run a household with those Unmentionables gnawing upon my servant staff every other day?" Her friends would nod, understanding, as they continued to sip their tea on the deck. But Edlyn could always feel their disapproving looks judging her from over the rim of their cups.
Sometimes she imagined that she could even hear their thoughts.
A slight squint from Maidel really translated to, "What kind of woman brings a child into this world?"
A small cough from Ulla surely meant, "How selfish can one get?"
But Edlyn holds her head high and drinks her tea in peace knowing her daughter is tucked safely inside their new home, cared after by no less than the best Ama their money could afford.
Sometimes, Edlyn thinks, marrying for wealth has its perks.
It afforded her and her husband to escape their lavish home in Frottica, once the Unmentionables overran the grounds, and to settle in the "quaint" valley at the base of Mount Runcible. Edlyn wouldn't call it quaint so much as a last resort. It's the only town in existence, that she knows of anyway, where a small contingent of men are kept well paid to patrol the land, assuring those living within the town were safe from those stricken with the horrendous plague.
Edlyn shudders every time she recalls those soulless things feasting upon her staff back in Frottica. They certainly were hideous creatures and how foul they smelled!
No, it was best she and her husband came to this cold town. Little Galinda could grow up far away from all that was plaguing Oz and have a normal adolescence. Albeit, as normal as they could afford it to be at any rate. She desperately hoped some other woman in town would birth as well if only so she could have one confidant in this Unnamed God forsaken place. Not that there was anything wrong with Maidel and Ulla, but they were being a bit hypercritical and Edlyn swears she saw Ulla wearing that same dress just last week.
Just because the world is surely coming to an end does not excuse one from not looking one's best.
If anything one must try harder to maintain the privileged lifestyle one has come to know.
Otherwise one might as well walk straight into a horde of Verdigris for all one is worth anymore.
"So Eddie," Ulla says, pulling Edlyn from visions of her friends meeting that very fate. Edlyn hopes the smile on her face hasn't given anything away. She straightens her posture anyway and meets Ulla's steady gaze. "Have you any plans for Lurlinemas this year?"
Galinda Upland is the only child in the town, now dubbed Mottica, because if there is one thing this town lacks in that is imagination. But Galinda Upland is ok with this as she is only five and she thinks she has enough of an imagination to make up for the friends she is lacking. Her Ama seems to be the only vintage person in this place who will indulge her fantasies anyway. All the other old people, oops… no, vintage people, her Momsie always corrects her to say. Apparently vintage people take offense when you call them old and Galinda doesn't understand why they would, because some of them look wrinklier then her fingers and toes do when Ama Clutch forgets to take her out of a bath.
Galinda thinks her Ama is the only other person in town as young as she. (And that's not saying much since she knows her Ama sometimes sneaks out at night to play with that dumb man from a few houses down. ) Why won't her Ama play with her? She's far better at make believe than him! Galinda doesn't understand why her Ama never wants to play Princesses... and she keeps calling Galinda her little duck! Galinda just doesn't understand because she's seen the ducks play in the stream off their back porch and she doesn't think she looks anything like them. It worries Galinda sometimes that Ama Clutch may know something about her that she doesn't.
Whilst most children are plagued with nightmares of the Undead taking their parents, Galinda is plagued with nightmares of her skin sprouting feathers and her mouth growing into a bill. She wakes up screaming on those nights, thrashing about in her bed until Ama Clutch comes into her room to calm her down.
"I'm n-not a duck," Galinda whimpers against her Ama's stomach, her little fingers gripping desperately at the rough fabric of Ama Clutch's nightgown.
And Ama Clutch clucks at her charge, assuring her that she is indeed, not a duck and that all is well. But Galinda isn't convinced because she swore her Ama just quacked at her like the Momma ducks do in the stream to the babies and it just makes Galinda cry more.
Galinda is finally convinced to fall asleep with the promise that her Ama will play Princesses with her tomorrow.
Later in the night Galinda is woken again, but this time by an explosion far off in the forest. Ama Clutch returns to settle little Galinda once more; promising the fire in the sky is all for the sake of her birthday tomorrow.
"They are practicing the fireworks for you right now." Ama whispers, holding Galinda tight. Galinda smiles, hoping they have pink ones for her. Her Ama is shaking and Galinda thinks it's silly because it's certainly not cold in her room.
Galinda doesn't get fireworks for her birthday but she sure did get lots of new dolls and dresses so it's okay that the fireworks had to keep sleeping like her Popsicle said. She makes her Ama change her into every single dress until she picks the perfect one for their afternoon game of Princesses. It will be the greatest adventure ever because Ama has told her this shall be the only time she'll play so Galinda is going to make it count. Galinda is to be the Fairy Princess because it is her wildest dream to one day make magic. Ama Clutch shall be the Quadling Princess because Galinda has heard stories from her Momsie about how ugly Quadlings are and even though Ama Clutch isn't as ugly as they sound she's still not as pretty as her Momsie so that's why she has to be one.
It's the best day of Galinda's life for a long time.
When Galinda is seven she notices a change in the people of her town. There seems to be less of them now then there ever were before. Galinda wants to play skip rocks on the bit of pavement near the front of her home but Ama Clutch tells her not today. Galinda wonders why her Ama isn't smiling at her as usual when she tells her to come inside but maybe Ama Clutch is truly turning into a vintage person finally since it seems one quality they all share is the inability to ever be happy.
In fact no one in Mottica looks happy at all today and Galinda even saw Momsie's vintage friend Ulla crying right in front of the baker shop.
Something is wrong and no one is telling her anything, so Galinda does the one thing she knows best and sets out to get her way.
Her parents finally sit her down that night to give her the talk they've been dreading since Galinda was born.
"You see Galindadoodle, there is…" her father begins to say, scratching at his thick mustache before turning to his wife and raising his brows. Galinda scoots up right to the edge of her chair, eyes wide and open. Whatever is going on must be big if Popsicle is looking to Momsie for help telling her.
"There is a sickness," Edlyn says after a moment, turning away from her husband and back to Galinda. She reaches over and takes one of Galinda's hands into her own. Galinda looks down at their hands, slightly confused.
"If it's just a sickness then why don't they just get some medicine?" Galinda asks.
Her parents sigh, doing that weird look between them both again. It frustrates Galinda that she can't understand what that look means… and it scares her because her parents have always been so sure of everything. What makes this sickness so different?
Galinda gasps, "does it turn you into a duck?"
Finally her father looks back over. "No Princess, it's nothing like that. It's-"
"Yes," her mother interjects with a nod. "Not a duck, but it turns people into something… something without a soul." Momsie is speaking so softly that Galinda is afraid she'll fall right off her chair if she scoots any closer. But Galinda feels a bit relieved to know it's not some horrible duck sickness. "Do you… do you understand Galinda?"
She stares at her parents. Ama Clutch spoke to her of souls once when Galinda asked what happens once you die. She wasn't stupid; she knew some of the vintage people in town were dying because you could only live so long being so wrinkly before you needed a new body. But when Ama Clutch explained to her there was no new body, just the part inside of you that lived on… naturally, Galinda became quite confused.
Certainly her organs weren't going to leave her body and sprout legs. If that were the case then how come she never saw any hearts trying to buy cheese?
"Not literally your insides, child." Ama Clutch chuckled at her. "Your soul is different, you can't touch it like you can your heart."
"I can't touch my heart," Galinda shrieked, patting her chest frantically to see if maybe she could… maybe if she just concentrated hard enough. When her hands met nothing but skin she looked up to her Ama, eyes glossy. "Can you?"
Again her Ama laughed but Galinda didn't find it near the least bit funny. "Ama Clutch, stop mocking me!"
"Excellent use of the word of the day," Ama Clutch praised. Galinda beamed "And to answer seriously, no, I cannot touch my heart. I should have perhaps said nose instead." Ama smiled and tapped one finger atop Galinda's nose. Galinda giggled, swatting away at her Ama's hand.
"So then what is a soul?" Galinda asked.
"It's you," Ama Clutch said with the warmest smile Galinda had seen on her face in a long time. "It's who you are and who you will always be. Even once you're old and wrinkly and time stops your heart. You will still be who you are, you'll still live on, just differently. More purely."
"Like magic?" Galinda breathed.
Ama Clutch smiled. "Yes dear, like magic."
So when Galinda's mother tells her there's a sickness that leaves a person without a soul, Galinda can't help but recoil in her chair and cross her arms tightly over her chest. To be without the part of her that she knows is magic would be worse than any fate she can imagine at all.
She nods at her mother's lingering question. She understands, without a doubt, what the sickness can do. And over the course of the next few years she learns first hand just how devastating it truly is.
By the time Galinda is thirteen there are hardly any families left in Mottica. The plague has taken so many that it's also hard to even bother caring for those left standing. Why should she have to attend dinner at the Masines? She's overheard Popsicle on countless occasions go on about how their money is about to run out. And when your money is gone, you're as good as dead. Without it the Masines won't be able to afford their place in town and surely be tossed outside the gates.
So what is the point of attending dinner with a family that is sure to be stricken by the next night? And as if to make matters worse Galinda knows their eldest son, at least twenty years her senior, has been eyeing her up all over town since she started developing breasts. He's sure to pull some sort of drastic measure to make sure he stays whilst his parents are outcast to the Unmentionables roaming the forests.
Being propositioned by someone who could be her father just reeks of desperation. Not to mention it's beyond gross.
Even grosser than being propositioned by an Undead, because at least with an Undead they'd only want to eat her brain and not eat what's under her skirts.
Galinda shudders, disgusted by the mere thought.
"Just come with us, Galinda," Edlyn says over breakfast when Galinda insists for what feels like the thousandth time that she will NOT be attending the dinner tonight.
"I refuse to be within a hundred paces of that man." Galinda says.
Edlyn sighs. "Your father will be there, so you need not worry about whatever tricks it is you're imagining Stave will pull. Besides it's the least you can do to show your support to his family."
"Oh yes," Galinda says with a roll of her eyes. "I can only imagine the uplifting dinner that shall be. 'Mrs. Masine, this pie is simply scrumptious, you know what else I hear is scrumptious? Brains. We must really keep correspondence once you've turned. Just because you've been outcast from Mottica doesn't mean we shant remain friends!'" Galinda trills, then allows her beaming smile to slip from her lips as she fixes her mother with a bored expression. "I simply can't miss out on that evening."
Her father snorts but smothers it well with a cough. "Allergies." He mumbles after his wife gives his shoulder a sharp smack.
"Galinda you are going to that dinner and that is final." Edlyn says, but Galinda has heard that tone before. It only sparks the argument within her to blaze brighter.
"And tell me mother, what will you have to say to the Masines at dinner tonight?" She smirks as she takes a bite of a rather bitter pastry. The baker was removed not long ago and whilst Galinda appreciates her Ama's attempts to replace her favorite morning meal, it just isn't the same. She politely spits some of the baked disaster into a napkin, smiling over to her Ama to assure her it's not at all what it looks like.
"I will say what I always tell those about to leave us." Edlyn replies. "We're sorry to see you go and please stay safe."
Her husband lets out a grunt as he drops his mug of equally bitter tasting tea to the table. "They won't last but a week without trained guards! It's like I keep saying, we need to train ourselves and stop relying on our money to keep up safe."
"Don't be silly, Allard!" Edlyn says waving her stale biscuit at him in, what Galinda notes, is a foolish fashion. "I won't have our family stooping to the lows of the barbarism that has befallen the rest of Oz. This is the turn of the century for goodness sake, we need to maintain some semblance of society."
"Society be damned!" Allard shouts. "You act as though the Verdigris are a nuisance only suffered by the poor. Well, I will have you know Edlyn that we very well may be those poor soon."
Silence encompasses the family then. Edlyn lets her biscuit fall to the table. It knocks against the wood loudly before tumbling to the ground like the rock it surely is. The only one still carrying on with the meal is Allard, who butters the last of the toast with such precision and concentration that Galinda is afraid he will butter right up his arm if he continues any further.
Galinda herself feels as though her very existence has been halted in time. The air has shifted in the small kitchen. All all at once she can feel every hair rising off her skin, every stitch in her dress itching across her thighs. She's never felt more alive in all her life then she does in this moment. She thinks this is what magic must feel like. A powerful surge of emotion so strong it just stops everything but burns like fire in its wake. Galinda doesn't realize her lungs were starving for air until she feels her Ama's hand come to rest over her knee gently.
Galinda has never been so thankful for her Ama's presence.
"W-what do you mean? Surely we can't-" Edlyn mutters, eyes flicking quickly from her husbands unrelenting assault on the toast and back to his stoic face.
Galinda watches as her father's shoulders finally fall and he lets out a long strangled breath. "It was never supposed to go on this long Edlyn… the Wizard was supposed to have stopped it by now."
"What are we to do then? What are we to DO ALLARD!" Edlyn screams. Her hairline is dotted with sweat.
Galinda's mother is always composed, always proper and never hysterical. To see her acting so, well, primal stirs something inside of Galinda.
"We'll go to dinner with the Masines," she answers because it's all she can think of to say.
It didn't matter that their money was soon to go, because that night during the most depressing dinner of all their lives, the Undead finally breached the gates to Mottica.
Stave, for all his ugliness and come-ons, actually proved to be a decent fellow when he threw himself against an Unmentionable that was mere seconds away from turning Galinda into his midnight snack.
And Galinda, for her part, tries not to surrender to her urge to run in a panicked circle, arms failing above her head as she screams into the clear night sky above. Because, while the urge to do so is great, she knows that will do little to save her from the Undead that are quickly going to overtake her if she doesn't slip out of her heels and make a run for it alongside the rest of her family.
Mottica burns that night, the fire swirling so high into the air the Galinda thinks it may reach the stars above. Her father is sprinting ahead of them, his sole weapon a garden hoe he carries in front of him as if it's a King's sword. Her mother is clinging so tightly to her arm as they try to keep up with his strides that she's sure she won't have any feeling left in her fingers soon. But she's grateful, so grateful for the vice like grip her mother has against her. It means that she's alive, that she is safe.
Unlike her Ama.
Galinda feels her eyes starting to burn and she wipes furiously at the water collecting in her vision. She knows her Ama's soul is safe; a guardsman shot her down before she could succumb to the sickness. But Galinda knows her sleep will forever be haunted with the memory of her Ama being tackled to the ground, her screams piercing the night as the Unmentionable sank it's teeth into the back of one of her Ama's knees.
And now, instead of feeling the fire burning off the homes of the town, Galinda feels the burn of a different fire in her lungs. They can't keep running this way; soon they will tire, and soon the Verdigris will be upon them as well.
Her heart is pumping so fast and her lungs are stinging so much that Galinda feels herself grow faint. Black tendrils start crossing along her vision, she sees her father stop ahead, hoe raised high, ready to strike. As he brings it down on the head of an Undead, tainted blood spurts across his chest and Galinda Upland finally empties her stomach of the stale pie from dinner that night. She promptly falls to the ground beside it, unconscious.
Galinda turns fourteen in a makeshift refugee camp along Vinkus borders. Instead of her usual gifts of makeup, dresses, and shoes, Galinda is given a set of arrows, a bow and some daggers from her father.
"This is unacceptable, Allard!" Edlyn shouts at him later that night inside their tent. An oil lamp hangs off a rusted nail along their center mast. It's glow barely extends to where Galinda sits in a corner on her cot, turning one of the daggers over in her hand and trying to quell the urge to vomit all over her mother's freshly swept dirt floor. Ever since that night in Mottica, the mere thought of killing an Undead in the manner her father had has her searching for the nearest bucket to empty her stomach into.
Her parents are always having the same argument. Allard has spent every waking minute bettering himself as a fighter for his family, adamant that Galinda join him as well. It infuriates Edlyn to no end. Sometimes he even thinks of using the rest of their money to send her to military academy just so he'll know she'll be safe and well trained. Edlyn will hear nothing of it of course. No Arduenna daughter of hers will be marching around Oz slaying the Undead. That is simply not happening. What man would ever marry a woman who could protect him far better than he could her? Allard believes no man is worth marrying if he thinks as his wife does.
Galinda tries to tune them out but Oz do they ever get loud and the tent isn't like their old home. She just can't walk over to her room to escape their yelling. She sighs looking down at her arms. A light sheen of sweat has been constantly clinging to her skin since their escape to this tent city. Tonight is no different and Galinda has long since given up the urge to keep wiping her skin dry. It's always hot here. Maybe that's why there haven't been any Unmentionables around. Surely their rotting flesh would hold up no better than hers is.
The dagger is beautiful though; Galinda gives her father credit for that. He told her he bartered them off a tribesman who'd come to the city with goods to sell. There is some sort of inscription along the short hilt but Galinda couldn't make it out and anyway it is probably in some sort of ancient Winkie tongue. A proverb or something about being brave or some nonsense like that.
Galinda is thankful for the gifts even though she's sure she's never going to lay a finger on them after this night. She imagines her father might get more use of them as he continues to practice outside the tent with some of the other men of the village.
And speaking of those men, Galinda is more than pleased with the newfound selection of them their move has provided. No vintage people here, that is for sure. All the burly young men surprised even her mother if her flushed cheeks are any indication every time they took a stroll to escape the heat inside the tent. There are a few Galinda has her eye on but her new (and very first) friends, Pfannee and Milla, keep insisting she could do far better.
Galinda sometimes thinks they just want the boys to themselves and if she is honest with herself she can so do better, much better, but this may also be the last year of her life so she may as well enjoy all there is to offer, right?
Two weeks after her birthday Galinda has her first kiss with the boy from two tents over. His mouth is chapped and Galinda thinks he tastes of carrots but at least she's ticked off one box on her list.
At few months later she lets another boy, this one from the other side of the camp, stick his tongue in her mouth. She admits he tastes better than the first boy but he's so sweaty and there's certainly something pushing against her thigh that she knows shouldn't be doing so, so soon. She pulls away and makes some excuse as she retreats home, spitting to the ground to rid her mouth of his taste.
At a wedding celebration the next year Galinda has a bit too much to drink and mistakes the daughter of her father's favorite sparring partner for a boy. To Galinda's credit it was an honest mistake; the girl had obviously just chopped off all her lovely long hair in favor of staying cool during the scorching summer suffocating them all. And Galinda admits she tastes much better than those stupid boys she kissed last year. Though that may also be the alcohol speaking.
Galinda realizes she is indeed kissing a she when the girl whispers her name. And she doesn't care because she's never kissed a girl before but so far she likes it much better than the boys. Boys are all force and thick lips and this girl is all soft. Galinda is concerned that she makes a very unattractive noise when she feels the girl's hand slide up her stomach. But then she realizes that the girl is making the noise, too, and it sounds far better coming from her makeout partner.
Galinda checks off another box on her mental list that night and if it hadn't been for Pfannee interrupting she would have definitely checked the big one off too.
No, that check went to the dreamy stud of the camp on her sixteenth birthday. This time no alcohol was consumed and Galinda had followed Pfannee's rules of at least courting him for two weeks or so beforehand. She rolls her eyes thinking about the awkwardness of it all. What do society rules matter when you're living in squalor about to die at any moment?
After Galinda loses herself to him she thinks she can die now, and not because she's finally checked off everything she can from her list, but because somehow it left her feeling remarkably empty. He pulls his pants up as she continues lying half dressed on the blanket in the tall grasses just outside their city. She continues lying out there long after he's gone.
Two days later the Undead converge on their camp. Galinda looses her father in the mayhem that ensues. Galinda didn't think she could feel emptier than she did on the night when she lost her virginity. But now, treading further into the Vinkus with the few other members of camp who managed to escape, Galinda feels a void so big inside her soul that she's sure if an Undead horde were to find them they would consider her one of their own.
That night, in a field surrounded by broken families and dwindling fires crackling around their small camp, Galinda's mother makes a decision. They will use the rest of their fortune to send Galinda to the finest Military Academy in all of Oz. When she tells Galinda of her plans, Galinda protests.
"Instead of wasting Popsicle's money on knives and guns, just send me to Shiz instead!" Galinda shouts, causing several families nearby to look up at the mother and daughter. A heat settles over Galinda's cheeks. She lowers her voice and tries to reason with her mother. "Look, Momsie, I know Academy is what Popsicle wanted for me and yes I would definitely be able to protect myself with the training but at Shiz I could become a Sorceress. I could even find a way to stop all this death!"
Edlyn shakes her head. "Please Galinda, please don't fight me on this. Your father didn't die so you could fumble with magic. Magic is an unknown but this," she says handing Galinda one of the daggers from inside her small bag of all their worldly belongings, "This you can learn. Look how far your farther progressed and in just a year! Imagine how better off you'll be with three times that training."
"Even with a year he still fell to Verdigris hands." Galinda hisses. Edlyn slaps her in the face. Galinda recoils from her mother's hand, touching her cheek gently where the burn of her mother's anger settles against her skin.
"Do not," her mother begins to say, but chokes on her words as tears flood her eyes. "He did everything he could to make sure you were safe, Galinda. That you lived. Do you not understand what he sacrificed for you? How much he loved you?"
Galinda feels a lump forming in her throat and she has to swallow thickly to dislodge it. The feeling of guilt is relentless and wraps back across her neck so quickly that she's afraid she may suffocate under its unrelenting grip. Her eyes turn to the floor and she nods.
That spring, when a Calvary of the Wizard's troops move through the Vinkus grasslands, Galinda and her mother travel with them. Within a few weeks Galinda is enrolled at Kellswater Academy, the most prestigious training school outside the Emerald City Walls.
Galinda vows to do her father proud… and if her mother has her say, also pick up a suitable husband along the way.