AN: Here, we learn Daeri's back story and why he's not like the other Gale Forcers.


Her eyes filled with tears when she saw how badly injured he was. She came forward and gently took his face in her hands, being careful not to cause him any pain as she did so. He closed his eyes, cherishing the way her skin felt on his. "Oh, Yero...What have they done to you?" she whispered sadly.

Before he could respond, she was kissing him. It wasn't like the kisses they'd shared in the forest; those had been frantic and heated, full of strong, passionate desire. They'd known that their time would be limited that night, and so they'd taken full of atvantage of every precious second and gone all the way without holding anything back.

But this kiss was different; this kiss was slow and gentle. It was every bit as passionate as the ones in the forest, and filled with just as much love, but it wasn't anywhere near as feverish, because this time, there was no limit on how much time they had with each other.

He smiled when they pulled apart. "You're supposed to be hundreds of miles away right now," he said. Elphaba shook her head. "I wasn't about to abandon you, Fiyero. I love you too damn much."

"Ellie," Daeri said. "I really hate to break up your reunion here, but we've gotta get him somewhere safe. They could come back at any given moment, we can't take that risk." She nodded. "You're right. Help me untie him."

She started working with the ropes around one of his wrists while Daeri came over and started fighting with the ropes on the other wrist. Fiyero closed his eyes and tilted his head back so that his face was to the sky, letting his muscles go limp and relax as the sun warmed his cold face.

"I'm still really confused," he said after a moment. Elphaba glanced at him briefly. "About what?" she asked. "How you two know each other and why Daeri's helping us if he's in the Idiot Squad." Daeri and Elphaba both smiled. "I used to work as a servant at the Thropp family mansion," the younger man said.

"Me and Ellie grew up together at Colwen Grounds. She was best friends with my sister Maewen, and our mom always treated her like another daughter."
"You and Mae always were like siblings to me," the green girl said. "And technically speaking, Daeri, you were the head stableboy, not a servant. Your sister and mother were servants."

"Same difference."
"No, actually, it's really not."

"Anyway...When I heard about the so-called Wicked Witch of the West and found out who it was, I knew that the Gale Force would most likely be in charge of hunting her down, so I decided to join. That way, I could hopefully find and help her. I eventually did, about a year ago in the forest while she was making a pit stop to gather food. I've been helping her avoid capture ever since. Yesterday, as she was getting ready to go where ever it is you guys had planned, I managed to slip away from the group without being noticed and caught her before she took off on that broom of hers. We came up with a plan to save you from the bastards, and now, here we all are."

Fiyero shook his head. "I always knew there was a specific reason I liked you best," he said. "Oh, and by the way," Daeri said, pulling something out of his pocket. "You dropped this yesterday." He held the object out and Fiyero looked at it. His earring. He smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate you grabbing that."

Elphaba frowned. "Damn, this thing is tight. Who the hell taught these bastards to tie a knot?" Daeri and Fiyero both laughed. "That would be your boyfriend here," the former said. She looked up at Fiyero and sighed. "Did you have to teach them so damn well?" she asked. He shrugged. "Sorry."

She bit her lower lip. Her eyes landed on something and her expression changed. Without any warning, she suddenly grabbed Fiyero's dagger from where it was laying several feet away and used it to cut through the ropes, then immediately dropped it again and caught Fiyero's arm as it fell, putting it around her shoulders to support him.

Daeri looked at her, then at his own dagger, which was attached to his belt in a leather scabbard. In the next instant, he'd drawn it and cut the rest of the ropes off, as well. He had it back in the scabbard and Fiyero's other arm around his shoulder all in one swift motion.

They gently helped Fiyero ease himself down so that he was sitting on the ground with his back against the pole he'd been tied to. Elphaba sat down next to him. Daeri put one hand on his hip and ran the other through his short auburn hair, sighing as he looked around.

He pulled his hat out of his back pocket and threw it on the ground, then jumped on top of hit and twisted around, grinding it into the dirt. He took a step back and kicked it in the same motion, then put a hand over his eyes and watched it fly a short distance through the air before landing at the edge of the corn forest that surrounded them on all sides. "Take that, bastards!" he said. "There's what I really think of your precious Gale Force! And good fucking riddance to the damn thing, too!" He then took off his coat and twirled it around above his head. "Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men! Woo! Fly, you muthah fuckin' jacket, fly!"

"If you're done playing around now, Daeri, we need to find a way to get him out of here without causing him any more pain than he's already endured," Elphaba said. Daeri spun around on his heel, leaving a crescent shaped mark in the dirt. "Alright, so I scoped out the area last night while Fiyero was unconcious, and here's the situation as far as I can tell:

"We are currently surrounded by about forty miles of corn, roughly ten on each side. Behind me is north, behind you guys is south, east is to the right, and west is to the left-Ah-My right and my left, that is. Go north, you'll get to the Yellow Brick Road. Go straight across, there's a forest. I was thinking we could probably make a beeline across the Road and into the trees, use them as cover. From there, we can go to where ever you guys were originally planning on."

"Kiamo Ko," Fiyero said. "One of my family's castles. It's my anscestral home. She's supposed to be there right now, but that's obviously not the situation. It's way out in the Vinkus, at the base of Knobblehead Pike, overlooking Red Windmill."

Daeri nodded. "Alright. As soon as you're able to make the journey, we'll start heading west. Until then, I know of this little traveler's cottage that's in the woods. We can stay there while you heal."

Fiyero nodded. Elphaba softly kissed his forehead before reaching into her bag. "We need to bandage the worst of his injuries before we even try to walk ten miles, let alone one or two." Wordlessly, Daeri went over to where his jacket had landed in two long strides and picked it up in a swift motion. He examined it a bit, then shook the dirt off.

He drew his dagger as he went and kneeled down beside Elphaba and Fiyero. Elphaba threw him a questioning look. "Um...Daeri, what are you doing?" she asked. He glanced up. "Making bandages, what's it look like?" he said. Fiyero grabbed his wrist as he was about to start slicing the jacket up. "Don't," he said. Daeri looked up at him.

"Why not?" he asked. "Don't question your superiors, Private Abaymos, just do as you're told and put the dagger away," Fiyero replied. He was smiling when he said it, though, so Daeri knew that he was partially joking. Although confused, the younger man put his dagger away and handed Elphaba the jacket when she held her hand out. She shoved it into her bag, then took out a roll of cotton gauze.

"We'll keep the jacket and use it later on if we run out of real bandages," she said as she started wrapping it around Fiyero's bicep. "In the meantime," she tossed another roll at Daeri and he caught it. "Get busy."

Daeri nodded as he started unwinding it.


AN: Sorry about the Les Miz reference, I've had that and Red & Black stuck in my head and I'VE NEVER EVEN SEEN THE SHOW! ...Grr...Pandora...

ANYWAY...Yeah, so now you know the truth about good ol' Daeri. His sister Maewen and their mother Erigold appear in this other thing I've got on my highly disfunctional Word program called "Listen to Your Heart" where Yero gets Elphie pregnant while they're at Shiz, she figures it out while they're not at school, and he ends up coming all the way across the country with his family to fix things after she sends him a letter.

*gets all thoughtful*...That's also the first thing Thunderstorm was ever in...
MAN, I love that horse!

Anyway...yea. I own nobody except Daeri, Maewen, and their mother.