A/N: Normally I place these at the end of each chapter but I really feel I need to get this out of the way first. Thank you everyone for the lovely reviews and everything. I would like to apologize greatly for my absence and not responding to any of you. I really truly appreciate your time and comments. That aside, my computer spontaneously died a while back and took all the progress I had on this story with it. However, I'm feeling rather inspired about this lately and am hoping to at least ride said inspiration out for a few chapters, if not until I manage to finish. Thanks for your patience guys!
On a side note, we won't be hearing from Fiyero or Boq for a while, so enjoy them while they're around. :3
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The Rescue Effort
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"Dismissed. Rejected. Publicly humiliated! Why, It's more than I can bear," Fiyero groaned halfheartedly while flopping unceremoniously into his favorite tavern chair. Boq shuffled up next to the chair, observing the girl passing outside the window. It had been a whole day since Elphaba had shrugged off Fiyero's advances and he was still mourning over the loss of his pride instead of moving on like he usually did. Not that there was anything usual about the winkie being turned down.
"I don't understand why you're so bent out of shape. I mean this is Elphaba we're talking about. Why are you even so interested in her when you can easily have any other girl you want?" The munchkin questioned dully, placing a glass of beer nearly as big as he was on the chair's arm.
"Why?" Fiyero barked, alarming not only his friend but also the people at the table on the other side of the tavern. "Biq, look at her!" The larger man jumped up, wrapping a powerful arm around his friend's neck and pulling him to the window where Elphaba was passing by after her daily stop at the library. "She's perfection! Face so slender, skin so smooth! She's just so exotic!" He paused for a moment to sigh distantly as the green woman moved off towards her house. "She's tragically beautiful."
Boq stiffened as he found himself in a choke hold, his arms instantly wrapping around the one around his neck so that he could still breathe. Albeit barely. The smaller man looked out the window to where Fiyero's free arm was pointing, huffing slightly at the monologue. He pulled a face and muttered to himself, "No I think you mean beautifully tragic."
Fiyero took no notice of this comment as he dropped his friend back to his feet and flopped into his chair once again. Boq shook his head, he had to find some way to get Fiyero out of this slump.
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While Boq was busy fretting over how to get Fiyero to be his usual self again, Elphaba was already situating herself on the front porch with another book she'd read before. By as early as an hour before noon she'd already nearly halfway finished the book. She grinned inwardly at the image adorning one side of the book. Normally she read books that didn't have images but today's novel was a piece of fiction, and as such, was graced by the occasional piece of artwork to compliment the words. As a general rule of thumb she avoided such fairy tales like the plague, but every once in a while she felt the need to indulge in the jovial stories that only fiction could provide.
This particular image was of a prince seated atop of a rearing white horse. The lines were beautiful and the prince seemed even more heroic with the light of the setting sun behind him. With a desolate sigh green fingers brushed the page as she half sung to herself, "Here's where she meets prince charming." Her voice trailed, vaguely wondering if anything like these stories ever happened in real life. It didn't take her long to decide that they didn't, but for the sake of humoring herself she entertained the idea for a little bit longer. Her daydream was short lived as she realized there was suddenly less light on the picture she was staring at.
Starting, her head swung up to be greeted by the sight of the family horse rearing up just like the horse in the picture. Her breath caught as she jumped back, shoving the chair she was sitting in back a couple of inches. The horse landed and just stared at the green girl, who was panting over the animal's sudden appearance.
"Philippe? Don't do that. What the. . . where's father?" the girl managed to choke out past her slowly calming heart. The horse jerked its head towards the road frantically, apparently having understood exactly what the girl had said. In turn, the girl squinted her eyes at the road apparently having understood exactly what the horse had meant. She swallowed hard in contemplation; her dad had been lost in somewhere along the way? Brown eyes glanced over at Philippe from the corner of her vision.
She just couldn't believe her luck. The poor girl just wanted to read her books in peace and now something like this had to happen? Elphaba groaned under her breath, maybe she should just leave Frex out there to starve, or die from exposure. He'd do that to her, she was certain of it. He'd never been a particularly loving father. A pair of green hands then rose to connect with her temples. No what was she thinking! Even then he was still her father, wasn't he? And he'd been out there for at least a night already. Her eyes trailed off to a set of rather imposing looking clouds growing on the horizon. Of course fate would choose this afternoon of all afternoons to rain, wouldn't it?
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Much deliberation later, and a fair deal of time after that in which she struggled into her "raingear" the green girl was off. Not that anyone could recognize her as green under all the clothes she was wearing. She wasn't even really recognizable as female under all the clothes she'd covered herself with. The only skin visible on the girl anymore was the skin immediately around her eyes, and even then with the sky growing darker it was easy to pass of the odd pigmentation as merely a trick of the light. The biggest downfall to this outfit was that anything she attempted to say was muffled to the point of incoherence, a trait she knew of the gear and thus resigned herself to silence even if she had something to say. It generally wasn't worth the hassle, or risk, of exposing her entire head just for a sarcastic remark.
With a dark look at the horse, as if blaming this all on the cowardly animal, she slung her leg over the saddle and adjusted herself. She instantly regretted the glare, as if sensing the regret wash off the creature in strokes, and pat him gently at the base of his neck. Philippe took this as a good sign and perked up a little bit, although he still was obviously upset over having to go back into the bandit infested woods. They sat and stared down the road for a moment more before Elphaba gently nudged the horse with her heel, reminding him that he was leading this expedition and to get to it. Philippe grudgingly complied.
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By the time the clouds looked ready to spill their contents all over the Elphaba and the rest of the world, Philippe had managed to find where he abandoned Frex. From there it was easy for Elphaba to track his rampage through the woods even from horseback. If the woods around them seemed eerily empty before, it was certainly a much stronger feeling now. Even the green girl herself could help it as a shudder went down her spine as the wind howled forlornly through the branches.
The again she couldn't decide whether it was the spooky sound effects, or the fact that she'd just come across a huge abandoned castle in the middle of the woods that cause her shiver. In the end she decided she's simply imagine the shudder, as it was foolish to be frightened by either of those things, and prodded Philippe to get him to go up to the gate.
This was a fact he sincerely did not appreciate, especially when the gate's only lock was rusted and had fallen to the ground, allowing him to push the old gate open with his nose. Despite its heavy appearance the gate swung open with ease and clanged loudly as it hit the wall it was connected to, the sound echoing through the courtyard.
Elphaba cringed at the noise as the pair continued forward to the door. The heavily clothed woman couldn't help but notice a lone rose on the path, cut from its bush, and the dragging scuffle marks through the dust on the path leading to the door. Underneath her mask she pulled a face. Her father might not have been the buffest man alive, but he was still fairly large as far as height went. Someone strong lived here. She mulled over what this person could possibly look like as she hopped down from the saddle. The girl paused only once before pushing open the door. Perhaps it was less like someone, and more like something. Her brown eyes lingered on the ground in front of the heavy oak door only long enough to take note that whatever lived here was not only strong, but large, and certainly not like anything she'd ever seen or imagine before.
She grumbled something behind her mask and scuffed her foot, hiding her revelation from the horse so as he wouldn't spook and run off again. Shooting him a warning glance she stepped inside, fully expecting to have to sneak around to avoid whatever lived here. Because certainly, only a beast could have left a paw print like the one she'd just seen.