AN: Okay, so you all probably remember hearing/seeing me talk about Fiyero's blind little sister Niobe in some of my other stuff, and she also had a very brief gues appearance at the end of my parody. Well, in this chapter, we get a some news about Nini, and also learn a bit about the relationship that Daeri and Fiyero share.

It's kind of a sad chapter, but please just try to bear with me for it.

Disclaimer: Daeri, Keris, Maewen, Niobe, and Erigold are mine. Elphaba, Fiyero, Nessarose, Irji, Manek, Nor/Ilianora, and Sarima are all the brainchildren of Gregory Maguire, L. Frank Baum, and/or a combination of the two.

That night, Fiyero's dreams echoed with something that Keris had said in the cornfield, right before leaving him for dead on the pole.

"Oh, before I forget, I've got one last thing I wanna tell ya, Fiyero...It's about that sister of yours, Nalla."
"You mean...Ni...Niobe...?"

"Yeah...Yeah, Niobe..."
"Wh...What about...Nini?"

She was sixteen. Sixteen. Blinded when she was seven by a firecracker, he had played the part of guardian angel in her life ever since. She was his best friend. They understood each other more than anyone else in the world.

After losing her sight, she'd gained hypersensitive hearing, smell, and touch. She could hear peoples' heartbeats, and even had the ability to see a person's aura. No two were the same. Everybody's was unique, and it told her about their personality.

Her Warrior Brother, she always called him. Just like he always called her Nini. He had come up with the nickname two years prior to her accident, and had been using it ever since. He was the only person in the world who had ever called her that.

Ever since she was born, they'd had a special bond with each other. Even before her accident, they'd done almost everything together. He was certainly closer to Niobe than he was to his estranged twin sister, who their parents had disowned years ago, and who had left her three children to be raised by their aunt, uncle, and grandparents.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how upset his niece must be. He'd always had a special bond with Ilianora, too. Of course, he loved his nephews just as much as he did their sister, but there was just something between him and Nor that wasn't there with Irji and Manek. He always thought that it must've had something to do with the fact that he had been the very first person to hold her right after she was born.

The girl was only five years old, she was younger than both of her brothers, and Niobe had been the closest thing to a mother or sister she'd ever had, being the only girl of all three children, and since she and her brothers didn't even know who their mother was, seeing how Sarima had just up and left, completely abandoning them.

Oh, god. Now he would never be able to get to sleep. He'd be up until dawn with nightmares. Damn. How was it that Elphaba was managing to sleep with what had happened to Nessa? Double damn. How the fuck did that bastard Keris even know about this?

Ah, fuck it. If he couldn't keep the tears back, he might as well go outside. Elphaba had enough on her plate as it was, and he didn't want her to stress out even more if she woke up and found him crying in the middle of the night.

Now, where did he put that dagger again? Hey, if he was gonna take out his frustration over this, might as well do it the old fashioned way and stab the shit out of whatever he found laying around in the forest, right?

"Fiyero?"

He looked up. "Oh. Hey, Daeri," he said. Daeri kicked a pebble that was on the ground in front of him. "What're you doing up?" he asked. Fiyero sighed. When he looked up, Daeri was surprised to see that his eyes were moist and blood-shot.

He'd been training under Fiyero's command for almost two years now, and not once, in all that time, had the eighteen-year-old ever seen the young prince show any kind of weakness at all.

Fiyero had become somewhat of a role model for Daeri. When the letter came telling him that his mother had died, it was Fiyero who had been there for him. It was Fiyero who had taught him how to safely handle a rifle and bayonet, Fiyero who had come to his aid when some of the older boys had bullied and made fun of him at the start of his training.

Daeri's father had died in a hunting accident when he was only two. After that, his mother had taken him and Maewen to Munchkinland, where she had found work at the Thropp mansion. Erigold never remarried, dying peacefully in her sleep at sixty-nine years old.

Not having a father or even an older brother who he could look up to, Daeri had sort of latched himself onto Fiyero after joining the Gale Force. Fiyero hadn't really minded. He liked Daeri a lot better than any of the others, that was for sure. To Daeri, Fiyero was like the older brother he'd never had. He was the father figure and male role model that he'd been lacking in for almost his entire life.

Seeing him like this...Seeing him cry...It was...unusal, to say the least. Fiyero sniffed and wiped his nose, laughing lightly as he shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said, voice cracking a bit. "I know this is probably kind of weird for you. Ah...Don't mind me, man, I can't help it."

Daeri cocked his head in concern. "Why, whassamatter?" he asked. Fiyero bit his lower lip. "Remember my baby sister who I've told you about before?" Daeri nodded. "Before Keris left me in the field, after he'd sent the rest of you away..." He sighed.

"He told me that she's dead."

AN: Yeah...So, that's pretty much all for now. Poor Fiyero. I dunno why I decided to do that, I just felt this...strange need to throw in some emotional distress for someone, and that was the first thing that popped into my head, even though I absolutely love Nini to death...*sighs heavily* ...Okay...Yeah...Um...Let's see...What else, anything else...? No...No, don't think so...Okay...Yeah...Okay, so that about sums it up...Okay...Yeah...Bye-bye...