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A/N: I know, it's been almost a month… I'm really sorry. I've had exams all week and… well, I know you're not here for my excuses. Just… review. :-D
Resistance
by Fiyero Oberon
III.
"You're leaving us?"
Elphaba looks up at the old crone – something about that woman has irritated her since leaving the City. "Yes, we are. Kiamo Ko is our destination. Thank you for guiding us this far." Elphaba's words are bitter but she doesn't especially care.
The ancient woman smiles wickedly. "Oh, I'm afraid there would be no point in stopping here."
Elphaba sighs and tosses her bag down next to Heart's and begins rolling up her pallet. "Really." It would be a question, but Elphaba has no desire to converse with the hag and mentally begs her to leave.
"Yes, they're all dead."
Elphaba scoffs. She ties a rope around the cot to keep it rolled and rolls up Heart's cot – the blind woman has gone in search of food from other travelers.
"You don't believe Yackle, do you?"
Yackle...
The crone laughs. "Yackle knows everything – what you seek in Kiamo Ko is gone. Go back."
Elphaba looks up – the hag is gone. She shudders – where has she heard that name before? Yackle…
The caravan stopped for the night at the Ko Falls, and Elphaba can see the Great Kells in the distance. Crossing the river will be the hardest part of the journey, for winter is already beginning to melt away. The thought of the water's icy lurk beneath her feet makes the green woman shudder in a cold dread.
Heart is tossing and turning in her sleep – putting the Yackle crone from her mind, Elphaba kneels to try to wake the blind woman.
Elphaba gently cups her hands on Heart's shoulder and shakes her lightly, whispering her name. Heart gives a few moans and smacks at Elphaba, rolls over and shouts a warning to someone in her dream.
"Heart!" Elphaba hisses as firmly as she can.
Heart's eyes fly open, revealing her cold, blank stare. Her head turns wildly. "Hello? Who's there?"
"You were having another nightmare," Elphaba says.
"Is it already time to leave?" asks Heart, struggling to untangle her legs from the blankets; she has grown to recognize Fae's voice without explanation of who is speaking.
"Soon," says the green woman, taking Heart's bag and rummaging through it to find clothes for her to change into. "The sun will be rising soon and I am anxious to get away from these people."
Heart stands and Elphaba helps her change before rolling up the sightless woman's pallet and blankets. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Elphaba looks up. Heart's vacant eyes are shifting nervously and she's squeezing and rubbing her hands together to keep them warm. Her face has became pale and gaunt due to the cold and the lack of food they have had over the past weeks while traveling with the caravan and Elphaba knows she should send Heart to ask the other travelers for food.
"Heart, do you see in your dreams?"
"What?"
"You've been having nightmares for the past two weeks," Elphaba says, now tying the two pallets together. "I just wondered if you can see when you dream."
Heart is silent for a long time. She appears to be staring into the sky, to be studying the formation of the clouds, except for the blank look that reflects a world of emptiness.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" repeats Heart, her voice sharp and biting. Her eyebrows are furrowed and she is blinking quickly – her eyes glisten with the threat of unspilled tears.
Elphaba stands uneasily, finished at last with packing the bags. "Yes. We need food."
Heart nods and starts to leave, but trips on the bags. Elphaba steps to help her, but Heart pushes her off and runs away.
Something in Elphaba's head throbs suddenly with pain and she sits down and holds her head in her hands. She has ignored her hair, letting fly free in the cold winds of the Vinkus without bothering to plait it – one of the little girls had been begging Elphaba to let her braid her hair since they first left the City, but when Elphaba had finally agreed to it, the child's mother came over and snatched the little girl's hand, dragging her away from Elphaba half-way through the braid.
The sun has finally decided to show herself and one of the many pets traveling with the caravan comes running up to her, barking like the world was ending. "Shush!" Elphaba snaps. "You are going to wake them all up!"
"Fae?"
Elphaba is startled at the sound of Heart's voice and the wolf dog stops his barking and cocks his ears in her direction.
"Is that a dog?"
The young dog lets out a yip at Heart and leaps up into Elphaba's lap, licking at her jade neck with its rough tongue. "Yes," she says, an undertone of distaste in her voice. Heart breaks into a fit of giggles and Elphaba hisses at the dog, which only serves to encourage it.
"Oh Lurline, I am so sorry." A young man comes jogging up to them, his mop of dark hair blowing back in the wind. "Killyjoy, off!" The dog ignores the man and turns its attention to lapping at Elphaba hand. "I'm sorry… he's still young, not fully trained yet… Killyjoy, down!"
The man steps over to pick up Killyjoy – the wolf dog nips at his hands and he drops the pup, who immediately hides itself in Elphaba's skirts.
"You want to keep him?"
Elphaba looks up at him with a glare of loathing. "Keep him?" she asks, revulsion lining her words.
"As a pet," he offers. "I've been trying to get rid of him; my sister gave him to me as a present for Lurlinemas… I'm allergic to him. She should be locked in the City's asylum, if that tells you anything." At the look on Heart's face, he adds, "She's not dangerous… just not completely sane."
The wolf dog peeks its nose out from behind Elphaba's skirt, then gently sinks his teeth into her calf.
"He likes you."
Elphaba decides mentally that the young man should be locked in the City's asylum as well.
:---:
"This just does not look especially appealing," says Elphaba, surveying the frozen Gillikin River.
The Ko Falls are frozen in all their glory. The tallest waterfall in Oz – when Elphaba was younger, she used to believe the myths that the Ko Falls never froze, that they were constantly cascading their crystalline waters. Now she sees these were false – all water freezes. The frozen water hangs in long, white cones, looming above them and threatening to come crashing down at any moment that it chooses.
Killyjoy suddenly lets out a bark and goes running toward the river. Heart lets out a cry, but Elphaba just smirks as she watches the dog's padded feet collide with the ice – he is sent sliding on the ice and glides toward the bank on the other side. He stops half-way and tries to stand, but his feet slide out from beneath him and he lands on his belly with a thud.
"Is he all right?" asks Heart.
"Fine," Elphaba says. "He would be stuck in the middle right now."
"Go get him!"
Elphaba winces – she knows it will burn. She thinks for a moment, then lowers herself onto the ground and glides out onto the solid river on her stomach. Her palms sting like fire from the ice, but she clamps her teeth down on her tongue as hard as she can to distract her from the pain. She sticks her fists in the air and uses her elbows to inch her way forward, toward the now-whimpering dog.
It takes too long to reach the dog – Elphaba sticks her arm out and places her hand on the dog's furry little body. Shoving as hard as she can, Elphaba watches as the dog slides across the river to the bank on the other side.
And, with a sigh, Elphaba turns around to go back and get Heart.
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