Chapter 6: Bravery and Kindness


A few minutes later, Elphaba and Yero approaches the starter path of the woods before the green girl saw a few trees with apples hanging from the branches as Elphaba happily cheered

"Look! Apples!"

"Well there you go, I told you I know the way" Yero happily said.

They went to the apple tree as Elphaba happily took an apple from the tree when suddenly a tree branch smacks the green girl's hand. Elphaba yelped in pain, dropping the apple on the ground before the duo saw the tree opens its eyes as it grumpily spoke

"What do you think you're doing?"

"We've been walking a long way and-!" Elphaba started but shook her head as she realizes she was talking to a tree as she asked

"Did you say something?"

"Of course I spoke! What am I? A mute?" The tree scoffed.

"No it's just we never heard a tree spoke where we live" Yero replied.

"I see...So you two were hungry huh? Well how would you like to have someone come along and pick something off of you?" The tree grumpily replied.

"Sorry, we didn't know" Elphaba apologized

"Come on Fabala, you two don't want any of those apples" said Yero.

"What do you mean by that?! Are you hinting my apples aren't what they ought to be?!" The tree angrily snapped at the boy.

"Oh no, it's just that we don't like little worms!" Yero playfully teased.

"Why you!" The tree growled as the duo jumped away from it.

"Oh, so much for not getting us into trouble" Elphaba sarcastically said to Yero.

"Just shush for a minute, I'll show you how to get apples" Yero whispered who then sticks his tongue at the tree as it angrily threw apples at them.

"Hooray! I guess that did it! Help yourself" Yero laughed as he starts grabs some apples and passes them to the green girl but Elphaba puts the apples down which confused the boy.

"No, I don't want to take things that belong to someone without permission" Elphaba refused.

"Fabala, he's just a tree, He doesn't have those apples with him anymore" Yero added.

"Just because it's not human, doesn't mean it has feelings and it's just wrong to steal something without asking kindly even if it is a talking tree"

Yero looks at Elphaba then to the tree and softly said "I think you may have a good point"

"Exactly" Elphaba nodded before turning to the tree and added "We're very sorry about this"

"Yeah, sure, now get lost little toad" The tree scoffed.

Elphaba was about to leave with a offended Yero when they heard a booming feminine voice. "Now hold on a clock-tick"

The children quickly turn around to see a larger tree near the grumpy tree as it spoke firmly to the smaller tree.

"Who do you think you are? Scaring and insulting those poor children; I'll admit the boy does need to learn some manners but I'll excuse him for now and as for the girl, she kindly refused to take your apples as well as apologize to you and this is the thanks you give them?"

"Oh don't you lecture me, old bark, these apples belong to me and me alone" The smaller tree growled at the larger tree.

"Wrong! The apples belong to those who simply ask for them, they're to be share with others. Not to keep it all to yourself and besides, your apples would just wither and die like flowers eventually then new apples would grow on you and the whole process goes over and over again. So what is the point of keeping them to yourself?" The larger tree explained.

"Brats like them don't deserve apples, they are just thieves" The smaller tree grumbled.

"They are only children, you fool, they have much to learn and plus your bad temper and throwing apples at those poor kids is terribly cruel of you" The larger tree barked at the smaller tree.

The grumpy tree remained silent as the larger tree smiles warmly at Elphaba and said to the girl "Come forward my dear"

The green girl nervously approaches the large tree who then spoke: "Are you looking for some apples?"

"Yes, my family need some fruit and I cannot seem to find any fruit around the woods but here" Elphaba responded.

"Would you like some of my apples then?" The large tree sweetly offered Elphaba.

"Are you sure?" Elphaba nervously giggled.

The larger tree leans one of its branches down, revealing some deliciously round apples as it then spoke happily

"Go ahead and take some, after it, It's food for those who need it after all and it would go to waste thus replacing them with new apples, should those apples not be pick for too long"

"Thank you so much and I am sorry for upsetting your friend" Elphaba replied while looking at the smaller tree.

"Oh don't mind that tree, it's always moody around some people especially children" The larger tree said.

"Well we are very grateful for this, aren't we Yero?" Elphaba said as she turns around to see that Yero is gone.

In confusion, Elphaba called out Yero's name before she suddenly hears the boy screaming and then came a sound of roaring from a near distant.

"Oh my! I think that poor boy has got into trouble with a wild animal" The larger tree gasped in alarm.

"Yero!" Elphaba cried and follows the cries of Yero through the woods.

The green girl then saw Yero being cornered by a ferocious lioness; Elphaba then sees a familiar animal under the lioness's hind legs, it was the same cub she saved from the cruelty of the Ozian Official.

"It's that cub..." Elphaba gasped before looking at the lioness then added "And that must be his mama"

"Fabala! Help me!" Yero panicked.

"What did you do?!" Elphaba cried.

"I just wanted to play with the cat, I didn't mean to upset it's mother" Yero exclaimed in fear.

The lioness roars at the crying boy before Elphaba screams "Don't hurt him" which made the lioness turned in a quick glaze at the green girl and threateningly growls at her.

Elphaba slowly kneels before the lioness which starts to slowly approach the frightened girl before Yero went behind a tree and watches over the scenario in fear. Elphaba slowly and carefully got out an apple and gently rolls it halfway to the lioness who hisses with caution; the green girl then lies down on her stomach and keeps her head up a bit, in hopes that the lioness doesn't hurt her.

The female feline sniffs the apple and slowly took a bite out of it before the mother lioness then notices her cub approaching Elphaba and sniffing her. The girl didn't move and allowed the cub to smell her since she did not want the mother to think of her as a threat.

The cub mews at Elphaba and nuzzles his head at the girl's hands before Elphaba soon realized that the lioness was facing her directly up close. The girl was trying her best not to scream or do anything rascally when suddenly the cub was mewing at his mother as it was communicating with the lioness.

Soon the female feline gave Elphaba a long stare before she slowly carries her cub by the scruff of the neck in her mouth, without hurting him and walks away with her cub, leaving Elphaba unharmed and safe. Yero sighed in huge relief and rushes to Elphaba, asking the green girl in concern "Are you OK?"

Elphaba sternly looks at the boy and slapped him in the face as she exclaimed "What were you thinking?! You could have being killed!"

"Sorry, I didn't expect that the mother was so protective of its child" Yero apologized while rubbing his face.

"Are you really brainless because most kids in Oz by your age knows to not approach a dangerous animal's cub, less you have a death wish" Elphaba scolded.

"Look...I'm the brightest kid in the world, OK? I try to understand how things are but...I have trouble understanding things properly" Yero confessed.

"What do you mean?" Elphaba asked.

"My teacher, she's always so impatient with me and doesn't give me enough time to understand how the world works and my parents, well, if you met them, you would understand why I'm like this" Yero explained.

"Yeah...I guess I would" Elphaba nodded.

"I'm so sorry I got you into this mess and I want to say thank you so much for saving my life" Yero thanked with a smile.

"Just promise me you won't do something like that again" Elphaba asked.

"I promise" Yero vowed before the two children hear an owl hooting through the woods; the boy then added

"Come on, we better get out of here before we bump into more wild animals"

"I agree" Elphaba replied as they head out of the woods and returned to the cornfield.

"Well thank you once again for you did to me back there, you taught more than what my teacher would have done" Yero chuckled.

Elphaba giggled before she responded with: "Yero, I want to thank you for helping me today, you're a great person"

"You too Fabala" Yero nodded with a smile. He soon got out some money out of his pocket and hands it to Elphaba as he said "Here, take this as a gift for what you done for me back there"

"I...I really shouldn't" Elphaba softly refused.

"Fabala, you saved my life! I would have being dead by that mad cat if it wasn't for you" Yero replied.

"It's a lioness actually" Elphaba pointed out before she decided to accept this act of kindness from Yero and added "OK then, thank you Yero"

"No thank you Fabala" Yero thanked as both children smiled at one another.

"Well goodbye" Elphaba bid farewell as she was about to leave when Yero called out her name, which made the green girl turn back at him once more.

"I hope to see you again" Yero said with high hope.

Elphaba's smile widens and reply" "And I, you"

Soon the two children head off in their own ways and just for this moment, they hope that they will see each other again, for as of today, they have both considered each other as positively friends.

Elphaba arrived back at Munckinland as she passes by the streets before seeing something that reminded her of something; it was bottle of green elixir that her mother brought that reminded Melena of Elphaba's birth father and her daughter as well. The green girl then decided to use her money to buy the elixir and to her surprise, this bottle came with a recipe to create homemade green elixir.

This brought a smile to Elphaba as knowingly she'll suffer more from Frex's abuse and slavery, at least she can be able to survive from the pain and suffering with the elixir's power within the potion and she can cook some more of it herself now.

On her way home, she passes by the Munchkinland doctor's small cottage to which she notices a family by a bedside, gathering around an ill man who is dying slowly from a great illness. The green girl then saw a blonde girl, sobbing as the mother of the blonde girl argues to the doctor that they don't have know any medicine that can be helpful for the father.

Elphaba soon looks at the elixir and decided to do the right thing as she slowly places the elixir by the window, which soon caught the blonde girl's attention as she took it in confusion before she presented it to her mother.

The mother looks at the elixir, confused on how it was in the house, but soon decided to take the chance to use it for the father; soon the mother gave the father a large dosage of the elixir and after a while, the doctor check up on the father and gasped happily

"His fever's going down and his heart rate is returning to normal, he's going to make it"

The family happily cheer with joy as the doctor asked "Why didn't I think of buying this before, this could really help a lot of the people here"

"Glinda, dear, where do you get this bottle?" The mother asked.

"It was by the window with the other vases" Glinda answered.

Soon the blonde girl walks to the window and looks outside before noticing Elphaba near the door of the house. Elphaba sees Glinda before smiling at her and making a silent gesture to her mouth with her finger as in kindly saying "Shush and please don't tell anyone" before walking home with the basket of apples.

Glinda knew that this green girl was responsible for the green elixir as she happily smiles at the girl and looks up to the sky and said

"Time Dragon Clock, hear my wish, I wish that this green girl will grow up to be beautiful and continue to be kind like she was for me and my family today..."


What happens next?

Stay tuned to find out!