AN: Quadling description (skin and hair) was paraphrased directly from the book and doesn't belong to me however the character it describes does.

Kora Kore dey!

Kora Kore dey!

Yekali je sey!

Yekada jer seye!

Seya yu dama,

Sar dae caem!

Sar yéa caelm dae harrés,

Sar yéa kaem dae tarrés.

Yé adére dae ja,

Yé tar aes sar dae de.

A Quadling song to protect children from the spirits in storms, which steal the souls of children – written by and belongs to the author. Posted now due to the presence of the race it belongs originated with in the chapter.

Chapter Seven

Elphaba was standing in garden of the Governor's house in Munchkinland with Nessarose; it seemed perfectly normal that Nessa should standing, not seated.

"The garden looks lovely at this time of year," said Nessa.

"It's beautiful all the time," disagreed Elphaba mildly. "But spring is particularly lovely."

"You've always seen things differently to me."

"Yes, I suppose I have. Do you think it would have helped if I didn't?"

"No…it would have been harder for you if you saw the world in the same way as the people who hate you do."

"Do you hate me, Nessa?"

"I haven't always loved you and I've been angry with you but I have never hated you Elphaba. You're my sister and you've always done your best for me even when I didn't appreciate it…oh look there's Mother and Father!"

Nessa turned and waved to the girls' parents, who waved back, and walked across the garden to meet them.

"Good morning Mother, Father," said Elphaba. "Nessa and I were just talking."

Elphaba had the strangest feeling that there was something wrong with the situation but she couldn't quite out her finger on it. She embraced her mother warmly and smiled awkwardly at her father.

"It's time to go, Nessa," said Frex.

"Give them a little longer," said Melena firmly. "They need time to say goodbye."

"You're going away?" said Elphaba in confusion. "Can't I come with you?"

"No, dearest," said her mother gently. "You have to stay here in Oz."

"Will you be back soon?"

"No," said her mother with a wistful smile. "But we'll see you again. Goodbye my darling."

"Goodbye Mother, goodbye Father."

She wasn't quite sure why but as they walked away Elphaba was struck by an overwhelming sadness.

"Let's walk by the pond," suggested Nessa. The pond was flat and calm, exactly like a mirror. The sisters leaned over and looked at their reflections in the water, Elphaba gestured downward.

"Just look at us; the beautiful tragedy and the tragic beauty."

"It's not our fault that no one could ever see past our exteriors-you have always been as lovely on the inside as I on the outside but I was never as beautiful on the inside."

It occurred to Elphaba that this was not quite like her sister-instead it was, she thought, what Nessarose could have been if life had turned out differently. Nessa embraced her sister with none of the awkwardness that usually accompanied such gestures.

"I love you Elphaba. I thought you should know that."

"I love you too Nessa! Don't go yet please?"

"I have too. I don't want to leave you and I'm sorry I've not been strong enough to help you fight. There's someone coming who might be able to."

"Oh Nessa I have missed you these four years and I shall miss you more now!"

"Goodbye Elphaba," said Nessa pulling away at last.

"Goodbye Nessa," said Elphaba closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to watch her sister disappear as well.

"Please to be forgiving this intrusion…"

The voice was female, gentle and low pitched, the kind of tone used when speaking to wild animals that might turn at any moment. Elphaba spun around from the pond and looked at the intruder.

She was a Quadling no other race had dusky shadowy red skin the colour of roses at twilight and sunset red hair. This particular Quadling was small, shorter than Elphaba though taller than Glinda, and more delicately made than the green woman, with a very slight, slender, figure. She was dressed in white linen of some kind, a loose tunic and matching trousers with green stains around the ankles.

The Quadling woman was appraising Elphaba just as thoroughly, having entered the waking-dream state seeking a solution to the vague feelings of impending danger that haunted her sleeping dreams she had not expected to find this unusual creature. Aside from her coloring and the fact she seemed to be in the same waking dream state as her the woman was completely unremarkable.

"Please to be telling I where is this place?"

Elphaba studied the woman carefully, she had never seen a Quadling, only heard of them and sent messages through Animal friends, but it was still possible that her sleeping mind had dreamed up the image.

"This is Munchkinland…or rather a dream about it-it must be a dream for where else can one converse with someone twenty years dead? Are you a dream too? Would you even know if you were I wonder?"

"A dream I am not, are you? Part of my waking dream or simply caught in it?"

"Questions! Questions! Too many questions and too few answers! That's what the problem is, you know! Sometimes the opposite, no one asks enough questions or looks for any answers for themselves!"

The Quadling took a step back as the other woman began shouting and gesturing wildly.

"I'm sorry," said Elphaba when she noticed the woman's nervousness. "It was a shock to realise that I had just been speaking to my dead kin."

"What to speak that is so important they would return to the borderlands of death?"

"That they love me, that I must fight for Oz…that someone was coming who might help me. I wonder if they meant you or are my dreams to be invaded yet again? Ah well I have already walked the borderlands of death myself, what more can be done to me?"

"What were you dreaming when this did happen?" asked the Quadling urgently. "And what was it done?"

" A few days ago I dreamed of the deserts that border Oz and something evil coming towards us from them."

"Danger being not from the Wizard?"

"That's right."

"I too have felt this-that is why I am risking this waking dream to seek others who know. To be telling the Wizard if I could but who is to be believing a Quadling?"

"I do because I have seen it but they are even less likely to believe me. In any case the Wizard has no true magic power."

"Has he the ancient book of magic this I know."

"He had it," corrected Elphaba. "Had not you heard that it was stolen."

"Yes I recall now this happening, told to our ambassador by the Wizard's representative that we must be guarding our lands against the Wicked…green…Witch…"

"Of the West," added Elphaba helpfully. Normally at this point she would have been on the defensive but it was still her dream. "The reality is somewhat disappointing compared to the rumors I imagine."

"I confess you are not so intimidating as expected. I have heard other things, facts not rumors, of the green lady of Oz from Animals who come to our land and call you friend and protector."

"And so I am to them, and a Wicked Witch I am to the rest of Oz, it's all a matter of perspective."

"I have not to be meeting another Witch until now. Sorceress I am called, though, a small vanity for I am thinking that it sounds prettier to be the Sorceress of the South then the Witch of the South."

"Indeed it does. I know of one other Witch, who does not call herself so, but I doubt you'd want to meet her. She is the Wizard's press secretary, formerly headmistress of a university, and her particular power in weather magic though she has some other talents including the burying of the talents of others before they know they have them."

"To someone you know she has done this?"

"Yes. A friend…of sorts…I don't suppose you have any idea what direction this danger is coming from?"

"I felt it in my home but am not to be knowing where it is."

"I was attacked by it in the north of the East. I still feel it hovering just outside my view."

"I must awake, my power grows weary of holding me in this place. To see me you will come, to the Quadling's home?

"As soon as I can." Elphaba promised not knowing quite why she was agreeing so readily.

"Quadlings are not to be harming you," reassured the Sorceress. "Tell them you are seeking I and they will give you directions."

When Fiyero woke up he saw Elphaba sitting on the floor next to him smiling.

"Good evening." She said very smugly.

"Evening? Already?"

"Yes it is. Did you sleep well?"

"This is the part where I say you were right isn't it?"

"Only if you want to." She replied, stroking his hair away from his face and smiling again. "Are you hungry? I talked the trees into letting me pick some apples."

"I don't know if I should eat before we go flying…" He said dubiously. "Maybe I'll wait until we get there."

"Suit yourself," said Elphaba taking a neat bite out of one of the small red apples. "We can go as soon as you're ready, it's nearly sunset. There's a bucket of water in the corner, I brought it in from the well, you should have something to drink at least."

"That sounds good." He agreed, stretching then standing up. "How long have you been awake?"

Elphaba smiled then shrugged.

"Not long, long enough. I talked to the trees, they said no one has been this was for a season…three months at least."

All of this information was imparted between bites of apple, when she finished Elphaba walked across the room and tossed the core into the garden where the birds would find it.

"I thought you could sleep during the day," remarked Fiyero when he had drunk some water and felt a bit more awake. Elphaba shrugged again as she looked through the window watching the sunset.

"I had another dream."

"What?" exclaimed Fiyero. "Are you all right?"

"Yes…yes I'm fine…it wasn't like that one. I talked to my mother, my father, and Nessa…as clearly as I'm talking to you now and I think it was really them…not just my imagination making copies of them. I met someone else as well."

"Who?"

"A Sorceress from the South…she said she has felt that evil as well, she wants me to go and meet her. I think I will, after we talk to your parents and go to Kiamo Ko."

"A Sorceress? In Quadling country? What's she doing there?"

"As she is a Quadling I would surmise that she was born there," replied Elphaba in a tone just this side of sarcasm.

"Oh, of course, stupid question. How do you know it's not another trap?"

"I don't."

"But you're going anyway?" he exclaimed in surprise. "And people call me brainless?"

"It's not as though I made the decision quickly!" protested Elphaba, struggling to keep her temper under control.

"I thought you'd only been awake for a few hours?"

"Yes," agreed Elphaba, "Five hours in fact and it took me several of them to make the decision."

"That's your idea of not quickly?"

"Considering that I've had to get used to making life and death decisions in minutes, yes that is my idea of 'not quickly'. Now would you like to argue a bit longer or will you just accept the fact that the risks are outweighed by the advantages?"

"What makes you think you'd win the argument?"

"The fact I'm going to do it and I am not going to be persuaded that it is too dangerous…besides I…"

Elphaba paused for a moment to get her thoughts in order.

"…I want to see her again. That's the first time I've seen a Quadling up close, I had no idea they were so…so…beautiful…I was always fascinated by the idea of a whole race who looked different to everyone else, when people speak of them you can tell that they don't see past the outside, the first thing anyone says about them is that they have red skin…red skin, it sounds like sunburn for Oz sake! And the reality is so much different, or maybe it was just her I could see the magic dancing over her skin in silver strands, making her glow!"

"If you continue like that," said Fiyero in a teasing tone. "I shall never let you leave for fear you'll desert me in favour of a handsome Quadling!"

"Don't be daft!" she scolded him with mock ferocity. "You know you're the only one for me."

"I had the smallest of doubts for a moment."

"If it wasn't going to take us all night to get to the Den in Vinkus I'd take the time to thoroughly eradicate your doubts."

Her expression was neutral but her tone was extremely suggestive and Fiyero was very sorry that they didn't have time to linger. He stared with distaste at the broom then sighed and folded up the blanket for her.

"Where do we go from here?"

"Directly West. The Den is in the mountains, fairly close to the castle, we'll have to fly a bit just so we can't be traced back there even if there's no one home. We can rest there for a few hours before we meet your family."

AN: a translation of the Quadling 'Storm Song':

Wind Spirits, flee!

Wind Spirits flee!

Lightning be gone!

Thunder get away!

Leave my child,

Let her rest!

Let me soothe her fears,

Let me calm her tears.

I love her so,

I cannot let her go.

This particular version uses a feminine description of the child, this is because Elphaba learned the song from her mother, however it can also be sung on behalf of a boy child by substituting 'him' for 'her'.

The next chapter may be a while arriving as I haven't actually written it yet, meanwhile I hope you enjoyed the latest :) big thank you to everyone who reviewed!