I remember writing this chapter in the car on my way back from Austria - hence the mountain stuff! (The bits about ascending much faster than you'd expect and the aching muscles and feet, among other things, are derived from my own experiences in the Austrian mountains. :P)
9. Forest Run
She stayed frozen in place, holding her breath, as she heard running footsteps coming from the living room and moving into the hallway. Judging by the things she had heard, Fiyero had hidden himself in either the bedroom or the bathroom after locking her underneath the trapdoor and he had just been discovered by these men. She could hear the footsteps moving towards the front of the cottage again, a harsh voice barking something, and she supposed they were taking Fiyero back to the living room to question him. She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood, listening intently, but she could only hear muffled voices. They were too far away for her to understand what they were saying.
Her heart was racing and her mouth was dry. What would they do to him? On the one hand, they weren't Gale Force soldiers. They wouldn't know anything about the prince, except perhaps for the things they had read or heard about him, so they might leave him alone. On the other hand, however, they were smugglers and they probably would not be happy about the fact that someone had occupied the cottage they wanted to use as a storage space. They might decide that it would be safer to get Fiyero out of the way in case he would betray them to the authorities.
That thought sent shivers down her spine and she scrambled forward to the ladder. She started climbing it, intending to get out of this hidden space and see for herself what was happening. She knew Fiyero would kill her for coming out, but she didn't care. She couldn't just sit here and listen to Fiyero possibly being hurt, or worse, without doing anything.
She was reaching for the hatch when more sounds came from above and she stopped, tilting her head a little to the side to listen. A door slamming shut and then silence. Had they left? And if they had, what had happened to Fiyero?
She heard someone walking into the hallway and she braced herself, ready to face a potential attacker if he opened the trapdoor. When the hatch did open, however, she nearly toppled back down the ladder with relief. It was Fiyero.
"It's okay," he quickly reassured her, reaching forward to help her out. "They're gone." He tried to pull her into his arms, but she pushed him away rather roughly and then started shouting at him.
"For Oz's sake, Fiyero, why did you do that?!" she demanded, her eyes flashing and her hands on her hips. "You just had to play the hero, didn't you? You couldn't just get down there after me instead of staying up here and leaving me worried sick about you!"
"There was no time for me to come after you!" he protested. "They were already coming in through the window – if I'd tried to climb down that ladder and lower the hatch above me, they'd have seen it closing and they would have found us both!"
"I don't care!" she snapped. "Just don't ever do that again! I already feel guilty enough for putting you in danger by allowing you to come with me – I can't handle losing you over something so stupid! I swear, Fiyero, if you ever try to be all noble again and put yourself at risk to protect me, I will kill you myself!"
Much to her frustration, at some point during her rant tears had welled up and spilled over – which, in her opinion, rather ruined the effect of her being angry at Fiyero. Now he'd just think she was a weak, stupid little female.
When she voiced that thought, however, after he had folded her in his arms and she was snivelling pathetically against his chest, he just chuckled. "Fae, you should know by now that I could call you many things, but "weak" would never be one of them. Neither would "stupid"."
"I don't even know why I keep crying," she sniffled. "I feel like such an idiot."
He kissed the top of her head. "You were worried. You've been through a lot and it's like you said last night – right now I'm all you have and you were afraid to lose me. I'm sorry. I should have thought of that."
She wiped her face, feeling herself flushing with embarrassment. "How are you still here, anyway?" she asked, trying to focus on something else. "I was sure I heard them find you at some point."
Fiyero looked rather sheepish and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I, um... I hid in the bedroom and I thought they'd find me sooner or later, so..." He grimaced. "I took off my shirt and I pretended to just have had a little adventure with a woman."
Elphaba stared at him. Then she burst out laughing.
"What did you tell them?" she hiccupped. "They bought that?"
He nodded, grinning as well now. "Yeah. They took me to the living room and questioned me, and I told them I'd found this cottage and thought it was a perfect place for some off-the-record mischief with a pretty lady. I told them she'd just left and I had been just about to go as well when they came in. They found that highly amusing. They were smugglers, I think, but not very serious ones. They just told me to run along and not come back and then they left."
She heaved a shaky sigh. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."
He grinned. "I thought it would be nice to switch roles once," he teased her and she stuck out her tongue.
They spent the rest of the day huddled together on the bed. Neither of them managed to fall back asleep, even though Fiyero encouraged her to get some rest and promised that he would keep watch. She was too restless and he, too, jumped at every sound.
When a key finally turned in the lock and they heard the front door open, Fiyero was already moving towards the door, indicating for Elphaba to be quiet; but of course, she would have none of that and shoved past him to open the door to the living room just a crack. There was a man standing in the middle of the room, dressed in shabby clothing. Elphaba opened the door completely, despite Fiyero's hissed warnings behind her, and the man's face brightened.
"Ah," he said, striding forward to shake Elphaba's hand and then Fiyero's. "Elphaba Thropp and Fiyero Tiggular, right? You may call me Red. Follow me – we have a long walk ahead of us, so we'd better get going right away in order to make it before dawn." He turned and left the cottage, waiting for the pair to come out as well before closing and locking the door behind them. He frowned when he saw the broken window. "What happened there?"
"Smugglers," said Fiyero shortly. "They gave us quite a scare."
Red grimaced sympathetically. "I am sorry. Such things happen sometimes. Residences like this cottage are only used by the resistance for temporarily hiding fugitives, so they are not very closely monitored and other people occasionally stumble across them. I trust you handled the situation, though, given the fact that you're both here and you do not seem to be hurt." He started walking.
Fiyero shot a look at Elphaba, his eyebrows raised, but the green girl was quickening her steps to catch up with the resistance member. "How do you know our names?" she demanded. "And why don't you seem surprised at my skin?"
Red laughed. "Girl, you do realise your face is on the front page of every newspaper in Oz, right?" he asked, amused; and Elphaba stopped dead in her tracks, a horrified expression on her face.
Red turned and raised an eyebrow at her. "You attacked our Wonderful Wizard last night," he said. "His Press Secretary of course made sure that the news was printed instantly this morning. Everyone is looking out for a green witch by now. They didn't mention you," he said to Fiyero, "but of course I knew you were in a relationship with a green-skinned girl and I recognised your face the moment I saw you. You should stay out of sight from now on, too – it won't take the people too long to make that connection and once they realise the attacker of His Ozness is the same woman as the girlfriend of Prince Fiyero Tiggular..." He clicked his tongue.
Fiyero was staring at him, aghast; and Elphaba, her face pale, said shrilly, "Let's make one thing clear: I did not attack the Wizard. That was Morrible. I didn't do anything. Besides – if you think I'm a criminal, then why are you helping us?"
Red shrugged. "We help everyone who stands up against the Wizard and Morrible," he said. He frowned. "Although I do wonder now why Madame Morrible would attack the Wizard. I don't suppose you're willing to enlighten me?" he asked Elphaba.
She gave him a frosty look. "Not really." She didn't trust this man and even if she did, she wasn't sure if she wanted to share her discoveries in the throne room with a stranger. Telling Fiyero and Gazilon was one thing, but she didn't need the whole world to know about her parentage.
"Never mind, then." Red started walking again, whistling softly between his teeth.
"Maybe you should tell him," said Fiyero in a low voice as they walked.
"He's obnoxious," Elphaba said with a scowl.
Fiyero chuckled. "Well, you don't have to tell him; but if you'd tell other resistance members at the hide-out, once we get there... my point is," he explained, "that if we could somehow get word out about what really happened, if we could get people to believe the truth about you being the Wizard's daughter and Morrible attacking him because he wanted to change his policies for you... it could work to our advantage."
Elphaba thought about that for a while, absently chewing her lower lip as she did so. "I suppose it could," she said finally. "Maybe... we'll see. Let's make sure we get there first."
"Stop biting your lip," Fiyero chided her and she gave him a small grin. She often worried her lower lip between her teeth when she was anxious or thinking about something and Fiyero had always scolded her for it, ever since the beginning of their relationship. It was nice to know that some things never changed.
They walked in silence for a long time. Elphaba pulled her cloak tighter around her as she followed Red and Fiyero, even though it wasn't really that cold. It was the beginning of summer. She realised with a slight shock that only yesterday morning, she had been in the throne room of the Emerald Palace, hoping to earn herself the Great and Wonderful Wizard's favour. Only a couple of days ago, she had still been at Shiz, graduating along with her friends. It felt like months had passed since then.
She wondered what Nessa was doing now, smiling inadvertently at the thought of her sister. She would be picking wildflowers and sewing as she sat in her chair in the sun. Boq would probably keep her company every now and then and take her on trips, even as he would be writing to Galinda and wishing to see his blonde girlfriend again. Galinda herself was most likely still in Gillikin with her parents, hosting some party or another, having tea with her upper-class girlfriends and shopping away all of her father's money. Elphaba already missed them, but she was glad to notice that the panicky feeling she'd had the day before did not return.
Red never said a word, even though Fiyero tried to make conversation with him a few times or to ask him where they were going. Elphaba noticed that they seemed to be walking up a slope. She strained her eyes, trying to see something beyond the trees around her that could tell her their exact location, but it was too dark. She suspected, however, that they were heading into the Great Kells.
Her suspicions were confirmed when they eventually emerged from the forest and she could see the green lights of the Emerald City in the distance below them. She was surprised to see that they had been ascending much faster than she'd thought they were.
Fiyero whistled. "We're going into the Great Kells? Is that where the hide-out is?"
Red ignored him. "Keep going. We still have a long way ahead of us." He instantly marched on and Elphaba cast one last look at the City before following him.
Fiyero caught up with her quickly, walking beside her. "You okay?"
"Sure." She tried not to think too much, instead focusing on setting one foot in front of the other. That helped.
"We'll be there soon," he said. "Then we can start working on finding a solution for all this."
"I know."
He gave her a slightly worried glance, but didn't say anything. She was grateful for that. She didn't want to talk anymore. Talking didn't solve anything and it only made her think about everything that was going on, everything that she had left behind, and everything that could go wrong.
They took a short break at some point and Red handed them both some food and water, though not much. They had barely finished before he urged them to start walking again. Elphaba's feet hurt and her legs and back were aching, but no complaint passed her lips. As long as Red would get them both to safety – or relative safety, she'd settle for that – she didn't care how far they had to go or how tired she was.
They climbed rocks, passed trees, and drank from streams as they kept going, still mostly in silence. By the time Red finally stopped again, the sky in the east was already slowly turning pink and gold in preparation for the rising sun. In the faint morning light, they could just distinguish more trees at the foot of the hill they were standing on, some lights burning between said trees. There was also movement, although Elphaba could not see who or what was moving. She could guess, though.
Red confirmed her thoughts. "We're here."
