The title from chapter seven was from….Aida. Congrats to Kalacyn, Raiko Toho, melissa Ivory, X-Kate-X, TryDefyingGravity, Yank2324, StevenQ, Anne Flint, and Courtney Dax.
I'm sorry I haven't replied to reviews again, but I've been getting way too much homework…heh heh. I barely had time to get this up. Thanks for all of the reviews…I'll try to get around to it this time around.
And CardboardCreative was a huge help in writing Taniko's accent. Thanks muchly, friend!
Chapter 9: Stranger to the Rain
Splinters flew in every direction as the log blew up. Ron growled and drew his wand away from it. A small fire had formed where the wood used to reside, and he imagined for a moment that it was Thropp who was on fire. He had seen neither hair nor hide of the green witch since he had arrived in Oz; he was now beginning to think that he would have had better chances at catching her back in England. The riots should have been bait enough for her to come through the portal, but apparently, he had not organized his plan well enough.
He watched as what was left of the log crackled and blackened, while indulging in the thought of Thropp's abnormal skin crackling and melting away like wax. A fitting end for her, really, he thought. Burning a witch. If I'm lucky, I could even do it in the Emerald City. The citizens would definitely cheer me on.
Bored, he watched as the last of the log turned to ash. He was startled out of his daydream by a small squirrel darting past him. The Death Eater yelped and threw the killing curse with his wand. His precise aim earned him the tiny nuisance's transformation into a lifeless ball of mussed fur at his feet.
"That poor rat did nothing to you," someone scolded behind Ron. His tone was amused, and even sarcastic.
Ron turned around to catch a glimpse at the intruder with his wand at the ready, gripped tightly in his hand. Markku was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. "It could have even been an Animal," he chastised, and that was when Ron knew he was kidding.
"What do you want?" the redhead asked irritably as he put his wand away.
"Madame has requested our presence for an immediate assembly. Taniko has returned, with…interesting news, to say the least, I think." Ron vaguely remembered the man in question, not as a group member or even a particularly notable person, but an allied acquaintance of the rebellion. Ron cursed himself - only those of meager importance recalled people like Taniko.
"News? You mean of Thropp?" Ron queried, anticipating any type of information he could gather.
Markku shrugged indifferently. "Maybe," he said. "Taniko can explain it better than me." The two men retreated back to their hideout and was led into a dining room that was exclusively taken up by Madame Morrible and Taniko.
Morrible was sitting at the end of a long table, accompanied by a short, balding man with watery eyes and a confident posture. They both looked up from their conversation when the door opened to reveal Markku and Ron. "Ah, there you are." Morrible motioned for them to sit down, her large smile plastered to her face. "Sit down, dears, sit down. Taniko has brought us some very helpful news."
They took their seats, Markku glaring mistrustfully at Taniko from across the table. "Get on with it," he ordered.
"Vell, as I vas telling your Madame Morrible," Taniko began in a soft voice, rolling his 'r's. "I vas valking along vhen I heard ze Munchkin telling de ozerz about deese travelerz 'e 'as seen."
"Was it Thropp? Did one have green skin?" Ron demanded, leaning in to be intimidating. Taniko sent him a withering glare for interrupting him.
"I am afraid I do not know zis… Tropp," he said impatiently. "May I continue, Madame?"
"Yes, of course, Taniko," Madame encouraged, giving Ron a funny face when the foreigner couldn't see. It was a tad scary, being that she was incredibly wrinkled and heavily made up. "I assure you, we are most interested in your findings."
"As I vas saying," he continued, "I vas naturally curious, so I vent closer to listen. 'E vas talking about deese people 'e has met on ze road, zat zey vere wearing zease 'baff robes'. Veirdos, 'e called zem, aldough he did say zat only one man talked to 'im. 'E said he looked like Fiyero Tiggular."
"I'll bet he did," smirked Morrible. "This has been very useful to us, my good man. Do you believe you are quite finished?"
"Dat iz all, Madame," Taniko said, rising to give her a slight bow. "May I take my leave now?"
"One moment." Morrible held up a fat, wrinkled hand. "Did the Munchkin mention where these people were headed?"
"Zey vere going to ze forest, near ze poppy field," Taniko said.
Morrible nodded approvingly. "That will be all, dear. Here are some…tokens of gratitude for your trouble, good man." The old woman dropped several gold coins into the foreigner's waiting, poised hand. "Good day to you, sir."
"And you as vell, Madame." Taniko nodded curtly in the direction of Ron and Markku, not wasting any time in leaving.
"What do you make of this, Weasley?" Markku asked abruptly. "Do Tiggular and the other people have anything to do with our dear green bean?"
"Of course!" bellowed Morrible, clasping her hands together. "Fiyero Tiggular ran off with Miss Elphaba years ago. If he is here, I have every confidence that she is as well." She hesitated. "Erm, and…these people wearing bathrobes would be from your world?"
Ron blushed slightly. "They're not bathrobes. They're wizard's robes," Ron sneered. "So it must be Potter and his band of goody-two-shoes. Thropp must be around here somewhere, then. I say we go now!"
"Hold on just a minute!" Morrible screeched. "My part of the agreement is still in transition. I want to overthrow Glinda before we deal with Elphaba. Elphaba is not important to my plans. Once I have Oz under my rule, boy, I can get you most anyone."
Ron scowled, tapping his hands on the table to express his irritation, until he was struck with an idea. "But Madame," he whined. "What if we use Thropp to draw Glinda out? She would be perfect bait, if we could somehow inform Glinda that we have Thropp. Don't you have a spy situated in Glinda's staff? You could threaten to kill Thropp if Glinda does not comply with our wishes."
"And if she does?" Morrible asked amusedly.
"We'll kill Thropp anyway." Ron grinned. "You earn your part, I get mine. We could kill her before even telling Glinda that we have her. Who cares?"
"Knowing you," Markku interrupted, "you'll get to work on Thropp immediately. I've seen that look in your eyes when you speak about torturing her."
"A little enthusiasm never discouraged the spirit," Morrible drawled.
"True." Ron shrugged. "So, what do we do about Thropp and Glinda?"
"Well, what Weasley says does have merit," Markku reasoned slowly. "If Glinda finds out we have her lover, she'll do whatever we want. Then, we could expose her and all of Oz will know the truth."
Morrible chuckled. "Boys, I have a better idea." She leaned in, her grin menacing. "We capture them both at the same time," she explained. "We can display them both in front of an audience and humiliate them together."
Markku's expression formed into one similar to Morrible's. "I like it," he grunted. "If we have them both, they can't deny one another."
"Yes, but how do we capture them both?" Ron asked.
"That is something you needn't worry about." Morrible waved a hand dramatically, her sinister smile not at all reassuring to the Death Eater. "I have it all planned out, dear boy, all planned out. But what do you suppose we do about the others from your world?"
"Tiggular, Potter, and them?" Ron clarified. "You can do whatever you like with them; they're of no importance," he shrugged. Out of excitement for Thropp's capture, he didn't mention that Thropp and the others would be equipped with wands.
"With pleasure," Morrible said. She turned to Markku, who was patiently waiting for her word when Ron left. "Markku, if you could send Giro in, thank you."
A young man walked into the room on Markku's command. "Yes, Madame?" Giro asked, somewhat nervously.
"I want you to gather fifteen of your men, Giro," Morrible instructed, sitting up straight to translate her business. "Go to the forest out besides the poppy fields and capture Elphaba Thropp. Use whatever means necessary, whether it be knocking her out, tying her up…just make sure she is alive, coherent, and here. You are to leave in an hour to do this. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Madame." The man bowed his head. "And if we meet any resistance?"
"Kill them," Morrible instructed articulately. "I have no need of them. Kill them all."
Elphaba was on guard shift when the sun began to set that evening. She roused the others from their slumber, who seemed more tired then they were before they slept. As they began walking again, Elphaba stifled a yawn. She wished for her broomstick to aid them in their journey, although it would be cause of an entirely new batch of troubles.
They did not converse for the next few hours in a meager attempt to conserve energy. Harry, Hermione, and Snape had long ago ceased in continually asking Elphaba why she insisted on being draped beneath Harry's invisibility cloak on the road. Cornfields, flecked yellow and bright green with prospect, began to turn pine and dark with trees.
Elphaba halted to check where they were. She plucked the cloak off to confront her friends. "Where we need to go, Kiamo Ko, looks to be up there, through the forest." She pointed westward. "We'll be delayed if we don't hurry; it's going to rain."
"Afraid of melting?" Fiyero teased, despite the graying clouds.
Elphaba stared at him disbelievingly, lack of sleep deterring her reaction time, before she shot him a dirty look. "Not funny," she snapped, fairly irritable. "The last thing we need is failure, and we will receive it if we do not hurry up."
After folding the cloak over her arm, the green witch took a confident step into the disheartening forest, leaving Fiyero to just barely catch up. This left Harry, Hermione and Snape to follow. They exchanged quizzical looks.
"There's something they're not telling us, and it has everything to do with this mission," Snape announced, watching Elphaba and Fiyero bicker through narrowed eyes.
"It's good we have you here, or I'd never have noticed," Harry grumbled sarcastically.
"Watch it, Potter," growled the once-Potions Master, stepping towards his target. "You may not be a student anymore, but that doesn't mean you've been freed from me. You're treading a thin line."
"But what do you suppose they've got to hide?" interrupted Hermione anxiously. She kneaded her hands, which twitched to grab her wand for comfort. "It's not as though they're outlaws or anything – it'll probably be anticlimactic. Oh, it couldn't be so bad that they can't tell us!"
"We don't know that," Harry said, ignoring his verbal fight with Snape. "Fae's always been edgy when talking about her life here. Remember who we're talking about for a moment; maybe Oz holds bad memories for her."
"You don't leave an entire world to escape bad memories, Potter. You do it to escape people," Snape said. The greasy haired man always managed to translate understanding through few words, and whether he was a suitable traveling companion or not, he was still right.
"Yet…maybe you're both right," Hermione said, tapping her head as though her hands needed something to do. "Snape, you remember when you asked Fae about returning to Oz to visit her family?" Snape nodded, vaguely curious of this new direction that the conversation was headed towards. "She never answered you properly, so perhaps something happened to them she wishes to forget."
"Or them entirely." Snape's mouth twisted into a smirk. "Then, why won't she talk about it? We've all lost people in the war, and especially in the Final Battle. She knows how to cope with losing friends. Here, she acts quite differently."
"We don't know the circumstances," argued Harry, peering after the Ozians to make sure they hadn't strayed too far. "Let's look at it this way: Fae's been dear to us for…what? Six years? We've yet to find a reason to mistrust her, and so maybe she'll explain in time. My guess is that she's acting this way because of Glinda."
"She takes refuge using your invisibility cloak whenever the leaves rustle in the wind! Now what the hell do you make of that?" Snape countered through gritted teeth.
"I'm not saying she doesn't have secrets!" Harry cried, letting his arms sail out to dramatize his point. "We all have secrets! For now, I think we should trust her to tell us when she's ready, and just bare the brunt of whatever weird plans they concoct next."
Snape's form was still rigid, not prepared to accept Harry's suggestion. He was hardly swayed by the breeze that ruffled their robes. "Granger, it's up to you. You're the insufferable know-it-all; you figure it out."
"I would," she said calmly, choosing to overlook the jab at her personality. "And I've tried. Any books on the history of Oz do not reside in England. We'd have to find a town, big enough for a library, or some kind of archive-"
"It's much simpler than that!" Snape hissed. "Don't just skim the surface of your brain. Think about it! You're dating Fae's sole confident, who shares knowledge of their departure from Oz. Ask him. I'm sure you may persuade him to tell you anything."
"No way," Hermione barked, looking offended. "I'd never use Fiyero that way, not to mention betray Fae's trust. Besides, now that we're here – which Fae is angry at already – they should be surrounded by the reasons they left. They can't hide from it forever."
"You mean to tell me you aren't curious about what they're hiding and why they're hiding it from us?" Snape asked, looking down the dirt trail and sneering at its rural appeal.
"Of course I am," Hermione snapped. She crossed her arms moodily about her chest. "But I refuse to trick Fiyero into betraying Fae, of all things. It seems a little conniving, don't you think? Something you would try to do."
Snape was about to retort with great outrage when the subject of their discussion walked a little closer to them, stomping as she came. "Hurry up!" Elphaba called impatiently, waving them over. "At this rate, we'll be lucky to arrive at Kiamo Ko by next year."
Snape scowled at the green witch's back as she turned to speak with Fiyero, saving for later the argument he was about to create with Hermione. "I'll figure it out whether you're willing to help or not," he said. "People can't hide anything for long, and I'd say six years has been long enough."
Fiyero gave Elphaba sideward glance as he spoke. "They're talking about us, you know."
Elphaba shrugged. "Let them. It'll be entertaining enough for them until we get to the castle. Merlin knows we've got enough to deal with on top of being gossiped about. What do you suggest we do when we get there?"
Fiyero flapped his arms, as if to shrug with his limbs rather than just his shoulders. "I though you'd have that planned out by now," he whined.
"I have just about, if not less, the same authority you do right now," Elphaba said, "meaning none at all. Our sense of direction has suffered, and I'm afraid we have too little information to base a strategy on. No one would willingly ally with the Wicked Witch of the West."
"The operating word is 'willingly'." Fiyero's grim face gave way to a silly smile. "You heard the Munchkin- you cursed people permanently so they would wreak havoc in your absence."
Elphaba sighed. "Then, we'll have to build on what we have so far, and just add to it when we can. I'll contact Glinda once we get settled. If I have a roof over my head, she'll be more at ease. She won't be inclined to kill me- at least, not until later."
"Oh good. She'll just disable you then," Fiyero smirked, halfway serious. "You realize she'll march right over the moment you tell her where we are."
"It would be foolish to tell her where we are, except that we're in Oz and at her disposal," Elphaba said, whacking aside some shrubbery in hopes of getting a better view to the castle. "We've brought some of the best Order members from the battle, and consequently, we're safer that way. We'll figure something out."
Fiyero decided not to tease Elphaba about finally succumbing to the others coming along. "We still don't know what or who we're dealing with," the prince reminded. "Weasley we can anticipate, but Morrible will be harder to face. Other than Markku, we've no idea who their allies are and who started the riots. If their influence has spread, it could be too late. I could go and hypothesize the city's general population's view of the breakouts, and to see if Weasley's made a mark."
"You'd better take Snape with you," Elphaba instructed warningly, trudging along with the others beyond hearing distance behind. "Going into the city by yourself is dangerous; you're a face they'll recognize, especially with Weasley running around. Snape's been involved in espionage most of his life, so you'll both be better together."
"The only way people will recognize me is if I stood beside Glinda and waved," muttered the Winkie, hardly excited about spending time with Snape. "How far is the bloody place, anyway?"
"Kiamo Ko is your castle, not mine," Elphaba accused coolly. "By the look of things, we should rest until morning before starting again. It's a dense forest."
The group fell into a silence, save for the squawking of wildlife as they hiked through the woodland. Suddenly, Elphaba felt something cold fall on her face and sink down the slope of her nose. Little by little, more of the wet substance lightly showered her face and hands, cooling and soothing them from their vigorous trekking.
"We'll get sick if we stay out too long," Elphaba said, suddenly stopping so that the others could catch up. "It's freezing rain, and our limbs will cramp up."
"They're cramped up already," Hermione mumbled under her breath when the green witch was out of earshot, following her deeper into the forest. The raindrops were falling frequently now, and their chill was appreciated for only so long.
Elphaba searched through the area, but couldn't detect direction clearly. The sky was darkening, with the leafy overhead shrouding view of their direction. The trees were collecting rain and dripping them unceremoniously onto the group.
"Transform," Harry blurted suddenly. "Our coats and Hermione's feathers will repel the water and warm us better than our clothes." Shivering, the others obeyed. Elphaba gave Fiyero a sympathetic expression before her verdant face became that of an unforgiving, snarling snout. She picked Snape up by the scruff of his neck, and the fox seemed to sneer at the gesture. Fiyero slid onto Harry's back before the animals began dashing through the trees.
They darted over land elevation and mossy ground until Snape let out a loud, ear ringing squeak for them to stop. They skidded into a clearing where the rain seemed to descend from the sky in spaced patterns. After shaking themselves, they transformed back. Fiyero had to content himself with dusting collected rain off his clothing.
"Thanks," Elphaba said to Snape, attempting to wring rain from her dark hair.
"It goes into a cave," Harry pointed, hiding his head by bunching up his robes over his hair. "We could stay there for the night…build a fire…and hope there's a bear wishing for dinner guests…"
Snape walked up to the cave and threw a rock in that he picked up from the soaked soil. Nothing stirred from within. They couldn't see far into it, so he took out his wand, held it out in front of him, and walked in stiffly. "It's worth a try," he said. The others followed likewise, with Fiyero staying at the back of the procession, holding a wet board of decaying wood for protection.
The cave appeared deserted. Snape dropped his wand, and his superior skills for this field assured the others to do the same. The hairs on the back of Elphaba's neck suddenly shot up, causing her to shiver from something other than the cold. She felt as though she was being watched. She narrowed her eyes and delved further into the rock shelter.
"Elphaba," Fiyero stepped after her, sensing her agitation. His face was cloaked from the distant wand light. "What is it?"
"Looks like nothing," the green witch muttered, pulling a sheet of hair back from blocking her sight. There was no need to spread her paranoia to the group. "For a moment, it was-"
A voice in the darkness interrupted her outwards thoughts, causing Harry and Hermione to practically fall on one another. "Miss Elphaba?"
Coming up: Trouble brews.
Okay…two post-chapter notes.
1: I've started a multi-fandom role play…it's called Stranded!, where characters from different fandoms are all stuck on an island. The link is in my profile, so…please join!
2: Nominations for the Wicked Fanfiction Awards are up! Go vote (in my profile as well)!
-Wolfie
