Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize and everything you do not.
Author's Note: An update? So soon? That's right, there is not another month's wait for the next chapter of Resistance! Resistance
by Fiyero Oberon
IX.
Elphaba wakes with a start; the sky is still a deep violet-blue and Ojo's fire seems to have burned itself out. She lies for a moment, staring up at the starless darkness, before remembering Ojo's words: "I won' sleep anyway. I haven' slep' since the k'lidah killed my unc. I'll keep watch." So if Ojo does not sleep, how did the fire burn out?
She sits up quickly and her head collides with something hard; looking up, she sees Ojo standing over her, holding out a sword in one hand and a large rock, which had hit her head, in the other. He looks down at her, his eyes glowing with some sort of emotion that sends a chill rushing down her spine, and hisses for her to remain silent.
Elphaba looks around quickly; Heart is still lying on her pallet, blank eyes open and head cocked, listening for noise or a sound that might signal what is going on; Glinda has moved herself into a groove between two boulders, gathering her vast skirt in to cushion her, and is peering wide-eyed over the handkerchief she is using to suppress her sobs. Elphaba raises her eyebrows at Glinda and she frivolously points in the opposite direction.
In the sandy gloom of Kumbricia's Pass sits the bulk of a mysterious beast. Elphaba squints to see, but her eyes still perceive nothing but a sinister form pacing dangerously. She shifts to reach for her dagger, but Ojo firmly places a foot on her ribs, preventing movement. "What is it?" she whispers as quietly as she can.
"K'lidah," is the boy's dark reply.
Elphaba's heart is suddenly thumping wildly and she squirms to rid herself of Ojo's bare foot and reaches again for her dagger. Pulling it out but remaining flat on the ground, she looks up at Ojo. "Plan?"
"Kill it."
"Spare me so many specifications."
Elphaba turns her head, hoping for a glimpse of the animal; the kalidah has begun pacing back and forth, still a shady mass of mystery, though now low growls clearly thunder in her ears as the kalidah surveys the small camp.
On a sudden, a light appears above Elphaba as Ojo holds a torch high up. Turning her head quickly, she examins the prowling monster; she has only ever seen pictures of kalidahs before, in Life Sciences class at Shiz and in the occasional storybook of Nanny's, for Nanny's storybooks were always gruesome in showing the deadliest of details, right down to the wolf licking the blood off his lips after eating the little girl. The pictures and drawings, however, do no justice to the horrible sight of the kalidah; the body of an enormous bear paces back and forth and the great head of a tiger rests on the bear's shoulders, bearing the fangs of a snake and solid black eyes. A headless rattlesnake attached to the bear's rear serves as a vicious tail, whipping back and forth violently.
The kalidah lets out a sudden roar of anger, standing on its hind legs and moving itself up to its full height and potential; upward the kalidah is nearly ten feet tall, barrel-chested, and fiere-looking. It scrapes at the air with dangerous paws decorated with long, thick claws.
Without warning, the kalidah charges toward them. Glinda lets out a shrill scream and begins whispering prayers to Lurline and Heart's face is fixed in an expression of confused terror. Elphaba flings herself out of the kalidah's path as it comes rumbling up toward them.
Ojo suddenly goes running down out of the little camp, headed for the empty sands of the Pass, his glowing torch keeping a circle of golden light around him. The kalidah whips around faster than any animal of its size should be able to and chasing after Ojo. Elphaba follows quickly, despite Glinda's helpless screams to come back.
Elphaba clenches her fist around the dagger as she runs blindly through the darkness, following Ojo's light. The kalidah's ferocious snarls are ahead and twice she hears Ojo screaming.
At last Elphaba comes into view of Ojo as the wicked beast stalks over him, flexing its claws. The boy is holding up the torch, waving it to try to keep the kalidah away, but instead the creature only draws nearer, until –
"Ojo, throw me the torch!"
Ojo looks over his shoulder at Elphaba, and quickly back at the torch. Looking at Elphaba again, he shouts, "No! We need you!"
Elphaba stops dead in her tracks. "Who needs me?"
But before Ojo can answer the beast lets out a mighty roar and makes to heave itself on him; the ball of fire comes flinging out of Ojo's hands toward Elphaba, who miraculously catches it and begins waving it wildly in the air, shouting loudly for the kalidah's attention. The monster's attention is quickly won and he abandons Ojo, stalking threateningly toward Elphaba. Praying to Lurline that Ojo will understand what she is trying to do, Elphaba keeps her feet rooted to the spot, even as the kalidah comes nearer… fifty feet away… twenty feet… ten…
Just as the creature bares its vicious claws and begins its descent upon her, a blade comes slicing through its stomach. The kalidah suddenly freezes, eyes wide, mouth open, arms poised in the air, preparing to rip Elphaba apart. Then suddenly the dead animal collapses, letting Ojo's sword tear through it as it falls to the ground. Ojo stands, holding one of the long-bladed swords steadily in both hands, an expression of contented anger fixed upon his features, eyebrows furrowed downward and jaw set. His eyes raise to meet Elphaba's and she gazes at him, almost fearfully, though shows no emotion on her face. "Are you hurt?" she asks impassively.
"She'll make great food," the boy says in response, moving to sheath his blood-covered sword. "C'mon, we've got t' drag it back t' th' camp." He stoops, gathering the kalidah's hind legs and tail in his arms; Elphaba does not move. Glancing up, Ojo gives her a look of expectation. "Well?"
Elphaba steps cautiously over to the kalidah and without thinking grabs the monster's forepaws; she hisses as the beast's long claws scrape at her palms, but banishes the pain from her mind and hurriedly begins staggering backwards toward the camp, dragging the massive carcass.
Something suddenly burns on Elphaba's face and she takes a sharp intake of breath, dropping her grip on the kalidah and letting her hands fly to her cheek. Ojo looks at her quizzically: "Somefing wrong?"
Elphaba looks up at the sky as a second splash of pain hits her hand. "Rain."
The boy raises his eyebrows. "The rain pains you?"
Elphaba wrinkles her nose, suddenly noticing the vulnerability she has placed upon herself to this boy. "Never you mind." She stoops again, grabbing the corpse and dragging it back to the camp, working hard mentally to ignore the increasing stabs of pain as the rain begins to fall harder.
"Oh!" Glinda exclaims as Elphaba and Ojo manage to support the dead body of the kalidah up onto their rock encampment. "Isn't it so unlucky that a kalidah should show up in the middle of the night?" Elphaba and Ojo only manage to grunt as they struggle to push the carcass and Glinda seems to acknowledge this as a sort of agreement. "I told you this place was bad, didn't I?" More grunting. "From the very moment I saw this place, I said it was unlucky, I said –"
"Glinda?"
"Yes?"
"Either help us or shut up." Elphaba and Ojo at last manage to push the kalidah up onto the stony flat where their camp is located and Ojo quickly swings himself up over the edge onto the rock. He offers a hand to Elphaba, who ignores it. "It is very lucky that this kalidah came, Glinda." The blonde let out a dainty snort of doubt.
"We've run out of food," Glinda announces. "Isn't that unlucky?" She raises her eyebrows and tilts her head forward as though to make a point of her words.
"Roasted k'lidah 'as more protein than anyfing ya can think of," says Ojo, sitting cross-legged and working to make a fire again.
Elphaba smiles a bit at Glinda. "Isn't that lucky?" Glinda lets out an uppity "humph," but from the way she crosses her arms and avoids eye contact Elphaba can tell she feels defeated.
Nausea and dizziness seem to overtake Elphaba's senses as she lowers herself onto her pallet; the rain is falling heavy now and her hands feel as though they are on fire for all the wet they are receiving. She wearily drags her cot under a rocky hangover, out of the rain, and she watches as Glinda follows suit and Ojo stands to drag Heart's cot under Glinda's hangover for the blind woman has already fallen asleep. Ojo, however, seems content to return to sit in the impending rain, watching over the fire, wetter and wetter each moment
Elphaba looks at the kalidah and feels suddenly lightheaded; did she really just participate in the slaughtering of an animal? Granted, as far as Elphaba could tell it was not an Animal, because if it had, the Kalidah would surely have spoken. It would have yelled angry words at them as they attacked it; but then, what if this used to be an Animal, perhaps a victim of the Wizard's tests, of the tortures, of the diminishment of Animals.
Ojo has a golden fire flickering among the gathering twigs now despite the heaviness of the rain. Heart fell asleep sometime in the madness of the kalidah chase and Glinda looks determined to remain awake, probably to keep watch and make sure she knows what is going on before she is attacked again, but her eyelids are already drooping heavily. Ojo is the only one who does not look the least bit tired; he sits in a comfortable position, leaning back on a boulder with one hand behind his head and the other running absently up and down his ribs, gazing intently into the fire.
Closing her eyes, Elphaba listens to the patter of the rain, soothing and taunting all at the same time. You killed what you stand for, Elphaba, the rain seems to whisper. You killed an Animal, you killed an Animal, you killed an Animal…
I didn't know! Elphaba's mind screams. I don't even know if it was a Kalidah!
And now you'll never know, patters the rain.
And suddenly the rain is no longer whispering taunts of a traitor to her cause but instead reminds her of the strange words spoken by Ojo: We need you. No! We need you. We need you! No! We need you!
And as the harsh sea of sleep overcomes, in that moment between sleep and awake when Elphaba used to find she would have the most ingenious thoughts of all, she sees the strange look of awe, terror, anxiety and excitement on Ojo's face as he realized how contact with water pains her…
Author's Note: I don't usually do end notes for this, but I'd like to ask that everyone who reads this review... I'd like to do a kind of "booster chapter" with this - the majority of you can go back to your turtled lives of not reviewing after this, but I just ask that you press the button and just leave a "Good job, I liked this chapter" or something like that. It only takes a minute, and it's just this once that I'm going to beg. Thanks so much!