NOTES: Here, isn't that better? Wow I really need to step up posting with this. But I am going to try, and this is my first attempt at that. Thanks for hanging in here with me.

Marcus S. Lazarus: Thanks for your thoughtful review! I do wish that I could have detailed a bit of what happened during that gap, but the rest of the fanfic is long enough that I don't believe you'll feel you've missed it once it gets going. (Also, there will be a few more moments that help to fill in how those years were for Elphie and Glinda.) Anyway, I hope you continue to like what I have in store!

CHAPTER TEN

The next week was relatively peaceful compared to the ones before. The trio of witches spent the lion's share of their time sprucing up their new base of operations. Though Elphaba and Glinda had briefly debated returning to Wicca Falls, they decided to relegate that to an emergency fallback location. For some reason, it seemed right to honour Fiyero's last wish that they relocate to Kiamo Ko Keep, and it was certainly a threatening and impenetrable fortress.

At some point, as the least conspicuous of the three, Glinda again made her way into town and retrieved food and other supplies for them. She heard a lot of rumours about herself and her two associates, but she tried her best to block them out in favour of pretending she was no one important and getting her shopping and errands done so she could make a discreet exit.

Glinda also began to hear scattered whisperings about the girl they had met briefly — Dorothy The Tall, with the grubby clothes and the vacant expression — being protected by Morrible The Magnificent. Apparently, she had magical golden shoes, which were said to be leading her down the yellow brick road straight to the Emerald City. Someone even said she had men made out of straw and tin accompanying her, but that could be so much nonsense the local biddies invented to make the tale more fanciful while they did their washing up alongside each other. Regardless, this didn't concern her much; Elphaba might harbour a grudge for the death of Fiyero, but she herself knew it had been some kind of misunderstanding. Besides, the girl couldn't hurt a fly, and didn't seem to have an inkling of magic about her. It only made sense to leave her to her own devices, and to worry about their own predicament.

As they worked on making the Keep livable, Elphaba was the one who spent the longest poring over the Grimmerie. Nothing new there. Glinda did notice Nessa stealing a look now and again, but she seemed too enthralled with using her magically-revived legs to worry overly about spellwork herself. Also, her looking at it only seemed to irritate Elphaba, who was no less frosty toward her than she had been a week before.

As far as sleeping arrangements with Elphaba…

They tried their best to ignore the discomfort from their talk the day they first arrived. However, it lingered like the foul stench of a Kalidah carcass, always invading the small moments when they weren't otherwise occupied. Luckily for Glinda, she felt so fond of Elphaba that she didn't feel any true fear it would damage their friendship. Yet despite that, and despite the myriad rooms in the old castle, neither Glinda nor Elphaba ever requested to change sleeping conditions. It was almost as if they were afraid to do so after a solid two years of sharing a bed; what would it change between them? Perhaps it would be more terrifying if it turned out to change nothing at all. Either way, the castle being drafty and eerie as it was seemed to serve as their excuse for continuing with things as they were.

Nothing changed much between the two sisters. Nessa did attempt an apology once or twice for her previous behaviours, but they were so riddled with excuses and counter-accusations that Glinda could hardly blame Elphaba for rejecting them. Once, the argument grew so heated that Elphaba literally conjured a fireball to throw at her, but when Glinda stepped between them, she calmed and allowed it to dissipate. All she offered was a terse apology before sweeping from the room to find somewhere she could be alone.

As she spent most of her time. Once in a while, she would show her new discoveries to Glinda, boast of a spell that she had deciphered or some kind of trinket she had enchanted. The one that fascinated her the most was the eyepatch: it looked to be an entirely ordinary one, but when worn it showed the viewer anything that could be seen from one of the crows that made their nests in the towers. Glinda expressed her disappointment that she was using an innocent animal as a test subject for her magic, but Elphaba tried to lay her fears to rest.

"Not an animal, but an Animal," she told her as she scribbled notes on a free page, ones that made little sense to anyone other than her. "The Crow gave its full support when I asked, so long as I promised to take care of its brothers and sisters if the spell went wrong. It didn't, and I still plan to fetch it some grain as payment when we have a chance."

Glinda sighed as she sat on a bench in the bedroom that had been converted into Elphaba's "study". "So why do you want to be able to see what a Crow sees, anyway? I just don't know why you're doing all these things!"

Elphaba looked up at her with one eye, the patch still covering the other. "Because it's necessary. Have you forgotten the Wizard and Morrible? They still want our heads on pikes!"

"The Wizard doesn't! Not really!"

"Can you be sure? What if all those nice words of his were just a lot of hot air?"

"We can't be sure, of course, but… I don't think he's all that bad, really! And anyway, what's that got to do with putting enchantments on birds?"

"Ahh," she said with a sly grin, tapping her eye. "The Crow circles the castle, and I see everything it sees. If soldiers come to surprise us with an attack, it won't be that much of a surprise, after all."

Glinda's mouth made a small "O" as she began to follow the logic. "Okay, I see. Or rather, you see. That's pretty clever!"

"Thank you! I mean, maybe it would have been smarter to enchant something I don't have to wear on my eye, since that can be pretty disorienting. But I think I might try that with another of the Crow's friends. Maybe… a mirror? Or a crystal ball?"

"A mirror sounds good; that way, any of us could see it at any time." As she approached, Elphaba was still scribbling, but then she slid her hands over her shoulders to encourage her to stop. "Now, can we take a little break for supper? Nessa is making a vegetable stew for us."

Elphaba's lip curled. "No, thank you. I'm not a fan of that watery broth she calls a stew."

"If you don't eat it, I'm going to take your pillow."

"Go right ahead."

Puffing out her cheeks in irritation, she changed tactics. "If you don't come down to supper, I'll find a spell to change all your clothes to such a bright pink that they will be visible from the Glikkus."

"What?" Finally looking up, she rolled her visible eye as she grunted, "I don't want to eat with Nessa, and I don't want to eat Nessa's food. What's so hard to understand about this?"

"She loves you very much, and so do I! Forgive us for being concerned about you!" As Glinda stood and began to stomp off, she shot over her shoulder, "I'll keep my word! Lurid, flowerriffic pink!" And she then shut the door on a string of grumbles.

~ o ~

Though it wasn't until they were halfway through eating, Elphaba did come down to the kitchen to partake of the stew. As it turned out, Nessa had figured out how to thicken it up a bit on her third attempt, even though it was scarcely more flavourful for the thickening.

"Nessarose," she said simply as she sat.

"Elphaba."

"Glinda," Glinda said, not wanting to be left out. Elphaba scowled at her, so she merely fell to sipping. They all did; as it turned out, dinner was going to be an austere affair.

A few minutes later, Nessa asked, "Is something wrong with your eye?"

"What?"

"Your eye. There's a patch over it."

"Oh." Gesturing with her spoon, she said, "It's a spell."

"Ah. Well, I'm sorry, then."

"Sorry?"

"That your spell went wrong. It's to be expected, trying all of these for the first time."

Pursing her lips for a moment, Elphaba then snapped, "Nothing went wrong. My eye is fine; it's the eye patch that has the spell on it."

"Oh." Swallowing thickly, Nessa's eyes flicked over to Glinda, who nodded encouragingly. "Well… I'm glad. I hate to think of you having to wear a magic eye like my magic shoes."

"And what's wrong with your shoes? Aren't they good enough for you? If I'd known you wouldn't-"

"Elphie," Glinda hissed, eyes narrowed. "Come on, don't be so contrarywise! Nessa's just saying she's worried about you."

"Because I'm not a capable enough witch," Elphaba responded, eyes still on her little sister. "Obviously. I'm just the older sister who can never do anything properly. The story of my life, isn't it?"

Nessa sighed, finally setting her spoon down in her bowl and blotting her mouth with her napkin. "Fine. You don't appreciate my food and you don't appreciate my company. I guess I'll find somewhere else to be less bothersome."

"Oh, ENOUGH!" With a few muttered words, Glinda took out her tiny practice wand and whirled it in a wide circle over her head, "AaAwha Wenn Nam Hora!"

A thin beam of light rocketed through the air to collide with the door into the dining room. As the other two witches looked on in horror, it transformed from wood into stone, flush with the wall.

"GLINDA!" Elphaba gasped in shock, gazing at the door for a long moment before whirling to glare at her, hands on the table. "What have you done?!"

"Turned it into stone. For one hour." Sitting back down and fluffing her decidedly-unmussed hair, she said primly, "Now, then. You two sisters are going to come to an understanding, or I'll cast it again when the hour is up. Do we understand each other?"

Nessa was already walking over to the wall that had once been the way out. Her hand pressed up against the cool stone, smoothing over the seam. "It doesn't open; it's stone, it's really stone. Why… I can't believe you did this, we're trapped!"

"For an hour!" Glinda assured her. "Come on, you really can't survive that long with Elphie? What's the matter with you two?!"

Levelling her hand at Elphaba, she snapped, "She's always taking everything I say the wrong way! Always has, and always thinks the worst of me! Just because I didn't want Boq to leave-"

"Because you wouldn't let Boq leave!" Elphaba shot back. "I thought he was an irritating little toad, but he had every right to be a toad of his own! Not your plaything!"

"Enough of this! I… I can't go into it again, I'm trying to put it behind me and you both keep bringing it back up!"

"Well, that's just too bad, isn't it, Sweet Nessa Rosey-rose?"

At that, Nessa's face paled, and she looked down at her shoes as she stood by the defunct exit. "Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Call me what he called me. Not with… that tone, not in a bad way."

Elphaba spread her arms wide as she stood, glaring at the girl. "Why shouldn't I? You still act like Father's going to save you, fix all your mistakes, clean up your messes! Or get me to do it, as was the case nine times out of-"

"He's DEAD, you terrible green lizard! How can you be so cold?"

"Because he didn't care one little slip about me!" Her voice was pure acid now, and she strode right up to Nessa, nose to nose as she shouted, "You were the favourite, and I was the faux pas! A useless, a nothing, a… I could have died and he wouldn't have shed a single tear, and we both know it! So why should I have the tiniest shred of regret that he's gone?! What difference should it make to me when he didn't even love me?!"

"Because he did! He just… didn't know how to show it to you! Fabala, you were always-"

"Don't CALL me that!"

At this point, Nessa screamed at her, "NO! You can't take that from me, it's mine! I called you that first, and I always have, and I can't stop now, it's not fair!"

"Oh, but it's fair to stop me calling you Sweet Nessa Rosey-rose? I'm not a child anymore, and neither are you! Call me by my given name, you overgrown-"

"Don't take it from me!" The screams were growing more hoarse as tears streamed down her cheeks, and she raised her fists to pound on Elphaba's chest and shoulders. "Stop being such a… such a witch!"

"I AM a witch. And I have news for you: we're all witches now, Little Nessie!"

As the tears continued to run down her cheeks, Nessa turned to press her side against the wall, sniffling and sobbing. Elphaba raised her hands as if to grasp her, shake her, but instead she turned away from her and folded her arms tightly against her chest, standing there and seething for all she was worth.

When nobody spoke for a minute or two, Glinda walked over to them, laying a hand on Elphaba's shoulder. "I… know you're upset-"

"Leave it."

"But," she persisted, in her sweetest, most unctuous voice, "I think you should ask Nessa why she still wants to call you by that name."

"I don't care! That isn't me anymore, and…" She turned to glare at Glinda, clearly wanting the conversation to end. But when Glinda merely glared back, her resolve firm, she dropped her voice to whisper, "It's the name my father would use to get me to comply. To lay a thick blanket of guilt over me until I relented. All it does is anger me and make me want to do exactly the opposite of what the other person is saying."

"That isn't how Nessa sees it. Just ask her, I'm sure of this. Call it a hunch, or woman's intuition, or whatever you want." No change. "Go on."

"Fine." Turning around, she snapped as if it were an accusation, "Why do you want to keep calling me Fabala, like a child?"

"You don't care!" Nessa bawled.

"No, I don't!" A rough elbow from Glinda connected with Elphaba's ribs that surprised her into asking, "But what's the reason, anyway?"

Sniffling and rubbing at her face, the younger woman said, "Because it's you! Because… oh, it's stupid, but… I created that because I couldn't say your name right when I was little, and it became something, a part of our family history. And it was…" She threw both hands upward. "Maybe it really is childish, I'm sorry. It won't ever happen again."

"What were you going to say?" Glinda encouraged, ignoring how Elphaba was still stonily silent.

"It was…" Her eyes were pointed away into the shadowy corner as she said, "That name was the one thing that I did that mattered to my sister. I knew Father put me on a pedestal, and I loved him for it, even when it chafed occasionally. But… Elphaba always resented helping me."

"I resented helping you at the expense of myself."

"I didn't ask you to do that! I know Father did," she headed off Elphaba's vocal and violent protest, "and I know I took your help for granted, I know that! I do now, anyway. Maybe I never knew how much until… until you vanished for two years. Yes, I had Boq, but it wasn't the same; he wasn't my sister."

"You didn't want a sister. You wanted a slave." When Nessa opened her mouth, she held up a hand. "No, I'm sorry, but that was how I was treated and expected to behave. You can't say enough 'I didn't mean to's to change how things were back then."

"Can I apologise?" When Elphaba didn't answer, she looked down at her own hands as she clasped them in front of her chest. "I'm very sorry. I know it can't make up for… for how much Father demanded of you, or how much I did because I took you for granted. I'm… I don't know what else to say except I'm sorry, Elphaba. That's all I've got."

Elphaba didn't answer. She only stalked off to the opposite wall, squeezed herself into the corner, and left the other two women blinking after her as she squatted down and pulled her knees up to her chin to wait out the rest of their hour.

"Great," Nessa breathed, voice still trembling.

"Aww, it went better than you think it did," Glinda promised her in a whisper. "You'll see. She's got years of bitterness all built up inside her; one apology can't get rid of all that, not this fast. Mayhaps, if you give her a little time…?"

"Mayhaps," she muttered. "I guess I never realised there was so much… so much of this between us all these years. I thought we had a great relationship before this mess with the Wizard took you two away from Shiz! And now, all she can do is point out how bad I've been at being her sister all along."

Shushing her gently, Glinda petted along her shoulders and steered her to one of the chairs. "It's alright. I was pretty obtusical when we first started at Shiz myself, you know. I…" Glancing down at her hands, she hesitated a few seconds before deciding that it was worth the sacrifice if it would make Nessa feel less self-hatred. "Do you remember how I set you up with Boq?"

"I do," she sighed wistfully, coming so close to smiling without accomplishing it. "That was the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me."

"Hold that thought," she said out the side of her mouth. Too late to turn back now. "The only reason I sent him after you is because he wouldn't stop nipping around my heels. And, well, I thought you looked so lonely that if he asked you, it was pretty likely you'd say 'yes'."

The words began to sink in, little by little. Finally, she managed to whisper, "Oh." And that was all.

"Plus the hat I gave Elphie that she likes so much? It was one my granny gave me that I didn't care for. So… maybe they weren't really unkind things, but they weren't done purely out of the goodness of my heart. Merely out of convenience."

"Boq never loved me." Nessa said it to herself, not to Glinda. She said it two more times as tears stung the corners of her eyes. Then she merely began to cry quietly, and nothing could be done.

Glinda spent another few minutes trying to console her before she gave up for the time being and returned to Elphaba's side. But no amount of prodding and goading could get her to budge. Gradually, she became so frustrated with her friend's unwillingness to compromise or reason, and with Nessa being so grief-stricken that she couldn't even speak, that she relegated herself to sitting at the table and drumming her fingers on its smooth surface until the spell lifted.

"Perfect," Elphaba grunted, standing the minute the door turned back to wood. "And if you try casting a second spell, I'll snap that wand of yours in two."

"Yes, Ma'am," Glinda grumbled as she watched her march out of the kitchen. She even gave a little salute.

~ o ~

Very little changed for another few days. Glinda and Nessarose did enjoy a few more productive conversations between the two of them, but she didn't succeed in encouraging Nessa to try her luck with her sister again. Elphaba was even less receptive. She tried to divide her time evenly between the both of them, but spent a lot more time off by herself, tidying or otherwise making herself useful.

However, the castle became a lot more lively when Elphaba came rushing into the voluminous dining hall where Glinda was trying to swat down spiderwebs with an old, stripped-bare broom handle.

"Ohhh, I don't like it," she was hissing, wringing her hands. "I don't like it in the slightest — not a winkie bit!"

"Elphaba, language!" Glinda gasped as she let the handle slide down into the corner. "Now, what's all the commotion?"

Taking the eyepatch off, she passed it over to Glinda with a stricken expression upon her green features, which were greener than usual. "See for yourself!"

Unsure of what else to do, Glinda raised the patch to her eye and closed the other one, squinting into the circle of darkness. Much to her surprise, she did not see darkness at all.

Laid out before her was a small pack of people travelling along a winding dirt path that led up through the peaks of the Kells. Trees and small bushes were dotted around sparsely, leaving for them a dark and desolate surroundings. The "them", as it turned out, was a curious little party indeed — led by Dorothy, the girl with the now-golden shoes. She looked a bit different than when they had last seen her, with her hair in disarray, a basket dangling from one elbow, and a lovely white linen dress as was sold in the Emerald City having replaced her rough blue clothing, but now dingy in spots from her journey. Though she didn't look too different from before, it was still odd to see such a drastic change having befallen her in such a short time.

Along for the ride were a trio that looked quite as strange. A man made of straw, stumbling and bumbling as he walked. Another of tin, clanking noisily with an axe slung over one shoulder; that one looked familiar somehow, but Glinda only assumed she had seen a statue very like him at some point in her life. So the rumours had been true! The third was actually a beast — a lion, powerful and muscled, stalking at their sides. And all the while, Dorothy's small cat-dog gamboled around their heels, yipping at this and that.

"What on Oz…?" she breathed.

"Don't you see?" Elphaba hissed, which felt strange to hear when her vision was full of such a foreign scene as that. "Maybe the other two mean no harm, but the lion certainly does, and that axe slung over that clattering collection of scrap metal is no child's toy! And they are headed straight for us!"

"What?!"

"Just so! I first learned from the crows that they were crossing into the Vinkus this morning, and have kept my eye on them. Their path gives every indication of being angled toward Kiamo Ko. I can't be certain, of course, but… well, it only makes sense that they're coming this way, doesn't it? What else is there in this region of Oz that such an odd group would be concerned about? Mowing the Thousand Year Grasslands?!"

Mouth hanging open, Glinda slowly pried the patch upward. She had seen quite enough for the time being; watching further only made her feel like a voyeur, and she was unlikely to learn anything else. "Elphaba… I… you don't really think they're coming for us, do you? They don't even know where we are!"

"Who's to say that we haven't been seen at some point or another? Despite our best efforts," she added in a grumble. It was quite true that they had taken every precaution.

"But why should they? That girl doesn't know the first thing about Oz, so I doubt she wants to do anything to anybody!"

"Or so she says." Shrugging her shoulders, the green-skinned woman took the patch back and stared down at it, shaking her head slowly. "No… no, we can't be sure of her story. She did murder our Fiyero, or have you forgotten?"

"Thank you very much, indeed! As if I ever could! But that's not the same as saying she meant to do it! And… oh, just suppose she really is some big, bad hag from who knows where. Why didn't she take care of us right away? We were pretty stunned to see her, standing there in those strange clothes, and all she did was talk to us! So how are we supposed to believe-"

"Enough!" Elphaba cut her off with a wave of her hand. "Of course I can't know for sure she's a witch, or anything of the kind. That isn't what I'm trying to say; only to argue that she could be. And if she is… we must be prepared. Ready to fight back!"

Both of Glinda's shoulders shrugged dramatically. "Now you're talking about fighting! Neither of us knows the first thing about fisticuffs, much less how to engage in a… a sorcerous skirmish!"

By this point, Elphaba was striding in paces around the room, hands wringing. Glinda knew she was as terrified as she was angry, and a dozen other emotions in between. It was up to her to soothe her nerves, if only she could figure out how!

However, as it turned out, they wouldn't have the time. They were both distracted by a loud shriek from outside.

"Was that Nessa?" Elphaba whispered immediately, hand clamping on Glinda's arm.

"Sounded very Nessish! Let's go!"

Boots clicking against the stones, the two women raced out the door and down the hallways to the staircases. Eventually, they were able to pick their way out to the courtyard, where a sight unlike any other greeted them.

Nessarose crouched on the ground near one of the ominous old statues of a king long forgotten, clutching something shiny to her chest. Crowded around her prone form were at least a round dozen winged monkeys, chittering and grasping at her clothing and her limbs, but being too mischievous and uncertain to truly get the job done. Whatever that job was intended to be.

"Get them OFF!" Nessa screamed the moment she saw Elphaba standing nearby. "I- I don't want- NO, NOT MY HAIR, let it go!"

It didn't take Glinda and Elphaba long to recognise the culprits; they had set them free themselves, after all. Striding forward, Elphaba decided to cut through the situation with her usual grace and charm.

"ENOUGH!" she shouted, setting off a harmless magical explosion in midair. The only ill effect was the acrid smell left behind and the sound that made Glinda's ears ring. But the monkeys were most certainly alerted. Shrinking back in fear, they grew still and quiet, heads and eyes rolling this way and that as if some flying beast had let loose the noise.

"You will behave," she commanded them in a firm tone. "Considering it was I who made you, and I who set you free, it seems a pretty poor 'thank you' to attack my sister! What a bad move, bad indeed!"

Most of the monkeys only chittered more, hopped up and down and covered their heads with their hands. However, the one called Chistery scampered forward to peer up at her, eyes seeming very slightly more canny than the others.

"Ba… bad?"

That seemed to shock them all, Elphaba included. After a few seconds of silence, Elphaba took a step forward, eyes full of wonder. "You… are a Monkey?"

His head dipped, and he did not try to speak further. The others jabbered on in their animal-talk, but Chistery did not turn to them, nor did he draw any closer. At last, her hand came to rest on his shoulders.

"You've had a hard time of it lately, haven't you? Cooped up by the Wizard, forced to be the subjects of his experiments. He ought to be ashamed."

As they shared this strange bond, whatever it was, Nessa began to creep around the edges of the courtyard toward Glinda. One of the monkeys started toward her again, but the others grasped him by his tail to keep him from following. They knew by now that it would spell their doom.

"I wonder…" Glancing over her shoulder at the two of them, she turned back to Chistery. "If you help me… I promise I'll keep doing my best to get stronger. All of us will. We'll be the greatest team there's ever been, and the Wizard won't stand a chance at stopping my crusade."

"Crusade?" Nessa blubbered. Though Elphaba glared at her, she didn't snap back anything needlessly cold.

"To free the Animals. To restore balance to every non-Munchkin and non-Winkie. Vinkan," she corrected at Glinda's surprised look. "They deserve all the rights we have, and we all know the only reason the Wizard is saying otherwise is… is to give them a straw man to distract them from the droughts, the problems with the crops. Other governmental affairs."

"I thought you said the straw man is on his way here," Glinda asked. The glare was turned in her direction, but she glared right back. "Okay, fine; you still want to wrest this world from the Wizard. Why?"

"Why not? He has power, and he's using it to an awful end. Only the most despicable of scum would attack innocents simply to obscure how pathetic his leadership truly is. Wouldn't you agree? Oz is better off in our hands than in his."

Squirming, Glinda glanced down at the still-distraught Nessa for help. When all she did was press that blasted golden cap into her face and sob, she sighed and took a step forward. "I don't know about all that. But I do agree that letting him stomp us into the dirt doesn't sound like my kind of party."

"What…" Swiping at her eyes, Nessa finally managed to push herself upward. "What are you going to do, Fab- Elphaba? How can you possibly stop the Wizard himself?"

A look flashed across Elphaba's face when she heard her sister correct herself; Glinda thought she could tell it was one of regret. But all she said was, "One step at a time. Now, I think he's a charlatan, a real old humbug; after all, his 'big face' act was just a bunch of levers and pulleys, as we now know. But he has Morrible at his beck and call, and she… she is truly a monster."

"Agreed," Glinda sighed.

"Wait," Nessa cut in as she stepped closer. "Why is she a monster? I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude or pestering, but I don't understand."

"Because it was at her encouragement that I cast that first spell on Chistery and his friends," Elphaba informed her, sounding more measured and less insulting for a change. "And she can use magic, even if she's unable to read the book. I wonder if…" Her eyebrows knitted slightly. "Perhaps there is more to understanding the Grimmerie than just a knowledge of Ancient Lurlinic. I have wondered that, since some spells that I can read fully elude me, and others come so easily despite my not knowing every word."

Once that had sunk in, Glinda started. "You've been casting spells when you don't know all the words?! Elphie, that sounds disasterful — why would you ever try something so perilous?!"

"We have to try. We have to know all we can." Pacing back and forth for a moment, she raised her hands up toward the leafy branches above the courtyard and clapped them sharply three times. The Monkeys shrank back from the noise, and even further when a full murder of Crows swept down upon the square, one particularly large specimen settling into a stance before his mistress.

"What might we do?" his scratchy voice asked.

"Go to the travellers, Draven. See if you can determine why they're coming this way; I don't know if the others are automatons or people, but the girl seemed to have a level head when last we met her. Even if she means us harm, she might at least say so if she's honest. Maybe she can be reasoned with."

"At once!" he screeched, and the other crows began to caw in echo. Then they took off into the sky, a swirling cloud of blackness that blotted out the sun.

When they were alone with the Monkeys again, Glinda whispered, "Why send them when you have these newly-feathered fellows?"

"They're a little more… imposing," Elphaba told her, glancing at the monkeys again apologetically. Most of them did not seem to even notice she was speaking. "The Crows, not quite as much — and Draven is an eloquent speaker. He simply doesn't think it necessary to mince words. I think it's harder for the Wizard and Morrible to work their black arts to silence those whom they can't reach so easily. Like the flying Animals of the Vinkus, of course. Chistery might be as verbose as the Crows if they hadn't got to him…"

But as the three women glanced at the sky, they knew it was unlikely they would ever know the full details of their enemies' inner workings. Perhaps that was for the best.

To Be Continued…