The title from chapter twenty-five was from Cabaret. Congrats to Yank2324 and Anne Flint.

Mucho thanks to Sparky Heffely for beta-ing this chapter. Superb job as usual; she caught some stuff that actually quite amused me.

Chapter 26: Dangerous Game

Five steps to the right. Stop. Five steps to the left. Stop. Five steps to the right again. Fiyero watched Elphaba with a growing amusement. "You're going to wear a hole in the floor if you keep doing that," he teased as Elphaba paced back and forth in front of him.

Elphaba stopped to snap tersely at the unfortunate man in her line of vision. "What else would you have me do?" She resumed pacing without waiting for an answer. It was a rhetorical question anyway. She couldn't help her restlessness. Elphaba had never been patient, and volunteering to do guard duty made it even worse. The green witch just wanted this whole thing over with.

Fiyero sighed, knowing that anything he said or did would only make it worse. However, that did not stop him from trying to reason with the green witch. "Look, Elphaba," he said. "You ought to get some lunch or something. Or even better, some rest."

Elphaba didn't even turn from her rhythm of pacing to look at Fiyero anymore. "And let Weasley and Morrible come in to slit our throats? No thank you," she replied, with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "If you're not going to give me useful advice, then leave me alone."

Fiyero shrugged, as if to say, "I tried," before leaving Elphaba to her mumbling and pacing. She had been the same way before the battle against Voldemort. He would leave her to stew. He knew from experience that he would not be able to talk any sense into his ex-girlfriend; she was that stubborn. Perhaps Glinda might be able to do something.

He knocked on the door of Glinda and Elphaba's room, hoping that the blonde could get some common sense into her girlfriend's head. Lurline knows she would be the only one who could. "Glinda? Are you in here?"

The door was opened, though, not by Glinda, but by a familiar furry figure. "Fiyero," the regal Wolf greeted, pushing the door open wider with her body. "We were about to look for you, actually." She stood back, letting him into the room, where Glinda was sitting anxiously. "There's some important news that you should to know."

"You should get Elphie," Glinda added, looking quite worried. "I think she should hear this."

"What about the others?" Fiyero asked as he prepared to find the green woman. "Shouldn't they know, if this has something to do with Morrible or Weasley- which, I assume it does."

"No," Elera said, nudging the man out the door and into the hallway. "This has nothing to do with Morrible or Weasley." She shifted uncomfortably. "Actually…it's a favor that I need Miss Elphaba to do for me. For several of us."

"And by us, you mean…" Glinda prompted.

"I mean a group of Animals out west about a mile from here," Elera elaborated. She waited with Glinda in silence until Fiyero was back with Elphaba.

"What is it?" Elphaba asked urgently, fighting the urge to pace again. "What's happened, Elera?"

Glinda placed a hand on Elphaba's shoulder. "For Lurline's sake, Elphaba," she said. "Calm down! This stressing can't be good for you. The only thing it'll give you is high blood pressure." Fiyero marveled at how calm Glinda could be while her green girlfriend was so frantic. They were complete opposites, but they balanced each other out. It was a good match.

Elphaba calmed enough to listen to Elera. "So…there are several Wolves, some Bears, and a Wildcat in a group a mile out from here," she repeated. "They're all pretty young too- only five years of age at the most. They ran into some of the Gale Force some time ago and sustained injuries. I've been checking on them, but mostly, they're not healing too well. We need someone with more expertise in this field." She leveled her gaze at Elphaba. "Someone like you."

"No!" Fiyero immediately snapped adamantly. "I'm sorry, Elera, but that is out of the question. Elphaba can't leave Kiamo Ko. It's too dangerous."

Elphaba sent a dark glare at Fiyero and clenched her fists by her side. "What are you?" she challenged. "My father?"

"A friend who cares about you," Fiyero countered. "You know you can't go out there, with all of Oz out for your blood. Who knows what is waiting for you out there?"

"And I can't stay cooped up in here for the rest of my life!" Elphaba shot back. "I can't just let these Animals die in good conscience when I could do something about it! I at least have to try, Fiyero. Unlike you, I care about what happens to the rest of the world."

Fiyero held his hands out in an 'I surrender' gesture. "Woah! When did the fact that I don't care about the rest of the world come into this conversation?" he asked. "Look," he sighed. "I'll compromise. I'll go find the others. We can all go together, then. And you can borrow Harry's invisibility cloak again. Okay?"

"Who died and made you king?" Elphaba muttered. Fiyero walked out the door, ignoring Elphaba's obvious frustration. She'd get over it, once Morrible and Weasley were defeated. She'd thank him in the end.

Elphaba began pacing again once Fiyero was out the door, shrugging off Glinda's hand on her shoulder. "Who does he think he is?" she hissed in disbelief. "He can't just order me around like that! I can take care of myself quite well!" She peered out the doorway to make sure Fiyero was gone before turning back to Elera and Glinda. "Okay," she said. "It's all clear. Let's go."

Elera seemed all too eager to start out without Fiyero, but Glinda held Elphaba back. "Go?" she asked in a shrill voice. "Go where?"

"To the moon," Elphaba answered sarcastically. "Where do you think? To those Animals Elera was telling me about!"

"But you heard Fiyero." Glinda frowned. "He said it would be too dangerous."

"Screw what Fiyero said," Elphaba snapped. "I'm going with Elera." She made sure her wand was securely in its hoister and made to follow the Wolf when Glinda's voice stopped her. "What now?" she asked, sighing. It wasn't that she was annoyed at Glinda, but all this worrying and her lack of food and sleep made her irritable.

"Then I'm going with you." Glinda took a small step forward. "At least I'll know that you're not in any trouble. I'll feel better about it in any case."

The Wolf trotted around at the two women's feet. "There'll be no trouble, Glinda," she interrupted. "Don't be so worried. Elphaba and I will go and be back within the hour." She seemed over-anxious to get out of the small room.

"Exactly," Elphaba agreed. "I'll be back soon. Let's go, Elera." They were wasting precious time arguing when they could have been halfway there by now!

Glinda crossed her arms in front of her chest stubbornly. "Either I'm coming with the both of you or no one is going!" she hissed, sounding quite animalistic herself.

"Fine!" Elphaba threw her arms into the air in exasperation. "Now come on!" After making sure that no one was in the hallways, she, Elera, and Glinda slipped downstairs and out the doors.

"I think you should transform," Glinda said. "It'd be safer, especially with those spies or whatever that Harry mentioned might be lurking about earlier." Elphaba was inclined to disagree until Glinda gave her a no-nonsense look, her mouth pressed together in a thin line.

The green witch chose to roll her eyes again. "Yes, mother," she muttered. At least she was out here. Fiyero would have never let her go, animagus form or not. With a small pop, a black panther stood where Elphaba had been. It shook its head slightly and its ears twitched.

Elera started forward, glancing back at Elphaba and Glinda from time to time to make sure they were keeping up. "Come on, come on!" she urged. "It's just through the forest a bit. Hurry!"

When Fiyero finally found the two English wizards and one witch, he explained the situation to them. "So I told Elphaba that we should all go together," he finished. "I mean, maybe I'm just being paranoid, but having four magic uses is better than just one. Or one and a half, since Glinda can do just a little magic."

"No, not paranoid," Hermione reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Just careful, which is always a good thing."

"For once," Snape muttered darkly, scowling at Fiyero, as he always did.

Hermione continued as though she had not heard the Potions Master. "And you know that Fae is too reckless for her own good anyway. We'll keep her in line for you."

"You speak as though I'm not going," Fiyero noted as the four of them began the long trek across Kiamo Ko back to the room where the other occupants of the castle and Elera were.

"Because you're not going," Harry spoke up, shrugging.

Fiyero stopped in disbelief. "What do you mean 'you're not going'?" he demanded. "I'm going! You're not leaving me alone here!"

"Good thing you won't be alone." Snape smirked. "Glinda will be here with you. She's not going either. You'd both be a burden to us should we be attacked by Weasley, Morrible, or any men under their command."

"Glinda would never stay behind," Fiyero reminded the others angrily. "She would never let Elphaba wander out on her own, even with you three there."

Snape fingered his wand cheekily. "Oh, she'll stay behind," he said. "Even if she doesn't want to." At Fiyero's raised eyebrow, he added, "Aren't full Body-Binding spells absolutely wonderful?"

Fiyero was outraged at Snape's smug face. "Elphaba would never allow that!" he snapped. "She'd curse you into next year just for suggesting it. Or even thinking it!"

"I'm not scared of Fae," Snape scoffed.

The Winkie Prince refused to look at Snape. He might do something he would regret later if he did. "You do realize you're talking about Elphaba? The same Elphaba who almost beat Harry in a duel and helped defeat Voldemort? The one who can read the Grimmerie?"

"I was a fair duler in my day," Snape said in a would-be modest voice, although there was an undercurrent of pride as well. "Besides, TIggular, you've never seen me duel Fae. Or duel anyone, for that matter."

By this point, they had all reached the room where Elphaba, Glinda, and Elera were. The door was closed, and Harry took the moment to interrupt Fiyero and Snape's argument to knock on the door. "Fae? Are you in there?"

Fiyero and Snape stopped arguing long enough to listen. Only silence answered Harry's question. The Boy-Who-Lived pounded on the door again. "Fae? Glinda? Elera?" His inquiries were again only met by silence.

"Oh no," Fiyero mumbled, fighting the urge to hit his head on the wall, or even better, go find Elphaba and hit her had against the wall in order to knock some sense into her head. Lurline knew she needed it. "Oh no, oh no, oh no. They've gone already, haven't they?"

Hermione's reassuring, calm voice cut through Fiyero's panic. "We don't know that yet. You're just assuming that from a closed door."

"Always the optimistic," Snape said bluntly, trying the door handle and finding it unlocked. "Where do you think they are, Granger? Playing a game of Quidditch in the yard, perhaps?" He threw the door open so hard that it rebounded off the wall. "See? No one in here."

"I didn't say that they would be in here." Hermione defended herself as she walked into the room, as if she would find Elphaba, Glinda, and Elera hiding in a corner or in the closet. "I was just saying not to assume they were not here just because they weren't answering the door."

Snape shook his head. "That's the same difference. There would be nothing to assume, because you know that they weren't in here. There's no need to have false hope, or worse to give others false hope."

Hermione opened her mouth to argue. "But-"

"Why are we having this argument in the first place!" Harry stepped in between Snape and Hermione. "We should be looking for Fae and the others, not disagreeing on…implications and assumptions and whatever the hell you two are disagreeing on. This isn't the time or place for an intellectual argument, as enlightening as you may find them, Hermione!"

"I'm sure any trail they may have had will have gone cold by now," Fiyero muttered. "They will have been gone for over fifteen or twenty minutes!"

"You seem to forget, Tiggular," Snape hissed, his voice full of disdain, "that we are wizards, and therefore, we had handy little devices called wands." He waved his own around to demonstrate his point. "These wands can cast spells, one of which is a certain Tracking Spell. It shouldn't be hard, even for your tiny little brain to comprehend."

Fiyero scowled at Snape and looked ready to attack him, but Hermione put a hand on his shoulder, partly to comfort him and partly to hold him back should he actually attack the dark-haired man. "That's enough, Snape," she said, steering Fiyero through the doorway and away from Snape.

"You forget that you were once my student, Granger," Snape yelled after them, his voice echoing in the stone hallway. "You have no right to speak to me like that."

Hermione ignored him and led the way with Fiyero to the huge doors which led to the grounds of Kiamo Ko. She took her wand out, laid it flat on her palm, and muttered a spell. The wand spun around and around in her palm, as Fiyero knew it would before steadying in one direction. It pointed straight into the forest.

"Oh, this will be fun," Fiyero muttered sarcastically, climbing onto the lion which Harry had already transformed into. Snape looked ready to protest Fiyero's being there, but even he knew to be quiet when Harry growled in his direction, his white teeth gleaming in the sunlight. Instead, Snape satisfied himself with transforming into his fox form and letting Harry pick him up.

Fae was so dead once they got back to England.

They had been walking in silence for a little while now. Elera and Glinda did not know each other well enough to make small talk, and Elphaba, being in panther form, could not talk should she wish to. She was an animal, not an Animal. The silence annoyed Glinda, who was used to the constant chatter of her surroundings in the Emerald City and thrived on it. Finally, just to get rid of the uncomfortable silence, she chanced a conversation with the Wolf. "So…" she said awkwardly.

"Yes, Miss Glinda?" Elera did not look at the blonde; she merely concentrated on the forest path before them.

Glinda had never been very good at making small talk. "How long have you known Elphie?" she tried cautiously. It never hurt to try, anyhow.

Elera seemed to shrug. "I met her almost immediately after she defied the Wizard. I was one of the first Animals she helped out, and for that, I am eternally grateful." Her voice broke as she said this, and she stopped walking, causing Elphaba to almost stumble over the smaller creature. They were in a clearing now that was mostly shrouded from view with vegetation and shadows the tall trees cast in the area.

Elphaba transformed back, looking at Elera with concern. "Are you alright?" she asked kindly. "What happened? Why are we stopping?"

Elera could not bring herself to look at Elphaba or Glinda. "Forgive me, Miss Elphaba. I did not mean for it to happen this way. It was the only way I could guarantee the safety of my cubs. I really do appreciate what you have done for me, and I hate myself for doing this."

The green witch frowned. "What do you mean, Elera? I don't know what you are talking ab-"

"And Miss Glinda," the Wolf continued, not appearing to have even heard Elphaba talking, "I didn't want to hurt you. Truly I didn't. I couldn't, even if I had wanted to. That was why I didn't want you to come along. It was only supposed to be Elphaba. Only Elphaba."

Elphaba reached a hand out to Elera, but the Wolf backed away, equal amounts of guilt, fear, and anxiety in her amber eyes. "No. Don't touch me," she said in little more than a whisper. "I do not deserve you. I do not deserve your kindness."

"Elera, I don't understand," Elphaba pleaded desperately. "Please explain. Where are the Animals you were talking about? What are you talking about?" She looked around the clearing for any clues it may hold regarding Elera's mysterious and slightly alarming words, but she saw nothing. The shadows and plants hid everything in darkness.

"There…there are no Animals, Miss Elphaba." Both women could barely hear Elera at this point. "It was a trap. A ruse to draw you out. And I was in the center of it." Elphaba drew her wand from its hoister cautiously, but before she could demand a further explanation, there came a rustling from the bushes.

"Expelliarmous!" Elphaba had no time to react. Her wand shot out of her grip and landed in the hands of one Ronald Weasley. She whirled around as several Gale Force members, Weasley, and Morrible herself, holding the Grimmerie in one hand and with a satisfied smirk on her face advanced on herself and Glinda.

"Glinda," Elphaba muttered from the corner of her mouth. "Get behind me."

"That would do no good, Elphie," Glinda replied, her eyes darting around, looking for any possible escape route. There were none. The Gale Force surrounded them in a circle, leaving no way for them to escape. "They're all around us." Elphaba put her hand in Glinda's and gave it a squeeze, if only for the physical comfort. Although she wasn't very sure what comfort would do in this case.

The two witches were ripped apart by the Gale Force. A fourth of them held Glinda back, and the rest of the group restrained Elphaba, who was twisting and pulling at her captors as hard as she could, to no avail. "Glinda!" she called. Damnit! Not again! Hadn't Glinda been through enough in the last few weeks already? "No, Glinda!" She sent her fiercest glare at the Gale Force clutching Glinda's arms. "Let her go! You have me, already. She's done nothing to you; she's no threat."

"I'm fine, Elphie." Glinda's voice was unnaturally high-pitched. "Don't worry about me."

"You know, Elphaba, dear," Morrible cut in, "you really ought to listen to others once in a while. Miss Glinda here is right. I really wouldn't worry about her. You should be a little bit more concerned for your own health. At least I would be."

"I'm not scared of you!" Elphaba spat. "You or Weasley."

Ron gave Elphaba a smug look. "We'll see about that, Thropp. I do believe we've had this conversation once before." He refused to say any more to Elphaba. Rather, he turned to the Gale Force and barked out orders. "You, you, and you!" He pointed to three random men. "Go to the castle and get the other occupants over here. You have permission to use force if necessary."

Morrible gave a small smirk at Elphaba's outraged and yet slightly fearful expression. "Let the games begin, Miss Elphaba. Let the games begin."

Coming up: The real battle. Even though I said that last chapter.

I actually quite enjoyed writing this chapter. I don't know why, but it was fun. The whole Elera thing made me want to cry, though.

Also, I have posted a poll in my profile regarding WotW. Check it out and vote! I'm interested in what you guys think.

Finally…Reviews are love.

Wolfie