Part 2 chapter 9
A/N: Here's some more Elphaba and GLinda stuff for you guys. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I was on vacation. Sigh But sadly I must go back to school in two days. Oh well. Anyway, here's the chapter. Thankyou to my two loyal reviewers, you guys are awesome.
"Elphie?" Glinda called as she knocked on the door to her prickly friend's room, struggling with the bundle under her arm "Elphie, it's Glinda! Open the door will you?" she said louder as she rapped on it harder. When there was still no reply the blonde pursed her lips before pounding her fist into the wood a little painfully whilst she bellowed,
"Elphaba Thropp I just risked my position and possibly my life to get this Stupid little Monkey out of Morrible's hands, turned down a date from one of the most attractive Men in the city and walked up those miles of stairs, ruined both my shoes and my dress to come and talk to you! So damn it open this Do-o-o-or!" she squealed the last word as the door in question (on which she was still pounding) flew open and she fell in. She turned over so that she was laying on her back and looked up at the green face hovering over her.
"Well? I opened the door for you." Her friend said in an overly innocent voice, "You okay?" she added more seriously.
"Yes." Glinda snapped, accepting the hand Elphie offered her and looked around the room.
"A few of the monkeys seem to be missing." The blonde commented. The Green Woman shrugged.
"They fly in and out all the time. I don't keep them confined unless they are injured or sick, what do you mean 'you were risking your life' for the Monkey?"
"Morrible had him."
"Her." Elphaba Corrected. She wanted to get the other sorceress out quickly.
"Whatever." Glinda retorted, "What have you been doing up here?" The Witch of the North Demanded,
"Why are you suddenly concerned?" The Sorceress of the West retorted
"Why are you avoiding the question?" Glinda snapped
"Why are you answering questions with questions?"
"Why are you?"
"This is ridiculous!" Elphaba growled, throwing her arms into the air, "You know I'm not going to tell you the explicitly boring details of my life and I know that you intend on inflicting all the annoyance that an intentionally blissful blonde debutante can inflict to try and weasel it out of me, so why don't we skip that step and leave each other in peace for a little while before you come back to harass me again!" the Green woman then made a slamming motion in the air which opened the door with a bang. Nostrils flaring, the Blonde yelled something at her about controlling herself during 'That time of the Month' and ungratefulness, etc and stormed out.
Elphaba was grateful to have her friend out of the room. She trusted Glinda, but what she was doing was too risky. This way, if she was caught, her friend was protected by her ignorance of the matter. Waiting until she was positive that the Blonde was gone, the Green Witch returned to what she had been doing.
She pulled a scarf around her features and enchanted a blue light above and behind her. She then removed the cover from the Crystal ball to reveal a Guard of the South Stairs.
"I apologize for the interruption." She said coolly in a disguised voice, "Are we of an understanding?" The young man on the other end of the magical communication device replied,
"Am I willing to smuggle your prisoner for a fee you mean?" he inquired slyly, "Yes. But are you positive that you will meet my price?"
"You will get it. Just make sure no one notices him gone until it is too late and that he is unharmed." She said firmly. She couldn't stress those points enough.
"Yes."
"I will meet you at the decided coordinates at moonrise in two days." With that she covered the ball with a blanket. She had made an intentionally clumsy initial contact with this man with a perfectly disguised voice and purple face paint. Since then she had refined her apparent mystique, though he still had no idea who she truly was. He, like most of the human population in Oz at the moment, thought her to be some kind of stupid Ape or something.
Her heart thumped in her chest in anticipation. Two more days and she would be with Fiyero again, something she had longed for so for more then 20 years…and this time, she wouldn't let him go.
"Liir? Liir?" someone whispered in his ear tentatively. It was only 10 minutes to 6:00 in the morning.
"What?" he moaned, opening his eyes blearily, he still wasn't accustomed to waking up early. He was more of a night owl. He would take graveyard shifts and sleep past noon. Blinking several times he saw that it was Candle sitting nervously by him.
"Candle!" he exclaimed, sitting up. She recoiled, "No! No wait, I'm sorry!" He always felt so light-headed and nervous when he was around her, and didn't like that she was still so scared of him. Since he had arrived, he had made sure to dress in strictly civilian clothes and even stayed away from the colours of Gale Force, hoping that by distancing himself from the organization, she would loose her anxiousness of him. As yet, it didn't seem to working supremly well.
"Rhonaraye is planning on making an excursion. I have a feeling it is one that will drain her. You want to go with her don't you?" she asked quietly.
"Yes! How did you-of course. You read the present." He said, adding "You're amazing Candle." Everyone liked a compliment, and she really seemed to still need confidence boosters, despite her time with Dr. Akota. To his delight she seemed pleased and then said,
"She and Lassie are leaving within the half-hour. You might wish to hurry." With that, she slipped out of the room.
Liir was amazed at how early the people around here awoke in the morning, even some of the children were already running around. One bunch didn't look too lively though, the Swan from the Council seemed to be talking to three young Cygnets.
"Father, why are we bothering?" one of the little grey Birds asked as they trudged along, trailing their wings on the floor.
"Because it is our turn to clean the dishes and we need to do our bit!" the Swan snapped, buffeting the Cygnet along with his wing impatiently. Just then a female Swan walked out of the room,
"Oh, leave them be, they're tired and they are grieving! Just like you! Remember that you aren't the only one here who has lost someone!" she reprimanded
The little group grumbled but kept moving towards the kitchen. Liir couldn't help but wonder what had happened to that family.
He arrived just in time to see Lassie strapped to her human's back in a sort of sling. His…his sister was wearing purple gloves, a dark green-and brown dress, black cloak and a black scarf which she was adjusting over the bottom half of her face and around her neck. As he walked out further onto the platform he realized why. It was freezing cold! The air was thin too.
"You're up early." She said pulling up her hood, "Don't you usually refuse to get up until about ten-o-dragonclock?"
"Candle said you were heading out, and I'm curious about where you're going, about why you're sneaking off." He said.
"I 'sneak off' -as you call it- so that I don't have to argue with certain people for an hour about bringing all sorts with me! I take Lassie because she pines about being left alone and makes a fuss, not only that but she helps me out with these." She said, pulling her gloves on a little more snugly.
"Alright, but let me come with you this time." Liir suggested, expecting an argument. However, to his surprise she merely shrugged and flicked her hand outwards. A cloak materialized in midair and flew at him. He caught it and started wrapping it around himself quickly
"You've really mastered that summoning charm." He commented.
"Practice makes perfect. Try getting yourself that scarf Akota gave you. Go on, try it." She encouraged. Liir pulled a face
"I was never very good at these."
"Well hurry up, or I'm leaving without you."
"Fine." He grumbled. His attempt was less impressive. He managed to get half of it, but managed to get it around once and tie it clumsily.
"Come on then." Raye said when he done. She held out the staff to him. He stared at it
"Don't we have to mount it or something?" he asked her. She shrugged.
"We could. I normally do if I have a passenger, but when I'm by myself I just hold onto it with one hand, then it can double as a bow if I need it too. You'd be surprised how pliable it can be if it chooses." She said as she threw her leg over it. He followed suit. The two of them somehow managed to fit without being too crowded with enough space between them that Liir could grip the wood like she did. They actually looked like they were on some sort of weird tandem-bicycle.
"Hold on." She muttered to him before leaning forward and kicking off.
The flight on the staff was infinitely better then the stupid Rug. For one thing, he was fully conscious and it was a lot smoother. They seemed to glide rather then fly- floating through the clouds-getting wet as they did so. Even when they sped up it was pleasant. His sister was an excellent flyer. Now he couldn't wait to try a broom of his own.
They landed in a wood outside a small farming village. They slipped off the staff and the mage knelt to let the dog out of the sling.
"What are we doing in here?" Liir asked, watching her push her staff into a tree. It seemed to melt into the wood, literally becoming one with the plant. The sight struck him speechless.
"We are here," Raye said, "So that I can find out what is going on with the land here."
"But it looks fine!" her brother said in a falsely cheerful voice. He had a very limited knowledge of the Natural world, and absolutely none of the world of a mage.
"It isn't." the young woman informed him, "There is something very wrong here. What you see is an illusion. Here," she said, cracking a branch that appeared strong and healthy. However, when she broke it off, the illusion vanished. The inner wood was black and moldy and the outer bark looked rotten.
"Ew." Liir commented.
"Exactly. There's a spell of deception laid here. Now, keep that scarf and wrap it around your face, unless you want to be recognized. by some passersby." She said. He noticed that she had removed the cloak and re-adjusted the scarf around her head so that only her eyes showed.
"Why are you still wearing that?"
"The same reason I can't go on to any undercover work. Too many recessive genes." At his questioning look she pulled the scarf off her head and asked,
"How many ambidextrous, 5ft11, red-headed, grey-eyed mages do you come across? Even if I were to conceal my magical abilities I have too many distinctive features, and there is no such thing as a fool-proof disguise. Not in these times. However, it doesn't look like we need to go too near the town today, I suppose, so come on," she continued before he could say anything, "We're getting nearer. I'm going straight to the heart of the Forest, she will tell me what has happened." Liir was having trouble keeping up, both in terms of her surprising agility and speed in the woods and in her meaning,
"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" He asked her, "I don't quite understand what you are talking about; the Heart of the Forest will tell you?"
"Yes." she replied, leading him in further, "It's a mage thing."
They continued on deeper into the woods, twisting and turning on a path that didn't seem to lead anywhere. He could see that something was bothering her and that it was getting worse. Finally at one point the young woman lurched to a halt with a gasp of pain, her hands clamped over her ears. The collie whined in concern.
"What's the matter?" he asked, though he felt it a split second later as a sharp pain laced through him as though a knife had stabbed him- yet somehow it didn't feel like his pain, not remotely. In fact, it was fading already. "What's happening?" he pressed. She could clearly still feel it. He wondered if that was the reason he had felt anything at all, considering that they were apparently twins, and there did seem to be some kind of connection.
"We're close…" she gasped through clenched teeth, "Sweet Lurline, what have they done to this forest? Thank goodness I didn't wait."
"What are you going to do?" Liir asked a little worriedly.
"I'm going to join with the forest. It is a mage skill. Some of the more powerful sages can do it, but not the extent that a mage can." She told him, "You stay here, and out of sight with Lassie, don't make any sound."
With that she went to the center of the clearing and sat down with her legs crossed. She held out her arms with her palms facing forward. The markings on her hands glowed white and more appeared on the sides of her neck up across to her cheekbones under her eyes and one on her forehead in between her eyes.
Suddenly, without any warning that he could see, two vine-like things erupted out of the ground and imbedded themselves in her wrists and another from a tree nearby into her back. Liir flinched violently at the impact of each, but Rhonaraye barely winced. She had clearly done this before. Her head drooped forward onto her chest a moment and he thought she had passed out, except that just then her head lifted and her eyes opened.
They looked strange. The surface of them shimmered into different colours with another of those strange symbols in the center had replaced the irises and pupils.
He was too stunned to speak at first, then things took a strange turn. The mage suddenly went rigid and gasped in pain, her pack arching and light streaming out of her eyes, nose and mouth before she lurched forward and vomited up something that was black, viscous and sticky. She shook a moment before finally resettling herself and going still again.
"Nari?" he asked tentatively after a few minutes of this, "Nari, can you hear me?"
"No, I'm afraid she can't." a voice from behind him drawled, he whipped around to receive a fist to his face.