Chapter 28- Smart Thinking and an Old Lesson
Fiyero, Boq, and Daven were trapped. The white windstorm full of ice and snow had surrounded them. Cold pieces of ice and snow shredded their grey clothing and black cloaks. The wind burned their skin and made their ears ring with its piercing howl. The sky had darkened yet all they could see was white. The men tried to yell to each other, but they couldn't hear each other due to be far away from each other.
Finally, Daven managed to get close enough to the other two men and he linked arm with each of them and tried to yell to them to give them instructions.
"HOLD ON TO YOUR BROOM WITH YOUR LEGS AND FREE YOUR ARMS AND JUST KEEP LINKED WITH ME!" Daven yelled out. "DON'T LET GO OF MY ARMS! SHIFT YOUR WEIGHT FORWARD IN YOUR BROOMS AND DIVE DOWN WITH ME ON THE COUNT OF THREE!"
"BUT….BUT WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE DOWN IS!?" Boq cried back.
"JUST TRUST ME!" Daven yelled at the Munchkin. "OK, ON THREE! READY?!"
"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!?" Fiyero shouted out in disbelief.
"ONE!" Daven yelled. He tightened his grip on his companions.
"OH SWEET OZ!" Boq shouted.
"TWO!" The Resistance member yelled.
"IF WE DIE BECAUSE OF THIS IDEA, I'LL KILL YOU DAVEN!" the Winkie prince threatened.
"WE'LL BE DEAD IF WE TRY TO RIDE OUT THE STORM AND DO ANYTHING!" the green eyed man argued back in an annoyed voice. "THREE!" He then tightened his grip on the men on either side of him and dove for what he hoped was the ground. He hoped that if there was God or Queen Lurline that they would help the three of them survive this snow storm.
Elphaba opened her eyes realized that she was back at Shiz University. She and Glinda were twenty-one years of age at this time. Glinda the Good had just performed the memory spell from the Grimmerie, but instead of Elphaba viewing the attack on her, she was witnessing a past memory from her days at Shiz.
"How odd," Present-Day Elphaba thought as she looked around an old classroom. It was like she was a movie of her past life. Elphaba moved over a wall, and watched what happened in the room. She hadn't thought of this memory in quite some time. She even wondered why she was reliving it at all.
Present-Day Elphaba watched herself and a younger Galinda sitting in a classroom. It was small, about twenty by twenty feet, and there were two windows across from the wall with the door. On that same wall was a poster for the Emerald City. The floors were hard wood and the walls were forest green. Sunlight came through the windows. There was only one teacher with them. Madame Morrible.
Back at Shiz, all those years ago, Elphaba and Galinda had been receiving private lessons in magic from the "headshitress" at Shiz University, Morrible. This was before the two young witches had learned what a hateful and cruel person that Morrible really was. Present-Day Elphaba then started focusing in more on the conversation between the three women. She saw herself flip through pages in a spell book.
"Madame?" the young Elphaba Thropp questioned. The green girl was wearing a deep blue school uniform consisting of a skirt, matching shirt and jacket, and brown boots. Her long hair was kept tidy in a braid similar to the one that Present-Day Elphaba was wearing. She also wore glasses. "I can make out a few of these more simple spells, but there is this one spell near the back of the book that I don't understand at all. Do you?"
Morrible walked over to young green girl and looked at the spell carefully.
"Oh, why Miss Elphaba!" Morrible chided lightly. "You have no needs to learn a spell this dangerous or complex. Forget about it and look for a simpler one." She then turned away from her pupil.
Galinda was sitting over a few desks away, oblivious. She was researching about spells that would enhance someone's outer beauty. This Galinda looked so much more different than the one that Present-Day Elphaba was used to. Galinda's hair was a lot longer back then, and it was less curly, but still the same beautiful golden color. Elphaba thought it funny to see her old friend without a tiara on her head or wand in her hand, only wearing a cream-colored school uniform with dark blue heels. Galinda was paying the upmost attention the spell book in front of her.
While Galinda was fine reading on her own, the younger Elphaba still pressed the matter of the dangerous spell that Morrible had cast aside.
"But Madame," the young green witch pleaded. "I still don't understand what this spell does. Why is it dangerous?
"The spell," the old witch began saying as she turned to face her best student. Her hair wasn't as grey yet, it was more blonde, and she wore a ruby colored dress robe with gold thread weaved throughout it and clunky jewelry. She still looked like fish, though. "The spell is used for taking control of someone through their mind. They become subject to your every whim. They can do a simple task such as picking up a book on a table, to even going as far as killing a person."
"Killing a person?" Young Elphaba and Galinda questioned in unison. Both students were paying full attention to their teacher.
"Yes," Madame Morrible replied in a soft hiss. "Taking control of a person requires much skill and control over magic. That type of spell is far too complicated for students like you. Nor would you ever need to know that spell. You girls are too good at heart to take someone's life away from them like that. So, there's no need to discuss this further."
Elphaba sat in her desk for a moment and thought of a few more questions.
"Even though I'll never use the spell, may I still learn about?" the green girl asked. Galinda was growing bored with this topic, and decided to focus back on her own spell book. "May I ask another question?"
"What would you like to know Miss Elphaba?" the old lady asked with a sigh as she sat down at her own desk in the room. And with that, the questions came spilling out from the green girl's mouth.
"How do you perform the spell?" the young student in blue questioned. "How long does it last? Can you use it on anyone? Do people who are under the spell know what is happening to them? Does it cause any damage to the user?"
"That's more than one question, Elphaba," Morrible stated in a dull voice.
"Sorry, Madame." Elphaba looked down at the desk in slight embarrassment. She had a blush on her face, which made her green skin even darker.
Present-Day Elphaba watched this class session with intense curiosity.
"Performing the spell is pretty simple," Morrible started saying with a deep breath, not easily hiding her tired voice. "But it takes a great deal of concentration and control. Anyone can be put under this spell, but younger people are easier to control. If you have met the person at least once in person, then you can control them at any point, but it is harder when the people are farther away from user. And when a person is under your control, they do not know what they are doing. It's as if they are asleep. They can remember their actions once they wake up from the spell, but that is easily solved if you erase their memories. But that's another spell altogether. And no, there is no serious damage to the user when using the spell, but it will tire them out, which can cause the user to be slow at using other spells simultaneously. Does that answer all of your questions Miss Elphaba?"
"Yes, it does," the young Elphaba said with a quick nod of the head. "Thank you. So, are we going to finish today's lesson soon?"
"Yes," Morrible said as she quickly regained energy. She stood up from her desk and moved around to stand in front of it. "Now I am going to teach you girls how to change a plain piece of cloth into silk. It's a simple transformation spell that be used to change any item into almost anything you want. It doesn't matter the item you start out with it, but I thought it would be easier if you already had cloth. Now Miss Galinda, since you are so into fashions, you should really enjoy this lesson. "
"Yes, Madame Morrible," Galinda said with enthusiasm. Her eyes sparkled as she tossed her hair behind her shoulders and waited for more explanation on the spell.
The young Elphaba gently rolled her eyes at her friend, and then turned to the page that held the spell that they were going to learn about. Present-Day Elphaba saw that the picture of her memory was fading and she closed her eyes.
Elphaba opened her eyes and realized that she was back in the present time, looking around at the tiny grey-colored hospital room. Her dark purple silky nightgown had sweat on, and her neat braid was messy and fraying. Glinda the Good was by her side.
"So, what did you see this time about the attack?" Glinda asked as she leaned on the bedside that she was sitting on. As she shifted positions, her curls bounced and she smoothed out the skirt of pink magenta dress.
"I didn't actually see the attack this time, Glin," Elphaba commented as she panted lightly. "I saw memories from our time back at Shiz. It was pretty odd."
"Shiz?" The Good Witch questioned with a small pout on her beautiful face.
"Yeah, Shiz University," the Witch of the West replied with all seriousness. "We were studying with Morrible, and I kept asking her about a certain spell that I had found in an old book. The old fish lady had said that the spell was too dangerous, and that it required someone with a lot of skill to use it."
"What was the spell?" Glinda asked with her head cocked slightly to one side.
"It was a spell that let you control another's person's mind. You know, let someone do your bidding. Do you remember that study session?"
Glinda brought her fingers up to her chin before speaking.
"Yes," the blonde said softly. "I do remember that. Vaguely, but I do remember it. I wonder why you saw that memory, instead of the memory of the attack? Every other time that we have used the spell, you've always seen the correct memory."
"I don't know. Maybe my mind was trying to tell me something that I missed during the night of the attack. Maybe it is connected with the memory of the attack somehow?"
Both Co-Rulers of Oz were silent for a moment. Just then, Glinda sprang from the bed and landed perfect on the floor. Her heels made one unified click as they touched tile. She spun to face friend, and her pink dress swirled around.
"I got it!" Glinda cried out as she clapped her hands together; the noise that she made could have broken glass, and Elphaba wondered why it didn't. "The reason that the memory of the mind control spell popped up was because, when you were attacked, your attacker was having their mind controlled!"
Elphaba sat on her bed for a moment, trying to contemplate the new hypothesis. She undid her messy braid as she thought, and played with a few strands of silky raven hair.
"It could be possible," Elphaba said slowly.
"Of course it's possible, Elphie!" the blonde chided as she put her hands on her hips. Her voice rose several octaves as she continued to speak. "Just think about it. You said that when you were attacked, the attacker felt like somebody you knew. What if your real enemy isn't the person who attacked you? What if the attacker is just being used! Just—"
"Was just having their mind controlled," Elphaba interrupted.
"Exactly!" The Good Witch said. "So we just need to figure out who could actually use a spell with level of difficulty."
A moment of silenced passed in thought.
"Morrible!" The Co- Rulers yelled out in unison.
"But," Elphaba interjected. "She's locked up in the South Stair prison. You told me that you personally locked her up yourself. It couldn't be her, could it?"
The blonde wore a puzzled expression. Glinda started pacing around the small room.
"When I locked her up a couple of years ago, I made sure that she was put under our highest security," the Witch of the North said softly. "I even put up some magical defenses myself. Even if she wanted to do something, she couldn't.
"Well, someone is doing something!" the Witch of the West complained as she fell back against the pillows on the bed. Glinda stopped pacing and headed for the door.
"I'll be back later Elphie," Glinda commented. "I'm going to check with the prison and see if they have noticed anything odd with Morrible's behavior." And with that, the petite blonde exited the hospital room and the green girl was left on he own.
"I'm so tired of just being left here!" Elphaba yelled out in annoyance as she dug deeper into her bed, trying to understand the memory that she had recently witnessed.
Fiyero, Boq, and Daven lay face-down on the cold ground of the Great Kells in Oz, thanking whatever luck or being had gotten them safely out of that blizzard. Fiyero rolled onto his back. His blonde hair was messy and went in every direction.
"How…how did you know to…to dive down?" the Prince of the Vinikus asked in between coughs. "How did you even know where down was?"
"Well…" Daven began saying. His usually smooth voice was rough and tired. His dark hair fell into his bright eyes. "When I was in the Resistance with Fabala…there was this one time where we got stuck flying in a snowstorm. Well, she was flying. I was just…uh…riding along."
Fiyero faced made him look as if he had just eaten a bad lemon, but he didn't press the subject.
"You all know how smart Fabala is," the dark skinned man continued saying. "She said that the lower we were to the ground, the lower the rate of the wind would be. Plus, it would be warmer. Once…once she flew us lower…we managed to not be as affected by the snow and her cloak also helped us….just like how the cloaks that she suggested that we wear today helped us." He lifted up a bit of his torn black travel cloak for emphasis. "So, I knew that we would have a better chance of surviving if we just flew down. It was just luck that we landed in the right place. But as for now, we should probably look for some shelter. Since we are in the mountains, it should be that hard to find some rocks to dig into to protect for the night."
"Yeah…" Fiyero agreed, and he looked around at his surroundings for the first time. As Daven had said, since they were in the mountains, there had to be rocks that could serve as shelter for the night. And just a good twenty feet away, there were a group of rocks that formed a mini-cave, and the trio decided to camp out there. The trio slowly made their way to the shelter. "That was um….some smart thinking on your part Daven. Thank you….for saving us," the Prince of the Vinikus said quietly.
"Yes, thank you Daven, ever so much," Boq agreed loudly as he dropped down against one of the larger stones and leaned against it for support.
"Don't give me the credit, Boq," Daven said as he and Fiyero made their way to where Boq was sitting. "It was Fabala's smart thinking and my experience of being caught in a snow storm before. It was also luck that we landed where we did and as safely as we did. So, don't give me any of the credit."
Fiyero was a little disgusted at that point. For just one tiny moment, Fiyero actually liked the guy. And then…he had go act all selfless and crap. That's what bugged the shit out of Fiyero the most. The Prince just couldn't understand how the guy could come off as such a saint every time he wanted to!
"But still," Boq commented as he closed his grey eyes in contentment. "Thank you." Daven just merely shrugged.
All three men lay propped up against the rocks that served as their shelter. They were also all breathing normally again. The three men seemed to enjoy the silence for a moment as they rested from the ordeal that they had just gone through.
"The storm has passed," Boq mentioned as he looked up at the grey sky. The others mimicked him.
"Hmm," Fiyero murmured. "You are right, Boq. I wonder where that blizzard came from anyway? It just came out of nowhere." Then Fiyero got up and started undoing his bag and took out a few blankets and some dried food. The others started doing the same things. Fiyero kept digging around in the bottom of his bag, until he pulled out the main item he had been looking for. Matches. Thankfully, there were some dead twigs and plants nearby.
Daven helped make a small pile of twigs, roots, and plants. And soon the trio of men had a small fire and they were eating dried food goods like nuts, crackers, and cookies. The men huddled under their blankets. Even though it was only around two o'clock in the afternoon, the men were still frozen from the run in with snowstorm. They wished that their black waterproof cloaks weren't as torn up, but they couldn't help it; at least they had cloaks, even if they contained holes.
The three men made mindless chatter, and slept on and off throughout the afternoon. Then later that night, after they had dinner, Fiyero told them that it was time for a full night's rest.
"Let's get some sleep, guys," he ordered. "We still have good bit of flying that we need to do. But just think. In a day or so, we shall be in the Vinikus, and nice and comfortable in my family's palace." Fiyero then rolled over in his makeshift bed and tried to think of better times.
A minute later, Daven let out a small chuckle.
"What's so funny Daven?" Fiyero muttered.
"Well," Daven responded as he huddled down in his blankets, "I just find it kind of amusing that the Prince of the Vinikus has to sleep on rocks in the mountains before he can rest comfortably in his own bed. It's kind of ironic."
Fiyero let out a groan, but let the matter go. With that, the men said their goodnights, and soon they were fast asleep under the dark night sky. Boq was dreaming of Glinda and both Fiyero and Daven were dreaming of Elphaba.
The next day, the skies were crystal clear and blue once more. The flying that day should go very well and according to plan. The trio packed up their things and soon kicked from the rocky ground.
They flew for about twelve hours straight when finally Fiyero cried out in happiness.
"We are finally here!" the Winkie Prince cheered. And sure enough, the two other men looked past Fiyero to see a castle in the distance with small villages all round it. The three men were flying towards the palace belong to the royal Tiggular family.
They had arrived in the Vinikus safe and sound, but there was still much more to come. Pretty soon, they would think that the blizzard was nothing compared to what was to come.
