Author's Note: The show went well, in case anyone is wondering. Email me if you want details…updates should be faster now…and I'm gonna have a new chapter of the showfic up hopefully tomorrow.
Chapter 16
Liir was walking on water. No, not walking, he was being dragged away, following some unseen current. He was getting away, he was escaping. Elphaba tried to run after him, to bring him back, to keep him with her, but he just kept walking. She knew that if she followed him into the water she would meet her death, but somehow she couldn't just let him go. She started to run after him, ignoring the water searing her feet as she touched it. She called out to Liir, but he didn't turn. He just kept walking, walking away until he was lost on the horizon. Elphaba turned to run back onto the shore but found that she couldn't move her feet. The water was rising all around her, swallowing her like a ravenous beast. She tried to scream but instead only took in water, choking, gagging on it. Then there was blackness.
The darkness lifted slowly, swirling and changing, but always there. She could hear voices, a voice at any rate, talking to her, urging her to come back. She tried to fight her way toward it but it felt very far off.
"Elphie…Fae, can you hear me? You're dreaming."
Elphaba opened her eyes, squinting in the dim light of the cave. Her entire body ached, and her head felt as though it had been filled with straw. Fiyero was kneeling beside her, holding her hand gently.
"Fiyero…how…" She tried to sit up and was surprised to find that she didn't have the strength. Fiyero wrapped an arm around her waist and propped her up against him. "Yero…you're…you were…sick…poisoned…how?"
Fiyero put a finger to her lips and kissed her forehead lightly.
"Elphie, calm down. That was four days ago. You've been sick too. Sweet Lurline, you scared us."
Elphaba looked around in confusion. They were still in the cave and the fire was burning in the center, just as strong as before. And it was still raining. Elphaba shuddered and Fiyero tightened his arms around her waist. She turned in his arms and managed to sit facing him.
"But…how?"
Just then they were interrupted by the sound of voices and the arrival of the others, along with a ragged-looking old man that Elphaba didn't recognize. He was small and very wrinkled, dressed in an old gray robe that looked as though it might crumble and fall off his withered old body at any moment. Elphaba wondered for a moment how long his skin would be if someone took it off and stretched it out. She tried to sit up further but failed and fell back against Fiyero again. Glinda giggled and Elphaba silently cursed her body for its weakness.
"Laughing at a sick old woman, are you?" snapped Elphaba.
Glinda fell to her knees beside Elphaba and caught her in an overly energetic hug. Elphaba winced slightly, but hugged her back. Glinda whimpered daintily and wiped at her light blue eyes.
"Oh, Elphie, we thought you were dead!" she gushed.
Elphaba smiled shyly and looked at the floor of the cave. Boq, who was now walking with a very large stick, sat down beside the two of them and put a hand on Elphaba's shoulder.
"Group hug!" shouted Glinda.
Elphaba threw up her hands in protest.
"Whoa, whoa, contain yourselves," she muttered, blushing.
The strange man cleared his throat. Glinda sighed and sat back. Fiyero helped Elphaba to her feet and led her over to the side of the cave, where she suddenly noticed that a rather large seat had been cut out of the rock wall. She turned to the man.
"Who are you?" she asked suspiciously. "And what are you doing here?"
The man laughed.
"My cave it is that you are standing in. Came back did I to find strange people in my cave." The man grinned a toothless grin. "Asking, you, then I am that question."
Elphaba glared at him.
"Igitur my name is," said the man, "My quest finding the Love Magnet is."
Elphaba snorted.
"Oh, that old legend. The magic stone that hung above the gate to the Emerald City that makes anyone who sees it instantly fall in love with its possessor. Another one of the Wizard's lies, if you ask me."
"Exists, the Love Magnet does," insisted Igitur. "Find it, I will." He huffed a little and puttered around the cave for a few more minutes, turning back to glare at Elphaba every few seconds. Then he pulled some herbs out of a sack and went out into the rain, muttering something about an offering to the elements.
"Well that was productive," said Glinda.
Elphaba rolled her eyes.
"He's insane, Glinda. He's living out here searching for something that doesn't exist. And even if it did…I don't see why anyone would want it."
"What do you mean?" asked Boq.
"Well…who would want that many people in love with them?" Elphaba shuddered. The others gave her a strange look.
"Insane or not, he did save your life, Elphie," said Boq.
"What?"
"You were dying, Elphie," said Glinda, "somehow…somehow the combination of the poison and my sleep spell…" Glinda blushed and dabbed at her eyes again. "We were lucky Igitur showed up when he did. At least he's trained as a healer."
Elphaba sighed but said nothing. An awkward silence descended over the group. Fiyero went back over to Elphaba and sat down beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She noticed absently that Boq, who was still sitting in the middle of the cave, quickly looked away from them and turned bright red. Fiyero leaned over and tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away.
"Later," she muttered. Fiyero looked slightly hurt but didn't say anything.
"So…" said Boq.
"So…" echoed Glinda.
Gerema sighed and went over to poke at the fire with the toe of her boot.
"What are we going to do?" she asked flatly.
"Continue looking for Ozma, if this rain ever lets up," said Elphaba sourly.
"I think he should come with us," said Fiyero cautiously.
"Igitur?" asked Glinda.
Fiyero nodded, wincing when Elphaba turned and glared at him.
"Come on, Elphie, he saved us once…who knows what help he might be able to give us."
Elphaba sighed, the nodded reluctantly.
"All right. Just as long as it doesn't slow us down."
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