A/N: Thank you all for reviewing! This chapter's insanely short (and nothing happens, and it's kind of bad), but only because I'm eager to move on! I'll try to update as soon as possible (tomorrow or the next day, probably) to make up for it. I have a couple more chapters until I get to (one of) the good parts. Jemima: Yes, Idina Menzel left the show January ninth. I'm not sure who replaced her, though…I seriously doubt they're better than she was. Gabsgrl: Haha of course you can tell me that! Yay! I'm glad you like it. Sawyerzelda: I love how enthusiastic you are about my story! I can't help but smile when I read your reviews! Thanks so much!Silvermoonset: This may sound like a really lame excuse, but I think fanfiction may be running my words together accidentally…I read through it twice on the preview feature and didn't catch those…and you'd think spell check on Word would catch them also. I don't know, for this one I'll look extra hard and see what happens. And you'll get Glinda/Boq! I hadn't planned on it, but when I read your first review asking for it I thought it was a good idea. : ) Frederick Charleston: Nope, she's not there yet! I'll continue, I promise! Whogirl: LOL I'm as impatient as you are! I have like, two chapters planned out that I really want to get to, and it's bothering me that I can't just skip right ahead to them! But I don't want to make this ultra short, so I'm kind of dawdling along.
Damaran stared out the window. It was nearly nighttime. Once it was all dark outside, he and Fiyero planned to escape the castle. It was getting darker, still…it was probably six in the evening. He and Fiyero were completely ready to go…they had packed up weapons and some food…they planned on hunting, anyway, so they didn't know how much they would need. Damaran turned away from the window, looking at Fiyero, who was sitting on the bed he and Elphaba had shared. He looked determined, also watching the sky, waiting for it to get darker. Only once had Damaran left through the exit they planned on leaving through, and if he remembered correctly, it would open up a trapdoor right next to the castle on the left of the castle. There was a guard on the right, back, and front sides of the castle, so unless someone was patrolling, they shouldn't be caught. Damaran stood up. "Do we need to bring anything for Elphaba? You know, that she might have forgotten?"
"Maybe her broom."
Damaran was glad to stand up and pick up the broom that was lying next to the bed. He sat down again, next to the window, the broom across his lap. He looked back down at the guard below. The guard looked as bored as he felt. That was the first time that the thought struck him that the guards were human. He didn't really think of them as people…just the evil men who wanted to kill Elphaba. He sighed, knowing that that night he would possibly kill that guard in his escape attempt. He didn't want to think about that, though, and put the thought out of his head. He sighed.
"Don't sigh!" Fiyero shouted, really annoyed. Damaran raised his eyebrows sarcastically and, about to sigh but catching himself at the last minute, stood up, taking the broom with him, and walked out the door. He walked down the steep staircase, shutting the door behind him. He wasn't angry, really, just a tad bit bored. He stepped onto the landing of the staircase and sighed, throwing the broom down. He began to pace in the living room, wondering what Elphaba was doing at that moment. He stopped, not really wanting to think about what Elphaba was doing right then, and flopped down on the couch, bored, and sighed.
Fiyero went to the window, positioning himself where Damaran had just been sitting. He looked down at the guard. He was a tall man, muscular and intimidating. Fiyero looked away, breathing deep. He was excited, really, about breaking out. He never had liked rules. He hoped the guardsweren't mistreating Elphaba. But he knew that they probably were. He remembered watching her collapse after the guards poured the water onto her and he felt enraged all of the sudden. He wanted to go strangle the guard at the front, but he stayed where he was, knowing that while revenge would certainly be nice, it was more important to get Elphaba out of the guards custody. It was getting darker. He couldn't wait for the second that he and Damaran would escape from the house. He resumed watching out the window, waiting for it to reach complete blackness.
Elphaba sat up, surveying the white tents all set up. She had wrapped herself tightly in her cape, as it was rather cold. It hadn't started raining yet, thank goodness, but she assumed it would soon…it had nearly been nonstop for a long time. The superstitious soldiers thoughtit had stopped rainingbecause they had found the Wicked Witch of the West, but she knew it was probably coincidence. Probably, but a part of herknew that it could be somebody messing with the weather…
She sighed. They hadn't given her a tent…which she was okay with. She almost seemed free without one. But she didn't dare leave. She knew that if Fiyero and Damaran could see her, completely able to leave and never come back, yet still there, they would be furious. She also knew, though, that the familiar commander would hold true to his promise. After seeing how willingly he had ordered water on her, she wasn't going to put anything past him. She sighed again, then laughed to herself, remembering Damaran's annoying habit. She lay back down on the grass, trying to think of something. She couldn't stay there. She knew that. She could stay with them for the time being…but sooner or later, she would need to make an escape. She supposed she could go back to Damaran and Fiyero in the castle and try to get all of them to leave together…but there were always flaws in that plan. First, of course, she didn't really see how she could get into the castle without the guards seeing her, at least not without her broom. And not only that, but with the soldiers discovering her gone, even with a head start, they would move much quicker than she did, being on horses, and they very well could catch up with her on the way down there. And then she'd even worse off than she was right then. She brought her knees closer to her chest, wrapping her cape around her again. "I wish you were here, Fiyero," she whispered quietly, as a soft wind whipped the long grass around her.