Author's Note: lol I have chaaaanged the type of my fic to Drama/Angst since michelle knows what I have planned and says that it can't not be angst sooo... Just wanted to bring that to your attention.
thanx to my beta and my editor...
Chapter 8
Elphaba jumped, trying to reach a higher branch, but her fingertips just brushed the bottom of the branch looming above her. When she landed back on the tree limb her foot slipped and she fell backwards, arms and legs flying in every which direction. She fell just in time, the magicked fire zoomed just past her stomach and disappeared before hitting the tree on which she was standing. Elphaba landed on her back, knocking all the wind out of her. Her lungs were gaping for air but she saw more fire being flung at her and she laboriously pushed herself up off of the ground and started run again, looking or a place to go. She was in the middle of the shrine, somehow or someway she always wound up in the middle, this was how she always lost. Trapped, not knowing which way to go, that was how it always was, every day since she was taken to the tribal encampment.
She felt the water, like fire, splash across her face and her exposed hands. She shrieked in pain, oh how it burned. Flashes of people in her past and present came and went through her head. She opened her eyes to try and see something before she stopped existing, if exist she ever did. It hurt everywhere so much; she fell to the floor, her body rigid in pain. When she regained her vision to some extent she saw that she was in her tower and the girl was nowhere. The pain was getting worse, much worse it was all she could feel. The water was trickling over her entire body, she looked down expecting to see her burning clothes but she saw that she was naked and the water from her face and hands was spreading across her exposed form. The pain reached a point past overwhelming and she blacked out.
She woke up with her entire body stinging in the memory of the water all over her body. It as gone now but it didn't stop her entire body from hurting. She didn't know how long it was since the incident and she didn't care. She was alive. Well, as alive as she ever was. She starting moving, her muscles aching with pain with every small movement. She started moving more and more, getting used to the small amount of pain. She eventually worked her muscles enough to stand up, and sure enough she was in her tower, naked. She shivered, her bare skin goose bumped against a non- existent chill.
"How-" she started in a croak of a voice but her lungs forced her to cough. "How did I get here?" She finished, thinking out loud. She let out a few raspy coughs and tried to actually walk. She moved one leg and pain coursed through it but she just put it down and then picked up the other and walked, each step more painful then the last. She finally reached her trunk, legs flaming with pain. She knelt down in front of it; fell down was more like it. She reached in and took out a black robe. She put it on and forced herself to get up again, her body wavered but she stayed standing up on her feet, she needed to get down the stairs and find out what had happened.
After a few minutes and a lot of wincing Elphaba made it down the stairs. While traveling through Kiamo Ko she noticed that everyone had left, including the flying monkeys. She wondered where they could have possibly gone until she made it to the room where Dorothy threw the water on her. In the center of the room was her hat sitting atop a pile of damp clothes. Whatever happened, happened right after the first of the water touched her. That must be why I'm not dead, she thought, only a little of the water touched me. She didn't know how she got from there to her tower... But how... magic? I can't do magic... then how? Elphaba didn't know what else to think, and she didn't have time either.
Just then she heard a number of footsteps enter Kiamo Ko. She didn't know who they could be but she ran up to her tower to try and maybe get a glimpse of who they were from her window. When she made it to her tower her legs were on fire, screaming for her to stop moving but she ignored them. She looked out of the window in her tower to see five Vinkus men outside. She couldn't see what tribe they were from... it looked like all three, but how could that be? Just then she heard her door slammed open, all thoughts of the three tribes being together left her. She turned to see a Yunamata warrior, by the looks of the way dressed he was high up in social standings, of around the age twenty.
The man stopped and stared at her, Elphaba couldn't read his face; he had left it surprisingly blank. "So you are alive." He said in the Vinkus vernacular.
Elphaba just stared at him, "If I wasn't then how am I standing here right now." She replied flatly in the same language. "Now what I would like to know is, who are you and why are you in my home." The mystery man remained silence and just stared at Elphaba with that unreadable expression stuck on his face. She stared at him back, studying him. He himself had all the looks of a Yunamata; the pink tinge to his skin, his thing lips, his brown eyes. They only thing non-Yunamata thing about him was his hair color. Usually the Yunamata had short dark brown hair to contrast with their light pink skin. But he had light, sandy brown hair that reached below his eyes. His bangs were hanging in front of his silent, unreadable face. She stood their, arms crossed beneath her chest, forcing herself to stay on her feet and stare him down. They were both equally stubborn to not look away. This was becoming exasperating and pointless. "You do realize that you are breaking and entering, I will get the Gale Forcers over here and arrest you if you don't answer my questions." She lied in a stern tone, but she could tell that he knew she was lying.
To Elphaba's surprise the man answered her questions. "My name is Temeai, son of Jahyahl, ruler of the Yunamata." He told her in a medium pitched voice, a voice that had a quality to it that he had more experiences then someone his age would normally have. It was a voice that only the great rulers possessed. He continued, "The reason I am here is to find you."
"Find me? You want to find me to...?
"To bring you back to the encampment." He finished.
Elphaba stared at him, raising an eyebrow. "You mean you came here to find me and take me back to your encampment?" He nodded, "What is this some treasure hunt; whoever finds the Witch first wins a prize? Just follow the trail of flying monkeys to the haunted castle. What? Green marks the spot! Extra points if you manage to land a house on her head!"
Temeai moved forward, hands waving in front of him and his head shaking. "No, that's not what I meant, what I mean is we came here to tel-... ask you to come back to the encampment with us. The Princess Nastoya and my father sent us to bring you back so they could talk with you."
"Do you know why they want to talk to me?"
"No, they did not tell me, all they said was to find you and bring you back."
Elphaba wasn't sure why they wanted her but it must be at least a little urgent. "I will go with you and you can take me to them."
"When were you not going to come?" Elphaba scowled at him. Temeai just turned around, with a faint smile on his face and started calling to his comrades who, Elphaba supposed, were searching all of Kiamo Ko to find her.
"No!" She screamed as she ran towards him, her legs failed beneath her, taking the rest they wanted from her by force. Elphaba cursed herself again and more violently at her ever-expanding stupidity and her stubbornness against not sitting down. She went to stand up but her leg muscles were aflame with pain and she couldn't manage it.
Temeai ran over to her when he realized she had fallen. "I'll call some of my men, they can carry you."
"No, Temeai, no, they can't know I'm alive, nobody but you, me, your father, and princess Nastoya can know. Don't call them." She said, trying again to stand up, failing miserably. Oh great, I've fallen and I can't get up. He looked at her with a puzzled expression, "I can't tell you why now but I will when we reach the encampment."
"I won't tell them, but how am I going to get you from here to the encampment without them knowing you're alive?"
She had anticipated this, "Go over to my trunk over there." She said pointing to where her trunk was in the corner. "There is a black shawl in there, give it to me... please." She added a little to late, but he obliged all the same. When he gave her the shawl she placed it on her head like the mountain women of the Vinkus did, over their head, covering her face.
"Oh," He said realizing her plan.
"Now you can go get me that glove" He went to go get the one glove she was pointing to. "Now go get the other." She said pointing him in the same direction. He went to go say something to her but stopped himself and followed her orders silently. After the gloves she sent him to get her boots, one at a time.
After she finished putting her boots on she could hear footsteps outside the door. She immediately brought down the shawl that she had flung up so that she could get her gloves and boots on. She heard Temeai leaving the room and entering again with the sound of more footsteps other then his own.
"Well, there seems to be no Witch." He said to the men, "But I found a stranger here in the Witch's tower. I believe that she is a mountain woman. It seems that she has unfortunately injured her legs, in some way, and is unable to walk. I think we should take her back to the Princess Nastoya and Jahyahl, they might want to question her on her unlikely appearance at the scene where the Witch lived her last minutes." Elphaba could hear the men agreeing with their superior. She could hear footsteps coming towards her; she hoped that they were going to carry her the entire way; it might not be so bad if she didn't have to walk. "No, she will not want you two carry her." She heard Temeai tell them and the footsteps stopped. "You see I can tell by her dress that she is in fact of high nobility and my father taught me some of the mountain people's ways. He told me that the nobility takes offense if people of lower standings then themselves touch them. I believe I am the only one of equal or higher nobility so I will have to carry her." Elphaba went to go tell him that it was ok and they could carry her but he stopped her.
"Unfortunately she doesn't understand a word of our language so she cannot tell us if this is actually of their ways. So just to be safe we will have to go with what my father has told me" Elphaba stared at him in a fury, sending him death glares from beneath her shawl, death glares that nobody could see. "Tell the others to gather at the front gate, I will meet you there." Instructed Temeai. Soon after his words Elphaba heard a shuffling of feet and all was silent.
She heard him walking towards her and he stopped. She peeked from beneath her shawl and saw him crouching in front of her. "You have to be kiddi-"
"Shh you don't understand our language, remember oh great mountain princess? My men are spread throughout this entire building, if one of them hears the voice of a woman speaking our language they will get suspicious. Now climb on my shoulders so I can carry you, you do want to be carried don't you? Because if you don't I can let you walk, its only a little over ten miles from here to the encampment I'm sure you can make it."
Without responding Elphaba crawled forward, looking through a small opening she created in her shawl so she could see. She placed one leg over each shoulder, kicking each heel hard into his chest, and sat down at the base of his neck. He rose without pause or strain, almost throwing her entire off. She had to hold his head to stay on. After a very bumpy ride down the stairs they made it outside to the gates.
"The Witch is not here," She heard Temeai announce, "Though we have found this mountain woman to bring back to the Princess Nastoya and Jahyahl, she might know something about where the Witch is. Lets head back, but to make it a challenge, let's see if anyone an beat me there while I'm carrying her?" Why was he challenging them to a race? She heard the murmurs of the other men accepting Temeai's challenge. "Ok it's settled and whoever beats me will receive an achievement medal and maybe an increase in rank." All around she heard people murmuring, pleased with the reward. "Ok, it's settled then, on your marks, get set, go!" She heard the sounds of a maybe twenty... thirty men running along with Temeai.
She soon realized exactly why Temeai challenged them to a race. bump bump bump bump bump She clung to him, afraid of falling off. "Oh," bump "you" bump "will" bump "pay" bump "for" bump "this!" She hissed in his ear.
"I'm sorry did you say something princess, I'm afraid I couldn't hear you."
She grumbled and pulled her head away from his ear and clutched around his neck, hoping that she didn't slip go flying from is back. Soon the rhythmic movements of Temeai's steady running brought her into a daze. She felt herself drifting off and she couldn't fight it. Her muscles had finally relaxed and wouldn't listen to her. She felt her eyes close and sleep overtook her.