Author's Note: hehehe ok this actually took me a really long time to write... I don't kno why... it just did lol hope you like it really... three certain paragraphs in this thing took me a day to write and edit all by myself sooo I hope you likey! Ok im not going to mention them each chapter now because it is becoming very redundant! But thanx to my editor and my beta you two ROCK!
Chapter 9
When Elphaba finally woke up she was lying on a bed of silk sheets. She yawned, stretching out her arms and fingers as wide as they would go. She blinked her eyes and took in the room around her. She was in a room made of white silk, a room completely bare except for the bed. She swung her legs over the side of the small bed and stood up continuing to survey the room. Her legs were stiff from the pain they had experienced... she didn't know how long ago. Now, at least they don't hurt; she took a step forward, as much.
As she was standing up she felt a cool breeze flow through a flap that was in the place of a door, it felt good in the hot room. She felt the breeze everywhere... everywhere? She looked down and realized that she was almost completely naked. All she was a black, short, sleeveless, silk nightgown. Short didn't cover the length of the thing; if she were to stand in any direction but straight anybody who just so happened to walk by that flap would be able to have a very good glimpse at her.
She jumped back into her bed, pulling the covers over her, making sure that nothing was being revealed. She was now in fear that a flock of men would just come waltzing by and look through the flap and stare at her revealed form. She looked desperately around the room for her clothes. After scanning the entire room to no success she began to panic. She couldn't possibly show herself in this thing! It would be demeaning and inappropriate.
Several more times she searched the room with her eyes until she finally looked at the foot of her tiny bed and saw a small pile of clothing. She picked them up and realized that they weren't hers, they were made of silk; a material Elphaba had never worn in her life. They were just like the clothes she had worn there, black and everything, there was just one difference; they were made of an extremely higher quality. She didn't care if they were her own or not, they were a gift from above, a personal savior, and the only other clothing in the room. She put all the clothes on underneath the silk sheets, not daring to get out under the covers in the poor excuse for clothing she was wearing.
After she was done putting the clothing on she got out of the bed once again, her legs a little less stiff than before. Elphaba had realized that there were actually two different sets of clothes while she was putting them on, but she didn't stop from putting them all on. She had learned something long ago and it was something that she lived by, there was safety in layers.
She felt much better having proper clothing on and exited the room, looking for somebody who might tell her where she was. When she went through the flap she gazed in wonder at the largest, most beautiful room she had ever seen in her life. It also looked like the most expensive.
The most prominent valuable noticeable was the Quadling glass. Everywhere she looked she saw what seemed like hundreds of small designs created out of the fragile material. Each glass object was a different color, shades not even a rainbow could produce. They sparkled faintly in the light of the room, showering the walls of the room with every facet of any color imaginable. Elphaba looked up and gasped in wonder; dangling from the ceiling by strings of various lengths were balls of colored glass, each with a candle inside them. The balls of glass were like shining stars, floating above the world casting angelic rays of colored light down into the room. A breeze came through the room and Elphaba smelled a variety of soothing and relaxing scents, she guessed the candles were scented. She took in the aromas and she felt her entire body relax, it felt so good to finally truly relax. As the breeze blew, the hanging glass balls swung faintly with the wind. They created shadows that danced across the room giving Elphaba the sense that there were magical creatures about, flying around the room, ducking behind objects whenever her eyes would land on them. The colored light a hand of a god gracing the walls of the tent, enchanting the walls, turning the white into a collage of color. The light showered the entire room in colors that blended into each other so perfectly Elphaba was overwhelmed with the beauty.
She looked at a glass decoration near her and realized precious gems were in the glass. The priceless rocks were each more rare and expensive then the next. Emeralds, rubies, sapphires... all of them embedded in the glass, both sparkling mystically in the light. The breeze began to blow in a different direction and the candles produced the same colored rays of light but different. They had metamorphosed into a different pattern, equally as magnificent as before. Delicate curves of light filled her vision; alone each beam of light was a spectacle. But together, they were waves in an ocean of colors.
She took a step forward and felt something light brush against her body. She looked closer and saw that there were strings, near invisible, hanging from the ceiling as well. Each clear string suspended a single colored jewel. Elphaba took another step and stopped, overcome with the new splendor of the room. At a different angle, Elphaba could see the strings taking in the light of the candles and turning the color of the gem it held. It looked as if pure beams of color were raining from the ceiling, beams of heavenly light cascading upon the land below. She felt a light breeze caress her face and the strings danced in the wind, more gracefully than any living being could.
Elphaba stretched out her hand as to try and touch the light. Despite her green skin her hand changed colors along with the light. She stretched out her fingers and moved them up and down, watching the green skin change.
"It is beautiful, isn't it?" Elphaba turned around sharply to where she heard the voice and faced Princess Nastoya. She had overlooked her completely; her eyes had been too caught up with the room. She was wearing white and sitting on the edge of her bed, another item she had missed while scanning. "Did I scare you?"
Elphaba just noticed how tense she had become and forced herself to relax, "No, you did not scare me."
Princess Nastoya smiled, "People usually don't notice me," she said, ignoring the answer Elphaba had just given her, "A reason why I like this room so much."
"Oh..." Elphaba gasped, "I'm sorry." She said while dropping to her knees and brought her head to the floor, remembering her last experiences with the Princess.
"None of that. Get up get up. There is no need for that now." Elphaba obliged and rose to her feet, slowly, giving the princess a questioning look. "Later, later." She said, answering the unspoken questions running through Elphaba's head. "Now come sit and we can talk." Nastoya said while pointing to a seat at the side of the bed she was sitting in.
Elphaba walked over to the chair and made herself comfortable. She decided to see if the Princess would answer at least some of her questions. "I was told you wanted to speak with me..."
The Princess nodded, "Yes we have, but that is also an issue better left to discuss later. All of your questions that can be answered will be answered, but in good time, first we must focus on right now. I believe that you should get settled here, but to do this there must be proper arrangements."
"By arrangements, what do you mean?
"Arrangements to make you feel at home here." Elphaba stared at her. She hadn't thought she would be staying a lengthy amount of time that there would need to be, what Nastoya called, arrangements. "What, did you think that you would be staying here uncomfortable?"
"How long will I be staying here... Princess?" she added a little too late.
"You may call me Nastoya instead if you so wish. I get tired of the title, its rather boring. And as to how long you are staying, that subject will be discussed..." Elphaba suddenly looked a little hopeful, "What you thought I would say 'now'? Have you not noticed a trend? Here I thought that you were an intelligent woman. You questions will be discussed later ." Elphaba scowled but Nastoya showed no signs of having seen. "Now, Temeai has informed me that you have chosen the guise of a Mountain Princess, hmm?
"I don't think that 'chosen' would be the term I would use. 'Left- with-no-other-choice' would be the words I would use." Nastoya looked at her funny... was that a smirk? She was smirking at her! "What else did he tell you?"
The Princess Nastoya was too busy making her bed and didn't hear her, though Elphaba thought she was just choosing not to answer. "Now that you are pretending to be a Mountain Princess, you need to appear to be one. Basically you will need the clothes. You will also need to learn the language. You will need to learn their traditions, their culture..." The list went on and on. Nastoya finally finished after Elphaba had successfully forgotten the first few things she said. "Don't worry. If you don't remember, I have had everything prepared for you." Elphaba began to think that Nastoya could actually read minds. She got off the bed and knelt down in front of a trunk at the foot of her bed. "Here," She said, handing Elphaba some clothes and a book, "this will get you started, it's a book about the culture and lives of the Mountain people and some traditional Mountain royalty clothes, which I made myself. Dress yourself in them and read the entire book and then you may leave my tent but not before you read the book, understand?" Elphaba nodded, resisting her was like trying to push a mountain. "Now I must leave you, I have daily duties that cannot be ignored. You may stay in this room or the one you awoke in, this room is now yours, nobody is allowed to come into either." Nastoya finished, when she reached another flap that Elphaba guessed led into another room that would eventually lead outside. Then without a word between the two Nastoya exited through the flap, leaving Elphaba alone holding some odd-looking clothes and a rather large book.
Sighing, Elphaba walked to the flap where she had come in from, for some reason staying in Nastoya's room for too long gave her a strange feeling; she didn't think she'd be comfortable enough to read such a long book in the room. Before she left she turned around to gaze at the room. From where she was standing she couldn't see the clear strings, so she moved until she was able to see the entire room at its best. She held out her hand again, the color of her skin changing with the color of the light. It was the first time in her life where she wanted to wear white. She longed to be a part of the room, longed to just fade away in the background and have people overlooking her like she did Nastoya. Everything in the room was one, one being, one entity, and one wonder. Elphaba's eyes searched the room, looking to see if there were any surprises but instead her eyes landed on the clothes she was wearing, black. She brought her hand down and brought it to her side, retracting her hands inside her sleeves. It wasn't her place to just be part of something; she would stand out always no matter what she did. And with that she left the room, a black speck in the middle of a rainbow.
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