Author's Note: well... its been over a month, slowly by slowly I paintstakingly wrote this chapter, a few words each day and finally o' finally on this day of happiness I have completed it. It has taken so long, yes I know, basically because it is summer and, well, I have better things to do lol its not that I don't love this fic and love to write its just that I only wrote so fast and so much before because it was during school and this is what I did instead of doing my homework, having homework is my motivation to write because writing my fic gives me something better to do and allows me to procrastinate the homework... and now I don't have homework and therefore my writing rate has fallen... I hope to start writing a little faster since I have AP Bio homework over the summer so I doooo have a little motivation but I really won't start to get writing until a week before school... and to the fic
Oh one last thing, ::sends Nightmare Morrible Plushie after everyone who read and didn't review:: what you didn't think I forgot did you? Next time it will be worse, ::muwahahahaaa:: oh yes verrrry worse
Chapter 11
Elphaba didn't know what time it was, all she knew that it was sometime deep in the night. No fires were lit; everyone was fast asleep. They were waiting at the blue tent, which Elphaba had learned to be the tent of the Arjiki ruler. It was deserted only due to the fact that the ruling family wasn't in the Vinkus. They didn't elect another ruling family only because they knew, more like stubbornly hoped, that the Tigular family still lived.
This time they were simply waiting for Temeai to come and meet up with them, and then they could proceed with the Sunikaw. It was different then last time because simply Jhayahl would not be joining them, they had only gone to his tent before to provide any extra aid. Elphaba had learned that had been his first time out of his tent in so long, she didn't think that he would be up to going out any time soon.
After a few more minutes of waiting Temeai finally arrived and they silently entered the tent. After making their way into the center room Nastoya lit the candle. Immediately Elphaba noticed two things that were different. The table wasn't square anymore, it was a circle, but it had the same candle from the square table melted into the center. Another difference was the chairs; there were only three of them. The chairs could be explained easily because somebody could just come here and take one chair away. But the table...the table was mind-boggling. After making her way to the table she pushed the candle a little to see if it had been scraped off the square table but it didn't move. She thought that maybe the circle had been cut from the square, but when she looked at the edges they didn't have the look of being recently cut. It had been five months and they could have just cut it then... But who could have known that four people weren't coming next time...
Nastoya snapped her back to reality by starting the ceremony and Elphaba pushed the questions that were invading her mind aside. The entire ceremony was exactly the same as it had been during the last one, except of course on less person and the fact that Elphaba knew what to say this time.
"The accepted may now speak." Nastoya finished. They all sat in silence. They all looked at each other to see who would speak first, nobody did. Eventually all three of them acquiring a sitting position of power, it had suddenly become a contest to see who would speak first. Elphaba was sure that both she and Temeai had no idea why the Sunikaw was called. That only left Nastoya knowing what it was about. But Temeai and herself were both too stubborn to show that they knew nothing, both stubborn not to make the first movement or sound until someone else did.
Suddenly, Nastoya moved...wait...did she? It was entirely too strange, Elphaba had never questioned herself to whether somebody moved or not, but now she was. It had seemed like she did...but Elphaba couldn't help but feeling that it was a trick of the eye. It was like her eyes saw movement that wasn't there, yet she still felt Nastoya motionless, sitting in her chair. Because of this uncertainty of movement or no movement it seemed that Nastoya was still able to maintain her part in the immature contest of stubbornness.
Elphaba had been so caught up in the question of "Did she move or not?" that when she looked back at Nastoya she realized that she was now looking at her. It felt different than just being stared at; it felt like she was staring into her. Not the physical Elphaba, but the mental Elphaba. Elphaba looked into Nastoya's eyes, causing herself to shiver. For some reason it was hard to hold the eye contact. She didn't know how long she lasted but she just couldn't stare any more and broke the eye contact.
Nastoya's eyes moved on to Temeai...well, she moved the same way she had done before, if that could even be classified as moving. He stared directly back at her, neither Temeai nor Nastoya succumbing to weakness. The silence seemed to stretch for a longer amount of time than it had when Elphaba had been forced to stare at Nastoya. Eventually Nastoya moved, a visible motion, and spoke, "Gale Forcers."
It wasn't just Elphaba confused by this, Temeai was as well. "Gale Forcers?" he asked.
Suddenly Nastoya produced a map from somewhere within her bulk of clothing, she was wearing layers today, quite unlike her to do so. She spread out the old, yellowed map and Elphaba recognized it as a map of all of Oz. "Here." Nastoya said, pointing to an area North of the Thousand Year Grassland, but South of the Thursk Desert.
"How can they be there, so close...what are they doing there?" she asked, leaning over to get a better look at the area Nastoya pointed out.
Nastoya, strangely, answered her questions directly. "Only getting closer." She said. "How they got there, I do not know but the Gale Forcers, I believe, have been under the control of a different political entity. As in, they are now separate from the Emerald City." Elphaba nearly gasped, which was quite a big deal to her. During her Shiz years she had made it a point to separate herself from Galinda and her type. The kind of girls who showed extreme emotion at any small, irrelevant matter, and to Elphaba, gasping was categorized under showing extreme emotion.
"But who?" Temeai questioned.
"As to that, I do not know. Here in the Vinkus, I'm sure you know we are somewhat isolated from the politics that engulf the rest of Oz. This information was given to me from some old woman who I happened to come across not too far from our encampment; I believe she was a tinker. Any way, this is off subject, we should be lucky to know this much; The Gale Force is coming. They were a hostile group before and I doubt they have changed. The reason I called this Sunikaw was for us to devise a plan of action."
"Fight!" Elphaba spoke with a vigor that hadn't consumed her since the days during the rebellion against the Wizard. "Send out scouts to find out where they are. The Gale Force has never entered the Thousand Year Grasslands and I don't think they are that willing to ever change that." She was suddenly filled with the overcoming urge to destroy anything and everything that the Wizard left behind, including the Gale Force. "Surround them and force them West, corner them between the Grasslands and the Great Kells-"
Temeai had been shaking his head from the first word she had spoken and he finally decided to stop her, "It is impossible, we do not have enough spare men. If you haven't noticed we don't have an army, we have our community. Yes it is good as any army but how many men do you think will die! Our people would die! It would be suicide." Elphaba was surprised, it seemed that Temeai put his people before everything else; he would be one of those few leaders who were truly great.
"Temeai has a point...but Elphaba does too, though not the point she was trying to get across." Elphaba raised an eyebrow at Nastoya. "The Gale Force won't go into the Thousand Year Grasslands. Temeai, you can lead a number of men to find out exactly where they are, and to make an appearance to keep them occupied."
"...But what will that do?" He asked, not sure of what Nastoya was getting at.
"It will give us time." Elphaba answered before Nastoya. She smiled upon discovering what Nastoya's plan was.
And for a single glorious moment, a moment of triumph and achievement, a moment where it seemed like the gods were smiling down upon her which allowed the world to lapse, destroying all rational thought and allowing the impossible to happen, Nastoya smiled approvingly back at her. "Yes, time to move. The Gale Force hasn't entered the Thousand Year Grasslands so far, but we can't depend on that forever. The new control of the Gale Force might have different fears then the Wizard had. While you are keeping them busy." Nastoya said while looking at Temeai.
"We can move the encampment away..." Elphaba trailed off.
"South, into the Lesser Kells." Nastoya said, pointing to the hill- like mountains on the map.
"If they come into the Grasslands to look for us, we won't be there." Temeai concluded.
"Exactly. It would get the Gale Force away from us, while leaving them with no direction to where we went." Finished Nastoya.
"How soon should we start?" Temeai asked, more relaxed then he was before.
"Immediately. We need to take all the time we can get." Nastoya instructed.
Temeai seemed surprise by the suddenness of it all but eventually he took it all in. "I'll tell my people tomorrow morning, early."
Nastoya laid her hand on top of his, "Our people," she said softly; he looked up at her. "After this all of us will be one tribe united."
He seemed shocked and surprised for some reason, all he could do was mouth the words "One tribe"
"Then it's all set..." Elphaba said softly, but loud enough for all to hear.
"Yes, it is, everything is set." Nastoya said in the same tone, but when Elphaba looked at Nastoya, her eyes showed that her words meant so much more.
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