The cool spring air flowed into Elphaba's lungs as she and Galinda ran side by side through the conveniently empty courtyard, past the gate, then along the narrow path leading into the forest surrounding the campus grounds. After a few minutes, Elphaba was losing her breath, but kept on running, pushed on by the cub's heart-wrenching yowling.
"Elphaba!" Galinda groaned behind her back. "Wait up!"
Elphaba didn't turn around. "Just a bit more," she huffed, not slowing down. "We have… to gain… some distance…"
She let her feet guide the way, but she knew where they were leading her. Not very far away, she knew, there was a wide clearing surrounded by trees, overgrown with bright red poppies. Back then, before her life had fallen apart, she'd visit that place as often as she could. She'd told herself she was doing it to escape – from Galinda, Nessarose, her mocking peers, her father's letters. Fiyero. And herself. But the sight of the red petals in the green field would always make her think even more than she usually did. She'd think about the Lion cub and the fear in its eyes, and about her own fear at Fiyero's hand in hers; about the strange, new, beautiful, scary feeling when he crouched down so close to her, so very close, and looked at her not only without disgust in his eyes, but with something new; something sweet and gentle and soft; and about how her heart pounded when she reached over to touch his cheek… She'd torture herself for hours, reflecting on what was right and wrong and maybe not defined at all, and always ended up berating her own heart for letting her even consider the possibility that those strange, complicated feelings might be mutual.
"For Oz's sake! Some of us are wearing heels!" Galinda complained, just as they entered the clearing.
"Some of us should maybe just take them off, or else—"
Elphaba's retort was cut short as she stepped on a shoelace of her old-to-the-point-of-self-untying shoe and tumbled down, painfully grazing her knees while trying to protect the cage and falling to the rocky ground.
"—or else they're going to end up face down in the dirt," she finished under her breath.
"Elphie! Are you okay?" Galinda squealed anxiously and ran up to her, grabbing her hand to help her get up. "See, you're hurt! You need to be more careful!" she scolded as she saw Elphaba wince.
There came a desperate whimper from the cage and Elphaba, despite the grazed knees, knelt up to uncover it. The little Lion cowered, hiding his face behind his trembling paws and squishing himself into the furthest corner of the cage.
"Look at him," Elphaba said, her chest pulsating with fury again, as the cub let out another ear-piercing whine. "He's terrified! He's probably never been separated from his mother before…" Her voice cracked. "How coud anyone do such a thing?!"
Galinda crouched beside her, taking a long look at the baby Animal.
"Should we let him out here?" she asked cautiously, and Elphaba shook her head.
"Not yet," she said. "Too close to town."
Galinda hesitantly lifted her hand in the Lion's direction. "Do you think I could… I don't know… pet him to calm him down?"
Elphaba shrugged. "You can try, but he might scratch you," she warned. Galinda gulped, but eventually reached her hand and carefully squeezed a finger through the cage bars, gently stroking the cub's forehead. He was still trembling, but went quiet and watched Galinda with his wide brown eyes.
"Oh…" Galinda sighed, turning her head to Elphaba again. She looked like she wanted to say something, but had no idea what.
"I know," Elphaba mumbled bitterly.
A sudden sound of snapping branches and shuffling leaves made them both jump to their feet, but instead of an armed soldier or a uniformed man with a syringe, they saw a familiar figure enter the clearing.
"Doctor Dillamond?" Elphaba asked, shocked to see him. She should be far away from here by now! "What… what are you doing here?"
"Oh. Miss Elphaba… miss G-hh-linda…," he said faintly, staring at the ground, looking ashamed. "I… Well, I-I left at dawn and went straight into the forest, but I… I haven't a clue what happened… I couldn't think clearly… I became disoriented, I panicked… lost my way… I must have been roaming the forest for hours…"
Elphaba remembered the afternoon when Doctor Dillamond got that first threat, written with huge red letters on his own chalkboard. There had been a few times during their conversation after that when the Goat seemed to not fully be in control of himself, at least not his speech. Could the disorientation he was describing now have been of similar nature?
"But… why leave so suddenly?" asked Galinda, visibly confused by the situation. "And why run away like this?"
Doctor Dillamond glanced at Elphaba, who discreetly shook her head.
"Well, I… I'm afraid that our dear old Shiz is just not safe for me anymore, and—"
He trailed off as he heard a loud whimper. It was the cub, distressed again, crying for attention.
"What… what is that?" Doctor Dillamond asked, only then noticing the cage behind Galinda's back. His concerned look suddenly gave Elphaba an idea.
"Doctor…," she said, lifting the cage, "our sorry excuse for a new teacher brought him to class today. We had to save him, of course, and we were thinking of letting him loose somewhere in the forest, but…" She hesitated. "I don't want to force anything on you, especially that… that I understand you are not feeling quite safe yourself." She bit her lip. "But I thought just now that maybe… maybe you could take him with you, wherever it is you're going?"
Doctor Dillamond took the cage out of her hands, opened it carefully and reached for the trembling Lion.
"Well, I… I am not sure I'd know how to… But then again, this is definitely not a safe place for him… And who knows what happens if he's all alone…"
His eyes moved from Elphaba to Galinda, then back at the Lion. Then Galinda again. Lion. Elphaba. Lion.
"Very well. I will care for him," he decided finally, and although his voice trembled, there was also apparent determination in it. He allowed the little Lion to get settled in his arms, not letting him escape but making sure to be gentle, and when he looked back up at Galinda and Elphaba, his kind eyes were filled with tears.
"I don't… I don't know what life has in store. For any of us," he said. "But I want to thank you for what you've done. Both of you. On behalf of every Animal in Oz who just wants the right to live their life and speak their mind – thank you. Thank you, miss Elphaba. Thank you, miss…" He took a deep breath. "Miss G-hhh-ghhh-ggg…"
"It's okay, Doctor Dillamond," Galinda interrupted him and, to Elphaba's surprise, smiled shyly. "To tell you the truth, I'm starting to like Glinda better. Who knows, I might even change it someday."
•••
The two friends made their way back to their dorm before Galinda finally looked Elphaba in the eye. She didn't seem angry, but not proud either, not really sad and not really happy. Perhaps what was going on inside her head was just as incomprehensible as the look on her face. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, looked at the ground, then back up.
"So…," she hesitated, visibly unsure of how to phrase what was on her mind. She looked at Elphaba sheepishly and finally said: "Um, could I paint your nails?"
Elphaba stared at her. There had been many sentences she could have expected to hear at that moment, but this was not one of them.
"Um… sure," she said, both confused and amused. Galinda gestured at her to sit down at her bed and rummaged through her nightstand drawer, eventually fishing out a black bottle and starting to apply the polish onto Elphaba's nails. Elphaba, in turn, waited patiently, seeing that her friend was still trying to process what had happened.
"What happened there? In class?" Galinda asked eventually, not lifting her head. "Why did everyone freak out? What did you do?"
"I'm not sure," Elphaba lied. "I was just so angry, and I wanted to do something, and then… it happened. Just like that."
"Nothing happened to me," Galinda stated. "Why not?"
"I don't know." Another lie. "I guess it's just because… because you're my friend. Because I trust you. Because I needed your help." That part was true.
Galinda went silent and focused on Elphaba's nails.
"It was scary," she confessed after a moment. "Not just in class, I mean the whole thing with the cage and… Elphaba, why do you do always things like that?"
"Things like what?" Elphaba asked, a little more sharply than she'd intended.
"You know what I mean! You're always so contrariacious, so loudly against everything."
"I'm not against everything. But I can't—I won't ignore unfair things happening around me. They've happened to me too many times."
"Elphie… I'm really sorry, and I know you've had it rough, but I really don't know if that was the smartest move."
"Well," Elphaba said, looking at her black nails up-close, "regardless of what you think and what you decide next, I'm really grateful for your help. It meant a lot. Thank you, Galinda."
Galinda watched her friend carefully.
"Elphaba… Be careful. You really need to learn to pick your battles."
"Well," Elphaba said boldly, looking Galinda in the eyes, "I guess I've picked this one."
•••
"Is this seat taken?"
Fiyero let out a sigh of relief. He'd been anxiously waiting for Elphaba to show up for the past fifteen minutes, and when she finally sat down next to him, it took all his self-discipline to only greet her with a nod.
You okay? he scribbled and discreetly slid the note to the side. Through the corner of his eye, he saw it move out of his visual field, where it reappeared a moment later, joined by a snippet of a green finger ending with a black fingernail.
Fine. You? read the barely legible message. Although Elphaba's messy handwriting didn't surprise Fiyero, the question certainly did.
Yeah, why?
You look tired, she scrawled back and he smiled slightly. He probably did look tired, as he'd spent a sleepless night tossing and turning, and pacing around his room, trying to silence his catastrophic imagination.
Couldn't sleep. Was worried about you.
Shouldn't have. I'm okay. He rolled his eyes. Charming as always, this girl.
Thanks, I know that now. How'd it go?
This time, the piece of paper was gone for a little longer.
Fine. Some unexpected stuff. Tell you later. This sparked his curiosity. "Unexpected stuff"? That sounded a little concerning, but she did also write it'd gone fine. He decided not to pry and only wrote back: Okay. Love you.
There was another longer break before the note came back.
Focus on the lecture, doofus.
Elphaba Thropp was many things, but a romantic was not one of them. That didn't matter though, Fiyero thought to himself, nudging her teasingly with his knee. He didn't have to look at her face to know that she was smiling. Neither did he need it said or written to know that she loved him. And that was more than enough.