A/N: A shout out to my anonymous reviewer! Elphie does indeed need her magic. Hope you like this chapter. :)


Chapter 9

"What could have you possibly been thinking, to get yourself into this mess?" The green woman asked the stable hand, Aziz. Private Schultz had stayed with the young man while Private Roth had taken off running. Elphaba was glad that the young man had stayed with Aziz as the position he found himself in could have accidentally led to him asphyxiating himself.

"Honestly, all I know is that the carriage came off the stand that I had the horses put it on. The next thing I know, I'm not squashed, but somehow entangled in the wheel," the stable hand admitted.

"'Entangled' is one way to put it. Now, how is your breathing? Does anything feel broken? Are you bleeding?" She asked as she examined the scene closely. Her mind was unable to reconcile how his head had ended up between the spokes of the wheel and one of his arms was wedged in the same spot. He was lying on his other arm. The only thing holding the carriage up from squashing him was the same wheel that he was stuck in. While there were three other wheels and they had been chocked so they could not move, that didn't mean shifting the wheel Aziz was stuck in wouldn't bring the corner of the vehicle down on him.

The young man had not answered her questions and she worried that he couldn't. she chanted a spell and the carriage lifted up off the wheel. While she held the carriage up with one hand, she used the other to control a second spell that moved the wheel, complete with the stable hand. Setting the carriage lightly down, she moved her attention to Aziz. His eyes were open, but his breathing was shallow. He'd suddenly lost the ability to speak and that bothered her.

"Ok, I need you two to help me. I'm going to use a spell to lift the wheel up. If he does not come free on his own, I need you to see if you can get his arm away from his neck," Elphaba explained. The two Privates nodded and she quickly cast the spell. Aziz did not come loose as she suspected he might not and Roth and Schultz stepped in. After a few moments, which seemed like an eternity, the arm came free, and Aziz took a large breath.

"We're halfway there. Help him sit down with the wheel," Elphaba instructed. Again, Roth and Schultz stepped in and got him over to a nearby hay bale. They held the wheel while the green woman examined the spaces in-between the spokes.

"I don't see a way for this to come off without turning your body into a shape it's not meant to go in," Elphaba admitted after a few minutes of silence.

"Can we take it apart?" Roth asked.

"We're not going to have a choice. Where are the tools, Aziz?" Elphaba wanted to know. She cast another spell to hold the wheel up and allow for the two Privates to rest their arms.

"Those kinds of tools are in the closet at the end of the stable. I think I can walk you through taking it apart without making it unusable," he said. Schultz took off running for the closet and found some tools that he thought would be useful.

"Nope, don't care. You getting out of this and going for a full medical exam is more important," the green woman told him.

"We can saw through the spokes," Schultz spoke up for the first time.

"Start doing that. Aziz, you close your eyes. You don't need sawdust and woodchips to add to your problems," Elphaba said. Aziz obliged and the two Privates got to work. Minutes ticked by and the two were slowly making progress. Elphaba was getting tired, but she said nothing and let them continue.

"We've made enough room. Lift," Roth smiled at the green woman. She used the spell to lift the wheel and Aziz basically fell off the hay bale.

"Help me get him to the infirmary," Elphaba said. The two gently lifted the young man up and they headed inside.

"Whose carriage was that anyway?" She asked them, not sure why any of the carriages would have needed work.

"Our Munchkin visitor's," Aziz told her.

To Be Continued…