"Don't feel self-conscious," she said. "Everything went according to plan."
He gazed at her in awe. Her green hue looked brilliant in the sunshine and her intelligence was overwhelming. No wonder the Wizard and Morrible felt threatened, she was brilliant! Should her point of view catch on with the Animals, an uprising was plausible.
"What did you say about a trick?" Fiyero asked.
"The shoes wouldn't come off right?" she said with a grin. "That was my doing."
"Why would you want to do that to Dorothy?"
Elphaba frowned a bit at the sound of her name.
"I'm not doing anything to her. It's really more for the safety of the shoes. The Wizard knows I want them back and I don't want him to try to coerce them from her."
"That explains why we couldn't get them off before."
"Yes, I saw the girl strip for you after her little swim." Elphaba said coldly, one eyebrow raised.
"Don't get jealous," he warned. "I love you and I always will. She doesn't even know I was ever human and I certainly feel nothing for her except pity."
"Why pity? I'm curious."
"Think about it, Elphaba. Dorothy is a pawn in all this! That cyclone was no accident, and it's clear to me that she was pulled into this merely because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time when her house was carried to Oz."
Elphaba seemed to ponder this for a moment. Fiyero could almost see the fallen house in her dark eyes. The death of Nessarose had rattled Elphaba. Until she and Glinda became friends during their days at Shiz, she had only had Nessa to talk to. Now the last member of her family was dead.
Still, he felt that any anger Elphaba held for Dorothy was severely misplaced. When he pointed this out to her, she nodded slowly, staring into space.
"I see your point, Fiyero."
A distant cry caught Fiyero's attention.
"It's sounds like the girl," Elphaba said. "Go and see what's wrong."
Fiyero squeezed Elphaba's hand and ran back toward the stream, but when he got there, Dorothy was no where in sight.
"Dorothy," he called. "Where are you?"
"Scarecrow!" she cried running toward him.
She gripped his padded arms, trying to catch her breath. He patted her gently on the back. After a few moments of heavy panting Dorothy explained her hysteria.
"There's a man in the woods," she said. "A man made of tin! I think he needs our help!"
Fiyero allowed Dorothy to lead him to where this man of tin stood.
His breath caught in his throat! Even encased in tin, Fiyero recognized him in an instant. What had happened to his fellow classmate?
It was indeed a motionless Boq, frozen in what appeared to be a most cumbersome position. His tin body was rusted so terribly that he couldn't move an inch. He did, however, groan miserably.
"Poor thing," Dorothy said, her words laced with pity. "He's rusted solid."
She put her hand on Boq's shoulder tenderly.
"We have to help him!"
Fiyero couldn't stop himself from staring at Boq. He may have been rusted, but he was still capable of concious thought, which was quite obvious by the look in the tin man's eyes.
"Scarecrow, what shall we do?"
"We have to find some oil."
Here is the next chapter:happy jig: I hope you're all enjoying it so far!
More to come soon.
Ciao!