Hey guys. Here's Chapter Eleven for you. Please review; you don't know how much I love receiving them. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Wicked. Does. Not. Belong. To. Me.

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Ayenna woke from a dream involving Dhert and things that she wouldn't have admitted in a million years, to Glinda poking her insistently.

"Whaddayou want?" Ayenna asked sleepily, longing for the forbidden beauty of that dream again.

"We have traveling to do! Get up! No, don't you go back to slee--"

Glinda was interrupted by the loud snore that issued from Ayenna's sleeping mouth.

"AHHH!" Glinda cried in frustration. She ended up having to grab Ayenna's feet and tug until the green girl fell out of the bed.

A moment before, Dhert had walked into the house, and he walked past the girls' room to see Ayenna lying on the floor with Glinda standing over her, looking ready to kick her. He had to suppress a grin.

"Having fun?" he asked.

"She sleeps like a dead giraffe!"

"Nice simile," he walked to his room, feeling considerably cheered up.

When Ayenna had finally been woken up and they had all gotten ready, they got their horses from where they had tied them up behind the house, paid for the rooms, and left without further ado.

Once they had gotten out of sight of the village, Dhert noticed Ayenna was sagging sleepily on her horse, who she had taken to calling "Harold." Dhert had privately taken to calling his "Nasty-cur-who-stinks-of-dung."

"Ayenna, I could tie your horse to mine, and you could go to sleep without worrying about going off course," he offered.

"I don't need sleep," she said curtly, though she went slightly cross-eyed with tiredness as she said it.

"Ok, then," he said.

"Glinda said that you weren't at the house when she woke up. Where were you?" asked Ayenna, carrying on the conversation mainly to keep herself awake.

"I was interviewing some people for our article."

"Oh. What did you fi-i-i," she gave an enormous yawn, "What did you find out?"

"Apparently, these riots, or more lately, wars, are over whether the Glikkus should be part of the Gillikin or Munchkinland."

"That is a stupid thing to have wars over."

"Yes, well, most fights are over stupid things," he said, hoping she got his hint about her recent anger at him.

If she got his reference, she did not show it. She did, however, fall silent. When he saw that her head was nodding gently against Harold's neck, he found himself feeling a bit jealous of the horse and tied him to Nasty-cur-who-stinks-of-dung.

"Where are we?" he asked Glinda.

"Somewhere between the Glikkus/Gillikin border and The Scalps," she answered vaguely.

Dhert felt like going to sleep as well, but he wouldn't let himself.

"Glinda, you do have some idea of where we're going, don't you?"

"Don't worry," she said, while not answering the question.

He chose to ignore this and said instead, "Glinda, tell me about Ayenna's parents."

"What do you want to know?" Glinda asked shiftily.

"Well, I mean, are they green?"

"Her mother is. Her father is normal colored."

"Why green?"

"It's a long story, Dhert. One that even Ayenna doesn't know. When the time is right, that will be revealed, but not before then," Glinda said with an air of finality.

Dhert, taking no notice of her tone asked, "Why so much secrecy?"

"Dhert, I will not be coerced into discussing this."

Dhert fell into a sulk and the only noise came from the horses' hooves on the hard ground and Ayenna's occasional grunts in her sleep.

Around noon, Dhert spied a carriage approaching them from behind at a fast clip. So fast, in fact, that dust swirled around the wheels. The fact that it was coming up right behind them worried him. It wasn't like it couldn't pass them out here in the wilderness. But perhaps the carriage-riders just wanted to talk?

"Glinda, who do you think that is? And what do they want?" he asked.

"Oh no."

"What?"

"I have a very bad feeling about this," she said shakily, "I think they might be highwaymen!"

Dhert yelled for Ayenna to wake up, which she did with a start. She took one look behind them, untied her horse from Dhert's and forced it into a gallop, yelling for the other two to do the same.

They followed her example, and soon, all four horses were racing across the barren ground. But, no matter how fast they pushed their horses, the carriage only gained on them.

Ayenna mumbled a curse and shouted, "Why does this one portion of the land have to be so flat? The rest of the Glikkus we've traveled through has been rocky and hilly. At least in those places we had a place to hide, and the carriage would have more difficulty."

"Well, there aren't any places to hide, and they aren't going to suddenly run into something, so let's keep trying to outrun them!" Dhert yelled.

"You fool, we will never be able to outrun them! We might as well hand ourselves over on silver platters!"

As much as he hated to admit it, she was right.

It was only a matter of minutes before the horses finally gave out, and all four stopped dead at the same time, as if on cue.

Ayenna groaned and buried her head in her hands, Dhert checked to make sure that his sword was at his side, and Glinda merely looked frightened.

The highwayman, for that was indeed what he was, and there was only one of him, pulled his carriage right up to the travelers and stopped on a dime.

"What do you want?" Dhert called bravely.

"Well, I would say your valuables, but that would just sound cliché. But, it is indeed your valuables that I am after," said the highwayman driving the carriage. He wore finery that had obviously been stolen, as it was a little too large on him. He accented the look with a black strip of cloth tied across his face, with holes left for the eyes. He held a wicked looking dagger.

"What makes you think we'll give them up?" asked Ayenna.

"Sweet Oz! You're green, you know!" he cried.

"Really? I hadn't noticed. Thanks for that."

Glinda shook her head to herself. Her initial assumptions about the girl had been wrong. She did indeed have her mother's sarcasm.

"Look, just give me your valuables, and I'll let you go," he said, trying to regain control of the situation.

"Well, I cannot speak for my fellow travelers, but I have no valuables. Other than my mind, that is," Ayenna said.

"Well, that doesn't mean they don't," the highwayman said, gesturing at Dhert and Glinda.

"I believe that is what I just said. By all means, search our bags. You will find nothing of interest," Ayenna said.

"I will. Everyone who saw you three in town, well, the lady and the boy, anyway, agreed that you looked rich. They thought that you looked like an overgrown tree fungus," he said, directing the last part at Ayenna.

"Oh, did they notice that I'm green too? What amazing eyesight they have."

The man chose to ignore her and he grabbed one of Glinda's bags and started rifling through it. When he saw that it had only clothes in it, he scowled.

"Oh well, I can still sell clothes," he said, tossing the suitcase in his trunk. Glinda looked furious, but she said nothing. He proceeded to confiscate every bag they had, except for Ayenna's which he refused to touch in case he "caught something" and their food satchel.

"I don't want you to starve," he explained, "Stealing is one thing, but murder is completely different."

"Oh, how very generous of you," Ayenna said, rolling her eyes.

"Your tongue should be cut off," he shot at her and turned his carriage and rode away speedily.

"My clothes!" cried Glinda.