Hey all. Well, my play is finally over as of Saturday, and I'm still feeling a bit depressed about it. Of course, now I'll have a lot more free time on my hands, especially because I'm off until April 16. Anyway, I got this chapter up a little earlier then expected, because I was finally able to read myself of my horrible writer's block.
OK, so this is another chapter with an explanation that's a little out there. Unfortunately, it was the only one I could come up with, and hopefully it won't seem too unbelievable. Enjoy the chapter and I'll answer reviews at the end.
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Everyone in the room froze as the door swung open. Elphaba felt every muscle in her body tense and an unexpected rush of adrenaline surged through her veins. They hadn't been prepared for this, but now they were going to have to face their problem head on. Two men stumbled through the door and Elphaba positioned herself to dart past them if any trouble started. However she dropped her stance immediately as she recognized the taller of the two.
"Fiyero?" she asked, disbelief evident in her voice.
"Boq!" Glinda squealed, now realizing that it was her husband standing behind Elphaba's. Not nearly as skeptical as her friend, she immediately ran forward and practically tackled the Munchkin to the ground. Boq was somewhat surprised by the sudden affection, but smiled and returned the hug all the same.
Fiyero was the first to speak, "Thank Oz we found you. We've been trying to come after you since you left. You seem to have forgotten to bring something very important with you." Stepping inside the small home, he held out the Grimmerie. Elphaba had never been so happy to see the large book in her entire life.
"But…but how in Oz's name did you get here?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the Grimmerie, as if the spellbook would disappear should she dare to blink.
"Well, right after you said the spell you disappeared, and the Grimmerie was left sitting on the floor. Boq and I knew you needed it to get back, so we wasted no time in planning a course of action. You know that show about the Wizard? 'Wizomania' I think it's called. Well, I remembered seeing it a while back and I knew they had that giant balloon thing that they used for a prop. After Glinda shut it down a couple of years ago they put all of the scenery into storage. All Boq and I had to do was raid the prop closet at the theatre. The security guards didn't ask many questions, I just told them it was for business purposes," Fiyero explaimed.
Elphaba raised an eyebrow, "And they believed that you would need a hot air balloon for 'business purposes'"
Fiyero just shrugged, "I don't know, I guess they're not that sharp. Either that or they just didn't want to know."
"And it actually flew? I thought it was made for scenery purposes," Glinda remarked.
"No they were pretty accurate in the design. All we had to do was light the top part thingy on fire like we'd seen the Wizard do when he left Oz. Then the balloon filled up and rose off the ground."
"And how on earth did you get the stupid thing here? I don't recall ever seeing you take a lesson on hot air ballooning," remarked Glinda.
"Well see, that's the weird part. The Grimmerie seemed to be sort of…guiding us I suppose you could say. It nearly tore itself out of my hands when it was time to land," said Fiyero.
"So let me get this straight," said Glinda, "You stole a hot air balloon you didn't know how to fly and took it into the air with no idea where you were going, and lucky for you Elphaba's spell book led you here?"
"Pretty much," said Fiyero, shrugging his shoulders.
"You two are idiots," said Elphaba bluntly, finally yanking the spellbook from her husband's arms.
"Where the hell do you park a hot air balloon?" Glinda asked.
Boq replied this time, "Well, uh, we weren't really sure how to park it, so we sort of just let it fly away when we got out. After all, we don't need it to get back if Elphaba can just read the spell from the Grimmerie."
Elphaba and Glinda just rolled their eyes in response to their husbands' stupidity.
Hunk, who had been watching the scene confusedly, cleared his throat, causing everyone in the room to turn toward him, "Um…so I'm assuming you know these men."
"Unfortunately," said Elphaba, before Glinda elbowed her in the side.
"They're our husbands," she said sweetly.
"Ah, nice to meet you then," said Hunk, extending a hand. Boq shook it enthusiastically, but Fiyero looked a bit skeptical.
"Who are you then?" he asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Oh, sorry, forgot to introduce myself. I'm Hunk, Dorothy's former farmhand," Hunk replied, oblivious to the suspicion in Fiyero's voice.
Elphaba, seeing her husband's doubt, spoke up, "Hunk has been very helpful since we got here Yero. We'd probably already have been found out if it wasn't for him."
Fiyero's face softened at his wife's insistence, "Alright then, sorry about that. Being a fugitive for four years makes you wary of other people, if you know what I mean."
"Not really…" said Hunk, not quite sure what Fiyero was talking about. However, any further questions were cut off by Glinda.
"Well," she said, turning to face Elphaba, "Now that we have the Grimmerie, I suppose we can all just head home. I'll be glad when this whole ordeal is over."
Elphaba nodded in agreement and placed the book on the floor. She was about to kneel down and open it before a statement from Boq caused all of them to turn toward the window.
"Hey Dorothy," he said, looking out the dusty window of the farmhouse, "Are those friends of yours?"
Marching up the driveway were about 20 farmers, all looking rather angry. Some carried bats or pitchforks, and they were shouting something unintelligible. At the head of the group were Zeke and Hickory, both looking absolutely livid. Elphaba wasn't sure if it was her eyes playing tricks on her, but she thought she could see the Wizard in their midst, a look of smug satisfaction on his face. Elphaba could only think of one response to this.
"Oh shit," she mumbled.
Fiyero and Boq had no idea what was going on for the next several minutes. In a panic, each woman grabbed her husband's arm and dragged them toward the staircase, Dorothy following behind. They charged up the stairs and had just enough time to lock themselves in Dorothy's bedroom before there came a loud banging at the front door.
Hunk, glad that everyone had safely hidden themselves, calmed himself and plastered an innocent expression on his face before opening the door.
Hickory was the one who had knocked, and was now standing on the doorstep. His expression softened a bit when he realized it was his old friend who had opened the door.
"Oh hey Hunk," he said, though he was clearly not looking at Hunk as he spoke. His eyes were darting back and forth as though he were trying to see past Hunk and into the house, "Have you heard anything about Dorothy? I knew those two characters she was traveling with were no good and now look at the mess they've gotten her into."
"Uh, yeah, they're no good alright" said Hunk, rather unconvincingly, "But unfortunately I haven't heard from her since they left here."
Hickory looked Hunk up and down and didn't seem entirely convinced, "Well, me and Zeke here wanted to come in and have a look around. See if we can find any clues or evidence or anything like that."
"Uh…there's really no need; I've already searched pretty thoroughly," said Hunk, trying to keep the other men out."
"Well then you won't mind if we come in now then would ya?" said Zeke, joining Hickory on the doorstep. Before Hunk could argue further, the two men pushed past him and into the house. The rest of the mob watched the doorway with narrowed eyes.
Upstairs, Elphaba had her ear pressed to the door while the others crowded around her. Her eyes widened as she heard the two men enter the house.
"They're inside," she whispered, turning to the others.
"Elphie why don't you get us out of here now, before they have time to come up here and find us," Glinda whispered back.
"Yes, that's a good idea. I'm sure Hunk will know where we've go-…Oh no," she said, eyes widening.
"What is it?" asked Fiyero, concern creeping into his voice.
"It's the Grimmerie," whispered Elphaba, "I think I left it-"
"Hey, what's this?" Zeke's voice drifted up the stairs.
"Downstairs"
And there's the end of chapter 9. I'm actually quite happy with the way I ended it, because I really wasn't sure where I was going to take the story after this chapter until I wrote it. As you can see, we're nearing the end. There should only be about 2 or 3 more chapters left to the story after this.
Anyways, I'll just take a bit of time to answer some reviews now:
WickedJelly: Ok, see, I didn't make you wait two whole weeks. More like one and a half. Now you don't have to kill me :P
Lol, yes, the smileys show up now. At last the curse has lifted. Yay cookie!
Well, that's really all I needed to respond to. Thanks you so much for your reviews, especially because I know there was something wrong with the site the night I posted this chapter and you probably couldn't review right after you read it. I appreciate that you took the time to go back and leave me a review!
Till next time S.P.
