After exactly thirty-seven minutes had passed - Elphaba had been counting - she heard the doorknob yet again. Her eyes flickered over to glare at it, abandoning her previous distraction of counting the endless amount of knots that made up the rug at her feet. There were 712 that she had counted so far, and Elphaba had made no headway. A very small part of her wanted to continue, but she knew that that was the least important thing she could be doing right now. Fiyero was much more important than a Glinda rug.
A gloved hand pulled her scarf up once again to hide her emerald skin, but she instantly relaxed when Glinda's golden hair was made visible. The woman hadn't seen her yet, she was busy scanning the room.
Before Glinda saw her, Elphaba broke the frosty silence, her voice as sharp as possible. She was giving the blonde an obvious hint as to what her emotion and the look on her face were. Frustration. A glare. "OzDAMNit, Glinda. When was it part of your plan on getting us out to separate Fiyero and me? With him in his condition as well!"
Glinda blinked a few times, obviously startled. Then, in a patient voice, as though talking to a child, she responded. "Well, Elphie-"
But Elphaba didn't have the time to listen to her friend at this point. Sweeping past the woman, Elphaba began walking quickly in the direction she could feel that Fiyero was in.
But walking quickly, unfortunately, equaled running for Glinda, so the blonde began running after her friend, but didn't object. She understood the pressure that Elphaba was feeling, almost frighteningly so. She had never been in that position, but they had been so close in the past that it was as though she had been through the exact same thing.
'Had been' was the key term though, Glinda thought as she silently watched Elphaba. The emerald woman was a tornado of dark skirts and scarves, not even glancing behind herself to see if Glinda was following. There was a wall between them, and it was all Glinda could do to follow silently and hope that her friend would actually tell her what happened. But she had her doubts.
Once they were out of the large mansion, Elphaba, instantly spotting the carriage, shot into it as though the Gale Force was after her. A few moments later, Glinda arrived at the carriage, having obviously been left behind.
"Finally, what took you so long." The emerald woman's voice was crisp, but a hint of amusement could be heard.
Glinda rolled her eyes. "If you hadn't left me behind, Elphie, I wouldn't have taken this long. And you would have gotten to hear a reasonable explanation as to why that had to happen." She paused, studying her friend. "I'm not that dumb blonde you knew in college, Elphaba." With a slightly offended look on her face, Glinda stepped up into the carriage, motioning for the driver to go.
Fiyero laid on one side of the small room, with Elphaba directly across from his face and holding his hand tightly in both of her own. So Glinda sat across from his feet, leaning against the corner and refusing to look at Elphaba, even after an hour had passed with them traveling steadily North.
Through this time, the blonde had chosen to occupy herself with doodling in a book that looked an awful lot like a journal, and staring out at the scenery. Elphaba kept her eyes on Fiyero's face the whole time, never once looking away, never once letting go of his hand other than to wipe his forehead with a dry cloth when he got too hot.
But suddenly, Elphaba's head rotated to the left. She stared out the window for a moment, then in a voice hoarse from lack of use, spoke. "Stop it." Then, letting go of Fiyero's hand, she opened the door that was next to her and shot out of the carriage.
Glinda turned, and immediately lunged as though to pull Elphaba back in. Jumping out at the speed they were going was bound to injure her. But Glinda grabbed air, and as she looked out the now open door, she saw her friend sprinting for the trees.
"STOP THE CARRIAGE!" Immediately, the driver stopped the horses, and Glinda felt a small lurch. Fiyero was unaffected by it, and after Glinda double checked that he was alright, she stepped elegantly out of the carriage and looked in the direction Elphaba had dashed.
A few moments later, she heard her name being called, and walked over to the bushes her friend had disappeared in. "What, Elphie? We really do need to get back into the carriage…"
Elphaba was squatting over a patch of dirt, her hand tracing it gently. Looking up to watch the blonde, she spoke, her voice now cautious and steely. "Somebody was watching and waiting. For us."