(AN: Here's a very short chapter that gets our heroes started in Midgard and started on their "adventures." We also get a very interesting surprise here abouts)

Not Green

Slowly they started to recover, as if they had drunk a very strong liquor that hit them hard in the head like a sledge hammer, and only now their heads were clearing up. The forest still lay to one hand, but a great plain of grass, broken by mountains in the far horizon and more trees closer at hand, stretched out around them.

Fiyero saw the large bulk of Nessa laying directly before him. A concerned thought filled his head, but it was dispelled as soon as the horse rose to her feet. Everything was okay, it seemed. They had come to this "other world" safe and sound.

He saw a pale-white hand reach out for help.

Though he was renown for his "scandalacious" reputation, Fiyero did not completely forget his manners. He gripped the white-fingered hand in his own and got up, pulling the person to her feet.

For it was a woman, that was for certain. The hand was soft enough, though the palms and fingers felt worn. She was only a few inches shorter than he, with pale white skin and long, raven-black hair.

Fiyero nodded at her and then turned to help Glinda up on her feet. She was still a little groggy from having drunk the fountain. It didn't taste like any alcoholic drink he had ever drank before, Fiyero thought, and there was no bite or burn as it passed down their throats. It was water like anything else, but its affect on his head was remarkable.

It was a wonder Glinda had the strength to stay on her feet.

"I wonder where we're at." Fiyero asked.

"No idea," Glinda said. Then she suddenly gasped. "Where's Elphie?"

"I'm right here." a familiar voice said.

The two turned around to look for the speaker...

And their eyes all but exploded in shock.

That unassuming woman with the pale skin was the speaker. They realized that she was in the blue travel dress Elphaba had worn the past year or so, gleaming almost new after having been mended. At her side was the travel bag that they knew housed the Grimmerie.

Fiyero took a step closer, examining the woman's features closely. The chin was as blade-like as he had once known it to be, with the same pronounced cheek-bones he had once caressed. The eyebrows still swept back the same way they had once done, and it was still the same narrow, slightly protruding nose that sat between the eyes and the mouth.

The eyes. Those were the thing that stuck out the most. They were the most familiar part of all: the same dark brown globes still stared back at him as had that one day in the forest.

But the most disturbing thing was that those two same, beloved eyes were sitting in a face that was, for all the same familiarity it held to the woman he loved, wholly different.

"What are you looking at?" the woman asked.

No, he could not lie to himself. This thing spoke with the voice of his love.

"Elphie?" Glinda asked.

"What? What are you all staring at?" she asked. "Am I bleeding?"

"Uh..." Fiyero said, his un-exercised brain failing to come up with the right words.

"What's wrong?" she asked again. "You're all staring at me as if this is the first time you've seen me."

"But this is the first time we've seen you this way." Glinda said.

"What are you talking about?" she scoffed.

"Look at your hands." Fiyero said.

The woman held up her hands, and gave a cry in shock.

"Am I...?" she asked.

"Not green?" Glinda finished, nodding in confirmation.

"How did this happen?" the pale woman breathed.

"I don't know." Fiyero said. Then, a thought blossoming in his head, he gave himself a visual once-over. Nothing had changed, he was still flesh and blood. A quick glance in Glinda's direction - very brief, since he did not want to remember that incident at the pool - showed that she was still the same.

"I mean," he said at last. "Maybe its because we came to this 'other world.' After all, I changed when we left Oz, if you recall."

"I do," the woman said, nodding. "But I thought you would change back into a scarecrow, not..."

"So..." Glinda said warily after a moment of long silence. "You're still you, just...not green?"

"Will you stop talking about it like it's a terminal illness?" Elphaba snapped. "Of course it's still me. Nothing has changed...just..." She looked down at her hands, wondering if this would be permanent, or if she was ready for a change this drastic.

"Uh, I think we've got company." Glinda said, pointing off away towards the plain.

True enough, a host on horseback were making their way across the plain toward them. Unfortunately, none of them had any weapons so any thought of fighting was driven from their heads. They did not move as orderly as the people of the Mark, for they were not as learned in equestrianism as the others had been. But they were armed and armored, enough to look threatening from beneath their steel-cap helmets and coats of heavy chain-mail.

"You!" one of the men on horse shouted at them. "Who's horse is that?"

"Mine." Elphaba spoke up.

"Ha! A woman riding a horse!" one of the other riders mocked. "That'll be the day, won't it, Garulf?"

"Aye." the first one, obviously Garulf, spoke. "What would you say, Sven?"

"A horse-thief." the second one said, pointing to Fiyero.

"Now wait!" Fiyero objected. He then walked over to Nessa. "This belongs with us."

"Oh, it does, now?" asked Sven. "A liar would speak the truth if it saved him from the rope."

"What does that mean?" Elphaba asked.

"It means we do not believe you." Garulf responded. He then turned to one of the others. "Take them with us."

"Where?" Elphaba asked rather sternly.

"Silence!" Garulf shouted, striking her down with his fist. "On you go, now."

The pale-skinned Elphaba got to her feet, trying hard to ignore the bit of warm, crimson blood that was trickling down the side of her lip, where she bit down when the blow struck her. Fiyero came to her side, with Glinda as well, and they followed their captors onward.

(AN: Yes, Elphaba isn't green in this story! Don't worry, she'll be greenified by the time we reach the end. It's all well and good. Here's a little interesting thing to wrap your minds around: when I was writing in Elphaba's degreenified appearance, I was trying to capture those features that are common among the other actresses [with the obvious exception being the eyes, which are brown, like Eden Espinosa's]; however, unlike "Another Journey" and previous entries, degreenified Elphaba is not fashioned after Eden, but sort of a cross between Idina Menzel and Kristen Stewart...i'm not sure why. Anywho, stuff will get interesting next chapter, so just wait)