(AN: Here it is, the long-awaited revelation chapter of this story.)

(Furthermore, I thought it meet to wonder a few other things that would have gone through Elphaba's mind about being a parent that I don't know if other fan-fics have covered. She definitely prizes freedom and independence, but being a mother would make her horribly dependent for a very long while. I also noticed that I may have been making her a little dependent, which is totally OOC for Elphaba. Here she's kind of 'biting back' at me for it. lol)

(It's hard for me to believe it, but as I grow up from being the naive 18-year-old who saw Wicked the Musical for the first time to the 21-year-old I am now, these characters from Wicked grow up with me. As such, they will experience a lot more 'serious' things than usual, since they are being forced to grow up with me as well).

(I have references in this story to two others from 'this series', the Another War and Another Journey ffs I made, based off of...well, you know about those. If you don't, go back and read them. You might be missing out on a few pertinent details that are bound to be mentioned in this tale. As such, I do not own Lord of the Rings. That is Tolkien's masterpiece. Just referencing stuff that happened before. Enjoy!)

Not Exactly Home

In the end, the Ozians decided to strike out on the west side of the mountains. Their goal was to go to Kiamo Ko first, and then...they did not like thinking about what would happen after that. They decided to leave that 'bridge' to be crossed when the time was needful. No use in prolonging the inevitable.

So they continued on foot for a day, coming to rest that night with the hills on the right hand. They could not leave the Quadling marshes fast enough, it seemed, for they were already starting to reek of swamp. They tried their best to ignore the smells, since there was nothing much they could do about them, but ever so often Glinda would cough as it got too much for her nose, so accustomed to the fragrance of the fresh air of Gilikin.

Early the next morning, they rose up and began the next leg of their trek. Fiyero placed Elphaba and Glinda on Nessa's back, while he walked. They continued on, hoping beyond hope that the marshes would finally come to an end and they would see Oz.

Another day ended, and the land around them began to change. The marshes became dry fens, and the turf became scruffy grass, with more sand and dirt than mud. The trees vanished from the mountains to their right, while barren hills to their left cornered them into a kind of path that led only forward for many more marches.

By the end of the third day, the marshes were gone far behind them. Only arid vales stretched before them. The line of hills to their left faded off into an everlasting field of savannah grass-lands, while the hills on the right continued. This they continued, until they saw at some great distance an end to the hills on the right-end. The hills continued on for many long miles northward, but the gap seemed to be their best hope of ever leaving this arid land behind them and seeing something a little more familiar.

A fourth day dawned, with sign of hope. As they finally got themselves around the right-end of the hills towards its end, they saw a large gap in the mountains that faded off into the distance to their right.

Fiyero smiled.

"I know where we're at!" he exclaimed at last.

"Where?" Elphaba asked from atop Nessa.

"This is Kumbrica's Pass." he announced.

"So?" Elphaba asked.

"So," he replied. "If we go right and head through the pass, we should be within a day's march of Kiamo Ko."

"How d'you know this, Yero?" Elphaba asked.

"I grew up in the Vinkus," he answered. "This whole rugged country is like my back-yard." Fiyero noticed that Elphaba was smiling in admiration of Fiyero's revelation. He was smiling too: it felt good to be needed.

"Just think," Fiyero stated. "Before noon tomorrow, we'll be at the end of the pass and can see the lights of the Emerald City. If we're lucky, we might even get to see the Yellow Brick Road from here."

With hope in their hearts, the Ozians soldiered on for what was left of the day, and even into the night until they could go no further for exhaustion. So they rested that night within Kumbrica's Pass and rose up early in the morning. They marched on, putting forth all their effort to clear the mountains.

Fiyero chuckled as he looked at each end of the hills. Several scandalacious rumors abounded about what this mountain looked like to those who saw it from afar: some saw it as the shape of a woman lying upon her back with her legs lying open. Fiyero liked this rumor and often propagated it, but now that he seemed older and at least a bit wiser, he felt like such a little, foolish child for bringing it up.

It was the last night before they cleared Kumbrica's Pass. Tomorrow they would be able to see all of Oz laid out before them. Tonight there was a very tense air in the camp. Earlier that day, Elphaba fell into a dreadful case of what Fiyero called 'the sulks'. She kept to herself, very quietly, and would not speak to Fiyero or accept any of his help. Glinda, troubled over her friend, attended her almost by the moment. When they made their 'camp', Fiyero was left with the horse Nessa.

While moving his hand across the horse's luxurious black body, he wondered about the real Nessarose. He hadn't really seen much of her, except maybe in a passing glance at the OzDust ballroom. A pretty little thing, dressed in pink with a pleasant, oval face, rosy cheeks and long dark brown hair. She was in a wheel-chair, though, and attended by that annoying Munchkin named Boq. He didn't see much of her after Elphaba and Glinda left for the Emerald City, and once the hunt for 'the Witch' began, he was so busy with trying to find her that he never bothered much of anything else.

"A pity," he mumbled to the horse. "I wonder what she was like."

Nessa neighed at him.

He turned his head instead to the small, black and green figure of Elphaba, huddled by herself on the other side of the camp-fire. She was still sulking, and therefore he did not intrude upon her.

Glinda, meanwhile, needed to see why Elphaba had suddenly become so separative. She crawled over from where she slept by their fire and walked over to Elphaba. To Glinda's complete surprise, she saw that her friend was doing something she had almost never seen her ever do before.

"Elphie," she said. "Are you crying?"

"No." the green woman lied.

"Please don't cry, Elphie." Glinda's little hand reached up and tried to wipe a fat, salty tear off her friend's emerald cheek, but the green woman pushed her away.

"It's Elphaba," she said a little harshly. "I'm too old for 'Elphie.'"

"Elphi...Elphaba," Glinda corrected herself. "What's wrong? You know, you've been rather distant and moodified lately. What are you thinking about?"

Elphaba shook her head.

"I'm not leaving until I get some answers, Elphaba Thropp!" Glinda said, setting her eyes sternly against her obstinate friend.

The ghost of a smile cracked across Elphaba's face.

"I didn't know you were so aggressive, Glinda."

"I guess I've become that way." Glinda sighed. "Now what's troubling you?"

"I don't know, Glinda. I just don't feel like myself anymore."

"Of course you're you, Elphaba. You're just as I remembered you."

"No, I'm different! Can't you see?" She looked down at her stomach, which still was not showing much sign of her condition. "I'm weak because of this damn pregnancy."

"Well, didn't you want it?" Glinda inquired.

"At the time, yes." Elphaba sighed. "We were drunk that night at Edoras, and..."

"And what?"

"Before the siege, we were talking, Fiyero and I." Elphaba said. "We wanted to stay there, start a new life. That was the first step of our new life. Though it was motivated by drink, we both consented to it."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I'm losing myself, Glinda!" The blond saw that her friend was tearing up again. "What's going to happen to me once I start showing? I'm going to be a hassle, unable to run, unable to fight. Then once the baby is born, if I survive it that is..."

Glinda knew that this was a sore subject. That night in their bed-room she had heard how Elphaba's mother had died giving birth to Nessarose with deformed feet, and she could tell that it was very hard for her to talk about it. Now she was being forced to face it, with the proposition that she herself might die in childbirth as well.

"You haven't been chewing milk flowers, have you?" Glinda asked.

"Just shut up, Glinda!" Elphaba snapped. "It's not like that! Because if I survive the delivery, I'm suddenly unable to do anything. I'll have to become a mother. I can't be a mother, I...I never really knew much of my mother. I was only three years old when she died, and didn't remember all that much. Can you imagine me with a baby at my breast, on the run with Fiyero? I'll be grounded forever, imprisoned and dependent!" She was now sobbing aloud.

Glinda did not know how to answer her. She knew that Elphaba prized her personal liberty and independence greatly: it was her whole reason for 'flying off the handle' that day in the attic of the Emerald Palace. She was 'the strong one' as the Wizard would say, strong enough to endure being Public Enemy number one for so long, without friends or family to call upon or offer her refuge.

She, on the other hand, was not that way. She liked acting like a slavish little girl, clinging on to the skirts and belt-loops of those stronger and smarter than her. But that was also Galinda, the old self. The new self, the grown-up, mature Glinda, had the desire to possess the strength and independence of her friend Elphaba.

But childhood had never really occurred to either of them. They were still very young, mid-twenties, and the thought of settling down and having children like 'regular folks' was entirely far-fetched in their minds. Glinda, at least, knew that being a mother made you fat, and that was something she did not wish to happen upon her. In all jesting, Elphaba was so thin that a little bit of 'baby fat' would actually make her look a little healthier in Glinda's eyes.

No, there should be no jesting. It was not a jesting matter for Elphaba, for she had to endure this. Glinda wrapped her little pale arms around her friend's neck, pulling them into an embrace. It was so shocking to see 'the strong one' so weak. Everything that she said had merit: she would start showing in the next three months, and it would be impossible for them to do any serious running or battle in her condition. And what about her needs? Surely a pregnant mother needed to eat for both herself and her child, but they ate precious little: they had no idea what was edible here in Quadling. Very soon, Glinda realized, Elphaba would become a very real liability to their group.

But she didn't say a word. She remembered their time in the East Emnet, when she herself had been a liability that was causing the group to lag behind on the trail. Elphaba and Fiyero never grudged carrying her, so why should she grudge if Elphaba's condition made life a little bit more difficult for them?

"We'll get through this, Elphie." Glinda said, slipping back to her green friend's pet-name. "One step at a time." She now felt in control, and empowered such as only once happened: when only she and Fiyero were left and Fiyero was wounded. With a tear brimming in her own eye, she kissed Elphaba's head of jet black hair. The smell of bluesap oil eminated from Elphaba's hair.

The morning dawned clear and bright, the sun rising up above the Madeleines in the far east. At last they had cleared Kumbrica's Pass. Finding a small, grassy knoll, the Ozians led Nessa up atop the knoll and looked out at the land sprawled out before them under the sunrise.

The plains known as the Disappointments stretched out before them, with the Oakhair Forest beyond that. To the northeast there sat the befouled Kellswater Lake. Between them and the Disappointments wound the Vinkus River, which led northwest all the way to the foothills beneath Kiamo Ko. To the east, the arrow-head shape of the eastern end of the Restwater Lake could be seen, along with the Pine Barrens beyond.

To their surprise, they saw that there was nothing between Restwater and the forest: the line of trees went all the way to the water's edge.

"Something's not right here," Fiyero said.

"What's wrong?" Glinda asked.

"I can't see the Road." he returned.

"Really?" Elphaba asked. "Well keep looking, its bound to be here somewhere."

"We weren't gone for that long, were we?" asked Glinda.

Just then, they saw every fiber in Fiyero's body tense up as he cast his eyes northeastward, on the other side of the Oakhair Forest. The two Ozians looked also, eager to see what had caused him to suddenly tense up.

As far as the eye could see, beyond the Oakhair Forest and the tiny gray line that was the Gilikin River, there stretched oceans of green grass all the way into the north, where they faded from view. This was the most disheartening news of all, for they should be able to at least see the lights of the Emerald City from there. The sun was high, the day was clear, they should be able to see it, for even in the day it glowed in all of its green brightness.

"What happened to the City?" Glinda gasped.

Neither Fiyero nor Elphaba had anything to say. It was too shocking to believe. They were back in Oz, that looked true enough, for there were landmarks that they knew to belong only in Oz. But they had come at a time before the Emerald City and the Yellow Brick Road had been built.

A time long before the coming of the Wizard.

(AN: Yes, they're in ancient Oz!)

(The physical depiction of Oz comes from the map from Wicked the Book. Culturally and aesthetically, I'm on my own with this 'old Oz.' Since Oz was in a sort of 'gilded age' during the time setting of Wicked and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I am thinking about taking it back to a 'medieval' Oz, during the reign of the Ozmas when there was much more magic about [and there were giants in those days. lol]. The Oz-series don't have much in regards to ancient Ozian history, nor is there much in Wicked either, so I'm on my own.)

(Any ideas or questions, people? Please, you know where to put them...in the review section, not up your anus. lol)