And now, the end is near, and so we face, the final chapter... :)
This story has grated on my nerves for a while, because I have struggled with characterisation. But hey, it's almost over now. An epilogue and then we will be finished!
Thank you to everyone who reviewed...Even if some of them did irk me a little. :)
By the way, I'm Scottish, and I felt the need to include one of my favourite Robert Burns poems in chapter, although only by name.
Well, enjoy!
Shell Thropp, at the grand old age of six, considered himself quite the little gentleman. He was an observant, intelligent child, and had already been advanced two classes at his boarding school in the Emerald City. When the King of Vinkus pronounced him a 'fine young lad', he had been happier than a bird in springtime. The Queen ruffled his hair affectionately, and he treated the company to a lisping rendition of 'Ae Fond Kiss' by the Munchkin poet Rabbie Boq.
Melena and Frex gazed fondly at their only son, and then at the royal couple across from them. They hadn't informed Fiyero's parents of his marriage via their letter, instead preferring to drop the bombshell face to face.
Or, indeed, letting Elphaba and Fiyero drop the bombshell, face to face.
They had not even informed Nessarose or little Shell of their new 'brother'; they wanted to gauge the reactions of Biaxana and Follor first. Fiyero, as far as the younger Thropp siblings were concerned, was simply at their house on a little visit for a week or two.
"Go and fetch Fabala, sweetness!" Melena cooed, patting the little boy's dark head and propelling him in the direction of the door. He left with a cheeky grin and the royal couple smiled after him, missing the time when Fiyero, their only child, was that young.
Polite conversation filled the interim: babble about the fashions of the Vinkus [Melena had admired the Queen's striking scarlet robes] and an obscure political party in the Emerald City. Inside their respective minds, however, thoughts of a much different nature were circulating.
Biaxana wondered when Melena would bite the bullet and inform them that their children were in love, and were soon to be married.
Follor wondered where in Oz Brother Frexspar got his rather dashing hat.
Melena wondered how the Queen would react to her son being married off to a green girl in the middle of the night with no witnesses but an unnamed Minister, with no apparent way out of the union other than the death of one or both parties involved.
Frex wondered where in Oz King Follor got his rather dashing shoes.
Shell wondered why his mother wasn't answering as he tugged relentlessly on her sleeve. His little face contorted with annoyance; as the token boy of the family, he was not used to being ignored.
"Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama…Mama!" the little boy bellowed as loudly as his lungs would allow. The redhead turned her eyes upon him, as if only just realising that he was even at her side.
"Yes, my love?" Melena returned, pulling her precious son onto her lap. "Did you find Fabala?" she added as an afterthought, desperate to get the whole debacle out of the way. Shell nodded.
"Well, son, where is she? Mama asked you to fetch her, remember?" Frex smiled kindly, and Shell rolled his eyes in a perfect imitation of his older sisters. Biaxana and Follor watched from the settee opposite, smiling.
Until, that is, Shell opened his mouth and let his next words spill out happily. "Fabala is still in her room, Papa. She was playing a wrestling game with the Winkie Prince man, only they didn't have any clothes on and they were making funny noises, and it didn't look like fun, so I didn't ask to join in."
Frex coloured, Melena paled, Follor looked nonplussed and Biaxana's brow creased infinitesimally.
A moment of heavy silence passed, and Melena shook herself into the mentality of the Eminent Thropp, rather than a mother.
"Did Elphaba or the Prince see you, Shell?" she pursued grimly, thinning her full lips into a hard line to show her displeasure. Shell caught his mother's distaste, and his contented smile drooped.
"No, ma'am."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Alright. Remain here, with your father. I will go and fetch your sister from her…play." She didn't need her six year old knowing the ins and outs of adulthood quite yet, so she kept up the pretence. Biaxana followed her from the room.
Once they were out of earshot, Biaxana addressed the smaller woman without anger. "Your Eminence, would you kindly tell me what in the name of Kumbricia is going on?" Melena took a deep breath, pulling herself up to her full height in an ineffective attempt to look authoritarian.
"My daughter Elphaba and your son Fiyero were married four days ago, Your Grace, in a chapel not far from here. It was entirely without my knowledge, let me assure you! I know full well what the repercussions could be if…"
Biaxana's beaming smile silenced Melena's sentence.
"Why, is that all? That is wonderful news! I had expected you to inform us of their engagement, but a marriage? Lurline above, that saves us all a lot of time and trouble!" the Queen beamed, gathering the bewildered redhead into a bone crushing embrace.
"But-but Your Majesty-"
"You are happy to see her happy, are you not?"
"Of course I am, but-"
"Well, my dear, I do not see the problem. In the Vinkus, we are not above allowing our children to marry for love. We do not especially care where the act is performed, either. So long as they care for one another, and see each other through hard times. Isn't that what you want for Elphaba?"
"Yes. Yes it is," Melena admitted, allowing a faint smile to grace her lips and soften her grave expression. Biaxana patted her fondly on the head before taking her arm and leading her back towards the parlour.
"Then let us not interrupt our children in their pursuits, my sister. My husband must know the truth!"
When the women re-entered the parlour arm in arm, Frex was shuffling around in Follor's post box red shoes: they were far too large for him, and he giggled like a child as they almost fell off. The king sat on the velveteen settee with Frex's favourite mustard hat perched at a jaunty angle atop his ebony curls, roaring in delight. Shell's expression of perplexity was priceless. Follor took the news well, which left only three people left to tell.
Shell, who would glory at the idea of having a big brother.
Nessarose, who would find great rapture in the happiness of her sister, though would secretly wonder when the same lucky chance would befall her.
And Glinda, who, unbeknownst to anyone but Elphaba, already knew.
When she had opened the letter, Glinda Upland had not been able to believe her eyes. She had been in the middle of a piano lesson, and had rather frightened her poor instructor by laughing in hysterical delight one minute then steadily dissolving into angry tears the next. The Gillikinese girl had been exuberant at Elphie's forgiveness, and had chuckled gleefully when her friend launched into her out of character display of joy, and had even felt her heart soar in happiness for her once unhappy friend when she learned that she would be married.
But then the face of her grandfather swam into her mind. The image only lasted a moment, and she shook it away; Elphaba deserved to be happy, and there was no way that Rilt would ever have given her that.
Glinda cried angrily because she had not known sooner, and therefore had been denied the opportunity of wearing her stunning new dress, shoes and hat ensemble in the most divine lemon colour. In the candlelight of a church, it would have set off her golden curls beautifully.
Resolved to berate Elphaba for this oversight, the little blonde immediately ordered her carriage, packed four suitcases [one never knew what kind of clothes one would need on a trip to visit important friends!] kissed her parents artfully on both cheeks, and set off for Munchkinland.
"I cannot believe your parents took it so well!" Elphaba cried enthusiastically, twisting her waterfall of raven hair back into a rather untidy bun. Fiyero helpfully skewered it with a few hairpins thrust in at random angles. Surprisingly, it held, and the young woman turned to her husband and gazed up at him from the stool at her dressing table.
He stood tall and resplendent, with a new air of dignity and maturity about him as he ran one long thumb affectionately across her high cheekbone.
"No, I don't believe it myself," he chuckled, dropping to his knees in front of her. Kneeling on the floor, he was nose to nose with her sitting above him.
Elphaba groaned and pretended to push down on his head, as though trying to take inches off his impressive height. He sank obligingly from his knees and ended up cross legged in front of her.
"Why can't you shrink a bit?" she moaned, pouting childishly. Fiyero laughed fondly and pulled her legs into his lap.
"Why can't you grow a bit?" he retorted teasingly, tracing soothing circles on the top of her left foot with his forefinger.
"Were you ever a dancer, Fae?" the young man asked, noticing the definition and elegance of her calf muscles. The green girl shrugged and looked away, her brown eyes a little embarrassed.
"You were, weren't you! Oz, I had no idea! What kind of dancing did you do?"
"Oh, Yero. I haven't danced for about ten months, and I don't expect I ever will again. I don't want to talk about it,"
"You can't expect me to lie between these beautiful legs every night and not tell me their history!" Fiyero pleaded, noticing Elphaba irritated glare was accompanied by a slightly lopsided smile. He kissed her hand gently, trying [and failing] to look seductively up at her from under his eyelashes. She batted him away, laughing.
"Stop it, you fool!" she chortled. "Alright, alright. I was a ballet dancer. I have been since I was…Oz, since I was about three. I'm a singer too, you might as well know that while we're at it. Nessa is a better dancer, but I'm a better singer. I'm a classical soprano," Elphaba added with a slightly superior tone. Fiyero was surprised.
"Really? And why am I only hearing about this now?" he gasped, rising back to his feet, pulling her with him while sliding his arms around her slender waist.
"You never asked!" his wife shot back, poking her tongue out at him.
"Hm." was all Fiyero could think of to say, and rather than let Elphaba think that she had won the little non-argument, he kissed her instead. "I think you should keep dancing…It's sexy." he added as a little aside, and all his verdant wife could do was smile wryly before her disparaging reply was silenced by his soft lips.
"El-phieee!" Glinda shrieked, waving one tiny hand out of the window as Elphaba approached on her horse. The green girl squinted ahead, urging Wit forward towards the ravishing white carriage. The blonde screamed shrilly and tottered down the little steps onto the gravel, twisting her ankle slightly in her new shoes [the lemon ones].
Wit turned his head back to Elphaba who patted his neck reassuringly then dismounted. She had to contain a laugh at the disgusted expression in his soulful black eyes as he took in the squealing, bouncing girl.
"Glinny! It's so wonderfu-" Elphaba began, but found all of the air squeezed from her body when Glinda took her into her arms for a tight hug.
The blonde, on the other hand, somehow retained enough air to gabble at full speed. "Oh, Elphie! I missed you so much! I thought that you were never going to reply to that letter, but then you did and you forgave me and, oh my Oz! That must mean that you're married to Fiyero by now!"
Here, she paused for breath. Elphaba tried to speak, but Glinda began again.
"It's just too wonderful that you married him even after I did all that horrible thing to you! I'm so happy for you! But then again I am a little mad at you, because you didn't get engaged sooner so that meant that I couldn't wear my new yellow outfit to your wedding, and, well, Elphie, that wasn't nice!" she shrieked, her mood swinging unexpectedly into a rage.
Her petite hand suddenly whipped up from her side and caught Elphaba straight on the cheek.
Glinda exhaled peacefully, all of her pent up energy gone. She was grateful when her friend laughed off the little slap that always allowed her to let off steam.
"Feel better now?" Elphaba smiled sweetly, something lurking behind the friendliness in her dark eyes.
"Yes, thank you, I do!" Glinda beamed in return. Abruptly, Elphaba wiped the smile from her perfect little face with a stinging slap of her own.
"Good, so do I." Her smile was genuinely content now, as though slapping Glinda was something she had wanted to do for a long time. The blonde's lip trembled, but then she brushed it aside. If either of them had deserved that slap, it was herself, especially after the way she had treated her friend at Kiamo Ko.
"I really did miss you, Lin," Elphaba murmured apologetically a few moments later, gripping the hand that the blonde had slapped her with tightly within her own. Glinda's green eyes softened.
"I missed you too, dear," she smiled. Now that her pent up energy had been released, she could afford to take her friend into a more sedate hug.
Fiyero watched from the window, utterly confused. He never would understand women…But when Elphaba tossed back her head and laughed, he realised that just maybe, one day, he might understand at least a little bit of her.
He didn't mind spending his whole life trying.
:D