Disclaimer: Wicked isn't mine. Simple as that.
A/N: Before any of you feel the need to berate me about my extended absence, I know. I was gone for a long time. It's funny how you think that summer should give you more time to work on things when you're out of school, but in real life, you spend only a small fraction of that time actually doing anything productive :P. Add on to that summer coursework and the like, and you end up with little motivation to actually work on other things. I will try to promise that this story will be finished (because if there's one thing I hate, it's an enjoyable story that just stopped being updated all of a sudden for no clear reason), but I don't know if I can keep that promise or not. One thing's for certain, though: I will definitely try. Thanks for reading through all of this, and special thanks to Thedoctor24601 for your encouraging review. And now, without further ado, enjoy the chapter!
It had been about an hour since the strange pair set out on their walk, draped in cloaks to conceal their identities from anyone they might run into. The sun was now a little above the horizon, the sky just beginning to fade into the orange-red colors typical of a sunset. Leon estimated it to be another half-hour before it could be considered dusk, and the Lion was getting more and more nervous. He wished he had been more specific in the letter, for he was now unsure of where to go. He could only be glad that the forest wasn't terribly large, or else he feared he would have no chance of finding the people that he was looking for. He could hear a voice talking behind him, but lost in his thoughts as he was, he hardly heard it.
The person in possession of the voice, meanwhile, was a tad confused (and more than a tad annoyed) about Leon's distracted state. She knew that he had said that he wanted to clear his head during the walk, but the least he could do is hold a conversation with her.
"Leon?" The Witch asked impatiently, attempting for the nth time to get his attention.
"Hmm?" came a distant reply. The green woman started slightly, not having expected to get a response.
"Oh, so do I have your attention now?"
"What? Oh yeah, sure, go on," he said, taking another glance at the setting sun. The Witch's eyes narrowed, but she continued.
"Right. Don't you think we should start heading back? It'll be getting dark soon."
Don't remind me, Leon thought, though he didn't voice it. Thinking quickly, he turned to the Witch.
"Oh, come on!" he said pleadingly yet jokingly at the same time. "Just a little bit longer?" The Witch looked at him for a long moment, raising an eyebrow, but eventually, she conceded.
"All right, fine. I just hope you know what you're doing."
"Oh, I do." All too well.
"You sure? You keep moving your head around like you're looking for something." Her eyes widened slightly before closing in frustration. "Leon… please don't tell me we're lost," she half-growled, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"I know where we're going," he said, turning around and glaring at the woman under the shadow of his cloak. It wasn't a complete lie, at the very least.
"Okay, then," she said, raising her arms up in mock defeat, though her tone made it clear she didn't completely believe him.
The two continued in silence for a decent amount of time—Leon supposed about 20 minutes or so, but counting down the time left until the deadline was not exactly high on his list of priorities. Whenever he could, he would steal a glance towards the lining of the forest, which they had approached shortly after their little conversation, looking out for any glimpse of light coming from a torch or any other light source the Gale Force might have (as it was now getting dark enough to warrant using one). It was only once the sun had almost completely gone under the horizon and he had nearly given himself a heart attack (though he was sure he would actually have done so if it wouldn't have aroused suspicion from his present company) that he detected light coming from a short distance away. It appeared to be coming from one of about ten braziers standing on the ground, seemingly outlining a small camp. Leon could tell that this was what he had been looking for, but before he could figure out how to get the Witch over to it, she saw it as well.
"What's that?" she muttered, more so to herself than Leon. Just then, a flash of green came from a figure crossing in front of one of the flames, and she let out a small gasp. "Leon, we need to move," she stated urgently.
"Why?" he asked, attempting to feign ignorance. She quickly shushed him, holding a finger over his snout.
"Quiet!" she whispered harshly. "Don't you see who those people are? They're Gale Forcers! We cannot afford to draw their attention. Got it?" He nodded wordlessly, and the Witch withdrew her finger from the tip of his snout. "Good. We need to turn back. Now." Though he was expecting the sight of the soldiers to elicit a bit of a frantic reaction from her, the Lion was still taken aback by the intensity of her outburst. Thinking quickly, he reached towards the Witch, who had turned and begun walking in order to retreat as swiftly as possible.
"Wait!" he half-whispered and half-shouted. The woman whipped around in annoyance.
"What?!"
"Well…" he started, racking his brain for excuses to keep moving forward. "If we go back farther into the woods, they can't see us, right?" The Witch narrowed her eyes.
"No means no, Leon," she said, almost exasperatedly, "and don't try to convince me otherwise." She made to turn away again, and Leon shot out his arm in a last-ditch effort to get her to keep moving towards the camp.
"Wait!" he cried out in a shushed voice, grabbing onto her shoulder in the process. She snapped her body back to face him, a sudden spark of fury in her eyes.
"What?! Why do you want to keep going on so badly?!" she inadvertently shouted. By the time she had realized her mistake, it was too late. Clasping a hand over her mouth in horror, she could only watch as the soldiers in the camp turned around in confusion at the sudden noise.
"What was that?" she could hear a soldier wonder out loud in the distance.
"I don't know, but let's find out," another soldier, presumably a captain, replied. The woman began running in the opposite direction of the now-approaching soldiers, but the run was abruptly cut short by a pair of strong hands wrapping around her body. She turned her head to face her captor but was surprised to find herself looking into the face of a very familiar Lion. That surprise quickly turned to anger, however, as she struggled to break free of his grasp.
"Leon?!" she shouted. "What are you doing?!" He said nothing as he positioned himself to face the group of soldiers, his face completely obscured by the shadow of his cloak. The Witch continued struggling, but her efforts were in vain, as she soon found herself being pushed straight into the arms of the soldiers by the one whom she had considered to be her friend. The hood of the cloak slipped off her head, revealing her face, which caused the soldiers to gasp in shock and murmur amongst each other in surprise as they realized who she was. She faced the black silhouette of the Lion, covered in the shroud of darkness, as two of the soldiers grabbed ahold of her wrists, stretching her arms out to either side.
"There she is, as promised," she heard the Lion rumble in a stoic voice. Her eyes widened in a mix of shock and outrage as she realized what he had really been doing for the entirety of their walk.
"This… was a trap?" she asked incredulously. Her eyes suddenly narrowed dangerously. "You intentionally led me here?" she questioned, her tone growing progressively more furious as she talked. The soldiers kept a strong grip on her, but they grew quite fearful of the Witch as the one-sided conversation continued. "What the hell have I ever done to you to warrant this, Leon?!" she suddenly shouted, on the verge of screaming and her anger almost at its peak. The cloaked figure bristled visibly at this sudden outburst but otherwise remained completely still. Not giving the figure time to respond, she continued to scream, "After everything we did together when you were young, what did I ever do to-"
"Quiet!" Leon abruptly belted in a deep roar, careful to ensure that his body was still hidden from sight under his cloak. "You want to know what you did so badly? Well, fine then, I'll tell you! I was almost killed because of you! In fact, my entire family, my friends, everyone that I held dear to my heart was killed because of you! Even though it may not look like it from your perspective, my life has been an emotional wreck ever since the day you left, and you have the unadulterated audacity to ask what you have ever done to me?!" The emerald-skinned woman was shocked into silence at the Lion's harsh words, but she was about to talk once more when she caught a glimpse of his face as the light from a torch briefly illuminated it. In that moment, she saw an all-too-familiar look etched across his face. It was one of suffering, of torment, and in his eyes—oh, in his eyes—lay tears on the verge of falling, capable of being borne only from a life as traumatic as his story told. It was in that instant that she had realized that he was somehow, in some way, telling the truth. She shut her mouth once again as the image vanished from sight, the cloak whipping around as he turned his back to the group, solemnly stating in a suddenly calm and soft voice, "Do with her what you will. I have no need for someone like her anymore." And neither of the two said anything more as the Lion stalked back into the forest, never once looking back.
I know, it's a bit short compared to some of the other chapters, but this cutoff point was just so perfect that I couldn't not cut the chapter off here. Stay tuned for part two, and in the meantime, be sure to review! Who knows, if I get enough reviews, I may only make you wait three months this time instead of four :P. See you in the next update!