A/N: I know I haven't updated in weeks, but for a very good reason. This chapter is very special, so I had to take my time with it. It is very important to get it right. I hope it has been well worth the waiting and anticipating.

Isabelle did not know how to react to everything she had just stumbled upon. Numbly, she held the letter in her hand and reread the words. The words still lay written across the page and were not a dream as she thought they were. For seventeen years of her life she had lived in Kansas without ever knowing the truth of her birth, now all of a sudden it falls into her lap. Nothing in her experiences had prepared her for this.

First of all, she was home-schooled to keep her protected from questioning of other children. Secondly, she never went outside unless it was with her mother, so she hardly spoke to anyone. This was definitely hard for her to swallow all at once. However, she had to know where she came from and who she was. The only problem was, she had never heard of the Land of Oz before in her life. She was almost sure that there was no map to it either. Sure, Isabelle could ask someone where it was, but most likely they would laugh at her because she was green and Oz is not a likely place to be heard of. Then she remembered her crazy neighbor down the way who was always ranting about some made up land to anyone who would listen to her.

Perhaps, she thought, she would know something about this Land of Oz. I just hope that she is not frightened by my appearance. Isabelle, pull yourself together. No matter what she says about your appearance, her information could still prove useful.

Isabelle pulled a black cloak over her body and head and pulled soft, black gloves over her hands. Gently, she put the letter on the inside pocket of the cloak. She headed out of her house for the first time without her mother beside her. Quickly, she made her way down to her neighbor's house. It was a quiet family farm with pigs, horses, chickens, and other animals running around. Isabelle made her way down the stone path to the door. She passed a mailbox with the name Gale on the side of it.

The steps to the door of the house were steeper than she thought and she almost tripped going up them, but made it to the door. Quickly and softly, she knocked on the door and waited for an answer. After a few minutes, she decided no one was home and began to leave. When she had turned around, the door opened and she heard a voice.

"Can I help you?" the voice asked.

"I…I…I…" Isabelle stuttered before catching her breath and continuing, "My name is Isabelle Johnson and I live next door. I was wondering if I might come in for a few moments and speak with you about something important?"

"Of course dear, come in. Why, might I ask are you all covered up like that?" the woman asked as she lead Isabelle into the door.

"My appearance frightens people sometimes, so I think it best to cover myself up," Isabelle explained.

"Well, if you're more comfortable with that on, that is fine. I know your name, but you do not know mine. I'm Dorothy Gale," the woman said politely.

"Well, Ms. Gale," Isabelle began, but Dorothy interrupted.

"Call me Dorothy," she said.

"Dorothy, I was wondering about that land you were always talking about to the neighbors when I was a child. No one really told me the whole story about it when I was younger," Isabelle said.

"The Land of Oz?" Dorothy inquired.

"Yes, that's the one!" Isabelle exclaimed.

"Oh, that was a very long time ago. Let me see, it began on a day very much like this. I had run away from my aunt and uncle because I was upset about a nasty old woman taking my dog from me. I wandered upon a fortuneteller who told me that my aunt was sick and that I should go back home. Shortly after leaving a storm brewed, bringing a tornado with it. I got trapped in my house and passed out. When I woke up, I was in a strange land called Oz," Dorothy explained.

"When you were in Oz, did you know someone by the name of Elphaba?" Isabelle asked cautiously.

"Not that I know of," Dorothy replied, pausing for a moment to think, "Yes, come to think of it, yes I did. The people regarded her as the Wicked Witch of the West. Most of them were terribly afraid of her. When I encountered her, she did not seem that bad, just terribly misunderstood. At one point she held me hostage, but I never held it against her. When I was rescued, there was a great commotion. In all the fuss, I threw water on her. However, I did not know that she was allergic to it. They say it killed her."

"Oh," sighed Isabelle.

"The most memorable thing I remember about her was the fact that she was a shade of emerald green. Most thought she was weird for her color, but I thought it was a lovely shade and brought out her eyes," Dorothy stated.

"A shade like this?" Isabelle asked as she pulled the cloak off of her head to reveal her emerald skin.

"Deary me, you do resemble her very much," Dorothy gasped.

"That is because she is my birth mother. I just found out yesterday that I had a real mother. I very much wanted to know where I came from and who I belong to. Now I see that it is impossible to know who I am because she is gone," Isabelle cried.

"She is your mother?" Dorothy asked timidly.

"Yes," Isabelle replied, calming down slightly, "but I've lived here all of my life. Apparently, she hid me away to keep me safe from harm because I resembled her so much. My adoptive mother recently died in an accident and I found the letter intended for my eighteenth birthday from my birth mother, Elphaba."

"You know, Elphaba did have a sister from what I know. When I landed in Oz because of the tornado, my house crushed her beloved sister. Her name was Nessarose if I'm correct," Dorothy said.

"That is my middle name, or rather my real middle name," Isabelle said. "She must have named me after her sister. I just wish that I could have something of my mother's. There was nothing but the letter and the baby blanket I was wrapped in when I was found."

"There was something that meant the world to your mother. When I first came to Oz, a woman named Glinda the Good gave me a peculiar pair of ruby slippers. Apparently, they belonged to Nessarose and meant the world to Elphaba. I suppose that is why she came after me so fiercely," Dorothy said as she moved towards a closet.

Quietly, she opened the closet and pulled out a rectangular box. She brought the box over to Isabelle and set it in her lap. Gently, Isabelle ran her fingers over the box as if it were fragile. She sat there and stared at it intently for a few minutes, thinking of all that had happened in the past day. Finding out she had a past and another family and then learning that family's fate. It penetrated the very core of her heart. And now, to receive something that once belonged to that family, something sentimental, was very emotional to Isabelle. A small tear escaped her eye and burned her cheek. It felt like fire, but she didn't mind. These were tears that needed to be cried. Solemnly, she opened the box lid slowly. A flicker of red light glared into her eyes as the sunlight in the room caught the edge of the ruby slippers. Once her vision had refocused itself, Isabelle gazed upon the single most beautiful shoes she had ever laid eyes on. The shoes literally glittered and cast dancing sparkles around the room.

"You should have them. After all, they did belong to your family. These shoes are more powerful than you think. They brought me back home safely to Kansas, so perhaps they might bring you to Oz somehow," Dorothy said.

"How do they work?" Isabelle asked.

"Glinda told me to click my heels together and say 'There's no place like home' over and over again," Dorothy explained.

"Thank you. You don't know how much this means to me," Isabelle said. "I think it is time for me to go home now."

"You are more than welcome. Anytime you feel like stopping by, even if it's just to talk, don't hesitate to come on in," Dorothy replied.

Isabelle gathered her things and put her cloak back around her head. She walked out the front door of Dorothy's home and down the road to her own house. As she walked to her home, she clutched to shoes in their box as if they were the most important treasure in the world. Once she was safely back in her own room, she opened the shoebox again. Red glimmers of light danced around the walls of her room as they had done in Dorothy's living room. Isabelle lightly ran her fingers over the slippers. Remembering the letter in the pocket of the cloak, she pulled it out and placed it next to the ruby slippers in the box.

My eighteenth birthday is only a few days away. Since the letter was intended for my eighteenth birthday, perhaps I should wait to try the shoes. Yes, I should wait. I've waited for seventeen years of my life to find out who I am, what is a few more days going to hurt?

Isabelle decided that it was best if she waited until her eighteenth birthday to try to use the shoes to get to Oz. Until then, she shut the lid to the box and laid it on a shelf in her closet. Once she was sure the slippers were safe, she unhooked her cloak and laid down on her bed. The day's events had exhausted her and she slowly drifted to sleep, dreaming of the mother she had never known.