I sense there's something in the wind/That feels like tragedy's at hand/And though I'd like to stand by him/Can't shake this feeling that I have/The worst is just around the bend…
"How is this even possible," Fiyero mumbled to himself, touching the place he had been stung. He leaned to the side stretching it out. It burned and felt sore but less so since he had been treating it with the sweetsalve tincture.
Yackle, of course, had the answer for him. "The Chiss is neither here nor there and both at once. That is why."
He rolled his eyes at her. "You're rambling, old mother."
"And you shouldn't even be here," she spat at him.
He sighed heavily and turned his back to her.
Elphaba was still awake and sitting up. Fiyero propped himself up one elbow and watched her. After a few minutes, she turned to look at him. "What is it?"
"You can't sleep, so what's on your mind?"
"Everything and nothing. Liir and Nessa. Our days at Shiz. All that time, that I thought I had lost you." She smiled and her whole face lit up. "I've been given a miracle and I never would have imagined it."
He made a sound that she couldn't quite make out. "Listen, Elphie, I should probably tell you something," he said with more than a hint of reluctance.
"What is it?"
He opened his mouth to say something and then seeming to think better of it, closed it again.
"Yero? Tell me..."
He hesitated again and looked up at her. "It's just that...I've been thinking about..."
She was getting a little irritated. "Just spit it out already!"
He sighed and appeared to make up his mind about something. "What Yackle said before about Nor. Maybe we don't actually find her and if we do maybe she won't be what I expected. Kiamo Ko needs a strong leader."
"Well that's certainly not Liir," she commented wryly.
He waved this off. "But what if it's not Nor either? My sons are dead. What if there's no legacy left to me?"
"Then we will ghost lead them."
He gave her an odd look when she said this and again seemed on the verge of saying something but remained silent. She dismissed it as confusion at her statement. "Put Nor and Liir on the throne for appearances only and from behind the scenes you and I will call the shots."
He considered it for a few minutes. "That might work. But it would only be temporary."
"True, but by the time we would have to step down we should have a worthy successor."
He shrugged and fell back into his thoughts.
Elphaba wandered in a strange dream. A heavy mist permeated about her and from somewhere lost in that mist a voice rose. "No, I couldn't be happier," they sang.
Whoever it was sounded vaguely familiar. Against her better judgement she followed. After all it was just a dream, she reasoned. If anything bad happened she would wake up.
Though it is, I admit the tiniest bit unlike I anticipated."
Her breath caught in her throat. It wasn't Turtle Heart! Couldn't be...
"But I couldn't be happier, simply couldn't be happier."
It was! She gathered her skirt and ran forward, following the voice. Thank goodness, this wasn't one of those teasing, tormenting dreams where the thing you seek moves further and further away as you chase after it.
"Cause getting your dreams it's strange, but it seems a little - well - complicated..."
She came upon the man, sitting there blowing glass, spinning it into marvelous shapes. She felt like a small child again, his actions and his mere presence here filling her with joy.
"There's a kind of a sort of cost/There's a couple of things get...lost/There are bridges you cross you didn't know you crossed until you've crossed... "
The bittersweet melody he sang tugged at her heart. She nearly wept from the beauty of it and from the joy of seeing him after so many years.
"And if that joy, that thrill doesn't thrill you like you think it will, still.../With this perfect finale the cheers and ballyhoo!, who wouldn't be happier?"
He turned and gave her a smile that was sweet and sad at the same time. He held out a trinket of spun glass for her. It was shaped like a kitten, with markings of blue and gold. Delicate, it was. She held it close and tightly, lest she drop it and it shatter.
So I couldn't be happier...," he finished, fading away before her very eyes.
She woke suddenly, a tiny gasp escaping her lips. Turtle Heart, another dear friend lost forever... She sighed and turned to the other side, facing the fire. As she did so, something clinked against a stone. She stared at the object with a measure of shock. The little glass kitten...