Sorry this one took so long. It's been kind of a crazy week for me, and I'm also still working out some of the finer details about where I want this story to go. Thanks once again to everyone who's been reviewing. You're awesome and I love hearing from you. I hope you like this chapter, I think on the whole I'm fairly happy with it.
Also as I post this, this story has 399 reviews, which is a crazy number as it is. So, who wants to give me my 400th? You'll be super cool if you do!
Fiyero was slightly shell shocked. That seemed to happen to him quite often when Elphaba was involved. One second they'd been having a perfectly pleasant conversation and the next she was gone. He stood for a moment, trying not to panic as his mind raced.
He couldn't just run off and leave Glinda and the Lion on their own. They were fast asleep and would be unable to run or to defend themselves if someone found them. Yet at the same time Fiyero was just itching to run off after Elphaba. He knew that was the last thing she'd want him to do, but he supposed now was not the time to start taking that into account.
After a few moments Fiyero finally convinced his legs to move. He turned and ran back toward Glinda and the Lion. "You two! Get up! Someone may have found us," he said. He tried to say it loud enough to rouse them, but still kept his voice low enough that it wouldn't carry to those looking for them. He crouched down and placed his hands on Glinda's shoulders, gently attempting to shake her awake.
Glinda's eyes fluttered open. "Fiyero?" she mumbled. He could hear the confusion in her voice. To their right, the Lion shot up into a sitting position.
"Whozzat?" he shouted in alarm. Fiyero shushed him.
"Get up. We may be in trouble. There were footsteps nearby. Elphaba flew off to check it out," he said quickly.
The two were on their feet in seconds. Fiyero turned his head wildly, straining his ears for any sign of what might be going on. A moment later he could hear shouts coming from the direction Elphaba had headed.
The three looked at each other. Before anyone could react, Fiyero shouted, "Wait here!" and ran off towards the sound of the disturbance.
Fiyero sprinted for all he was worth. He stumbled as his foot snagged a tree root, but it didn't deter him. After a few moments he stopped, glancing around frantically again for something to tell him which way to go. He heard the shouting, slightly louder now, ahead and to the left. He took off again.
Fiyero was already breathing heavily by the time he could make out figures in the distance. As he came upon the scene, he leaned up against a tree for support and kept out of sight.
It was members of the Gale Force as they had feared, but to Fiyero's relief it appeared to be a scouting party. There were only five guards in the group. There were likely more men in the nearby area, but Fiyero hoped to be far away before they could call for backup.
The guards had their gazes fixed on the sky. Looking up, Fiyero could see Elphaba perched on her broomstick high above them. His heartbeat quickened. Apparently she hadn't been able to avoid being spotted.
Fiyero wasn't sure what to do. He wouldn't be a match for five guards on his own, especially without any kind of weapon at his disposal. He could run back and attempt to take Glinda and the Lion to safety, but that might mean losing track of Elphaba again, and Fiyero couldn't bring himself to risk it.
He was still running frantically through various scenarios in his head when the sound of a gunshot nearly scared him out of his skin. One of the guards was pointing his smoking rifle skywards. He had clearly panicked and fired his weapon without orders, for the four men around him seemed as startled by the sudden noise as Fiyero was.
Fiyero glanced upwards at Elphaba and was relieved to find that the guard had clearly missed his target. She hovered in place for a moment, and then in the next second she swooped down in front of the guards, clearly intent on taking advantage of their momentary confusion.
The next few moments were a blur of panicked shouts and motion. The one guard who had his rifle out had not yet reloaded, but the other members of the party were already reaching for their weapons. Fiyero found himself preparing to dart from his hiding place.
It was the sudden change in the air that stopped him. All at once it seemed to have taken on some sort of static charge, and the hairs on the back of Fiyero's neck stood up. He could see that Elphaba's hair and cloak had begun to whip around her, though Fiyero could not detect even the slightest gust of wind from where he was standing.
The guards had frozen in place, though it seemed to be from fear, not from magic. Fiyero could see now that they were all fairly young, possibly just out of training. Some of them were clutching their guns close to their chest, but they seemed to have forgotten how to use them. Elphaba, for her part, looked as menacing as Fiyero had ever seen her. She had pulled the brim of her hat low so that it cast an eerie shadow over her face, and the unnatural wind whipping at her clothes and hair only seemed to add to the effect.
In the next moment five rifles went flying in five different directions, ripped from their hapless owners' arms, and the last of the guards' courage seemed to fly away with them. Abandoning all sense of duty, all five men practically stumbled over each other in their haste to turn tail and flee. Fiyero found himself slightly appalled by their utter cowardice. Clearly whoever had replaced him as captain of the guard wasn't running a tight enough ship.
A loud crack split the air and Fiyero flinched and turned away involuntarily. For a moment he thought it was another gunshot, but the sound was different somehow. When he turned back to the scene it was to find Elphaba with one hand raised in the air and five guards sprawled across the ground in uncomfortable looking positions.
Elphaba began to look around wildly, as though she couldn't remember what direction she'd come from. Fiyero took that as his cue and stepped from his hiding place.
"Elphaba!" he shouted, waving her over. She seemed aggravated by his presence but not entirely surprised. She hastened her steps.
"Where are the others?" she asked. He could see she was slightly out of breath and her hair looked windswept.
"I woke them up and told them to wait where they were," Fiyero said, though he was not quite paying attention. He was distracted by the sight of the guards still lying in the clearing.
After a moment he asked tentatively, "Are they…." He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. He didn't want to imagine Elphaba would carelessly murder five men in cold blood, but he realized he didn't actually quite know what she was capable of.
It seemed to take Ephaba a few moments to gauge his meaning, but when she did she looked affronted. "Of course not!" she said, as though it were the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard, "They're unconscious."
Fiyero nodded, trying not to let his relief show quite so plainly on his face. Without another word, he turned and began jogging back toward where he'd left Glinda and the Lion. He could hear Elphaba following behind him on foot, her broom tucked under her right arm. Fiyero realized how much this was slowing Elphaba down. She could have hopped on her broom and been miles away by now if she didn't have three tagalongs to keep an eye on.
They reached Glinda five minutes later, and Fiyero thanked whatever gods might be listening that he'd actually managed to find the way back. She seemed extremely anxious, and Fiyero noted with some apprehension that the Lion was nowhere in sight.
As he drew closer, Fiyero could see that Glinda was less than pleased with him. "Fiyero Tiggular, how dare you just wake us up and then go running off and leave us here!" she huffed, hands placed on her hips.
Fiyero winced and responded, "I'm sorry! I didn't really have time to think clearly."
Glinda didn't acknowledge his apology, but instead turned and directed her attention to Elphaba. She seemed to grow concerned when she laid eyes on her friend. Elphaba had paled considerably, and she was still breathing heavily from their brief jog through the forest. She looked as though she were about to collapse, and it seemed whatever Glinda had been about to say was momentarily forgotten.
In the small stretch of silence, Fiyero finally voiced his concern, "Where's the Lion?"
Glinda threw her hands up, exasperated. "He ran off! Fat lot of good he would have been if something had happened! He left me on my own without a second thought. We heard gunshots or something. It scared him witless and he ran off into the forest," she explained.
Fiyero glanced around, but he knew it would be near impossible to look for the Lion now. The Cat was faster than they were, and they had no idea which direction he'd gone. Fiyero could only hope the Lion had managed to get to safety and would be able to take care of himself.
After a moment, Glinda asked, "What happened anyway? What did you two find?"
Elphaba managed to answer Glinda's question in between her gasps for breath, "Just a small group of Gale Forcers, but there may be more nearby. We need to move." She was staring off into the forest, and Fiyero could tell she as also torn about leaving the Lion behind.
He could also see the state Elphaba was in. He imagined between the lack of proper food and rest, her display of magic must have taken a lot out of her. "Are you sure you're up to that right now? You look like you need to rest," he said.
Elphaba only narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm fine, and we don't have a choice. We need to put at least a fair amount of distance between ourselves and the guards back there. We'll stop to rest as soon as possible, but if we don't go now we'll almost certainly be caught."
Fiyero saw the truth in her words, but he was still reluctant to agree with them. Elphaba wasn't the only one looking worn out. None of them had really had a proper rest since the day before, and even then only for a few short hours. He wondered how long they could push themselves like this before someone gave out.
Still, there was no use arguing about it right now, and so Fiyero slowly began forcing his reluctant legs into motion. With one last glance behind to make sure they weren't being followed, the three of them took off toward Kiamo Ko once more.
We're getting there, slowly but surely. I had a bit of fun with this one, because I enjoy writing Elphaba being kind of badass. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. See you next time!
S.P.