~oz THREE zo~
The trees grew around her like claws, cutting the light of the sun above her into jagged shards. Elphaba swallowed down her nerves and pursued into the thickets in search of what she needed. The wildflowers and rosehips wouldn't be hard to find, there was a patch of them every three feet once you got deep enough into the forest. Sage would be a little harder to find and she was sure mandrake would be near impossible to cultivate till autumn. Even if she found one it would have to fit the Witch's standards. Spells and potions were fickle things, the wrong ingredient could throw it all off.
Up ahead of her was a break in the trees, a small clearing. She pushed through a set of bushes, her ankles scraping against the branches as she did. She looked up at the canopy of leaves above her as she set her bucket down hoping for the sight of…
Fruit! She thanked Ozma for her luck at the sight of a solitary pear dangling low on a nearby tree. Edible things in this forest were rare, the trees didn't bear fruit like they used to. She moved under it and reached a hand up to grab it.
"Ow!" She let out a sharp cry as an arrow lodged itself in the branch, scraping the skin on her palm as it whizzed by. She cradled her bleeding hand and looked back at the shadowy part of the clearing the arrow had traveled from.
"Sorry," A voice that did not sound sorry at all spoke up, "I'm hungry, and I'll be needing that."
She scowled, "I'm hungry, too." As if the sight of her bony and meatless body weren't enough proof of that!
The man who was speaking to her stepped through the trees into what little light made it through to the forest floor. A cocky smile sat on the face of a tan young man, his night-black hair was thick and pulled back into a wild ponytail, held in place with a scrap of leather. In his well-toned arms he held a bow and another arrow, poised to strike.
"Alright, so we're both hungry." He said, "But I'm bigger and stronger, aren't I? There isn't a lot you can do to… I'm sorry, are you green or is that just what the shadows do here?"
The distraction of her skin was all she needed. Bigger and stronger, he said? Well, she would show him. She charged him like a bull; some hidden strength in her bony body pushed through and took him to the ground. Elphaba's hands found the collar of his shirt and tugged it up, her knees pinned into his arms and kept him from raising his weapons.
"Listen you," She spat into his face, "I have plenty of people I need to take that sort of muck from, there are enough people in my life I'm not allowed to talk back to. I won't take any disrespect from you, whoever you are, you will treat me like the Person that I am!"
His eyes were wide with shock and perhaps a twinge of admiration. He sat motionless, his mouth gaping as this small twig of a girl effectively disarmed and pinned him to the forest floor. He tried to search for words.
"What? Nothing to say?" Elphaba barked, "I suggest you stay on the ground while I go eat the only food I'm likely to have today."
She wretched the arrow from his hand and brought herself to her feet, grabbing his holster of spare arrows for good measure. She watched him with caution as she backed up towards the pear tree and plucked it from its branches. Still scowling, she took her first bite, his weapons dropped at her feet.
"I haven't had anything to eat in a while, you know." He said eventually, "I can't be held accountable for what my stomach makes me do. There's nothing to hunt here."
Elphaba gave him an apathetic stare, "Most of the things here hunt you."
"Including the unassuming green women, it seems. What are you, some sort of tree demon?"
Elphaba cackled bitterly, "I'm just a girl, I'm sorry if it hurts your masculinity that I was able to knock you down. It's your own fault for being an ass."
"You could at least share that with me."
Elphaba took a large chunk of fruit in her teeth to mock him, "Not after you shot at me, you can find your own."
He frowned back at her and quickly adjusted his tone to a more pleasing one, it was clear that he was used to his charm winning people over and he was trying it on her, "My name is Fiyero, can I know yours?"
She began chewing on the core in lieu of answering him.
He rolled his eyes and settled back down into the dirt, "I can't imagine you have many friends. Why are you green?"
"That's a rude question."
Fiyero stood up and she stiffened. He held his arms out in a defeated gesture to let her know he meant no harm. She continued to stare at him in suspicion. He scoffed at her and moved closer, "Give me my arrows back." After receiving silence from her he added a wry "Please."
Elphaba finished up the fruit, wiping the juice on the hem of her torn skirt, "Will you try to shoot at me again?"
"Probably yes, you're very annoying."
She waved an arrow in his direction, making herself look as dangerous as possible, "You're not making a good case for yourself. I could leave you in the woods to die with no protection if you keep that up." She enjoyed the look of frustration growing on his face. He drew closer, about ready to start round two on their fight. Their faces were inches from each other.
He was ready to answer when a crow cawed above the pair. Elphaba cursed and looked up toward the noise. The crow cawed again, a warning to her.
"Shit," She said to herself, "I've got more important things to do than this!"
She abandoned her station and reached for her bucket, launching herself through a thicket of trees.
"Wait!" He called after her.
"Ugh, what?" She snapped at him.
He stood before her dumbly, not bothering to reach for his arrows after all that nonsense they had just gone through, "Where are you going? Hey! We're not finished here!"
She shook her head at him and turned to pursue her groceries. She heard him protest once more before he fell out of earshot. She tried to convince herself that the stranger who called himself Fiyero had not been very handsome. She would spend the rest of the day convincing herself of that and hoping that she would not meet him again. Unfortunately for Elphaba, their paths would cross many more times.
~oz THREE zo~