Guarding What We Love and Live For, Chapter 2
Glinda was the first to scream and ask “What in Ozma’s name are THOSE?”
Elphaba, equally frightened, managed to jab, “Those WERE my flying monkeys, but they don’t look like it anymore. What did that Maleficent DO to MY monkeys??”
She shot the last question accusingly at Sora who returned, “Those are Heartless! The three of us fight Heartless because they steal the hearts from people and animals and then turn THEM into Heartless!”
“WHAT?? You mean to tell me that the animals I worked my hands RAW to help learn to fly are now heart-stealing monsters?”
Riku nodded, never taking his eyes off the swiftly closing Heartless swarm and said, “That about says it all. Be lucky you aren’t dealing with Nobodies…they’re a hundred times worse.”
“But those were---were my BABIES! I worked so hard on them! To HELP THEM was my goal!” Elphaba cried out, falling to her knees.
“If I had my broom, I’d be able to do something, but that disappeared,” she muttered, looking at her hands and shaking her head.
“Don’t worry, Elphaba! We handle this kinda thing all the time!” Sora said brightly, a hand on her shoulder, drawing his Keyblade in a ready stance.
“DON’T YOU DARE HURT THEM!” Elphaba shrieked, rising to an intimidating six-foot-two as Sora quickly returned, “Listen, they’re not your flying monkeys anymore! Seriously, they’re just monsters. If you can help us, I’d really appreciate it.”
Looking up at the swarm, back at the three, then at Glinda, then at her hands, she shook her head, slumped her shoulders and said, “You’re on your own. I’m no good at destruction magic.”
Glinda laughed mirthlessly, walking up to her and only managing to be at shoulder height and said, “Good joke, Elphie-I’m sure at the next party I hold I’ll tell it-YOU ARE THE FORMER WICKED WITCH OF THE BLOODY WEST!”
“THAT DOES NOT MAKE ME SOME SORT OF DESTRUCTION MACHINE!”
“THEN WHAT CAN YOU DO????”
“Um, Elphaba, Glinda, could you save that argument till later?” Riku asked hesitantly.
“NO!” they both shot back in unison.
“My thoughts are get rid of these now while they argue. Kairi, Sora, you in?”
Sora had already leapt into the air, white-and-black designs all over his clothing as two Keyblades hovered around him, careening toward the swarm.
“Showoff,” Riku and Kairi muttered in unison.
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“You could have in the very least waited a few clock ticks prior to jumping in like that,” Elphaba snorted, glaring in Sora’s direction quite venomously.
“Oh, Elphie-give it a rest; you made those things by accident, remember?”
“Do you honestly think that those were the only ones? I was, what, twenty years old then? As much as I adore expounding on my age, the average Ozzian Monkey only lives to be about ten years old, average. Magic drains their lifespan a significant amount. That, and apparently the wings are not genetic as I had hoped-I had to cast a spell on each generation and teach them as if I were their mother. If I weren’t so delightfully single, I would be willing to take a chance for a real child, now that I’ve had practice on Monkeys.”
She sighed as she revealed just how much of a natural scientist she was at her core, rambling on about biology as if it were the weather.
“Uh, Glinda-did…you catch any of what she just said?” Sora said, a blank stare meeting Glinda’s laughing smirk.
Nodding, she said, “We learned about this kind of stuff when we were in college together. Even then, she LOVES using words no one else understands.”
“Fashion,” she nearly spat, rolling her eyes, “The only thing I don’t need to explain to you-despite your painful lack of adherence to it.”
Wrinkling her nose, she said, “Elphaba Thropp, I am not that vain and you know it!”
“Spoken from the Gillikinese woman who checks herself in every reflective surface in Oz three times before moving on…”
“That was only once, and I couldn’t help it-we were on a train and I looked like garbage! I didn’t want to see the Wizard looking like THAT!”
“So it’s like Sora insisting on going into Final Form on ANYTHING when we have guests?”
“I’m sorry? What’s Final Form?” inquired a blank-stared Elphaba.
“Oh, what I did when I took on those Heartless-it’s a little trick I got from our last big adventure and it makes me really strong and fast for a period of time…and it looks cool!”
“It doesn’t mean you need to do that to a Shadow just because that kid with glasses and a scar wet himself after seeing it.”
“Hey, when you’re in the outer worlds, you gotta show ‘em a little style!”
Glinda made a double take as she said, “That’s a good phrase; I should remember that one.”
“What, so you can justify the bouffant skirt and corset even though we’re going to be trekking through mud and grass and everything under a time constraint?”
“Shut up-you know I don’t have much else.”
“There are hundreds of shops in Emerald; why not buy something, I don’t know, functional?”
“The day you buy something other than black is the day I buy something you think is functional.”
“Then get one-I have a red traveling dress I wear on occasion.”
“You mean you still fit in that old thing?”
“I’ve been living rather lean and on the run-it doesn’t foster gaining much weight, after all-in fact, starving is not something I’ll readily re-enact.”
She sighed, rolling her eyes and said as she gestured at herself, “Everything about my life must always be beautifully tragic, I suppose…thin and stick-straight as a girder in the Emerald Tower…with the color to match,” she sighed, chuckling at herself very slightly.
“Whereas you are implying that I have grown somehow fat.”
“Well, I was not necessarily leaning in that direction, but while we are on the topic, yes-is Gillikinese cuisine really that heavy?”
Glinda sighed, stuck her tongue out at Elphaba and hugged her, saying in a muffled tone with the hug, “I could never cook…”
“I know. Never, ever try to learn-Oz is better off without your experiments.”
“Just shut up and enjoy the moment, Elphie.”
“You’re beginning to sound like me,” Elphaba purred.
Riku laughed and said, observing all this, “Y’know, I think Sora has a point-they ARE awfully close…”
“They could just be really close friends-they haven’t seen each other in a really, really long time, remember?”
“Yeah, but they sound like an old couple, arguing over the littlest things.”
“Kinda like how you and Sora always do the same thing? I mean, for example, why is the sky blue?”
“Because the air blocks the rays of other colors and we just see blue.”
“No, it’s that it reflects the water in the air!”
“No, Sora-I know I’m right.”
“No, I am right.”
“Not really, smart one…”
“Oh, so you’re calling me stupid?”
“Nah, just not very bright.”
“Say that again…”
“You need to come up with better retorts-you sound like that Xigbar guy.”
“THAT is an insult!”
“Why else would I waste it on a sap like you?”
“Why I oughta….” Sora growled before tackling Riku and throwing haphazard punches at his friend.
Riku blocked them all playfully, taunting him as they wrestled on the ground for several minutes. Sora tired out first and flopped on Riku, ready to fall asleep on his friend’s chest. It felt oddly…comfortable.
“Sora…you’ve been on me for the past hour…can you get up?”
Blushing wildly, he got up and said too loudly, “Let’s get moving!”
“And they say WE are lesbian...Oz….” Elphaba mumbled to Glinda, holding her close.
Glinda looked away, seeming to be very embarrassed, but she made sure her façade held as her friend watched as she mumbled to herself, “Not yet. Not yet for either of us.”
Elphaba was too much into the warmth of the embrace to really notice her friend’s faltering face as she smiled a little too widely to be able to hide how much she enjoyed the affection.
“So where do we go now?” Sora asked loudly, walking up to them.
“We’re following Dorothy’s path to Kiamo Ko the last time I checked. She managed to get there fairly easily, right?”
“Well, I did add a few obstacles along the way…”Elphaba sing-songed, looking up at the sky, a sheepish grin on her face.
“Oh, you’re incorrigible!”
“Well, I was bored, insane, and bitter all at once-I could have done much worse, believe me here. All I really did was add a little mischief here and there, and let Chistery’s children have a little fun with them in the Dead Forest. Please don’t chastise me about that…” she sighed, looking severely annoyed.
“Hey, at least we don’t have Heartless to worry about…just these two,” Riku said dryly, still observing them.
“But what d’you think Maleficent is planning?”
“Dunno, really. Let’s relax for now.”
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Maleficent sighed, her most venomous voice purring to Pete, “He eliminated every last one of those Heartless…”
Pete hid behind a chair as he said, “I’m sorry! I didn’t know the kid would be so strong now!”
“You FOOL! Of course he is powerful, he defeated all of the Organization XIII members with relative ease! That was a test of the HEARTLESS, not of HIM. And they are not nearly as powerful as I had hoped. Those women, though-they intrigue me greatly. When they are not obsessed with each other, they are extremely powerful in their own rights…what intrigues me is how they would function together.”
“Um, wouldn’t that be bad?”
“For whom? I wish to see just what it will take to break them; to see their power is art to me, especially when I quash it. Why else would we leave the boy and his comrades alone and unscathed so many times? They are not yet strong enough…”
“Strong enough for what?”
“Nothing I will say to a dolt who will fall prey to a trap after ignoring my instructions…”
“What should I do?”
“Nothing for the moment…they are making their way slowly but surely to our location. Then, my dear Pete, we will test their powers. This should be very entertaining…” and Maleficent cackled darkly, observing them from the scrying glass.
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Looking around as the two of them fell silent to each other continued, Glinda noticed something. They were nearing the roads that split to where Shiz University was.
“Hey, Elphie?”
“What?” she said with a hint of annoyance. The walk was tiring her greatly, and she wanted more than anything to just relax with Glinda.
“Well, if you’re going to say it like that, maybe I should not tell you…”
“Glinda, you can tell us,” Sora said brightly, leaning on Riku and Kairi’s shoulders several paces behind her and Elphaba.
“Well, remember when I told you Elphie and I went to college together?”
The three nodded.
“Well, if we take a right at this coming crossing, it’s a half a day’s walk to that college! We could get some supplies and maybe, if I’m right, run into some old friends!”
“You mean YOU can get some supplies and YOU can run into some old friends. I’m still the ugly green witch with a shoe fetish to those people,” Elphaba groaned wearily, sighing more painfully than with annoyance this time as she looked into Glinda’s eyes for a moment.
Grinning confidently, she placed her hands on her hips and stood as tall as she possibly could and looked straight into her friend’s eyes, saying, “Elphie, you’re with ME. I hold more power over people here than the Wizard himself. If there’s any place that will take you in, it’s Shiz. After all, if I remember, you never finished your Sorcery Degree.”
“Glinda, please, I’d rather just get this over with-if they do not outright burn me at the stake, they will surely be uneasy with me. Uneasy toleration is just as bad as, if not worse than overt animosity.”
“C’mon, Elphaba…it’ll be okay. Maybe you should start trusting people-it’ll get them to like you a whole lot more,” Sora said brightly.
“Oh, listen to the little sage speak to someone who is roughly twice his age.”
“Actually Elphie, he’s right.”
“Lovely. Fine, we go to Shiz…but no more side adventures, please?”
“Deal.”
Smiling for once, Elphaba said with a joking tone, “And here I thought you were going to seal it with a kiss. I mean, you’ve done everything else…”
She froze in her tracks as she looked around, licking her lips subconsciously. The “I can’t believe this is happening” look written all over her face-she knew Elphaba was joking around, but jokes like that went too far. “She’ll have to learn her lesson…” she muttered as she sighed and put on a sly grin.
She walked over and said with a seductive air, “Now, Miss Elphaba, that would be unnecessary to someone so morally straight as you…but if you insist…” and she kissed her again, feeling Elphaba’s body slump in submission, feeling the gentle warmth of those emerald lips on her own plump pink ones, smelling the scented oils Elphaba bathed with all at once.
Elphaba’s eyes were wide as dinner plates as she blushed a deep green, gasping for air as she screamed, “PERMISSION WOULD BE NICE!!!” as she shivered, teasing her hair into a haphazard braid. A tense silence followed as Elphaba attempted to regain her composure, saying, “Let’s go…I’m going to go to the nearest pub. Quickly.”
“Elphie, I didn’t know you drank…”
“Believe me…when you’ve gone through what I have, you would, too.”
She shuddered both out of a soft arousal and of thinking of the horrors Elphaba had experienced. She had just done something she had sworn not to do, no matter how tempting it was. She could see clearly that Elphaba had not taken it nearly as well as she had hoped, with the tense silence and the constant wiping of her lips as if to clear something off. For several minutes, Elphaba had avoided Glinda, often moving over Sora and the others to be as far away from Glinda as possible.
This tension hurt deeply, and noticing that things needed fixing, she said, “It’s a half a day to Shiz…maybe I could show ‘em how I travel?”
“You mean that ridiculous bubble?” she spat, more venom in her voice than usual.
“You never flew by bubble, then. It’s very soft and easy…and surprisingly fast.”
“I think I’ll pass…I will take broom any day,” she said with some softening in her tone as she stole a glance at Glinda.
All of a sudden, with a wave of her wand, Elphaba was encased in a giant pink bubble as she looked around, shock written on her face and rather vulgar words being mouthed silently.
“Let’s get going…” Glinda smirked and she encased everyone else in a bubble and they all floated with very surprising velocity to a small city of glittering towers, huge spires, and open lawns-in a word, Shiz.
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Well, ya got your next chapter…and your first Gelphie kiss…trust me, Elphie has a lot to say about that kiss in the next chapter! There is much to come-I must make things very action packed for the next one…or funny…or sexy-I’ll determine that by the comments I get. I love you guys!