Captured
Chapter Four: Captured
The clatter of horses’ hooves thundering in the far-off distance broke Elphaba from her slumber. The early morning sun was just beginning to peek over the mountains ahead, painting the sky in brilliant shades of orange, pink, and yellow. On any other occasion, Elphaba might’ve taken the time to admire the sunrise, but the urgency of the situation had her shaking awake the slumbering girl in her lap.
“Glinda,” she said softly, nudging the blonde’s shoulders as gently as she could. “Wake up. We need to go.”
Glinda groaned as she shifted where she lay nestled among Elphaba’s skirts, the long black cape from the attic of the palace draped over her petite form.
“Glinda!” Elphaba hissed with more urgency. “Someone’s coming! We need to get out of here.”
That got the girl moving. She sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her brown eyes as she looked around blearily. Elphaba, as tenderly as she could, shifted herself out from underneath her friend and rose to her feet, all too aware of the horses clomping their way closer and closer.
She looked around desperately for her broomstick, sighing heavily as she spotted it lying forgotten by the river. Scooping it up, she hurried back to Glinda as the ground began rumbling with the force of the thunderous hooves drawing closer. Elphaba estimated there must’ve been at least five of them stampeding their way, and her heart lodged itself painfully in her throat.
She hurried back to where Glinda struggled to get to her feet, her face contorted in a grimace of pain.
“Can you stand?” Elphaba asked as she took stock of Glinda’s fragile state, looking like a porcelain doll on the verge of shattering.
Glinda tried to take a step, but she stumbled on her injured ankle, eliciting a wince of pain from her lips as she grabbed Elphaba’s arm to keep from falling to the ground.
“Elphaba, I’m sorry—"
“Here,” Elphaba said as she clasped a strong arm around Glinda’s bony one and pulled her up, keeping the girl’s weight off her sprained ankle as she pulled the broomstick under them with her other hand. Glinda gasped and tried to wrench herself out of Elphaba’s grip, and Elphaba remembered too late how the guards had gripped her arms in a similar way, yanking her around forcefully enough to leave bruises.
But Elphaba needed to keep her upright so that she didn’t stumble and fall on her face or do more damage to her hurt ankle. They needed to get away before whoever was quickly approaching found them and turned them back in to the Wizard. Elphaba would deal with the fallout of causing Glinda more damage later.
Making sure to keep Glinda in front of her, not trusting the girl to hold on behind her, Elphaba inclined the broomstick up toward the sky and pushed off with her booted feet just as no less than seven horses broke into the clearing that they’d just vacated.
“Stop!” The shouts of the stocky men in uniform ordered, their voices growing fainter as the two women ascended higher and higher into the bright morning sky.
Keeping one arm wrapped protectively around Glinda’s middle, Elphaba used her other hand to steer the broomstick away from their temporary sanctuary and toward the unknown, trying not to dwell on how close they’d come to capture.
“Elphaba?”
It was the first word either of them had spoken in the hours since their narrow escape. The sound of Glinda’s small voice broke Elphaba from her self-induced trance of steadily increasing panic and pulled her toward the girl in front of her.
The word was whispered like a phantom breeze, and Elphaba barely heard it over the rush of the wind against her ears. Glinda shifted where she sat uncomfortably, and Elphaba had to tighten her grip along her waist to keep her from toppling over, the broomstick swaying unsteadily with the unexpected movement.
“Be careful,” Elphaba chided softly over her pounding heart that threatened to jump out of her rib cage. One way or another, this girl would be the death of her.
“I’m sorry.”
Elphaba closed her eyes at how broken Glinda sounded. She was helpless in that moment to do anything but watch as Glinda folded into herself, tucking her head between her shoulders, giving Elphaba the impression of a turtle sliding into its shell.
The blonde in front of her was so far removed from the spirited girl she’d first met on the docks leading up to Shiz on that fateful morning so long ago. It felt like a lifetime had passed since then. Glinda had been so perky and full of life; so excited for what her future held. Looking at the girl now, looking like a wilted flower, Elphaba could hardly believe this was the same girl who’d offered to fix her unfortunate verdigris in an ill-thought-out attempt to endear herself to her adoring watchers on their first day at Shiz.
Had those moments spent on the palace tower, in the clutches of those guards, broken her so completely?
Closing her eyes to guard against the guilt that had settled uncomfortably in her gut, Elphaba leaned in closer to Glinda so that she could hear her over the rushing wind and said in her ear, “What were you going to say?”
Elphaba hated the way Glinda flinched away from her; hated how her body froze, as tense as hardened clay underneath her grip. Elphaba relaxed her grasp around her friend as much as she dared and forced herself to lean back, hatred for the Wizard and Morrible welling up within her.
“I…I was just going to ask when you planned on landing,” Glinda stammered softly.
Elphaba considered, lowering her gaze to the ground below. They’d passed the mountainous terrain, and were now flying over an empty expanse, little huts dotting the surface below. She didn’t want to stop yet, but she felt her exhaustion so acutely, and the rumbling in her stomach had refused to let up. She was sure that Glinda was faring no better, and she needed to rectify that as soon as possible.
“We can land now,” Elphaba decided, though her instincts screamed at her to keep going; to put as much distance between themselves and civilization as she could. She was taking a huge risk landing here, but she didn’t see any other choice. They needed food, and Glinda needed medical attention, none of which would be had in the middle of an empty, grassy field.
Shoving her mounting panic and worry away, Elphaba tilted the edge of the broomstick toward the ground, aiming for a small scattering of trees on the border of what appeared to be a small community of tiny huts.
Careful to keep as close to the border of the town as possible, Elphaba landed the broom behind the largest of the cluster of trees, holding on to Glinda to keep her from falling as she let the broomstick fall to the grass below.
Elphaba crossed the short distance to the large tree, setting Glinda down as carefully as she could, leaning her head back to rest against its rough trunk. It wasn’t ideal, but at least Glinda could stay out of sight while Elphaba searched for supplies. Glinda didn’t put up much of a fight as she gazed up at Elphaba, uncertainty dimming her normally bright features.
Elphaba looked away from her friend as she sank to her knees and opened the satchel slung across one shoulder. She pulled out the Grimmerie, then went to sit beside Glinda, who eyed the book with silent distaste.
“What are you doing?” Glinda asked as Elphaba flicked through the pages, her eyes skimming over the spells written in the strange, unfamiliar language.
“I’m looking for a glamour spell,” Elphaba explained distractedly, her eyes continuing to flit along the thin pages.
“Oh please, Elphaba, not another one of those reprehensifiable spells,” Glinda complained, a note of desperation in her voice. “I already told you that you don’t know what you’re doing with that!”
“Well, seeing as I can’t go into town looking like this,” she said impatiently, gesturing to herself, “and you can hardly walk, I don’t see any other option. Do you?”
Glinda flinched away from Elphaba’s irritation, lowering her gaze to her lap. Elphaba’s hands clenched into fists as she fought the urge to pick up the offending book and throw it into the nearby field. She hated being the cause of Glinda’s distress, especially when the girl had already been through so much. It pained her to see how much of her light had been dimmed.
Elphaba reluctantly closed the book and held it to her chest as she gently touched Glinda’s shoulder. Glinda kept her gaze glued to her lap, refusing to look at her.
“Glinda, can you please look at me?”
When the blonde did, she did so with watery eyes, staring at Elphaba with a desperate longing that Elphaba didn’t know what to do with.
But she pushed on, needing to make her case. She needed Glinda to understand the necessity of her actions, even knowing how much the spell book frightened her.
“We need food,” she began carefully, resisting the urge to touch Glinda’s bare knee. “And I need to find something to use as a brace for your ankle. Ideally, I’ll be able to find some salve or other medicine for the worst of your bruises, but I can’t do any of that looking like I do right now.”
Glinda said nothing to this, merely lowering her gaze back to her lap. In response, Elphaba reached out and tentatively raised the blonde’s chin with a finger, letting her touch linger to convey as much sincerity as she could.
“Do you understand? If there were any other way, I wouldn’t even consider it, but—”
Glinda’s sigh cut her off the way a knife might cut through a vegetable. “You have no choice,” Glinda finished warily, twisting her head away from Elphaba’s touch.
Elphaba’s hand was left hovering in the air, and she lowered it, not knowing what else to do. She wasn’t sure if Glinda had rejected her or simply her use of the Grimmerie, but it stung either way.
When Glinda offered no further arguments, Elphaba got up and walked a careful distance away from her just in case the spell backfired. She didn’t need for Glinda to get mixed up in this any more than she already was.
She settled in the grass a safe distance away from Glinda while remaining close enough that she could keep a close eye on her. Then, when she was sure that Glinda was safe enough, she turned her attention back to the spell book on the ground in front of her, remembering the way it had flipped open of its own accord back in the palace. She wasn’t going to get anywhere simply by flipping through its pages.
Trying to remember what she’d said and how she’d felt when she’d first used this book, Elphaba closed her eyes and let herself focus on her current need.
She pictured herself as she might’ve looked if she’d been born with her mother’s skin: a dark brown, unblemished and smooth. She imagined her green away and how it would feel to walk into a room anonymously, without drawing the unwanted attention from those around her. To be a spectator, and not the spectacle…
The quick fluttering of pages drew her eyes open and her attention down to the spell book in front of her. As in the Wizard’s Great Room, the book’s pages were turning on their own, seemingly drawn by Elphaba’s needs and desires. She wondered, as she watched the display in front of her, if she and the Grimmerie were connected somehow. If Glinda tried to concentrate and find a spell, would it have the same effect?
It was a question for another time. Elphaba focused her thoughts back on the task at hand, her mind swimming with all the implications and possibilities. If she had magic on her side while she fought for the Animals and went against the Wizard…maybe she stood a chance at being successful in her crusade?
The book stopped on a page near the back, indecipherable scribbles lining the pages in a dark, hasty scrawl. Elphaba’s eyes raked over the strange language, her brain translating the meaning of the spell she was obviously meant to cast. It looked simple enough, but the sight of the wings sprouting out of an unsuspecting Chistery while she stood there helplessly was still fresh in her mind. She didn’t need a similar incident on her hands out here in the middle of nowhere.
Casting a careful glance in Glinda’s direction, Elphaba drew in a deep breath and steeled herself for whatever was about to happen.
When she spoke, the ancient language rolled off her tongue as though it had been locked behind a dam in her mind. When the dam burst free, everything rushed out of her eagerly, magic, warmth, and power buzzing through her.
It felt exactly as it had the last time. The Grimmerie eagerly fed her its power, Elphaba merely a conduit for its intended purpose. Her body vibrated with the rush of energy, and she wanted more of it, couldn’t get enough. Her muscles clenched inside of her and her arms trembled as her green began to wash away, replaced by a deep brown.
“Elphie!”
Elphaba was hardly aware that Glinda had spoken; she could barely hear the beating of her rushing heart as the warmth of her magic spread from her arms and up her chest, sliding down to her stomach and beyond. She jerked back at the unusual sensation, wanting to both flee and drink in the strange sensations flooding her body. Had this been what Chistery and the rest of the Monkey guards had felt right before she’d given them the means by which to fly?
And then, just when she began to think that it would never end, the vibrations died down and her body returned to its normal state. Elphaba racked in deep, shuddering breaths, falling to one knee to get her bearings.
“Elphie!” Glinda called again, a note of panic in her voice. “Are you okay?”
Elphaba did not answer right away. She wanted to make sure that she was okay before she voiced a reply. The edges of her vision gradually began to clear, and the pounding in her head dulled to a distant rattle as she gathered enough courage to examine her hands.
Her usual green hue had been replaced by a smooth, dark brown. It traveled up to her wrist and disappeared inside her sleeves. She got to her feet, hardly daring to believe it as she pushed the collar of her dress aside to peer down at her collarbone and was greeted by the same dark brown that she remembered her mother being in her earliest memories.
“It worked!” Elphaba practically skipped over to Glinda, who gaped at her from her lounging position underneath the tree. “It actually worked!”
“Elphie, you—”
“I know!” Elphaba cut in, looking down at her hands again. She couldn’t tear her gaze away, enraptured. “I’m…normal!”
When she broke herself away and met Glinda’s eye, she was surprised to find a hint of sadness in her usually vibrant face. “Yes,” she whispered, examining Elphaba searchingly. Elphaba’s cheeks heated at the girl’s scrutiny. When she looked away a moment later, Elphaba was left feeling oddly empty.
Forcing herself to speak, Elphaba knelt in front of Glinda, pointedly ignoring the line of bruises marring the skin of her forearms. They looked worse today; most of them had turned an ugly deep purple but varied in size. A particularly large one lined the fleshy underside of her arm, rising upward toward her armpit. Elphaba frowned at the faint outline of a handprint.
Elphaba’s stomach twisted at the sight of them, but when she looked up and saw Glinda watching her stare at her injuries, she hastily pulled her attention from them and said the first thing that scrambled into her mind.
“I can try to glamour them, so that they aren’t…”
“No.” Glinda’s cold voice silenced her. “Thank you.”
Elphaba let another minute pass, hoping that Glinda would say something to ease the sudden awkwardness that descended upon them. She hoped that Glinda would look at her, but she pointedly looked everywhere else but Elphaba.
Finally, with a resigned sigh, Elphaba gestured to the small village on the other side of their meager hiding place. “I’m going to see what I can find. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?”
The beginnings of a smirk played upon Glinda’s lips, and Elphaba’s heart fluttered to see the ghost of her friend’s old self slip through the cracks. “I think I can manage an hour or two without you.”
“Well, let’s hope this doesn’t take that long,” Elphaba quipped, clutching the strap of her satchel in both hands like a crutch. “I’m not sure how long this glamour will hold.”
As she turned away to make her way toward the cluster of huts, Glinda’s hushed muttering gave her a brief pause, but either she was too far away, or Glinda’s voice was too quiet for Elphaba to make out what she was saying, but she thought she heard the words ‘hope’ and ‘not permanent.’
Pushing Glinda’s worries to the back of her mind, Elphaba drew herself up and focused her attention on the task at hand. She needed to find food and water, a change of clothes, and hopefully something she could use as a salve for Glinda’s bruises. She didn’t know what she was going to do about her bruised ankle, but that was a problem for another time.
As the closest hut loomed slowly into view, doubt crept its way into her brain. Was this a good idea? Would the people here somehow know who she was, even with the glamour? Was her style too obvious? Maybe she should’ve thought to glamour her outfit, put on something to blend in with the people of Winkie Country…
No. It was too late for that. She needed to get in and get out as quickly as possible. It did no good to stand out here in fear, waiting for something to happen.
With that in mind, Elphaba took a deep breath, steeled herself for whatever was waiting for her in the Winkie village, and took her first step.
The village was quiet as she approached. No hushed voices, laughter, sounds of children playing or people going about their daily lives. There was no one outside, working or playing, or talking to neighbors. It was as though the village had been abandoned.
Elphaba didn’t know whether this boded well for her or not, but she continued to make her way forward anyway.
Already her hands shook with hunger. Her stomach growled in protest over its lack of food. Neither she nor Glinda had eaten anything since the train ride to the Emerald City. Could that have only been a day ago? It felt more like a lifetime.
Trudging on, Elphaba stopped at the first hut she came across. It was large and stood out well against the vast empty grasslands. Two circular windows had been carved on either side of the door. No curtains or shutters adorned them from either side, so Elphaba cautiously peeked inside, prepared to run in case she was spotted by the hut’s occupant.
Despite not seeing anyone, the signs that the hut was occupied were there. A small table with two chairs was tucked into the far corner, dirty dinner plates with the remnants of a half-eaten meal sitting on top. A fireplace had been carved into the wall on the far right, and Elphaba could see half-burned logs lying inside. A bookshelf stuffed with books stood beside it. Past that, two doors that presumably lead to a bedroom and a bathroom were closed. Though she did not see a kitchen through her meager vantage point, Elphaba knew there had to be one.
Taking the chance, Elphaba turned her attention away from the window and toward the front door.
To her surprise, the knob turned easily at her touch. After one last look around to make sure she was truly alone, Elphaba pushed it open and dashed inside, closing the door as quietly as she could behind her.
She took a moment to lean against the door and still her racing heart, keeping one eye open in case her entrance had alerted anyone who might be hiding. When no one burst out from one of the closed doors, Elphaba took a step forward and scanned the small hut carefully for anything that could be useful.
There was indeed a kitchen, which sat on the left side of the hut, hidden from the view of the window by its unusual shape. It jutted out awkwardly from the rest of the hut in a small rectangular shape, as though it had been added on as an afterthought. She spotted a small stove and a matching white sink, cleared of dishes or the preparation of a morning meal.
Elphaba hurried toward the kitchen and began rummaging through its one cabinet, her eyes widening at the sight of bowls piled high with all kinds of fruit and bread.
She stuffed as much as she could into her satchel, regretfully leaving some behind so that she would still have room for the other supplies she needed.
Feeling better now that she could return to Glinda with some food, she crossed the small distance to the other side of the hut and opened the first closed door, finding herself in a small bathroom. Her eye was immediately drawn to a plain yet enticing bathtub against one wall. Reminding herself that Glinda was alone and waiting for her outside, she reluctantly turned her attention to the small cabinet above the vanity, sighing in relief when she spotted bandages of all sizes, a tube of salve, and a half-used roll of gauze.
She dumped it all into her satchel, then hurried into the next room, feeling a small yet pressing need to return to Glinda. She didn’t know why, but something about the emptiness of the hut was nagging at her mind. Her instincts screamed at her to leave, but she had one more thing to look for.
As she suspected, the second closed door led into a bedroom. A small square window looked out to the other side of the hut, which faced away from the spot where she’d left Glinda and gave her the perfect view of the rest of the small village. Identical huts were scattered around the vast expanse of land, and all gave the same impression of being abandoned. Elphaba remembered the plates of food that had been left on the table in the main area. It hadn’t looked all that old. Indeed, if she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought that the occupants of the hut had simply stepped outside for a moment and would return any moment.
The thought had Elphaba picking up her pace.
Prying her attention away from the window, she moved past the small bed in the middle of the room and pulled open the doors to a small closet.
The clothes weren’t anything special, but they appeared clean. Elphaba quickly pulled two simple cotton shirts and baggy black pants from their hangers and stuffed them into her now bursting satchel. The clasp did not shut, protesting its heavy bulk. She made do with leaving it unclasped and would just have to hope that nothing fell out.
She hurried out of the bedroom and crossed back to the front door, the strange nagging at her brain becoming more and more insistent with every step.
She needed to get back to Glinda.
The morning sun had risen higher in the sky, and the air was warmer against her long black dress than it had been earlier. She hadn’t expected Winkie Country to be so sunny. Beads of sweat began to form at her hairline as she picked up speed, her pressing need to return to Glinda growing with each step.
Resisting the urge to shout out to Glinda, Elphaba forced herself to remain quiet, though by now she was running. One hand kept the front of the satchel closed while her other swung awkwardly at her side as she stumbled and nearly tripped to the ground.
She bit her lip to keep from crying out, somehow managing to stay upright despite her heeled boots and the awkward weight of the satchel draped across one shoulder. She picked up her pace, hardly aware of the uneven grass that threatened to trip her again, the long tendrils feeling like fingers rising from the ground, waiting to grab her and yank her down.
As though the thought had given them life, the finger-like tendrils of grass pulled on her ankle, bringing her crashing to the ground. Elphaba groaned as her belly smacked into the hard earth. The satchel that had been threatening to burst open finally made good on its promise, falling open as it hit the ground, spilling out the fruit she’d rummaged from the hut.
“No!” Elphaba stood to hastily begin to gather it, when a familiar blood-curdling scream pierced the air, pausing her movements.
Elphaba froze, desperately hoping that her delirium and hunger had made her hallucinate. Her stomach in her throat, she picked up an apple, brushing away some of the dirt that had collected on it, and was about to stuff it back inside the satchel when a second scream had her snapping her attention to the grove of trees where Glinda was, desperate and fearful.
“ELPHIE! HELP ME!”
Elphaba knew nothing else. Dropping the apple, her legs began running on instinct as she ran with everything she had toward her terrified friend.
As she came closer to the grove of trees where she’d left Glinda, her stomach sank when she saw what had caused Glinda to cry out in panic.
She understood now why the village had been abandoned.
A group of men and women dressed in what looked to be handspun tops of wool and matching beige bottoms, surrounded her friend on all sides, thrusting makeshift spears in her face. Glinda must’ve struggled to get to her feet because she was no longer sitting against the tree where Elphaba had left her; instead, she was collapsed on the ground some feet away, her upper body propped up by one of her arms. She had her back to Elphaba, but Elphaba could see her trembling in fright as she held her other hand out in front her, the only weapon she had to defend herself.
“Glinda!” Elphaba shouted as she pushed her exhausted legs further toward the confrontation. “I’m coming!”
Glinda and the strange people all turned at the sound of her voice. Glinda tried to get up again, but two of the Winkie Country natives bent down before she could get very far and pulled her up by her arms, causing her to cry out as she struggled in vain to free herself.
Elphaba, reminded of the previous day when she’d rescued the blonde from the clutches of the Wizard’s guards, felt anger swell inside her. She felt the familiar rumbling of her magic gathering deep in her gut, but unlike the previous times when she did everything that she could to push it back down, this time she let it rise within her, prepared to fling Glinda’s captors away so she could gather her in her arms and fly them to safety.
She just needed to find her broomstick.
Elphaba closed her eyes, remembering everything that Madame Morrible had taught her back at Shiz during their lessons, before she’d exposed herself for the traitor she was, raising her hands and clenching her fingers and toes. She was prepared to inflict as much damage as she could; she’d never wanted to harm another being before, but she’d do whatever she needed to do to get Glinda to safety. Nothing else mattered.
“Ah, ah, ah,” a new voice broke into her concentration, and Elphaba’s eyes snapped open as she felt the tip of a spear poke the underside of her chin.
Two more natives stood in front of her like immovable boulders, one thrusting a spear under her chin while the other pointed his in the center of her stomach.
When Elphaba’s magic had dissipated back inside of her and her vision cleared, her eye was immediately drawn to the largest woman she had ever seen. She was as large as three regular people fused together, with no chin to speak of, and her long brown hair was pulled back into a long braid that fell all the way to her knees. Elphaba fell silent as she took the woman in, glaring at her with enough venom as possible. Immediately recognizing her as the leader of these Winkie people, Elphaba ignored the spears that threatened to pierce her flesh in favor of this massive woman.
The woman did not speak. She raked her gaze openly over Elphaba, her eyes narrowed, and lips pursed together. Her expression was unreadable as she examined Elphaba from head to toe. Elphaba felt like a piece of meat at market. She chanced a glance at Glinda, relieved to see that, while she was still held in place by her captors and had multiple spears pointed in her face, she hadn’t been carted off to an unknown location.
The massive woman, looking to where Elphaba’s attention had been drawn, smirked as she looked back at Elphaba, a cruel smile twisting her features.
“Let’s take this someplace a bit more private, shall we?”