Across the Shifting Sands [Caltori]

[Zaxal]

She knew from the moment she woke up that she wasn't where she had fallen asleep, hiding in the woods on the edge of Winkie territory. Instead of brambles and an uncomfortable forest floor, she was laying down on sand, a bright, hot sun beating down on her.

Elphaba's eyes snapped open, and she began pushing through the sand, eyes scanning for sight of the Grimmerie or her broomstick. Her stomach twisted into a knot, fear and anger. The Wizard and Madam Morrible must have sent someone to take her out of Oz and leave her to die in the Shifting Sands that surrounded it.

Well, she wasn't going to take that. With a scowl, she reached for her pointed hat that sat innocently on the ground nearby, pulling it on top of her head and lifting her head. She could see mountains in the distance, a landmark that she immediately set her sights on.

It was better than nothing. She'd get back to Oz and find something else to perform the flying spell on, and she'd send a message. And get the Grimmerie back before something more awful than before happened.

Elphaba shivered, remembering the screams of the monkeys as the leathery wings sprouted from their back. Yes, she definitely had to get home before it got worse than this.

She rolled up the sleeves of her dress, tugging the cloak around her to shield her green skin from the sun, and she set off, step after step, ignoring the dryness in her throat and the heat that made her as equally dizzy as the flurry of emotions storming in her chest.

She would not die out here, silenced like the Wizard was silencing Animals, destroyed and forgotten. She would get back, and she would show them all.

Though she considered it a shame that she hadn't at least learned a simple rain spell from Madam Morrible before discovering that she was an evil, conniving snake. She could've used it right about now.

[Chinchilla]

Let there never be another Rest Day for Teresth's wing as long as the brown lived.

She was bored. No, not just bored. Bored was the understatement of the century. Tereseth was literally going out of her mind. She was sure that her brain-fluid was leaking from her ear-holes. She was sure that the entire world was going to break from the sheer quantity of boredom and that she would become a freakish reverse-Lost and would be trapped in the land of the meat-roll men or something.

It would be a tasty world, but not a very filling one.

The brown couldn't stand another second of laying around in the sun, pretending that she wasn't being driven mad by the fact she couldn't torture her wing for day. She had to stretch her wings. Did Caltori want her to get out of shape? The brown stood, dropping into a cat-like stretch that produced a very satisfying series of pops from her joints.

[Caltori.] Teresth called to her rider. [We are going for a flight.] She didn't care that she was probably interrupting Caltori's paperwork. Caltori deserved to be interrupted. What kind of cruel woman left her dragon to suffer on a weyrledge?

Are we? Caltori asked, already getting up from her chair. Though she couldn't resist a bit of teasing, she knew that there was no point arguing with Teresth when she got into one of her restless moods. I don't know, Teresth, my back...

[There is nothing wrong with your back.] The impatient dragon snapped. [Riding straps! Come on, woman! I want to fly! I have been sitting on this ledge for hours and my wings are cramped.]

"Alright, sheesh!" Caltori rolled her eyes, walking out of her weyr. Securing the straps was a simple, quick affair due to the experience of the rider and dragon. Within a matter of minutes, Caltori was pulling herself onto Teresth's back and the dragon was launching herself into the air.

So, where to?

[Desert.]

To say that Teresth hadn't been expecting to see a person on her flight was an understatement. Humans did not usually choose to take the scenic route through the desert. Teresth could not properly make out much about the mystery person's features, but she could guess what they were doing there.

[Caltori. One of the ones from the desert. Contacting her now.] She didn't bother to wait and ask permission. Why would she? Instead, she reached out to the long figure in the sand. [This is Teresth of Igen Weyr. We are landing near you. If you require assistance, we can transport you back to the Weyr for medical attention or supplies.] She wasn't expecting the mystery figure to know what a Weyr was, but she supposed it was safe to ask just in case she was dealing with a lost Trader and not, well, a Lost.

The brown flared her wings, pulling back and attempting to land as gracefully as a fifty meter dragon could. It wasn't particularly easy, as Teresth wasn't exactly the lightest dragon and the sand was soft and slid easily underneath her bulk. But she did her best to look dignified and noble. She peered down at the cloaked figure, folding her wings to her back.

Caltori leaned so that she was no longer hidden behind Teresth's neck. "Hey! Need a lift?" She asked, hesitating only a bit when she noticed the odd color of the woman's skin. Whatever. Igen had a seriously weird dragon and what appeared to be a kid with horns. A green lady was the least of their concerns. "If you don't know where you're going, you're not going to make it out of the desert before nightfall. It's dangerous to be around here at night."

Whers liked to eat people.

[It is not dangerous for me.]

You're a dragon. She's not.

[Zaxal]

The voice in her head was the first real indication that something had gone very, very wrong. Elphaba decided grimly that it had to be some form of magic she hadn't learned yet and immediately began searching for the source. Witches and wizards didn't have that kind of reach, so whoever was conjuring had to be nearby. And if they were, she'd give them a stern talking to in a tongue she barely understood until they were incapacitated. Even if she didn't know the spell, she had enough experience to know that being angry was usually enough to bend the magic inside her to her whims. And Elphaba was about as angry as she'd ever been.

What she hadn't expect was the shadow racing along the ground, nor the shape in the sky that flew. "Dragon," she whispered, in utter awe. As a child, she'd heard of the Time Dragon that had helped shape Oz, the Munchkins, the Quadlings, and so on. Who watched the march of time without interference or mercy.

She had hated the Time Dragon since she was a child when her father had explained why Nessa's birth had meant her mother's death.

But this Dragon -- maybe not the Time Dragon? -- was offering to help. And like it or not, she was at the mercy of the desert and anyone who happened to be passing by. She hesitated to accept the help, but it wasn't like she had much of an option.

However, the person riding the Dragon surprised her out of her easy acceptance. They could be working side-by-side. In fact, Elphaba imagined it would be difficult to enslave a Dragon, but not impossible. The impossible was seeming more and more real to her every day.

She could take her chances. Follow them, maybe, to their camp and see if she couldn't get her bearings there. But... if they were really friendly, then she might be tossing aside her last chance of survival. She opted, instead, to go directly for the throat, demanding in a loud, authoritative voice, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" Remembering suddenly that according to most of Oz, she was considered the latter, she adjusted the cloak's brooch at her neck and clarified with a little more nervousness in her tone. "That is -- do you work for the Wizard?"

Only a witch could tame a Dragon. That she was sure of.

[Chinchilla]

[She does not trust us.] Teresth noted, ruffling her wings and letting out an irritable snort. [Foolish woman. If I wanted to harm her, she would be dead already.] She was going to ignore the convenient fact that dragons couldn't lay a single claw on a human. Or, something that looked close enough to human to qualify.

[What is a witch, anyway? Is she asking you if you are a sandwich? This woman is obviously suffering from heat stroke.] Teresth's tail swished in irritation, stirring up the sand beside her into a cloud. She lowered her head, fixing her swirling orange eyes on the human. [Perhaps she will be more sensible when we get her back to the weyr.]

Caltori chose to ignore the irritation of her dragon."You just lost me, lady." She said, putting on her friendliest smile. The one that was usually reserved for when she was trying to reassure a nervous Holder about something. "I've never heard of a witch, but I'm pretty sure i'm not one. I'm a dragonrider, and this is my partner Teresth. She was the one who spoke to you. We don't work for any wizard either, whatever that is."

The woman leaned against the neck of her dragon, crossing her arms against the warm brown hide. "We're of Igen Weyr, which is in that direction." She oh-so helpfully jabbed her thumb. "I don't work for anyone but all of Pern, miss." Teresth snorted, giving Caltori a reproachful look over her shoulder for the corny line. "That was a good line and you know it." She muttered to the dragon.

[I do not suggest staying in the desert.] Teresth said, looking back to the woman. [Wild whers come out at night, and they are not above hunting humans. You would also likely succumb to the heat.] Harsh truths worked, right? Well, if the green woman chose to ignore Teresth, it was no skin off her snout.

"She's a ball of sunshine, isn't she?"

[Yes, I am.]

[Zaxal]

Not know what a witch was? Elphaba considered. It was possible; most of the Munchkins had never properly heard of magic besides the Wizard, and it hadn't been until her arrival at Shiz that she had been able to put a name to the odd occurrences that happened around her.

But not knowing the Wizard? The supposed magical protector of Oz, who had built the Emerald City and the Yellow Brick Road? How odd. Odder still was the fact that neither of them had said a thing about the color of her skin, not even a reactionary flinch which was something everybody did. Or stared.

She followed the direction the dragonrider pointed in, eyes narrowed, wondering what a Weyr was. In the end, her undying curiosity brought her closer. Elphaba couldn't resist seeing a Dragon up close, even if she were fully intending on walking the other way when this encounter was over.

Not that she was going to, but she hadn't decided yet.

Elphaba hesitated to trust anyone who claimed to serve anything -- recent developments still stung -- but the Dragon at least spoke sense. What was the worst that could happen, anyway? They'd fly her up and drop her? Take her back to the Wizard? But if that were going to be the case, why drop her in the desert in the first place?

She bit her lip and considered. Staying out here almost certainly meant dying, and she couldn't do any good for anyone if she was dead. Trusting others was difficult, but even her own stubborn bullheadedness couldn't override her instinctual need to survive.

"Yes," she agreed with a faint smile, feeling more secure suddenly than anything else they could have said. The Dragon and her rider, witch or no, were clearly friends, and anyone who was friends with an Animal surely wouldn't be part of the Wizard's scheme. "But sadly, I believe she's right."

She had a thousand questions she wanted to ask, but she had no doubt there'd be time for them later. Preferably after a drink to parch the dryness in her throat. "I've never ridden on a Dragon before," she began cautiously, eyeing Teresth, not with distrust but with a healthy dose of intellectual curiosity. She wanted to ride on the Dragon, if said Dragon didn't mind, but she'd rather be certain that she wouldn't fall.

[Chinchilla]

Caltori sighed, a frown tugging at her features. "She usually is." She grumbled and patted Teresth's neck. "It's a damn shame, too. If her head gets any bigger, she won't fit in her weyr." Caltori laughed at the offended expression of the dragon, who was obviously considering dumping the woman in the sand. That would show her.

[My head is perfectly normal. The problem is that yours is too small.] The brown grumbled. [Your foolishness is going to chase her away. Stop.] She had found her very own Lost, and she definitely wasn't going to let Caltori scare her away by being stupid.

"That's not a problem." Caltori said, already reaching down to unbuckle her own straps a bit. "Most people haven't. I'll give you a hand up and strap you in, so that you won't fall. It'll be a quick flight on Teresth." She grinned. "Nothing like riding on a dragon! Except maybe being the dragon, I guess."

[Being a human sounds miserable. Tiny, squishy and unable to fly.] Teresth declared. [I do not understand how your species manages to survive without mine watching after you at all times.] Despite her grumbling, the brown crouched against the sand so that it would be easier for Caltori to help the woman up.

"Alright. Just climb up and I'll buckle you in front of me. Hey, what's your name? For paper work and all. Lots of it, you know." Caltori laughed, leaning as much as she could and reaching an arm down in case Elphaba needed help up. Which Caltori was expecting, really.

[Zaxal]

Elphaba found herself smiling at the ease with which the rider and Dragon seemed to get along. She almost reached up to cover it -- smiling wasn't exactly something she was used to, not even in the recent months when things seemed to be going right for once in her life -- but her hands only twitched forward before falling back to her sides.

She couldn't deny that she was excited now that she'd made up her mind. She'd go with them. Come what may, she'd be fine. There wasn't anything anyone could do that could keep her down. And maybe... maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

Besides. She was going to get to fly with a Dragon.

Elphaba watched as Teresth lowered herself to an easier height, but she was still skeptical about how she was meant to actually get up. The question caught her off guard. It had been a while since rumors hadn't preceded her, that she'd actually been able to give her name as opposed to being reminded that she was the infamous green girl that everyone already knew about.

"Elphaba Thropp." She almost winced at the second word. Frexspar's name? Nessa's? They wouldn't want to share it with her. She shook her head, letting the somber mood fly away. She didn't need to worry about them. Glinda, if nothing else, would make sure that Nessa was fine. She could trust her friend that much. And as for her father? Elphaba decided she didn't care about what he wanted from her. Not anymore.

She considered the offered hand and, throwing caution to the wind, reached up to grab it. Her other hand landed on Teresth's warm hide, and Elphaba found her grin back in place. She was touching a Dragon. Getting on a Dragon.

Her dress offered her a bit of trouble, but pulling it up at the sides allowed her to sit easily in front of Caltori. "Thank you," she said to them both, wholly grateful that they'd offer her help. Even not knowing who she was... Elphaba didn't have a good track record with strangers.

Maybe that might change. When they got to whatever the Weyr was.