Raised in a Barn

Farm Girls

They said that life could end up changing in the most unexpected ways possible and almost everyone who heard this phrase agreed with it, but none were quite so aware of how much it could change other than Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland. Neither of them were very old women, and yet they had lived the lives of legends and had been around to see change after change after change overtake their country. It was almost as if they were centuries old, though they were not quite that ancient yet. But sweet Oz did it feel like it!

"Who'd have ever thought?" Glinda asked with a weak smile as she and Elphaba were reunited again after decades of separation and suffering.

"Certainly not I," Elphaba replied with a similar tone, looking borderline crazy because of how much life had put all of them through. And yet, against all odds and expectations (literally) the two somehow managed to find one another again. Now they stood on the very edge of Oz, alone, with nothing but the future to look to.

"Are you ready?" the green witch asked her oldest and closest companion.

"Do we have a choice?" came the dry and snarky reply. Elphaba did not answer verbally. Instead, she only gave a low laugh before she kickstarted their ride, a broomstick, and sent them flying somewhere over the rainbow, out of Oz altogether.

After an immeasurable amount of time, the two of them touched down in a farm, in the heart of a very new and very strange land.

"I feel like we're back to where we started!" Elphaba chuckled dryly, thinking about her own rural roots.

"I have a feeling we aren't in Oz anymore," Glinda replied, and then without further ado, the two old friends walked towards the farm's house, hand in hand. They had no idea where they were, or what they were getting themselves into, but here went nothing!

A few years later, the pair had managed to settle down comfortably a few houses down from the place where they first touched down. Whether it was fate, magic, dumb luck, a bit of all of the above, or something even more than that, the pair had managed to touch down right on the doorstep of Ms. Dorothy Gale, one of Oz's most (in)famous figures.

"Well! I do say! I never thought I might meet you again!" she exclaimed as she opened up her house's front door to see Glinda and Elphaba on the other side of it. Elphaba's skin had changed from green into a more "normal" color, now matching Dorothy's. Because of that, Dorothy did not recognize her at first, but she did recognize Lady Glinda.

"Nor I you," came the tired and disbelieving reply from Glinda. Sweet Oz, was life playing some kind of trick on them now? Sure, they knew that life could be strange and could change on a dime, but this was astronomical!

"Well, your landing here was far better than any of mine into Oz," Dorothy gave her old friend a dry smile.

"No kidding," Elphaba finally spoke up, shooting Dorothy an unreadable look. Even though it had been decades since last they met, Elphaba still had no idea how to feel about this strange, meddling little girl. Perhaps she was not so little now, a young woman who looked about the right age to start going to Shiz University, Elphaba could still see the ignorant, innocent little girl that she used to be, and it made her feel uncertain. She did not know if she still held a grudge against Dorothy for what she had done to Nessarose. She did not know if she still held a respect for Dorothy for coming all the way to her secluded castle in the west to beg for forgiveness for what she had done. She did not know at all how to feel about this strange little girl who had been an enigma to all of Oz twice over now.

"Oh! And who are you? Are you a friend of Lady Glinda's?" Dorothy really could not recognize Elphaba without the green skin and for a moment, Elphaba considered giving her quite the rude awakening, but at the last second, she changed her mind and lied.