Julie: Wow...it's uh...been awhile.

Shaun: We could give you a long spiel about life and being busy, and motivation etc etc. But that would take up too much time and you've probably heard that before from authors.

Julie: So we'll just have the characters tell you.

Elphaba: Don't look at me. You guys are on your own.

Shaun: Are you pissed cause you have no screen time ?

Elphaba: That has nothing to do with it.

Galinda: You can't just leave us like that, it's been almost two years!

Julie: You can't be serious. *checks publish date* Well shit.

Elphaba: *mumbles* At least you get screen time.

Galinda: Excuse me! I heard that.

Shaun: Urgghh, let's just get this chapter started, you two can argue later.

Julie: Uh, what Shaun said. Enjoy!

Previously:

Her struggling came to a halt however as Shaun suddenly let out a vicious snarl and immediately the bone spikes, or more appropriately, bone claws, shot out from between his knuckles, tearing through the skin and causing some blood to drip down. From his position holding her arms, the claws were aimed right at her head.

Julie's eyes were now wide as she shook in his grip, her gaze locked into his.

"S-Shaun…"

His wild expression didn't falter as he let out a growl and moved his claws closer to her throat.

Julie couldn't restrain the whimper that escaped her mouth as she felt the sharp claws of bone press into her throat, the thought of just how little force would be needed for them to slice through her flesh plagued her mind as she starred back into the wild eyes of her step-brother.

"S-Shau-" she began only to let out another whimper as the claws pressed in just a bit more, causing a slight cut on one part of her skin. She could feel a small trickle of what she knew was blood roll down her neck.

Her eyes squeezed shut as she believed this may be her final moments before death. When she woke up this morning in her warm bed, she wouldn't have believed anyone if she'd been told she would die like this, slashed to death in a cold dark forest in another dimension by her step-brother.

Funny how life turns out sometimes.

He sniffed the air loudly.

Upon hearing those sounds, curiosity wells up and Julie can't help but open one of her eyes slightly. Shaun has now leaned down closer, his claws still pressing into her throat though.

He moved his face closer and Julie saw his nose twitch. His nose moved closer till it was inches from her face. He sniffed again.

Julie was momentarily stunned, unsure of what exactly he was doing.

'Oh my god, what if he's gonna eat me?' her fear addled mind suddenly concocted.

Sure dying was a terrifying thought, but somehow knowing she could be eaten afterwards added a whole other element of fear, despite the fact that she wouldn't technically feel anything after death.

Though, before she could think anymore, something surprising happened. She felt the bone claws retreat from her throat, and opened both eyes to see Shaun moving back from her body, stepping back a few feet while still keeping his claws out.

His stance was low as he observed he, his eyes still wide and the black of his pupils seemed enlarged beyond normal.

Julie didn't move as she kept her still body imbedded into the mud slightly as she starred back with uncertainty.

This quickly changed to alarm as he suddenly turned and ran off through the forest, running along following the stream as he disappeared quickly, Julie couldn't guess how fast he was running, but she could see it was fast.

After his form vanished into the distant tree line, Julie let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in before taking several heavier breaths to calm herself, her right hand came up to lightly rub against the spot she'd felt one of the claws pierce her slightly, and felt the wet feeling from before, moving her fingers up to see blood.

It wasn't a lot of blood, the claw hadn't gone in too far, and it looked like a minor cut, nothing too bad. She knew it could have been much worse.

After what seemed like minutes of lying there, she pulled herself up out of the mud; her shaky breaths filled the air as she glanced around.

Her gaze rested along the stream up towards the direction she'd seen Shaun run off to.

Part of her felt like running back to the camp and curling up in her tent and hoping for the best that he'd snap out of…whatever was happening to him.

But she didn't even move a step from her position, her eyes still set on the direction he'd ran off in.

She couldn't just leave him out here alone; they technically were 'family' ever since their mothers were married. And her conscience wouldn't let her simply leave him when he clearly wasn't in his right mind.

Julie wouldn't admit that she wished she had grabbed her sword before coming out here.

Letting out a long sigh, she began walking in the direction along the stream.

'Run.'

He continued to run past trees and bound over logs. The other person from before was far behind him by now, he couldn't think…couldn't…

'Person...female…not-threat…not-mate…something else…'

'Familiar…'

His senses were currently overloading, so many smells, so many sounds; so much input all coming in at once.

The wind blew past him as he ran, but he didn't feel cold despite not having anything covering his upper body. He kept running till he came to a wider section of the stream, the water spreading out into a little creek. Slowly he made his way over to it, lowering down onto his knees and plunging his head down into the cold water, drinking from it as he pleased.

A sudden sound made his head whip up out of the creek, tilting slightly he turned around and looked up, seeing a bird had landed on a branch high up. Staring at it for several seconds before his head turned quickly to another direction, this time he saw a squirrel on the other side of the creek running up another tree.

Turning back to the water, he caught sight of himself and seemed mesmerized at his own reflection.

Reaching his right hand down to touch the reflection, he paused at seeing the bone claws jutting out of his knuckles. His left hand came over, it too still had the claws out, and he gingerly ran his palm along the tops of the claws, feeling the bone before looking down once more at his reflection. His eyes narrowed, trying to…think…trying to…remember, remember something…something…

It had taken her almost half an hour before she finally saw him come into view. Julie was currently walking in slow measured steps, trying to keep herself mostly hidden behind the trees as she came closer.

Once again wishing she'd grabbed her sword, she stopped behind one particularly thick tree and leaned her head out to look to where she saw him. Shaun was just kneeling there. She didn't know how long he'd been there, but she guessed awhile, as he hadn't moved an inch since she saw him. He was kneeling there, starring into the water, his hand going up to clutch something around his neck. She recognized them as the dog tags he'd held onto, from his biological father.

However, before Julie could make another move, his head turned towards the trees. Then, she realized, he was looking at her. But they were different from before somehow. As he stood up he walked a few paces towards her, and Julie could see his eyes weren't as wild as they had been before, nor where his pupils dilated. His arms were at his side, and she saw the bone claws slowly retract once more into his knuckles, the puncture wounds quickly healing over.

She still hadn't moved when he was almost near her, he looked dazed and confused as he stopped. "What…what happened…" he said his voice low.

Julie wished he had asked it rhetorically, as then she wouldn't have had to answer, but after a few seconds she swallowed the lump in her throat and managed to reply.

"What...what do you remember?" she asked, genuinely wishing to know if he remembered almost killing her.

"I'm not too sure. I remember being shot, and I remember running…then everything after that is…hazy," he said looking at her with concern.

"You're okay though, right? Those guys didn't try anything else afterwards?" he asked, referring to the bandits that attacked him.

Julie didn't know whether to feel relieved or concerned that he didn't remember what had transpired, or that he had been in such a state. But decided to focus on the fact that he was back to normal…a thought she knew she would later regret when they inevitably argued again.

Though part of her wished to avoid any more arguments, just in case any more 'episodes' like the one she'd just been in were to occur.

She didn't like almost being killed, thank you very much.

So she merely shook her head in response to his question before finding her voice once more.

"No, no I'm fine."

It was now dark as the two sat around a campfire, having set up their tents and Shaun having put on a clean shirt from his pack, the two sat there silently. Every couple of seconds, the poignant sound of the bone claws piercing the skin between his knuckles cut through the air.

"Could you please stop doing that?" Julie finally exclaimed. She looked up from her spot near the campfire to Shaun, who was holding one of his arms up and inspecting the bone claws jutting out of his knuckles, having been unleashing and retracting them for the past few minutes.

He merely turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"This doesn't interest you?"

"It's kind of gross honestly" Julie replied as she looked away and back to the fire, watching the flames dance around in front of her and trying to take her mind off of-

He did it again.

Her eye twitched as she glanced up once more, only to see him retract the claws and turn to look at the fire himself.

Silence between the two resumed, as the only sounds were of the light crackling coming from the campfire.

"I'm going to bed," Julie said suddenly, the day having taken its toll on her in more ways than one.

"Ok, I probably won't sleep much, but I'll see you in the morning" Shaun said before turning back to the fire.

"…Yeah" Julie said before entering her tent.

The sleeping bag wasn't much in terms of comfort but it was warm, and that was enough for her.

Laying down to rest, she waited a moment before glancing back to the direction she knew Shaun was in, and sitting up again she looked weary for a second before slowly reaching down near the edge of the tent and grabbing her sword, the blade still in its sheathe before reclining back down, keeping the sword close to her chest.

Part of her felt wrong for doing it, but at the same time she was still shaken by what happened earlier.

In the end, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Oh thank fuck were finally here," Shaun said as they walked past the welcome sign to the city of Shiz. After having walked since the early hours of the morning when it was still dark, it was now the afternoon, and while Shaun found physically he wasn't tired or fatigued, the journey was wearing thin on his patience.

Julie let out a relieved groan. "Yes. Finally, I swear if we had to walk another mile I was gonna scream."

Looking around the city, Shaun suddenly had a realization.

"We have no idea where the university is."

Julie's body stilled as she took a deep breath, followed by another as her eye twitched.

He sighed heavily."Look, let's just look around and maybe we can get some directions," Shaun said, equally annoyed, as they proceeded to trudge down the street.

It took close to twenty minutes but they were finally in the central business district of Shiz, stores and business aplenty, as were the people, as they went about their day.

"Okay, wait here I'm going to go into that pub and ask someone for directions," Shaun said pointing to a small but obviously popular pub a few doors down from where they were.

"You better not start drinking, we have to get to the university and I don't need to put up with a drunk you," Julie said crossing her arms before sitting down on a bench against a shop wall.

Shaun rolled his eyes and bit back a response, before walking down the street and towards the bar.

Stepping inside he was met with the lingering and current scent of alcohol as well as the combined scent coming off of everyone in the pub and whatever cleaning products they had been using. The loud sounds coming from everyone along with the sensory input seemed enhanced by being inside a closed space of the building.

For a moment it seemed to overwhelm him as he stumbled forward to a table, staggering as he struggled to keep himself upright before a hand was placed on his shoulder, making him spin around and clench his fist.

"Had too much to drink kid? This might be the wrong place for you right now," a dark haired man a few years older than him said jovially.

Taking in the guy's appearance, Shaun took a breath before replying.

"No, I'm not drunk…Just a migraine," he lied, straightening his stature.

"Seems like a hell of a migraine," the man said, but seemed to believe him due to his normal speech and mannerisms.

"I was wondering if I could get some directions, I need to find Shiz University," He said as they walked over to the bar.

"Oh I see, you studying there?"

"Yeah, I'm starting today, but have no clue how to get there from here," Shaun said with annoyance.

"Well that's fine; it's not too hard to find your way there from here. Now see you go straight down this street till you come to-" the man began to explain as Shaun nodded, listening to the directions.

Julie had been sitting on the bench for almost ten minutes and was just about to get up and barge in there when Shaun exited the pub.

"Oh thank goodness, can we finally go!" She said, crossing her arms, before groaning in annoyance.

"What?" he asked raising a brow in confusion at her.

"You just can't go a day without doing that can you," she said pointing with irritation at the cigar poking out of his mouth.

Giving her an annoyed look he plucked the thick stick out of his mouth before speaking.

"Don't start; I'm in no mood for your shit. Next you're going to be annoyed because I didn't pick you up a lollipop," he said sarcastically before placing the cigar back in her mouth and taking a puff before walking ahead.

Julie waited a moment before grumbling and following him.

"Hey wait! How the hell did you even pay for that?" she asked catching up to him.

"Oh, there's a wallet full of Ozian currency in my bag," he said casually.

"Wait what!? How come you have that, I didn't have any money in my bag," Julie said before quickly taking her bag off and rustling through it once again, trying to see if she missed anything.

"Nope, no cash," she exclaimed before looking at him expectantly for an answer.

"Well maybe they thought I'd be the more responsible one," he said looking at the shops they were walking past.

"Responsible…You responsible? Pfttt please if I wasn't here you'd probably spend all your money on booze and cigars and I'd find you in some dingy dive somewhere naked and covered in rum, and probably with two or more women"

"And?" he asked turning to her with a grin.

"You're impossible!" Julie snarled, before walking up ahead quickening her pace.

"…You do realize you don't know the way, right?"

Julie slowly came to a halt, allowing Shaun to catch up and continue on with a smirk as Julie glared at the side of his head, attempting to bore a hole through his skull with her gaze.

"Okay, so what's the plan? I mean are we just going to rock up to the front gate and walk into Shiz?" Julie asked as they were a few minutes away from the university.

Shaun meanwhile was glancing at some documents and papers from his bag.

"No, apparently Caine and Evanora have already taken care of it, they submitted applications already for my entry, as well as pre-admissions exams based on knowledge I have that is applicable," Shaun said as Julie turned to him.

"Okay and how does that get me inside?" Julie asked before her eyes narrowed. "Oh please don't tell me they made me your servant or something, because that's not happening."

"No, no," he said still reading the documents. "They gave us a backstory, which we'll have to go over later for future reference. Apparently our parents are dead and I've been supporting us both, but now that I wanted to go to Shiz you have no one to take care of you"

"I'm not completely invalid; I mean I'm sure there's plenty of sixteen-year-olds who're self-sufficient."

Shaun however tried to supress a laugh as he was still reading.

"Well according to this," he said showing one of the pages. "You're completely unable to live alone, due to mental and emotional instability so I have to bring you along, you'll be given accommodation and even able to attend classes, though you can't sit any exams."

Julie listened to the explanation with a blank expression, before her eye twitched as her hands began to clench.

"…They said I was incapable of living by myself," she ground out.

"Yeah, not too different from you in real life," he said smirking at her. "I mean you're basically dependent on everyone, oh where would you be without me, probably staring in some squalor somewhere," he said jokingly.

She turned to him and leaned in with a glare. "Keep up the jokes, but remember you have to sleep sometime."

Shaun merely scoffed and blew a puff of smoke from his cigar at her, making her cough and wave the smoke out of her face.

As they walked into the courtyard, they were met with a mass of students all scattered around the area.

However before they could go any further Julie suddenly squirmed in place.

"What, what is it?" Shaun asked.

"I need to go to the bathroom"

"You didn't go earlier?" he asked in confusion.

"I didn't need to go earlier, but now I really need to!"

"Okay, geez." Shaun glanced around before seeing a sign on a nearby wall which directed to the bathrooms. "There."

"Okay, I'll be back in a minute, try not to screw anything up while I'm gone," Julie said before running off in the direction of the bathrooms.

Shaun merely shook his head before looking around, seeing people around his age and some older. He proceeded to walk over near the right area of the courtyard, and leaned against a wall waiting for Julie to return.

However, this didn't last long as he leaned off the wall and began to walk around, waiting for something to happen. He found himself back near the entrance of university near the gates. He wondered how long it would take before they would run into Elphaba or Galinda.

Though just as he thought that he was brought to a halt as a body knocked into his, though the smaller petite form did little to move him, the figure was a young female around his age who had dropped a small purse; she also had a large trolley full of luggage behind her.

Shaun's eyes widened slightly as he realized who it was that had run into him, blonde hair with a cream colored outfit and hat and matching heels, he could smell the fragrance of perfume radiating off her body. It was so strong it almost completely masked her natural scent.

It was Galinda (later to be known as Glinda) Arduenna Upland, the future 'good' witch of the North…or witch of the South depending on which iteration of the character you followed.

Reaching down slowly after coming out of his stupor to pick up her purse, her hand came down at the same time resting on his, before the two looked up at each other.

Galinda's eyes widened at the sight of him as she blinked twice before standing back up slowly, still frozen in place as she held her purse limply.

"Hi," Shaun said as Galinda kept starring at him wordlessly.

"You…You're here…," she said slowly, in a strange tone he couldn't quite decipher.

"Yeah…I'm here for the introduction. I'm enrolling here at Shiz today, like I'm guessing you are," he said slowly, obviously knowing she was, but still confused at the tone, and why she kept starring at him like that.

Upon saying that Galinda blinked again before taking a deep breath, her widening again before she let out her breath and spoke up, her tone now bubbly and enthusiastic.

Shaun could hear singing in the distance, but ignored it as Galinda spoke.

A giggle passed between perfectly rosy lips, laced with what Shaun detected to be nervousness. "Of course you are. Sorry about that, It's just…I thought you were someone else there for a moment, someone I know. But it's fine, don't worry about it." She did that same nervous kind of laugh before glancing back at her luggage piled onto the trolley.

"Um, could you maybe help me up there? I want to make an entrance no one here will forget, but I kind of need a boost."

"Sure…," he said slowly as Galinda placed her purse on the pile and moved to the front where there was a shorter case she could use as a step.

As Shaun moved to help her up, Galinda raised a hand to give him pause.

"Careful, this skirt is expensive," she said gently, causing him to resist an eye roll as he eased her up onto the trolley.

As Shaun was about to turn back and head back up towards the courtyard, Galinda's voice called out once more.

"Umm…Could you maybe give me a push…"

Looking back he saw Galinda on top of the pile of luggage with no one else around.

She laughed again, more relaxed this time. "I was meant to have one of my attendants do it, but they seemed to have wandered off. You'd think you could rely on paid help."

Glancing around, Shaun didn't see anyone around before wordlessly walking back behind the trolley and proceeded to give it a hard push, despite the obvious weight in it, he was able to move it towards the courtyard without much trouble.

"Well, here we go," Shaun said to himself as they approached, the singing becoming louder with each step.

Julie: Ooh, and our adventure begins!

Shaun: Yep things are about to-

Elphaba: Yes hooray everything's great, can we hurry it up please?

Galinda: I still think 'someone' is a little green with envy

Julie: Don't worry, you'll show up soon.

Elphaba: *mutters* As long as you guys don't take another two years to update.

Shaun: ...Yeah...that won't happen.

Julie: Well I think we should wrap this up before Shaun and I get hexed into oblivion.

Jul 8Shaun: Yeah, we'll see you guys next chapter.