Since its original publication over a year and a half ago, numerous aspects of this story have undergone serious renovations, as well as the title. It was originally a prologue for my chef d'ouvre of multi-chaptered stories, Back to the Desert, but due to Fanfiction's content restrictions it was necessary to post the prologue and story separately. You'll see why. Please do find the full story on my profile if you like what you have read.

Though she would never admit it, Elphaba was exhausted. Since heading out in darkness, she and Fiyero had moved quickly over rocky paths until dawn, then through the morning, stopping briefly at high noon, then throughout the afternoon, dusk, and finally into the dead of night. She had only paused long enough to pluck an apple from a tree, or to kneel by a stream and gulp water. Fiyero had been urging her to stop all day, but her emotions were raging, and her physical exertion was the only thing that kept them in check. Now, though, all she wanted was sleep. Delicious sleep, sweet sleep…

Her foot hooked around a tree root that very nearly pulled her down, but she wrenched herself upright, growling unconsciously with frustration. Fiyero clutched her arm with his burlap hand, and she pulled away instinctively. The hurt in his painted eyes lowered her spirits even farther.

"I'm sorry. It's just…" she turned around, kicked the offending tree and sighed.

"It's okay, Elphie," he murmured. He gathered her into a hug, and this time, she couldn't resist him. "Look, there's a cave. We should sleep."

Elphaba turned, and sure enough, the dark opening of a cave yawned in front of them. She nearly melted with relief, but tried to keep herself erect. "No…we have to get to the Paniwawa settlement, and we have to get there fast, before…"

"Elphaba, you're dead on your feet. Might I remind you that I am fresh as a cornstalk? If you won't get into that cave I may have to use force."

Elphaba knew she was done; the prospect of rest was just too tantalizing. "All right, fine, if it's so important to you…" She stumbled towards the cave, slurring out a lighting spell. The momentary glow she created was enough to tell them that the cave was uninhabited, shallow, and clean. It would do perfectly. Elphaba collapsed against the wall like a sack of stones, letting Fiyero retrieve enough brush to make a fire. Elphaba flicked a finger towards the pile, and as it ignited she huddled close to it. Fiyero moved to join her, but the licking flames frightened him more than ever before, and he instinctively backed away.

"Careful, you're like a tinderbox," she muttered to Fiyero belatedly.

"It's okay," he said slowly. Then, he lowered himself to the ground behind Elphaba, letting her lean into his chest, her body a shield from the heat. After a few minutes, after Fiyero was sure she had gone to sleep, she spoke.

"Fiyero, tell me, how did I do on the rest of your body?"

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

Elphaba tilted her head back to meet his eyes. "You know, other than what I can see. Other than your hands and feet and face."

Fiyero understood – the same thought had occupied him for hours – but he was too nervous to look and chose to play ignorant. "You mean, my arms? Legs? Back?" Elphaba glared, not fooled.

"Well, I'm not going to lie, I'm quite curious." Swiveling around, she began to work on the buttons of his canvass pants.

Fiyero's breath caught in his throat. "Elphaba…"

Elphaba stopped and looked up. "What?"

Fiyero sighed. "Fine. Might as well."

It seemed to take her hours to loose each button, a combination of her tired fingers, her hesitance, and Fiyero's painful anticipation. Finally, the two flaps lay separate but overlapping across his pelvis. Both of them holding their breaths, she pulled them apart…

An awkward silence filled the cave. Elphaba looked up at Fiyero anxiously. Fiyero glanced quickly before meeting her eye. They kept this position for what seemed like an eternity before, in total unison, dissolving into laughter. Fiyero's member was comprised of an overripe cucumber and two plums, lashed to the wooden frame that kept him upright. But, for all the ridiculousness, Elphaba yearned for him. Gently, she ran a finger down the soft vegetable.

"Can you feel that?"

"M-hm."

She hesitated for a moment. Then, she bent over and ran her tongue over it, green on green. "How about that?" she whispered.

If he had still had lungs, Fiyero was sure he would be hyperventilating. He gave a shaky nod.

Slowly, Elphaba rose, and leaned towards the deep folds in the burlap that doubled as Fiyero's lips and tongue. They scratched her at first, but the pressure behind them was real, and soon her saliva softened them. Fiyero's hand found her familiar breasts, and he stroked her nipples lovingly and gently. As they were drawn deeper in, Elphaba felt the cucumber hardening, pushing eagerly against her pelvis. Fiyero reached up her robe to undo her undergarments, and then he guided her hips into place. They rocked together, eyes shut, in perfect rhythm. Elphaba's breathing quickened, and Fiyero began to moan.

"Elphaba…Fae…Fabala…Elphie…"

"Fiyero…" It seemed as though she sang his name in that beautiful voice of hers. "Fiyero!"

It happened at the exact same second for both of them. Two long cries of joy and ecstasy blasted forth from their chests, twisting in the air above them, soaring from the cave, blasting up to the starry sky. Elphaba fell, exhausted but happy, into Fiyero's heaving chest, her head resting in the crook between his neck and shoulder. "Yero…my hero…" Gently, he nuzzled her hair, inhaling deeply her musky scent. He felt tired, so beautifully tired, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep beside her…

Elphaba started at the smoothness of his cheek. "Yero…" Slowly, she pulled herself up to a sitting position, hardly daring to hope until she got a good look at his face and body.

But Fiyero had already begun to run a hand…flesh and bone, with five fingernails…up and down his smooth cheek. "I'm…you…"

"We did it," she breathed.

"But how?"

Elphaba shook her head and cast about for words. "Dr. Dillamond started telling me once about the strange properties of the climax, but he stopped himself nice and quickly."

"It doesn't matter." He began to laugh, and his beauty dazzled Elphaba. "Not in the least. I'm… it's all over!" There were tears in both their eyes… but Elphaba's weren't joyous. Fiyero sensed her hesitation. "Elphie. What's the matter?"

Elphaba blinked furiously and smiled. "Nothing. I'm just tired." She sighed heavily. "I'm tired, and I'm ugly. Oh…" she turned her head, trying in vain to hide the emotion on her face. "Please don't listen to me."

"Wh…"

The words burst from Elphaba's mouth, as though they had been pushing against her lips for hours. "Every time I saw your face, all I could think was, why would he ever want me? And then there was one day, just one, where I thought, maybe now he… he needs me… no. I just need…" She hiccoughed. "I need s-some rest." She lowered herself to the floor, facing away from him, and feigned sleep. "Forgive me," she whispered.

Fiyero sat, astonished. Her words seemed to have pinned him backwards against the wall. Despite having been told of his attractiveness his entire life, he was only truly aware of it now, and he wished it gone. How many times had he assured Elphaba of her beauty? And still, those scars her family and peers had left on her soul burned. Those animals! Instinctively, Fiyero grasped her hand and held it to his lips. "I would be lost without you," he whispered.

Elphaba broke the charade and lifted her head. "No. No you wouldn't. You would be safe, rich, married, a father, even. You wouldn't be running from the law, sleeping on a cave floor. You wouldn't know what it felt like to made of straw and burlap."

Fiyero shook his head. "Come on, I know you're tired, but let's talk for one more second." He lifted her by the shoulders into a sitting position and clasped both her hands in his. "I would be safe, but the Animals and poorer humans would be dead. I would be married off to the most fertile girl in the province without having met her once before. I would be watching other renegades running from the law and sleeping on cave floors, wishing I could join their number, because then my life would have some meaning. And, don't you think, having experienced a day as straw and burlap, I'm all the more appreciative of my flesh and bones?"

Elphaba's lip trembled; she was unconvinced. "Give it a week. We'll see if you still feel this way."

"I had a chance for that life. I had multiple chances." Fiyero paused at these words, bracing himself to suppress an unbidden regret; yet, to his delight, none came. He continued with renewed vigour. "I turned it down, every time, for love of you. Don't you think I expected this life, or something like it, when I pointed a gun at Glinda the Good?" Elphaba's breath caught in her throat and she closed her eyes. Fiyero cursed himself for mentioning Glinda. He sighed heavily and gave up.

But then, she spoke. "On some level I know all this."

"Then what's the problem?"

A shy, hesitant smile played across her face, and grew. "No problem," she whispered, finally believing in her own loveability.

Fiyero returned the smile and leaned closer to her. "You…" he kissed her forehead, "are the most beautiful…" her left cheek, "intelligent…" right cheek, "the bravest…" her nose, "strongest…" full and lingering on the lips, "most amazing woman – person – I've ever had the fortune to meet. You…" he rested his face in the crook of her neck and breathed his next words warmly into her ear. "You are my hero."

Elphaba moaned with pleasure, and then she was asleep.

Neither could anticipate the following morning, which would bring Fiyero's discovery of the only permanent affect of his transformation. Green as a cucumber, black as plumbs, the area of his body that knew only Elphaba had declared Fiyero's allegiance to her, an allegiance that was never to falter, and never to fade.

I've had some exceptionally well-constructed reviews on this story (Thanks gents!) but I would always love some more! For those who read the original draft, was it worth revising? Newcomers, do tell!