"LIIR."

"SHUT UP."

"LIIR, COME BACK HERE. I'M TOO OLD TO DEAL WITH YOUR HORMONES."

"WELL MAYBE THEY'RE TOO OLD TO DEAL WITH YOU!"

"YOU'RE FOURTEEN LIIR, HOW THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN WORK!"

They had been fighting. Constantly, over the numerous days. The Witch and her son, buried away in Kiamo Ko, tucked behind castle doors.

"YOU DON'T LET ME DO ANYTHING ON MY OWN, YOU DON'T TRUST ME!"

"LIIR LISTEN TO YOURSELF, YOU SOUND LIKE ONE OF THOSE BRATS IN THE GILLIKINS."

Liir, fourteen and full of teenage spirit, darted down the halls and up the stairs of the towering castle that had served as their home. The Witch, flew after him. Her boots pounded recklessly, the noise echoing for miles.

"Liir PLEASE."

She begged. She begged for him to stop. It had been the second time in her entire life that she had begged for something. How foolish it made her feel. How weak. Yet she needed this nonsense to be put to an end.

"Liir please, PLEASE just do it for your own Mother."

He stopped on the stairs, and slowly turned around to face her at the bottom.

"What, did you say?"

"Liir don't do this-"

"No. How could you even think of calling yourself a Mother, nevertheless my Mother! When for half of my entire life you didn't want to believe I was yours! You made me call you Auntie Witch, doesn't that say something?" He took a deep breath then continued. "Why did you do that? Why did you do that to me! What did I do to deserv-"

"LIIR I WAS SCARED." A deathly silence.

"What?"

"I WAS SCARED. I was scared to look you in the face, I was scared to see the face of your Father. I was scared I would lose it..." She looked down at her feet and took a shaky breath, her green hands fiddling with one another. "I was always scared, I was scared of looking at you, of raising you, of you being the rightful son of The Wicked Witch of the West. I never wanted to face the truth."

"What made you?" Liir interjected. He slowly walked down the steps and took his Mother's hand in his. The boy then led her into one of the guest rooms, and sat down with her at the edge of a bed.

"One day I realized: This child that has somehow marched his way into my life, he is not like the rest. And then I took a closer look at you and I knew. And I felt so awful, for all those years I had treated you like some... Like some ghost." The Witch sighed and pressed her temples, a splitting headache coming on. Although she wouldn't abandon her son for something to rid her troubles. Not this time.

"This has been a really nice talk and all, but I still don't understand something." Liir offered.

"And what's that?"

"Why can't I do anything on my own, why can't I leave the castle, why do you still treat me like a little bo-"

"LIIR YOU BETTER CUT THAT OUT OR I'LL COOK YOU." The Witch huffed, yet suddenly tears sprang from her eyes and she shed them rapidly. "You just don't understand..."

"Don't understand what?"

"I want you safe... That's all I ever wanted, is for you to be safe-"

"But Mother! I'm getting older, why do you keep being so paranoid?" Paranoid, was she really being paranoid? She whipped at her tears and sat up straighter.

"Liir, there's a reason behind all this."

"There is?"

"Yes you idiot, I'm not just some overprotective parent who wants to keep her child cooped up all day. Liir, I'm just afraid of what might happen to you."

"Mmhmm, sounds pretty overprotective to me-"

"You never let me finish, don't you? Your Father... He died. As you probably already know. He died from the Gale Force. He died from their guns and violence. I don't want that to happen to you."

"Who says it will?"

"I say it will. They know who you are Liir-"

"No one's ever seen me-"

"And we're keeping it that way! Once you step foot out of this castle, the Gale Force has their eyes on you. They know you're the son of Fiyero Tiggular and The Wicked Witch of the West. Don't ask me how they know, they just do."

"So, this whole time you've been looking out for me?"

"Of course. In fact, if you weren't a target of theirs I'd be showing you how to ride a broom alrea-" She was cut off by the tight embrace of a hug coming from him. "Liir, what are you-"

"You're the best Mom ever."

And for the first time in years, The Witch felt like a real Mother.