Elphaba's First Vision

After Elphaba speaks, she wanders off and is found under a dock by the lake, staring into the looking glass Turtle Heart made. She is sitting in the folded forearms of a strange beast, a feltop tiger or a hybrid of tiger and dragon. She repeats the word 'horrors' while staring into the glass. Turtle Heart, seeing her, falls to his knees and interprets the vision: he sees a balloon from the sky, a huge crimson globe, and the fall of the Regent and the House of Ozma. He believes the Clock of the Time Dragon was right: a minute to judgment. The scene is one of profound prophecy and terror, linking Elphaba's birth and her first word to the coming political upheaval.