Once upon a time, there were, and still are, enchanted lands that many say are only make-believe; stories told to instill imagination, hope, and other ideals in young children. But the children know better. They know that these realms are as real as you and I, and reaching them can be as simple as falling asleep or as sudden as a storm on a summer's day. These realms, while connected to each other, mostly went about without knowing of each other's existence for quite some time. That all changed one dark and terrifying night, when the machinations of one vengeful old miser, who played the part of the villain in one such story, led two very different – but also quite similar – worlds to meet, and change them both forever…
To say Silas Barnaby was having a terrible night would be an understatement. What started out as a perfect plan for revenge had fallen to pieces the moment those two buffoons Stan and Ollie – who had just days before tricked him out of marrying the lovely young Bo Peep – revealed he had framed Tom the Piper's son for kidnapping one of the Three Little Pigs. Now with a bounty and the threat of banishment or worse on his head, he was forced to flee. Luckily, he had discovered months ago that the old dry well behind his house hid a secret passage that led to the caverns of Boogeyland. His idea would be to bide his time there and move forward with his original plan to take over Toyland with his army of Boogeymen when the time was right. He wasn't expecting to find Bo Peep already down there, however, sleeping in the arms of her beloved Tom-Tom.
Barnaby's attempt to abscond with Bo Peep failed when she woke up screaming, alerting Tom to the danger. They escaped back to Toyland with the help of Ollie and Stan, but it was the last straw for Barnaby. Overcome with fury and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance, he summoned his army and they broke through the gates of Toyland. The monstrous creatures, hungry for the man-flesh their master long promised them, spread their attack far throughout the land, leaving him to track down Bo Peep.
Just as Barnaby was about to succeed in carrying away his rightful bride once more, a small but powerful army of incredible life-size wooden soldiers appeared as if out of nowhere to attack them. The combination of these soldiers and the citizens of Toyland, who were rallied by the arrival of this brave steadfast cavalry, beat back the Boogeymen, and gave Barnaby quite a licking too. He couldn't remember if it was Elmer, the little pig he had kidnapped the night before, or one of his brothers who had bopped him on the head, but it still felt sore, as did most of his body.
Then again, he was currently trapped beneath a pile of large, luridly painted wooden blocks the soldiers had knocked over to fend off the invaders.
He could just hear the last sounds of the battle between the soldiers, Toylanders, and Boogeymen over his own breathing. As much as he wanted to get out from under the rubble, he had no idea if there was anyone nearby who would spy him making his escape. He certainly didn't want the whole town chasing after him again, especially in his condition.
No, he decided, as much as it pained him to admit, it was better to lie in waiting until the chance to emerge presented itself. What pained him the most, however, was not the waiting, nor the bruises he sustained, but the fury broiling inside him; the insatiable desire for retribution against all those who wronged him – which now included all of Toyland – that threatened to eat away at his very soul until he could bear it no longer.
That was how Silas Barnaby spent that long, long night, buried under a small mountain of wood with the burden of one who has a score to settle weighing far heavier upon him.
After an excruciating long time, Barnaby nudged one of the three blocks in front of him hindering his view. He could see that the lamps on the street – which were really giant candles like the ones you'd put on a birthday cake – had gone out. He moved the block again; now he could see more of the main street. It was dark, and not a single light came from any of the houses. There was no movement, no sounds to be heard. His confidence growing, Barnaby started to edge his way through the opening he created. He felt a rumble from above and froze.
One of the many blocks towering above him had come loose, no doubt thanks to his interference. One wrong move and the whole thing would come tumbling down upon him again. He'd have to be more careful if he were going to make his escape.
He realized he had dropped his faithful knobbly old walking stick somewhere in the streets during the fight. If he had it with him, he could have propped it into place and ensured his freedom. As if answering to his will, something rolled over his head and landed with a loud plink…plink…PLUNK on the ground before him, just within reach.
It was another wooden block, only this one was long and round and smooth, like a small pillar. Barnaby grinned and snatched it up. He wedged it between the block he was lying on and the one just above his head, making sure it would remain steady. Then, ever so slowly, he crawled out of his hiding place.
Old Silas Barnaby was a crooked man in every sense of the word; in his deeds, in his thoughts, in how he kept his home and even how he moved about. But nothing on this earth felt so good to him now as stretching his tired old limbs long and straight after hours remaining hidden. He thought the groans and little noises he made as he rolled his shoulders and cracked his fingers would be more than enough to alert the town to his presence. Reminded of his situation, he stole away to his home as the night sky turned to shades of grey and pink.
Almost nothing had changed about it during his time away – the dead bushes were nearly trampled and there were scratches at the door and window, though whether it was from the Boogeymen attack or the angry mob that pursued him after his treachery was discovered was unclear. The familiar dull shades of his brown and grey manor in contrast to the overbearing bright colors of the other houses of Toyland comforted him slightly. Using the rusty crooked key hidden beneath the doormat (and narrowly avoiding the rat trap he also hid there lest anyone else try to take said key), he opened the door and sneaked in.
As dark as it was inside the house, Barnaby knew he dared not light a fire or even a single candle and give himself away. He could see fairly well enough on his own. Besides, he only needed to get one very important thing, and then he would be gone. Nobody would ever know he had been there.
As he made his way to his bedroom, he spied something lying before the fireplace, breathing softly as it slept. He recognized it as his dwarf manservant, whose name he could never bother to remember. For a moment he considered waking him and asking about what had transpired while he was in hiding; it was safe to assume the people of Toyland had won the day despite the havoc wreaked upon their homes, but what fate did they believe had fallen upon their nemesis? Had he perished in the fight, or fled once more? Perhaps they thought his own voracious army had turned on him after their failure was made certain. Despite his aroused curiosity, Barnaby decided not to risk it. Having someone witness his return would be a liability he, even with all his wealth, could not afford.
He crept up the stairs, cursing himself for never attending to the creaks they made as he ascended. Reaching his bedroom, he went to the portrait of himself hanging on the wall across from his old four-poster bed. He took the portrait off the wall, revealing a safe. After carefully entering the combination, the safe door swung open.
Inside lay a glittering pile of gold, silver, and even a few precious stones – all the wealth Barnaby owned in the world, more than enough to last him for the rest of his life. He took a black velvet pouch from a nearby drawer and began to collect all his treasure inside of it. When the safe was completely emptied, and his pouch inversely full and weighing nearly as much as he, Barnaby closed the safe, positioned the painting back in its original spot, and made the trek down the stairs.
It was even harder this time, as he not only had the old steps to deal with but the jingling of his heavy pouch as well. As cumbersome as it was, he would never dream of departing this realm without the only thing in the world that mattered to him – his money. Despite his trepidation, a new sense of excitement was beginning to seep in. The makings of a plan were beginning to form in his mind.
Exiting through the back door, Barnaby went over to the old well and carefully climbed down the rungs. His pouch full of gold banged against his leg and the mossy stones, but he kept going until he reached the bottom. Now came the part that would spell either certain doom or the chance of a new life, and the promise of future payback on his enemies.
Slipping through the entrance to the Boogeyland caverns, he looked around. There was no sign of the hairy brutes he had once been lord and master of. If luck were truly on his side, he wouldn't run into any of them while he was down here. Even if a single one appeared, that meant many more were not far behind. He had a feeling that they wouldn't be too happy to find the man who drove them to pain and suffering after promises of food and a new world to conquer.
He repressed those dark thoughts and ventured through the caverns that took him deeper into Boogeyland, keeping one thing in mind – if there was a place beyond Toyland that wasn't Boogeyland, as he was sure there was, he was going to find it. And there he would start planning his revenge.
Hello! Welcome to my first story ever here! I'm really excited that after years of just reading I'm finally publishing something, and I hope you like it, but first, a little background:
I love The Wizard of Oz. It's one of my favorite movies of all time and I love the books too (though the later ones are pretty bizarre). When I was a kid it was one of the movies I played on repeat, along with one other that I've found not many people sadly remember or have heard of...
Thanksgiving weekend of 2013 I rediscovered "March of the Wooden Soldiers" starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Even after all these years, it's still a lot of fun, very innocent, and very, very funny thanks to its two leads. To me, it's the definitive film adaptation of Babes in Toyland. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it (it's available to watch on Hulu in both black and white and color). Watching it again recently I noticed a lot of similarities it shared with The Wizard of Oz - they both take place in colorful fantasy worlds (well, colorful if you're watching one of the colorized versions of "March" at least) filled with simple but endearing characters, the sweet young heroine who has a tendency to lose her pet is threatened by a purely malicious villain who wants her as part of their evil schemes and controls an army of monsters, and she needs to be rescued by her comical best friends so she can return safely home. I wouldn't be surprised if one influenced the other when it was being made.
Having made the connections, I started wondering what would happen if these characters and worlds somehow collided together. In my head I could imagine the conversations and moments they'd share, who'd get along best with who and so on. I've read stories that have done something similar before, and I was initially worried about trying it myself since this kind of crossover can come across as really contrived. Before I really sat down to write any of the chapters, however, I wrote a big outline of what happens and where the events of The Wizard of Oz come into play, and how, when and where the effects of what happened in March of the Wooden Soldiers play a part as well. (I also wrote some dialogue, details, character moments, etc. that I thought of at the moment to add or develop on later.). So, in the end, this whole story is planned out from beginning to end; all that needs to be done is for me to expand upon it bit by bit. I found I prefer writing the chapters out of order, so some parts will be up quicker than others.
And confidentially, part of me did this because I really wanted to see Barnaby get what was coming to him after all he did in his movie. When I saw it again I forgot he buried under a pile of blocks and thought he got beat back out of Toyland with the Boogeymen, so I was more than a little disappointed. Not to spoil anything, but I've got big things in store for him. He's a lot of fun to write for anyway, so you're gonna love hating him as much as I do.
I was originally going to have this chapter end when he meets the Wicked Witch since I wanted to set up how Barnaby reaches Oz, but I felt it was already going on for too long. Instead it will be split into two, maybe three chapters. You'll have to wait a little while longer to see what happens next...I can't say how long as this is more of a fun little side project for me while I'm doing my actual job, but I'll put up a chapter as soon as I'm satisfied with how it turns out.
Also, fun fact: In addition to the various sequels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum, there's an unofficial Russian Oz series written by Alexander Volkov, and one of them is titled "Urfin Joos and his Wooden Soldiers". If you haven't guessed by now, this isn't a rewritten version of that story, but it's a funny coincidence with the title I chose that I thought I'd mention (and I'm betting several Oz fans have come here thinking it was thanks to the title, to which I apologize for the confusion.)
I'm also putting this story up on Deviantart under the same title. Can't post the link here but if you look it up you'll find it along with a few little drabbles and artwork I've done in the past.
Any comments, feedback, etc. is appreciated. Thank you very much!