Himself the Elf played an important role in "Handy Mandy in Oz." But does he have a secret?
Himself
Handy Mandy, the seven-armed Goat Girl, was giving Nox the Royal Ox a multi-handed rub-down in his regal stall in Keretaria (a kingdom in the Munchkin territory of Oz). Mandy had arrived in Oz a few months back from Mount Mern, due to a strange flying rock accident. She and Nox had ended up adventuring together, not only restoring young Kerry, the kidnapped rightful heir to the throne of Keretaria, but also saving all of Oz from being conquered by the evil wizard Wutz and his ally Ruggedo, the former Nome King. Now an honored heroine, Mandy had been granted the right to live in Oz permanently. She and her goats resided in Keretaria.
They were talking over their adventures when a thought struck Mandy. "Why-y do you suppose the magical silver ball told us to wait for Wutz when he had us trapped in his Prisoner Pit?"
"I don't know," said Nox. "It seems strange."
"Wutz showed up with the enchanted jug and demanded we turn it back into Ruggedo in exchange for freedom. After I did that by breaking the jug, Wutz went off with his new friend, slamming the door in our faces. We had to get out and find Kerry by ourselves. So what was the use of waiting?"
"You could ask," said Nox. "The silver ball is still in my horn, and it still answers questions."
Mandy unscrewed the golden left horn of Nox, took out the silver ball, and asked it, "Why did you tell us to wait for Wutz?"
She opened the ball and read the paper inside. "You were brought to Oz to break Ruggedo's enchantment."
"Wha-at?" exclaimed Mandy. "A gusher of water exploded under the rock I was standing on. The rock was shot into the air and landed in Oz. I would have been smashed if not for the magic flower growing on that rock that broke my fall."
"Just like it broke our fall into the Prisoner Pit," said Nox. "I remember how we landed on a heap of petals because you pulled petals while we fell."
"Someone planned all that? They shot me to Oz just to break the spell on that wicked Nome? Who did that to me?" Mandy asked the ball.
"Himself the Elf," said the paper.
"That tricky little creature! I'm going to Emerald City right now, to ask Ozma to tap the silver hammer that summons him, so I can give him a piece of my mind! Will you show me the best way to get there, sliver ball?"
The paper now read, "Himself wants to talk to you privately. Wait a moment."
The little elf Himself appeared, his purple beard trailing to the floor. "Hello, Miss. I wondered if you'd ever guess."
"What did you mean by shooting me to Oz to break an enchantment?" asked Mandy.
"Only one of your people could," said Himself. "Ozma created the spell without knowing if it could ever be broken, so I found you to do it."
"But why did it have to be broken? Ruggedo is just awful," said Mandy. "And you ended up turning him into a cactus anyway."
"I'm a more powerful magical being than I seem. When Oz was founded, I was charged with enforcing the rules of magic within the realm. Turning someone into an inanimate object with no way of release is very much against the rules."
"When you put it that way, it's almost like killing him," said Nox.
"About as close to killing as you can get in Oz, where nobody dies," said Himself. "I had become bound to the service of Wunchie the Witch, forced to obey her commands whenever she struck a blow with her silver hammer. But because of the rule-breaking, and unknown to the witch, I was now free to act on my own."
"My-y," said Mandy.
"My mission was clear. Princess Ozma broke the rules and I had to undo what she did."
"Is she really that bad?" asked Nox. "She mostly seems nice."
"She's not evil, but she sometimes has poor judgment. In the early days she was a pure pacifist. She wouldn't fight even when hordes of enemies invaded. her kingdom. The armies of the Nomes, Whimsies, Growleywogs, and Phantasms were going to attack us. She found a way without violence; she got them to drink from the Fountain of Oblivion and forget all their evil plans."
"That was good," said Mandy. "Maybe a little risky, but..."
"The Nome King's magic belt eventually became a temptation for her. It made transforming people very easy. Ozma's friend, Dorothy, used it to turn an enemy into a dove, and left him that way at his request. There was another sorceress that was transformed into a vain swan by her enemies. Ozma left her like that, when she could easily have turned her back to human."
"But she didn't do those transformations herself," said Nox.
"Not then, but later on she did. She turned pirates into seagulls, and an evil magician into a drop of water in the Nonestic Ocean. She even turned robbers into simple Winkie farmers. Transforming their minds was like brainwashing."
"Those things broke the rules of magic?" asked Mandy.
"No, because they're all reversible. But the 'Rug jug' did. She set the condition that he could only be freed if the jug was broken by the seventh arm of a wandering Mernite, without knowing if there was such a thing as a seven-armed Mernite. I couldn't let that stand."
"How did you find me?" asked Mandy. "Seven arms is one thing, but the name is a huge coincidence."
"I found a magical country with seven-armed people and got them to rename their location to Mount Mern," said Himself. "It wasn't that difficult to make them think that had always been the name. Oz itself is even now under a spell that makes people reverse the names for East and West."
"Really?" said Mandy.
"Wunchie called herself a Witch of the West, in the Munchkin land that was once in the power of the Wicked Witch of the East. The Wicked Witch of the West ruled the Winkies, in what is now called the East."
"No more direction confusion. You're making my head spin!" said Nox.
"Now that we know what you were planning, I wonder what you had to do with the plot to kidnap Kerry and put Wutz's Agent Nine, Kerr, in his place," said Mandy.
"Wunchie was ruling behind the scenes, taking power by controlling the various kings of the Munchkin territories. She invented the fake prophecy that the fate of the King of Keretaria was bound to his royal ox. Whenever a king didn't do as she liked, she would have that king and his ox 'tapped' by my silver hammer and replace both of them."
"But that didn't happen to me," said Nox. "I mean, you tapped me, bit it was only a light tap that knocked me out for a while."
"I liked you, Nox, and more importantly I needed you for my plan," said Himself. "A little over two years ago, Kerr came here with orders from Wutz to try to steal the silver hammer. He offered Wunchie magical jumping beans if she would let him kidnap Kerry for Wutz and install Kerr as king instead. Supposedly the beans would allow her to jump instantly from place to place.. He promised complete loyalty to her, too."
"But it was all a lie, I bet," said Mandy. "Wutz doesn't keep his word, and neither do his agents."
"Correct," said Himself. "But I foresaw that Wutz would be useful for my plans to disenchant Ruggedo, since he wanted all the magic items he could steal. I warned Wunchie that the beans contained great power and might be too much for her to handle. That only made her want them more, as I intended."
"But really..." said Mandy.
"The beans were a trap, intended to destroy her so that Kerr could get the hammer. That didn't work out for him. She tried the beans at a remote location; they blew her up, and I took and buried the hammer."
"You buried it, but how did you know I would plow it up?" asked Mandy.
"There were two compulsion spells on the rock that took you to Oz. I lured your goat, What-A-Butter, up into the mountains. When you went after her, you stepped on that rock. The trap was sprung, and off you went. The first spell got you to pick the blue flower and pull its petals at the right time to break your fall. The second spell induced you to try to plow with Nox after you landed, right on the path that would dig up the hammer."
"You made me a puppet for your schemes," said Mandy. "I'm not sure I like that."
"It all worked out in the end. With the help of Nox and the magic messages I placed in his horn, you got to the right place at the right time to release Ruggedo. You also both got to be the heroes and save both Kerry and Oz."
"You got Ruggedo out of being a jug, but then made him a cactus. What was the point of that?"
"If I brought him to Ozma unchanged, she might have thought of another transformation with conditions even harder to break. As it is, the new condition for release is quite simple."
"You can tell me. I wouldn't do it anyway," said Mandy.
"I'd better not, just in case," said Himself.
"Now you're in the palace with Ozma," said Nox. "Are you planning anything else?"
"We're friends," said Himself. "She often summons me just to talk. I hope to gradually ease her out of doing all these transformations, and bring her back to her gentler self. Will you let me do that, and not tell her all that I told you? That's why I came to you privately."
"You're a lot more sneaky than I thought," said Nox.
"I do like Ozma, even though I thought I wouldn't at first," said Mandy. "Well-ell, it is all right with me if all you do is talk with her. No compulsions. I'll let it go if you tell me the condition to free Ruggedo from being a cactus. You have me very curious now."
"I'll whisper it to you," said Himself.
Mandy leaned down to him and he whispered, "Over-watering."
Then he vanished.
THE END