As noted in the summary, this was written for /r/WritingPompts. However, it was for a somewhat old prompt and I'm not sure if anyone's going to see it, so I'm putting it here, too. It's a bit on the short side, but I still hope you like it.

Disclaimer: Oz is public domain, so no Disclaimer is necessary. GO!

This isn't what Oz is supposed to be like.

That's what I thought as I was running down the Yellow Brick Road. Dorothy always described the place as a wondrous place where, aside from the now deceased Wicked Witches, everyone was a jolly sort who would sing and dance merrily. It was not a place for a homicidal metal man to chase you down with a bloody ax. Yet, there I was, running for my life in the middle of the woods, wondering if my pursuer is the same tin man Dorothy spoke of and, if so, what happened.

The answers came sooner than I expected when I turned around and saw that my would-be murderer was hung up by a new face. I couldn't get a good look at my savior at the time due to all the movement, but I could tell he was a lion. As the struggle continued, I ran over to a nearby bush, hoping the tin man wouldn't see me if he came out on top. Thankfully, it didn't come to that, as the lion had won, the metal man retreating back from where he came. With that done, the lion came over to me.

"You okay?" he asked in a deep voice.

"Y…Yeah," I stammered out as I got my first good look at him. He was in terrible shape. His body was covered in all kinds of scars. His mane was missing large chunks of hair, to the point that it was barely there. His tail even seem to have been cut short, with only a stump remaining. "You're the Cowardly Lion…right?"

The lion looked surprised for a moment, and then had a nostalgic smile. "Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. Friends with Dorothy, I presume?"

"Yeah. She use to talk all about this place. Though, I'm guessing a lot has changed since she came."

The lion's smile faded. "Unfortunately, her fantasy world was not meant to last. Sometime after she left, a strange hunger fell upon Oz. It drove its people to crave for the body parts of others. What those parts were depended from person to person. It can be feet, stomachs, or even, as you saw with the Tin Man, hearts."

"But…what about you? You don't seem to have this …hunger."

"I did once." The lion turned his eyes to the ground. "I hungered for 'guts'. I was lucky that I could take multiple organs from people so that I could satisfy my hunger with a lower body count than most, but still…"

"And the Scarecrow?"

"Dead. His hunger for brains made him lose all conscious thought and he soon proved easy to kill." The lion looked me in the eyes again, his face full of concern. "You have to get out of here. You will die if you stay here too long."

"I know. I wish I could just click my heels like Dorothy did, but I don't have magic slippers. I don't know how to get back."

"Perhaps the Emerald City holds the answer. After all, the Wizard did come from your world. It's likely that there's something he left behind that could help you. I'll take you there." With that, the lion lowered himself down so that I could get on his back.

I got on him. "Thanks. I'm Oliver, by the way."

The lion smiled. "Your welcome. If you wish to call me something other than 'Lion,' I've always liked the name Leo."