Follow the Yellow Brick Road

One of my favorite movies was the Wizard of Oz. I would watch it repeatedly while babysitting Mitch when he was younger. Even when he fell asleep halfway through the movie, I would finish it every time before getting back to my homework. Now we're both in a hospital room and I'm watching it again with a coma induced Mitch. If I pretended not to hear the machine that goes ping, ignore the disinfectant in the air, and focused on the movie, it was kind of like babysitting Mitch all over again.

Picking up an apple I took a big bite out of it and chewed. And then I coughed from having swallowed the sticker on the side of the apple. Weren't they supposed to remove those things just in case someone choked? With a grimace I put the apple down and took a swig of water. All three dads were pretty mad at me when they got here, but Jay, my biological father's now husband, was a police officer and pulled a few strings so I didn't get a DUI. Jay could be cool at times I guess, though it was kind of his fault I got behind the wheel as well. He was the stepdad I got in a fight with while still slightly drunk.

I glared at the water glass. I didn't get it, I deserved the long term effects of the DUI, go to jail, pay the fines, deal with all that crap. But Jay liked to hurt people with kindness. I remembered the divorce how Jay would mediate my parents fights, stop them from hurting each other. He was just a family friend back then, but when finally he picked a side, he sugar coated his poisonous words and destroyed my mother.

I guess it could be considered a second chance. Jay told me I should pull my life around, settle on a major and stick with it. Stop the partying, drop the boyfriends, spend more time with Mitch. Throwing my head back I laughed.

Oh, laughing took a lot of energy. Breathing hard, I closed my eyes, smiling as Dorothy sang a catchy song. What was it? I don't know, the world was spinning and I was falling, darkness hugged me as the soft hospital bed engulfed my consciousness.

"Dij ya shleep well missy?"

"Oh, my stomach!" I rolled away from the mole and threw up bile and sparkles. A good way to come back to Redwallworld. Oddly, inside the pile of yuck was a sticker. I reached down and picked at it with a claw.

"Ya grawss!" My mole friend protested, but I was too fascinated by the apple sticker. What did this mean? Did my pixie dust do this? I didn't get to think on it too much throw, because Mr. Mole was pulling me away from the smelly waste. "Ya ah real sick foiry."

"A what?" I turned, perking my ears at the last word. His speech was easier to understand then some of the mole talk that I read in the books, but there were still words that I missed.

He coughed into his claw and repeated himself. "Ah said, ya a real sick fai-ry!"

"Oh." I looked at my paws, and yes I think I'm going to stick with that, and nodded. A fairy was probably a better explanation for the magical throwing up. "Yeah, I think that's good. Totally fairy material, got all the sparkles and shit."

"T'at ya dew." He shook a claw with a little nod of his head.

I liked him.

"Did we introduce ourselves?" I said, reaching out with the paw that I picked the sticker with. He raised a brow at me and I switched paws before we shook.

"Nahme's Zhay."

"Zh-ay?"

"No no, Jay."

"Really?" I cocked my head at the coincidence. "I've got a step dad who's named Jay."

"Smahll woirld. But, it shoirt foi Blew Zhay Slayar."

I crossed my arms. "Blue Jay Slayer? Is that your birth name?"

"Eehh." He shook a claw in an 'iffy' gesture. "Oi a slayar of boidies, Poips was a slayer as well."

"I see, runs in the family. Well, I'm Nathalie, Nathalie Bell Slacker." I put a hand to my gesture to refrain from laughing. I couldn't remember the last time I gave my name out like that, that wasn't for some sort of business. The folks here played by different rules though, and he had just given me his full name. Suddenly I was thinking about James Bond. He'd say, 'Bond, James Bond,' in that sexy way of his.

Leaning forward, I stuck a finger up and gave him my most charming smile. It transformed in me showing my teeth, but I was pretty sure that was a socially acceptable thing here. "Now, let's skip to the chase and you tell me where Redwall is."

"Woi yee wag oi too Redwull."

I laughed, holding my sides. Surprised mole speech was impossible to understand, especially when they squeaked like that! "I know what you said, but I didn't get a word out of that but Redwall."

Jay shook his claw, turning his head from side to side at being laughed at. "Why ya wahnt to go too Redwahll?"

"Would you like me to pull a Disney on you and put it into song?"

The mole interlaced his claws onto his stomach and leaned back with a smirk. "Noit know w'at ah 'Dysney' is, but, T'is shoild be good."

Hopping up I put a spring to my step and marched down the path. "I'm off to see Redwall, the wonderful red of wall. You'll find its tall, if there ever was a tall red wall. If ever, oh ever, there was a wall as tall as Redwall, because because because." I did a little twirl and fell on my rump, laughing at the horrible impromptu rewrite of the song from Wizard of Oz. Even though Jay was well into bursting with tears, I continued. "Because, of the wonderful things it does!"

"W-with itz hoight?" Jay raised a claw above his head, grinning to his ears.

I gave a big nod, because why else would I go to Redwall but to see its height? I was already a fairy, so guess I needed a good tall place to jump off from and soar through the air with my magical pixie dust and I'd fly to Neverland.

My stomach churned and decided to bring an end to my antics with an overflow of sparkles and glitter. "Uhg…"

"Oi moight be preggers."

I rolled my whole head at him. "I'm not pregnant."

"Ya ah vergan?"

"Of course." I rolled away from my vomit, and put a paw to my chest. "I'm an innocent and pure ferret, never have I seen the taint of a male, let alone taste it."

"Stoip! Too much, noit need to know!"

I cackled as Jay waved his claws about. Though I had been joking, I was glad he didn't take offense to the crudeness. Sitting up and crossing my legs, I took a calming breath and put my serious face on. "Hey, so all that aside. I know Redwall ain't keen on vermin like me, but I need a place to get my bearings. I'm not native to Mossflower, and quite frankly I got no idea what I'm doing here either."

"Oi ain't ah vermint, ya be ah pruddy foiry."

"Thanks." I said, holding my midsection. It felt good to have friendly company so early in this Wonderland of a dream. Was it still a dream though? It felt so real, and yet, I could wake up and see Mitch. Maybe, it was something like another world, and my consciousness was switched into this ferret body. Oh my God, what if my body used to belong to someone else, or still does, but I'm like, taking them over at times?

"Whaht's wroing?"

"Oh- uhm, nothing." I chirped, smiling up at the fearsome mole. "Just, a wild imagination, and threatening over, some, interesting ideas for uhm, a story! Yeah, a story."

The mole knelt in front of me, offering his claw. I grabbed it and he hoisted me up to my feet. Though he was now looking up at me, I felt like a small child in the presence of a big man. A man such as the Jay from my world, charismatic, gentle, kind, and could tear someone apart with their words alone. Soft words, truthful words, hurtful words.

"Ya ah bard?"

"Yes." Now behold for I am a fairy, a bard fairy, on her way to the wonderful Redwall of Oz. Well, without the Oz part. "Also an artist, I can draw you fifteen different ways. I'm also a healer, and a mechanic, and… You probably don't have much in the means of electricity though." I could never focus on one major, it could say I was addicted to learning. There were reasons to why I bitched at my classmates, with whatever drug in my system at the time. Drugs didn't work to well with lectures but I'd be damned if I missed out on an ounce of knowledge. Until I got bored of that subject of course or one of the classmates took exceptional disliking of me… I honestly do fall under a vermin classification.

"Soi, ah zhack of trades eh?" Jay patted me on the back before leading the way down the road. "Redwull' ahpprec'ate ah lassie loike yaself."

"You think they'd really let me in?"

"Soire, oi heard t'ey got 'im ah vermint jus' loike ya. Smahller fellow, yoing, boyish."

Laughing I said the first thing that came to mind. "His name doesn't happen to be Mitch, does it?"

"Tch, doin' soime foiry woirk on meh eh?"

"What?"

"It is, Mitch be hiz noime."

"R-really?" I kept walking beside my new friend, too amazed at the coincidence. Was it coincidence? I'd give the mole and my stepdad having the name being a coincidence, but someone like me, a young boy named Mitch? "D-does he also happen to be sick with the sparkles?"

Jay gasped and covered his mouth in a comical fashion. "Ya thoink he be ah foiry too? 'splain ah vermint livin' at thee ahbbey."

"I guess we should find out. Will you take me there?"

Jay waved his claw in a rather gay fashion, an exact imitation of my stepdad when he was playing around. "Soire."

Then it was settle then, me and Jay were off to see Redwall. There was no yellow brick road, but my companion was bright enough to lead the way. And who knew, maybe I'd learn something valuable from him to boot.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as it was for me to write it. :3