Chapter 3
Instead of singing to the tune that you are trying to make up in your head, you feel like crying as Scarecrow leads you through a dark forest. There are growls all throughout the forest, and they all sound hungry. You tried to tell her that it is too dangerous and you both need to go around. But she insisted telling you that it would take days if you went around, and so here you are clinging to a person who barely knows you scared you are going to get eaten.
"We need to find a man," you whisper to Scarecrow.
"I think we can manage," she says back to you.
You sigh. Scarlet had watched the Wizard of Oz with you, but Scarecrow hadn't. How are you going to explain to her you need to meet a man made out of tin when she had never seen tin before?
"Scarecrow," you say trying to sound reasonable, "We are going to kill a witch, but we cannot do that by ourselves. You can get me there, but I cannot kill her. I tried with water and it did not work."
"Why did you try to kill a person with water?" The tone in her voice made it sound like she thought that was the most ridiculous thing in the world, which to be fair it was.
"Not my point!" you defended. "We need a guy who can wield an ax. Okay?"
"Got it!"
You see something flying out of the woods. Suddenly, you are on your back. Before you can react a man, all shiny with like he is made of aluminum is standing over you, ax ready to strike.
"Found him!" yelled Scarecrow from behind the tin man.
You rolled your eyes. That was such a Scarlet thing. Then your eyes focus on an ax coming down on you. You roll out of the way barely avoiding it. Your first prayer in Oz is, "God, please make it rain." The ax comes at you again, and then you summon up the courage to say, "Hey, I am defenseless! Why hurt me? What did I do to you?"
The tin man stopped and looked at you for a minute. He blinked a few times. Then he says something that freezes your blood, "Nothing, but I don't have a heart." With that the ax, comes down again.
Scarecrow pushed you out of the way. "Hey, don't hurt her. Come at me."
Tinman fell for it, and turned to go after Scarecrow. Grateful for the distraction, you look around and try to figure out how to beat a heartless tin giant. In the middle of the woods, there is really nothing for you to use. You try to think about how they stopped him in the book. Water made him rust up, and the oil can made him move. Wait, you think, he needs the oil can! You start searching for that and something shiny catches your eye, the oil can. Your hands grab it, and you turn around to see Scarecrow dodging yet another ax swipe.
"Hey!" you scream, but the ax man does not turn around. "You heartless hunk of tin, look what I got."
Tinman turned around to see you start to pour the oil out. "Wait!" he said screaming. "I will do whatever you want. Please! Please don't pour that out!"
"Drop the ax!" you demand. He complies, much to Scarecrows relief.
"I want you to be our guard as we travel to the witch's castle," You demand. A squeaky head nod is what you get as an answer. "Good. But first we need to find the King of the Forest, the lion. Do you know who that is?" Another squeaky sound. "If I give you this, ill take us to find him?"
"Of course!" bellowed Tinman. "Now give me my oil can!"
You hand the can over, and the freak begins oils himself right in front of you. He actually oils himself everywhere, his neck, his jaw, his shoulders, and his elbows. You realize he is staling so you say, "Okay we held up our end, so it's your turn."
Tinman gives a smile, not a nice smile, but the smile of someone who just got caught trying to hurt you. "Yes your right it is time to go. Now follow me." And with that, he starts heading off in the direction of West again. You eye him as the Scarecrow walks up to you.
"Do you trust him?" she whispers in your ear.
"No," you whisper back. keeping an eye on the strange man the whole time.
"Good I thought it was just me," and with that she trots off after him.
