Disclaimer: If I owned the Wizard of Oz, well, there'd be no reason for me to write a fanfic now, would there?
Chapter Four
"I'll be there, some day, I can go the distance! I will find my way if I can be strong! " Dorian's eye twitched as he listened to the Scarecrow singing. It was the next day. After the straw girl had joined him and Toto, they walked for another couple of hours until Dorian had gotten tired and decided to stop and rest at an old abandoned farmhouse. And now, they were off again, and Dorian had the misfortune of listening to her off-key singing.
"Could you please not sing?!" He hissed through his teeth.
"Okay!" The Scarecrow said with a smile. And she started humming. Dorian groaned and picked up speed. The sooner he got to see Ozia, the sooner he could get rid of the annoying Scarecrow.
Unseen to Dorian, someone, or something was watching him in the forest.
"Wait, where are we going again?" the Scarecrow asked, stopping in her tracks.
"We're going to go see Ozia." Dorian said with remarkable patience.
"Why?" the Scarecrow asked. A temple started to pound in Dorian's head.
"I need to get back home, and you need a brain. Desperately."
"Hey, that's not very nice!" The Scarecrow moaned. Dorian was just about to shout when he noticed Toto's intense stare.
"What's up, boy?" he asked. He and the Scarecrow followed the dog's gaze through the trees and saw...nothing.
"What are we looking at?" the Scarecrow asked.
"Probably a squirrel or something." Dorian shrugged. "Let's get going." The gang started to walk off again, when suddenly something leaped out from the trees and landed in front of them.
That something was a girl. Or, at least it was shaped like a girl. The thing seemed to be made of some sort of metal, and had a tall, lithe build. On her head was more metal shaped like short, spiky hair. The only part of her that didn't look metallic was her eyes, which were purple and burning with anger. In her hands she held a halberd with a long pole.
"Wha?!" Dorian asked. "A robot girl?!" This had been the wrong thing to say.
The girl's eyes burned even brighter.
"I am no automaton!" she shouted. "Now tell me, where is Elphias?!"
"The wizard?" Dorian asked, blinking stupidly for a few seconds. Then he snapped to his senses. "I don't know!"
"LIAR!" The girl raised her halberd. Fortunately, Dorian was able to dodge before she could slice through him.
"You're crazy!" Dorian shouted. "What makes you think I know where Elphias is?!" Instead of answering, the girl moved to attack him again. Dorian dodged, except this time, he wasn't so fast. In the last few seconds, he got a cut in his arm. The boy screamed in pain and grabbed his injured limb. Suddenly, something strange happened. The boots on his feet were suddenly surrounded with a white glow. His new scar started to glow too, and as he, and the girls, watched, it closed up.
"Dorian?" the Scarecrow asked.
"Oh, right." Dorian said. "Glandar or whatever said that these boots have powers."
"Well, that's troublesome." The 'robot' girl said, lowering her halberd. Dorian glared at her.
"What's your deal, anyway?! Why'd you try to slice me up, you psycho robot?!" The girl's head shot up.
"I told you, I'm not a machine!" she protested angrily. "Though I suppose I might as well be now." She looked down at the ground, and the Scarecrow tilted her head, a concerned look on her face.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"That's none of your concern." The metal girl snapped, glaring at her. She turned and started to walk off, but Dorian marched forward and grabbed her shoulder.
"Oh no." he said. "You're not getting off that easily." The girl glared at him and brushed his hand off.
"You forget, I have magic boots." Dorian informed her. "If you're not careful, I can turn you into scrap metal." He was obviously bluffing. The boy didn't even know how to use the boots, that was evident. However, for whatever reason, the girl submitted.
"Well, if you must know." She took a brief pause, then continued. "Until a couple months ago, I was flesh, like you." She informed Dorian. "I was just a simple girl, working as a woodcutter to support my mother and ailing father. However, one day, I got a present from Elphias."
A young girl of about 17 opens her house door to go out, and sees a mysterious halberd lying at her doorstep. Curious and intrigued, she reaches out to touch it, when suddenly the large ax raises up by itself. The girl gasps as the halberd turns around so that the blade is facing her. It starts to fly towards her.
"Fortunately for me, Glindar was in town." The girl said back in the present. "Unfortunately, he didn't know any healing magic, so he did the next best thing. He gathered all the tin items around my house and used them to make a new body for me, which he then transferred my spirit into. Needless to say, I was a bit...upset when I saw myself afterwards."
The girl, now in a body of tin, raises herself up from the floor. Her mother gasps in horror, and the girl, worried, runs over to a mirror. Her eyes widen in horror when she sees what she has become. Letting out a shout, she grabs the mirror with both hands, throwing it to the floor.
"It wasn't until later that I learned that Elphias was responsible." The Tin Girl finished. "Since then, I've sworn to make him pay, using the very same enchanted ax he left me to cleave his head from his shoulders."
"That's horrible!" The Scarecrow said sadly. Dorian stared at her, unsure of what to do. She had just tried to kill him, and now she was telling a sob story?
"Why don't you come with us?" Dorian and the Tin Girl both stared at the Scarecrow.
"What?" They both asked simultaneously.
"Dorian and I are going to see Ozia!" the Scarecrow announced. "Maybe you could come with us, and ask her to heal your body or something!"
"Are you nuts?!" Dorian asked. The Tin Girl, on the other hand, seemed to be considering her offer.
"I suppose it makes more sense than just wandering aimlessly around looking for Elphias. Who knows, I might even run into him." The Tin Girl said. She nodded. "Very well."
"Yay, new traveling companion!" the Scarecrow said.
"No, not yay!" Dorian said. "She just tried to kill me!"
"But we can't just leave her like this!" the Scarecrow said. "Now come on! We're not getting any younger here!" She grabbed either of her companions' hands and dragged them off along the Yellow Brick Road. Dorian looked over at the Tin Girl, and let out a shudder. It was bad enough traveling with an annoying chatty Scarecrow, now he also had to go to Ozia with a violent Tin Woodsgirl who looked like she'd kill him the second he turned his back.
I'm going to die! I'm seriously going to freaking die here!
A/N: For those of you who don't know, a halberd is a type of battle ax with a long handle. I thought it would be an awesome weapon for my badass, female version of the Tin Man. I seriously love this character :D And for those of you who are wondering 'But what about that whole 'heartless' thing?', don't worry, that'll come into play later. BTW, cyber cookie to anyone who can recognize the song Scarecrow is singing in the beginning. Review please!