Hey y'all! I'm back and ready for the next round of Miranda's story. I had less reviews for my last chapter than any other chapter, which kind of bummed me out...but oh well! Nothing serious really happened in that last chapter, it was really just a filler anyway. Just don't forget to review at the end of this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Oz the Great and Powerful...because it has not come out to DVD yet.

{o}three days until full moon- Princess Miranda's bedroom{o}

Miranda stared at the open door of her closet, her expression frozen in thought. It was hard for her to figure out what to wear. If she wore any of the dresses that she had, she would immediately be recognized as the princess. But if she wore any of her casual clothes, she would stick out even more.

Miranda scratched her head, pondering even more. How did the women of the village normally dress when she greeted them from the balcony those five times each year? Well it really depended on the time of year since she saw them on the spring equinox, summer solstice, autumn equinox, winter solstice, and of course, her birthday. Lightbulb moment! They wore skirts, blouses, and dresses at her birthday celebration! The princess began digging through her wardrobe for some simple skirts and shirts.

Five minutes later, Miranda inspected her reflection in her full-length mirror and nodded in approval. She had on a fitted white shirt with three quarter length sleeves that billowed out at the end. She also wore a low slung brown belt and a loose blue ankle length skirt that was casual but flowy enough so she could run without any problems. She slipped on her favorite white midcalf lace-up boots that had a nice 1.5 inch heel.

The second she closed her closet door, Miranda's maids rushed into the room to do her hair like they always did. They picked up the front sections of the girl's chestnut brown hair and tied them back into a french braid around the area where Miranda would normally wear her crown. The maids let the rest of her wavy hair hang loose down to just above the middle of her back.

The maids left the room as quickly as they had entered it and Miranda proceeded to apply her makeup. She added some light eyeshadow before she threw on eyeliner and mascara. The princess finished off with some clear lip gloss before she picked up her light blue cloak and exited the room.

{o}three days until full moon- Emerald City throne room{o}

Glinda sat properly on the arm of Oz's throne while her husband paced frantically around the room. The witch, of course, was worried sick about letting her baby go out into the kingdom alone, but Oz was an emotional wreck, so Glinda had to play the part of the calm parent so both of them wouldn't go crazy.

"Oz, honey, stop pacing. You're burning a hole in the floor," Glinda insisted teasingly.

But the wizard was too upset to pay attention to what she said. "But what if she gets kidnapped?! What if some boy takes advantage of her?! What if Theodora returns?! What if-"

"Oscar!" the queen cried out.

Oz was snapped out of his state by his wife's unusually loud volume. He whipped his head toward the throne to stare at his wife in shock, making it clear that she now had the man's attention.

Glinda gracefully stepped down from her seat on the edge of the throne. She descended the stairs from the golden chair to stand in front of the king. "Sweetheart, I know you're scared - trust me, I am too - but walking in circles and tossing out every possible dangerous scenario is not going to assure our daughter's safety. What we have to do is let Miranda know that we trust her and have faith that she will be able to handle herself."

Oz stared into the witch's big brown eyes, knowing in his heart that she was correct, but Theodora's threat kept echoing in his mind. He sighed. "You're right...as always," he admitted. "Which is why I fell in love with you."

Glinda smiled. She kissed him softly on the lips before he kissed her back. Nothing heated or passionate, just affectionate and loving.

It was then that Miranda entered the room, right in the middle of her parents kissing session. "Ahem," she coughed, interrupting their moment. "Should I come back later, or what?" the princess asked playfully.

"Miranda!" Oz exclaimed, caught off guard by the girl's sudden appearance.

"No no it's cool. Go back to what you were doing." Miranda slowly proceeded to back out of the room before her dad could try to back out of his promise. "I'll just head out now." She turned around quickly and was about to bolt out of the palace when she was stopped.

"Not so fast, young lady," Oz ordered in his parental tone.

Miranda, whose back was still to the adults, flinched as she thought, "So close." She turned back around with her best innocent grin plastered on her face. The girl walked quickly over to her parents and said, "Yes Daddy?"

"You can cut the face, Andy, I'm not going back on my word."

Miranda let out a deep breath of relief and returned to her regular smile.

"That's my girl," Oz replied, beaming at how naturally gifted his baby was at conning people. The father and daughter did their special handshake and broke out laughing at the end.

Glinda watched her husband, seeing how different of a man Oz was from the egotistical, greedy, insensitive womanizer he was when he originally came to the land. She stepped forward and touched her hand to Oz's arm. "Honey, I have to leave soon and I want to assure that Miranda has made it to town before then."

"Oh! Right, sorry!" Oz stammered. He took a step back to allow room for Glinda between himself and the teenager.

"Miranda, your eyes are famous throughout the kingdom...I don't want to risk anybody recognizing you because of them. The whole point of you going out on your own is that you can experience the life of an ordinary person, so you can meet the village people without them treating you like the princess. Observe their daily routines, listen to their comments, connect with them. This trip will make you a more understanding queen in the future. Now, as for the eyes."

Glinda raised her wand and waved it in a circle around Miranda's face. As the sparkles faded, the gold and silver gave way to the magic, and Miranda's eyes shone a brilliant ocean blue. The girl rushed over to a suit of armor and stared at the blue-eyed brunette looking back at her.

"I figured, considering your outfit, that blue was your color," Glinda stated warmly as she appeared in the reflection behind Miranda.

Miranda turned back to her mother and wrapped her arms around the woman joyfully. Glinda hugged her back.

Oz stepped up the join the two. "Have you chosen your name and background in case someone asks?"

"I would say Andy but it's too close to Miranda. How about one of my middle names?"

Oz looked up pensively. "That might work. It would sound a lot more coincidental than having the same first name as the princess."

"But still too close," Glinda debated. "In Oz, nobody ever names their children after the royal family, even their middle names."

"How about Dawn?" Miranda suggested. "It comes between the sun and the moon, but only if you really thought about that would you come to that conclusion, and I would be long gone."

"Sounds good to me," Oz agreed. "Glinda?"

"I think it's a lovely name. What about your backstory?"

"I've got it all worked out. My parents are travelling merchants and we're visiting for the day and we spent the night at my aunt and uncle's farm on the outskirts of the village."

"It seems to me like you've been preparing for this for more than one night," Oz responded, giving his daughter a knowing look.

"You got that right!" Miranda said proudly. "I've been waiting for this day for years. Speaking of which, we're burning daylight. Let's go!"

"Okay then. Follow the yellow brick road outside the castle gates straight down to the village. Keep your powers secret. You and your mother are the only good witches in the area, so they're a telltale sign. Now get going before I feel the urge to try and stop you."

Miranda hugged her parents goodbye and rushed out of the room. As she got outside and neared the gates, she turned around to see her mother and father watching from the balcony. The princess waved at them before she headed down the road.

{o}three days until full moon- village square{o}

Miranda couldn't stop smiling in excitement as she walked through the busy village market. The hustle and bustle of the townspeople filled her with energy. Miranda kept her cloak hood up over her head to keep anybody from recognizing her, but because of that, nobody paid any attention to the girl.

Miranda was leaning over a florist's cart to smell the delicate bouquets of flowers when she heard a loud rumbling noise. She flung her head up and saw a wooden cart flying down the cobblestone street. The horse was running at top speed and its driver was still whipping it to go faster, nearly running over people in the process.

Miranda whipped her head around to see if there was anybody hit. She didn't see anyone, but she saw a girl in the middle of the street whose foot was caught in a gutter and was about to get trampled. The princess sprinted as fast as she could up the sidewalk and leapt across the street, knocking the girl and herself over on to the other side of the road, safely out of the way of insane cart driver.

"Slow down, you jerk!" Miranda yelled after the runaway cart.

"Thank you," the girl said quietly.

"No problem," Miranda replied. "Who was that guy?"

"Duncan Crinch," the girl answered. "He thinks he owns the town and doesn't have to care about the well-being of the rest of us."

"Well why hasn't anybody reported him? I thought there were laws against reckless behavior."

"There are," the girl stated. "But nobody wants to bother the King with issues as unimportant as aggressive driving."

"Well, I know Dad won't think of it as unimportant," Miranda thought. "I'll tell him as soon as I get home."

"Are you okay?" Miranda asked the village girl.

"I'm fine, thank you." The girl tried to stand up, but the pressure on her ankle caused her to cry out in pain. Miranda caught her before she hit the ground.

"That looks swollen. It might be sprained. Here." Miranda sat the girl down and kneeled next to her, ripped off the edge of her skirt, wrapped it around the girl's ankle, pulled a bobby pin out of her hair, and fastened the wrap with it. Luckily, the girl was wearing flats, so she wouldn't have to walk around barefoot.

It was then that Miranda got a good look at the girl. She had beautifully curly platinum blonde hair, a lot lighter than Glinda's strawberry blonde shade, light freckles, and beautiful amethyst purple eyes.

The girl looked up at Miranda while she took care of the injury. "Have we met before? I feel like I recognize you."

"I don't think so," Miranda denied quickly, realizing that her hood had fallen back when she saved the girl. "My parents are merchants, so we travel a lot. This is my first visit to this village, but I'm only staying for today. There, that should do it." Miranda helped the girl up. "Put your arm around my shoulder. Just tell me where you need to go."

"Oh no, you don't have to-" the girl began to insist as she and Miranda turned the corner, but she was interrupted.

"Vi!" a boy about Miranda's age hollered from down the sidewalk. He grabbed another teenage boy and pulled him up the street to where Miranda and the girl were standing. "Violet, are you okay?! What happened?!"

"Crinch happened," the girl, whose name was apparently Violet, answered. "But thanks to this girl here," she gestured to Miranda, "I made it out with only a twisted ankle."

For the first time, the boys took notice of Miranda, and she of them. They were both about the same height and age, but their appearances and personality traits were totally different. The one who had originally called out to Violet had medium-length flaming red hair and spring green eyes with a splash of freckles across his cheeks. His smile was warm and friendly, but the slight blush showed that he was also a little shy.

The other one had longer, jet straight, raven black hair with chocolate brown eyes and tan skin. The way his eyes kept looking Miranda up and down combined with his cocky smirk made Miranda a little nervous. This boy looked just like Glinda's description of Oz when he first showed up: overly-confident, flirty, and overall bad-boy.

Both boys were actually pretty cute, not too bad for the first teenagers Miranda had ever met.

"Thank you for saving my sister," the redhead thanked graciously as he took Violet's arm and shifted her weight off of Miranda's shoulder and onto his. "How can we repay you..."

"Dawn," Miranda lied smoothly. "And there's no need to repay me. I just did what any person would have done in that situation."

"Still, thanks."

Miranda gave a small smile and blushed a little.

"Come on, Aden," the black haired boy said, pushing the ginger aside as he stepped forward to Miranda. "I'm sure there's a better way to thank this...lovely lady...than that. How about a date with me instead?" He wiggled his eyebrows and gave the girl a suggestive grin.

"Yeah...I'm gonna have to say no," Miranda responded. "I'll just take the thanks and be on my way." She turned on her heel and was about to head in the opposite direction when Aden called out to her.

"Dawn! Dawn, wait come back!" He sat Violet down on a box and ran over to Miranda. "Sorry about Nick. He hits on every cute girl he sees. Please, at least let me offer you our friendship." His eyes seemed so genuine.

"Why not? I could use some good friends. I've only had fake friends." Miranda mentally slapped herself and silently cursed. Had she let too much slip?

"Well then welcome to our group," Aden replied, making a grand arm gesture toward Nick and Violet. "How come we've never seen you around before?"

"My parents are travelling merchants. This is my first time to this village," Miranda stated from memory.

"That explains it. I would never forget seeing such a pretty face," Nick cut in, this time winking at Miranda.

"And I would never forget meeting such a chauvinistic pig," Miranda snapped, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at the flirt.

"Ooh! Burn!" Aden said in a mocking voice. No girl had ever responded to Nick's lines liek that before.

"Yeah, Nick. I think you're playing out of your league," Violet teased from her seat on the box.

"Nah, she's just feisty. I like feisty. It makes the chase more fun for the hunter."

Miranda was about to throw out a sarcastic retort when a sudden cackling filled the air. People started to scream in terror as a green-skinned woman dressed in a black dress and black hat began to descend from the sky on a flying broom.

"IT'S THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST!" one of the villagepeople shrieked.

"We have to hide!" Aden shouted. "If she sees a stranger, she'll bring you back to her castle and torture you!" Aden and Nick threw Violet's arms over their shoulders and carried her into the shadow of the alley, Aden using his free arm to pull Miranda with them.

Huddled in the dark corner, Miranda poked her head out and watched in horror as the woman landed on the ground, holding a ball of fire in one hand and the broomstick in the other.

"Hello all!" she greeted in a wicked voice. "Remember me?"

So that's chapter four. If you want to know what Miranda/Dawn is wearing, pretty much picture the outfit Anne Hathaway wore in Ella Enchanted during the scene at the mall. Kay, bye! Review!