Their skipping became a slow walk as they entered the deepest part of the forest. It was in this area of the forest where the trees stood practically against each other. They were so close together that not a ray of sunshine penetrated through the branches. Adding to the frightening scene, wild animals and monsters of all sorts began calling from a distance and by the sound of their calls, the animals and monsters were starving. Rinoa walked along, cautiously. She felt just as frightened as Scarecrow and Tin Man were, though Tin Man did a great job of hiding his fear. "Why does this forest have to be so dark and frightening?" Rinoa asked to no one in particular. She just wanted to do something to drown out the sounds of monster growls.

"I wish I could tell you." Scarecrow said.

They continued along a silence for a while, listening to the monsters. "Do you think we'll run into any of the monsters here?" Rinoa asked, feeling a little worried.

"…Maybe." Tin Man said.

"I wish I knew what kinds of monsters are in this forest." Rinoa said, hoping none of them had an appetite for humans.

"In this area, there are mostly lions, chimeras, and death claws." Tin Man explained.

"Lions!" Rinoa exclaimed.

"And chimeras!" Scarecrow exclaimed.

"And death claws." Tin Man said, calmly.

"Oh, my!" Rinoa said, feeling even more frightened. "Lions and chimeras and death claws… oh, my."

Scarecrow and Tin Man added in their own fear and spoke along with Rinoa. As one, they began to speed up their walking, wanting to get out of the forest as quickly as possible, saying 'lions and chimera and death claws… oh, my' as they went along. Each time they speeded up their walking, they began talking faster too. It was as though they felt like they were being followed, however none of them dared to look behind them, fearing that they might see one of the aforementioned monsters.

Just then, a roar sounded from off to the party's left side and a lion jumped out in front of them. It was an odd looking lion with its mane spiked upwards, but nevertheless, the party was too scared to care about what the lion looked like. Rinoa, quickly, ducked behind a tree, while Scarecrow and Tin Man each fell off the right side of the road. They watched as the lion raised his fists as though he were a boxer. "Alright! Put 'em up, put 'em up!" The lion said, daring one of them to try something. "Which one of you wants to take me on first?"

The lion glanced over at Tin Man and seen the gunblade in his hand. "Ah, pulling a blade on me, huh?" Lion said, and then he realized that Scarecrow was now behind him, so he quickly turned around. "Attacking from behind, huh?"

Lion jumped a step back so that he could see both men at once. "What are you waiting for?" He said, urging the men to attack. "Alright, I'll fight you with one eye closed." Still, Scarecrow and Tin Man remained where they were. "I'll fight you with one paw tied behind my back."

Just then, Angelo began barking at Lion, trying to scare him off. It didn't work. Lion targeted Angelo next. "I'll get you anyway, peewee!" Lion said, as he chased after Angelo.

Angelo ran away from Lion, unsure of whether or not to stop and see if Lion would truly bite him. He ran toward the tree that Rinoa had been hiding behind and began circling. Lion chased him the whole way around the tree and before long he was stopped when a hand smacked him right in the middle of his face. Rinoa had stepped forth to stop Lion's terrorizing. "Who do you think you are?" Rinoa shouted. "Picking on Scarecrow and Tin Man like that and now picking on an innocent dog!"

"Why'd you have to go and hit me?" Lion cried, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I didn't bite him."

"You tried to!"

Lion was too distraught to listen to her. "Is my nose bleeding?" He asked.

"No." Rinoa informed, and then watched as Lion ran his hand underneath his nose to check for blood. "You're really making a big fuss about this. Why… you're nothing but a coward!"

"That's true. I am a coward." Lion said, as he used the tip of his tail to wipe away his tears.

By that time, Scarecrow and Tin Man were back in their feet and had joined up with Rinoa. "But you're a lion." Scarecrow said. "You're supposed to be the king."

"I'm too scared to be a king." Lion said. "Look at my eyes… I haven't slept in months."

"…Why not try counting sheep?" Tin Man suggested.

"That doesn't work. I'm afraid of them." Lion informed.

"How sad…" Rinoa said, quietly, now feeling sorry for Lion.

Lion sang:

Yeah, it's sad, believe me missy, when you're born to be a sissy

Without the vim and verve.

But I could show my prowess, be a lion not a mou-ess

If I only had the nerve.

I'm afraid there's no denyin' I'm just a dandelion.

A fate I don't deserve.

Rinoa, Scarecrow, and Tin Man began chatting amongst themselves for a few minutes, discussing Lion's situation. With no objections, the three of them decided on the same thing: to ask Lion to join the party. "You know… we're on our way to see the wizard of Esthar." Scarecrow began explaining to Lion. "We're going to see if the wizard can give him a heart and her a home." He indicated Rinoa and Tin Man.

"And him a brain." Rinoa finished, indicating Scarecrow. "He could probably give you some courage."

"Are you sure you want to be seen with a coward?" Lion asked.

"We've already agreed to let you join us. It's up to you now." Tin Man said.

Lion considered the offer for a moment, mostly thinking about the dangers of traveling. "Ok. I'll go with you." He said, and began singing. "Then, maybe I'd be brave as a blizzard."

"I'd be gentle as a lizard." Tin Man sang.

"I'd be clever as a gizzard." Scarecrow sang.

"If the Wizard is a Wizard who serve." Rinoa sang.

"Then, I'm sure to get a brain."

"A heart."

"A home."

"The nerve!"

Feeling a sense of gladness, the former party of three welcomed Lion to their group and off the four of them went down the yellow brick road; Rinoa kept glancing back to see if Angelo was still there.


"Curse them!" Adel shouted in anger. "How could they make it through that forest?"

She glared into her crystal ball to see the party of four exiting the forest and into a wide expanse of plains just outside of Esthar. "Fine. If the monsters couldn't take care of them, I'll take care of them myself." Adel said, and then began thinking of someway to dispose of the party. "Let's see… how should I go about this? I need something that looks safe, but is really not. Something that smells nice… that's it. …Poppies." She grinned as she waved her hand over the crystal ball.


The party of four took their last steps inside the forest and stepped out into an open plain. "We, finally, made it out of the forest." Rinoa said, relieved. Then, she noticed how close they were to their destination. "Look! It's Esthar!"

"Well, let's go!" Scarecrow said, and then took off running through the plain.

"Yes. Let's go." Rinoa said, and then followed after; Tin Man, Lion, and Angelo following after her.

The party ran through the plains and before long they noticed that they were running through a patch of red flowers. Scarecrow stopped running just a little ways away from the entrance to Esthar and waited for the others. Rinoa, gradually, slowed her running, suddenly feeling exhausted. Tin Man, Lion, and Angelo ran past her, but stopped next to Scarecrow to wait for her. Once she caught up to them, Rinoa felt as though she would fall asleep at any moment. "…Are you alright?" Tin Man asked, noticing her condition.

"I… I don't know." Rinoa answered, staggering to try and stay awake. "I just feel so sleepy." She looked around for her furry companion… "Where's Angelo?"…and found him lying in the flowers, fast asleep.

Rinoa lay down beside the dog and fell asleep, instantly. "Rinoa, no…" Scarecrow complained. "We're so close to Esthar now."

"Huh?" Lion said, suddenly feeling a bit sleepy himself. "Something's wrong with me, too. I… feel… sleepy." With that, he fell over backwards in a deep sleep.

"Something's wrong." Tin Man said to himself. "I'm going for help."

"You're just going to leave me here alone?" Scarecrow asked, unsure of what he should do.

"Yes." With that, Tin Man began walking a few steps toward Esthar.

Scarecrow watched him walk away, watched him until a white speck caught his attention. He looked up into the sky and found that it had begun snowing. "It's snowing!" He shouted.

Tin Man stopped and turned around upon hearing Scarecrow's shout. He watched his comrade stretch out his arms and welcome the falling snow. Then, from out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Rinoa, Angelo, and Lion begin to stir, and then sit up. "You're all awake!" Scarecrow said, joyfully, as Tin Man walked back to join them.

Rinoa glanced from Angelo to Lion, and then looked at Scarecrow. "I think we're fine now." She said.

"What happened?" Lion asked.

Scarecrow seemed to ponder what had just happened. "You know… I think this might be the work of a sorceress." He said.

"…Why would a sorceress be after us?" Tin Man asked.

"It's Adel." Rinoa said, knowingly.

"How do you know that?" Scarecrow asked.

"She's after me. She's after these ruby slippers." Rinoa informed.

"Then, give them to her! She'll leave us alone then." Lion said.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"…I don't know. I just have this feeling that I can't let her have them."

"Say what?"

"Can't we talk about this later? We're almost to Esthar." Tin Man cut in.

"You're right. Let's go." Rinoa said, and then began walking toward their destination.

Tin Man, Scarecrow, Lion, and Angelo all followed close behind her; and little did they all know that Edea had been using her own sorceress powers to assist them on their journey.


Author's Note: Sorry, it took so long to get this done. I couldn't focus on it for a while; too excited about some other things, I guess. I just beat Star Ocean: Til The End Of Time, I'm about to get a gamecube, and I'm getting some ideas for a 4th and 5th story that takes place after 'Heroes Never Die'. I think in those ones I'm gonna try to work on my descriptions. So far, I haven't been very good at that. And one last thing I want to say… is that it was the Tin Man that got me matching up the characters for this story. The Tin Man wants a heart and later on in the movie he gets one; at the beginning of FFVIII, Squall doesn't have a heart and he gets one later on in the game. So, that's that.