An Apostle of the Lord, Chapter 10
Dean came into the kitchen to see Sam with his head in the fridge and Castiel behind him craning his neck to see in, too.
"Should they be raw or hard boiled?" Sam asked, not backing out.
Castiel pulled out his smart phone and poked at it intensely while walking into the next room. Dean soon heard him calling out from the next room, "Raw. Eddie says they need to be raw."
What's going on," Dean reached around Sam for the milk. Cereal would be good enough this morning. On to the cupboard, "Hey! Captain Crunch!"
"Eddie says were going to fight gnomes and we need to bring eggs." Sam said, pulling out a carton and looking in it, "Five. That's not many."
Castiel peered into the carton, too. "He said to just grab what we had and go to the barn. I think we are just contributing whatever we have and he will have plenty regardless of what we bring."
Dean grabbed a bowl from the sink, sniffed at it, then poured cereal in. "What do eggs have to do with gnomes? Are we feeding them before the fight? If there are pancakes, too, I'm putting the cereal back."
"Nope." Sam and Castiel headed out of the kitchen. "Coming with?"
"Now?" Dean shoveled dry Captain Crunch into his mouth and stashed the milk back into the fridge. "I'm driving. We'll take Baby."
Castiel looked sternly at Dean. "You want to risk egg yolk on your car?"
"Um. I'll park far away. Where are these gnomes right now?" Dean hopped into Baby, the others took their places, and they were off to Eddie Timms' barn.
At Eddie's place Baby stopped at the sign in the middle of the lane which read, "Stop here and walk. -Eddie." And so they did.
As they approached the barn, the trio noticed the several black cauldrons ringing the barn at a distance. Red smoke rose from each cauldron. Otherwise they only saw Eddie coming in their direction. "Hiya, guys!"
Once they crossed between the cauldrons the scene changed dramatically. Behind Eddie a score of teenaged girls in red military uniforms armed with what looked like slingshots and long knitting needles were battling rock beings as the creatures emerged from the ground. In their midst a man made of metal decapitated the rock creatures with a sharp green-edged axe. A regal-looking woman in a white gown with bright red trim observed from the barn's doorway.
"Those knives and guns won't do any good," said Eddie. "Let's go to the barn and get you armed." He grabbed eggs from nearby and flung them at the creatures as they ran.
Castiel looked down at the few eggs in the carton he had brought. Then he followed suit and emptied the whole carton on the nearest rock creature. He paused to watch solemnly as it collapsed to the ground in agony. One of the girls ran up to it and shoved her needle into one of the crevasses in its body. The needle began humming and vibrating and the creature's body snapped into to two parts. She slipped the needle back into its sheath and ran to join the melee.
Castiel caught up with the others at the barn door. As he passed the woman he noticed her long red hair braided down to the small of her back through a delicate ruby-laden gold framework. She smiled pleasantly at him and stepped into the barn behind the four men.
They stepped to the right and were startled to see a man with a flour bag for a head and an awkwardly drawn face on it, one eye larger than the other. With baggy clothing and bits of straw sticking out from the cuffs and neck it waas a living scarecrow. He stood beside a podium with a huge book opened on it.
"I am Glinda," the woman said, "ruler of the south lands of Oz. This is Scarecrow." I know you have met Dorothy Baum, but just in case you do not know the basics of living in a fairyland like Oz, here are a few if them: we all live forever, we do not age, magic can bring inanimate objects like friend Scarecrow to life and we consider them persons like us. Also, if individuals are divided in half they become inanimate until the two parts are put together, at which time they become their former selves.
"The soldiers outside are my personal guards. They look like young girls, but they are much much older. I've found that younger-looking people stay very aggressive which we need in war. Older-looking people are too passive for that but are consistent in their work so there is a place for everyone. The rock beings out there are gnomes and are at war with Oz. Eggs are poison to gnomes, so the girls slingshot eggs at them-raw eggs work quickest. Once stunned, the girls' wands are set to shatter the gnomes in half. They become inanimate and we can bargain with King Ruggedo for a truce for their restoration."
By now Sam had gotten used to the frozen smile on Scarecrow's face and stood beside him looking over the huge book. "What's the writing appearing on this page?" Sam asked.
"History being written," replied Scarecrow. "It's happening simultaneously on several pages. On this page is what is going on outside. We are winning. King Ruggedo has become alarmed. It is almost time to summon Queen Ozma to negotiate."
Dean was at the doorway watching the battle. Glinda noticed his forlorn expression and called for Nick to come to the barn.
Nick Chopper came into the barn feeling jovial, "We are doing well. Most of them have been soundly defeated."
"Friend Nick, that is wonderful!" Glinda said. She produced a duplicate axe and, as she ran her finger over the blade, the edge turned green," she continued. "Nicholas Chopper, this is Dean Winchester who is skilled with weapons of all kinds. "I would like you to take him back with you and have him help finish the battle."
"Gladly!" said Nick. He motioned for Dean to follow him out into battle and Dean cheerfully trotted along behind him, enchanted axe held above his head. Castiel was already out there laden with bags of eggs and rearming the girls with their slingshots. He took a few attempts at the slingshot himself with some success. The girls cheered each time his egg struck a gnome.
In the distance, Eddie was working alone. He had figured out how to form an effective likeness to whipped egg and as he made contact with a gnome he turned enough of its surface into egg to cause an injury. When he reached its main body, a touch of his hand caused a slice of its body to turn into air, neatly dividing it into two inanimate parts.
"Eddie shouldn't be fighting alone, Dean," noted Nick. "Let's work our way in his direction."
Later, Sam noticed Castiel on the other side of the room He was entranced, looking into the book on the podium there. A fat bug-like being with very thin legs and arms and sporting a curled mustache and equally curled eyebrows, and wearing boldly colored stylish clothes, pointed out items in the book to him.
Sam crossed the room to see what they were looking at.
The creature was explaining to Castiel how many of the sigils angels used were similar to Ozian magic and that, with Oz's location in its universe being aligned with Kansas in this one, Ozian magic was reacting to the angel warding and witch spells on the barn.
"After the battle we can go over the markings," it said. "I am sure that working together we can create a portal from locations on Earth by tunneling into the fairy lands, and we can likewise create portals from Oz to Ev and other fairy lands by passing our underground tunnels through this location on Earth.
"Oh, hello! You must be the much admired Sam Winchester! I am Professor Wogglebug. And, no, I was never an actual insect. I often joke that a teacher once found me sitting on a class windowsill, put me on under magnifying glass and displayed my magnified likeness on the wall, after which I stepped off the wall. Therefore I am T.E. Wogglebog H.M., being 'throughly educated' and 'highly magnified.' That is NOT what actually happened, but the story stuck and I push it as far as I can because the students love it."
One of the girls stepped up to load Castiel with more eggs and he marched out into the battle.
"Sam," Professor Wogglebug continued, "this is Glinda's Great Book of Spells. It has the greatest known collection of spells in both our worlds and instructions on how to use them. The spells of all the witches in Oz and fairies in other lands are just a fraction of what is recorded here. So far I have found all of the markings on and inside the barn in this book."
Glinda's voice drowned out the hubbub in the barn and shouting outside. "Queen Ozma is on her way! Prepare for the arrival of Queen Ozma!"
A uniformed girl pulled open the door on the floor as fighters in the field gathered empty cauldrons and other materials and took them to the end of the barn.