X: Tear Down The Wall

AUTHOR NOTE: This is for any fans of the Warhammer 40,000 wargame franchise from Games Workshop: try not to think of green-skinned, ultraviolent, intergalactic rabble-rousers when we mention "orks" in this chapter! The orks of Oz, created and defined by Baum in The Scarecrow of Oz, are a completely unrelated species of flying creatures, one of whom we'll be introducing in this very chapter.

And unlike the orks of the Imperium, dey'z like da humies. ;)

Dorothy, the Lion, and the Scarecrow all agreed, since Pon was nowhere in their immediate vicinity, that he should be added to that which the teams of two should be searching for, in addition to Blinkie. With the still-recovering Biff keeping vigil over the collared witches, and Ali and Tilda keeping watch on the stubborn young apprentices, the group set out to begin their search mission.

BO AND THE LION

The leonine monarch of the Quadling Country's beasts looked a little sullen as he set out with the large, black and white-furred discipline officer of his Legion of Courage to begin their sweep, looking through the uninhabited cottages of their chosen search area.

Although she maintained her attentiveness to the search effort, Bo did indeed notice her king's apparent melancholy as they looked around the second of the cottages they chose to search. "Dare I ask if there is anything on your mind, your highness?"

"Ehh, it's nothin', Bo." The lion replied as he looked around the cottage's living room area, seeing only an embroidered picture of a face that resembled one of the apprentices as an item of possible interest.

But the lion knew Bo too well. She'd maintain her curiosity over what troubled the lion…or anyone else in the Legion, for that matter…until she got an answer. Indeed, there was something on his mind, and he knew Bo would eventually get it out of him.

Bo, in fact, began a mental count from five, slightly smiling as she continued her searching. After one, right on cue, the lion spoke again.

"Da thing is, Bo…I kinda thought Dorothy would want ta come wit me." The lion explained. "I mean…dis is da very same girlie dat helped me find my courage, after all."

"Mm-hmm…so I guess the fact that she's basically an animal now has nothing to do with it?" Bo observed aloud, continuing her searching as she spoke.

The lion frowned, angling his head to the panda. "Oh, come on…Dorothy's under a spell is all. Once we've freed Glinda, she'll change 'er back in less den a second!"

"Oh, no doubt." Bo continued to speak as she moved around, continuing her investigation of the cottage. "So it really doesn't matter who she goes with, then? Otherwise, why bring the concern up to begin with? Dorothy chose to go with the Scarecrow. Case closed."

The lion couldn't help but heave a sigh over Bo's words. "Alright, alright. I admit it. I'm…I'm a little jealous. I mean…Dorothy's such a great kid, Bo. Really sweet. Although I really did feel bad when I found out what happened ta her, it just occurred ta me dat, for da time bein', she's one of us now. An animal. It really felt good ta be able ta teach her things like instinct an' stuff…an' she's got real good leada-ship pa-tenshul, don'cha think?"

"So it's more like a teacher-and-student thing." Bo surmised as she continued looking around, going into another room.

"Yeah, dat's…" The lion had drifted to another room, and had spotted a clear oddity in the presence of a quaking bulge beneath the covers of a woman's bedroom. It was definitely human-shaped, and resting on one side. "…dat's more like it. Uh…Bo? Could ya join me in here for a sec?"

Bo spoke as she moved to rejoin her commander-in-chief. "Did you find something?"

The lion silently indicated the bulge within the covers.

Bo frowned thoughtfully as she acknowledged the bulge. "A survivor, maybe?" She wondered aloud. "Someone who was somehow immune to the stone spell?"

The bulge responded to this before the lion could answer. "Yes! Yes!" the funny-sounding voice replied, in a tone that sounded more like a man pretending to be a woman, and not doing a very good job of it. "Please! Go and get those nasty witches!"

Bo and the lion looked to each other incredulously, and then turned their heads back towards the quivering bulge. The furry commander-in-chief then stepped over to one side of the bed and grabbed at its sheets. "We're gonna need ta ask yas a few questions first, 'madam'!"

The lion then slipped the sheets off the bed in one big pull, completely exposing the familiar-looking young man that was hiding beneath them. A young man they had heard was once a much older man, before he exchanged his frail old age with an innocent gardener's boy's more vibrant youth.

The lion's eyes lit up in recognition. "Well, well, well! An' I was jus' gettin' hungry, too!"

With a rather genuine-sounding girlyman shriek, Goog L'Goo burst out of the bed in hopes of dashing for the door, but the amazing pole-fighting skills of the Legion of Courage's discipline officer easily sent the sneaky miscreant to the ground. Grabbing the back of his waistcoat, Bo threw him back onto the bed. The lion grabbed the back of Goog's neck with one paw and pulled the clearly frightened young man up to a sitting position. His eyes boggled with terror as he angled them to the lion, who now looked at him with an expression he surmised to be hunger.

The lion, however, was loving every minute of the deception as he stared upon Goog. "Rrrr…ruff!" He uttered, right in the human man's face, causing his terrified victim to react with a yelp. The grinning leonine monarch angled his head to Bo, speaking with mock-anxiousness. "So which part a' his body should I rrrrrrip off first?"

She shrugged. Bo couldn't help but play along as well. "King's discretion, your highness…" She then fixed a hungry gaze on Goog. "…but I call dibs on the bones."

"Y-yy…you can't eat me!" Goog stammered, his voice pathetically breaking in his fright. "You need me! I…I can help you!"

Bo smirked. She practically sang the words. "He's ly-iiing."

"Naturally!" The lion maintained his grip on the back of Goog's neck as he continued to sweat and shake with terror. "Wow…dis one's as jittery as a sheep. I almos' feel sorry for ya, kiddo…I'd spares ya if I wasn't hungry for a lambchop!"

"Wait! Wait!" Goog howled as the lion lowered to a knee, licking around his leonine mouth as it neared one of the terrified human's legs. "Pleeease wait!"

Bo spoke right in Goog's face with a menacing grin. "Sorry, kid. Our king never plays with his food."

At this, the lion clamped his jaws down on Goog's upper thigh, putting just enough pressure on the leg for the bite to hurt, without drawing much blood. Predictably, Goog reared his head back and hollered in apparent agony, his eyes boggling.

"Just what do you think gives you the right to steal a young boy's youth?" Bo scolded, frowning angrily.

"I had to!" Goog screamed, practically blubbering through his words. "I wanted that girl! I promised King Krewl all my riches if he could give Princess Gloria to me, but that stubborn little brat kept refusing me! I was gonna do anything…anything…to get that girl to marry me!"

"Couldn't take 'no' for an answer, eh?" Bo shook her head. "Pathetic. I can't help but wonder how a jerk like you came to be wealthy to begin with."

The lion suddenly brought his head back up, looking disgusted. "What am I doing? I keep fah-gettin' ta rip away da clothes first!" As his bite had dug through the cloth, he was able to tear away enough of the cloth on his upper thigh to allow the lion to clamp his jaws back down, this time on exposed flesh.

As the lion slowly brought his jaws back down on the exposed area, the wildly-perspiring Goog, his eyes squinted shut in expectation of the pain to come, let out another curious holler. "NN-NNNNOOOOOOOOOMMES!"

The lion stopped, just as his canines were about to touch the terrified man's flesh. He then looked up, curiously, to Goog.

His leonine face then moved until it was a few inches from Goog's face. "Did you say 'nomes'?"

Bo nodded, also curious. "That's what it sounded like, my king."

The lion's curious expression melted to a frown as Goog fearfully opened his eyes. "'Splain, Googly."

Goog's tone remained pathetic. "Promise me you won't eat me!"

"Only if it's da truth ya tells me." The lion angrily countered.

"Okay! Okay! Okayokayokayokayokay, yesyesyesyesyes…" Goog wiped away a bit of his sweat from his face as he began. "…M-Moogle-loog! Moogle-loog, he…hhheee was banished from the land of Mo…I'm his son! W-We went to the land of Ev and my father made a bargain with the Nome King!" He spoke at a rapid-fire pace now. "He promised to pay a price in live slaves within thirty days in exchange for precious stones worth a kingly sum! Moogle-loog was a family friend of King Evoldo…he told Evoldo of the bargain and Evoldo offered his own family so my father could fulfill the debt!"

Both Bo and the lion found the confession quite horrifying. The lion was the first to speak a moment after Goog went silent. "Family?"

"Just what kind of a family are we talking about here, Goog?" Bo asked, still aghast over what she had heard.

"His wife, the…the Queen, his…his young heir…" Goog swallowed hard, still shaking terribly. "…and…and his nine ch-children."

"CHILDREN?" Bo's eyes boggled at this.

The lion couldn't contain his anger any longer. He cut loose with a very loud, bestial roar which could only come from the natural king of the beasts, and he directed every octave of it right in Goog's screaming face.

The lion snarled openly as he spoke right into Goog's face, which had a near-catatonic expression on it at this point. "And you have the nerve to let your father get away with this? 'Take the money and run', is that it?"

Although Bo was just as disgusted over this admission, there was one question she was curious enough to ask. "And just what happened to your father, hmm? What happened to this…this 'Moogy-moog'?"

But Goog was fading now, and on the verge of passing out from the stress. He spoke slowly. "O-Orn…orna-m-mmment…b-black….orrrnammm…"

Goog's body went limp as he lapsed into unconsciousness.

The lion still had an angry expression on his feline face as he released Goog, and let his upper body drop back down to the bed. Bo looked just as disgusted.

"I think we really should eat him." The angry panda mused.

The lion, however, shook his head. "No. Goog isn't da problem. His daddy is. Dunno what he meant by a black ornament, but I don't think it mattas right now." He then turned to face Bo. "But we are gonna take dis guy wit us, an' keep 'im bound up wit dose apprentice kids. When he comes to, we can grill 'im some more on dat biz wit da nomes. Let's get 'im back ta HQ. Den, we can get back ta searchin'."

Bo nodded in acknowledgement, already lifting Goog's limp body and draping it over her furry shoulder like a sack of rice. "Wouldn't it be great if we could restore Goog's real age before he regains consciousness?"

The smiling lion arched an eyebrow as they made their way out of the cottage. "Sounds like well-deserved poetic justice ta me, big Bo."

TROT AND KOUP

As Trot was getting hungry, Koup flew his protégé and companion over to a forest area, where he had spotted a tree-like banana plant that grew by a body of water. They had already been engaged in their own search effort, but they had turned up nothing thus far.

Koup was only hungry for one, but Trot devoured three of them.

"Wow…" Koup amusedly observed, as the former girl discarded the banana peel, tossing it into the nearby lake. "…you be really 'ungry, eh?"

Trot shrugged. "I can't help it. These bananas…they're so good." She then looked over to the banana plant. "I could go for another."

"I teenk ya 'ave enough now." Koup responded. "Ya beeg een de belly as eet ees."

"Awww, c'mooon." Trot pleaded. "One more?"

Koup stepped over to the hungry monkey girl. "We do a leetle more sear-cheeng first. We find any'teen? We come back an' ya can feell ya belly a leetle more."

Trot displayed a simian pout. "Oh, okay. Fair eno…"

Her eyes had diverted to the nearby lake, and her head tilted curiously as she began to slowly lope over to the edge of the lake. As Koup's back was turned towards the lake, he did not notice until Trot's expression had changed.

When Koup turned his eyes to spot whatever it was that Trot had discovered, his eyes fell upon a weird-looking head, which now had a banana peel for a hat. The head reminded Trot of a parrot, as it had a beak which curved downward at the end, and upwards at the edges. There were no feathers on this bird, however, save for a crest of scarlet plumes on top of the creature's head, beneath the banana peel.

Its eyes lingered on Trot for a moment. When the creature spoke, it was in a high-pitched shrill of a voice. "Do you monkeys mind? I'm drinking here."

"I an' I not a monkey, brah." Koup replied, spreading his wings to the sides. "I be a baboon. Me sees-tah 'ere be monkey."

The creature's head tilted to the side curiously, and the banana peel slipped off the feathery plume, dropping into the water. "Why doesn't she have wings, like you?"

Koup shrugged. "She not be weeng'd baboon."

"Then why are you calling her your sister?" The creature then asked.

"Well…I…I'm not really a monkey." Trot remarked. "I'm a little girl. I was changed by a witch's magic. My name's Trot, and the winged baboon is Koup." She indicated her winged friend. "What's your name?"

"Flipper. World explorer." The creature replied. "Well…I was, but…I'm kinda trapped here. There's something keeping me here in this land. Some kind of barrier."

Koup nodded. "I learn dat de 'ard way m'self, mon."

"I…hope you don't mind my asking…" Trot's head tilted to the side curiously. "…but what kind of creature are you?"

"Me? Haven't you ever heard of the Orks?" Flipper replied. "I come from a place called Orkland. My kind doesn't really get around much. Outside of Orkland, that is, but I really wanted to be able to go to places other than my home. I've visited Oz more than once, seeing as how I seem to find something new every time I come back. During my journeys, I decided to take a rest stop and settle to this lake to get a drink. I tried going back up, but…suddenly, the sky wouldn't let me!"

"Eet be mageek, mon." Koup responded. "We steel try ta feegya out 'ow ta break eet."

"So you can fly?" Trot asked, still curious about the nature of this odd-looking beast.

"All Orks can fly." Flipper replied. "I just wish I could fly out of here. If I drink any more water, I might get a belly as…as big as yours!" The creature indicated Trot.

Koup shrugged, smiling. "Trot like banana. She monkey, afta all."

Trot sighed, looking down at her gut lamentedly. "I've been fat since the witches made me this way."

"Deedn't stop ya from bein' good monkey, seestah." Koup smiled as she rubbed at Trot's still-human hair. Trot smiled appreciatively in response.

"We still need to figure out how to break…this 'mageek', as you call it." Flipper gazed up as he came out of the water. "This place has become a bit scary as of late. Everyone's gray, hard, and they haven't moved an inch!"

"De weetches deed dees." Koup remarked. "We 'ave some of de weetches at de HQ, but dey not talkeen'. De boss be out dere, somewhere."

"I bet if we search the land by air, as far up as we can go, we should be able to find this boss, don't you think?" Flipper wondered aloud. "Seeing as how your monkey friend has no wings, I'd be happy to carry her."

Trot looked to Koup. "What do you think? I like that idea."

"I an' I agree, Trot, me sesstah." Koup answered. He turned to Flipper. "Looks like we flyeen', mon. Ya make sure ya monkey don' fall."

"She can sit quite securely between the two sets of wings on my back." Flipper assured.

He then positioned himself so that Trot could mount upon the creature's back accordingly. Her hunger for bananas was essentially eclipsed by the excitement of once more being in the air, this time in a manner where she was not being held by Koup's two hands, always worrying that Koup might accidentally drop her.

Although she became curious about one other thing as the creature's tail began to spin like a propeller. "How long can you stay in the air, Flipper?"

"Oh, I can stay up here for days!" the ork replied. "We orks are the Kings of the Air, after all!"

Trot held carefully to the ork as he ascended to the skies, Koup flying alongside him. Within moments, they were as high up in the skies over Jinxland as the barrier high above would allow them.

All they saw as they coasted around, however, were the occasional statues in the streets of shocked, innocent jinxlanders frozen where they stood, these being statues that the Legion could not move in their collection of those afflicted by the Medusa Stone.

Trot then noticed a particularly large landmark which was quite grand in its stature. "Wow! That must have been the home of the King and Queen!"

"Do you think this boss witch of yours might be there?" Flipper asked.

"Wanta go een an' find out?" Koup asked. "Mebbe we find de way ta break de barria."

"If the witch is in there, she might hit you with a spell." Trot worriedly remarked. "And if she catches me, she'll have what she wants. Then we'll all lose! I know I'm with the Legion and I have to be courageous, but…"

"Ya be impo-tant. I an' I undastan' dees." Koup assured. "Mebbe I go een an' scout? Eef dere be no one eenside, I com' back out an' we go een ta-gedda."

"How long do we wait?" Trot asked.

"Ohh, 'bout an hour." Koup estimated. "Afta dat, ya head fa HQ. Trot be showin' ya where eet ees, Fleepah."

"Please be careful, Koup." Trot remarked worriedly.

"I an' I be fine, seestah." Koup assured. "I be Legion o' Courage, afta all!" With a wink, he dove down towards the large palace, leaving Trot and Flipper to watch his fast descent.

As the entranceway to the palace remained wide open, Koup was able to zip right in and keep above the ground as the winged baboon began his progress through the eerily silent splendor of the Jinxland palace, the passages of which were very well-decorated. The rooms he saw within the palace were large and had exquisite furnishings, although some of them had stone statues with shocked and alarmed expressions on their faces.

Beds of flowers and fountains also decorated the interiors of the palace, and there were multicolored walkways made of fine marble, matching together in quaint designs. Every now and then, Koup would fly past a soldier or two…one of many…who had similarly surprised expressions on their face, no doubt reacting to the sight of their own skin turning a hardened gray.

Koup couldn't help but feel sympathy for these poor souls, all of them apparently guilty for the crime of wanting to live a routine life free from trouble. Victimized by a young princess bewitched by a wicked witch on the orders of a greedy king.

He had wondered where this king could be. The palace was obviously not among the places the Legion had been collecting stone statues from, deeming it too much of a risk for the possibility that the witches might have been there. All the statues he had seen thus far in his scouting efforts looked far too benign and innocent to be of a kingly nature in Koup's simian eyes.

There were, however, a group of statues which looked far more familiar to the winged baboon, and he had to settle himself to the ground in his shock.

Apparently decorating a large area just before the door to the throne room were the stone semblances of Emperor Nicholas Chopper of the Winkie Country, the Hungry Tiger, who Koup knew to be the majordomo of the Legion of Courage and his king's best friend and right hand, the benevolent and powerful Glinda the Good, her coven-sister Locasta, and the Princess Ozma of Oz.

He couldn't help but wonder, for the space of a moment, how the much more savage winged baboons that preceded the more pleasant few of Koup's breed who lingered in Oz when the rest were banished might have felt about this advantageous situation. Surely, seeing the one who used her immense power over magic to exile them all to the lands on the opposite side of the deadly desert turned into nothing more than a powerless stone monument would certainly have buoyed their spirits enough to compel them to return and wreak havoc on more than just the China Country, which they once decimated at the command of the tyrannical and corrupt Wicked Witch of the East.

His gaze lingered on Glinda, remembering how he felt like an outcast among the winged baboons for actually feeling sympathy for the people she protected. He remembered fearing a confrontation with the Good Witch of the South, believing that she was certain the winged baboons were uniformly a menace, and that there couldn't be a single one among them who felt contrary to any desire to destroy indiscriminately.

His courage, however, settled him in front of the doors to the royal palace, and the handmaidens guarding the door allowed him in without casting any harsh judgment, and when he finally confronted Glinda, he was not met with any manner of suspicion.

He was instead met with a smile.

It was fortunate that he knew of the few who were contrary to the more numerous winged savages of his kind, and it was these winged baboons who were spared when the incumbent Wizard of Oz ordered their banishment. Koup was hailed for his bravery once the more destructive baboons were gone, and not just by the Wizard and Glinda, but by those few winged baboons he had spoken for as well.

About two or three minutes had passed, in Koup's reminiscence, before he realized he had to get back to scouting around. His next stop was the throne room. The simian visitor had to pull on the thick door with all his might before he could get it open wide enough for him to slip through. Fortunately, the door did not slam shut when he made it inside.

With careful and silent steps, he surveyed the relative darkness of the room. The light sources were dimmed, but Koup was able to at least see the lavish splendor of the throne room itself, even with the colors muted. There were more guard statues with the requisite surprised reactions…

…and a statue he nearly ran into which, when his eyes fell upon it, made him jump back fearfully.

Upon this old man's head was a crown, and it looked like he had been petrified in the act of trying to rush at someone with an angry expression. His arms were raised up as if trying to reach at his quarry. His glare and his open mouth, which seemed to be screaming more in rage than in fear, contributed to Koup's startled reaction.

Koup had to conclude that this was, in fact, King Krewl himself.

Behind the vacant throne room seat, the winged baboon spotted a blank wall, but there was a large, silver shield against it, directly across from the back of the throne seat. The other walls were decorated only by lavish curtains, so this particular wall held his curiosity.

The shield would not budge when he tried to move it…

…but when Koup pushed upon it in frustration, the wall portion the shield was on scraped inward with a deep rumbling noise, revealing a concealed room!

Carefully stepping inside, his padded feet maintaining his silent advance, Koup's eyes fell upon another large room within the palace, this one illuminated by a glow within the center of the room.

In the center of the room was a polished obsidian pedestal, and sitting upon the top of this pedestal was the glowing object that produced the soft glow illuminating the room.

It was a crystal clear orb.

When Koup stepped up close to this orb, he came to realize, conclusively, that this orb was a factor in the generation of the prohibiting barrier.

Because deep within the orb was an illusionary semblance of Jinxland itself.

The winged baboon wondered what the significance of the shield on the wall of the secret door was, if it wasn't just something as meaningless as a decoration. Was this some kind of defensive measure against outsiders, Koup thought? It seemed to make sense, but only if there was some kind of logic that would lead the jinxlanders to harbor any kind of distrust for the surrounding Quadling Country lands, if not the whole of Oz itself.

So absorbed was he in his attention to the stone that he could not avoid the solid grip that suddenly grabbed Koup by the neck, and he wriggled wildly to try and escape it. The grip was painfully tight, and surprisingly cold, and Koup screeched loudly in his futile efforts to escape his being seized.

Gloria smiled coldly as she slowly tightened her grip on the winged baboon's neck, the unnatural strength provided to him by the blue pearl in her other fist that he had taken from Pon, who was on all fours next to her, staring curiously up at the gagging baboon…

…who then began flapping his large wings furiously upon the face of the bewitched princess, whose senses were jarred enough to loosen her grip on the baboon. Koup was easily able to escape her grasp, and he angrily turned to face the one who held him.

Gloria herself had a defiant glare on her face as she squared off with Koup. "Don't even try touching me, monkey boy. I'll break every bone in your silly little body with ease."

"Ya gonna 'afta break me, missy." The winged baboon grinned defiantly as he moved, ready for anything. "De Legion o' Courage stayin' 'till ya free from de baaad mageek."

"Hmph." Gloria rolled her eyes in derision. "Suit yourself."

Koup was easily able to dodge the initial attempts by the princess to grab and strike at the nimble, winged creature. He was also able to sidestep the sudden lunge made by Pon, who was instinctively protecting Gloria.

The airborne baboon then grabbed Pon and carried him out of the secret room, knowing full well that the area did not have enough space for him to function evasively compared to the larger throne room. The old man writhed and growled as much as he could in his protest, and much to Koup's surprise, Gloria had a look of desperation on her face when she saw the winged baboon hover Pon far above the ground.

"Lower my pet to the ground!" Gloria screamed. "NOW! And don't you dare hurt him!"

"Whad-da ya care, missy?" Koup responded. "Ya care fah no one, do ya? What make dees one any deef-rant?"

"He's my pet!" Gloria screamed. "Now bring him down!"

"An' what eef I don't?" His strong wings keeping him airborne, Koup carefully adjusted his grip in such a way as to cover the old man's mouth and his nose, grasping tightly to him. Pon continued to writhe and thrash fruitlessly until his body went limp. All Gloria could do was watch and continue hollering her futile commands for the baboon to release him. She actually attempted to leap up at him, given her augmented strength, to grab her airborne quarry, but Koup dodged her attempts easily.

As Pon lapsed into unconsciousness, Koup whispered into his ear. "Sorry, brudda. Ya be right as rain soon. I an' I promees."

Gloria now roared with unrestrained rage, and she ran for the only real rudimentary weapon in the room.

The throne seat.

Empowered by the blue pearl, she grabbed the rooted throne with one hand and began pulling it up off the ground it was fastened to. Unable to withstand the immense magical power, the throne's wooden legs began to crack and splinter. In the next moment, the seat had been pulled off the legs completely with a loud snap.

Gloria then turned her eyes back to Koup, who was in the process of settling Pon to the ground. He was working on unfastening the old man's collar when Gloria furiously raced over holding the throne, ready to strike him with it. Her eyes flashed with rage and her teeth were clenched in her fury.

One of her ankles, however, was suddenly grabbed, and the raging princess collapsed to the ground hard. In the next moment, something large had dropped upon her back in an attempt to hold her down. Her first instinct was to grab whatever it was and crush the life out of it…

…but to Gloria's surprise, the creature was too heavy for her to move!

The hand that held the pearl had opened without Gloria realizing it! That hand began patting around in desperation for anything round…

…but she saw a second pair of monkey feet walking up to her. Angling her head up as much as she could from her face-down position, she saw a familiar simian face holding an even more familiar blue pearl up for Gloria to see.

Trot smirked as she held up the pearl. "Are you looking for this?"

Koup frowned as he walked over to where Flipper was holding Gloria down, and where Trot was standing. "So much fa trusteen' ya ta wait outside!"

"Hey, don't look at me." Flipper protested. "It was Trot's idea!"

"Get…off of me!" Gloria growled. "PON! Gaah! Such a worthless pet!"

Koup walked over to Gloria and wagged the collar strap in front of her face. "Not anymore, missy. Eet be leeb-a-raation day fa Pon."

"And bedtime for you!" With her left simian hand clenching the pearl, Trot's right fist came down like a jackhammer on Gloria's head, rendering her unconscious in one shot.

"Did you find anything that could help us with the barrier?" Flipper asked, moving off of the back of the unmoving princess.

"I an' I teenk so." The baboon indicated the open entrance to the secret room. "Ees een dere. But we betta find some'teen ta tie up preencess tight."

Finding a sturdy length of rope in one of the many large rooms of the palace, Trot placed the pearl in her mouth, making sure she didn't swallow it, and still felt the augmented strength as she wrapped the rope tightly around the unconscious, blue-veined princess. They then placed her on a bed in one of the rooms of the palace…one which had no windows…and locked the door.

They were back before the open entrance to the secret room, and all three of them moved inside to look upon the pedestal with the enchanted orb upon it. Both Trot and Flipper took a closer look at it, seeing the illusionary image of Jinxland within the clear orb.

Trot brought a simian hand up to try and touch the orb…

"Wait! D…don't touch it!"

The heads of all three turned to see Pon step into the room slowly, his hand held up in restraint. "Y…you'll hurt yourself. Unless…unless you were born in Jinxland…"

"Like you?" Koup surmised aloud.

Pon nodded. "Y-yeah, I…I guess you could say that. I am the gardener's boy, after all…well, I was, at least." He then turned his gaze to Flipper. "Who's your friend?"

"He's an ork. His name is Flipper." Trot replied. "He stopped by to get a drink of water when that magic barrier came up and kept him from leaving." The monkey girl stepped closer to the old man. "Can you help him?"

A pleasant smile formed on the old man's face as he gently rubbed a hand against Trot's furry face. "I'm sure I can." He then stepped over to the orb. "If only we could…do something about that confounded gorge."

The old man's hands went to the east and west sides of the orb, his aged fingers touching and gently turning each side as if unscrewing a cap. One side turned clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. With his fingers still carefully gripping the two sides of the orb, he gently pulled them apart, releasing the illusionary image from the separated orb.

The kind old man then turned to Flipper and smiled. "You can go now."

DOROTHY & THE SCARECROW

From the moment the group went their separate ways, Dorothy immediately set to sniffing around, leading the Scarecrow, who cautiously followed along behind her. The canine girl seemed entirely eager to sniff around for a track, a notion that logically went hand in hand with what she had become.

Dorothy figured she'd stick to the kind of scents she had picked up on when she tried going into the eight-sided house. The scents that helped more or less identify the more experienced witches that were now their collared captives.

But it was not that scent which Dorothy had suddenly picked up on. It was an entirely different scent, and one that was entirely pleasing to her. After stopping for a moment, she began to sniff a bit more loudly, her fluffy tail wagging behind her and her furry ears rising up with interest.

The Scarecrow noticed this. "Did you find something, Dorothy?"

The canine girl turned her head to her straw-stuffed friend and nodded, her eyes wide. "This way. Keep following me!"

Her digitigrade legs moved a little faster now as she continued to sniff, the scent clearly leading her somewhere. As she had hunched down instinctively, she could not see the path directly in front of her. Yet, she kept moving. The smell remained strong as she continued her progress, letting the scent serve as her path. And not only along hard pedestrian paths, but over grassy plains as well.

But when the Scarecrow saw where the scent was apparently leading them to, the Scarecrow's expression turned grave. "Dorothy…stop. Stop! Hold on for a…Dorothy!"

But the canine girl was far too determined to follow the scent. She needed more of it. It was…appetizing to her. Her pace never slowed as she continued along the scent's trail.

"Dorothy! I…I think this might be a trap!" The Scarecrow warned. "Look where we're headed! Oh, for Ozma's sake, look up in front of you!"

But it seemed as if the furry Kansas girl was lost in the scent, even if the half-ruined landmark that was the eight-sided house seemed empty as they neared it. The Scarecrow had an urge to stop and hide, but he nearly lost Dorothy once to a powerful wicked witch during this unexpectedly perilous trip, and he was not about to let that happen again.

The next voice he heard made him wish that he did stop and hide.

"Come heeeeeere, pet." The voice was unmistakably Blinkie's. "That's my good girl."

The Scarecrow figured that Dorothy would stop in her tracks, finally realizing her mistake.

But Dorothy kept going.

The straw-stuffed advisor's face was a mask of horror as his right hand instinctively went to one of the pockets of his outfit to retrieve the object he had brought with him. He knew the effect would not be terribly effective, but it was the only card he could possibly play.

Dorothy settled herself, in an entirely canine fashion, right next to the smiling visage of Blinkie herself, whose hand rubbed gently over the canine girl's head. Dorothy responded quite happily to this, her tail wagging affectionately.

The Scarecrow's face was a mask of complete shock. And this time, there was no collar compelling her actions! "Dorothy!" He hissed in disbelief.

Blinkie looked up to the straw man with a wicked grin as she continued to caress Dorothy's fur gently. "This only seems fair, Scarecrow. You have what you want, and me? I have what I truly want. A pet of my own. Fashioned from the body of a wicked witch's worst enemy."

"Dorothy, snap out of it!" The Scarecrow's voice sounded desperate. "Please!"

"Snap out of what? She's a dog now, Scarecrow." Blinkie gestured for Dorothy to rise up, and she rested herself against the one-eyed witch, who wrapped an arm around her protectively. "My loyal, servile pet. For the rest of her life. You may have gotten the collar off of her, but you couldn't really stop me from giving my dear doggie all the affection she deserves in the short time we've been together. After all…I've always wanted a dog since her other little black pet denied me."

"You're not gonna hurt him, are you?" Dorothy gently cooed, still savoring the witch's petting. "I like the Scarecrow."

Blinkie had to giggle at this. "Only if he behaves himself, pet." She then raised a palm towards the Scarecrow. "Otherwise…I might have to burn him."

Upon saying the word 'burn', a small fireball fired out from the palm and struck the ground near the Scarecrow, forcing him to recoil in fear. The flame lingered for a moment before it quickly weakened and dissolved.

"Oh! Please! Don't do that." Blinkie could feel Dorothy's body jolt with her reaction to the small fireball's impact with the ground. The canine girl's voice was filled with concern. "He's my…my…"

But the rubbing…the gentle scratching…Blinkie was now applying to the back of Dorothy's furry neck was entirely rapturous to the canine girl. "…mmmmy….mmmmmmhhhh…."

Blinkie turned her eyes back to the Scarecrow, fixing another wicked gaze upon him. "You see? I don't even have to cast a spell anymore to deal with her. All I have to do is show her how much I truly love my pet." Her eyes returned to the furry anthro canine in her arms, who was now whining approvingly over Blinkie's petting. "Sit, Dorothy."

Her pet complied, obediently lowering herself to a canine sitting position.

"Gooood girl. Now stay." The wicked old crone sharply commanded. She then turned her attention back to the Scarecrow. "I'm not about to let you take her away from me again, straw man…although perhaps we could make a little…bargain, you and I, seeing as how you have deprived me of my…subordinates."

"Let me guess." The Scarecrow warily responded. "I surrender the witches, you give us Dorothy."

Blinkie's expression visibly soured. "And I thought you had an excellent brain. I already told you I won't surrender Dorothy. You and your friends will just have to accept that she is mine now."

The Scarecrow frowned now. He was logically unwilling to accept this, but at the same time, he was also curious as to her 'offer'. "What do you want?"

Blinkie smirked now. "As a witch, and the leader of my coven, you can imagine how powerful I am in magic. What if I told you I could set all of these jinxlanders free? Every single stone statue would become a living, breathing human being once more."

The straw-stuffed advisor's hands went to his waist warily. "What about Princess Gloria? And Pon?"

"Oh, naturally, I could free them from their enchantments as well…but I'd need the help of those other witches you've captured." Blinkie explained. "Those six witches who directly serve me will do."

"And our friends?" The Scarecrow quirked an eyebrow. "Glinda? Ozma?"

"Ho ho ho! You honestly think I would free those two? Or Locasta?" Blinkie had to laugh aloud at this. "For one who has such a great brain, you're showing an awful lot of stupidity! They'd hunt me down if I freed them, and they'd take me away from my pet! I would sooner smash their stone statues than free them!"

The Scarecrow nodded slowly, a highly risky idea occurring to him. "Then there'd be no way to retrieve them, would there? They'd both be truly dead. Just like the Wicked Witches of the East and the West."

"But you would have the gratitude of the people of Jinxland." Blinkie countered. "You could even be their king if you wanted, Scarecrow."

"I never wanted to be any kind of king, Blinkie. A job like that is for meat people." The straw-stuffed advisor responded. "But if you think I'm going to give my very close friend up so easily…" He indicated a very worried-looking Dorothy. "…then you're very gravely mistaken."

Blinkie smirked, forming another ball of flame in the palm of her hand. "Perhaps you'd like a little more fire, then?"

Although there was a momentary flash of fear on the Scarecrow's face when he saw the palm-sized fireball flare to life, he defiantly held his ground. There wasn't a trace of fear in his expression as he uttered his reply. "Why don't you ask Dorothy?"

Blinkie snorted in derision. "Because if I wanted t…"

Her head had angled back to her pet, who was now looking at the Scarecrow with great concern as she remained rooted to her spot.

Dorothy's eyes then went to Blinkie. "Please don't!" She fearfully whispered.

Blinkie stepped over to Dorothy in a somewhat menacing fashion. "You are my pet, dog. Not the Scarecrow's, not Ozma's, not Locasta's! You're mine! And ONLY mine! NO one will care for you like I have!"

"Who was it that was nice enough to show you how to get back home, Dorothy?" The Scarecrow asked.

"HAH! If you had the power to get home since Glinda gave you those slippers, she could have told you right there, instead of sending you to that charlatan wizard to do his dirty work!" Blinkie countered, certain that this would convince Dorothy to re-think her affection for the Good Witch of the South.

"Who was it that allowed you, your Aunt and Uncle, and your pets to move to Oz when you were going to be evicted out of your farmhouse?" The Scarecrow next asked.

Blinkie was now getting infuriated, particularly for the effect his words were clearly having on her pet, the conflict clearly evident on her furry face. "One more word out of you, you walking, talking matchstick, and I really will light you up!"

"No you won't." The Scarecrow defiantly shot back, tightening his grip on the object he brought with him. "You're going to shrink!"

As the straw-stuffed advisor brought his hand up to transmit the effects of the green pearl to Blinkie, the wicked witch had cast her ball of flame right at the Scarecrow…

…but the flame died out before it left her hand!

Now it was Blinkie's turn to bear a look of horror, as she watched herself diminish in size! Dorothy's eyes and mouth were wide open in her complete surprise, seeing the one-eyed crone's size dissolve to the approximate length of one's knee. She also seemed to keep casting one spell after another, only to find that she could not cast any spells at all!

"Wh…what have you done to me?" Blinkie screamed. "None of my spells will work!"

The Scarecrow himself was also quite surprised at this unexpected development as he and Dorothy stepped over to the seemingly harmless witch, who dropped to her knees in her despair.

The straw man then turned to Dorothy in his puzzlement. "If she can no longer cast spells, I would think her magic on you would disappear. Why aren't you…you know…becoming human again?"

"Because my magic on her is strong. Even if I lost my grasp of magic, my spell upon her won't break!" Blinkie growled defiantly. "I could have restored her, Scarecrow, but now that my magic is gone, you have no way of restoring anyone in Jinxland, or any of your wretched friends for that matter! Congratulations, you bird-brained imbecile! You've just made an irreversible ruin of…of…"

Her expression slowly changed back to shock as her only good eye angled skyward. The barrier high above the land seemed to split apart and disappear, once again giving Jinxland access to the beautiful blue skies above Oz itself!

"Rapture! The skies are open to us again!" The Scarecrow exultantly cried. He then returned his gaze to Blinkie. "Well! I suppose I'm not as bird-brained as you thought, eh?"

When the straw man's eyes glanced to Dorothy, he saw that she was now glaring down upon the shrunken and powerless one-eyed witch. As she did, her eyes began to water.

"Dorothy…?" The Scarecrow quietly remarked, moving closer to the still-canine girl.

Her voice quaked as she spoke. "I love him…." It seemed as if a flame of rage within her was growing. "…I love him…and you were gonna BURN HIM?"

The straw man grabbed Dorothy as she began to move forward towards the smaller witch, growling and snarling. She reached her clawed, padded paw-like hands out towards Blinkie as she struggled against the Scarecrow's attempts to hold her back. "Lemme GO! Lemme GOOO! GRRROWWWRRRR!"

The Scarecrow's head was near enough to Dorothy's right ear, which was lowered in her anger, for the furious canine girl to hear. "Heel, Dorothy…heel…heel…take it easy…relax…heel…please heel…"

Responding to her mental conditioning, the canine girl's anger slowly faded, and she lowered herself back down to the ground, once again sitting in a canine manner as the Scarecrow stepped a pace away from her in relief.

"Look at you now, Dorothy Gale." Blinkie gloated, shaking her head in disappointment. "The great witchkiller of Oz, now nothing more than a docile, servile little dog. Maybe now that you're no different from that little black beast who follows you around, I should try again to take him to be my pet instead."

As Blinkie spoke, the angry straw-stuffed advisor grabbed a rock from the ground, and slammed it as hard as he could against the back of the one-eyed witch's head once she was done speaking. The shrunken miscreant collapsed to the ground from the hard strike.

The Scarecrow's glare remained on his face as he dropped the hand-sized rock beside him, his eyes locked on the unconscious coven leader. "If you were no different from the Wicked Witch of the West, I'd drop you in a lake and watch you dissolve for all the pain you've caused!" He then moved back over to Dorothy and crouched beside her, speaking tenderly. She looked like she was on the verge of crying. "Hey! Come on! Cheer up! We won a really big victory just now! We just defeated the leader of the witch coven, and our friends got rid of the barrier in the sky!"

Dorothy still looked and sounded sullen as she spoke. "I…I'm still a dog though, Scarecrow…a-and everyone else…they're still stone statues."

"Maybe the Wizard of Oz can help us restore them all." The straw-stuffed advisor gently ran a stuffed hand over Dorothy's hair in consolation. "Maybe he can restore you."

"But what if he can't, Scarecrow?" Dorothy whined. "Glinda said he's still an apprentice. He may not be powerful enough to restore me. What if I'm stuck this way?"

"Well…then I guess I…I'll just have to go to Bolger and tell him to take my stuffing and…and put it in a patchwork quilt covering in the shape of a dog, so we can be dogs together!" The Scarecrow noted. "Although…you may have to teach me how to be one…I mean, all I know how to do is to be what I am now, after all."

Dorothy tilted her head thoughtfully, her canine ears raising up. "You…you'd really do that for me?"

The straw man's voice was filled with resolute conviction. "If it comes to that with you? I surely will! Who cares what we look like, or what our shapes are? Isn't it who we all are inside that matters?"

Dorothy's furry arms wrapped around the straw-stuffed advisor affectionately, squeezing him tight. Her tail wagged wildly behind her as she rested her head against his.

Dorothy spoke softly as she replied. "I'd rather be your patchwork girl…Scarecrow…"

The Scarecrow smiled as he continued to gently stroke his beloved Kansas friend's body of soft fur, somehow confident that matters were about to take a turn for the better in Jinxland.

The small, white-haired, gray-skinned nomes that visited Captain Fyter's stranded entourage from Pingaree…all of whom were now prisoners of the Nome King…on a regular basis since their imprisonment in the same underground space they had landed in offered no conversation, nor did they answer any questions asked by these nomes, who provided their captives with plenty of food and drink. They even answered requests for specific food, albeit with the same emotionlessness that apparently defined these small, rock-skinned caretakers.

Yet, to King Kitticut, no one seemed to want to leave. They all strangely seemed to tolerate this drafty, spacious area. The old monarch began to wonder if it was because of the only other person within this space who lingered in the shadows when they fell into this holding area.

He was an old man, perhaps a little older than the King, but with a far more shaggy appearance. In fact, shaggy defined not only the abundance of somewhat unkempt gray hair on his head and his body, but also his outfit as well. The younger captives among the people of Pingaree seemed to gravitate to him first as his gaze lingered upon this old man, who seemed to say pleasing things, and engaged the younger people of Pingaree with a variety of stories which Kitticut was too far away from this shaggy man to hear.

Inevitably, Kitticut's curiosity got the better of him, and he rose up to approach this apparently kind old man. As he got closer, his want to find out more about him grew, but any hint of suspicion or distrust evaporated as he stopped before him.

The king felt compelled to show courtesy in that moment. "Pardon me…uh…may I sit with you? I am King Kitticut of Pingaree. The young ones you've been entertaining are among my subjects. Everyone else here also lives under my rule."

The old man's eyebrows raised up. "Really? I should hope you are a kind ruler? That you are loved by your people?"

"Oh yes! I should think he's a very good king." A little Pingaree girl near him spoke out in assurance to the shaggy storyteller.

Kitticut had to chuckle at this. "Thank you, Priscilla. I hope I never begin disappointing you."

"So you are receptive to your people's needs?" The shaggy man asked.

"Oh, quite receptive." Kitticut replied. "At least, as receptive as I can be, but also as fair as I can be."

"And do you believe yourself to be a perfect king, I wonder?" was the shaggy man's next inquiry, which he spoke with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh, I think that there is no such thing as a perfect king." Kitticut responded. "For one to be a good king, one must be at peace with the wisdom that not everyone will appreciate all the actions of a king, but to have as many of the right ones appreciate a good king's effort, at the very least, to be good. But I would never call myself perfect."

The shaggy man nodded, smiling. "Because perfection is in the eyes of the beholder."

Kitticut nodded. "Indeed, good sir."

The old man then motioned for the old king to fill the space next to him. "Please, your majesty."

Kitticut oddly felt a rush of excitement as he settled himself next to the unkempt, but pleasant-sounding resident prisoner. "You seem far too kind to be in a dreadful place like this. May I ask why you are here?"

"Well, I…I set out sometime ago from my hometown of Butterfield, Kansas to find my younger brother, who had gone missing. This after an embarrassing little incident involving a debt, and another one in which a lovely young woman was the indirect cause of another unfortunate problem. Following a lead which required me to board a steam ship to Australia, the ship ran afoul of terrible weather and I was forced overboard. The currents took me to a sandy beach where I was forced to flee from a group of…rather odd, but terribly unpleasant individuals who had…wheels where their hands and feet should be. It was one of those nomes who tricked me into coming down here, and I've been here ever since my subsequent confrontation with that most disagreeable Nome King."

Kitticut nodded. "So you never found your brother?"

"Actually? He is here, but he is in another area of these caverns." The shaggy man confirmed. His expression then dissolved to a more lamented one. "Although he…well, he now looks nothing like the dapper-looking young man he should be, and I suppose we have Roquat's…well, occasional flashes of cruelty to thank for that."

Kitticut frowned in confusion. "Roquat?"

"That is the Nome King's name, your highness." The shaggy man answered. "You always need to be cautious when you deal with that particular nome, your majesty. He can be most unpredictable. Sometimes, he can be a most kind and charming host. There are times, however, when he will think only of himself and whatever manner of action he feels he can do, justifying it merely by boasting of who and what he is. What happened to my brother is certainly evidence of Roquat's penchant for less-than-cordial behavior."

The king of Pingaree looked worriedly to his many subjects, all of them busy eating their provided food and drink. "I just hope he doesn't decide to do anything bad to any of us. We've already had plenty of sudden misfortune as it is!"

"I'm afraid that is solely up to Roquat, your highness." The shaggy man reminded. "In these Nome Dominions, his rule is absolute, and his every wish, no matter how radical they might be, is always fulfiled. Such was the apparent fate of the last group of prisoners he took. A mother…who I believe was a Queen…and her ten young children."

Kitticut's eyes widened in his disbelief. "Children? What…what happened to them?"

"He placed them in a rather large, and quite magnificent, room full of exquisitely-designed ornaments."

The king couldn't help but find this to be an odd course of action for a subterranean monarch whose actions wavered between the distinctions of good and evil. "Hmm! That doesn't seem so bad. They may have caught Roquat on one of his better days, eh?"

The shaggy man's face remained grave, however, and the king's own face dissolved to one of concern when he heard the kind old man's reply.

"I sincerely doubt that the Queen and her children appreciated being turned into ornaments, your majesty."