PART 3: VICTORY
TO THE EAST
Enkin Fled, the governor of Yellow Land, was a fat man, with yellow hair that stuck out in all directions like a brush. He arrived into Yellow Land with the Yellow Squad and easily subjected it, since the Winkies had about as much fighting spirit as the Munchkins, despite being master craftsmen.
After taking over the castle, he ordered all of the servants to leave, except for the cook Fregoza. She made good food, and Fled liked to eat.
Fled became obsessed with weapons after he took over. He could not walk past a weapon without wanting it, so he ordered all swords, axes, and knives to be brought to him. He also did it to reduce the chance of a successful uprising.
The Winkies did not have any swords, but they managed to find a pair of ancient daggers of high quality. When Fled saw them, he ordered several expert blacksmiths to be brought to him.
"Where did you get them?" he asked.
"They are relics of the past, back when wars were fought," one of the blacksmiths answered.
"Can you make more of them?"
"We have done harder jobs, like repairing the Tin Woodman, he has a complex mechanism. But why do you need daggers? It is easier to cut with a normal knife."
"This is not up for discussion!" Fled yelled and stomped his feet, which caused the Winkies to flinch and wink faster. "I want five, no, ten of these daggers by next week! If you don't meet the deadline, then you will learn what it means to mess with me!"
The blacksmiths had to abandon all of their other projects in order to fulfill Enkin's demands. Fled hung his new weapons in the halls and enjoyed looking at them. He then decided that more weapons would look better and more intimidating.
From that point on, the blacksmiths were working all day on Elkin's demands: knives, sword, sabers, pikes… The governor spent days with his growing collection, arranging this way, then that way… When he took a weapon into his hands, he struck poses and swung it around, pretending that he was fighting some mythical monster when in reality, he would be too scared to attack a goat and only felt safe with his squad of oakheads.
Dorothy and her friends went East after the meeting. Their path often overlapped with what they went through when they were going to the Wicked Witch of the East. Now they marched to a new foe: Enkin Fleyd and his squad of Oakheads.
So far, their army only had two fighters: Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion. However, both of them were worth several normal soldiers, due to the Tin Woodman's natural resistance to damage and Lion's bravery, size, and strength.
Tin Woodman listened to how his heart beat in his chest with every step, while Scarecrow mentally solved arithmetical problems that Dorothy gave him.
Finally, they came to the spot where Tin Woodman had stopped laying down the road to Emerald City several months ago. There lay the mallet that Tin Woodman had thrown down when he rushed to aid Scarecrow. Since nobody wanted it, and even if they did, would not be able to pick it up, the mallet lay in the same place that Tin Woodman dropped it.
Tin Woodman picked up the mallet and swung it around his head.
"Still as good as ever," he said to himself.
"The Oakheads should watch out," Scarecrow commented.