Disclaimer, you know.
Meanwhile elsewhere in Oz
"So, Glinda put them in a construct, interesting the things she'll do to keep that child and her friend safe." Evanora said walking away from the crystal ball.
"Sister dear?" Theodora asked.
"what Theodora?" Evanora asked turning around.
"you aren't going to do anything rash are you?" Theodora asked
"Never you mind, go find that child you insist on coddling and get her things packed, get the baboons ready, and prepare because we invade the city in three days' time, I just have one more thing to prepare." Evanora said storming passed her and down the stairs of the tower.
Meanwhile back in the city.
After their return, dorothy, alex, and Jon all got themselves into some dry clothes before dorothy and alex went to Alex's bedroom. When they got there dorothy leaned the scepter against the wall and then winced as the pain shot through her arm from the wounds.
"the quoxwood sap is wearing off." Dorothy placing her other hand on the bandages on her wrist.
"Well I guess we should have expected that." Alex said picking up his sword and strapping the sheath to his belt.
Dorothy sighed and sat down and Alex's desk. Alex simply chuckled and kissed her on the cheek. Dorothy sighed and closed her eyes tight for a few seconds before opening them again. She then took her reading glasses from her dress pocket and put them on before tilting her head up to look at alex.
"Alex, you know I worry about you guys right?" dorothy asked.
"you never stop reminding us, dorothy, can't you just take time to really relax? You know, let your mind wander, lose yourself for a while, you spend too much time worrying." Alex said.
"I know, I know, this isn't the first time you've given me this speech." Dorothy said.
"I know, but good lessons bare repeating." Alex replied.
"Yes, now if you would only stop repeating it." Dorothy said.
Alex chuckled and kissed her again. They were interrupted however by a knocking on the door.
"Come in." alex said.
Immediately the door opened and ellie and Aislynn walked into the room.
"I told you'd they'd be together." Aislynn said.
"Fine, you win, anyways, dorothy, everyone is looking for you per request of Glinda, you need to have your bandages changed again." Ellie said.
"Tell Elena I'll be about in a few minutes, but anyways, ellie, ace, is there a plan?" dorothy asked.
"What you mean in the event of inevitable invasion?" Ellie asked.
"Yes." Dorothy said.
"um, would it make you feel better if we said yes?" Ellie asked.
"So, no?" dorothy asked.
"Yes." Ellie responded.
"terrific, before you go track down Elena, can you answer something for me?" Dorothy asked.
"we'll endeavor to." Aislynn replied.
"Why does my presence always seem to put the people I care about in harm's way?" dorothy asked.
"Dorothy." The three of theme groaned out.
"Answer the question!" dorothy shouted.
The three of them, alex, ellie, and Aislynn all shared a glance. Not one of them could answer this question, not with their integrity, or this friendship intact. Dorothy looked at them and sighed.
"Dorothy, don't you dare start." Alex said.
"Dorothy, it's not your fault, not entirely anyways." Aislynn said.
"Ace is right, your first two triumphs were complete accidents, the jester, what you did you did without choice." Alex said.
"What I did, I did without choice, in the name of peace, as I said before, if I could go back I would try to change it, give him imprisonment, he wouldn't be able to be humiliated any more than he already was, I mean he was stuck in that silly jester's clothes." Dorothy said.
"Yes." The three of them replied.
"And now there's another threat, one that actually wants to kill me, I mean wipe from the face of the earth kind of kill." Dorothy said.
"We've realized that." Ellie said.
"Well, then, you know the stakes are higher this time." Dorothy said.
"yes dorothy, we've all discussed this, or at least we've tried." Ellie said.
"That makes me feel so much better." Dorothy replied rolling her eyes.
"Dorothy…" Alex said trailing off.
"Alex, shut it." Dorothy said closing her eyes.
Alex backed up, looked at ellie and Aislynn, sighed, and grabbed the scepter.
"So, this is where you all ended up." Elena said walking into the room.
"Oh, Elena, I was just about to come looking for you." Ellie said.
"Yes, I imagine you were." Elena said walking over to dorothy.
"Elena, do me a favor." Dorothy said.
"Depends on the favor." Elena replied setting her medical bag down on the desk and having dorothy lift up her arm onto the desk as well.
"I'd like to talk to Alyssa." Dorothy said.
"I think I can arrange that, but why?" Elena asked.
"Because we need a battle plan, and captain of the guard seems the best person to talk to." Dorothy said.
"Dorothy, we, meaning me, Chrissy, Brianna, Caitlynn, basically all of us, have been trying to come up with a plan behind the scenes, while Glinda, Locasta, Cassandra, Angela, and rose are busy." Elena said.
"We are?" Ellie asked.
"Oh, right, now that we are talking about my sister, ellie, I have a note for you from her." Elena said pulling a piece of paper from her pocket and handing it to her before returning to working on Dorothy's bandages.
"Why didn't you give this to me earlier?" Ellie asked.
"I forgot ma'am" Elena said.
Ellie sighed and left followed by Aislynn.
"Well, that went well." Alex said.
"She hates it when I refer to her as ma'am" Elena said taking some fresh bandages from her bag.
"so do I." Dorothy said wincing as Elena wrapped up her wrist.
"We know." Elena said as she finished wrapping up Dorothy's wrist.
"Well, at least you're done, now why don't you go back to the others, I could use some peace." Dorothy
"sure." Elena said getting up and leaving dorothy and alex alone.
Dorothy groaned and slumped back in her chair.
"alex, sometimes I wish, I wish I could just go, run away to some place far from all my problems, but no place like that exists not even in Oz." dorothy said tears beginning to roll down her face.
Alex sighed and took out a handkerchief. He wiped Dorothy's face and kissed her on the cheek.
"I can't say I know how you feel, but I can't think of any alternatives, I guess you could try running, but even in this wonderland that is Oz, there's no place far enough you could run, Ladies Evanora and Theodora seem to have a set of eyes all over Oz." Alex said.
"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" dorothy asked
"um…" alex said at a loss for words.
Dorothy said nothing she simply sighed and got up. Grabbing the scepter from alex, she left the room and ran for hers as fast as she could only to be stopped by Locasta a few feet down the hall.
"now where do you think you're going dear?" Locasta asked.
Dorothy said nothing, she simply walked around Locasta and ran to her room. Shutting and locking the door she ran to the bed and plopped herself down upon it. She began to think, and then she realized something. The emerald city now had several of the most powerful and influential people in it right now, Rose, Glinda, Locasta, the China princess, Lion, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Marshall Mallow, Lady Angela, Lady Cassandra, Ellie, and Ozma. She wasn't going to include herself in that list because she was the main cause of the entire situation, or at least that was her belief. She wasn't going to include alex because he was always reluctant to leave her side, and ace was always with scarecrow. Her aunt, uncle, and cousins were all in danger because of her, and to top all of her worries off, so long as she was here, she was putting everyone in jeopardy, but she knew she couldn't just leave, that would just make things worse. It was then that it came to her. She had to come up with a plan of her own, just in case. She immediately got up and ran over to the desk, wiping the tears from her face she pulled out a notebook and pencil she began trying to come up with ideas of what she could do, and drew up a map of Oz.
"now I don't have a full grip on Oz's geography, but I do know Munchkinland, a good chunk of Winkie country, I can just about guess where candy county and dainty china country would fall, I haven't traveled much of the north, or the south for that matter so I'll just leave them blank, and then there's castle grey which is somewhere under Munchkinland, oh, Yoop castle I can put that in the south, not sure where though." Dorothy said to herself
Meanwhile in the chambers however things weren't much better. Locasta had tried to catch dorothy before she locked herself in her bedroom. She headed to the chamber where she found Ellie, Aislynn, Brianna, Elena, Chrissy, Caitlyn, and Alyssa. Alex came in a few moments later.
"So, do we have a coherent plan?" Alex asked.
"No." Aislynn said.
"They've been at this all afternoon." Ozma said walking in with a large bowl of fruit.
"Ozma, where were you?" Locasta asked.
"I was in the courtyard, admiring the flowers, gathering my thoughts, everyone was in here nattering on about coming up with a plan of action so I just slipped off for a bit of peace, after a few hours I found myself getting hungry, so I decided I should go to the kitchen, I grabbed myself an apple and then decided you all would probably be hungry so I brought a bowl of fruit." Ozma said placing the bowl on a nearby table.
"I see, well it would be best that you stick around, Dorothy has gone and locked herself in her room again, and I think that its best if we come up with a plan before trying to confront her again." Alex said.
"Where are Dorothy's relatives?" Ozma asked turning to Locasta.
"their room, currently tucking in their children for the evening." Locasta said.
"And the Garrisons?" Ozma asked.
"Rose as far as I know is in her Room with Lady Cassandra and Lady Angela, Lily and Violet are in the library as far as I'm aware, or at least that's where I last saw them, but they don't stay still." Locasta said
"Scarecrow, Lion, Tin Man, Marshall Mallow, the China Princess, and Wiser have gone somewhere, not sure where though, didn't occur to me to ask." Aislynn said.
Alex was about to say something when a loud cawing sound interrupted him. They all turned to the window which was the source of the sound. There they all saw a raven, which fluttered its wings and vanished in a wisp of black smoke.
"What was that?" Ozma asked worriedly.
"Hopefully just a trick, realistically though, something possibly much worse." Locasta said getting up and running out of the chambers.
So shade, allowed himself to be seen, but only in his form of the raven. What plan will the others come up with? What plan will dorothy come up with? Find out in my next installment.