The Supernatural World of Vladimir and Viktor - Chapter 49

It did not take Eddie long in his little boy body to doze off that night. He slept well, assured that Castiel and Nick had things under control.

Sometime that night he heard the shuffling of feet and opened his eyes to see a goblin standing nearby holding a bag.

"Well?" he asked the goblin.

The creature balanced uncomfortably from one foot to the other, not sure what it should do.

"Do I have to crawl into your bag?" Eddie asked it sarcastically.

The goblin shook its head and recovered its composure enough to throw the bag over Eddie's head and down his body. Then it and the bag with young Eddie in it disappeared.

So did Castiel and Nick Chopper.

The goblin pulled the bag off of Eddie in front of the witch Rose as Castiel and Nick appeared nearby. A motion of Nick's axe sent the goblin running out of the witch's house as fast as it could.

Eddie's first act was to drop down and touch Rose's toe and turn her into tin as she sat there in her chair.

"I learned from dealing with Hannah," he said to the others. "Kill them right off, no conversation or you could be hexed."

The three glanced around the room they were in and noticed Dorothy inside the doorway.

"I'm Nick and these are Eddie and Cas. We are here to find Dean Winchester," Nick told her. "Would you happen to know where we might find him?"

"I'm Dorothy. That's what the witch was asking me. I am pretty sure I know the Dean you're asking about, but I don't know where he is."

She glanced about at the plants in the room and nodded back at the huge flowers outdoors before adding, "You haven't killed the witch."

Nick Chopper noticed exactly where Dorothy's eyes panned without having to turn his head to see. He understood Rose's magic and did not let on that he understood Dorothy.

But Eddie and Castiel understood the situation only when a green stalk shoved its way up through the floor. It grew as tall as a human and a face and arms formed from it. Rose's face appeared cackling at the group there. "The girl is right," she said. "I'm everywhere. All over the valley."

Eddie dropped back down to the floor and turned everything not living into tin, then the tin into firm water, and the water into air. Immediately flowers dropped from where their containers used to be, the now-uncaged birds flew away, and the goblins that had been hidden in and about the house disappeared one by one around them. The whole house had vanished.

"I can at least destroy your potions and little dolls," he announced. "That should even things up a bit."

The witch's scowl showed he had done damage to her ability to cast infirmities. Black smoke wrapped around her form as it withered back down below the floor.

"That's my house you just destroyed," a disgusted Dorothy told Eddie.

But Eddie was not paying her any attention. He was more interested in the spot where the tin witch body and chair had been. A network of plant tendrils in the general shape of the rocking chair legs and seat still stuck up from the ground.

"So, how much of the plant life in this valley is Rose?" Eddie asked, mostly of himself. "All of it? Just the tall flowers? The hedge maze? Beyond that?"

Nick told him, "You and Castiel decide what to do about Rose. Dorothy and I will go find Dean." He motioned Dorothy to follow as he walked to the nearby brick road and confidently turned down the road in the direction of Dean's hut.

"How do you know where to go?" Dorothy asked.

I can see the heat living things leave behind. From here he nearly always goes this way. I assume that is where he dwells at night. Being from a magical land, I am aware the flowers can see and hear, so be quiet and walk along with me.

As they neared the gourd huts around where Dean slept at night he took an abrupt turn and walked directly to Dean's home. There he looked around for what he perceived as colors of body heat and located two goblins that he persuaded to leave with a swing of his axe.

Satisfied that they would out of sight and sound of any living being, he sat down in the entrance to Dean's hut and tipped back for a minute to scan Dean's meager belongings inside. Dorothy sat beside him.

"So," the voice from Nick's unmoving mouth said. "The freshest heat signature from Dean does not go to the witch's house. Excuse me, your house. It goes straight down the hill, between two of the tall flowers and into an opening in the hedge beyond them. Anything you have to add?

Relived to be free of the witch's monitoring for the moment, Dorothy shared what she knew. "Dean was tunneling through the hedges at night. It's a maze with no opening on the other side, so he had to tunnel under one hedge, then the next one, and so on. I saw him when he was near the last of them. I warned him there would be poppies there that would put him to sleep to never wake up. I don't think he listened to me and last night tunneled under the last hedge and right into the field of poppies unprepared. I think he's an idiot."

"I was trying to come up with a plan to rescue him," she continued, "but the witch called for me. She had noticed he was missing and was asking me if I knew his whereabouts when you and your friends showed up."

Nick Chopper held up his axe and gave it a bit of a spin, then leaned towards Dorothy. "Shall we rescue him now?"

"They'll see," protested Dorothy.

"I will make sure they will not," assured the metal man.

The two of them marched down the hill towards the hedge, then Dorothy followed Nick down the brick road. After a good distance, Nick walked up to a tall flower stalk and chopped it down. He turned in the direction they had just come and chopped down the next and then the next until he was the same good distance in other direction from Dean's hut.

"Do you think I got all of the witch's witnesses?" he asked Dorothy.

She nodded back at him and they marched on to the entrance of the hedge maze.

Inside the maze, Dorothy pointed out Dean's first tunnel and Nick began chopping their way through it and performing the same feat through hedge after hedge, following Dean's heat path. Dorothy stayed back as he approached the last of the hedge barriers.

Past the final hedge, it was easy to find Dean's body among the poppies. He was sound asleep, but still producing body heat. Nick picked him up and carried him back to Dean's hut and laid him inside.

"Well, I can tell he will be okay," Dorothy scoffed. "He's snoring as loudly as he always does."

The two sat and watched the children and goblins milling about the fallen flowers along the brick lane below as they waited for Dean to wake up from the effects of the poppies.

As they sat, they saw the hedges, the grass and the giant flowers turn into tin, to firm water and then evaporate into air.

"It looks like Eddie opted to destroy all the plant life in order to be sure to get the witch. I'm certain what follows is someone will create a piece of magical land here and collect up all the children. Then someone will reverse the effects of the witch's elixir that changed some of the adults into children, and everyone will magically be sent home."

"It looks so desolate now," sighed Dorothy seeing the valley barren of plant life. My house is gone, the beautiful forest-filled hollow... When I'm changed back I'll be a 78-year-old woman again. What'll I do?"

Nick leaned towards her again. "You have options, Dorothy. Knowing Eddie, I'm sure he will find you another forested hollow, buy it and build you any kind of house you would like. He has that kind of wealth. Also, though, Glinda is very generous. She may let you remain in your body at whatever age you like and let you live in Oz. I can vouch that it is a very nice place."

"In a very short time, I've had more incredible things I never thought could happen to me in my entire life," Dorothy said. "So, I can decide these things and they will happen for me?.."

"Welcome to the realm of the magical and supernatural, Dorothy," said the metal man.