Chapter 16: True Magic

First, the captain led to a small room where they could clean up. Jack washed his face and quickly repaired tears in his robe. A servant girl washed and brushed his hair. The Scarecrow patted himself into a respectable shape. Nick oiled his joints and polished his tin. The lion shook the dirt and leaves out of his mane and tail. Another servant girl brushed his fur and put a large bow in his mane.

Once they were in their best appearance, the captain led them to the throne room. It was a large room filled with several rubies on the walls, but luckily they weren't blinding. All the precious stones were real. The throne itself seemed to be carved out of one large ruby, and seated upon it was a lovely woman.

Jack understood now why everyone thought he was a sorcerer. Glinda was in a white robe much like his, but it seemed to be made of diamonds. Her kind, beautiful face wasn't exactly human. It almost looked feline-like. Jack knew she was a half-demon, and he recognized her right away.

"Samurai Kat!" He bowed low before her and shed a few tears of joy. He knew she would be good.

She only smiled at him. "Welcome, Jack. Tell me, why have you come here?"

"Do you not know?"

"I did read it all in my Book of Oz, but I would like to hear it from you."

So Jack told his whole story as briefly as he could. He knew he left several details out, but he felt rather certain that he had all the important things in. "Please, send me back home. I have seen through the Magic Picture that my parents and my friends are already mourning my death. They do not deserve to be forever enslaved. Aku's tyranny could spread to even this country. It is a wonderful, lovely place, this land called Oz, but I will not be happy anywhere besides my land and my time. For to me, your majesty, there is no place like home."

Glinda stepped down from her throne, kissed Jack on the forehead, and made him stand. "Bless your dear heart. You will go home. But first, I need you to use the last charm on the Golden Cap."

Jack's heart was seized with fear. Does she wish to take care of these gorillas right before his eyes? "I am sorry. I cannot make them come before you. They have expressed to me their fear of you."

"Trust me Jack. I need to use the charm exactly three times to help your friends. You shall see. Let us go out to the courtyard so that you may summon them."

Jack did not want to use the charm this time, for he was afraid what the Witch would do with his new friends. All the same, he was concerned that if he didn't do this for her, she would not use her power to get back home. So, as they went out into the courtyard, Jack quietly and solemnly spoke the charm again. The Winged Monkeys appeared before him again, and the leader, the woman with the bat wings, stood before him. "You have called us for the third and final time. What do you--" She gasped as she saw Glinda and cowered in fear.

"I have asked your previous master to summon you here so that I may speak to you all, face to face." Glinda took the cap from Jack's head and put it on her own. "I am the owner of the cap now."

The monkeys grouped together in fear. They looked like scared flocks of doves. Jack couldn't believe he had caused this.

"First of all," Glinda said looking to the Scarecrow, "where would you wish to go when Jack goes home?"

"I promised to return to the Emerald City as soon as I can, for they had chosen me to be their new leader in place of Oz. But I fear I cannot pass the Hammerhead hill."

"Very well. My first wish is for you to take the Scarecrow back to the Emerald City. It would be to deprive such a wonderful city of an equally wonderful ruler."

"Am I wonderful?"

"You are unusual," Glinda grinned, but then she bowed down to his ear and said quietly, "But understand that you will not be its ruler forever."

"Why not? I'm pretty sure I can rule forever."

"And you probably could, but the Emerald City's true heir is a girl name Ozma. Before the Wizard came, though, she mysteriously disappeared. You may rule until I discover her whereabouts, but once I find her, you must step aside and let her claim her heritage."

"Fine by me. I'm sure I probably won't enjoy ruling forever. I was just saying I could. When you find this Ozma, I will gladly serve her."

"Good. Now, Nick, where would you like to go after Jack goes home?"

"The Winkies were kind to me, and they wanted me to be their new king. I promised to come back as soon as I could to be their emperor. I shall treat them well with my good heart that the Wizard has given me."

"My second wish," Glinda said addressing the monkeys, "is for you to take Nick Chopper to form his new empire in the west. He shall be a kind- hearted ruler, loved not only by the Winkies in the West, but by all people of Oz. And now, Lion, what will become of you when Jack leaves for home?"

"Well, just past the Hammerhead Hill is a huge forests filled with every beast imaginable. They desire me to be their king and to keep them from harm. There is even a tiger who wishes to see me again. I am eager to get back to this forest and claim my place as ruler, if I can only get past that hill."

"You shall. My third wish is for you to take this Lion back to that forest. That is my final wish. Therefore, having no more use for you or the Golden Cap--"

The monkeys screaming and leaping in fear interrupted Glinda. The leader shook her wings fearfully. Nick covered his face. The Scarecrow also looked away. The Lion hid behind Jack's back. Jack was the only one who could bear to watch what Glinda had decided to do.

Glinda took off the cap and put it in the leader's hands. "I give the cap to you. You are now your own masters, so the power of the cap is broken. You are hereafter free."

As she spoke this, the cap turned into golden dust that the wind blew away. The woman with bat wings turned into a winged gorilla, just like the rest of them. She jumped for joy, screeching.

"Yes, yes, you're welcome," Glinda nodded. "Now please, do these things for me, not just because I asked you to, but out of the kindness of your hearts. And do them quickly, for I must speak to Jack alone."

"What?" Jack's friends said together.

"Won't we get to see Jack go home?" the Scarecrow asked.

"I'm afraid not," Glinda answered. "We're going to discuss things you will not understand, even as great as your brains are. But know in your hearts, my friends, that Jack will go to his home and his time and his people. Now, say goodbye."

Nick was the first to give Jack a hug. He was crying again, but Jack handed Nick his oil can and a scrap of his robe. "Now I understand what you said of hearts being so fragile," Nick said weeping.

"I'm gonna miss ye, Laddie," the Lion cried.

"Goodbye, my friend," the Scarecrow said solemnly.

Jack hugged them all and said, "Do not feel sad, my friends. I believe we will see each other again before long. Do not ask me how, but somehow I just know. May your lives be long and prosperous. May you be forever safe, and may you make friends of everyone you meet."

They nodded and thanked him completely for all he had done. Jack watched with happiness and sorrow as he watched them fly away. Glinda led him back into her throne room.

"What they say is more than true," Jack told her. "You are as good as you are beautiful. But please tell me, how are you going to send me back home?"

"There is no need to keep it from you any longer. You could go home all along."

He turned to her in confusion and surprise. "You jest!"

"No, I do not." Glinda laughed. "You should see the look on your face. If Jellia were here, she would say that was how Harry Potter looked when he first learned he was a wizard."

"But I am merely a warrior! I am not a wizard or a sorcerer. I am a samurai! I know no magic!"

"You know no magic, but the power is there . . . in your sword."

"My sword? No, it can only make me invincible, almost, and it can destroy a great demon such as Aku, but it cannot do something like that."

"Oh, but it can. Your sword has great powers beyond your imagination. You just don't know how to use them."

Jack fell on his knees. "Why did no one tell me? I am no better than those other three, if it was there all along. I could have gone home the day I first stepped foot in Aku's chaotic world! I feel like such a fool."

"Don't feel like a fool, Jack. Think what would have happened if you would have gone back. The archers would still be cursed, and the evils of the well that they guarded would still be open to the world. The snow gorillas would still be afraid of any prey that came near them. They might have been led to extinction. The Scotsman's wife would have become stew."

"No! None of those things would have happened, because Aku would be gone!"

Glinda smiled and put her hand on Jack's shoulder. "Those things were apart from Aku, remember?"

Jack thought through those things she mentioned and saw that she was right.

"But here is the most important thing. In this world and your world, in your time, Aku's time, and times in between you do not even know about, your story has inspired confidence. And not just any confidence, but a great, new confidence that people lacked before. If you went back the first day, you would have become a folk tale, forgotten across time. But because you stayed behind for a time, you became a legend."

Jack blinked a few tears from his eyes. She was right. He gulped down the lump in his throat and smiled.

"Now you see. This was the whole point of this vision."

"Vision?" Jack stood and faced Glinda. "This is only a dream?"

"Let me show you something." She waved her hand, and the wall melted, showing an unconscious Jack sprawled on a wooden floor. "During the storm, the winds tore some of the old log house apart. Something hit you pretty hard on the head. You've been out for days."

"But I don't understand. What does this mean? Can Aku be destroyed by something other than my sword? Is my evil self still out there, and is he a deceiver? Does my sword really have other powers? What here is real?"

"Nothing," Glinda answered. But then she nodded with a smile and said, "Everything."

As Jack struggled to understand this riddle, he saw his skin begin to fade. "What is happening?"

"Since you now know the truth, you are leaving on your own."

"Don't let me leave! Please, tell me how to use this charm in my sword!"

"You will learn, when the time is right. And fate has designated a time for you, Jack, never fear. Farewell, and never forget us!"

But even as she said that, a huge black hand broke through the ruby ceiling and grabbed Jack. It pulled him up to show a grinning Aku.

"Surprised to see me again?" the Wicked Wizard yelled. "Don't you know that no one dies in Oz?"

Jack instinctively drew his sword and struck--



--and he woke.

Glinda was right. Something did strike his head, and it still hurt. He put his hand on the bump and groaned. Most of the house was in tact, but there was now a huge hole in the roof. Jack felt lucky to be alive. Jack pulled out his sword and examined it. Surely if it had that kind of power, it would have some kind of markings, runes, instructions, anything anywhere. But he saw nothing. He sighed and put the sword back into the sheath. His quest wouldn't end that easily.

Jack walked outside to the deck. Another rain had passed through recently, but it left a huge rainbow stretching across the sky. Jack sat down and reached for his hat so he could watch the rainbow while it was still here. As he pulled out his hat, something tiny fell into his hand.

How could this be? He still had the whistle the Empress of the Field Mice gave him. But that was in Oz, and Oz only existed in his dreams, doesn't it? He blew the whistle. It made that same, high-pitched, piping sound, but no mice came scurrying to his feet. It was useless here.

"Make a wish," he thought he heard Glinda's voice say in the back of his mind.

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he cried as he threw the whistle out of his hand. He watched as it flew over the rainbow.

THE END

(Thank you for everybody who reviewed, and if you haven't yet, please review. And if you have only seen movie, I encourage you, please read the book! This story is very similar, but I left some stuff out too. Believe it or not, L. Frank Baum wrote fourteen other books about Oz, and some are even better than the first one. They're really hard to find, though. I really enjoyed writing this. I doubt I will write another story about Jack visiting Oz again, but maybe he'll visit another fantasy world. Fantasy is one of my favorite things in the world. Right now, though, I have a few more ideas.)