Lions and Tigers and Wargs (Oh My!)

By: Cobalt Goddess

Chapter Four: Who Stopped the Rain

Dorothy held Toto tightly as they lie inside a hole they'd found underneath a fallen tree by the river.

"It's okay, Toto, it's okay," she comforted, a crack in her voice giving the fear away. She was frozen by it, but not for the reason she'd expected. This was the first tornado she'd experienced since, that tornado, and she found herself fearing the worst. She'd told them all about it, and they'd taken her away, they'd locked her away. She'd had to go to that school in Tupelo where everyone had called her "twister girl" and even the teachers humiliated her about the Munchkins. Dorothy had just recently been allowed to come home, and even here, she found no solace from the chants of "freak" and "psycho". But what could she do? She'd never see him again, she had always told herself, but here was an opportunity, a CHANCE, and she was terrified.

She feared that if she tried to go back, she'd find she couldn't.

Toto looked up at Dorothy with a question in his eyes. She smiled at him, Toto always was a very smart dog. Lovingly, she put his collar and leash on, lovingly she stroked him, and lovingly she tethered him to the tree's roots, keeping him inside the hole.

"I'm so sorry Toto," Dorothy cooed to her friend. "You can't come with me, it's too dangerous this time. Someone will find you, and you can live with them, away from Miss Gulch."

Toto cried pitifully as Dorothy ran out of the hole, downstream, and right into the path of the oncoming tornado.

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Sam cradled Rosie as the knot kept unraveling. He could hear Frodo's strangled sobs at his side, and looked over to his dear friend.

"You're my best friend Sam," Frodo sobbed. "I always wished we were brothers. Sam I'm, what I mean is, I love you Sam."

He looked so terrified, and yet that statement of platonic love seemed to give Frodo strength. They smiled at each other, and as the rope finally came undone, they grabbed onto each other and Rosie, to die as brothers.

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Dorothy ran with all of her will up the steep embankment to the top of the hill, where she could see the funnel cloud looming closely. The wind tripped her and she fell face first into the brush, scratching her face and slicing her dress open at the shoulder. Screaming from the pain, she pulled herself up and stood braced against a large tree, resolutely facing the wind. She tried to think positively about seeing him again, but she just couldn't shake the terror of knowing she just might die instead, a thought that surprised her, since she'd thought she was tired of living anyway.

Suddenly she heard barking, and, having chewed through his bonds, Toto came running towards her, his low lying stance preventing him from being blown away in the torrent.

"You hard headed mutt," she cooed as she gathered him up. "Something told me you'd be back."

Toto licked Dorothy's face. He didn't plan on dying, but he was determined to not live without her either.

The sirens began their ominous blaring again, and as Dorothy felt her and Toto being sucked into the whirling oblivion, she couldn't help but think of the horns in her dream.

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Merry was only half aware of what was going on as he lie in the party tree, as dear to death as any living Hobbit should be. He couldn't see, nor hear, all he knew was that he was in pain.

And the wind was again quickening.

As the cyclone once more took him up into its blackness, he begged for help.

Someone, anyone, anywhere, please save me.

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Utter darkness; heat; nausea,

A cold, dim, light; warmth; mild pain,

Nothing.

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Frodo and Sam fell to the ground with a start, having expected to be thrown much further than the thirty or so feet they had been. It was still raining heavily, and Rosie was stirring, but the cyclone itself seemed to have dissipated as quickly as it had come.

Not having the strength nor the ability to search for their lost companions in the dark, Sam, Frodo, and a now semi- conscious Rosie found their way back to the shelter at Bag End, where they stayed until first light.

Several hours later, Dorothy opened her eyes painfully, Toto's cold nose in her ear awakening her to the sounds of voices below her. Her throat had swollen shut and she was unable to lift her head, so she simply lay there.

"Well look at that, a big person!" a small ruddy faced man announced to his companions, "Bet she was sucked right out of Bree and all!"

"Is it safe?" one of the fellows asked.

"'Course it is, it's a lass after all, and not an Orc by a long mile."

"What about that dog?"

"'taint no trouble, it's a wee thing."

That seemed to ease the small men and the started up the Party Tree to help her out and to safety.

I'm here, I'm here was all a very sick Dorothy could think

The Munchkins will help me.

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Merry opened his eye, shutting it quickly again against the bright, cloudless sky. He tried moving, but was met with excruciating pain instead. He lie there, wondering if he was dead, hoping not, as being eternally in agony wasn't his idea of the perfect afterlife. Suddenly, he heard voices, and he moaned loudly, the only sound he could manage.

The rescuers heard him and ran toward the sound, looking for survivors.

Easily they found him, and as they began lifting him onto a board to safety, Merry listened to them speak to each other.

"Get him to the Ambulance STAT!"

"Petersen I want that IV NOW!"

"Is he a defib?"

"No, his hearts started again."

"We're at Smokey Hill River*, ETA 20 minutes."

"What's the age on this one?"

"I don't know, Pete, looks like about 10 if that."

"Let's go people, don't want this kid to be our first DOA of the year."

Merry felt himself moving, and a cold burning feeling seeping into his left arm, but he didn't care what hey did, they were saving him, and he knew it.

They must be elves, the elves are saving me. He thought as he drifted into a demerol-induced sleep.

*Smokey Hill River is really in Kansas, see I DO research LOL.