Several years later, in Kansas, a huge tornado occurred. It blew houses sky high, tossed people and animals around like leaves, and caused a number of deaths.

"Wow!" said Darcy, "glad I don't live there."

Darcy was a ten-year-old boy with a kind heart. He wouldn't even hurt a fly. Once, he nearly killed a few people, BUT, it was a complete accident…kinda. How was he supposed to know that inflammable meant flammable? If he had known, he wouldn't have blown up the gas station built beside the twenty-story apartment building. Darcy lived with his little black dog, Tofu. He wasn't sure why he had named him this, but it had something to do with how its parents had died. He also lived with his uncle and aunt. They never paid any attention to Darcy because they watched TV and drank beer twenty-four-seven. Darcy had learned to cook when he was five, and then learned to fully take care of himself by the age of seven.

Still in front of the TV, Darcy was glad that he lived in New York.

"It's so boring sitting here, Tofu, let's go outside for a walk."

"Arf!" Why not, it's better than staring at that box all day, Tofu thought.

"Can you fetch me my red cap?"

"Grrrr." No.

"Come on, boy, it's the red one. There's only five to pick from, and they're all in different colours. Go, boy!"

"Arf! Arf! Arf! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr." Yeah, easy for you to say - you're not colour-blind!

"Fine, I'll get it. Lazy dog…" Darcy picked up his red cap and went out the door with Tofu tagging along behind him.

They walked along their regular route through the city. Then, Darcy saw something unusual.

"Hey! What's that?!" Darcy stooped to pick up the strange-looking object. It was a white sphere the size of a ping-pong ball. Suddenly, an explosion of bright light burst out of the little orb, surrounding Darcy and Tofu.

Darcy slowly opened his eyes and saw a woman floating above him with a little guy beside her.

"He's awake!" cried the Fairy of the North.

"Wow, you were out for almost a millennium…" said some short stubby guy.

Hearing this, Darcy fainted.

"Whoa! I was kidding!!"

"Stop scaring people, Tom."

"Sorry, I couldn't resist. Heh heh heh."

"Just look what you did to the other guy," The Fairy of the North said, pointing to the corner of a room.

Tom looked. There was a kid crunched up in a ball, shaking, with a terrified look on his face. "Spiders… spiders… Spiders everywhere… can't… open… eyes… spiders…"

"I even told you he was arachnophobic."

"Arako-what?"

"Arachnophobic. It means terrified of spiders, and you just told him that this room is crawling with millions of them."

"Well, maybe if you just said 'terrified of spiders', I might have understood." Tom said sarcastically. "Hey look, this kid's waking up again!"

"Shut up this time and let me do the talking."

Darcy sat up and looked around. Seeing nothing familiar, he asked, "Where am I?"

"You're on the Island of OZ. What brings you here?"

"Tofu!"

"Uh…" Tom and the fairy looked at Darcy uneasily.

"Where's Tofu?"

"Um… if you want some tofu, I could give you some, but I assure you, there are much tastier foods than tofu around here."

"No, I mean my dog! Where's my dog?"

"Do you mean a little black puppy with curious eyes, a scratched up nose, and a little white stripe on its tail?" asked Tom.

"Yes! Where is he?"

"Never saw him…"

"Tom!"

"Okay, okay… he's right here…" Tom picked Tofu up and gave him to Darcy, who was lying in a bed.

"Tofu!"

"Arf!" Darcy!

"So… where am I again?"

"The Island of OZ"

"OZ? Where's that?"

"Um… gee… this might be hard to explain, do you know where the Pacific is?"

"The Pacific Ocean? Ya, I know."

"Yeah, we're somewhere in the middle of it."

"No way! I live in New York! How did I get here?"

"Beats me…"

"Perhaps I know," said the fairy, "You picked up a ping-pong-ball-like object and it let out a blinding flash of light that surrounded you and your dog, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, while you were blinded, a kidnapper took you and Tofu on a plane. While you were flying overseas, you two somehow fell out of the plane and onto our island's only pillow factory. By the way, thanks for finding my ping-pong ball, I added a flashy light feature so I can find it if it ever gets lost. Now I can finish my game."

"Wow…" said Tom, amazed, "Who would have thought… Anyways, now you're in MY house."

"Well then, you're a fairy - do something to transport me back to New York." Darcy asked the fairy.

"Um… it's not that simple. You see, if you come to our island, you cannot leave." said Tom. "The Great Wizard won't allow anyone to expose the location of our secret island. If you want to leave, you have to confront him. My ancestors were stuck on this island for over five hundred years!" Tom explained.

"Fine, all I have to do is go and ask the wizard, then I'll be home?"

"No, you'll have to go and confront the wizard if you want to go home."

"Fine, I'll go confront the wizard, then will I be home?"

"Maybe, but the wizard has a nasty habit of frying people who make requests to him, so you'd better watch it."

"Meh, just tell me how to get there, Shorty."

"Follow the yellow brick road into an emerald palace, and the Great Wizard will be waiting for you in the centre room of the palace," said the fairy.

"How does he know I'm coming?"

"Oooh, the Great Wizard knows and sees allll…" said Tom in a mysterious voice.

"Well, if he knows that I'm coming and the question that I'm going to ask him, why doesn't he just give me an answer right here, right now?"

"Um… just shut up and leave…" Tom responded irritatedly, trying to force Darcy out the door.

"Fine, fine, I'll go. Come, Tofu." Darcy said, making a hand gesture for Tofu to follow him. "We're going on a quest!" Screwed up people, why did they waste their time building brick road and painting it yellow? he thought. So Darcy started on his search for the Emerald Palace.

"By the way, kid!! I'm not short! I'm just… DIFFERENT!!!!" Tom shouted as Darcy and Tofu parted farther and farther from his house.