Author Notes - In the book, the scene where the group get attacked by the Winged Monkeys ends with Dorothy and Cowardly Lion getting captured, while Tin Man and Scarecrow spend the next few chapter more-or-less dead. Yes, really. Tin Man is dropped onto so many rocks that he's dented beyond belief, and Scarecrow is ripped apart. You don't see them again until after the West Witch has been melted away. Yes, REALLY.
CHAPTER NINE - INTO THE SPOOKY WOODS
'Alright, here it is.' Goby said as he parked his gold horse. 'The Spooky Woods. An appropriate name, I think you'll find. If I go any further, I put my life and thus the wellbeing of Fishkin Land in danger. Spectra and I will wait here for as long as we can, but eventually we must assume you died and leave.'
'Thanks for the reassurance.' Deema remarked as she and the others left the carriage.
The titular Spooky Woods was appropriately named, as Goby had said. Everything looked as though a wildfire had engulfed it, leaving dead trees and the whole forest coated in black ash. The air had a certain chill to it, and though it did not affect Nonny's tin body or Gil's thick fur, it left the girls and the puppy shivering. Molly saw a sign, made of wooden planks clumsily nailed together, that pointed into the woods. It had words written on it with paint that had weathered away. 'HERE BE THE SPOOKY WOODS', it read, 'I SUGGEST YOU TURN BACK NOW. LOVE, THE MEAN WITCH OF THE WEST'.
She sighed. 'Okay, so Bubble Puppy and I are kinda defenceless, but you guys are not. Gil, you have your mighty teeth and claws.'
Gil extended his claws and showed off all of his teeth, making it clear that he was indeed a ferocious beast. Then he saw something moving at his tail fins.
'MOUSE!' He screamed.
He leapt into the air with a scare, and grabbed onto the underside of a tree branch for good life. His claws sunk into the wood and left scars in its bark. Soon, he breathed a sigh of relief.
'Okay, everyone relax! It was just a leaf.'
Well, let's just hope he's lion enough to scare people off, Molly thought as she rolled her eyes and turned to Nonny. 'Nonny, you of course have your axe, of which you have been carrying since we first met.'
Nonny nodded and, to show off how sharp his axe was, jammed it into the nearest tree trunk. Alas, he didn't notice a little beetle running up the tree until his axe had already chopped it clean in half. Upon realising this, he gasped.
'Oh no!' He exclaimed.
The overly-sensitive Guppy of tin couldn't help feeling terrible for ending an innocent life, and soon he began to cry. Like always, the tears only caused his cheeks to rust, and if he cried any more he would've rusted his jaw completely shut.
I don't wanna say it, but I doubt he's gonna be of much use in battle, Molly thought, looking to Deema. 'And Deema, you have your- OH MY COD!'
Molly had turned around and found, to her absolute shock, that Deema was pointing a GUN at her! It wasn't a kiddie dart gun, or anything like that, but instead a real revolver that lacked anything like an orange tip to point towards it being a toy. Better yet, those hands of straw didn't do an especially good job at holding it properly.
Deema had a smirk on her face. 'I know! Isn't it neat? I found it when I gave you one of apples I was storing. Pretty cool, huh?'
Molly held her arms up. 'Deema, it's a GUN! Do you even know how to use it?'
The scarecrow scoffed. 'Of course I do!' She paused. 'Oh, wait, don't have a brain. Probably don't then.'
She proceeded to do the absolute worst thing one could do when holding a loaded gun with the safety off: she aimed it directly at one of her eyes so she could get a good look down the barrel. So it shouldn't surprise you when it turned out that she-
BANG!
-accidentally fired it while it was aimed at her face. Molly gasped, but fortunately Deema was just a scarecrow and so the bullet didn't hurt her at all. Well, she didn't feel it at least, aside from a slight burning sensation that quickly stopped. It just barely missed her eye and nearly took her eyebrow off. Her straw innards stopped the bullet before it could go far, but it left a small hole in her face cloth.
'I'm OOO-kay!' She said, giving them a thumbs-up.
Molly sighed, and muttered, 'The sooner we get Deema her brain, the better.'
'What was that?'
'Nothing!'
With her friends, including Bubble Puppy, by her side, Molly felt only a little safer. It seemed as though, perhaps, she couldn't be protected by a brainless scarecrow, or a heartless Tin Guppy, or a cowardly lionfish. Still, they reminded her so much of her friends back at home and she trusted them, so she put her trust into her new friends and embarked through the woods.
'Gil…' She muttered. 'Get out of the carriage.'
'HOW DID YOU KNOW? You're not even looking at me! I-I mean… I'm not in the carriage.'
The quintet wandered through the ashy forest, armed with their individual weapons. The sounds of crows did not make any of them any less unnerved, especially Gil who was beginning to regret his decision to come along with Molly. The pink-haired girl wished she could feel safer with them by her side, but she simply didn't.
BANG!
'SORRY!'
'You're not helping, Deema!'
But, once again, they didn't realise they were being watched.
'Look at that!' The Witch declared, laughing as she looked into her crystal ball. 'Look at THAT! HA HA! Those meddling kids have practically gift-wrapped themselves for me!'
The Guard rolled her eyes. That Witch had been staring into that ball for the past few hours, mostly grumpily since her poppy plan failed. Now that Molly and her companions had reached her domain in the west, it finally got her to smile. And she wouldn't stop talking about it.
'Congrats.' The Guard said with no enthusiasm whatsoever. 'Now what?'
The Mean Witch of the West cackled. 'Easy! We just wait until they show up and kidnap them!' She put her hand to her chin. 'Hmm, then again, we would have to trust them to make it to my castle to begin with. And one of them literally doesn't have a brain, and I doubt the others do too.'
'Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing about you.'
The Witch turned around and glared at her. The Guard paid hardly any care, now more than fed up with working for her. If that witch turned her into a frog at that very moment, she wouldn't care.
'You've been snarking at me all day.' The Witch said. 'How about you take drawbridge duty? I think it's much better suited for you.'
The Guard tried her hardest to hide her smile. Well, that seemed a little anticlimactic all things considered, but she wasn't complaining. She picked up her spear and left the room as the Mean Witch swam towards her glassless window. With a grin on her face, she whistled out through the land. In mere seconds, a swarm of frogs leapt up from lilypads on the moat, and flew into the air. Yeah, flew, for these oversized frogs had bat wings attached to their bodies. The Witch had a thing for frogs, okay. There were nearly a hundred of the big guys, flapping their bat wings as they listened to their master.
'Alright, my pretties!' She declared. 'The pink-haired girl and her friends have arrived into the forest. We can't just wait until they get here, so I want you to speed up the process and get them! Remember, leave the little girl unharmed and bring her to me, for I want to deal with her myself. Ignore the other idiots if you can, but feel free to attack them if you want. Now GO! FLY!'
The frogs really didn't want to obey her, but they had little choice. They had to do as she said, lest they be struck down by fire. The biggest of them all took the lead, and all the smaller frogs followed her. Would she find the pink-haired girl and her friends? Well, pink hair and shiny tin stand out quite well among a black ashy forest.
BANG!
The misused gun helped too.
'Deema, I am about to remove your gun rights! Do you even have a gun licence?'
'I don't even have a brain. Do you think I have a licence?'
Suddenly, Gil screamed and hid behind a tree. At this point, this behaviour was so common that Molly didn't even raise any questions. She continued swimming onwards to wherever that castle would be. She only realised that something was wrong when Nonny and Deema yelled too.
'What is it?' Molly demanded.
Deema couldn't speak, and all Nonny could do was point. Molly cranked her head around, and bore witness to the swarm of flying frogs so big that they resembled a giant green cloud.
'Are you serious?' She said.
'Those are the witch's frogs!' Deema cried.
'Wait, what?!'
Molly screamed, even louder than Gil did. Deema grinned, stepped in front of her, and aimed her gun directly at one of the many frogs. She didn't get to fire it, however, before a frog snatched it with its tongue and swallowed it in one bite.
Deema gulped. 'Welp, I've done all I can do.'
'DEEMA, LOOK OUT!'
The scarecrow had no time to react when another tongue came her way, this one bashing into her and throwing her across the forest. Her back slammed into a tree, and while she didn't feel that, she certainly felt a tongue wrapping around her body and ripping her tail off.
'AH!'
She tried to get up and swim away, but without her tail she was no better at swimming than a legless man was at walking and so only fell upon her face. A couple more frogs dropped to the ground, and grabbed the bits of straw out of her body and flung them around the place.
A couple more frogs went after the Tin Guppy. Nonny got his axe ready to attack, but a frog tongue wrapped around the handle. Of course, since his hand was still rusted onto the handle, the frog could throw his axe deep into a tree and leave him stuck for just long enough.
'Help!' He cried, trying to get his axe free. 'I need help!'
Where was Gil? He bared his teeth at the smallest frog of them all, but the moment it opened its mouth to reveal its massive tongue, he screamed and buried his face in his arms. So, the rest of the amphibians didn't bother with him.
'Molly, look out!' Nonny yelled, too late.
Molly ran away screaming from the biggest flying frog of them all, but still the giant slimy beast wrapped its tongue around her body. Its saliva was sticky, leaving her thoroughly trapped in the icky prison. Two more showed up, one wrapping its tongue around her tail and the other lightly around her neck. She tried to scream for help, but a fourth flying creature wrapped its tongue around her mouth.
Bubble Puppy yipped and barked at the slimy creatures, desperate to save his friend, only for another frog to straight-up throw him into its mouth. It didn't swallow him – thank the cods – but it certainly kept him trapped in a jail he would much rather not be in.
Nonny finally got his axe, and by extension the rest of his body, freed from the tree. He looked around, and the first thing he saw was Deema dragging herself along the ground by her arms. Her chest was almost entirely flat thanks to a lack of straw, and her tail was still a distance away from her. He gasped, and rushed over to her immediately. Gil stuck his head out from behind a tree, and too was shocked to see the scarecrow dragging herself around.
'Deema, are you okay?' Nonny asked.
She groaned. 'First, they took off my tail and threw it over there. Then they took out my chest and threw it somewhere over there! It's me all over!'
'Deema, I don't think this is the time for jokes.'
'I do it to cope, okay?!'
Gil nodded, and ran off to find the remains of her chest. Meanwhile, Nonny picked up Deema's tail for her and reattached it to her body by the rope.
'I got her chest!' Gil announced. 'Wait, that sounds bad. You know what I mean!'
He handed the pile of straw to Deema, and she stuffed it back into her body. The boys grabbed her hands and lifted her off the ground, whereupon she could finally use her own tail again. All she had to do was dust herself off and she was good as new.
'Sorry boys,' She said. 'Those blasted frogs ripped the stuffing right out of me, and I couldn't do a thing to stop them. Is Molly okay?'
Gil and Nonny looked at each other awkwardly. It took Deema a few moments to realise why they were making such faces, and she gasped.
'Wait, NO! It couldn't be!'
The quintet, now a trio, stared up at the frog swarm flying away. They could see Molly's pink hair and sparkling red gloves from that distance, and all at once the realisation that they lost hit them all like a house dropped on a witch.
'No… no!' Deema cried. 'We couldn't have!'
Nonny did the only thing the poor Tin Guppy could do at a time like this: he grabbed onto his axe with both hands, and wept. The tears left his face even more rusted than usual, and as they travelled down his face they began to rust his neck too.
'Stop crying, Nonny!' Deema yelled, crying herself. 'Molly's the one with the oil. If you cry now, you'll completely rust over and we won't be able to do a thing about it!'
Neither Guppy could help it, and both devolved into nothing but crying. They had, after all, failed to do the one thing they wanted to do for their friend. Lucky Deema only had to worry about her fabric getting a little damp, but slowly Nonny was becoming unable to move his neck on his own anymore.
In contrast to the both of them, Gil was not crying. He wasn't in the mood to cry. He clenched his furry fists and growled. Whether or not it was true, he just knew that this was all the fault of him and his cowardice. He puffed out his chest, and watched where the frogs were flying. His lion eyes were far more sensitive than the ones belonging to Deema or Nonny, and he could easily see the Witch's castle far off in the distance.
He was angry. At the Witch. At the frogs. Most of all, himself.
'I'M GOING TO GET YOU, WITCH!' He yelled. 'AND I'M GONNA FREE MOLLY MYSELF IF I HAVE TO!'
This sudden yell from their lion friend got Nonny and Deema to stop crying. Well, Nonny stopped crying. Deema couldn't quite stop it yet. Still, hearing their cowardly friend yell with such passionate anger snapped them out of their funk.
'G-Gil…' Deema stammered. 'What are you saying?'
He turned to his friends, with determination in his eyes. 'I'm sick of being a coward! It was my cowardice that probably caused this in the first place! I don't know about you guys, but I'm not gonna just sit here and watch Molly be captured and possibly tortured by that Mean Witch. I'm going to march right into that castle, and I'm gonna roar right in that old witch's face!'
He got onto 'all-fours' and scampered away deeper into the woods. His fears nipped at him and his very being, but he paid it no attention lest he change his mind and back out of it. He had no plan in that head of his, but he didn't care. Even if this killed him – really truly killed him – he was gonna try. For if he simply died instead of saving Molly, it was all he deserved.
'GIL, WAIT!' Nonny yelled, uncharacteristically loudly.
Gil skidded to a stop, and saw the scarecrow and the Tin Guppy following close behind. Deema dragged Nonny with her to make sure he could catch up with her, which made it hard for him to see where she was going as he could no longer turn his head.
'We're coming with you!' Deema declared, wiping her tears away. 'I'm sure my brainlessness had something to do with Molly getting captured, and even if it didn't I'm still gonna help you save her!'
Nonny had to move his entire upper body just to nod. 'And it would be too heartless even for me if I left you both run into danger. So I'm coming too.'
'YEAH!' Deema yelled. 'It may be absolutely awful that Molly is captured, but I just know that we'll save her if we just work together! I may be brainless…'
'I may be heartless…' Nonny said.
'And I may have no courage…' Gil added.
'But we're gonna save Molly even if it kills us!' Deema yelled. 'Though I would hope it doesn't!'
Author Notes - I can guarantee that ALMOST EVERYONE reading this story thinks I just threw the gun in there as a stupid joke. I did not. If you watch the 1939 movie closely, as the group is first entering the forest, the Scarecrow straight-up has a REVOLVER in his hand. And no, I am not kidding. I've seen it myself. Google it if you don't believe me. THE SCARECROW HAD A GOSH-DARN REVOLVER!
