Disclaimer, the usual

"so, you heading to emerald city this afternoon, Madeline said you might last night?" alex asked as he, Dorothy, Ellie, and Aislynn walked out of the school

"I will never understand Maddie's way of doing things, but yes, I'm heading to emerald city after we get home, usually, id bring the slippers with me, but I can't bring the scepter with me, and Glinda would most likely go into huff if I left it home." Dorothy said.

"have to agree with you on that one, she would flip if you left it here, I mean, fair play, without permission you and alex are the only ones who can touch it, which I'm still looking into." Ellie said as they walked along.

"so, you guys coming along?" dorothy asked.

"I think I'll pass for once, I like your aunt's vegetable soup, it makes for some light eating while I'm trying to do homework." Aislynn said.

"I have to head to Oz anyways, another of the army's secret meetings planning for Alyssa's wedding." Ellie said.

"I'll come, the alternative is wait around the carpentry shop all day, and I'm finished with my personal project" alex said

"what about your father?" dorothy and ellie asked.

"he said I could go if I didn't have anything to do, we found this on the kitchen counter this morning" Alex said taking an envelope from his pocket.

"what is it?" Aislynn asked.

"it's an invitation, from Maddie." Dorothy said taking the envelope from alex.

"was it necessary? I mean, wherever you go dorothy, alex is near guaranteed to follow." Aislynn asked

"I don't question her, I find it's less taxing on the mind." Dorothy sighed.

"I'm kinda intimidated by her, all things considered." Ellie said

"whys that?" dorothy and alex asked curiously.

"I have my reasons, I'd rather not go into them here though." Ellie said pulling her wand from her bag.

"do you, always carry that with you?" Alex asked as they got to the farmhouse

"you've really never noticed?" ellie asked.

"I haven't either in fairness, why do you keep your wand with you?" dorothy asked as they went inside

"I never know if I'm going to be called away suddenly, and now that I've got the transport spell down at least in terms of transporting myself, I can just slip off unnoticed." Ellie said smiling, "like now" she added under her breath

"soup smells good." Alex said taking a whiff of the air

"thank you alex, it'll be done soon." Em said coming out of the kitchen wiping her hands off on her apron

"Where's uncle henry?" Dorothy asked

"he's out at the barn, something scared the horse over there earlier so he's investigating, I think it might be a snake." Em said.

"never seen one around here before." Dorothy said.

"hasn't been one in a long time." Em said.

"where's toto at, he didn't get outside, today did he?" Dorothy asked.

"he and pockets were outside with uncle henry earlier, they were both spooked along with the horse, as far as I know they're in your room now." Em said.

"and the triplets are napping I assume?" Aislynn said setting her bag on the table.

"yep, I actually should get them up soon, I assume you two are off to emerald city?" Em asked turning to them.

"you assume right Mrs. Gale." Alex said as dorothy went to her room.

When she got into her room she found toto and pockets cowering under the bed, doing a bad job at staying hidden.

"you two alright?" dorothy asked as she changed out of her boots and into the slippers.

"there's something out there, something scary, it frightened the horse and it frightened me." Toto said coming out from under the bed.

"Me too" pockets said

"I'm sure it's nothing to be afraid of, unless, you know, it happens to be a wild animal instead of a snake as auntie Em seems to think." Dorothy said.

"whys that?" Toto asked jumping up onto the bed.

"you know how I don't like you leaving the vicinity of the farmhouse without me?" dorothy asked

"we're all quite aware of it." pockets said joining toto on the bed.

"well, there are some animals that have this sort of strange disease known as rabies, don't understand much about it, but for whatever reason it comes up in a class lecture at least once a year, getting bitten by a rabid animal is incurable, and I don't want to lose either of you." Dorothy said grabbing the scepter.

"well you won't have to worry about that, I imagine toto and I will be around for a long time yet." Pockets said.

Dorothy smiled and picked the two of them up before heading out of her room. When she got to the living room she found alex and Aislynn had moved to the kitchen and were watching out the back window. She noticed ellie was absent but assumed she had slipped off unnoticed like she said she might.

"auntie Em gone to get the triplets up or is she helping uncle henry?" dorothy asked walking over to join them.

"she's getting the triplets up, but I'm pretty sure your aunt is right, is some sort of snake and by the distance your uncle is keeping from the barn, a venomous one at that, otherwise I don't think he'd be worried." Aislynn said walking away from the window.

"what makes you say that?" Alex asked turning around to watch her.

"because the only thing that being bitten by a non-venomous snake really ever causes is an inconvenient trip to the doctor for some antibiotics." Aislynn said leaving the kitchen.

"well, you ready to go?" alex asked turning to dorothy.

"have been for a few minutes, but I think we should wait for uncle henry, just to make sure it's safe." Dorothy said.

"well the snake is perfectly safe, it's us who are in danger around it," Alex said.

"well, thank you Captain Obvious." Dorothy said rolling her eyes.

"you're welcome Sergeant Sarcastic." Alex said chuckling.

"Em, it's a rattler!" uncle henry shouted as he came in.

"what's that?" they heard one of the triplets ask.

"when was the last time a rattle snake in this county?" Alex asked curiously.

"been a while, last one bit and killed a horse when your grandparents were still alive, officer grey's father took a knife to it, but this one is huge." Henry said worriedly.

"is there anything we can do to help?" alex offered in a rather uneasy voice

"no, you two can go to emerald city if you'd like, I have to call officer grey, let him know what's going on." Henry said going over to the phone.

"are you sure you don't want us to stay and help?" dorothy asked worriedly.

"no, it's fine." Henry replied dialing the sheriff's office.

"he seems pretty insistent that we leave." Toto said.

"probably doesn't wanna risk us getting hurt, and ace isn't much of a worry since she doesn't really go outside in the first place." Dorothy said holding her pets closer to her.

"well she's not a worry to them, but you're always worried about her." Alex said sighing.

"Well, ready to go?" dorothy asked offering him the scepter.

"always ready." He said taking hold of the scepter.

"well then, take us to emerald city." Dorothy said clicking her heels together.

At that moment the usual sensations were felt, and within moments they both found themselves in Dorothy's sleeping chambers of emerald city.

"you know, I feel that every time we do this, we end up in a different spot." Alex said as he collapsed to the floor trying to catch his breath.

Dorothy sighed and set toto and pockets down on the bed before turning to help alex up.

"do you hold your breath every time this happens or something?" Dorothy asked curiously.

"mostly, its involuntary but yes, I do." He replied.

"oh good, you two are here, its chili for dinner today." Ellie said coming into the room.

"oh, you slipped out unnoticed, didn't you?" dorothy asked teasingly.

"oh, be quiet, I knew you'd notice, you rarely don't." ellie said with a giggle.

"anyways, thanks for being here to greet us, where's Maddie?" dorothy asked.

"I don't know, I haven't seen her yet, which is odd because I kinda expected her to be in here." Ellie said looking around.

"well she isn't here, she might be in her room working on a hat, not sure where else she could be otherwise." Alex said.

"well, I'm sure she knows we're here by now." Dorothy said.

"Oh, most definitely, the moment you clicked your heels together mads knew you were on your way here, but I'm not sure where she is now." Jack said coming into the room.

"you expected her to be here as well?" ellie asked.

"would I be here otherwise?" Jack asked curiously.

"fair enough, sadly the connection between dorothy and Madeline is only one way, though she can force the connection if she tries hard enough we know that for sure." Ellie said sighing

"well, I'm sure we'll bump into her." Dorothy said starting for the door

Everyone else it the room shared a glance at each other before nodding in agreement and following after dorothy. When they got to the chambers they found Ozma there, sitting on her throne, looking rather bored. When she noticed dorothy however her face lit up and she ran over to her and hugged her.

"I was hoping you'd come today, Madeline said you might." Ozma said smiling.

"okay, looks like we're having a party in here, food will be ready in less than an hour, just thought you'd like to know." Brianna said sticking her head into the chambers.

"thank you." Ozma said as Brianna quickly vanished from the door way.

"actually, speaking of things that take less than an hour, have you thought about taking Tugg over to Winkie country? "alex asked curiously.

"Winkie country has been restored for months, and you think to ask this now?" Jack asked now rather confused.

"hey I can't think of everything" alex said sitting down on the floor

"maybe we can do that tomorrow, I mean, I've got nothing particularly interesting planned" dorothy said sighing as she followed suit.

"oh, good, you guys are in here, have you seen Madeline, I have to ask her something." Alyssa said coming into the chambers carrying a clipboard.

"what's that, your personal set of plans?" Ellie asked.

"actually, it's the guest list that I've gotten so far, it's not what I have to as Madeline about though, but now that I take pause for thought, dorothy, you remember the Yoops right? You now, the giants living in Locasta's domain? They have a daughter" Alyssa asked.

Dorothy thought about that for a moment, she remembered Mr. and Mrs. Yoop, and their daughter Emma. It had been a while since she had seen any of them, which was odd considering that Emma could have come around any time she liked assuming her mother approved.

This was due to a magical amulet that Glinda and Locasta had made her that allowed her to become what was deemed around Oz as normal sized outside of munchkin land.

"yes, I remember them, wow, it's been a while, hasn't it?" she asked.

"well I do plan on inviting at least Emma to the wedding, her parents, at least at last check by Locasta, still aren't too comfortable with leaving their castle." Alyssa said.

"that would be great, I'm sure she'd love to see us again, and she'd get to meet Ozma." Dorothy said.

"my sentiments exactly." Alyssa said before walking out of the chambers.

"she seems rather preoccupied." Ellie said.

"when hasn't she been recently?" Ozma asked giggling.

"fair point." Ellie said.

"hey, the wedding is going to be here in emerald city, isn't it? because it's just occurred to me that Glinda and Locasta could get in a rather violent squabble over that." Jack asked curiously.

"as far as I'm aware, but sooner or later I know that Glinda and Locasta are going to get into duel over something, actually we have a bet going on of when it's going to eventually happen, the rest of us." Ellie said.

"whose bright idea was that?" alex asked with a snort.

"Alyssa's surprisingly, after the first argument the lot of us couldn't agree on whether or not they would eventually end things in a duel, so Alyssa suggested it." ellie said with a chuckle

"what's so funny about that? And what exactly did you guys bet anyways? you don't exactly have established currency here from what I can tell." Alex said.

"it's for bragging rights mainly, but it's also for fun" ellie replied

"you were looking for me, right?" Madeline asked appearing in the chambers.

"where were you?" jack asked curiously.

"that's not important, I was taking care of personal business." Madeline said smiling.

"ah." Was all jack could manage to say.

"anyways, dinner will be ready soon, we should probably get ready." Madeline said walking over to them.

When it was eventually time for dinner and everyone was in the banquet hall, it was noted that wiser was absent. No one questioned this except dorothy and alex who weren't always in emerald city. Everyone else knew that wiser was back in Winkie country because there were more open fields that way to practice his landings on. Otherwise the meal was taken in silence which everyone would later find themselves questioning. However, everyone was done and a dessert of raspberry tart was served. Everyone with the exceptions of ellie, Elena, Brianna, Alison, Caitlyn, and Chrissy, who went to Brianna's ice cream parlor to continue planning, toto and pockets, who were content with roaming about the palace, and dorothy, alex and Ozma, who went back to the chambers at Ozma's request.

"did you want to talk about something?" dorothy asked as they got into the chambers.

"actually, I was wondering if there was anything you guys wanted to talk about? anything on your minds?" Ozma asked.

"nothing really comes to mind for me." Alex said as dorothy shook her head.

"any plans for tomorrow? I besides possibly heading to Winkie country?" Ozma asked

"not really." Dorothy replied.

"you three planning something?" scarecrow asked walking into the chambers and heading towards his workshop.

"nope, just trying to make idle conversation, where are tin man and lion?" alex asked curiously

"tin man is refilling his pump and lion, I'm not sure where he's gone off to since dinner." Scarecrow said.

"probably napping somewhere, as most animals do after eating." Madeline said walking into the chambers.

"he's not normally one to do that though." Scarecrow said.

"you never know, might be trying to mix things up a bit." Madeline replied.

"I guess that's, fair, I think." Scarecrow said shaking his head and heading into his workshop

"anyways, dorothy do you want me to see if ace is up to coming here?" Madeline asked curiously.

"I'd say yes, but she'd probably argue that she hasn't finished her homework." Dorothy said.

"or that she's not finished eating and still has to finish her homework." Alex added.

"or that she forgot to eat, and still has to finish her homework" Madeline said.

"and odds are her homework is already done and she's just making busy work for herself." Dorothy said.

"speaking of eating, I wonder if there's any of those fruit tarts leftover, those were yummy." Ozma said.

"I'm sure there are, Brianna does have a bad habit of making too many." Madeline said.

"it's not a bad habit." Ozma said.

"depends on whether or not you're talking to Glinda." Madeline said chuckling.

"well, I'll have to ask when the girls get back from their meeting." Ozma said smiling.

"and pray that Glinda doesn't find you eating sweets, you know she doesn't like that." Madeline said.

"spoilsport." Was Ozma's immediate reply.

The was a moment of silence before the four of them shared a chuckle.

"well anyways, I have to get back to my hats." Madeline said vanishing.

"wow, she really does like her magic, doesn't she?" Ozma asked.

"I wish she wouldn't, the only magic I'm comfortable with using is the slippers, and that's just for transport if one of you isn't available to help me using the scepter." Dorothy said.

"we know." Ozma said smiling.

"Ozma, you guys using magic is all fine and dandy but I'm personally not fond of it."

"No one said you had to be, and anyways, Madeline is her own person, you know that." Alex said taking Dorothy's hand.

"I know, but it's just so aggravating when most of the time she doesn't walk out of a room, but just transports herself, even when she does leave a room by walking, she transports herself shortly after." Dorothy said sighing.

"so, it's not that you have a problem with problem with magic, it's that you have a problem with people just being completely dependent on it? is that it?" Ozma asked curiously.

"that's about right." Dorothy said.

"Well then, now that we've got that worked out, lets change the subject." Alex said hoping it would work.

"like to what?" dorothy asked.

"well, how about to Winkie country?" he asked.