Disclaimer, you know by now. And fair word of warning, there is a song in this one…I know some people prefer warnings for it.
Dorothy and Alex both looked at the doll for a moment. they were both surprised only by the fact that it just spoke, not the fact that it could speak at all.
"I'm sorry, but did you just talk?" Alex asked walking around to look the doll in the eyes.
"I did, and if you would, dorothy isn't it?" the doll asked, "Could you please put me down?"
Dorothy stood there for a minute before complying. The doll brushed herself down, smoothing out her outfit and looking around. Stretching out a little.
"It's been so long since I've been able to move." The doll said, "this world doesn't have much in the way of magic and that left me unable to move."
"Until we came along, and you started to wake up?" Alex asked curiously.
"Sort of, the magic that's been around this house for a while wasn't enough to do much but as I began to realize it was there, it made me yearn for home even more." The doll replied.
"Your home?" Dorothy asked curiously, "that wouldn't happen to be the land of oz, would it?"
The doll giggled and shook her head.
"No, I happen to be from Merryland, which is part of the nonestic landmasses." The Doll said, "I ended up here after dropping my own fairy wand on accident."
"Were you trying to bind a transport spell?" Alex asked curiously.
"No, I just accidently dropped it and it zapped me." She said, "I have no idea how long I've been away, as I've heard conversation that time works somewhat differently between the worlds."
"And you couldn't do anything to rectify it as you couldn't move, the scepter must have picked up on your presence as something not of this world and wanted to rectify it, why she didn't want me to touch you is beyond me."
"Do you have a name?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Dolly." The Doll said flatly.
"Dolly…the doll" Alex pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I feel like I shouldn't be surprised by this."
"it's the name I've always had and it's the name I've always gone by." She said noticing the tag tied to her wrist and trying hard to break it off, "so you two have been to the land of Oz then?" she asked struggling with the twine.
"Several times, we're its protectors, and prince and princess regent." Alex said taking his knife from his pocket, crouching down and cutting the twine.
"Oh. Thank you, royalty is always good company." Dolly said, "so the wizard that supposedly lives in oz made you two regents?" she asked.
"you've been here a long time, so you should probably be informed that the wizard hasn't been in charge for a while." The two of them said, "Princess Ozma, has been in charge for a while, she's the daughter of Lurline and Pastoria." They both added
Queen dolly stood there for a moment in silence, as though mulling this over for a bit in her head.
"I know that no one has seen the fairy queen in a long time." Dolly said nodding at this information, "I'm glad Oz has its true ruler back on the throne, one of her own."
"So, what exactly happened, you said you had a wand of your own which you dropped, what were you trying to do if not bind a transport spell?" alex asked curiously
"I was about to wake my subjects and servants up for the day, but the magic went wrong when I dropped the wand." She said sadly, "never dropped it before, and I could never have predicted the results."
"We know how that feels." Alex said looking at dorothy, "we're still trying to work out magic as it stands."
"Wait a moment." Dorothy said looking at the doll, sitting on the floor in front of it again, "you said subjects…are you supposed to be the Queen of Merryland?" she asked concernedly.
Dolly nodded and sat on the floor, looking rather sad.
"And as it stands, I started trapped here unable to move, now I can move and I'm no closer to home." She said, "I miss my subjects, I miss all the valleys of Merryland."
"we're all trapped in here." Dorothy said sighing, "at least we have each other's company, but I could have picked like a hundred places that would rather be than in this room, or in this house."
"Yes, you were explaining you never wanted to come back here, I remember the day you left and never came back, that other girl liked the look of me just as much as you did." Dolly said sighing.
"Well neither of us knew you were supposed to be alive." Dorothy said, "your eyes were just so creepy." She added.
"It was how I set my face up, the magic from that scepter of yours started feeding into me a little, allowing me to change the expression finally." She said, "I was always angry about being stuck in one position, you cant imagine how being conscious while stuck in one position can be tedious."
"We have a friend that does though, he's made out of tin and his joints rust occasionally." Dorothy said.
"that's interesting, at least I'd have someone to relate to in that respect." She said in response.
Meanwhile outside.
Ozma still had her wand in front of her, listening into the conversation beyond the vortex. As soon as she heard that the doll dorothy often shuddered thinking about was the queen of Merryland, she became even more worried. The connection that allowed her to listen in using her fairy wand seemed to have grown stronger once dorothy entered the house.
"Glinda! We are going to have a bit of a diplomatic problem on our hands!" Ozma shouted to her.
"Whys that?" Glinda asked looking at her curiously.
"You know that doll that dorothy doesn't like to talk about?" Ozma asked in response.
"Yes? What about it?" she asked.
"Apparently she's the queen of Merryland." Ozma said rather flatly.
"You're joking?" Glinda asked sounding rather irritated.
"she's not!" Madeline said, holding up the bracelet.
Glinda said nothing in response, she simply went over to Fayth who was closest to her. Elena, Terrance, and Alyssa soon appeared along with Alison and Brianna. They all stood looking at the maelstrom before them.
"What a mess." Alison said loudly
"And that's not even half of it." Madeline said filling them in.
"What can we do about this?" Locasta asked
"At this point, wait until the magic decays enough, or call on Cassandra and see if she can help." Marsinta said worriedly, "we might have the power to stop this, but considering even we've never seen this before, we're not sure on the how."
Madeline shot a spell at it just out of curiosity, it was whipped around and then absorbed by the vortex.
"It appears to absorb whatever magic is thrown at it, Glinda, Locasta, what spells did you use exactly?"
meanwhile, back in the house.
The three of them observed Madeline's spell enter the mix and get absorbed, this bothered both dorothy and alex. they sighed and got up to move to the living room. Dorothy held her hand out for the scepter, but as it contacted her hand she yelped and immediately let go of it again. Shaking her hand in pain.
"The scepter is scorching hot." She said blowing on her hand and shaking it.
As Alex and queen Dolly went to the living room, dorothy ran to the bathroom observing that the door still seemed to stick while it was shut and went to run her hand under the sink. She looked at herself in the mirror as she did so. Her hair was a little brighter, she was sure this was due to the magic she absorbed going through the vortex, and from the scepter dispelling its spells just then. She sighed looking around. This room like the rest looked as she remembered them. She ran her hand under the water for a good couple of minutes before stopping and clenching it. it didn't appear burned, just a little red. She knew she could have bound a healing spell for it, the scepter was typically good at that. But she had never known it to heat up before on its own. She joined alex and Dolly in the living room. Alex was sat unsurprisingly in one of the regular armchairs. Dolly was sat in the small rocking chair that she herself once occupied. She walked over and sat in the rocking chair that her mother once used.
New thoughts were starting to form in her mind. For all her lack of desire to ever return here, there was a part of her that was indeed happy to be surrounded by this familiar place. The memories saddened her sure, but there was just something about this place. It was hers and always would be until she decided to do something else with it. and she was the only one who could make that call.
"Through all the years." Dorothy said, "I never wanted to return here, and now…now that I have."
"You wish you had done so sooner?" Alex asked with a smile, "I wish I could say I had planned this out, to get you here." He said to her.
"But you'd never do that, because the guilt of having done so would have left you a bigger mess than you are now, the scepter arranged it once it realized queen Dolly was here." She said looking down at the doll, "she wanted me to be the one that awoke her fully but knew the only way I'd get down here is if she did something that put you in a mess."
"Well, that's a good thing I suppose, from someone's perspective." Queen Dolly said rocking back and forth a bit.
"And you came in here of your own free will dorothy, none of us asked you too." Alex said
"Maddie tried to stop me." Dorothy said, "I didn't listen."
"Because when one of us is in trouble the other will always rush to their aid." Alex nodded.
She looked around, letting familiar feelings and sights wash over her.
"It was never much, but it was home." She said.
A place to come back to.
Dorothy
Its not much to speak of
This Humble abode
Compared to the splendors
Of life on the road
I love the adventures
I love the outdoors
still it's nice to return to
a place that's just…
yours.
A place to come back to
All journeys must end
My chair by the fireside
a faithful old friend.
And too many trinkets
just gathering Dust
A lifetime of keepsakes
so, keep them I must
The Pictures and portraits
that hang on each wall
Are long lost relations
I…can't quite recall
Their unspoken welcome
greets meet at the door
so warm and inviting
Alex
worth coming home for.
Dorothy
A place to come back to
where comfort abounds
with homely aromas.
familiar sounds.
Alex
the creaks of the staircase
Dorothy
a door jamb that sticks
A crack in the window
meant to be fixed.
The books on the bookshelves
I've no time to read
The things that I care for
but don't really need.
it may seem untidy,
well that is just fine
who cares if its messy.
the mess is still mine.
A journey is splendid
Alex
there's so much to learn
Dorothy
And once it has ended
You know you'll return
Both
And all will seem rosy
As you find the path
To somewhere that's cozy
Your place by the hearth
Dorothy
A place to come back to
the callings been strong
still my instincts assure me
its where I belong
Whenever I travel
wherever I roam
There's one place I yearn for
the place I call
Home
Dorothy looked at alex and smiled a weak smile.
"It does hurt to be here, and in a place that I no longer feel is mine" she said
"In this house, or in that spot specifically?" Queen Dolly asked curiously.
"Both really." Dorothy said rocking back and forth a bit.
"Everything, in this house is yours, kitten." Alex said picking up a framed photograph and looking it over.
"I half expect mama to come around the corner with a dish in hand to scold me for going through the drawers again looking for colored pencils." Dorothy said looking
"I did notice things seem a little over organized" Alex said, "I didn't mean to mention it"
"Mama liked everything neat" Dorothy said
"And your father?" alex asked curiously.
Dorothy looked at the clock, it was nearly 5.
"He'd be coming home in a few minutes, he'd walk through the door, hang up his coat." Dorothy said getting up, her voice cracking as she spoke,
She reached for the mantle, found a windup key, and went over to a clock on a set of drawers. Opening the glass front she winds it up. 5 turns and she goes back to the mantle and puts the key back.
"he'd wind up the clock, he and mama would kiss, then we'd have dinner, some days he might be later, I know now that's because he worked alongside your dad, which I didn't know until he told me." Dorothy said.
"What did you think he did?" alex asked curiously.
"Mama used to say he was just a very hard worker and did important work." She said.
"Well…he did do that." Alex said with a chuckle, "we provide a rather important service to people."
There was a loud crack from outside and the looked out the window to see what only looked like forks of lightning going across the maelstrom. It rippled and then stabilized again.
"they're trying to break through again." Dolly remarked, "doesn't seem to be working, does it?"
The scepter pinged in agreement.
"Admittedly we don't have an exact idea as what the scepter did exactly." Alex said, "do you actually know?"
The scepter pinged once
"Apart from mixing together the spells."
The scepter pinged two times.
"Is that a lie?"
This time it responded with three pings.
"Oh, how helpful." He finally said rolling his eyes
"If anything, I should think it's trying to keep whatever it must have done, stable." Queen Dolly said looking at it "at a guess."
Alex opened his mouth to say something but found himself distracted.
"Madeline said Aunt Barbara says there's still food in the fridge if we're hungry, or cheesecake if we're craving something sweet." He said
"Well, are you?" dorothy asked after a minute of silence.
"Actually, just so we aren't being rude, queen dolly, are you actually able to eat?" Alex asked looking down on her curiously, "we have two friends who can't, but two who seem to be able to an extent."
"Since you also mentioned having a fairy wand." Dorothy said, "I think that is probably a good question that we should address."
"Well, I suppose if I had said wand and really had ambition to" she said, "but if you have any sawdust, ill happily consume some of that."
"Sawdust?" Alex asked arching an eyebrow.
"Yes, sawdust." The doll queen nodded.
"I'm sure we have some around here." Dorothy said, "I can't make any guarantees on the quality."
"If not, I know there's a small workbench and some tools in the basement I can use to make some." Alex said nodded. "I assume that because you content yourself with the consumption of sawdust, that you must be at least somewhat stuffed with it." he asked curiously.
"Indeed." The queen said nodding.
Meanwhile outside the house.
Elphaba had arrived with Cassandra who spent several minutes looking at the vortex before them in silence. Eventually however, watching everyone's attempts to dispel it, she started to get somewhat annoyed.
"Evidently, what you all are doing or trying isn't working." Cassandra said banging her stick against the ground.
There was a loud crack and storm clouds started to reform overhead.
"Cassandra, what are you doing?" Elphaba asked tightening her grasp on her umbrella.
"Cooling things down a bit." She responded, "I would highly advise making for cover!" she shouted, her voice echoing over the din.
Elphaba immediately opened her umbrella. As everyone else, save for Glinda, Ozma, Locasta, the members of the tribunal, Mr. Teak, Henry, and Madeline made for cover.
"I'm going to regret asking" Elphaba said, "but why?"
"I told you, to cool things off." She whacked her stick into the ground again
There was another loud crack and suddenly it started downpouring. What came as a shock to anyone who could still see the vortex, was that its color began changing. The swirling colors looking like running paint as the rain hit it. hissing and letting off steam, leaving a grey vortex in its place.
"The scepter created what is functionally anti-magic, unstable and very dangerous." She said.
"We knew about the instability." Glinda said, "but is there any way of dispersing it."
"Not until the scepter lets up, the only reason its still going is because the scepter is stabilizing what it can, to what end I can only imagine." Cassandra said. "But knowing queen dolly is in there might be a contributing factor."
"But why?" Ozma asked, "that's part of what confuses and concerns me."
"we'll probably never know, seeing as it can't talk, and only really answer yes or no questions." Zinnia said.
"If it can maintain this, it can make a construct body for itself to talk with." Cassandra said firmly
"Cassandra, an object of power doing that is completely unheard of." Zinnia said sounding rather shocked, "in all our history, only the Nomes have ever created construct bodies and that's usually just out of a past time and lack of things to do with certain crystals."
"And the scepter is made from a crystal I got from Roquat." Glinda said, "I'm not sure if its one of those, but surely the construct body would come out as mostly wood, wouldn't it?"
"Probably, but the crystal would still naturalize as some part of the body, likely the eyes." Cassandra said, "before dorothy got a hold of it, I would have believed such things as near impossibilities without calculations and a match but after the Grimmerie and learning about the wand, I should think the scepter powerful enough if it truly had the ambition." She said.
"But these two, time and time again keep taking magic in other directions, directions never believed to be possible for some." Zinnia said, "and its power neither of them want to wield."
"Makes them the perfect people for it." Cassandra said, "they don't want it, so they cant abuse it as some people may and often do seek."
"How is the scepter so powerful anyways?" Glinda asked turning to Elphaba
"That, I personally have no explanation, even with my brothers meddling it should never have become this powerful." She replied with a shrug.
At that moment, the rain stopped, and what was left of the sunlight started covering the land. Before them, staring up at the vortex now, was mother nature.
"The scepter is powerful, and its power grows as these two do, and will most likely continue to do so, it already has the ability to change its shape." Mother nature said, turning to Madeline, "as with the wand."
For a moment, all eyes were on her.
"That wand that dorothy used to fight Evanora, I thought you acquired that on your own." Glinda said.
"I did, from the shattered remains of the scepter, the only thing I did was change the color of the crystal, that was all the scepter, including reforming itself." Madeline said, chuckling nervously, "Alex already knew, as does Rose."
"And it didn't occur to you, to tell us?" Glinda asked sounding rather annoyed.
"It was unnecessary, and alex has just told dorothy about that." Madeline said, "because I was thinking about it…she doesn't believe him which comes as a shock."
"Probably because you keep deflecting questions about it." Mother Nature said glaring
Meanwhile in the kitchen.
"I'm being completely straight about it" Alex said getting up and looking at the scepter, "besides the entire story, didn't set off any alarm bells to you?" he asked
"I mean, that part yes…because if the scepter could do that why didn't she just do it from the start" she said sighing as she took a spoonful of cheesecake.
"I mean, I did start, but as soon as she realized what I was doing." He attempted to mime the action of the scepter coming together, imitating some sounds that magic makes when they cast it.
Dorothy couldn't help but giggle hard at this, and Queen Dolly had an issue restraining herself.
"Okay, that was cheesy, but you get the point." Alex said sitting back at the table and serving himself some cheesecake.
"That was so cheesy you could serve it with crackers" Dorothy said rolling her eyes.
Alex snorted at this.
"I'm starting to think my sense of humor has started to rub off on you kitten." He said chuckling.
"And that would be a bad thing?" Dorothy teased
"Depends on who you're asking." Alex said rolling his eyes.
The two of them sighed and ate in silence. It hadn't taken long for Queen Dolly to get through the plate of sawdust alex had made for her, so she mostly sat in silence. Just watching the two.
"You know, speaking about that, the last time I recall the scepter getting anywhere near as hot as it has been for the moment, was when it moved itself in the way of Evanora's spells." Dorothy said looking at it.
"Shortly before it splintered into pieces" alex said looking back at it as well, "except this time it isn't trying to absorb energy, it seems to be trying to keep a specific mess stabilized until it believes we aren't needed here."
"Well, true, but we cant stay here all night, can we?" dorothy asked curiously, "I do have more testing at school tomorrow."
"that's a good point." Alex said still looking at it, "apart from queen dolly being here, which I suppose in of itself is a bit of a diplomatic issue at the end of the day, are we ever going to get a reason for why you've kept us in here this long?" he asked the scepter curiously.
It once more emitted three pings
"How helpful." He said bitterly.
Queen dolly looked at the scepter, then at them, the turn to look out the kitchen window.
"None of us asked for any of these situations to happen, I hope." She said, "I cant hold you two accountable for me being here, and I wont hold the magic of your scepter at fault either." She added.
"Well, if either of us had known at any point, we would have endeavored to get you home as soon as possible." Alex said, "though as soon as possible appears to be now."
"And it's not anyone's fault in particular that this place doesn't have much in the way of magic." Queen dolly said nodding,
"Speaking as Princess Regent, words I never thought I'd find myself saying here in Kansas." dorothy looking to alex. "And also, as Oz's protectors, I can assure you, had we known we would have certainly put in the effort."
Queen dolly nodded at this.
"That being said we can certainly make the efforts now." Alex said firmly as he turned his head once more to look at the scepter.
At that moment dorothy felt irritation and annoyance wash over. She felt weird as though it were being dumped on her like a bucket of water.
"She won't do it on her own without whatever she needs to be assured of said, done, and packaged with a neat little bow." Dorothy said rolling her eyes.
Then suddenly as she said this, as though she were holding the pink orb in her hand, she suddenly felt calm again.
"Mads apologizes for that, she's still trying to bridge the connection between you two, she's getting rather annoyed by it, but she felt the emotional feedback." Alex said pinching the bridge of his nose, "Mads, suggestion, stop trying." He said under his breath.
"she'll find a way to make the connection two way, we both know that." Dorothy said sighing, "whether we want it or not, though given our present track record, it will be entirely on accident."
"Do things like that happen often?" Queen Dolly asked curiously
"Only where we tend to be concerned, the known rules and laws of magic don't seem to apply as strongly to us as they do other magic users." Alex said taking out a handkerchief and holding out his hand once more for the scepter.
It flew to it, even through his handkerchief he too observed that the scepter was quite hot. He let go of it and let it float there. Madeline's voice suddenly entered his head again.
"Oh, mother nature is here apparently, that's interesting." Alex said blinking.
"Oh goody, been a while since I've seen mother nature" Queen Dolly said excitedly.
"Surely she and her sister could get through the barrier though?" Dorothy asked looking out the kitchen window.
"If she has reason too, though I don't suppose she has a reason not to enter." Queen dolly said.
"Well, it isn't often that another person from a fairy country winds up in our world, I wonder how father time never notice?" Alex asked, this thought suddenly occurring to him.
"Something to do with that girl I assume." Dorothy immediately answered.
"What girl?" Queen Dolly asked curiously.
"there's this girl, she keeps turning up every now and again, says time is in flux, and that she has to ensure that the future she comes from continues to happen." Alex said sighing, "which means we're on a path that we have little to no control over and know too little about"
"Well, that makes sense, if you know what's supposed to happen before it happens you might try to prevent it" Queen Dolly said, "and as much as I know about those rules, you change history, something else tends to come and take its place."
"Apparently she's been keeping time on its track for a while, appeared to Glinda a long time ago, and if I had to take a guess." He said looking to dorothy "it was likely the day she ascended to control of the south"
There was something about this that caused a strange silence to fill the room. Something about acknowledging that Glinda oversaw the south, still didn't sit right. They both tried to shake it off. They were then distracted by the scepter, which let out a long droning sound and a ball of yellow light flew from the orb on the top.
It looked almost fluid in appearance, like a putty or rubber. Stretching and contorting into a shape. It flew to the center of the table and as the light faded, the wand that dorothy had used against Evanora sat on the table between them.
"Okay…I believe you" dorothy said blinking at it.
Alex looked at the wand on the table, and after a minute, let out a chuckle.
"Well, I did tell you" he said picking it up
He turned it over in his hand a few times before handing it over to dorothy. Dorothy took it and did the same. Unlike the scepter, the wand, as far as she was concerned, a passable temperature to hold. Compared to the scepter at present it was like ice.
"So, the question now becomes why has she never reformed it?" dorothy asked curiously, "a question, which probably has a multiple-choice answer." She adds.
"And you're already getting enough of those at present." Alex said sighing.
Dorothy nodded and set the wand back on the table. She had expected the scepter to make another noise and do whatever it was she did with the wand when she decided it wasn't needed in the first place. After a few minutes it became evident that this wasn't going to be done.
"Okay, I sort of expected her to reabsorb it or whatever she does with it in the meantime." Dorothy said looking at it
"I mean, assuming, and this is just based on the observation that the vortex outside is still spinning" Alex said looking out the window "it does manage to solve one of our problems which is the scepter can only be in one place at any given time." He said picking it up
The crystal at the bottom of the wand immediately lit up, letting out a slight hum. He once more handed it to dorothy, who gave it a wave. A ball of light shot out which hovered in place for a bit before fading.
"That is actually quite interesting" Queen Dolly said looking at the scepter and then at the wand.
Dorothy nodded and just stared at it for a moment.
"I really hope the scepter doesn't expect us to use this to try and dispel the barrier she created ourselves." Dorothy said, "with us magic is typically just something that just seems to happen, I've only ever intentionally cast what, one, two spells?" she asked turning to alex.
"You mean apart from opening and closing, and locking and unlocking doors?" Alex asked, "and the occasional healing courtesy of the scepter?"
"yes" she said nodding.
"Then, I think so" Alex said, "The spell that you made to reverse one of the jesters, and even that was done with instructions." He said.
Dorothy nodded and set the wand down again, this time however when alex picked it up he stood up. Pointed it at the scepter, then at the kitchen window which opened. Suddenly the kitchen was filled with the sound of the vortex whirling outside. And filled with what could only be described as the smell that fills the air after a lightning strike.
"I wonder…" Queen Dolly said, standing up on her chair and turning to look out the window, she then turns to the scepter "I promise that I will not press charges against anyone here, this is all one big set of accidents that no one intended to happen, there is no reason that this need go to the council for debate or trial." She says firmly
"Or the tribunal." Alex said looking at the scepter "that is the second time she's said something like that, so, we wont be in trouble"
The scepter let out a ping and began glowing brightly again. Shooting out several multicolored orbs of light some of which flew out the kitchen window. One of which flew into the wand, which began humming. Alex suddenly felt the wand jerk in his hand and shoot out another ball of light of its own.
They all watched as the colors began to mix into the vortex and the maelstrom begin to subside. Within minutes the barrier was completely down. Within another couple of seconds, the kitchen was filled with even more people. The scepter let out a ping that sounded satisfied. The wand alex was holding suddenly extremely hot causing him to drop it. before it hit the ground however it reformed into the glowing mass that the scepter created and was reabsorbed by it.
Dorothy almost immediately found all eyes in the room on her. As though everyone was waiting for a reaction from her. Her brain was addled by the day's events, all she wanted to do at that point was go home and rest. She turned her attention to Madeline to stop her from making any remarks before getting up out of her chair, dragging it over to the counters. Opening an upper cabinet, she climbed onto the chair, reached for the top shelf, pushing some things away and reaching into the back. Finding what she knew she was looking for, a jar of peppermint candies.
"Oh, we just replenished those, your mother always seemed to like those." Barbara said looking at her.
"I know, that's why I was looking for them." She said opening the jar and taking a handful out.
"Not to be rude, but how does it feel, being back here again?" Eliza asked curiously
"Not as bad as I thought it would." Dorothy said climbing down from the chair, sighing, "it still hurts, but it isn't as bad."
Ozma at this point made her way to queen Dolly and pulled up a chair for herself so they could make eye contact.
"Queen dolly, I'm Queen Ozma, ruler of the land of Oz, and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance" she said happily.
"And a pleasure to meet you as well your majesty." Queen Dolly said in return
"she's chosen not to press any charges or bring it to any kind of trial." Mother Nature said walking in, "I've just received the word on that." She added looking to the scepter.
"I'm surprised you weren't one of the first people in." Alex said looking at her
"Like you often say yourself Alexander, just because you have the ability to do something doesn't mean you always have to utilize it." Mother Nature said in response.
"Now the question of the hour, who's going to return her to Merryland." Zinnia said making her way through the crowd of people.
"We can decide that, in a few days" Queen Dolly said, getting a few surprised looks, "as while this is the longest, I've ever been away from my home, I would like to spend some time with the Queen of Oz and learning what has happened in the rest of the nonestic landmasses while I have been stuck here."
Ozma giggled at this
"Queen Dolly, it would be my honor." She said happily.
Song: A place to come back to, from the Wind in the Willows musical
Another authors note. I know this chapter continuation probably would have suited better as more than a two-parter, but like so many that I don't write with that purpose in mind, I had an issue trying to find a good place to split it. the wand used by dorothy in the previous story being part of and created by the scepter as functionally a backup was something I had always meant to explain, but it always felt hard trying to find a place where it fit.
