Disclaimer, you know.
Early the next morning, dorothy awoke to find Alex's jacket once more draped over her. Removing it and pushing herself into a sitting position she sighed. Looking up at the couch, she found Ozma staring back at her smiling. Alex and Queen Dolly were at the dining room table. It appeared alex had either made a few bags of sawdust or left to acquire more as Queen dolly was consuming some.
"Already had all my stuff returned to the palace." Ozma said sighing,
"Truth be told Ozma, I'm honestly kinda surprised Glinda didn't have you immediately return to the city as soon as you were awake." Dorothy said in a playful tone.
"If she were awake, she probably would have, Elphaba said she put her under dreamless sleep again." Alex said looking over at her, "not really surprising though"
"I'd be lying if I said I was, Elphaba is probably the only person who can get away with that" Dorothy said getting to her feet "I think she and Glinda are rather evenly matched, the difference being that Elphaba is more levelheaded and not constantly worrying about our safety day in day out."
They all nodded in agreement at this, Dorothy walked over to alex, his coat draped over her arm, and handed it to him. He took it, stood up and put it on, pulling it forward by the lapels once he had done so. he then proceeded to straighten his cuffs.
"Do you usually wear full suits like that?" Queen Dolly asked curiously.
"Often enough." Alex said, "I do have normal clothes but there's something satisfying about a suit"
"I feel like your father would agree with you there" Dorothy said straightening the handkerchief in his pocket, "if only because he seems to have the same outlook"
"I'm always amazed that these two manage to keep them completely clean despite the fact they're carpenters." Ozma said with a giggle.
"that's from years of practice" Alex said with a grin
"But you prefer dark colors, which sawdust would be more likely to be noticeable on" Dorothy said, "and you never manage to have a speck on you"
"Again, practice, it can be done" Alex repeated, "throw yourself at any idea long enough and you're sure to get something akin to results."
"true" Ozma said giggling again
The scepter at this point let out a few hushed pings, which got their attention.
"Oh right, people are still sleeping." Alex said lowering his voice.
"Save for probably Ace." Dorothy said doing the same, "not that this comes as a surprise"
"I'm sure she'll be out in a minute." Alex whispered, "and will be immediately followed by either your aunt or uncle."
"Well once everyone's ready, we'll be able to head back to the city, and I can give Queen Dolly a guided tour." Ozma said smiling.
"Oh, that would be wonderful, never been to Oz before." She says excitedly.
This conversation had been several hours previous, it was now a little passed nine in the morning. Dorothy had opted to join Ozma in giving the guided tour but had mostly stayed silent when she realized how little of the palace she had really explored. She had to admit she knew a good amount of it but not the same as Ozma. Eventually they came to aislynn's room in the palace, and they almost immediately ran into the wizard and Elphaba as they were coming out of it.
Looking into the room dorothy had noticed that the room, while it hadn't been changed much, had some very noticeable changes if you were actually looking. Inch of the floor and walls seemed to have been turned into a sort of cushion type substance.
"It was an idea ace and I had back at the manor before…moving on" he said quickly saving himself "no matter what you do, ace will always try to stay up all hours reading, may as well make her entire room plush for the purpose."
"It is also it has to be said" Elphaba chimed in "quite bouncy"
"Not too much bounce I hope, I don't think eve would enjoy that" dorothy said with a bit of a giggle.
"So, her room is now functionally one large pillow?" Ozma asked sounding quite amused by this, "what a quaint Idea, maybe I should try something like that"
"it's your palace your majesty, if that's what you eventually wish to do, we will be happy to help" The wizard said.
"I'm surprised alex didn't join you three on the tour." Elphaba said looking around.
"he's currently spending some time with Annabella, in loo of her punishment being overtaken by the standardized testing, she's grounded until tomorrow." Dorothy said sighing, "I'd personally say it's unreasonable, but I'm not going to argue with Alex's parents."
"I'd say an extra day of grounding is only mildly unreasonable" Elphaba said sighing at this, "I mean, she did get in a fight."
"Standardized testing is punishment in itself though" the Wizard said turning to Elphaba.
"So, how come you two are working on this room instead of Glinda?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Transformation magic, it's how we got it done so quickly" Elphaba said firmly.
"Ah." Dorothy said nodding, understanding now, "the one type of magic Glinda doesn't like"
"No problem using it as a punishment, she did do it to you in Munchkinland, admittedly it wasn't just her decision though." Ellie said coming over with a large box, "I got some more of her books sir."
"Ellie, I've told you already, its Either Oscar, or Mr. Wizard, or Wizard, I never ask anyone to call me sir anymore."
"Were you keeping ace's books in your room?" Queen Dolly asked looking up at her.
"Some yes" Ellie nodded, "not all though."
"I assume Ace put a lot of them in scarecrow's workshop." Dorothy asked curiously.
"of course." The wizard said nodding.
"Is this a surprise?" Ellie asked giggling
"Not particularly."
"Anyways, I think we've kept you three long enough, we can talk more once you're finished showing queen Dolly around." Elphaba said.
They all nodded in agreement at this and went their separates with barely another word. Soon they were passing by Glinda's room, and they were surprised to find the door open but the room vacant. Ellie quickly caught and informed them that she had returned to her palace to check on something. Dorothy and Ozma shared a glance, then looked down at Queen Dolly who simply looked up at them. They tried hard to shake off their curiosity and continued on their way. Showing the rest of the bedrooms didn't take too long and eventually they got back to the chambers. Annabella, sat on the floor staring up at her throne, the scepter floating next to it. Curiously, sitting on Dorothy's throne was a black cat sitting on what appeared to be one of Alex's jackets. It took dorothy a moment to realize that it was alex, using the collar Madeline had gotten made for her.
"Alex…" Dorothy trailed off, not entirely sure how to react to this.
"I wondered what it would be like, seeing as you seem to enjoy it." Alex said looking up at her
"The collar came up as a topic of discussion" Annabella said, "I don't know how to take it off him"
"Well, how does it feel?" dorothy asked curiously.
"If the beast weren't attempting to fight back against this transformation, it would probably be a lot more relaxing, but I see why you like it so much." Alex responded
"The curse was designed to resist other transformations, really the beast should be fighting harder." Elphaba said from the doorway.
"Resist, but it doesn't stop entirely, besides, the collar belongs to dorothy so the beast wont even make an effort to try and destroy it." Alex said sighing.
Dorothy rolled her eyes and scratched alex under the chin. Petting him for a bit resulting in purring.
"I see why you like this so much, kitten, that feels great." He said.
"However, you are supposed to be watching your sister, something that is a tiny bit harder to do when you're a cat." Dorothy said undoing the clasp on the collar and removing it.
With seconds alex was sat on the throne in his normal shape. Quickly however, the beast's voice was heard, it took them a minute to notice a new mirror had been affixed to the wall next to Dorothy's throne.
"Would you mind explaining to me why that transformation was necessary?" he asked sounding quite annoyed.
"Oh, come on, it would be lying through our teeth if we said that we never found the idea of trying the collar ourselves a tiny bit interesting." He said back to him.
"True as that may be, that was very uncomfortable, if you want to transform, become the wolf again." The beast said sounding even more annoyed.
"I apologize for this." Dorothy said looking down at Queen Dolly, "the beast is often like this." She said with a sigh.
"It's our own fault he's mostly irritable recently, again I haven't let him out much." Alex said sighing
"The wolf transformations are more complex, you will always be larger than a normal wolf, but the size will fluctuate depending on where you transform." Came the voice of Benton as he appeared in the room, "other transformations make the beast irritable; it will fight and eventually win."
"Usually, its Zinnia or Fayth that drop in unannounced" The beast said arching an eyebrow.
"Benton isn't wrong though." Elphaba said nodding, "the longer you stay in a different form other than your own or in the wolf form the beast will eventually take over again and transform into the wolf."
"Seems like a decent way of getting stuck in the wolf form again." Alex said looking over at her.
"You wouldn't be able to transform for a couple of hours, as it readjusts." Benton said firmly, "not the most fun experience in the world."
"The collar is a constant transformation spell" Madeline said with a giggle as she appeared, causing everyone to jump, "it would be a heck of a fight"
"Mads, seriously?" The beast asked even more annoyed now.
"Always." Madeline responded, not turning to face the mirror.
Dorothy caught her breath and rolled her eyes, then looked at the scepter.
"you've been awfully quiet" she said to it, it pinged in agreement.
"Never a dull moment here is there?" Queen Dolly asked with a giggle.
"Only on particularly hot summer days" Ozma replied giggling as well, "luckily those don't happen particularly often."
"Anyways, Benton did you come here just to deliver exposition on the beast, or did you have another purpose for coming here?" the Best asked curiously, "usually its Fayth or Zinnia that deal with us, the rest of you usually choose not to get involved."
"Fayth and Zinnia are presently overseeing some other affairs at the moment, I've been overseeing you specifically since you put on the collar and transformed into a cat." He replied.
"So, yes to the exposition, no to any other reason to be here." The beast said.
Benton stood there in silence for a moment, just staring at the beast in the mirror. He was stood in a spot where he could see the mirror, but his own reflection wasn't present. Which to him was good, he wasn't sure what would happen if both reflections appeared in the same mirror.
"I suppose so, I mean, Ms. Elphaba could have explained all this to you herself." Benton said,
"But we haven't shown much interest in learned more about the magic behind it. we've just decided to accept that everything is how it is." The beast said firmly, "and seeing that you just acknowledged that Elphaba literally could explain everything, it makes you come here quite pointless."
"Much as I disagree with how he's going about this" Elphaba said sighing, "he does have a point Benton, you may have experience due to winding up with the curse, but remember exactly what went into it"
"Annabella, you've been awfully quiet since this conversation started, anything to add?" The beast asked glancing down at her.
"Nope, I'm just finding this amusing to watch." She said with a giggle.
"of course, you are." Both alex and the beast said rolling their eyes.
"Benton, I think you should probably return to the sanctuary, if anything happens, I know how to deal with it." Elphaba said sighing, "the beast seems to be getting more increasingly annoyed."
"The scepter has enough power to restrain him as well, we established that already." Annabella added, "though I don't think it will create a magic tornado while we're in the palace."
The scepter let out several pings that seemed to say, don't tempt me
"Don't get any ideas" Alex and dorothy said in unison, causing everyone to jump.
"Well then, having said my piece, Fayth or Zinnia, or more likely both will probably Check in again later." Benton said, "I should let you all get on with what you had been doing." He then promptly vanished.
"Well, that seemed pointless." The beast said
"Look, we're back in Oz, I can let you go for a run tonight, I'm sure you'll enjoy that." Alex said firmly, "but whenever you're awake you seem to barely be able to go five minutes without being incredibly rude."
"you're the one that decided to spend some time back in Kansas" the beast said firmly, "and didn't want to risk letting me out."
"In fairness the one time he lost control and you were let out, it ended with him taking one heck of a risk." Madeline said, before taking a step back, "sorry, not helping, am I?"
"Alex, could you and the beast save this discussion for later?" Elphaba asked curiously, "because you two could literally go back and forth for the rest of day, and while I'm sure we would find it entertaining, there are definitely better ways to spend the day."
The two of them looked at each other for a moment then they nodded.
"No matter how many agreements we make with each other its always going to be an uneasy alliance, neither of us want friends or family caught in the crossfire." They both said, "we'll continue this on our own time."
Alex then stepped away from the mirror, tilting his head to side, resulting in a popping sound from his neck.
"Anyways, queen dolly, now that you've seen most of what the palace has to offer its time, we show you round the city and some of our more favorite places to go." Ozma said quickly switching tracks.
"Should I have Brianna prepare a picnic?" Elphaba asked curiously.
"That would be lovely actually, we could go to the clearing." Ozma said excitedly,
"At some point we should also show her around the Gale." Madeline added, "it's the only airship of its kind, it should be shown off every once in a while."
"And I'm sure Alyssa and Terrance would love to entertain some guests." Elphaba said before leaving the chambers to help Brianna prepare a picnic.
Alex and dorothy shared a glance, as he picked up his coat, brushing the fur off and taking the ring from the pocket and putting it on. Sighing as he helped his sister get to her feet.
Meanwhile at Glinda's palace.
She had double, triple and quadruple checked the book of records now. But couldn't find anything pertaining to Queen Dolly accidentally zapping herself out of Merryland. She wondered how it managed to escape the notice of the council let along people like mother nature and father time.
"They must have noticed" she said to herself, "I know time cant often interfere, but mother nature isn't bound to those rules."
It bothered her that the ruler of a country disappeared, and no one noticed, it bothered her even more that the book of records was completely empty in terms of the subject. She sighed and got up from the table she was sat at, closing the book and locking it again. As she left the room, she was immediately met with the girl again. Already scratching things out in the diary she carried.
"You know why the entries aren't there." The girl said not looking up from her book, "its at the back of your mind, very few things escape the notice of that book, even I'm in there throughout, even if no one can read those pages presently."
"This was meant to happen" Glinda didn't ask, she stated it as a matter of fact.
"Only reason I ever seem to turn up." The girl replied with a giggle, "they're going on a picnic today you know, at the clearing."
"I know, I saw it in the book as I was closing it" Glinda nodded. "Merryland suddenly falling into disarray due to its leader no longer being present would have certainly made the book of records, but I cant assume everything is fine there"
"Apart from the valley of Dolls, which remains asleep so long as queen dolly isn't there to use her magic, every valley of Merryland has its own leader." The girl replied, "without the queen it's a bit disorganized, but you don't need a look at the future to find that completely obvious."
"Well evidently." Glinda said sighing, "speaking of disorganized, she's been working it out by the way, Ellie I mean" she said a little ashamedly.
The girl smirked and nodded, scratching something else out from her diary.
"The picnic will occur on their way back to the city, Elphaba, Ellie, and Brianna will meet them at the clearing" she said
"And you will be there I take it?" Glinda asked curiously.
"that's for me to know, and you to find out." The girl said with a giggle, before going into a somber look "these stories can't be satisfactorily told, unfortunately you have to take the long way round." She added, squinting at something in the book then scratching it out.
"Or in your case, they can't be told without possibility of changing the future." Glinda added sounding rather annoyed.
The girl said nothing, she simply nodded and snapped her diary shut. Putting it away she grinned, and without another word, turned on her heels and vanished.
"Who was that?" Chuck asked curiously as she came through the hall with a tea tray.
"it's a long story, and unfortunately I'm not entirely sure of most of it." Glinda said with a sigh, "and what I am sure of." She trailed off, taking the cup of tea from the tray and sipped it.
