Chapter 3
The Scarecrow In The Cornfield

Nazz and Rudolf walked down the White Chocolate Walk together for quite some time before saying a word to each other. Nazz wanted to reach Ruby City as soon as possible and Rudolf wanted to be rid of her, not make friends with her.

They walked straight through each village without ever stopping for directions. Rudolf was obviously much more intelligent than any normal dog shed met before.

But then she'd never met a talking dog before either.

It had been quite a while since they had seen signs of civilization. They were in the countryside instead. Wide fields of candy corn stretched on as far as the eyes could see on either side of the road.

Nazz finally decided to try and break the ice between them. "So have you ever been to Ruby City?" she asked.

"No," Rudolf answered quickly.

"Oh," she nodded just as her stomach grumbled loudly at her. "Shoot! Maybe we should have stopped back at one of the villages and gotten something to eat."

"You're in Peach Cream! Candyland! You could eat just about anything!"

"Do you think the farmers would mind if I took some of their corn?" Nazz asked, remembering her welcoming reception to this strange land.

"Probably. But who's gonna tell 'em?"

"Well…it couldn't hurt, I guess," Nazz stepped to the side of the road and climbed over the graham cracker fence.

The stalks of candy corn shot up above her head, so no one could have spotted them. She stood tiptoed to pluck an ear of candy corn from a stalk when Rudolf yelled that someone was in the field. She dropped the ear and spun around, ready to be taken before Prince Jimmy once more on accounts of theft.

It was only a scarecrow.

Nazz glared down at the laughing Rudolf before looking back up at the scarecrow. It seemed almost familiar. Like she had seen it somewhere before, but she hadn't. It was a tall figure, stuffed with straw of course. It had two eyes that couldn't quite focus on the same thing at once: one was looking left while the other stared off to the right. Once crow's feather for an eyebrow and dressed in farmer's attire, he was the perfect image of a scarecrow.

"Oh my…." Nazz backed away from the scarecrow. She knew him! She had seen him every day she could remember! Every day always the same! The same stupid smile! The same stupid run! The same stupid-

"Hello! Do you have any peanut shells?" the scarecrow asked her. She screamed. The same stupid voice!

"Uh…hello?" he looked at her curiously.

'Get a grip on yourself! It's only a scarecrow! A…talking scarecrow….' "I…uh…h-hello…." Nazz shook with fear. Maybe this was all a dream. A hallucination! Yes! That was it! It was a hallucination! If she just calmed down and played along, it would all be fine!

"WAIT!" the scarecrow screamed and tried to focus on her. Suddenly, his focus left and the strange, bewildered look planted itself back on his face.

"My name is Nazz," she began introducing herself," And this is sort of my guard dog, Rudolf. He is taking me to Ruby City." Why on earth was she telling him this?!

"What's a Ruby City?" he asked excitedly.

"Well…it's a place where a lot of people live," she explained.

"Oh! Oh! Can I go?!" he asked.

"Well…." She looked down at her escort.

"Come on! Don't waste your time with this dork! We've gotta get to Ruby City!" Rudolf exclaimed.

"Uhhhhhhhhh," the scarecrow started drooling.

"Do you wanna come with us?" she asked.

"Only if you have peanut shells," the scarecrow replied crossly.

"Well I'm sure we could find some," Nazz shrugged.

"Find what?" the scarecrow asked.

Nazz blinked twice. The scarecrow was dumber than she had originally thought.

"Find…the road," Nazz gave her most convincing smile.

"Uh…okay," the scarecrow nodded.

"Oh come on!" Rudolf complained.

Nazz walked behind the scarecrow's post and made quick work untying the rope holding him to it. With no support the scarecrow fell face first into the field.

Nazz ran forward and quickly helped him up.

He chuckled. "Lets do that again!"

Nazz shook her head, grinning. "Come on." She walked hand-in-hand out of the field with the scarecrow, helping him and Rudolf over the fence before climbing over it herself.

The threesome began walking down the White Chocolate Walk once more.

"What's your name?" Nazz asked the scarecrow.

"What's a name?" he asked, puzzled.

Rudolf snorted. "'What's a name?!' What's next?! 'What's a brain?!'"

"Ignore Rudolf. His fleas are just getting to him," Nazz commented, a twinkle in her eye.

"My-Hey!" Rudolf shouted.

"So what should we call you then? Scarecrow?"

"Who?"

"Jim?"

"What's that?"

"Wait!" Nazz exclaimed. She had it! Of course! The simplest name for the simplest person- "ED!"

"Ed?" the scarecrow asked.

"Yeah! That's what we'll call you from now on! Got that, Ed?!" Nazz turned to face him.

"Uh….okay!" Ed smiled at her.

A/N- I wrote the original of this three years ago or so…Ed wanted peanut shells in this, he originally wanted peanuts. But every time I read that, I saw Captain Jack Sparrow shooting clones of himself for a peanut. So I just couldn't do that.

Next update in two weeks again.