Tale as Old as Time

Once Upon A Time

"Attention!"

At the words eighteen sets of hooves squared up. Eighteen straight backs straightened further and eighteen hands went to just as many green and gold caps in salute. Countless cameras were readied and aimed as the anxious press waited for their favorite subject to arrive.

With bated breath the crowd watched as the huge entrance doors of the Emerald Palace swung open and with very little fanfare a miracle of white fabric, flawless skin and blonde curls exited. Time seemed to stop, but it was only a split clock-tik before bulbs began to flash while reporters shot rapid-fire questions.

The pearly vision descending the palace steps was Glinda the Good. She made her way gracefully to the carriage waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, carrying only her wand. She flashed bright smiles for the photographers, though she answered none of the questions.

"Your Goodness," her footman said with a bow, and then offered her a hand.

Glinda's smile wavered imperceptibly as she noticed who would be fulfilling the position of footman as well as personal bodyguard for the journey. But she recovered quickly and accepted the Tin hand as she stepped up. She threw one last wave and smile to the crowd of reporters and then disappeared into the privacy of the carriage, confident that she'd answered all the relevant questions during the briefing earlier that morning. There would be another upon her return from Ev and the press could certainly wait until then.

"All ready Sir?" Glinda's Driver asked as the Tinman took his place beside him.

"As we'll ever be," was the reply accompanied by a silvery smile.

"Move out!"

In perfect form, seven of the mounted soldiers set off, followed by the carriage and then six more horsemen fell in behind.

"Who would've guessed, huh?" The Driver commented amiably to his companion.

"Guessed what?" The Tinman asked, relaxing a bit as the ride progressed and they got further and further away from the blustering city.

"That we'd be headed for another country for one," The Driver chuckled. "Certainly not Ev at that."

"No one I expect. I suppose we know who to thank though, of course."

"Of course. Thank goodness. It's a wonder what Her Ladyship's done for Oz."

"Yes it is," The Tinman agreed in a distant tone that suggested he didn't really care to discuss it further.

He wondered what the Driver would say if he informed him that he'd attended school with "Her Ladyship". Back when Boq had been his name, Boq instead of 'Tinman', or 'Master Woodsman', or as it was now 'Lieutenant Tinman". He couldn't help the swell of pride he felt at the last title. He'd worked so hard for it. He couldn't tell Glinda of the feelings he still harbored for her, certainly not in the state he was in. So he'd acquired a spot in her guard, acquiescing to watch her from a far, moving up in rank until finally, finally he was assigned to be her personal guard. If he did well on this test run, this pioneering journey to landscapes unknown, he'd get to keep the position.

Boq indulged in a private smile at the thought as they made their way into the Ozian countryside. He'd be her shadow, able to love and protect her in the only way possible for a Tinman who had lost his heart long before any witch had put a spell on him.

Glinda sighed as she rearranged her enormous dress and shifted position for the umpteenth time in what seemed hours. She wished once again that she were traveling by bubble, it was so much faster. Unfortunately forging alliances with foreign countries required an escort, hence the carriage and the presence of the Guard accompanying her.

She sighed again, thinking of all the work that had already gone into this trip. It had all begun while she'd been studying the Grimmerie and discovered a way to create a pass through the Deserts surrounding Oz. She was still hazy on most of the magic in the Grimmerie, but this at least had seemed clear enough so she'd begun to focus on that particular spell and what it would take to make it happen.

Then there had been the political preliminaries. One couldn't just waltz into a foreign country and expect to make friends and play nice. She'd had to send out dozens of letter's carried by Birds to get just one country to agree to a conference, which had taken months. But finally what had at first been just a small idea she'd had to bat around turned into something real, something doable. And here she was paving the way to what she hoped would be a brighter future for not just the Ozians but the Evians as well. It had been one thing to reverse and fix all the things the Wizard had done to screw the country up. Finally she was getting to create something good herself instead of just fixing the mistakes others had left behind for her to take care of.

"Lady Glinda?" A gruff but kind voice called from outside her carriage. "We're ready for you."

She'd been so lost in thought she hadn't even been aware of them stopping at the borders of Oz. Outside her window the sun was setting, as well it should have been, going from the Emerald City to the eastern border of the Country was no small feat. They'd been driving onward for hours. She could only hope the map the Evians had sent was accurate and that there would be a place where they could stop and rest once they made it through the pass across the dessert and into Ev.

"Thank you, Commander Doneleise," she answered without bothering to open the door just yet. She reached under her seat and pulled out the Grimmerie, letting the cover fall open as she balanced it carefully on her knees. She fingered through the delicate pages until she'd found the one she'd marked and carefully reread the spell for the last time.

When she was confident enough that she could do it right she carefully placed the spell book back under the seat and stepped out of the carriage. Her guards had flanked out on either side of the carriage, they all faced the churning sands of the Impassable Dessert, waiting for the pass that would take them to whatever lay on the other side.

She looked to the Commander for a final confirmation that they were ready to try it. He nodded so she too, faced the Dessert, staring at it as if she were daring it not to let her through. She ignored the men completely as she picked a point directly ahead of them where she wanted the pass to form. With practiced fluidity she cleared all thoughts except of that point and the spell from her mind, let her hand and wand rise ever so slightly from her mind and began to say the spell. It wasn't a chant, like so many of the other spells in the Grimmerie. This one was like a poem, or even closer to a song, it was meant to be lyrical and deep.

Grønn blader flyter , slottet på skummet

Skipet av min er skipet når ville alle komme hjem?

No one said anything as Glinda finished the spell, and nobody moved, not even the horses. For an excruciatingly long moment nothing happened. Then as Glinda lowered her hands and finally refocused on reality something did. The sky and the desert ahead of them began to blur, as if they were all suddenly seeing the same mirage begin to appear. The blur became a ripple and the ripple split the sky, right down the center of the point Glinda had picked out. Light poured out, and the tear grew wider until it finally reached its critical mass. There was a deafening crack, then silence, and where only the tear had been was a gaping hole in their view. It looked like a window, through it, in violent contrast to the dessert on either side, was the image of a forest.

The soldiers standing around Glinda gaped then smiled as they looked to their leader for direction.

"Gentleman," Glinda said with flourish and a large smile, gesturing them to get moving.

The soldiers went in pairs, the first half disappeared through the…whatever it was first, followed by the carriage and finally by the second half of the guards.

Boq was surprised to find that going through wasn't really any different from going in or out of a door. He'd expected some odd sensation. Cold, hot, wind, something. But there was nothing, they were simply on the edge of a desert one moment and on the edge of a lush forest the next.

The hole closed almost immediately after everyone was through and Boq wondered if it was supposed to do that or if the magic had only lasted that long. He didn't have time to dwell on it however, because the caravan was moving again, still in the same northeastern pattern they'd followed all through Oz.

"There should be a road a few klicks up ahead," Boq mentioned to the Driver. "We'll take that and follow it straight East."

"Yes sir," the Driver replied politely though he knew all of this of course.

They rolled along in comfortable silence for while, Boq dutifully took carefully note of all the surroundings. On his left the thick forest began several yards away from the road. On his right stretched windy grasslands. He could see for miles on that side but couldn't see a thing out of the ordinary. It was a mesmerizing sight, and it entranced him and he nearly missed the faint part in the tall grass fifty feet from the carriage. He snapped his gaze back to examine it better, on second glance it didn't look so strange but he still felt wrong about it.

"Sir?"

"Shhh…" Boq hissed, raising a hand to signal the Commander.

Within clock-tiks the fifteen escorting soldiers had slowed and encircled the carriage. Everyone was still and silent, waiting for something and looking around for everything. The woods were hushed, unnaturally so. The grassy expanse to the right seemed just as still. Boq gnawed his tinny lip as the soft breeze picked up just enough to make the trees sway and the grass wave.

It also masked the whistle of an incoming arrow until it was too late. There was a fraction of a second of noise and then as suddenly as it had come the noise ended with a sickening thud as the arrow buried itself deep in flesh. The Driver of Glinda's carriage slumped forward, his features frozen in morbid surprise.

"We're under attack!" One of the mounted soldiers cried out, as if it needed to be stated.

All at once the air was alive with arrows. They whizzed passed in all directions with chaotic accuracy.

'Thank you Captain Obvious,' Boq thought before reacting to the danger. He turned his attention away from the soldiers falling victim to more arrows and the others who were fighting an enemy they couldn't see. His thoughts were completely focused on protecting the woman in the backseat.

With grim determination, Boq pulled the leather reins from the Driver's lifeless hands and drew a revolver from under the seat. Six bullets were all he had at the ready. Six bullets and two horses that were made for working, not running, were his only means to get his beloved to safety. It wasn't much but it would have to be enough.

"Hyah!" He roared and cracked the reins, surprising the horses into a gallop. He tugged hard to the left, pulling the carriage to the east, into the forest and away from the danger.

He heard the Commander give orders for the remaining men to retreat as the horses plowed through the green foliage. Then there was nothing but the sound of the carriage crashing through the trees. He hoped that since they were out of earshot of the battle they were out of the range of the arrows as well.

At Boq's urging the panicked horses lunged deeper into the forest as fast as their massive legs and cumbersome burden would allow. He knew that at the pace they were going they'd be near exhaustion within twenty minutes. As the trees and underbrush grew steadily thicker he realized they were going to have to slow down anyways. He kept them going in the same general direction but they picked their course through the trees themselves, allowing him to concentrate on whether or not they were being pursued.

With one hand occupied by the reins, and the other holding his revolver he carefully stood and climbed onto the seat, the added height was barely enough to let him see over the roof. All he could see was the disarray of wreckage left in their wake, but his eyes finally focused between the green and brown blur of the woods to spot a lone pursuer on horseback. At first he wondered if the thing was dead, its face was a gruesome portrait of congealed gray, broken only by hideous teeth and red eye slits.

Boq brought up the revolver and fired off a round. The carriage jerked and the shot went wild. The rider only got closer. He gulped in a breath and re-aimed, praying the carriage would stay steady just long enough to get the shot off. He bit his lip and squeezed the trigger once more. The rider flew backwards off his horse as the bullet ripped through his middle. Satisfied that the imminent danger was gone Boq turned back to driving. Trees zipped by, but the forest seemed oddly blurred. He blinked to clear his vision. His eyes snapped back open as the carriage gave a violent shake and the forest seemed to melt together.

The horses careened into the blur of green, hauling the carriage along and Boq's world went black.