Tale as Old as Time
In a Magical Forest
Glinda let out a decidedly unladylike groan as consciousness returned to her. Cautiously she pried first one eye open, then the other; her vision was blurry but as she blinked it cleared almost completely.
She was lying on the floor of her carriage. No…not the floor…she was lying against the floor. A glance down revealed she was actually sitting on the driver's side door, wedged between her seat and the floor.
"Oh great," she muttered as she realized that even if she stood up, the other door, her only exit, would still be a foot above her head.
She stood up anyway, carefully testing out her sore body before she let her grip on the sit loosen. She eyed her escape route, wondering if she could magick the door open and then bubble herself out. It was worth a shot. She reached for her wand, but found that the staff had snapped somehow in whatever collision had gotten her into this mess.
With a frustrated sigh and a sour expression Glinda let the broken wand fall to the floor. She could still conjure her bubble and float out but she wasn't sure if she could get the door to open without it popping first. Her already grim mood only darkened as she realized that if no one had come to bail her out then her driver was most likely hurt worse than she, dead, or he'd abandoned her.
As Glinda pondered other options the latch on the door over her head began to rattle and move. But she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She bit her lip and waited anxiously, knowing that if her would-be rescuer wasn't the friendly sort she was helpless.
At last the door was hauled open. And to her relief (and dismay) a gleaming silver face stared down at her.
"Thank Lurline. What took you so long?" She said. Her impatience softened by her relief to see a familiar face.
With an apologetic smile the Tinman reached down to give her a hand up. Glinda waved him off.
"Stand back," she said, before casting the simple spell for her bubble and rising gracefully out of her makeshift prison and the descending to the ground beside the capsized carriage.
She straightened her gown while the Tinman clunked down from his perch. She waited until his feet hit the dirt before moving to survey the wreckage. What had once been a magnificent white and gold mode of transportation was now a pile of dented, leaf-stained, broken wood. The axel and harness set looked as if it had been completely twisted off when the carriage had tipped. Part of the front end was wrapped around a tree.
Glinda noticed the torn leather straps that dangled from the busted footboard and immediately looked around for the horses. She felt and odd rush of joy when she caught sight of both animals just yards away, tied to another tree. Both were gleaming with sweat, their ebony manes matted and tangled with twigs but it looked as if they'd escaped the crash unharmed.
"I went after them once I made sure you were alright," Came the Tinman's mumbled explanation when he noticed the objects of her attention.
"What in Oz happened?" She demanded as she turned her gaze back to the mangled carriage.
"I…I'm not sure. The forest was…it changed somehow. Shifted."
Glinda shot him a disbelieving look. "And the others?"
"I don't know," Boq confessed. "When I left, most had fallen or retreated into the forest. The few remaining couldn't have lasted long."
"And you just left them?" Glinda exclaimed, anger now evident in her voice and expression.
"I did my job!" Boq retorted defensively. "Those men are trained to fight to the death to protect you. Those men-
"Have families!" Glinda yelled, cutting him off. "They have people who love them. They have lives outside their jobs. And you just sacrificed them for two extra minutes to run away?"
"My job is to do whatever it takes to make sure you return to Oz safely. All of those men shared that purpose and would have done the same thing in my position. With all due respect My Lady there was nothing else to do."
"I could have magicked them –all of us- to safety were I not being tossed around the back of a carriage in your attempt to play hero!"
"I did what I had to do. I'm not happy about it. But for now you are safe, and those men weren't 'sacrificed' for nothing."
"I'm safe? That's a great way to put it," Glinda snapped. Letting her anger overwhelm her sorrow for the men were gone so she could live. "The way I see it I'm lost in a forest with a penchant for shifting around, with a heartless Tinman and a totaled carriage. Oh and I may or may not be out of danger from unknown, hostile natives. You call that safe?"
"You could be dead," Boq stated simply. Truthfully he was beginning to feel a flicker of doubt, wondering if it would not have been better to seek her counsel before making rash executive decisions. He pushed the thought away. Questioning himself now wasn't going to help anybody.
"But you're right," he continued. "Safe is a relative term. We need to get moving; we'll pick a direction and stick to it. We can't be too far off course."
"Are you crazy? Did you never leave the farmlands or something?" Glinda started again. "When you get lost in the woods you stay in one spot. It's harder to find a moving target."
"Exactly. I'd rather be moving than sitting around waiting for your 'unknown, hostile natives' to find us. How about you?"
Glinda hated to admit it, but he had a point. They were better off traveling.
"Fine," She said finally. And began walking through the trees to where the horses were tied.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting the horses. Or did you plan to walk to 'safety'."
"Well those horses aren't exactly the kind you'd use for trail riding," he answered nervously.
"But they are all we have at the moment," Glinda countered. "Your farm girl friend may have been willing to traipse all over Oz with you but I'm already late for the most important meeting of my reign, I do not have time for a nice stroll in the forest."
Boq looked up at the horses skeptically. They were gargantuan. Bigger even than the ones his father had used on the farm, just their shoulders were as tall as he was. They'd leave him behind in the dust and he had the sinking feeling that Glinda wouldn't really mind.
"Whatever," he finally conceded.
Glinda hadn't bothered to wait for his reply however. She'd already untied 'her' horse and was leading him over to the carriage; presumably so she'd have some leverage to climb on his back. Boq sighed and followed suite.
The horse he was left with was gentle at least, and didn't protest when Boq clunked over with him to Glinda. She didn't pay him much attention but promptly handed him her horse's broken, but usable, reins. Then she bubbled back up into the carriage, startling him but not the huge animals he held.
She reemerged a few minutes later, armed with three bulky bags in her bubble, and wearing a vastly different outfit.
"Would you kindly stop mimicking a codfish and strap this," she shoved him a bag, "To your horse."
He didn't dare reply except to snatch up the bag and tie it securely to the rump of his horse, using the remnant of its harness. Then walked over to the front of the carriage and rummaged through the wreckage until he found his revolver and the small bag he kept ammunition and is holster in and took it to his horse to shove into the bag on its back.
When he finished Glinda was still struggling to hoist her two bags up to her own horse, who's behind was easily a foot higher than her head. He crossed to her, taking both bags from her hands and swiftly throwing them in place.
She turned on him, her pretty features set in a fierce glare but it only lasted a second.
"Thank you," she sighed, her whole demeanor softening into something far more familiar and comfortable. At least for Glinda the Good.
"You're welcome," Boq said carefully, looking down at the diminutive woman.
For a moment he just stood there studying her, but they both realized that his arms were still resting just over her shoulders and they were standing quite close. Boq coughed and moved away quickly before she had to ask him to.
"I imagine those were Commander Doneleise's doing."
"What?" she asked, feeling a little bewildered.
"The uh – outfit," Boq stammered, gesturing to her ensemble. "The Commander's always a stickler about emergency everything, I just assumed…
"Right. Let's get going shall we?" She said, saving him from further opportunity to embarrass himself or to tick her off again.
She took the reins from his hands and tugged her horse to the over turned carriage front so she could mount.
She stilled the massive stallion and deftly stepped onto the rigging that hung several feet above the ground. Then she simply swung herself upwards. The horse's back was expansive enough that she could have spun all the way around or stood up and walked on it easily. As it was she just shifted sideways slightly and dangled both legs over the same side. She saw no reason to abandon all propriety and wasn't sure if she could straddle this behemoth of an animal anyway.
Boq watched Glinda's every move carefully. He'd ridden horses before of course. But not without a saddle since before he'd gone to college and he'd certainly never tried since all his limbs had been turned to metal.
When she finished mounting and turned to see he hadn't done the same she threw him a look that clearly voiced her impatience. He scrambled to fix the problem, imitating what she'd done almost exactly. His stiff joints made climbing up the rigging awkward and after three tries his desperate leap across his horse's back was somewhat less than graceful. He felt like a giant silver klutz but mustered what pride he had left and settled himself astride his horse.
"Are you ready?" Glinda asked, eyebrows raised and the unspoken 'It's about time' evident in her tone.
"Yes, thanks for the help," Boq retorted, though he was mortified with himself as soon as the words tumbled out.
"Good," She snapped, and spurred her horse onward.