Chapter 3: Magnificent
"You know who I am? And you're the person I think you should be?"
Toph wasn't sure what to make of this chance meeting, finding someone that she only knew of as an unfortunate Cabbage Merchant. Up until now everyone she met had possessed the form of someone she knew, but behaved as if they were someone completely different. But this guy appeared to be exactly as Toph remembered him, and he in turn knew exactly who Toph was. The fact that the Cabbage Merchant was cowering in fear, for both himself and his remaining cabbages, confirmed this.
"Yes!" the Cabbage Merchant answered, inching his way back from Toph. "You're part of that gang that keeps destroying my cabbages! From Omashu to Ba Sing Se and everywhere in between, my cabbages are destroyed! Even here I can't keep them away from you!"
"You're the real deal alright," Toph said, and Momo nodded in agreement.
Behind her two of the three new companions approached them, with Scarecrow in front. "Who's this?"
The merchant saw Aang's face in the Scarecrow, and cowered behind the shattered vegetable cart again. "Stay away! Stay away from my cabbages!"
"Back off you guys," Toph insisted, holding an arm in front of Scarecrow and Tin Man to keep them at bay. "He thinks you're the same guys I think you look like."
"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" Tin Man asked, quite clearly puzzled.
"Just back off," Toph insisted again. She waited long enough for the merchant's heartrate to drop before she got closer to him. "Look, this probably won't mean much, but I'm sorry for your cabbages. If my friends were here, I'm sure they would say sorry too."
"But they are here," the merchant said, pointing at the two behind Toph.
"Oh right…" Toph muttered, not sure of how to explain this. "Um… these aren't really the people you remember. I know they look like them, but they aren't really them."
"That doesn't make any sense," the merchant said.
"I know," Toph admitted. Right then she caught Momo leaping into her arms. "That is why I want to know why you're the only person here that makes sense."
By now the merchant was beginning to calm down, finally seeing that Scarecrow and Tin Man weren't really Aang or Sokka. "This place keeps getting weirder and weirder."
"So it's not just me going crazy," Toph said.
"I thought I was starting to lose it," the merchant admitted, sighing before he continued. "Between the monkey-birds, strange mice that are only mice, and a whole village of clay-folk, I kind of wished that twister had killed me."
"That twister?" Toph repeated, now having an idea of what was going on. "You didn't happen to be visiting Omashu before coming here, did you?"
"I was trying to set up shop there," the merchant answered. "Why?"
"I was visiting my folks in Omashu," Toph said. "If I have this right, it was the twister that brought us here, somehow."
The cabbage merchant nodded, and looked around. "Wherever here is."
"There has to be a way back," Toph said. She held one hand towards the merchant. "So until we find it, truce?"
"Truce," the merchant agreed, taking Toph's hand and letting her help him back up. "By the way, what's your name?"
"Toph," she answered. She gestured to the others, one of which was still sleeping. "They may look like Aang, Sokka, and Appa, but they are Scarecrow, Tin Man, and… well Appa."
"Gan-Lan," the merchant introduced himself. "But my friends call me Gan."
"You have friends?" Toph questioned.
"We found a buyer for the cabbages."
Coming from around the block, the voice of a tiny girl carried a long way. She was only a foot tall and scaled down accordingly, resembling a teenager made entirely out of clay. What would be her hair was in the shape of two long braids, each resting on her shoulders. At her size she had to run just to match the pace of a regular person walking, which seemed off somehow to Toph's sight. Yet the face was unfamiliar, which Toph didn't know if that was good or bad.
Right behind her was someone about the same size as the Munchkins, but there the similarity ended. He appeared to be some kind of monkey, but with the feathery wings of a crow sticking out of his back. He also seemed to be rather old for a monkey-bird, with a face that would have suggested middle-aged on a human. He even had a thin mustache and a ponytail, and just like the little clay girl Toph had no idea who this monkey-bird should have been in the normal world.
And from inside Gan's shirt, a small white mouse poked its head out. Gan petted the mouse's head, and it went back inside. "Yes, I do have friends."
Scarecrow waved at the two newcomers. "Hi. I'm Scarecrow, that's the Tin Man, and the big bison over there is Appa."
When the two reached Gan the little clay girl waved back. "Hi. I'm China, and that's Finley."
"Neat," Tin Man said, crouching to shake Finley's paw.
Toph got a little bit closer to Gan so she could whisper. "Do those two remind you of anyone?"
Gan took a long hard look at China and Finley. "Well now that you mention it, they do look kind of like Jin and Pao."
"Who are those guys?" Finley asked.
"See what I mean?" Toph said, gesturing at Finley while facing Gan. "Same face, different person."
"But you don't know those two?" Gan asked.
"Not at all," Toph said. She sighed and slightly slouched. "That has to mean this place is real. Silver lining, I am not going crazy."
By then China had gotten to the smashed vegetable cart, touching a cabbage half as tall as she was. "We leave you alone for five minutes, and this happens."
"I know," Gan said, crouching beside China and picking up that cabbage. "I thought my luck might change here, but that clearly didn't happen."
"Sorry," Toph apologized again, rubbing the back of her head.
"Well I'm sure he'll buy what's left," China said.
"Allow me," Toph insisted. She cupped her hands and put them together, making a stone cart form from the ground next to the remaining cabbages. "It's the least I can do."
The cabbages were loaded onto the cart and Toph dragged it along, with China leading the way through the Emerald City. At the base of one tall green building there was a store with various fruits and vegetables for sale, with a shopkeeper that was interested in adding cabbages to his produce line. That shopkeeper was a little disappointed that the quantity was rather limited, but still purchased the remaining cabbages from Gan.
When the deal was complete Finley walked beside Gan. "So where to next?"
Gan shrugged, and then turned towards Toph and the two others with her. "You said something about finding a way back home?"
"Yeah," Toph said. "I'm told that some Wizard here can do lots of impossible stuff."
"But no one ever sees the Wizard," Finley said.
"Well we're going to," Toph insisted, cracking her knuckles. "One way or another…"
But not right away of course. Appa was still sleeping off the effects of the poppies, having apparently breathed in a lot more of it than Toph or Momo had. Once Appa was finally awake and moving around the group had to actually find this Wizard, as Toph hadn't gotten anything more specific than the Emerald City. However the largest of the green towers in the city was so ornate that it might as well have 'Wizard Lives Here' written on it, so the group went there first.
When Toph knocked on big fancy doors a small hole opened up above their heads, and a munchkin in a fancy suit stuck his head out and looked down. "State your business."
"We're looking for a Wizard," Toph said.
"No one can see the Wizard," the munchkin gatekeeper said.
"That's what I told her," Finley pointed out.
"Quiet you," Toph said, then went back to the munchkin gatekeeper. "So why can't anyone see the Wizard?"
"No one has ever seen the great Oz," the gatekeeper answered. "Even I've never see him."
"So how do you know… he… exists…" Toph trailed off, noticing a rather nervous fidgeting from the monkey-bird. "Finley… have you seen him?"
Keeping his arms and wings rather tight, Finley was trying and failing to look innocent. "I… might have peeked… once upon a time…"
The munchkin gatekeeper squinted, then put a pair of glasses on, and squinted again. "Now wait just a minute… I've heard about you. You were there when the great Oz exiled the Wicked Witches to the east and west."
"I try not to brag about that," Finley admitted.
"I would have it tattooed on my chest," the gatekeeper said. He held up a finger before turning away. "Hang on a second."
"What's he going for?" Toph wondered aloud.
When the gatekeeper found what he was looking for he reappeared. "I'll see to it that the Wizard knows you're here. In the meantime, enjoy these day-long passes to the Emerald Spa. You should look your best if you get to see the great Oz."
The gatekeeper handed out several slips of paper, one for each in the group. When Toph got hers she couldn't tell what was on it, but the looks of everyone else confirmed that they were what the gatekeeper claimed. "Thanks."
"Enjoy," the gatekeeper said, going back inside and closing his little hole.
"So… did he just shut us out or not?" Tin Man wondered.
"I think he did," Scarecrow said.
"Eh, let's use these things anyway," Toph suggested, turning away from the door. "If he doesn't let us in when we come back, I'll just break us in there instead."
The spa was just around the corner, open and welcoming to everyone that passed through the doors. It was quite fancy inside the spa, with beauty care services of every variety available. At the front desk Toph and the others handed over the day-long passes, and a munchkin receptionist let them pick whichever services were to their liking. They each chose something different, and each got their own room to enjoy it in.
Scarecrow enjoyed a room where servants replaced his brittle old straw within him with fresh new straw, making him feel like a brand new scarecrow when they were finished. Finley enjoyed a fancy bubble bath that soaked through his fur and the skin beneath, with stylists getting him cleaner than he had been in years. Tin Man delighted in being buffed and polished to a shiny new finish, feeling just as new as the day he had been built. And Momo bathed in a simple bath, chirping all the while
China sat back in a tiny chair and let an expert craftsman work, applying a fresh coat of glaze that added more vibrant red and blue colors to her clay clothes. Appa snacked on fresh hay while his fur was scrubbed and cleaned, making him luck more fluffy and cuddly to the unsuspecting eye. Gan delighted in a fancy blue bubble bath, where all his stress seemed to be washed away. And Toph relaxed in a thick mud bath, and took a moment to earthbend a freaky face that spooked one of the stylists.
An hour passed by the time all of them were finished, all of them feeling much better than they had been going in. Distraction or not, there was an agreement that the spa had been worth it. So they were in high spirits when they left, and heading back to the largest green tower for another go. But as they walked Toph noticed some of the munchkins starting to look up, followed by panicky reactions with pointing up and screaming.
"What's their problem?" Toph asked, not knowing what had everyone spooked. Whatever it was had Momo growing, seeing something that he knew was trouble.
"Up there," Tin Man answered, pointing up.
"Black smoke," Gan elaborated. He held a hand above his face to shield from the sun, squinting as he tried to make out more detail. "Is it… writing something?"
"Oh No…" China muttered. "She's back. The Wicked Witch is back!"
"Where?" Toph demanded, instantly ready for a fight.
"Up There!" Appa answered.
"She's writing something in the sky," Scarecrow added, just barely making out the witch on a broom leaving black smoke behind her.
"What does it say?" Toph asked.
It took a minute for the witch to finish her skywriting, and then Gan read it aloud. "Surrender Toph."
"That's it?" Toph questioned. "That's all she wrote up there?"
Finley nodded. "I take it you ticked her off? And she probably thinks everyone will panic and turn you over to her."
"I'd like to see her try," Toph dared.
Gan turned towards Toph, thinking she had to be crazy after all. "You want to fight someone that can fly, and supposedly has magic powers?"
"Rather unimpressive magic," Toph said. She extended one finger for each thing she listed off. "Smoke tricks, rather lame firebending, and apparently flying. Really the only 'magic' she's done is that disappearing act."
"Yet she still wrote a demand in the sky," Scarecrow pointed out.
"Yes, wrote, in the sky," Toph emphasized. She waved a hand in front of her unfocused eyes. "To threaten a blind girl."
"Point taken," Gan said. He looked up, and then back to Toph. "Well the smoke's starting to fade, and I don't see anything else happening."
"I doubt she would do anything to you here anyway," Finley said. "Not with the Wizard so close."
"Oh right," Toph said. So she started walking again. "We've got somewhere to be."
In minutes they were back at the largest green tower, and after a knock on the door the gatekeeper opened his little hole and poked his head out. "Back already?"
"Yup," Toph said. "And we're seeing the Wizard whether you want us to or not."
"Oh really," the gatekeeper said. "What if I tell you to go away?"
"I do this," Toph said. She slammed a fist against the door, and a narrow gash split vertically through the metal. "Only bigger."
The gatekeeper gulped. "Just a moment."
Sure enough when the gatekeeper went back inside, the doors swung open almost immediately. The gatekeeper then stood out of the way, allowing the entire group to walk inside. Toph led the way into the tower, following the largest hallway and ignoring the doors that her feet told her led to dead ends. Soon they reached the end of that hallway, the path opening up to large room with many pillars holding up the high ceiling.
At the back of the room there was a silver throne, with a set of white organ pipes behind it. Four large braziers were lined up beside the throne, each one occasionally spewing flames upward. A fog appeared behind the throne and billowed around the sides, obscuring the base of the organ pipes from view. The throne itself started belching flames, throwing smoke upward and filling much of the air with a thin white haze.
"I Am Oz! The Great and Powerful! Who are you?"
Toph flinched at the loud voice, coming from ahead and echoing in the room. Yet she couldn't find a body to match the voice. "And where is Oz?"
The others were all trembling to various degrees, but Gan kept somewhat calm and leaned towards Toph. "There's a large green head floating in the smoke."
"So that's the Wizard?" Toph said, gesturing to where she thought it had to be but still couldn't see it. "The Wizard is a floating head?"
"Silence!"
"Make Me!" Toph dared.
Appa was cowering behind Scarecrow and Tin Man, but he did lean towards Toph and whisper. "Maybe we shouldn't antagonize the Wizard now?"
"If he really is a Wizard," Toph said. She started walking forward, still not having a body for the voice. "So far all I've seen is smoke and fire."
"You dare insult the Great and Powerful Oz?!"
"I dare a lot of things," Toph answered. As she walked more of the room revealed itself to her sight, and she noticed a curtain come into focus along the edge of her range. "And right now I dare you… to… oh now wait a minute!"
"What is it?" Scarecrow asked.
Toph took a few more steps, and then pointed a finger at the curtain. "Momo, Sick Him!"
The lemur leaped off Toph's shoulder and soared through the air, heading straight for the curtain. Momo slipped through the curtain, disappearing to the people looking at him. They heard the lemur's high pitched shrieks, someone screaming, and sounds of a struggle. The curtain was thrown open and a middle-aged overweight man came out, with Momo clawing at his face while the man tried to swat the lemur away from him.
The opened curtain also revealed some machinery behind it, looking like the controls to something else. There was a screen depicting a view of the large room, one from above and in front of the group of people standing before the Wizard. The Wizard itself had gone completely still, and the fires next to it had diminished to a low burn. Momo continued attacking the man until he tripped, and then flew back to rest on Toph's shoulder.
"Now who is that?" Appa wondered.
"A fraud," Toph answered. She walked up to the fraud of a Wizard, who was just a man now getting back up and on his feet. "What's your name?"
"Oz," he answered, back on his feet. "Not so great, not so powerful."
"I see that," Toph said. "So what, you've tricked everyone into thinking you're some mighty Wizard. Why would you do that?"
"It is a long story," Oz said. Then he looked at Finley, knowing that furry face anywhere. "Which someone seems to have forgotten."
"Sorry," Finley said. "How was I supposed to know she'd see through it all?"
"You knew?" China asked Finley.
"I may have met the guy before," Finley admitted. He stepped forward and held his paws apart before Oz. "Hey if I knew she could see through the entire ruse, I would have done something to throw them off the trail."
Oz looked at Toph. "How did you see through it anyway?"
"I see with my feet," Toph answered, crossing her arms and closing her eyes. "It's all about the vibrations that I feel. Stuff like curtains and walls don't mean squat to me. If you're on the floor and close enough to me, I'll see you."
"Impressive trick," Oz said. "I'd say you're a better Wizard than I ever could be."
"I think the proper word would be witch," Scarecrow corrected.
"Whatever," Oz said. "So what did you come here for in the first place? I may not be a Wizard, but I might still be able to do something."
Toph pointed to herself and everyone else in turn, and listed off what everyone wanted. "I want to go home, he wants to go home, he wants a brain, he wants a heart, he wants courage, and I actually don't know what those two want."
"A home," China answered.
"Money," Finley answered.
"Works for me," Toph said. "So mister not a Wizard, is any of that doable?"
"Well not by me," Oz admitted. He closed his eyes to think, and when he had something he opened them again. "You'll need magic to send you home."
"Well I don't have any," Toph said. "All I've got is my feet and my earthbending."
"Earthbending…" Oz muttered, seemingly savoring the sound. "Now that's a word I haven't heard in a very long time."
"So you're from the world we came from too?" Gan asked.
"Yes," Oz said with a nod. "A freak storm took me away and put me here. With the war at home already over eighty years old and the Fire Nation winning, I decided to stay here where I could forget the war and live in peace."
"And rich, don't forget the riches," Finley reminded.
"Yes, and the riches," Oz admitted. After acknowledging that selfish part of his past he got back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, magic, if you don't have any of your own, you will need to take it from someone else."
"Like that Wicked Witch," Toph suggested.
"Or the one that's already dead," Oz suggested. "I'm told that someone killed her just the other day. By dropping a house on her if I'm not mistaken."
"Yeah, I did," Toph said.
"Excellent," Oz said. "When a witch dies her magic is stored in her most prized possession, so that another witch can claim it and add the dead witch's power to her own."
"So that's why the witch wanted those shoes," Toph muttered.
"Ah yes, the ruby slippers," Oz said. He looked down and saw Toph's bare feet, her toes wriggling freely. "You don't have them?"
"About that…" Toph said, patting the back of her head. "They were screwing with my feet. And they wouldn't come off. So I destroyed them."
Oz pinched his nose. "And you destroyed the magic along with them."
"Sorry," Toph said. "In my defense, the good witch never said I would need them."
"Glinda? Yeah she is annoying that way," Oz said. "Still, all is not lost. We'll just need the other witch's power instead. I assume you've met the Wicked Witch of the West?"
"We have a score to settle," Toph answered.
"You're going to have to kill her," Oz said. "Once that's done her power will be stored in her favorite broomstick, and bring it back here."
Toph smiled. "Now why didn't you say that in the first place?"
After a good night's rest in the Emerald City, it was back on the road for Toph and her merry band of travelers. Unsurprisingly it was back on the yellow brick road, and down the part that they had skipped in coming here. However there was a fork in the road halfway down that part, and there they had to take a right turn onto a dirt road. That path led into and old and dark forest, with gnarly trees that seemed to suck in the light itself.
Fortunately there was a convenient sign post along the way, with one arrow directing them towards the witch's castle. There was also a warning sign to turn back now, suggesting a fate of certain doom for those who did not heed the warning. Appa certainly wanted to heed that warning, and Gan was certainly in agreement with him. Scarecrow and Tin Man had to stop Appa from leaving, and Toph made sure that Gan and Finley didn't leave either.
"Why did I let you bring me along again?" Gan asked.
"Because I could use another meat shield," Toph joked. Now she tapped on the sign, as it was only a few planks of wood to her. "What does this thing say?"
Scarecrow volunteered to read it aloud for Toph. "Haunted Forest, Witches Castle one mile, I'd turn back if I were you."
"Well at least we're going in the right direction," Toph said. "Wait a minute, if we're only a mile away, how come we haven't met any resistance yet?"
Tin Man was the first to hear distant howling, and he pointed a thumb at the sky ahead of them. "You were saying?"
"Oh dear…" Gan muttered, seeing the threat coming for them.
An entire flock of monkey-birds was inbound, darkening the sky with their numbers. They resembled Finley with their fur and wings, but their muscles were thicker and their faces more feral. The flock closed in and dived towards the trespassers, under orders from the Wicked Witch herself to take the foreigner alive. The rest of them were of no concern to the witch, and so the flock had permission to do whatever they pleased with them.
"Here they come!" Scarecrow yelled.
"Let them come!" Toph yelled back. She braced her legs, held up her arms, and smirked. "I'm in the mood for some good old fashioned Violence!"
Toph summoned a boulder out of the road and launched it at the howling she heard, and her attack struck the middle of the flock. The monkey-bird in front was crushed and ones behind it suffered broken bones, and they crashed down to earth beside the boulder. Monkey-birds that narrowly missed the attack flew to the sides, some flying into their comrades beside them. Before they knew it another boulder was crashing through the flock, dropping another half dozen of them out of the air.
Feeling the vibrations from foes impacting the ground, Toph got an idea of the numbers they were facing. To deal with greater numbers Toph switched to dredging a wall of rock from the road, and then shattering it into a spray of airborne shrapnel. A dozen monkey-birds were caught in the shrapnel and their wings were broken, all of them crashing next to the earlier victims. Still more of them kept on coming, and Toph kept on bending more rock at them.
The first wave of monkey-birds landed on the road and in the woods, surrounding the group on all sides. There was nowhere to run, and so they could only fight. Scarecrow ripped a branch off a tree and swung it like a club, bashing in monkey-bird heads whenever he could. Tin Man was punching them with his metal fists, and after the first few foes his knuckles were quite dented. Appa quite simply charged through the flock, knocking them down with his entire large mass.
While the second wave of monkey-birds landed Finley had gotten mixed in with the flock, and his attacks from within sowed confusion amongst the monkey-birds. Gan tried to stay out of everyone else's way, figuring that he would only get himself hurt like his precious cabbages always did. China had climbed up Toph's leg and back to get on top of her shoulder, and was pointing out targets that were in Toph's quite literal blind spots.
"Everyone Get Down!" Toph yelled. She crossed her arms and summoned a dome of stone around herself, and she noticed everyone complying with her demand. "Here It Goes!"
Toph threw her arms out and the stone dome exploded, throwing stone shrapnel in every direction. The others had all gotten down and the flying rock went over their heads, and right into the monkey-birds just beyond them. Rows of them were brought down by the wide area attack, clearing the space around Toph and the others. More of the flock swooped in to replace their fallen, and were in turn struck down when Toph repeated her earthbending attack.
"Do these guys ever learn?" Toph wondered, doing her earthbending attack for a third time.
It seemed that they did, for the monkey-birds held back long enough for most of the propelled stone to drop and miss. The flock swarmed in the sky directly above Toph, and then dived straight down as if inside a funnel. China warned Toph just in time for her to raise another stone dome, only this time the diving monkey-birds slammed into the thing. The first few of them crumpled against the rock, while the rest pulled up just in time and spread out across the battlefield in every direction.
The monkey-birds swamped the battlefield and quickly overwhelmed the others, who were just barely keeping the foes from tearing them limb from limb. Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Appa had gathered together, each with half a dozen monkey-birds on them at a time. Finley was hiding amongst the bodies of the fallen monkey-birds, pretending to be another limp body that wouldn't be noticed. Gan was screaming at the top of his lungs, since several pairs of paws had grabbed him.
"GET THEM OFF ME!"
Yet they did not tear Gan apart. Instead those monkey-birds picked him up, and then started flying again. Gan dangled underneath the monkey-birds carrying him off, and as the ground fell away he saw a dozen more monkey-birds behind the ones holding him. When those monkey-birds were some distance away the rest of the flock took off, leaving the battle behind with their foes still intact and the fallen left where they lay.
When it was over Toph sank her stone dome back into the road, which barely resembled a road at this point and looked more like a gravel pit. "Is everyone alright?"
Scarecrow was putting loose straw back in himself. "I need a minute."
Finley pulled himself out from amongst the fallen monkey-birds. "Filthy, but fine."
Tin Man banged out some dents in his body. "I'll be limping for a while."
China climbed down Toph's back and leg to get back on the ground. "All good here."
Appa was sitting with his legs curled up. "Let's never do that again."
One voice was missing, and Toph couldn't find the person in her sight. "Where's Gan?"
Gan didn't stop screaming the entire time, much to the annoyance of the monkey-birds carrying him. They took him beyond the end of the forest, where a large castle stood against cracked rock and dark skies. The castle had several towers that stabbed at the heavens, and the monkey-birds took him towards the tallest tower. Near the top there was an open window, and the monkey-birds tossed Gan through it before coming in after him.
Hitting a wooden floor hard, Gan found himself in a room lit by torchlight. "Ow…"
"What is this?!"
That voice got Gan to look at the other end of the room, where he saw the Wicked Witch with his own eyes. She was absolutely furious, though at the monkey-birds instead of him. Now that Gan could see the witch he noticed a passing resemblance to the Fire Nation Princess Azula, even if her skin was green and was wearing black clothes. The furious look certainly helped, if only by the reputation he had heard of about the princess.
"I told you to bring the foreigner to me!" the Wicked Witch yelled at the monkey-birds.
"We did," one of them answered, pointing at Gan.
The Wicked Witch looked at Gan, then back to the monkey-birds. "You brought the wrong one!"