Animal, Person...Or Dragon
Wicked Witch of the West: Nooooo! I'm melting! I'm melting!
Chapter 6
If You Only Had Half A Brain
Lucy was distraught; Natsu wouldn't stop hugging her out of extreme euphoria. Him embracing her excitingly was agreeable for a couple of minutes, but it got out of hand when he kept latching onto her without any thoughts of letting go. It was like the salmon haired boy was in a trance of pure heavenly delight while spinning Lucy around playfully and without her lawfully logical consent.
Lucy, on the other hand, was not as overly joyed. She wished to go home, to keep living the life she had been accustomed to and adored thoroughly (until getting lost in the forest that is). She didn't mind having met Natsu, but getting lost in the forest was never anybody's cup of tea.
In the midst of her homesickness, there was nevertheless, another part of her excited for the mind-boggling journey ahead. When she was a child, she always told her mother that she wanted to magically enter inside her bedtime Fairy Tale stories, which her mother had read to her every night...until she died when Lucy was in fourth grade. Her mother was never very healthy and had a fragile body. One day, her body gave out, it was rather tragic; principally for Lucy and her father. He was never the same again...his new hobby was making as much money possible with his large multi-million company and new best friend a bottle of Whiskey . Lucy was never his first propriety. Pushing her sad childhood memories aside, she thought about happier things.
No more needing to go inside the heads of the characters theoretically. Now she was there physically; she was now the heroine herself...she hoped. A villain she was not.
Strength re-entered her body and soreness entered; Natsu had eventually let go of her. A bit too long for her taste, but it was not everyday people get sucked into a book. Stretching her upper limbs and back—for she was sure he pulled some of her muscles whilst jumping up and down with her in his arms—no clue what to do next. She had to put herself into Dorothy's shoes (the ruby red ones that never really matched well with her outfit). What would Dorothy do? If Lucy remembered the book correctly, the girl and her little black dog would follow the yellow brick road, while singing merrily. "Or was that the movie?" The young woman pondered, not sure. It wasn't important at the time, so she let it slide.
"Come on Natsu, let's follow the yellow bri—" She stopped mid-sentence when she observed rather slowly that Natsu's clothes had mysteriously changed. She looked down at herself...so had hers.
"Lucy, how did you change so fast?" Natsu asked rather obtusely, not using the logic he had stuffed in his brain, scattered somewhere.
"I don't know, but so have you!" She pointed her finger at his new appearance, raising her thin eyebrows.
The young man now sported a checkered green long shirt along with knee length cotton blue shorts, a pair of black boots, dirty white gloves, and a rounded triangle shaped green hat covering most of the pink tuffs of his messy hair. He did however have his precious sentimental checkered scarf around his neck, luckily for him. Pieces of straw poked out from every directions, coming out from under his clothing.
Lucy could not stop her laughter from coming out loudly. In the Wizard Of Oz, he had been turned into the Scarecrow. He was still human, but the ensemble he was donning was surely the Scarecrow's clothes.
"Pfttt! Being the scarecrow suits you well Natsu!" The honey blonde exclaimed playfully, pestering him, making her friend's cheeks puff up angrily.
"Why is that Luce?" With a hard dry tone. Still mad, he didn't want to be the Scarecrow. He would rather be the lion, albeit he was called the Cowardly Lion, but Natsu needn't know.
"Because, sometimes it seems that you have straw stashed inside your brain!" She told him, receiving an icy cold glare. "Ok, ok. On a few occasions it seems you only have half a brain!" This time she tried whole-heartedly not to giggle in the slightest; it didn't work. Tears were forming in her eyes. Natsu had been right, she was having a blast in this other world.
"Yeah! Well...at least I'm not Dorothy!" He exclaimed pointing at Lucy's attire, trying to dis her back, failing miserably. What girl would not want to be the heroine from Kansas who saved the Land Of Oz (more importantly the Emerald City and, Munchkin Land) from the Wicked Witch of the West?
"Yesss! I'm Dorothy! Thank you book! So happy that I'm not one of those flying monkeys or the Tin Man. I already have a heart thank you very much!" She stated, admiring her new attire with a sparkle in her eyes that showed her fondness for the beautiful dress she was wearing (it wasn't actually expensive or even that beautiful, but it was the exact dress Dorothy wore, so it was outstanding from Lucy's point of view).
A blue checkered knee high dress with a white fabric along the top of her chest, shoulders and a quarter of her arm, hugged her body comfortably. Two baby blue ribbons tied her hair in a loose ponytail, flowing in the front of her body, stopping below her bust. She was overjoyed, almost everything was blue; that was her favorite colour. Her hair was still blonde ( she didn't want to become a brunette anyway). Lastly was her favorite, along with white ankle socks were ruby red shoes. The Ruby Red shoes.
A pang hit her heart, her keys! Where were her keys? She felt her own body, searching her clothes. A breath escaped her lips, they were in her dress pocket. It seemed only their clothes changed, not the items they had on them.
"Luce, do you know where Happy is? I'm sure I saw him not even a few minutes ago." He mumbled, looking high and low for his blue cat.
"Meow" The couple heard, oddly from up above. They looked up seeing something perhaps more weirder than pigs flying. They perceived Happy, flying in the air, wings attached to its back. The little blue cat had been turned into one of the flying monkeys...or flying cats to be exact.
"Cool! Happy's flying!" Natsu laughed amused by the sudden change in his cat. The magic book had made his pet/best friend into the fictional character of one of the flying monkeys. How Natsu longed to be in his place. He wanted to fly, not be the brainless scarecrow.
"Well, that's something I would never think to see." She answered, giggling along with Natsu. The blonde then turned to the boy, slipping her arm into his. "Well, mister Scarecrow, how about we follow the yellow brick road?"
Natsu snickered, not enjoying being called Scarecrow. Then he ignored what she called him and replied, "Right beside you, my fellow maiden."
They started walking along the path, chatting about The Wizard Of Oz story, telling each other about their favourite parts.
"Oh, and I always loved little Toto. I always pictured him as a cute fluffy black dog." Lucy continuing the conversation.
"Yeah, even though he was small, I always portrayed him as brave. Hey, isn't Toto supposed to be with Dorothy at all times? And, well, you're Dorothy." The pinkette said.
"You're right Natsu."She realised. The woman wanted to add "I suppose you have a brain after all." But she restrained herself, she had already made that joke. No use in saying it again.
"Puu-Puun" A strange noise erupted next to fake-Dorothy's feet. They looked down slowly.
A little white creature that looked like a dog mixed with a snowman looked up at both of the gawking friends. It was shaking, making it look like it was cold. It had a spherical head with an orange nose that had the same similarities as a carrot, along with two black adorable eyes and cute paws. If it was a canine, it had no tail for no obvious reasons. The creature was something...strange.
"Is that supposed to be Toto? Wow, he looks different than usual." Lucy proclaimed, kneeling down and patting its head. Happy landed (he was still flying), seemingly enjoying his new found friend, for he was purring happily. Happy had the same trait as Natsu: making friends a little too rapidly. "Oh! Happy likes him already!" She said pleased.
"That can't be Toto! It's...it's a snowman!" Natsu objected, leaning closer to the dog/snowman for a better inspection; squeezing it's nose, poking its body, lifting up its paws, and so on.
"No, no, no, no...it's plain to see that he's a dog! So from now on we will call him Toto." Lucy decided, not even contemplating if Natsu could be right.
"How do you know it's male? It might as well be female for all we know." Natsu remarked, fed up looking like the one who was always wrong. Lucy could really be stubborn sometimes, and think she was always right, but it just made her all the more interesting...for Natsu that is. For some people, she would probably get on their nerves.
"Because he's Toto, and in the book Dorothy's dog is male." The young woman responded matter-of-factly.
The pink headed boy scratched his head, knowing he was not going to win this argument , so he decided to quit before getting into a deeper hole. "Fine, let's just say it's Toto then" He emphasized the word 'say'.
"But it is Toto!" She crossed her arms.
"Whatever." Natsu only said, shaking his head and walking ahead with Lucy running to catch him and Happy along with Toto tailing behind.
With their little spat behind them, they continued down the famous literary road, hoping it would head somewhere: Munchkin Land, Emerald City, the Tin Man's woodcutter house, anywhere was fine.
"Do you think we'll have to destroy the Wicked Witch of the West? It will be easy for we only have to pour water on her. Or maybe this story has already ended." Lucy pondered, wanting to know Natsu's opinion.
"I have no idea...but I guess we'll find out!" He declared, showing his signature grin whilst scratching his skin for the straw on and under his clothes irritated him.
"ROAAR!" Only this time, it wasn't Natsu sneezing.
It wasn't hard to know what...who it was. It must be the Cowardly Lion, Lucy thought to herself. It was, but not as cowardly as both of the friends would think.
Appearing in front of the fearless blond was a man a bit higher that Natsu. With orange brown medium cut hair, casual clothes and dark faded glasses. He also had a couple of earrings on his left ear.
"Good afternoon my love, Leo the lion at your service, but by all means call me Loki." The man said with affection, bowing down on one knee and kissing the back of her hand.
"Oh...it...it's a pleasure." Lucy replied, swayed by his personality. This was indeed the Lion, but cowardly was not the word to describe him; he was more of the flirtatiously courageous kind.
Natsu was not enjoying the new person entering the picture, and the numerous smiles his blonde friend and Loki were giving each other. He decided to do something about it, his way.
"Lucy, don't trust this smarmy guy! There's something off about him, I can smell it." He told Lucy, ignoring Loki, pointing to his nose.
"Don't be rude. He's just being a gentleman." She then whispered the next part to him. "Anyway, he is the Lion. I know, different than expected, but still the Lion."
The blonde turned to Leo, smiling sweetly, asking. "Do you know what's down this road?"
"Of course milady, if you walk another thirty minutes you will reach the borders of Munchkin Land, and twenty minutes after that you will arrive at the Lollypop Guild headquarters. May I take you there myself?" He asked.
"No thank you. We don't need your help." Natsu cut in, a mean look in his eyes, aimed directly at the Lion.
Lucy bonked him on the head. "What's wrong with you!" She then turned to Loki. "Don't listen to him, we'll be honored."
As they started walking, Leo cast a smug look at Natsu, silently telling him to back off. It was final, the dragon boy hated lions. Especially pompous ones. That jerk was not going to take his Lucy away.
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