The Wizard of Oz
Retold by Mutitoon
Chapter Five
The next morning, Dorothy, Tenchi, Toto, and Jigen, who wore a blue fedora on his metal head, got out of the cabin. The group started down the yellow brick road and kept walking for hours, until they reached a dark, lush jungle.
"I didn't know a jungle existed in Oz." Dorothy said in awe at the sight of the dark jungle.
"Only a few." Jigen explained, "Actually, this jungle's the smallest in all of Oz."
"Wow!" Tenchi exclaimed at the tin man. Then, a question was voiced by the scarecrow.
"Are there any wild animals around here?"
"There are animals around here." Jigen answered.
"Like lions?" Dorothy asked the metal man.
"Or maybe tigers?" Tenchi added to the question.
"And bears." Jigen announced, adding more fear to Dorothy and Tenchi.
Then, a roar broke out to the group, and Toto started barking. Tenchi and Jigen started looking for the source of the sounds, when Jigen turned around and fired at a flying creature. The creature flew at the group. Dorothy fell to the ground hard, Tenchi spun around and lost some of his straw before he went to the ground, Jigen managed to escape the creature's flying ambush, and Toto stopped barking and went to Dorothy, who needed him out of fear.
"What hit us?" Tenchi asked, still dizzy from being spun around like a top.
"He did it." Jigen answered, pointing to a giant, winged lion.
The scarecrow and the girl saw the lion. The lion had golden fur on most of his body, patches of fur on his chest, snout, and tail were brighter, and the wings' feathers shared the secondary color. The lion wore a bronze headdress that sat on his head and his shoulders, and it had two red spheres: one on the head and one on the chest. An earring that matched the headdress had a red sphere and was wore of the lion's left ear.
"A winged lion?" Dorothy exclaimed in awe and fright.
"That's right." The lion boasted out, before turning his attention to the two animated men.
"What are you?" The creature growled at Tenchi, "A dressed-up bundle of hay?" Then, to the tin man, the lion taunted, "Hey, tin can, are you for recycling or garbage?"
Toto went to the lion and started barking. The giant feline glared over at the little dog and growled out a threat.
"I'll take care of you, pipsqeak!"
The lion went after Toto. The dog went to Dorothy, who was standing on her feet. The lion was an inch away from both Dorothy and Toto, when Dorothy slapped the lion. Tenchi and Jigen were shocked and fearful for the girl. Dorothy was ready for anything, except for what happened. The lion placed his massive paw on his face, which had a pinkish impression of Dorothy's hand on the left side, and looked at Dorothy in shock, before he started crying.
"Why did you do that?" The weeping feline cried, "I didn't hurt you!"
Dorothy, as well as Tenchi and Jigen, was confused about the crying cat. She frowned at the lion and said, "You're nothin' more than a coward!"
"You're right!" The lion admitted through his tears, "I'm coward, cursed to be one until my last breath of life."
"Cursed?" Dorothy asked the winged feline.
"Yes, by the Queen-Witch of the East." The lion hung his head in shame.
"Don't you know?" Tenchi asked smiling as he picked up the straw that flew out of his body, "Beryl's dead."
The lion's head flung up and turned to the scarecrow with a question on his lips.
"She's dead!"
"That's right," Jigen spoke out, "and the one who killed her was the girl who slapped you."
"What?" The lion roared in shock. He turned to the girl, bowed down to her and started begging for her forgiveness.
"Please forgive me for my foolishness!"
"Don't worry about it." Dorothy said.
The lion looked at Dorothy and realized that the girl was not going to punish him.
"Thank you for your kind decision to spare my life." The feline gratefully announced to the girl.
"Not a problem." Dorothy said, very confused about the lion's reaction. Then, she aksed, "When did Beryl cusre you?"
"When I was a cub, I was playing by myself, when the Queen-Witch's shadow covered me. I turned around and saw her evil beauty that was Beryl. She pointed a long finger at me and, in a deadly cold voice, cursed me by saying, 'Cerberus, your fear shall consume you, and it will never let you go.' Then, she disappeared, leaving me as a cursed cub without any courage."
"How horrible!" Dorothy exclaimed after hearing the lion's story.
"Cerberus?" Tenchi, who was finished putting himself together, asked, confused about the name of the lion.
"My mother gave me that name!" The lion, known as Cerberus, growled at the scarecrow.
"I can empathize with ya." Jigen announced to the lion, "I got cursed by that hag, Beryl, who turned me into a walking trash can."
Cerberus sighed and smiled before he said to the tin man, "Then, I'm in good company."
"Hey, Dorothy!" Tenchi called out to the girl, "Why don't we allow the lion to join us to the Wizard?"
"Good idea." Dorothy agreed. Then, she turned to the lion and said, "I bet he can give you some courage."
Cerberus heard this and asked Dorothy, "Are you sure that you want to be seen in the company of a cowardly lion?"
"Are you sure that you want to be seen in the company of a brainless scarecrow, a heartless tin man, and a homeless girl with her dog?" Tenchi asked with a kind smile.
Cerberus laughed out heartfully and smiled at the scarecrow.
"Thank you."
"Shall we go now?" Jigen asked the group.
"Yeah." Dorothy said as she started walking down the yellow brick road.
"Uh, Dorothy," Cerberus spoke out, "you were going the other way."
"Huh?" The girl looked at the lion, who was going the other way with the scarecrow, the tin man, and Toto, "Hey! Wait for me!"