Return to Oz
Told by Mutitoon90
Chapter Eight
Dorothy went through the dark tunnel that led to the room that held Ganondorf's collection and her friends as "residents" of the room. Soon, the simple farmgirl found herself facing a pair of doors that looked just like the ones that led her and her friends to the leader of the Gerudo women.
"Well," Dorothy spoke to herself as she took in a deep breath, "here goes nothing."
Then, she pushed open the door and entered the room that held her friends as prisoners, and if she fails to find Tenchi and them, she would be joining them.
Entering the room, the room was white with golden accents and have many things of Ganondorf's collection in the room, some of the things were her friends. Dorothy looked around and found a still, human-like thing.
"Nightingale!" The Kansan girl called out to the mechanic woman, who was standing up as straight as a line.
Reaching her friend's side, Dorothy pulled out the key that helped Nightingale to move, think and talk. However, Dorothy was halted by an unexpected sound.
"Dorothy," the robotic woman spoke in an hushed, yet emotionless, voice, "pretend that you are winding me up, and I will explain the purpose of my chrade."
"Okay." Dorothy whispered back with a nod, and did as she was told to do.
Getting behind the red-headed woman and "winding" her up, Nightingale started to explain to Dorothy about why she faked winding down.
"I came up with an idea that might be able to help us locate King Tenchi and maybe our allies. All you have to do is see what kind of object I change into and use that clue to find King Tenchi."
"That's a good idea," Dorothy said as she completed "winding" the robot up, "but what if Ganondorf thought that far ahead of that plan?"
"That is a chance we will have to take to help us find King Tenchi." Nightingale replied as she walked to a nearby object and placed a single finger on it.
"I wish you the best of luck." Nightingale said to Dorothy, who was starting to cry, "Do not worry about me; I will be unharmed."
Then, the robot turned her attention to the object she was touching and said, "Oz." This caused a powerful rumble and a bright flash of light that blinded the farmgirl for a moment.
"Nightingale?" The brunette girl opened her eyes and saw no trance of her friend that ran on clockwork. There was not even a new object that was in the place of Nightingale, and this told her that Ganondorf knew that someone was going to pull that trick.
"Damn!" Dorothy hissed, knowing that she needed a miracle to find all of her friends that were prisoners of the Gerudo King.
Ganondorf, haviing sensed the rumbling and knowing that Nightingale had failed to find the scarecrow that became the ruler of Oz, rose from his throne and went to a darken corner of the room. A cloaked object resided in the corner, and Ganondorf, upon reaching the object, pulled off the cover and revealed a mirror. The king of the Gerudo women touched the looking-glass and the reflection started rippling, like water that was touched by a foreign object, and changed into a bedroom. Ganondorf's reflection was changed into a woman with dark hair and blue and yellow eyes.
"Nelhelenia." Ganondorf spoke in a civil tone, "Have you been waiting very long?"
The vain witch was not amused with the question, and the displeasured expression on her face maintained its place as the woman crossed the mirror, which was a magical portal from her personal mirror in her room to Ganondorf's mirror that rested in his throne room.
"Ganondorf," Nelhelenia spoke out, going straight to business, "Dorothy Gale is on her way here!"
"Nelhelenia, she is not on her way here." The Gerudo King announced, earning a shocked look from the witch's face, which was followed by angry recount of what Dorothy and her allies did to her.
"Dorothy sneaked into my room in the middle of the night and stold my ruby key. Following that, she took my golden wand and gave it to that old guardian of the Emerald City. Then, she and her friends used two of my sofas and made it into a sleigh of sorts!"
"Quiet, Nelhelenia." A dark tone flew out of Ganondorf's mouth, silencing the cat-eyed female, before saying, "They came here to play a simple game."
"A simple game?" The dark-haired woman repeated back to the lone male of the Gerudo tribe. Then, she asked, "Why didn't you just get rid of them all at once?"
"I like to see how my opponents react to certain situations." Ganondorf chuckled as he explained his actions to Nelhelenia, "At this moment, even as we speak, Dorothy Gale is the last one."
"So, how many tries does she have left?" The mirror-using witch asked the king of Death Mountain, who was willing to answer the question.
Before he could answer the inquiry, a rumble prevented the male Gerudo from saying anything for a few seconds. Once the rumbling ended, Ganondorf answered, "Two."
Back in the room filled with Ganondorf's knick-knacks, Dorothy had failed to find Tenchi, but she still had two more tries to find her dear friend and the ruler of Oz.
The farmgirl looked at the object that she had touched, which was as simple in appearance, like Tenchi when the friends first met weeks earlier. With a thought in her mind, she said, "Maybe something as fancy as Tenchi was simple?"
She looked around the room and found something that she thought that was about as fancy as Tenchi's simple appearance.
Touching the fancy-looking figure, Dorothy said, "Oz." Upon saying the name of the land that most of her friends lived in, the ground rumbled, telling the farmgirl that she had picked the wrong object.
"One more try..." Dorothy said under her breath, "What am I goin' to do?"
Dorothy's eyes started to fill up with tears, feeling the hopelessness swell inside of her heart; a deep despair. The only other time she had felt that depressed about anything was when she was in Oz for the first time.
It was the first night that she was with the winged lion, Cerberus, and everyone was getting ready to settle in for the night. Dorothy was the only one that was not saying a word to anyone, not even Toto, who was wimpering.
"Dorothy," Jigen, who was the man made of tin at the time, "what's wrong? You haven't said a word all night."
Dorothy knew that Jigen was right, so she answered as tears started rolling down her eyes and Toto placed his head onto the girl's lap.
"Well, I was thinkin' that what the Wizard can't grant our wishes. That would mean that Toto and I can't go home!"
Then, the homesick girl started crying hard, causing the males of the group worry about the girl. They did not know what to do.
Then, Tenchi, who never knew about his own intellgence, formed an idea. Going to Dorothy, the straw-filled man spoke to Dorothy.
"Dorothy, if you're not able to get back to your home, you can stay with one of us in the land of Oz."
Feeling a little better about the offer, Dorothy smiled, but she had another thought enter her mind, and she was not as shy to expressed it.
"What about if we get in trouble and we need to get any of the others?"
Jigen knew that the questions were forged from the girl's fear of not being able return to her home land. He thought for a moment and got an idea himself.
"Dorothy," the tinman spoke to the girl, who turned to him, "Can I see your hair tie for a moment?"
"Why do you want to see it?" Dorothy asked the former man, who answered with a grin.
"You don't have to give it to me, but I do want to see it."
"Okay." Dorothy nodded before she grabbed her ponytail and started removing the enchanted hair tie from her brunette hair.
While the farmgirl pulled out the purple tie, Jigen gathered Tenchi and Cerberus to Dorothy's side. Then, Toto started hopping around, sensing that something was going on with the foursome.
"Okay, guys. I know a spell that might ease Dorothy a little; all I need is some hair from you guys."
"But, Jigen," Tenchi stated in an unsure voice, "I don't have any hair, and Cerberus has only fur. I don't know if your spell could work."
"Fur can do just fine, Tenchi." The tin marksman announced before plucking a small piece of the winged lion's fur, causing the lion to roar in pain.
"Ow! That hurts!"
Dorothy heard the winged lion's moan and went to him, asking, "Cerberus, are you okay?"
"It's nothing, Dorothy." The jewel-wearing lion responded while rubbing his paw on his head, "Just a few plucked pieces of fur; that's all."
"Why were some of your fur pulled?" Dorothy asked, confused about what would make the winged lion roar in pain.
"Hey!" Tenchi yelled out, causing Dorothy's attention to the scarecrow and the tinman, who had a couple of pieces of straw in his hand.
"What's going on, Jigen?" The simple farmgirl asked the tin marksman, who removed his hat as he answered the inquiry.
"I guess trying to proform a spell."
Dorothy was going to say something about the spell, but then she recalled the first time she encountered him, causing to remain silent for a while.
"Found it!" Jigen announced as he pulled out some hair from the inside of his hat, "Now, I can do the spell."
"What spell?" Dorothy asked, "And why does it my hair tie have anything to do with that spell?"
"Well," Jigen explained it to the girl as well as the others, "It's just in case you need to find us, but you can't. So, where's the hair tie?"
"On my wrist." Dorothy bluntly answered, pointing to the metioned area on the right side of her body, "I always put my hair ties there, just in case I need to do something."
"That's better than I was expecting." Jigen commented to the teenaged girl, who asked with a look of suspcion in her eye, "And what are you about to do with my hair tie?"
"Just watch." Jigen said with an artful grin on his metal face as he wrapped the straw from Tenchi, Cerberus's fur and the hair that Jigen found in his hat, which was his hair before Beryl, the Queen-Witch of the East, cursed him into the form of a tin, around his right index finger.
Speaking in a quiet incantation that none of his allies could heard, the pieces of the three talking males glowed brightly as the pieces became liquid-like and went into the tin marksman's finger. As soon as the pieces were in the barrel-like finger, Jigen aimed the magically infused pieces at Dorothy's wrist and fired.
The blast pushed Dorothy to the ground, aroused the fury of Cerberus, who was quick to confront Jigen, but Tenchi managed to halt him.
"Cerberus, it's okay! Jigen's blast can't harm any good-hearted people, so Dorothy's all right!"
"For his sake and yours," the maneless lion announced after managing to control his temper, "she better be unharmed, outside being knocked down."
"Ow..." Dorothy moaned as she got to her feet, while trying to keep Toto off of her face, "That's landin' was painful!"
"Sorry about that, Dorothy." Jigen went to the fallen girl and tried to help her, but she made it by herself.
"It's okay, Jigen." Dorothy said as she dusted off her pants and shirt, "But what was the meanin' for all of that?"
"It's like I've said; it's to help you find us whenever you need to find us." Jigen smiled as he returned his hat to his head, "One never knows when it could be useful."
"Thanks, Jigen." The farmgirl said with a smile, "I'm sure that it'll be helpful."
Remembering the spell that Jigen, the former Tin Marksman, had given her about a month earlier, Dorothy pulled out her hair tie that was enchanted by Zeniba and Jigen, Zeniba's only son, and put it around her wrist.
"Oh!" The girl gasped out, "I better get Muta out of my backpack as well as the silver slippers."
Pulling off her backpack from her person, Dorothy unzipped her pack and opened it. Upon opening, an annoyed Muta poked his head out and started to berate the teenager.
"What the hell are you doing interrupting my nap?! I ought to scratch at your face and your clothes, and then-!"
"Not now, Muta!" Dorothy halted the verbal attack from the stray cat, "I need to get the slippers before I try somethin' that determined the fate of the land of Oz!"
"Ow!" The cat hissed out as Dorothy grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, "Put me down!"
"Gladly." The brunette placed the hot-headed feline onto the ground before she returned to her pack and pulled out the silver slippers.
"What do ya need them for anyway?" The grumpy cat asked as he watched Dorothy remove and replace the girl's sneakers with the powerful artifacts.
"What does it look like to you?" Dorothy asked in a sarcatic tone at the cat, and then she added with the same additude and without the sarcasm, "It's in case Ganondorf has another backup plan."
"Well," Muta voiced out his thoughts in a calm tone, "that's a good idea." Then, he realized something about Dorothy's statement, causing him to exclaim, "Another backup plan!?"
"That's what I've said." Dorothy admitted to the panicked cat, "Now, please be quiet, so I can concentrate."
"On what?" Muta mocked the farmgirl, who started to twhirl around in place, "Practicing your dance steps?"
"No, trying to find Tenchi." Dorothy replied in her spin as she closed her eyes and extended her arms in front of her person.
"Riiiiight." Muta was doubtful about Dorothy's choice of seeking the location of the missing Tenchi, but he had seen many strange things in the land that was Oz, so he chose to be quiet and see if Dorothy was going in the right way.
Then, Dorothy stopped spinning and started walking the direction she was pointed at, still keeping her eyes closed. Muta chose to stay close to Dorothy, in case that she tripped.
To the feline's surprise, the hair tie glowed brightly as it guided Dorothy to the location of her dear friend. It only glowed brightly to help the girl evade bumping into a shelf or an object.
Then, the glow dimmed and faded back into the hair tie. Dorothy's eyebrows wrinkled around her closed eyes before the eyelids opened, showing the brunette female let was in front of her: an emerald-like stone.
"So," Muta spoke out in a mocking tone, "that's what you hair holder you to? A shiny paperweight?" The cat started laughing as he added, "This is too funny! Ha, ha, ha, HA!"
The nearly twenty-year-old female stuck out her tongue at the mocking cat, who was nearly unable to breath. Turning her attention to the gem-like bric-a-brac, Dorothy was starting to doubt the power of Jigen's spell, she had enough faith in her friends to trust in the direction of the spell.
This was the moment Dorothy had dreaded when she and her friends agreed to play this "game" that Ganondorf offered them: the moment that decided the fates of herself, her friends and the land of Oz itself. Her fingers trembled as the tips felt the smooth, cold surface of the object that was supposed to be Tenchi, and every inch of her very being shook with fear as she took in a very deep breath.
"Here goes nothing." The girl's voice shook with tension and fear, before she said what could be the very last thing she might have ever said, "Oz."
A burst of white light engulfed the room, blinding the girl and the cat. It was so bright that some of the beams escaped the room and grabbed the attentions of the Gerudo King and the vain witch.