Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

Chapter Eleven

The sun rose beyond the horizon that was natrually etched into the land of Oz, when Dorothy awakened from her sleep. One of the sun's rays beamed into the room, but it never touched neither of the foreign females. Dorothy saw this, but she did not stir very much, still feeling a little tired from the lack of sleep, which was only short by a couple of hours.

Soon, the brunette girl made herself rise from the warmth of her given bed and placed the bottom of her feet onto the cold floor. A small gasp flew out of her mouth, which was more from shock than the cold, but Dorothy managed to get over the iciness of the floor.

Dorothy made her way to the door that seperated the room from the hallway, and she opened the door slightly and peered out. Dorothy exposed her head to the lukewarm air of the emerald-green hall, which was wider than her whole house. She looked at the accented edges that was painted with golden leaves in admiration for the artistic value.

Then, she noticed a figure coming down the hallway. At first, Dorothy could not tell who the being was, but after a few moments, the farm girl saw who is was.

"Nightingale?" The organic female asked the being, who was carrying a bundle of clothes in her arms.

"It is me." The robotic woman replied emotionlessly after she reached Dorothy, "I did not expect you to be awake by this time."

"Me neither." Yawned the girl as she spoke to the red-haired robot, before really noticing the clothes in the arms of the 'woman.'

"Hey, whose clothes are you carryin'? I didn't think that you did deliveries."

Without looking at the items in her embrace, Nightingale answered without showing emotions, "These clothes belong to you and Kiyone, and the fact of my deliverying these items are one of the many things I can do to redeem myself for being used by Ganondorf's dark magic."

"That's good to hear." Dorothy smiled sweetly in response to the mechanical woman's honest answer about the duty that Nightingale had taken upon herself.

Then, Dorothy's smile vanished as she heard a noise echoed from the door and looked at the door's direction and saw Kiyone's head, which was covered with a top of messy, dark blue-green hair, appear from the crack of the entryway.

"Mornin', Kiyone." The brunette smiled brighty at her friend, who was annoyed from exhaustion and a lack of a full night's rest.

The deputy sheriff looked irriated, but she managed to inhaled a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself and said, "Dorothy, you know that I'm not a morning person, especially when I fail to get my eight hours of sleep."

"Sorry." The brunette girl still smiled at her friend, "But if it makes ya feel better, I didn't feel like gettin' up myself."

Hearing the statement and detecting no falsehoods, Kiyone did feel a little better about being up in the morning. She exhaled and laughed at the same time before saying, "It does make me feel better about being up in the morning."

Then, Nightingale interrupted the friends' conversation by presented the clothes in front of the girls, seperating them both in words and space.

"Oh, sorry about that, Nightingale." Dorothy's smiled dimmed from mild embarrassment before she took the clothes, "Thanks for the delivery, Nightingale."

"You are welcome." Nightingale's automactic voice rang out in reply before she said, "I will see you two at a later time."

As the robot girl departed from the friends' company, Dorothy and Kiyone returned to their room, took a bath seperately and changed into their cleaned and pressed clothes, feeling refreshed after the adventure they were on for the passed few days. Dorothy was the first to be ready and exited the room first, waiting to leave the room and see all of her Oz-native friends.

As she waited for the deputy sheriff, Dorothy saw another of her friends that was native of the magical land. Like Nightingale, he was dressed formally and in black and white, but Jigen wore an expression on his face, which told Dorothy that he wanted something.

"Mornin', Jigen." The farm girl from Kansas greeted cheerfully as the man in black came into hearing distance.

"Mornin'." Jigen looked at Dorothy for a moment before joining the girl in standing against the wall. The former tinman pulled out a bented cigarette and a lighter, suprising Dorothy greatly, since she was not expecting the land of Oz to have cigarettes or anything like that.

"Cigarettes?" Dorothy's mild shock was expressed in her voice, "In Oz? I didn't think that Oz had things like that."

"In Oz, cigarettes are consided to be imports." Jigen showed a grin to the girl, "I have to go out of Oz to get them."

"Imports?!" Dorothy knew that she was not the best student in her school days, but she knew enough about imports and exports to know what Jigen was talking about. Then, she realized that Jigen had been outside of the land, and she asked him, "You can leave Oz at anytime?"

"That depends of what ya mean by 'anytime.'" Jigen showed a dark eye as he replied to the question of the girl, "I usually leave the land to get cigarettes, but that's not often since these things are expensive, and I haven't been able to leave the land due to the new witches and rebuilding the land."

"Okay." Dorothy smiled somewhat weakly as she spoke, "So, you leave when you need to."

"That's right." Jigen spoke, now showing both of his brown eyes. Pushing himself from the wall and turning completely towards the girl, the black-claded man spoke to her in a tone that made his usually gruff voice even more gruff, "But I do have another reason to get out of Oz."

"Really?" Dorothy inquired, not knowing what Jigen meant by having 'another reason to get out of Oz.' Bravely, the girl was about to ask another question, but a sound of something opening behind her.

"Dorothy?" Kiyone's voice called out, causing both Dorothy and Jigen to turn to the girl's direction, "What's up?"

"Nothin'." Jigen replied as he smiled at Kiyone's presence, "we were just talking about your home land, and stuff, like that."

"Okay." Kiyone said to the man in black, who went to the deputy sheriff and said, "I better show you to the target room."

"Target room?" Dorothy expressed her unfamiliarity to the castle and its many rooms as she asked the question.

"Jigen told me about the target room during the party last night." Kiyone told her friend in the blue and white shirt, "He told me that the room's enchanted to keep people from being killed by a stray shot."

"That's good to hear." Dorothy grinned at her friend, "I'm pretty sure that the royal family felt a lot safer in there."

"Dorothy," Jigen made an offer to the brunette, "why don't you come with us? I might show you how to fire a gun without the stroke of luck."

The young woman was torn between her fear of the use of firearms and her understanding of the need to learn to defend herself in the land that was as dangerous as it was magical. Breathing in deeply, Dorothy gave her answer.

"I'll come." Dorothy said with a mild smile, "I do need to learn how to defend myself, because my luck won't always be around to help get me out of any more jams, like the last few."

"I doubt that very much." Kiyone stated as she removed a strand of hair from her face and back to her rightful place, "However, you make a good point about luck."

Jigen grinned at the girls' friendship as the girls giggled at the deputy's statement, pleased that both of the foreign girls were happy with each other. The older man knew that Kiyone's and Dorothy's friendship was strong, but at that realization, his grin weakened.

"Hey," Dorothy's voice rang out into the man's ears, grabbing his attention, "What's the matter? You look a little upset."

"It's nothin'." Jigen coolly stated, but the two friends were not fooled by the man's words, but they choose to let it be his business.

"Let's go to the target room." Kiyone suggested to the man and her friend, "I know I need the practice, since I've been running around and all over the place."

"Right." Dorothy agreed with a firm nod of her head before looking at Jigen, who said in a deadpan voice, "I'll show you girls the way."

With Jigen in the lead, the trio traversed the corridors of green and gold, taking many rights and lefts and going downstairs a few times before reaching the room. Then, the girls with their escort entered the room, which was black as night without any moon or stars to brighten the sky and earth. Seeing this made Dorothy a little nervous, since the room reminded her of the dark throne of Ganondorf in Death Mountain.

"I don't like this." The farm girl admitted to her allies as fear was heard in her shaking voice, but Jigen was quick to ease Dorothy's worries by saying, "Don't worry, it's goin' to be okay."

Dorothy was about to ask Jigen about what he meant, but the room's dark cloak vanished as light appeared in the room, which was as green as the hallways and touched at the edges by the shiny yellow. The farm girl saw the room's colors and the targets that appeared out of thin air, ready to be used by anyone that wishes to train themselves in the art of marksmanship.

"Whoa!" Dorothy said at the same time as Kiyone unintentionally copied her friend's word and astonishment as Jigen pulled out his weapon, which was returned to him before the party and Princess Tsunami's return.

Kiyone looked at the gun-carrying man and pulled out her weapon, ready to practice aiming and firing her Colt .45.

"Impressive." Jigen said as he showed off his enchanted Smith & Wesson to the deputy sheriff, who had an expression that repeated the man's statement silently.

"Well," Dorothy said under her breath, feeling a little out of place upon the weapon-carrying duo, "I think that I'm the one gettin' shot down, and it's not how one might think when in a shootin' gallery."

An hour passed, and Jigen and Kiyone practiced aiming capabilies and marksmanship, while Dorothy watched them fire at the standing targets. The farm girl's akwardness had grown into uncomfortable uneasiness, and it only hurt her when she saw her best friend from Kansas and her second friend in Oz talked to each other with great ease and familiar content.

The young brunette sighed deeply, hardly hearing anything that two gunslingers had to say. When one of them spoke to her, Dorothy said one-word statements, and this concerned the gun-carrying duo.

Then, the female officer of the law went to Dorothy's side and spoke to her, getting Dorothy's nearly-nonexistent attention.

"I'm going out for a couple minutes, and I'll be back. Okay, Dorothy."

"Okay." Nodded the farm girl, who watched her friend exit the room, leaving her in the target room with Jigen, the former tin marksman.

The uncomfort was in the brunette's chest started to ping with Dorothy's heart as she felt Jigen's hidden eyes look at her. Deeply breathing to ease herself, Dorothy looked at the man in the black suit.

"Come on, Dorothy." Jigen beckoned as he pulled out his second revovler to give to the farm girl, so she could practice her own marksmanship.

"Oh, boy..." Dorothy uttered quietly as she went to Jigen's side and obtained the man's gun.

Dorothy was really never an enthuistic when it came to the subject of firearms, but she knew that it was necessary to learn if she was to be ready for the next time that she needed to defend herself and her friends and at that luck decided to not be there for her.

"All right." Jigen instructed Dorothy, who was obeident in the man's words, "Now, let's see your form with the gun."

Willing to learn, Dorothy pointed the gun at the target and aimed at the red center. As she was about to fire, the hands of the now-human Jigen grabbed Dorothy by the shoulders and fixed her postition.

"Keep the shoulders a little more lax." The man wearing the fedora said as his hands stayed on Dorothy's shoulders, "It won't fly straight and hit your mark."

"Okay." The brunette girl nodded, still looking at her target.

Her face was still and hardly without emotion as she aimed the weapon, but her partly-tanned face changed to a bright pink, when she felt and saw Jigen's hands place themselves onto her own hands. This was unusual to the farm girl, since most men avoided her, which was mostly her Aunt Em's fault.

"Okay," the black-dressed man said, continuing his instruction to Dorothy, "use the tip of the gun to aim; it'll improve the shot's accuracy."

"Alright." Dorothy said quickly, feeling even more uncomfortable as she sensed Jigen's breath on her skin, which caused goosebumps to appear on her body.

"Now," announced Jigen as he unknowingly sending a scent of tobacco to the girl's nose, which smelled horrible, yet appealled to Dorothy, "just keep a clear head when ya shot."

Dorothy's facial expression said the statement, 'That is easy for you to say.' However, she was worried about what Jigen might say or do by actually saying the sentense to him.

Then, a sneeze echoed throughout the room, perking the attentions of Jigen and Dorothy. Turning to the direction of the sound of the sneeze, the two became suspious of the person behind the sneeze. The bearded man and the brunette girl nodded to each other and went to the entrance, where they heard familiar voices.

"Juno!" The voice of Vesta hissed out in a low tone, "Can't you control your sneezing?!"

"It's not my fault!" Juno's more gruff voice responded, "Ceres is the one with flowers in her hair, and they're tickling my nose!"

"Hey!" The more feminine voice of Ceres hissed back, "You could redirect your nose to a different direction!"

"Uh, excuse me?" Pallas's voice tried to pry her sisters' attentions back to Jigen and Dorothy, who had vanished from her sights.

"Oh, yeah?" Juno's voice sounded increasing angry at Ceres as she spoke, "We'll just have to see about that, Ceres."

"Excuse me..." Pallas tried again, only to be heard by the deaf ears of her sisters.

"Now, wait a minute!" Vesta interjeted into the disagreement between her aguring sisters, "This isn't the time for that!"

"Hey!" Pallas tried harded that time, but to no avail.

"Shut up, Juno!" The voice of Ceres was the soil for the growing her seed of annoyance, which was becoming a furious blossom.

"HEY!"

The other three of the four sisters looked at their sister and saw what Pallas had saw earlier: the lack of Jigen and Dorothy.

Scrambling into the room, the three sisters, who sent some of the time bickering between themselves, looked frantically for the two in the room and asked out to the room and unison, "Where did they go?"

Pallas, who was nearly ran over by her three sisters, entered the room in a slower pace and looked at the room with a more careful examination, and she was able to find Jigen and Dorothy and saw his brother's outrage matching Dorothy's.

As she saw the incensed duo, all Pallas could say, at the moment, was, "Uh, oh..."

The other three heard this, and they turned around to see both Jigen and Dorothy with an insulted look on their faces and an outraged look in their eyes. Seeing this, the trio said in a meek alarm, "Uh, oh..."

Later that day and after Dorothy and Jigen scolded the quadruplet daughters of Zeniba, Kiyone returned with Tenchi, Cerberus, Nightingale, Mihoshi and Helios with a message from Princess Tsunami that requested their presence at the throne room. Quickly, Dorothy and Kiyone reached the throne room and saw Princess Tsunami with a serious and downhearted expression on her young face.

"What's wrong, Sasami?" Dorothy asked informally, sensing the sadness of one of her dear friends from Oz.

"I have depressing news," the new ruler of Oz announced within two deep sighs, "and it is more disheartening for me than you and Kiyone."

"What is it then?" Kiyone spoke up, wanting to know what the princess of the land had to say to the two friends.

"Well," the teal-haired woman started with another sigh, "I've seen a vision of your home, and Dorothy's aunt and uncle are returning home early, because of the leader of the law enforcement of your town had 'invited' himself in Dorothy's home. Also, he had 'helped' himself to a few of Dorothy's belongings."

"Not a surprise." Dorothy stated with a roll of her eyes, and Kiyone added, "That guy's got no respect for anyone."

"I couldn't agree with you more." The princess sighed again, "Dorothy, Kiyone, you two must return to your home at once."

A silent protest was seen by the princess, who felt their dismay, but she knew that Dorothy and Kiyone must go home for they would be dearly missed at their native land as well.

Then, the two friends were not as happy about going back to Kansas, but they unknowing shared Tsunami's concern and judgement.

Then, the young princess rose from her seat and revealed that she had possession of Dorothy's backpack and said as she tried to hold back the tears, "I'm afraid that you must go now."

"Understood." Dorothy smiled sweetly, understanding the princess's sadness, since the farm girl did not want to depart from Oz herself.

"Same here." Kiyone spoke as well, "Besides, I've got to get back to work."

"Of course." The princess sighed as she tried to smile to hide her despair of Dorothy's and Kiyone's leaving of the land of Oz.

Grabbing the backpack that she had obtained by some unknown way, Tsunami gave the pack back to Dorothy and swiftly grabbing Dorothy into a powerful embrace, surprising the foreign girl immensely.

"I don't want you to go!" Sasami sobbed into the girl's shirt, damping it to Dorothy's discomfort, but the brunette tried to calm the princess down.

"It's okay." Dorothy tried to be calm for her crying friend's sake, "I'll be back before you know it, Sasami."

The young female forced herself to look at Dorothy and asked in a very childish voice, "Really?"

"Yeah." A new voice intjected into the moment between the two girls. Then, Jigen appeared at Dorothy's side and added, "And you won't be alone in missing her as well."

The young girl managed to pull herself from Dorothy's body, wiped the tears from her red-pink eyes and recomposed herself before stating, "You're going to be deeply missed here Dorothy."

Dorothy cleared her throat at the ruler of Oz, reminding her of another person that was also from Kansas: Kiyone.

"Oops!" Tsunami covered her mouth at the realization and added quickly, "And you, Kiyone, are welcome to the Emerald City at any time."

"Thanks for the offer." Kiyone half-groaned, knowing that Dorothy had pointed her out to the young princess, and then she recalled that Dorothy was a humble person most of the time and did not like having the spotlight completely on her.

Then, Dorothy pulled out her silver slippers, removed her tennis shoes and replaced them with the magical footwear. Making sure the shoes fit her feet, the brunette farm girl turned to her friends, which most of them wished that Dorothy would stay a little longer in Oz.

"Dorothy," Tenchi, the scarecrow, approached her first, "I'm gonna miss a lot, and we didn't get a chance to catch up."

"I'm sorry about that, Tenchi, but there's always next time." Dorothy smiled sweetly as the straw man's painted face.

The scarecrow nodded at Dorothy and smiled hopefully as he agreed by saying, "There's always next time."

Then, Cerberus went to Dorothy's side and spoke to the departing female.

"Dorothy, I don't want you to go." The mane-less lion rubbed his head against the farm girl's small and slender hands.

"Me neither." Dorothy replied at she hugged the yellow cat's neck, "But it can't be helped, Cerberus, it can't be helped."

Pulling herself from the winged lion, Dorothy turned to the next person, who made Cerberus growled viciously.

"Helios." Dorothy said with a sweet smile, "I glad that I've been able to help ya get outta that predicament with Nelhelenia."

"And I, too, am glad to repay you for your good deed, dear princess." The emeralds' guardian bowed in respect toward the farm girl, who blushed and said in a frantic motion.

"Please, no formalities! I'm still Dorothy Gale from Kansas, just call me Dorothy, not 'Princess!'"

"I will do as you ask, Dorothy." Helios gently lifted the brunette's hand and was about to kiss it, when a louder growl roared from the winged lion's throat, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Cerberus," the deputy sheriff shouted at the royal from a jungle, "what's the big idea about that growl."

"Yeah!" Dorothy agreed, moving her hand from the horned boy's lips, "What's that all about, Cerberus?"

"Forgive me, Dorothy." Cerberus managed to keep his fury under control as he spoke to the young woman, "Lions and unicorns, winged or not, never had a friendly relationship. We usually keep our distance from each other."

"However," Helios interjected his thoughts, "I believe that Cerberus and I can restrain ourselves for your sake, Dorothy."

Cerberus wanted to say something to the man that could change into a winged unicorn at will, but he gruffly huffed and said, "As long as he doesn't do anything to upset me."

"Then, you should not do anything to upset me in return, Cerberus." Helios pointed out to the lion, who huffed once more at Helios before turning from him.

"Well," Mihoshi spoke out again, making her way to Dorothy, "it's my turn to say good bye."

"Of course." Dorothy giggled at the woman made of sticks and fruit, who was very blunt in her words towards the farm girl.

"Bye!"

This caused Dorothy to laugh a little harder, and the others joined in the laughter. Mihoshi, innocent and naive, also interjected herself into the laughter.

Once the laughter was silenced by time, the next person to say a farewell to Dorothy was the ever-emotionless Nightingale. This time, Kiyone was included in the good bye.

"Dorothy, Kiyone, you have my thanks for helping me to redeem myself for being used by Ganondorf's dark magic."

"It's not a problem." Dorothy smiled at the automaton woman, and Kiyone did the same as she added, "Yeah, you needed the help."

"Now, that I have repaid my debt," Nightingale responded without emtion in her voice, "I will return to my duties in the castle."

Then, the robotic woman walked from the girls, who looked at each other in their confusion, and they turned to the last person among the friends.

"Jigen..." Dorothy quietly said, not knowing what to say to the former tin marksman.

The hat-wearing man went to the foreign females and said bluntly, "Kiyone, Dorothy, it's nice to see you two."

Kiyone, hearing the hidden emotion in the man's voice, knew that he wanted to say more, but she did not know that he could not or would not tell Dorothy what he truly wanted to say. Of course, she did hear from Dorothy that Jigen's younger sisters spied on them after she left her best friend with their brother, so that might make things a little difficult to talk about at anytime.

"Is there anything else you want to say?" Kiyone asked, earning the glares of both Jigen and Dorothy, and neither of them are pleased to hear the mischief in the deputy's voice.

"Kiyone," Dorothy's voice turned dark with fury and annoyance as her blue eyes glared at her friend, "if Jigen or I did not find it amusing when Juno, Vesta, Ceres and Pallas were spying on us, what makes you think I would find anything amusing about you fishing for info?"

Looking from Dorothy and to Jigen, the deputy could see that the son of Zeniba was not in a disagreement with the farm girl by the deep frown on his lips. An apologetic grin formed on Kiyone's pale face as she said in response, "I'm sorry about that, Dorothy."

Saying no more to Kiyone, the farm girl turned to Jigen and said, "I hope that I do get to see you again and soon."

"Same here." Jigen grinned and pulled the brim of his hat even lower to keep his eyes concealed from all that could see him.

Then, the brunette turned to her best friend from Kansas and said, seemingly forgetting about Kiyone's mischief, "Ready to go?"

"As I'll ever be." Kiyone responded with a weak grin, "But how do we get home?"

"Oh! That reminds me!" Dorothy recalled something before asking everyone, "Where's Washu?"

"I'M OVER HERE!" A flash of bright pink-red flew passed the group of Dorothy's friends and grabbed the farm girl-turned-princess.

"Washu!" Dorothy gasped in fright of the former Wizard of Oz embracing her so strongly, "Can ya let go, please?"

"Oops!" The smaller person removed herself from the foreign girl and said, "I wanted to say good bye to you and Kiyone too."

"We'll miss you too, Washu." Kiyone giggled out as she reached to Dorothy's and Washu's side and gave the small female a hug.

Washu, surprised by the deputy sheriff's action, hugged back, half-happy to finally go home and half-sad that she had to say good bye to such kind-hearted people. Then, she freed herself from Kiyone and hugged Dorothy, who was more ready for the embrace.

Once the duo were free to go to the princess, Dorothy and Kiyone were face-to-face to the girl that was the servant of Nelhelenia for most of her life. Then, the three of them said their farewells.

"Well, this is good bye." Kiyone stated in a hasty manner, as Dorothy nodded in agreement with the deputy sheriff before saying, "I really do hope that we'll see each other again, and on better circumstances."

"Agreed." The princess of Oz nodded as a single crystal tear streamed from one of her eyes, "Until we meet again."

"Right." The two best friends nodded in agreement as they spoke before turning to each other and silently said that it was time to go.

Dorothy looked at the silver slippers on her feet, but then she remembered someone else.

"We almost forgot Muta!" Dorothy exclaimed in her shame, and started to look around for the lean stray cat, "Where is he?"

"Over here!" The voice rang out to the girls, who looked at the throne, where the mostly-white cat was laying.

"You're not comin' with us?" Dorothy inquiried the feline, who was quick to answer the question in his own way.

"No way! People are finally listening to me! Do you really think I'd want to back to a world where the only reward for my services is being chase around by a crazy old lady with a broomstick? Not this stray!"

"Understood, Muta." The two friends giggled in unison as they listened to the cat's loud and long response to the question.

Then, the girl with brown hair looked down at the enchanted shoes and said, "Take us back to Kansas, and make it quick!"

Then, a silver aura engulfed Dorothy, who grabbed Kiyone by the arm, causing the deputy sheriff to be encased by the light before in a flash, the best friends vanished into thin air, leaving the land of Oz and its citizens behind them.