The very second Mombi and Langwidere had left, Billina, who had been hiding in the air vent the whole time, had listened their entire conversation. She immediately turned and wedged her way through the vent back up to the Wizard's chamber. The hen emerged from the air duct, shaking the dust off her feathery body.
"Dorothy! Mombi is hiding her witchy stuff in one of Langwidere's cabinets! It will be in cabinet thirty where her original head is stored!"
Dorothy had freed the Tiger from being chained to the wall with a screwdriver to unlock the shackle around his neck when she heard the information Billina gave her. "Good work, Billina! If all of Mombi's magic powders and potions are in cabinet thirty, that's where I'll find her Powder of Life."
"So what's the next part of the plan?" asked the Tiger.
"We rescue Jack, Tiktok, and Woodenhorse!" added Dorothy. "But we'll have to be careful with all those winged baboons and wheelers lurking about."
"You'll find old melon head and carousel horse in the Emerald City dungeon," stated Billina.
"You let me deal with those crazy baboons," said the Tiger, pumping a fist in the air, "while you find Tiktok."
Using the screwdriver that Dorothy had used, the Tiger unlocked the door and pushed it slightly open. Dorothy and the Tiger crept down the dusty staircase and entered the chamber of mirrors. Tiktok stood completely still in the middle of the room, as where Langwidere had left him.
Dorothy tiptoed quietly to the mechanical man and whispered through his ear. "Tiktok, are you listening?" Tiktok's eyes widened when he heard Dorothy's voice and he opened his mouth to say something when Dorothy placed a hand over his mouth. "Shh! Don't say anything. I found the Hungry Tiger. He's gone after Jack and Woodenhorse. After I finish winding you up, go upstairs where Billina is waiting and she will explain what you need to do."
When his action had been wound up, Tiktok nodded his head in understanding to Dorothy.
In the Emerald City dungeon, a pair of winged baboons were throwing banana peels and half eaten mangos at Jack and Woodenhorse, screeching and laughing wildly. Poor Jack and Woodenhorse hated being the victims of torment as Jack often tripped on a banana peel and Woodenhorse covered in mango juice whenever the mangos splattered all over his face. One of the winged baboons was about to throw another mango at Woodenhorse when a big orange furry paw grabbed him by the wrist. The winged baboon glanced behind him and his face fell. He tapped his partner on the shoulder and his reaction was the same. From outside the dungeon, if anyone was close enough to the door, they would've heard the sounds violent punching or menacing roars.
Upstairs in the Wizard's chamber, Tiktok pushed the two big sofas together and Billina was pulling a large cord of rope so Tiktok could tie them together. Just then, the door opened and Jack and Woodenhorse entered, still covered in banana peels and mango juice.
"Well, it's about time you boys got here," said Billina. "And what happened to you?"
"Locked in a cell, guarded by two chimpanzees with wings, had thrown fruit in our faces, anything else you wanna ask?" Woodenhorse grumbled with sarcasm. "But I felt much better when that good old tiger gave them the whatnot," he added, with a pleased smile.
"Where is Dorothy?" asked Tiktok.
"Mr. Tiger says she went to go get Mombi's Powder of Life while she's sleeping," said Jack. "But Mr. Tiger said he's gone with her to look after her." He twiddled his stick finger tips with nervousness. "I just hope Dorothy doesn't wake up that evil witch. Things could get really ugly."
-0o0o0-
Dorothy and the Tiger cautiously pushed the door open to the bedroom of the wicked princess. All they could was loud snoring from under the white sheets of the princess' bed. The Tiger motioned Dorothy to get down on all fours and crawl towards the bed, which she did, as quietly as ever. Peering over the bedside, Dorothy noticed one hand sticking out from under the blanket. The hand that had Langwidere's ruby red key tied around her wrist in black ribbon. Very carefully, Dorothy untied the black ribbon from the princess' wrist. Suddenly, Langwidere moaned slightly and turned over. The blanket pulled back, revealing the body of the princess in a pink nightgown, but with no head, creeping the Tiger out greatly.
"Daah!" The Tiger let out a cry of shock. Dorothy quickly clapped her hand over his mouth and yanked him down from the princess' view, afraid he might wake her up. But Langwidere was still asleep. Dorothy glared a look of scolding at the Tiger, who felt embarrassed. "Sorry, Dorothy."
Carefully, Dorothy reached for the ruby red key that lay on the bed and placed it in her pocket. Leaving the room, Dorothy approached the hall of heads. Each woman's head slept and snored peacefully. Dorothy gulped with fear and grasped her neck, praying her head would never become a part of Langwidere's collection.
-0o0o0-
Back upstairs, Jack, Woodenhorse, and Tiktok tied the two sofas together using the rope Billina gave them. The palm fronds were tied to the sofas just like the mounted moose's head had been tied to the front.
"What is that thing tied to the front?" questioned Billina.
"That is the head of a Gump," answered Tiktok. "We do need a head so he could see where we're going."
"Here's an extra broom for the tail." Jack wedged the stick's end of the broom in the back.
"Perfect," said Tiktok. "Now we tie Jack's feet together at the same time."
"Right! Tie my feet together at the same time – Whoa!" Jack's feet were tied together and bound tightly by the rope that he tripped and fell on Woodenhorse.
"Watch where you fall next time!" growled Woodenhorse. "Why do we need your feet tied together anyway?"
"Bring the mantelpiece right to the desk…..and anoint the palms….."
Woodenhorse raised an eyebrow. "Anoint the palms? What are you talking about, Tiktok? It's not right."
"That's right, Woodenhorse…..left, right, and wrong….."
"What are you talking about, Tiktok?" Jack asked, confused.
But the mechanical man only spoke in weird sentences. "Pretty girls and pumpkinheads make chicken fly around coop…"
"Fly the coop!?" cried Billina. "I think you've lost your head, clock man!"
In the dungeon, the Scarecrow face palmed and sighed in exasperation, and then he grumbled in sarcasm. "Ugh. What a perfect time to lose your brain, Tiktok."
-0o0o0-
Meanwhile, Dorothy had found cabinet thirty and unlocked it with the ruby red key. When the lock turned, Dorothy slowly opened the glass cabinet. There, dozing off in cabinet thirty, was Langwidere's real and original head, and she looked absolutely grotesque and ugly. Dorothy shrieked as quietly as ever at the hideous looking head. But in the process, her hand accidently brushed against a canister, knocking it out of the cabinet. Dorothy quickly grabbed hold of the canister, as it was inches from hitting the ground.
"I told you that you would get it!" The Tiger whispered out to her from the end of the hall, with a pleased chuckle.
Dorothy looked at the canister's label. Powder of Life, is what it read. Dorothy smiled and sighed with relief. She had gotten the powder, without even waking up Langwidere. But, when Dorothy had taken the powder, not only did she knock it out of the cabinet, but she had knocked a small vile off the shelf and it fell to the floor with a clank. The eyes of the hideous head snapped open, looking at a shocked Dorothy with fury in her eyes.
"DOROTHY GAAAAALE! The head wailed her name in an ugly voice.
The other heads of every female woke up in surprise and began screaming. Even Glinda's head woke up and she screamed, but it merely sounded like "Run, Dorothy, run!"
The headless body of Langwidere sat up from the bed, glancing over in Dorothy's direction. Dorothy froze in fear as the headless body stalked toward her, the arms outstretched to grab her and making frightening gurgling noises.
"DOROTHY GAAAAALE!"
But without a head, the princess could not see. This gave the Tiger the chance to knock the headless body down with a roar.
Then, he grabbed Dorothy's shoulder and shook her rapidly, the Tiger shouted, "Never freeze in front of a predator, babe! It'll give her the chance to kill you! Now c'mon!"
Having snapped back to reality, Dorothy locked the cabinet with the ruby red key and followed the Tiger, who lead the way to escape. The headless body got back up on her feet and, instead of going after Dorothy, it went straight for the screaming hall of heads.
The two of them fled into the hall of mirrors, but they could still hear Langwidere's enraged screaming from her bedchamber behind them.
"NOBODY RUNS AWAY FROM ME! NOBODY RUNS AWAY FROM LANGWIDERE!"
The Tiger suddenly halted. He looked around the room, looking confused.
"What's the matter?" asked Dorothy.
"I don't remember which door we used to get in here!" exclaimed the Tiger, frantically.
But luck was on their side. Dorothy spotted a ghostly green mist in the shape of a girl in one mirror on the far right side of the room. The ghost seemed to be beckoning her to come to the mirror, as it mysteriously opened and revealed the secret staircase that led up to the Wizard's chamber.
"D-D-Did you see that?" Dorothy pointed to the open door. "There was a…"
"Hey, what do you know? I must've left the door open when we came down." The Tiger immediately bolted up the staircase, not paying attention to what Dorothy tried to tell him.
"DOROTHY GAAAAALE!"
The wicked princess' gruesome wailing frightened Dorothy so much that she bolted right up the staircase, but not before shutting the door and locking it. Dorothy rushed up the stairs and burst into the Wizard's chamber.
When Jack saw her enter, he sighed with relief. "Oh, Dorothy! Thank goodness you're alright!"
"Where have you been?" asked the Tiger, worriedly.
"I was, distracted by something." Dorothy decided to forget what she had seen in the mirror, for now. "But never mind that. Langwidere's awake!"
"Oh no!" cried Jack, fearfully.
"It's about time you got back! Tiktok went berserk!" Billina exclaimed, impatiently.
Tiktok wandered aimlessly around the room. "Tickle…pickle…me…"
"His brain has run down." Dorothy rushed toward Tiktok and started winding up his thinking.
"Oh, good grief." Billina rolled her eyes in agitation.
"But if his brain's run down, how can he talked?" asked Jack.
"It happens to people all the time, Jack," replied Dorothy.
"Oh, thank you, Dorothy. I'm alright now," said Tiktok, right after Dorothy finished winding him up.
Dorothy gestured to the door. "Go to the door and look out for Langwidere."
"Yes, ma'am." Tiktok saluted as he walked toward the door.
"I'll stick with you," said the Tiger, following the mechanical man.
There was no time to lose. Dorothy sprinkled the powder of the contraption. She waited for the thing to come to life but nothing happened.
"It's not working!" cried Dorothy.
"Oh, maybe there were some magic words," Jack said, thoughtfully.
"What were they? Think Jack!" Dorothy pleaded, desperately. "You've got to remember!"
"But I wasn't alive at the time! How can I remember then?"
"Try reading the directions, Dorothy," Billina suggested. "Hickory had instructions when he once built that crazy contraption of his."
Dorothy read the back label on the canister. "I don't understand these words!"
"Well read them anyway!" said Woodenhorse. "We don't have much time!"
"Weaugh…..Teaugh…..Peaugh!"
"Peaugh?" The Gump said suddenly in a deep voice. His head began to move and his eyes blinked in surprise.
"It worked!" Dorothy cheered while she and Jack shared a big hug.
"Well, that's some powder," Woodenhorse chuckled.
But downstairs in the bedchamber, Mombi, who had been woken up by the screaming, burst into Langwidere's chamber and watched as Langwidere threw a chair into the glass cabinet of Number Thirty to retrieve her head, still growling in anger.
"Were you sleep-walking or did you have a bad dream?" The wicked witch asked, sarcastically. Then she noticed something was missing among her supplies of potions and powders inside the cabinet, and her reaction was almost the same as Langwidere. "Where's my Powder of Life!?"
"Dorothy Gale has stolen your powder and is, as I suspect, planning to escape!"
"Then we shall see about that!" Mombi snarled. "C'mon, let's go!"
Upstairs, Tiktok and the Tiger heard an angry voice and feet coming up the staircase.
"I WILL STOP YOU!"
"Uh oh! Langwidere is coming!" Tiktok turned to his comrades, as he and the Tiger barred the door with their all their strength.
"Quick! We gotta go!" Woodenhorse exclaimed, jumping into the new flying contraption.
Billina fluttered in whilst Dorothy climbed in, then helped Jack get into the thing. A loud banging made the door barge as Langwidere could be heard pounding against the door.
"The door is starting to give!" cried Tiktok.
"We can't hold it!" shouted the Tiger.
"Time's up! Hurry, jump in!" Woodenhorse called out, desperately.
Tiktok and the Tiger leapt into the middle of the thing as Dorothy shouted, "Can you flap your wings, Mr. Gump?"
"Wings? I don't have any wings." The Gump glanced at the waving palm fronds tied to the sofas. "Oh, I guess I do."
"Please hurry up and fly us out of here! We're in hot water right now!" Dorothy shouted.
The thing started to move and lift in the air, just as the door burst open. Mombi and Langwidere stormed into the chamber, shooting looks of daggers.
"SO…..you thought you could get away, eh?" Mombi cackled.
"You can't escape from us!" Langwidere shouted.
Dorothy screamed when the two witches entered. The Gump flew towards the barred window and crashed right through it. As soon he had done that, the Gump went over the edge and plummeted toward the earth. The entire group screamed their heads off as gravity pulled them down to the city below. Mombi and Langwidere cackled with glee, thinking they were about to fall to their demise.
"Fly! FLY!" Dorothy screamed at the top of her lungs.
At the last moment, the Gump spread his palm frond wings and took flight.
"You did it! Hooray!" Dorothy cheered, and so did everyone else.
The Gump soared across the gloomy Emerald City and over the high wall. The Scarecrow, who had seen everything in the mirror, released his breath and sighed with heavy relief.
But Mombi and Langwidere watched in fury as the escapees flew out of the Emerald City. With the aide of the broomstick, Mombi and Langwidere flew downstairs and down to the courtyard where the wheelers and winged baboons slept.
"WAKE UP! ALL OF YOU! GET UP!"
Langwidere shrieked and both armies awoke with alarm and screamed in surprise. "Look! Dorothy Gale is escaping!" The princess pointed up to the sky and both armies gazed up in horror. "Go and get them back for us! All of you! Go, go, go!"
The wheelers scrambled on their wheels and immediately rolled away. The winged baboons saluted and they took to the skies as Mombi screamed the same line her cousins used when they ordered winged monkeys or baboons to attack.
"Fly! Fly! Fly, my darlings! FLYYYYY!"
"And make sure you bring back that chicken!" added Langwidere, as soon as the last wheeler and winged baboon left the Emerald City. "And don't come back without that chicken!"
-0o0o0-
"You know, the last thing I remember is walking through the forest," the Gump explained to his passengers. "Then I heard a loud noise. And now, here I am flying through the sky. What am I anyway?"
"You're a…thing, with a gump's head on it," said Dorothy. "We built you and brought you to life so we can rescue the Scarecrow and all my friends all being held captive in the Nome King's mountain."
The Gump chuckled. "I may not last very long. I'm not feeling very well put together."
"Oh, please, don't say that." Jack sighed.
"How do we know where to land? It's dark out here," said Woodenhorse.
"We must keep flying until morning comes. When we arrive at the Nome King's mountain, maybe then we can find a safer place to land."
"That's a good idea, Tiktok." Dorothy smiled. "Gump, if you please, we would like to fly straight ahead?"
"I don't I can turn if I wanted to," the Gump chuckled.
"Why don't we just fly back to Kansas?" Billina yawned, nesting herself close to Dorothy, who had also begun to feel tired.
"Whatever happens, I'm awfully tired right now, and I'm lucky to have my own head to be tired with." Dorothy yawned and dozed off on the sofa in a deep sleep.
Everyone watched Dorothy fall asleep and smiled. Jack took off his green scarf and wrapped it around Dorothy's neck gently so she wouldn't feel a chill.
"Goodnight, Dorothy," the pumpkin man whispered in a sweet, soothing tone.
Woodenhorse looked over at the Tiger. "Say, uh, Tiger, are you feeling alright? You haven't said anything since we escaped."
The Tiger looked up at the wooden carousel horse. His eyes looked watery and his cheeks turning green. "I didn't want to say this but…..I get airsick and…"
"If you're gonna do whatcha gotta do, do it overboard," said Woodenhorse.
"And that's not all…"
"What is it?"
"I wet the sofas when we escaped."
Everyone onboard groaned in complete disgust. Jack and Tiktok edged away from the large beast so not to feel any wet warm spots.
"Eew, did you have to?" grumbled Woodenhorse.
"I thought we were going to die!" retorted the Tiger.
-0o0o0-
Back at the Emerald Palace, Mombi watched through her green crystal ball to look for any sign of Dorothy and her companions. Langwidere just sat in her chair, strumming her lute. Slight movement came from within the mirror as the green misty ghost Dorothy had seen earlier lurk around the mirrors, as if trying to find a way out. Langwidere nodded toward the mirror for Mombi to look, and the wicked witch smirked evilly. "Oh, Ozma, you should give up already. Nobody's going to help you. Nobody knows exactly where you are. There's nobody left who even knows who you are."
Author's Note – The next chapter will be an exciting pursuit and escape from the winged baboons as Dorothy and the gang try to make it to the Nome King's mountain. The wheelers don't do very well because they can't cross the desert. And another upcoming song right after the chase. You know, when I watch the Wicked Witch of the West, Evanora, and the Jester order their monkeys to fly, I can't help but feel that ordering monkeys or baboons to attack or fly must run in the family.