Dorothy Gale lay unconscious in the snow after her near death encounter with a lightning bolt created by Mombi. Suddenly, her eyes fluttered open and she sat upward. Looking around, she saw her precious flying machine damaged, but not entirely. Leaning against the rocky wall the Gump's head still tied to the sofa. The other sofa and the two palm fronds were gone. Tiktok's legs waved aimlessly in the air when they stuck out from the snow. Jack had landed safely on the sofa with his pumpkin head upside down on his neck, and the cushions made a good pillow to keep his head from splattering. Woodenhorse lay in the snow, on his back, his legs dangling in the air. The Tiger lay close by, his body sizzling and his fur static due to being electrified by Mombi's bolt. Billina popped out from the snow, shaking the snow off her little body and cackling in annoyance.

"Whew! That was some crash landing," said Billina. Then she looked at her tail and it was sizzling with gray burnt feathers. "Now I know how the other chickens felt when they've been fried."

"Is everyone okay?" Dorothy asked aloud, with concern.

The Tiger was the first to get up. "I'm okay here, kid."

Woodenhorse managed to turn himself over and stand up on his own four legs again. "Affirmative."

"Are you okay, Gump?" Dorothy asked.

"I'm just glad I don't have my normal body," said the Gump. "Otherwise I'd be paralyzed."

"I'm alright here." Jack looked at everybody in front of him, noticing the way things seemed different with his head upside down. "Why is everybody standing on their heads?"

Woodenhorse rolled his eyes, then he stood up on his back legs, grabbed the jack-o-lantern head, and set it right side up on Jack's wooden neck.

"Oh, thank you, Woodenhorse." Jack smiled, slightly embarrassed.

"Get me out of here!" Tiktok shouted from underneath the snow.

When the Tiger's paws made contact with Tiktok's feet, an electric spark zapped him briefly. "Ouch!"

"What happened?" Tiktok asked.

"Uh, nothing," said the Tiger, rubbing his paws. "Just hold still!" Grabbing his legs, the Tiger yanked Tiktok right out of the snow, despite the electric shocks he received from the copper man. By the time Tiktok was up and about, the Tiger rubbed his paws against the snow hopping the shock would go away.

Dorothy attempted to stand up, but quickly felt a sharp pain in her body and she cried out in agony.

"Dorothy, what's wrong?" Billina exclaimed, fluttered to her mistress' side in worry.

"I… I don't know…" Dorothy gasped through her speech, "I can't… I feel weak."

"It's because you've been struck by the lightning, isn't it?" inquired Jack.

"If I see that witch again, I'll rip her to pieces for what she's done to you!" The Tiger roared furiously, unsheathing his claws.

"Never mind that," said Dorothy. "We must find the entrance to the Nome King's kingdom."

"But Mom, your hurt. And this Nome King guy might hurt you even more. Or worse. Maybe you should wait here and let us find the Nome King," Tiktok announced.

Everyone else seemed to agree with the mechanical man, but Dorothy refused. She thought about the dream she had and the Scarecrow trying to make her promise to never place herself in danger. She never gave him her answer when she got caught in the storm but if she kept her promise her friends will still be in grave danger.

"My friends are in trouble and I will not be left here while they're suffering. So I'm going with you." Dorothy declared, looking extremely serious.

"We can't put you in any more danger…" Tiktok stated before Dorothy interrupted.

"I've survived many dangers before!"

"But His Majesty, the Scarecrow, will never forgive us if something happened to you!"

"I don't care what he or anyone else thinks! I'm not a little girl anymore, so I can make decisions for myself! My friends need me and I will save them! Now we are going to find the Nome King's mountain, whether you want me with you or not!"

Everyone stared at Dorothy, taken aback and shocked. Despite the pain, Dorothy slowly got to her feet and managed to walk. She started along the first path she found. The rest of the group exchanged worried frowns before they started after Dorothy.

They trudged down a slushy and icy path through the mountain, and it grew difficult for the Gump to walk on, but with some assistance from the Tiger and Tiktok, he managed to get on. Dorothy had noticed that the mountain she and her friends had landed on had two high mountain tops which was to mark the home of this mysterious Nome King. The sides of the mountain got closer to them until they reached a narrow path between them, along which the group had to walk in a single file. Everyone had been quiet since they started their journey because they were deeply concerned and disconcerted with Dorothy, but Jack wanted to try and lighten things up.

"So, uh, Tiktok, who exactly built you?"

"I was built by Smith and Tinker, my manufacturers and inventors," explained Tiktok. "They delivered me to the Scarecrow to become a part of the Royal Army of Oz. They named me Tiktok because my wheels work like clockwork."

"Well, your name may be Tiktok, but at least your hasn't run out, eh?" Jack laughed, jokingly.

Woodenhorse, the Gump, and the Tiger all shook their heads, groaning in displeasure over the pumpkinman's joke.

"You're not helping, Jack," grumbled Billina.

"But everybody's so quiet and it's so boring!" Jack complained. "And I'm worried about mom, she's still hurt."

"Oh, she's been hurt a lot recently before coming to Oz."

"What do you mean?"

"Before coming back to this weird place, Dorothy's aunt and uncle forced her to go to a hospital where doctors were to give her an electric shock treatment to get her to stop thinking about Oz."

"Say what!?" The Tiger stared down at the hen in disbelief. "I was told that Dorothy's aunt and uncle were good people!"

"Well, they never believed a word of Oz whenever Dorothy spoke of it," said Billina. "They think it's just a figment of her imagination or such nonsense."

Everyone looked at Dorothy with sympathy and sorrow.

"Poor kid," said Woodenhorse, sounding angry. "What kind of relatives is she living with anyway!?"

"They must sound like very bad people," said Tiktok, who looked just as angry at the carousel horse.

The others agreed with him until Woodenhorse exclaimed, "Hey, what do you mean by weird place!?"

Dorothy, who had trudged on further ahead, listened the entire conversation. She began to wonder about how Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are dealing with her disappearance back in Kansas. She thought it would serve them right for sending her to that awful clinic, but it they would grieve for her thinking she had perished in the river she escaped in with that strange blonde girl. And poor Toto would be dreadfully worried about her. Dorothy wished he was here with her to comfort her and to be at her side like always.

All of a sudden, the entire mountain shook violently and distant thumping sounds echoed everywhere. Everyone screamed as they were thrown off track. But they made a dash for it around the corner when some of the rocks from above came tumbling down toward them. The thumping seemed to grow louder as they advanced.

Then, turning a corner of rock, they saw before them a huge statue, which towered above the path for more than a hundred feet. The gigantic statue was built out of cast iron and it stood with one foot on either side of the narrow road and it swung over its head ab immense iron mallet, with which it constantly pounded the earth. These resounding blows explained the thumping sounds they had heard, for the mallet was much bigger than a barrel, and it struck the path between the rocky sides of the mountain it filled all the space through the travelers should've passed if only without danger. But the group halted a safe distance away from the giant iron mallet.

"WHOA!" gasped the Tiger, with a shudder. "That is one big hammer for an iron giant!"

"One blow and I would be crushed into a doormat," said the Gump.

"Or, more likely, into a pancake," said Tiktok.

"There's an opening behind the iron the giant!" Dorothy pointed out.

"But that thing is keeping us from going any further," said Jack. "Isn't there a way for us to get through?" Suddenly, his eyes lit up when he came up with a plan. "I've got an idea!"

"You do? What is it?" Dorothy asked, anxiously.

"We have to run under the mallet, as quickly as we could, just as the mallet is lifted, then we could pass to the other side before it comes down again."

"That's a great idea, Jack! You're so smart." Dorothy smiled affectionately. Jack blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. The compliment she had given him made Dorothy remember how she complimented the Scarecrow on his idea to escape the Kalidahs.

Jack got onto the back of Woodenhorse, Dorothy and Tiktok climbed onto the Tiger's back. Billina decided to ride with the Gump, clinging to the rope that bound him to the sofa.

"Now if time it just right, we should all get through," announced Jack. "What do you guys think?"

"I'm gonna pray in my mind that we make it through alive," muttered Woodenhorse, who felt dubious about the plan.

"I think that if we all get killed, I'll never speak to you again," said the Gump.

"I think… all my keys are… winding… down…" Tiktok's body lowered toward Dorothy, his voice dying down like batteries running low and the clockwork in his body slowing.

"Please, Tiktok! Not now!" Dorothy exclaimed in agony.

Jack called everyone's attention as he eyed the giant's mallet. "Get ready…"

The iron giant lifted his mallet from the earth and…

"Now!"

The Tiger, the Gump, and Woodenhorse all made a sudden dash straight to the opening beneath the giant's legs. The iron giant's mallet came up to his head, just as Woodenhorse and the Gump made it safely to the other side. But because of the speed in the Tiger's running, Tiktok felt himself fall to the earth, and right in the path of the waiting mallet.

Dorothy looked back and gasped in horror. "Tiktok! Turn around, Tiger!"

"Oh, no! Not again." The Tiger didn't want to go back out there and get crushed by the mallet, but this is Tiktok they were talking about and he would surely get crushed if they didn't save him in time.

Once they made it outside and at Tiktok's side, Dorothy grabbed Tiktok's arm with one arm and shouted, "Now, Tiger! Run!"

"I-I-I can't! I'm scared!" The Tiger stood frozen in his spot with fear, without even budging an inch.

The iron giant's mallet started to move downward. Thinking fast, Dorothy kicked against the Tiger's waist very roughly, the same way she would do like riding on a horse. The sharp kick startled the Tiger so much that he bolted through the giant's legs, just as they were within a hair's breadth of being crushed by the descending mallet.

"You guys alright?" asked the Gump, concerned.

"We're alright." Dorothy said, as she dismounted from the Tiger, and began winding up all three of Tiktok's keys for action, voice, and thought.

"Oh, thank you both for saving me," Tiktok smiled gratefully. "You were very brave."

"Brave? I wasn't brave, I was scared!" The Tiger declared. "Now I know how Lion felt when he gets scared."

"Everybody gets scared, Tiger," Dorothy said, soothingly. "But all you needed was a little boost of confidence in yourself. And you'll find that you're braver than you think."

The Tiger gave a hearty chuckle. "Yeah, your right. Thanks Dorothy. You mind if I faint for a while?"

"Uh… okay."

"Thank you."

And with that, the Tiger collapsed to the ground.