You all probably think I don't have a life, what with all the posts. The truth is, this whole story has been done for about a month and it keeps staring at me through the computer screen saying "Post me! Post me!"

And quite frankly, we're coming down the homestretch, so I'm more inclined to give in. Let me know what you think of this chapter. I was kind of anxious to post it. (It was one of the first parts of the plot that came to me.)

"We have to be getting close." DG told Raw as they rode on. They had left the forest not long after the people they had freed had departed. "I just can't help feeling like time is running out."

Raw smiled at her. "Not too much farther. Raw sure."

DG drew back on Speedy's bridle and swung down. "Anyone else want an apple?"

Jeb, looking tired after their lack of sleep the night before, nodded. "Sounds good."

Growing alongside the old road were impossibly old-looking apple trees. They were gnarled and scarred from their years of withstanding the elements. She could feel their history calling out to her as she reached for an apple on a lower branch.

"DG!" Raw called. "Must ask first."

Her hand stopped just short of plucking the fruit from the bough as she turned to give a Raw a quizzical look. "What?"

"You're friend is quite correct." The voice was old and twangy, reminiscent of a bullfrog. "To take without asking is stealing."

Jeb was by her side in an instant as DG's eyes darted back and forth as she searched for the source of the voice. "Who said that?"

"I did." To her amazement, a face materialized in the bark of the old tree before her. The face was gnarled by the bark, giving the tree the look of an wizened old man. There was a wisdom about him that bespoke of the centuries that he observed life in the Outer Zone and DG felt that she had never before stood in the presence of a being more who knew more about the ways of the world. Gray eyes stared back at her critically as the mouth moved again. "Do you mean to steal from me?"

Would she ever learn all the secrets of this place? "No sir. I just wanted an apple for lunch. I didn't mean to offend you."

The tree studied her, measuring her. Then, one of the lower branches reached up and plucked a beautiful red apple from a higher branch. With unbelievable grace, he presented it to her. "Enjoy, Your Highness."

The tree reached back for more fruit for Jeb and Raw.

"How do you know who she is?" Jeb demanded. The tree threw the apple right into his chest for his insolence.

"Jeb, it's okay." DG assured him as Raw moved to join them. "How do you know who I am?"

There was a grating, rough sound and they realized the tree was laughing. "You are not the first Gayle to wander these woods and try to pluck something off of me."

A slow grin spread across her face. "Dorothy was an apple thief, too?"

The tree studied her. "You look very much like her. And, of course, I saw your Light."

DG saw a confused look come to Jeb's face as she answered. "That's not possible. You see, sir, that's why we're out here. My Light was taken from me."

"Really? That's interesting. And how did that supposedly happen?"

"An Ice Witch stole it from me." There was a lump in her throat as she confessed this.

There was a knowing way about the ancient tree. "Ah, then you mean your magical ability was taken from you."

"Isn't that the same thing as my Light?" DG exchanged a look with Raw.

"It most certainly is not." The tree's branches swayed as if he was irritated. "Don't you know what you're Light is, child?"

"Apparently not."

"The gift of the House of Gayle," the tree began reverently, "is so much more than magic. Every member of your family is given this exquisite talent. And it began with your great- great- grandmother. Do you know her story?"

"Well, yes. Most of it. She landed in the O.Z. and followed the yellow brick road to the City of Emeralds."

"And what of her companions. What do you know of them?"

She thought back to the story that Jeb had told her. "There was a Scarecrow who wanted brains, a lion with no courage, and a man made out of tin that had no heart. They all went with Dorothy to find those things."

"Did they find them?"

"They found out that they had them all along."

"How?"

"What do you mean 'how'?" DG replied. "There were challenges all up and down this road. If they hadn't used their brains, or hearts, or guts, they would have never made it."

"No, Princess DG." The tree said gently. "What made them realize their full potential?"

"Didn't I just answer that question?"

"It was Dorothy, DG." Jeb said, quietly. "It was their friendship with her that made them see what they could truly be."

"Yes." The tree spoke again. "Dorothy's Gift is not magic. She herself was nothing but a simple farm girl when she arrived in the O.Z. It is her ability to see the good in all beings and to see their light, even if they can't see it themselves. This gift can be returned in friendship and love."

"DG see intelligence in Glitch." Raw put a hand on her shoulder. "And courage in Raw."

"And a heart in a broken Tin Man." Jeb put in. "Even when his own son couldn't."

DG felt the weight of this settle on her shoulders. "I've always seen the good in everybody. It's just how I am."

"I assure you, it is a rare and precious gift. Perhaps, on the other side, it is simply an all-too-rare virtue. In the Outer Zone, it not only fuels your magical abilities," The tree pointed his branch toward a bush across the road, "but, it can inspire others to greatness."

Looking uncertainly at the tree once more, DG crossed the road to the bush. She realized as she approached that this wasn't a shrub. It was ivy, grown up thick over something beneath it. Starting at the top, she pulled back the vine and gasped. "It's the Tin Man."

With Raw and Jeb's help, she managed to untangle the rest of the vegetation. The Tin Man stood about six feet tall. His features flawlessly resembled those of a human man, but they were molded in tin. His face, which DG wouldn't have believed could look so real, held a gentleness about it even though it was made from unfeeling metal. On his chest was pinned a pocket watch in the shape of a red heart. It filled her with grief to see that the hands were no longer turning.

"Do you know the story of the Tin Man, Your Highness?" The tree asked.

DG shook her head.

"His is a sad tale. He was once human, a handsome woodsman, who fell in love with a lovely maiden. But when her mother disapproved of the love, she consulted a Witch enchanted the woodsman's axe to pierce his own heart. To add to his misery, the Witch imprisoned his soul in this body of tin, devoid of a loving heart. He wandered these woods until he rusted in the rain and the fall of his own tears."

"That's so sad." DG looked down at the Tin Man's chest where the watch was pinned.

"Life went on, though. Dorothy found and rescued the pitiful creature. It was along his journey with her that he found he still had the capacity to love and that others could still love him."

"Why is he like this?" DG asked. "He should live forever, shouldn't he? Tin bodies can't wear out."

"But souls can. And hearts can break." The tree said. "After Dorothy's passing, all three of her companions followed. The Scarecrow went back to the east and was never heard from again. The Lion, already old, passed on. And the Tin Man, after ensuring the Light of Dorothy would always be protected, came here to leave his tin prison forever."

"How did he ensure the Light would always be protected?" Jeb asked.

"Look to his right hand."

All three of them looked, but it was DG who spoke quietly. "His first finger is missing."

"He left that behind for the next guardian of the House of Gayle. He had it forged into a symbol so that those who came after him would always remember. A star, for the Light undying . . ."

"And a circle," Jeb said, "for undying loyalty to it."

"The first badge of a Tin Man." DG felt tears behind her eyes.

"What is it, Princess, that your Tutor always tells you to do before you attempt to use your magic?"

She looked to the tree, maybe for the first time, truly understanding the words. "To let the Light flow through me."

"Then, perhaps," he said, slowly. "That is what you should do."

Blinking back tears, DG closed her eyes and thought of her friends. Raw and his courageous stunt back in the Dark Forest, Glitch smiling as he worked on some contraption in his lab, and of Cain's eyes rolling as he dutifully tailed after them all.

She saw her mother's quiet determination and her father's confidence. Azkadellia with her silent, smoldering resolve. Jeb's kindness.

Then it appeared, filling her heart as it never had before. Slowly, she reached a hand out and let the Light flow through her. The apple she was still holding rose from her palm, and slowly, but steadily, began to spin.

The next thing she knew, she was caught in the middle of an enthusiastic embrace as Jeb and Raw grabbed her. She laughed as she put an arm around each of their necks, holding on tight. Jeb whispered softly into her neck. "You did it, Princess."

When she finally let go of them, she turned once more to the tree. "Thank you, sir."

He laughed again. "I was only helping you to see what was always there."

Her attention was drawn once again to the Tin Man. Standing so stoic. A thought occurred to her. "He's still guarding something for Dorothy, isn't he?"

There was a knowing look about the tree as he gazed at her. "Yes."

DG returned to the Tin Man, and without knowing why she was doing it, touched the pocket watch pinned to his metal chest, letting her magic flow to it.

The hands spun wildly until they met at the twelve o'clock position.

The brick road, which had been dirty and incomplete, shimmered in brilliant gold with not a brick out of place. And there, shining on the hill at its end was a brilliant green light, beckoning them.

Jeb came to stand beside her. "I guess you still want to go. Even though you've got your magic back?"

She smiled back. "Well, we've come this far."