Chapter 6

The Death Marshes.

Anthony looked around, trying to find some point of reference to gain some sort of relative location. It must be night still he thought, noting the darkness. The thunder stormed brought buckets of rain down over all of him, and the land. There were tombstones all around, and black vultures flying high above circling him. He began to hallucinate, seeing disgusting mutations of nature: an owl with no head, caterpillars eating deer, Crows repeating, "Die!" and other horrid false images. He couldn't move, the hallucinations appearing to surround and trap him.

Skeletons with remains of flesh falling off crawled out of ground moaning and weeping and creeping towards him. Spiders with stingers from scorpions crawled in swarms and just before they reached him, something made them stop. The noise was strange and somehow feared by all of the twisted creatures. Again the strange musical yell sounded. The remaining mutations of nature retreated back into the ground and the ground thumped. Anthony was confused, exhausted, feeling drugged from the effects of the deranged place, collapsed and fainted. The thumping and saving noise maker came from a woman; a beautiful and young woman. She changed her form gracefully from that of an Elephant, to humanoid. The white haired tribal Princess knelt down whispering words in her mother tongue and her eyes lit up bright white. She picked up Anthony in her arms and took him away from the horrid place.

Princess, you have no idea where he came from, he could be a spy of the Emperor!" Said one of the Scrow; a tribe in the Vinkus, but one of a handful travelling with their Leader Princess Nastoya, on the run. They were one of the few, and arguably the only ones who did not become affected by the decaying rule of the Grim Emperor Apostle. Nastoya had used her powers to save Anthony from being blackened from the poisonus, "Death marshes" as they are called. Loyal Ozians would know it more accurately as Quadling Country.

"You, bring us drink and feast. My patient is hungry, thirsty and tired, yet we have much to discuss. Quickly now!" Nastoya ordered. Anthony sat at a table with the Princess waiting for the food. His clothes were burnt, torn, stained with blood sweat and the gross black muck from the Death marshes.

"Thank you, Madame, for saving me from whatever it was I was stuck in." I said. She had been highly kind and most helpful, with no one in Oz that I knew anymore, it was nice to see someone offer a helping hand. Before she answered, Nastoya's servants brought wine, turkey, vegetables and potatoes.

"It was my pleasure, I sensed great power from you Anthony, power in both heart and magic. You are strong, do not let petty theatrics slow you down or cause you to stray fom your true path." Nastoya was charming, humbling and complimentary. For her to say I was a powerful magician was quite the compliment, when one considers she had evaded through her own powers all of the Wizard's attempts at killing her and her people in the Animal Scare after the Great Drought.

"What is your name my lady? I have not seen you ever before," I asked, drinking the wine which after I picked it up turned from white to red, my favorite.

"I am Princess Nastoya, leader of the Vinkus Tribe the Scrow. After I heard you had been granted control of the state, I hoped to meet you sooner, but Mombi delayed my plans. I was on my way to my own village just beyond the Kells when I saw you caught in the Marshes. Instantly I sensed your heart and magical essence and brought you here. You must be hungry, please lad, do now wait for me I already ate," Anthony immediately chowed down on the food having lost noticeable weight from the constant interruptions from the Emperor.

"Thank you Princess Nastoya. If you please, could you tell me what in the hell is going on? How long was I out? How did Shell's attack on the Emerald city succeed?" I asked while eating a huge chunk of the meat and drinking the wine simultaneously. Nastoya laughed at this.

"You, after your first encounter with the Grimm Empreror Apostle, were in a coma. For a total of 10 months you lay in hexed slumber, many of us thought you were dead, but Glinda and Ozma had hope, and remained by your side. After Ozma Tippetarius announced her pregnancy, to which the people including myself were filled with joy in hearing, watched in terror as Shell appears and cursed her unborn son. He said that on the boy's birth, he would somehow instantly age to twenty years, and be banished from Oz," Nastoya answered.

"Yes, now I see, and I remember having a vision from Yackle just before I woke up, I saw, I saw eggs! There were huge eggs everywhere in the Palace!"

"You don't mean it! It can't be true! No it can't be, it's too unlikely."

"What?"

"The eggs you speak of, match the description to those of Dragons! Tell more Anthony, what else can you remember now?"

"I remember all my friends mysteriously vanishing, and I remember Shell saying all of the missing people have one thing in common but Ozma's son was someplace else. Do you have any idea where they might have gone?"

"I don't have an idea, I have a fact. Your friends are here in Oz Blue Wizard, but deep underground in the former Quadling now Death marshes. And the child, now young man same age as you, is out of Oz. He has been cast aside through oblivion to the other world. Earth." When Nastoya told me where they were, I was both relieved to know all were alive, and began thinking of ways to find them all. Once I found them, I'd be in better shape to dethrone and debone the Emperor Apostle. Perfect, now I was getting answers and in result, a plan. But what if Nastoya was lying, or was indeed the Emperor himself in disguise? Shut up Anthony, you're talking nonsense now just listen to her, she's helped you this far even a fake Emperor wouldn't do that.

"Oh my god they're underground? Are you certain? What am I saying of course you are or else you wouldn't have told me. There is one more thing though. I remember the moment The Emperor banished Lady Glinda, and then Ozma and her husband! But, Ozma said something before she vanished, she said no not again. What do you suppose that means?"

"Well mind you my English is not good, but I would say its quite clear Anthony, or the Blue Wizard I should call you. It would appear as if the action that preceded Ozma's statement had happened before, to her or someone she knew, or else she wouldn't recognize it," Nastoya's logic was extremely insightful, yet contradictory.

"Hmm, I don't know that still doesn't make sense to me, based on what I know of Oz history," I replied. Nastoya's eyes narrowed.

"Heed my forsworn words Blue Wizard of the Vinkus, for I shall not repeat." Nastoya stood from the table and as is customary in my book of etiquette, I did as well.

"No, you finish eating and drinking you will need your strength, all of Oz will. By sunrise I shall give you new clothes and a new weapon which I think you find is quite the upgrade from your previous toy." Nastoya parted the room and I finally realized we were in a wooden palace built in the highest Trees of the Thousand Year Grasslands in the Vinkus. I suppose there were still many things I did not know not only about Nastoya but of Oz as well.

Princess Nastoya watched me finish the delicious meal as she spoke a few words with her servants, one of whom was clearly higher ranking than servant and more like her right hand man or in this case, Scrow.

"He has incredible potential, that much is certain, but is he worthy of the Staff?" asked the Scrow official quietly.

"Yes of course he is, I can feel it. I only wish there was some way to contact Alec, Ozma's son. Wait, why didn't I think of it before! Call for Yackle at once! Tell her Princess Nastoya and The Blue Wizard demand her arrival by sunrise," Nastoya waited for her Scrow official to shake her hand, and then she smiled.

"This just may work, Lurline preserve us," she hoped.