If it had been just a few days ago, Bryson Scott would probably have been too afraid of this just because it was night time and dark. But he was a different boy now, and the fact it was dark a complete after thought.
Now, the thing that scared him most was the fact he was about to face a well built man with a magical scepeter that could easily destroy him in the matter of one quick second.
He lazily dragged around the axe Tin Man handed to him, very slowly scaling the large mountain.
He groaned miserably, feeling his strength completely fading and he could swear his body would give in at any moment.
He continued climbing the mountain, crawling up slowly, groaning.
It took for what seemed like forever, it was a grading task, for sure.
Bryson didn't know if he had ever gone through such conquest. He hadn't really.
Soon enough, his body was practically throbbing, going through complete turmoil. But he wasn't gonna quit. He had never exerted out as much energy as now. He was utterly drained. Sweat poured from his body. He groaned loudly with each step closer he got to reaching the mountain.
He finally got up about halfway the mountain, and as he reached to the halfway point, he could see something.
He got to the halfway point and saw a wooden door that seemed to have been built there. Bryson squinted at it. Was he hallucinating at this point? He shook his head. The door was just in the very middle of the mountain. He had assumed he should go in. He slowly opened the door. As he opened it, he noticed that it seemed someone had drilled into the mountain. It left a large hole, and Bryson slowly crawled into it. He shimmied into it, being careful with the axe, crawling into it. The hole's trial seemed to end, and there was an exit. He slowly exited and then realized he was in a large cave like setting. As he looked around, he noticed there were was a large structure, it looked like a building, several feet away.
And then, he noticed something terrible.
Various people of Oz were being chased and attacked by what seemed to be wheelers and flying monkeys. He could make out some winged monkeys carrying people off in the distance.
"Oh my God..." Bryson muttered.
Rabadan of course had to set all of this up. Suddenly, a loud voice startled him.
"Bryson... glad to see you could make it. I see you found my new... hideout, if you will... I suppose you want to get to me and save your friends... well... just climb that buiding. When you reach the top... we'll end all this."
It boomed throughout the cave. His booming, deep voice startling Bryson. He snapped his head around, wondering where it came from.
He sighed and carefully began to walk around. Several citizens were being attacked. He wanted to do something, but he knew he couldn't save everyone with just his slim, teenaged body and one axe. As a wheeler passed by, it was chasing a munchkin, he stopped and closed his eyes, lazily swiping at the wheeler, his arms still immensly sore. The wheeler fell over and made an odd screeching sound on the floor. Bryson winced. He didn't like killing or hurting things like this. Not one bit.
The screeching slightly disturbed him, but he kept on walking. He was being careful, trying his best to not be attacked.
And out of nowhere, a flying monkey swooped down and screamed at Bryson, causing him to fall over. Bryson yelped in surprise. He dropped his axe, but quickly picked it up as the monkey started to pick him up. Bryson yelped again and groaned, struggling as he swiped at the side of the monkey, causing it to screech. The monkey kept pulling on Bryson, however, but Bryson swiped at it's wing and it screeched louder and it fell on the ground. Bryson looked at it for a second, a look of pity, before going to walk away again. He only walked a few inches before another monkey swooped down and Bryson yelped, almost falling, but steadied himself. Bryson swiped at it's shoulder and it fell over next to his leg. And suddenly, the monkey screamed and slightly bit into his right leg, just in the midde. He swiped at it with the axe, hiting its other shoulder and falling over.
The pain didn't hit Bryson until a few seconds later. The monkey didn't completely bite into him, but it bit into him enough. To cause him pain. Bryson fell over. A dull throbbing feeling went through his right leg. He looked down. The monkey had bit off part of his pants, those pants that he had gotten at the Emerald City. He noticed his leg was bleeding a bit. Panic began to overtake his body. He just sat there, his axe beside him, now with blood on it. He looked at it, just staring at it for a bit. Small amounts of blood went down his leg. He lifted up his pants, getting a closer look at the leg. He looked at it, noticing the monkey had left quite the mark. It didn't seem deadly, but it was fairly painful. Anxiety began to overtake his body. He slowly got up. He tested his left leg. It hurt to walk, so he started to limp with it. He picked up his axe and kept trudging on.
He eventually made it up to the large, black, building like structure. There was a place to climb, like a ladder built into it. He kept his axe in one hand, and began to very slowl climb the ladder. Climbing the ladder was difficult with just one hand, and the fact his anxiety was slowly overtaking his mind.
He slowly hoisted himself off from the ladder, and landed on a ledge. He looked up and noticed there were various ledges and platforms that he had to scale that were placed on the edge of the tall structure, causing him to sigh deeply and groan.
He sighed again and slowly made his way over to the side of the structure. He gradually began to climb up the ledges, which seemed to be made of wood. They weren't to high apart from each other to scale up, but it looked like it would take some effort. Bryson ever so slowly began to climb the first ledge. He had to practically flop on to propel himself onto it. It was a difficult task with his wounded leg and how exhausted and sore his body was. He panted as he looked up to the next ledge. He slowly stood up, and tripped due to his sore leg. He cursed and then lifted himself up from his knees. He reached far for the ledge, grunting. He managed to get ahold of it and hoisted himself off the other platform, climbing up the next one gradually, rolling over on it. He kept wheezing, almost out of breath.
He felt like he would fall over at any point. He steadied himself upwards, reaching for the next platform, clumsily flopping down onto it.
As he went from each step, he could just feel himself panicking, sighing. As he scaled up the platforms, he couldn't help but notice all the people being attacked. He noticed them all being chased around, tossed, and taken and swooped up by flying monkeys. It was a horrible site. It what as if Rabadan had set up his own cave of hell.
Bryson slowly got up to the next platform, tossing his axe on the platform, but as he halfway reached it, his hand slipped off it and he descended off from it, falling from it. He gasped before he fell a few platforms behind, landing on a few behind the one he was about to climb up.
He gasped and groaned in pain, yelping a bit. "Ow! Oh..."
Pain shot out as he landed on his back. He groaned and laid still on the ledge, hunching over and looking down, a wave of negative thoughts entering his mind as he watched all of the people of Oz be attacked, screaming and running.
He looked back up, and his stomach dropped even more than previously. There was no way he was gonna climb this thing.
"Oh man..." he breathed out. "Oh man, oh man.."
He half heartedly and weakly continued climbing. By the time he was close to the top it felt like a whole day had gone by. He finally reached for what seemed to be the last ledge. He slowly propelled himself onto it and rolled over, panting immensely. As he looked up, he noticed there was a wooden door on the very top of the building. He slowly yanked it open, coughing all the while. He stood up, his legs trembling as he crawled through the door, hoisting up and getting himself up. He looked all around, then looked down, realizing he was almost at the top of the mountain. He looked ahead of himself, realizing there was a gaping hole between where he was standing and on the other side. And on the other side, there was another large building structure sitting. This structure, however had a door, it seemed. But the hole was a bit too far away to tell.
And that's when it dawned on Bryson, there was no way he was going to be able to jump that far. And even if he could jump that far... there was no way he could defeat Rabadan. It was true. All he had was one axe. And Rabadan had a magical scepeter that capable of destroying about anything.
And then he fell down from exhaustion, and anxiety began to overtake him. His mind began to race, his heart pounded, he felt weaker than ever, and he was sweating. He realized he was having yet another anxiety attack, and by the feel of it, the worst of his life. All of the possible negative thoughts he could think of flooded his mind. He couldn't beat Rabadan. He thought of how his dad treated him. How he just walked out on his mom instead of helping her and at least attempting to stop his father. He thought about his dog, one of his best companions. He was lost before he got here. What if he never came back? What was even going on back home? Was there a search party sent after him? Did his dad even miss him? How was his family even handling all this? It didn't even feel real. And now, in his mind, he was absolutely not going to beat Rabadan. Rabadan was too powerful. Much too calculated. It was hopeless.
And there he lay, on his knees, outright shaking with his eyes tearing up, muttering to himself.
And he stayed like that for several minutes. Shaking and rocking in the cold, night air, in the land of Oz, on top of a mountain in the night.
He seemed like for once, he was sure of himself, and now, he was scared of his mind, a panic stricken mess.
And he stayed there, panting, wheezing, he was about to go crazy. He had never been so anxious and scared, his head buried in his arms.
And then, all of the sudden, something like a voice consoled him.
What are you doing?
He took his head out of his arms.
Don't just go back like this. You didn't come here and go through all of what you've went through just to end up the same way you were before you got here.
He steaded his breathing.
Honestly.. do you not remember what Oz is about? Oz is your escape. Oz is the place you go to when you're like this, when you're a mess. And here you are. You're here. You're ACTUALLY here. Oz exists. You don't know how, and never would have dreamed of that... but you're here. You're in the place that manages to give you butterflies and makes you dare to dream. And you've changed. You're not timid and meek anymore. You're confident. You changed a woman who was maniuplated and tricked into working for an evil man. And she stole his scepeter, and he ran away. And that proves it. He's a coward. You managed to get a whole city of people and build an army when they thought it was all over. You were the voice of reason. You were the one who woke them up and caused them to realize that Rabadan was unbeatable. You can do this. Oz is where the impossible can happen. Now, jump this over this gap, this hole, and go in there, and go after him.
The voice he formed in his head... suddenly, he felt a sudden burst of energy. He didn't feel as weak as before. He still ached, sure, but he suddenly felt inspired and motivated. He slowly lifted himself up off from the ground. He suddenly felt fire going through his body. He could do this. He looked at his wounded leg and cracked his knuckles. He was not gonna leave his best friends and the girl he loved like he did with his mother. He WAS gonna beat him, or at least try to his very last breath. He tightly clenched his fists and gave an angry look at the buildng. He took a deep breath and looked back, backing up. He thought about everything that lead up to this. How he had grown into a much stronger person. How this journey had changed him. He reflected back on it, to when he first landed, when he met Dorothy and interacted with his biggest crush, met Scarecrow, a childhood hero, and overall met the best people he had ever known. How he ran from the kalidah's, the wheelers, the flying monkeys, the witch.. almost drowning.. everything that had led up to this. How he had formed truly loyal companions that he had always longed for. He had actually achieved his biggest dream. He arrived in the land of Oz. And you know what? If he died here, at least he died knowing the best people he had ever met.
He then gradually began to run, his wounded leg hurting a bit, but he ignored the pain and sprinted towards the large gap, and when he got to the edge, he closed his eyes and leaped into the air. He felt like.. he was free.. it felt great as he lept into the air. Maybe he would fall to his death, he thought. But at least he'd do it being prideful of himself. He didn't want to open his eyes.
As he felt himself landing, he opened his eyes with much hesitance.
But he felt so great, wonderul as he realized..
He was gonna make it. He grinned.
"Yes!" He holored in the air, landing on the mountain.
He chuckled to himself.
He did it. He made the jump.
He got up and looked at the door on the buidling.
He slowly approached it.
He took a moment and took a deep breath, knowing it could be one his lasts.