Disclaimer, you know
The rest of the evening had gone by pretty quickly. It was now three o'clock the following morning and Dorothy found herself unable to sleep. She spent some of the time watching the scepter bob up and down in the air. She wished she had Toto to keep her company. At about half past three she got up and turned on the light. She then walked into the closet and changed out of her night gown and into her usual dress. When she emerged from her closet she was extremely surprised to find Ellie sitting on her bed.
"So, you couldn't sleep either?" Ellie asked rubbing her eyes.
"No, why are you here?" Dorothy asked walking over to her and sitting down next to her.
"Dorothy, I'm really worried." Ellie said.
"About being a ruler?" Dorothy asked.
"Yes, but also about my sister." She replied starting to tear up.
"Ellie." Dorothy said wrapping her arms around her friend.
"Dorothy, I had a nightmare, that my sister." Ellie said before bursting into tears in Dorothy's arms.
Dorothy hugged Ellie tightly and ran a hand through her hair. It wasn't long before the china princess, having heard the commotion, showed up at the door.
"What happened?" She asked walking over.
"She had a nightmare about her sister." Dorothy said as Ellie sobbed into her shoulder.
"Oh dear, Ellie?" the china princess asked placing a hand on Ellie's shoulder.
Ellie peeked up from Dorothy's shoulder and looked at the china princess. Her face was now red and stained with tears even though she had only been crying for a few minutes. She wiped her eyes of tears and sniffed.
"Hello, china princess." Ellie said sniffing a bit,
"Ellie, please come with me, I'll get some tea going, and you and I can discuss it, ruler to ruler." She said taking Ellie's hand leading her out of the room.
Dorothy looked at the china princess. The princess looked at Dorothy worriedly but smiled as they both left the room, shutting the door behind them. Dorothy sighed and lay back down on her bed. Holding out her hand for the scepter to come to her. As it reached her hand she sat up and tightened her grasp on it. She then got off her bed and walked over to her boots. As she pulled them on she waved the scepter at the door causing it to open. Soon she was out of her room and in the hallway of the emerald city. She sighed and made her way to the chambers, when she got there she found the door slightly ajar. She pushed open the door and walked in, she saw scarecrow sitting on the throne, writing stuff down on a pad of paper, then scratching the top of his head from under his hat. She saw Aislynn asleep on the sofa that she had slept on the first time she had her nightmares. She smiled and
"Scarecrow?" Dorothy asked in a whisper.
"Dorothy? Why are you awake?" Scarecrow asked sounding concerned.
"I couldn't sleep, Ellie's awake as well, she's having tea with the china princess, and she had a nightmare, but not in that order." Dorothy said walking over to him.
"So you thought you may as well come here?" He asked.
"I felt it better than sitting around waiting for it to be time for breakfast." Dorothy replied shrugging.
"Fair enough." He replied.
"Why isn't Aislynn in the room that was set up for her?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Because she only fell asleep at midnight, we had some really nice discussions though." He said chuckling.
"I can imagine, she's really intelligent, smartest in our class." Dorothy said looking at her.
"Why are you talking about me?" Aislynn asked in a giggling whisper, just as the clock struck four.
"I'm sorry ace, did we wake you?" Dorothy asked concerned
"No, you didn't, I've been up, I couldn't sleep either." Aislynn said sitting up and giving a yawn as she stretched.
"Well that seems to be a recurring theme." Dorothy said giggling.
"Yeah, I'm going to go head to the China Princess's room to see if Ellie's alright." Aislynn said getting up and running out before Dorothy could say a thing.
"Should we go after her?" Scarecrow asked looking at her.
"We should, but I personally wouldn't, I think only one or two of us at them time would be best for Ellie at the time being." Dorothy said walking over to a window.
"I guess so." He said pondering this for a minute.
"Hey straw man, you in here?" came the voice of Lion as he walked in.
"Why do you always ask that?" scarecrow asked curiously.
"Because the one day I don't, I'll walk in and you won't be here." He replied.
"Fair enough, do you need something?" Scarecrow asked
"Old tin head has finally run out of oil." Lion said.
"Oh dear, don't tell me he's rusted." Dorothy said turning around in shock causing lion to jump.
"Oh, Dorothy, I didn't see you there, what are you doing up so early kid?" He asked.
Dorothy opened her mouth to say something but scarecrow cut her off explaining that Dorothy wasn't able to sleep, and neither was Aislynn or Ellie, and that Ellie was a bit upset. Dorothy not wanting to be left out cut the scarecrow out before he could say anything.
"And you see lion, I just thought coming here would be better than nothing, now where is tin man?" Dorothy said really concerned.
"He's in the library, Straw man where do you keep his extra oil?" Lion replied walking over to him.
"I'll go get it, I wish Glinda had made him that bottomless oil can." Scarecrow said getting up and running to his little workshop.
Lion was about to make a remark when Ellie ran in and hugged Dorothy tightly. Aislynn and The china princess followed. Ellie wasn't crying at this point which was good, but she still had an air of sadness with her. She looked up at Dorothy and was about to say something when scarecrow came out with the spare can of oil for tin man.
"Lion here's the oil, oh it seems we are getting a lot of company, Lion bring this to tin man, oil him so he can move and then bring him here." He said tossing the can to lion.
Lion caught it, nodded and saluted, and then ran out quickly. Ellie broke her embrace from Dorothy and smiled. She then looked at the china princess and Aislynn, her mood having definitely changed now, but she still carried the air of sadness, though it was a bit weaker. It was like she was putting willpower into hiding her emotions.
"Is the rainbow mover fixed?" Ellie asked curiously.
"I don't think so, we managed to get the pipes reattached and fixed but I may just start from scratch I have the plans and they worked the first time so, well it's worth a shot I guess." He said looking at it.
"Why not test it?" Aislynn asked.
"No, no, no out of the question, assume we did it wrong, Oz knows where you'd end up." Scarecrow said worriedly.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place? You know, instead of trying to fix it properly" Aislynn asked thinking about it.
"Because I was able to get it to work once, back when the jester returned the first time, but he machine started falling apart." The scarecrow replied.
"I remember that, I remember it well." Dorothy said chuckling.
"I think most of us do Dorothy." Ellie said hugging Dorothy tightly again and giggling.
"I try not to remember the last part a lot though." Dorothy said shivering.
"Why what happened Dorothy?" Aislynn asked.
"I got turned to stone Ace, I thought I told you this story already?" Dorothy said looking over to her.
"You probably did, but I don't remember." Aislynn said chuckling.
"Fair enough, Ellie, where's Alex?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Either in his room or wandering around the castle, I'm sure we aren't the only ones who weren't able to sleep." Ellie said giggling at the thought of Alex being lost in the castle.
"Ellie, don't laugh if he's awake he could be lost, and then he could get hurt, I know you don't like him but for my sake please be kinder to him." Dorothy said looking her in the eyes.
Ellie was about to say something, but she thought about it and then sighed in defeat. Shortly after lion and tin man ran in. Dorothy smiled and ran over to them.
"Dorothy? What are you guys doing awake?" The tin man asked curiously.
"Couldn't sleep." Lion said ruffling Dorothy's hair, making her giggle.
"Ah, you must be tired, thanks for the oil scarecrow, I really need to replenish my stock." Tin man said holding up the oil can.
"No problem, I'm surprised you finally ran out." Scarecrow said chuckling.
"I didn't do it intentionally, I just wasn't keeping an eye on my levels, made me feel a bit stupid." He said sighing.
"But you aren't stupid, people forget things all the time, it's nothing to be ashamed of." Dorothy said smiling.
Tin man smiled and was about to say something when Alex walked in. he, like Aislynn, Ellie and herself, was completely dressed in his day clothes.
"So this is where you all are, I'm guessing you couldn't sleep either?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah, it's a bit of a recurring theme this morning." Ellie said walking over.
"I can see that, good morning your majesty." Alex said jokingly, and bowing in Ellie's direction, then running over to Dorothy to use her as a shield if need be.
"Alex, I was just telling Ellie that she should be nicer to you, don't ruin it by bringing it on yourself." Dorothy said.
"Alex, you know Ellie doesn't like being referred to as your majesty, your grace, or any of the other greater titles." The china princess said.
"I know, I was joking around, can't I joke without the whole world coming to an end?" He asked.
"Yes, but not at Ellie's expense at this point." Dorothy said.
"Fair enough, sorry Ellie." Alex said looking at her.
"It's alright Alex, just don't do it again, or I may just black out your other eye." She replied chuckling.
"Ellie, don't even joke like that, giving him a black eye because you were upset is one thing, doing it purposely is quite another, and…" Dorothy started saying before Alex cut her off.
"Dorothy, don't worry about it, can't you see she is joking?" Alex asked chuckling.
"I guessed that, but knowing Ellie well enough, and knowing the fact that she doesn't like you all that much, it wouldn't surprise me if she did black out your other eye." She said back and forth between them.
"Dorothy, I promise you I won't hit him again unless he gives me a good reason to." Ellie said chuckling.
"Scarecrow, Elena was wondering if you wanted, oh hello everybody." Alison said walking in.
Morning." They all said in unison.
"Right, anyways Elena wanted to know if you wanted Glinda moved back to her proper room." Alison asked.
"Is she in a stable condition?" Ellie asked worriedly.
"Yes Ellie." Alison said sighing.
"I wish there was a way we could speed up her recovery, I don't really want to be in charge." Ellie said.
"Sadly there isn't." Alison quickly replied
"Doesn't mean I can't wish." Ellie said shrugging.
"Sure, you can move Glinda back to her room." Scarecrow said.
"Okay, I'll let Elena know." She replied walking out.
"Thanks." Scarecrow said.
Dorothy smiled and then tightened her grasp on the scepter. She then stretched and yawned.
"I think I'm going to go back to my own room." Dorothy said walking out.
"Okay Dorothy." Ellie said.
Dorothy smiled and took out into a sprint to her bedroom. When she arrived she walked over to her bed and sat down on it. She then thought about what Ellie had said. She then pulled out her little pocket compendium and flipped through it.
"Come on there has to be something in here." She said flipping through it.
As she did this the scepter began to glow, out of the corner of her eye she saw Alison walk by from the direction of Glinda's room. She smiled and got up, taking the book with her as well as the scepter. She then ran to Glinda's room. She saw that the scepter was now glowing brighter. She smiled, she knew that it had the idea of what she wanted to do, and she know it could help. She didn't know how she would do it, but she knew she could. As soon as she arrived at Glinda's room she saw Glinda, sleeping peacefully in her bed. Dorothy slowly approached and the scepter flashed brightly. She dropped the scepter and the pocket compendium in surprise. The compendium landed on a page of text Dorothy couldn't make out, she picked it up as well the scepter which pulled her towards Glinda. Dorothy looked at Glinda, the spell had drained her own energy, but did that mean that energy could be transferred into her? Dorothy didn't know, but she wanted to try for Ellie's sake. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She concentrated on taking her own energy and transferring it into Glinda, she knew Glinda had told her not to use magic or her own energy for that matter to heal herself, and the effect would probably be the same using it on other people. She opened her eyes and gasped, she was now glowing, and the same lights that had taken the energy out of Glinda were transferring her energy into Glinda to heal her. She soon however began to feel dizzy, then Elena came out of the bathroom carrying an ice pack, when she saw what was happening she gasped.
"Dorothy!" Elena shouted.
Dorothy looked at Elena and was about to say something but she began to feel extremely dizzy. Next thing she knew she blacked out.