Disclaimer well you know by now. Just sit back, grab a soda and read on.
Now after the talk with the jester everyone was worried for Glinda's safety. However the first person Glinda contacted about it was Ellie, who immediately began worrying, she then contacted her cousin Locasta.
"Glinda don't worry, if he does capture you we'll hold down the emerald city as much as we can, anyways I won't deny it, you do need the R&R." Locasta told her.
"Thanks, just thanks." Glinda said rolling her eyes.
"Have you told Ellie?" Locasta asked worriedly.
"I wish I hadn't but at least she'll be prepared." Glinda said waving her wand and causing a container of pink shoe polish appear.
"Really, you're worried about being captured and the first thing you want to do is polish your shoes?" Locasta asked amazed at her cousin's actions.
"I need to do work otherwise I worry too much." Glinda said opening the container and removing a small sponge and rubbing it in the polish before sitting down on the couch by the mirror.
"Figures, well, I may as well get packed and ready now, Terrance!" Locasta called walking away from her mirror.
Glinda smiled and waved her wand over the mirror causing the image to clear. She then waved her wand over her dress. It then changed into a pair of blue jeans and a pink long sleeved shirt. She then slid off her shoes and picked them up. She then set them on her lap and began polishing them. She looked down at the playpen and saw the kids watching her intently.
"What, you guys are interested in my work?" Glinda asked chuckling.
Alicia crawled over to the edge of the play pen. She then pulled herself up against the edge and tried to climb out. Her siblings then followed suit. Glinda sighed and placed her shoes and the polish to the side. She chuckled and picked each of them up one by one and set them on her lap.
"Maybe I give you three less credit than I should." Glinda said chuckling.
"Credit for what? oh, you've changed clothes." Alyssa said walking in.
"Well I was going to try and polish my shoes, but these guys tried to climb out of the pen." Glinda said as Alicia grabbed hold of Glinda's wand and started waving it around.
"Alicia don't, don't do that!" Alyssa said taking the wand from her.
Alicia reached for the wand and then made a snapping motion like she had seen everyone do at least a hundred times in the past. Each of them were going the teething process but none of them seemed to mind it. Each of them had a teething ring but they normally just thawed out on the floor. Glinda now knew she was definitely giving them less credit than she should.
"Henry!? Henry!? Good day miss." Mr. Foreman said barging in and walking towards Em and henry's room only sparing Glinda a thought.
"Um." Alyssa said looking at Mr. Foreman.
Mr. Foreman then walked back into the room and looked at Glinda for a minute.
"I see you've finally changed out of that gown of yours." Mr. Foreman said walking over to her.
"Yes but she kept the shoes the same, she was going to polish them before these guys tried to make an escape." Alyssa said setting the wand to the side.
"Well I just wanted to say, henry's horse got out, the latch on the gate finally gave out, the horse is currently tied up in the barn." Mr. Foreman said as henry walked into the room.
"I'll help fix it." Alyssa said leaving the house.
Henry sighed and ran out as well followed by Mr. Foreman. Glinda sighed and leaned back on the couch. She figured she wasn't going to get any work done that she wanted to do this morning so she may as well keep the triplets amused. Em then walked in having changed out of her night clothes and was surprised to see Glinda sitting on the couch wearing something other than her usual gown.
"Morning Glinda, figured I'd give a proper greeting now that I'm awake." Em said walking over and taking the triplets from her and putting them back in the play pen.
"You may want to build a higher play pen, these three tried to climb out earlier." Glinda said placing her shoes back on her lap and going back to polishing them again.
"Is that so? Well then perhaps these three have outgrown the playpen already." Em said looking at her kids and kneeling next to the playpen.
"I think we give them too little credit, how was Dorothy when she was younger?" Glinda asked curiously.
"Well, she was always trying to get out of the play pen to be where all the action was." Em said.
"So, nothing's changed, it's just that now the action always want to be where she is." Glinda said holding out her hand and allowing the wand to fly towards it,
"I guess you're right." Em said chuckling.
"I'm sure she'd feel loved hearing that." The jester said appearing next to Glinda.
Glinda immediately stood up causing the container of polish and her shoes to clatter to the floor. The shoes left nice pink scuff marks on the floor where thy landed. The sponge she had been using slid across the floor leaving a nice streak pink in its wake.
"Oh dear, what a mess." The jester said chuckling as he grabbed Glinda by the wrist and flicked his own wand.
Immediately Glinda screamed and they vanished. Em sat there in shock at what she had just seen when Alyssa ran back in.
Back in the room.
"So, do you think he'll do it?" Alex asked checking his watch.
"How would I know, he's unpredictable." Dorothy said as she slid across the floor in her socks.
"If you fall I'm going to laugh, then I'm going to help." Alex said chuckling.
"I never expect any better from you dear." Dorothy said chuckling, running and sliding again.
"Dorothy, I really don't think that's safe." Eve said.
"Eve I'll be fine, I just have, wait a minute." Dorothy said coming to a stop next to the table as another chair had appeared.
All of a sudden they all heard the sound of screaming as Glinda's wand clattered to the ground next to hay stack with Glinda following falling into the haystack shortly after. The jester then appeared chuckling. Dorothy and Alex both ran over and helped her up. Dorothy was almost in tears but three questions came to her mind that stopped her from bursting out in a fit of crying. And they were, why did he do this? What was Glinda wearing, and where were her shoes? She was about to express this when the jester merely laughed, flicked his wand and vanished. Dorothy had so many questions for Glinda but she didn't get a chance to ask them before immediately being embraced rather tightly by Glinda.
"That was an awful feeling." Glinda said as she continued to hug her.
"Yea, falling from the sky doesn't really have an up it's mostly downs." Alex said joining in the embrace.
Dorothy couldn't laugh at Alex's dry humor. It was funny that he was trying to lighten the mood. She then pushed away from the embrace and stood back.
"Before we all get into a touching moment I have three questions, only two of which can be answered by you." Dorothy said.
"Fire away." Glinda said picking up her wand.
"Well the first is why? Which can only be answered by the jester, the second is what are you wearing?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Oh these? I was polishing my shoes before I was captured, I didn't want to mess up my dress, so I changed it into these." Glinda said referring to the jeans and tugging on the collar of the pink shirt.
"Okay that leads me into my third question, where are your shoes?" Dorothy asked looking down at Glinda's feet
"I dropped them when the jester appeared next to me, which reminds me, does your aunt have anything against having shoe polish smudged all over her good clean floor?" Glinda asked curiously.
"What color?" Dorothy asked.
"Pink." Glinda replied.
"Typical, well I doubt it, she'll probably clean it." Dorothy said holding out her hand for the scepter.
"I'll check the crystal ball." Alex said walking over to the crystal ball and waving his hand over it.
Immediately the farmhouse appeared to show Em. She and Alyssa were trying hard to get the polish off the floor. Glinda sighed and she and Dorothy walked over.
"Shoe polish on the floor what a mess." Glinda said sighing.
"What a mess, Alyssa, hurry up and get some warm water before this stuff dries into the woodwork!" came Em's voice from the crystal.
"Well sorry I can't work faster, Glinda was only captured, nothing wrong with that, I'll start working double time." Came Alyssa's rather irritated sounding voice.
"Fine, I'll do it, just watch the kids." Em said getting up and walking out of the room as Dorothy waved her hand over the crystal.
"Okay so maybe she does have something against it." Dorothy said turning around and leaning against the crystal.
"I just find it funny that they're stressed by it." The jester said appearing back in the room.
"You don't stay away for very long do you?" Glinda asked now becoming irritated.
"Hey don't get angry at me, threats are nothing if you don't deliver every now and again." the jester said chuckling, "anyways who said I left?" He added.
"Well if you're going to poke fun at us, can you do me a favor?" Glinda asked curiously.
"Depends on the favor." The jester replied.
"Can you go to the gale farm house, help them clean up, and grab my shoes?" Glinda asked curiously.
"Yes, no, and no." The jester replied.
"Well then, can you just leave?" Glinda said waving her wand over her clothes hoping to be able to change them only to find she couldn't.
"Of course I can, but…" The jester said annoyingly trailing.
"But?" Glinda asked playing into his game.
"But you know I think I may stick around." He said flicking the wand and pulling up a chair.
Glinda looked at the jester and sighed.
"You really like to be nuisance don't you?" Glinda asked walking over to the table and grabbing her own chair.
Glinda placed her chair directly across from the jesters. Sitting down in the chair she looked the jester directly in the eyes. The glare she gave him was somehow cold and soulless. For the first few minutes they all stood there in almost pure silence. The only sound any of them could hear was the sound of their own breathing. Dorothy threw a glance at Alex. He threw a similar glance back and shrugged. Neither of them knew how long this could last.
Meanwhile back in the emerald city
Ellie had taken the quick news of her sister's capture real well. Now Aislynn found herself in front of Ellie's bedroom door trying to get her to come out. This time Ellie was furious at Alyssa for somewhat neglecting her duty. She was now seated on the floor with her back leaned against the pink door to Ellie's bedroom. She had Toto in her lap keeping her company as she waited for Ellie to eventually emerge from her room. Every now and again ace would knock a few times only to get the same response through Ellie's bitter tears.
"Go Away, I don't want to talk to anyone at the moment!" she would constantly cry out.
And Aislynn would sigh and lean back against the door. It wasn't long before she found this rather boring. Around eight o'clock Elena showed up with a tray of food for Ellie. Aislynn moved out of the way and allowed Elena to pass. She didn't even knock on the door. She simply leaned against it and spoke.
"Ellie, it's me, I've brought you a tray if you want it." Elena said.
The response took a few minutes to come. But eventually they heard the latch click and Elena entered the room. Aislynn sighed and finally decided it was hopeless, the only people that ever really managed to get Ellie out of her room was Dorothy. She and Toto were now heading for the library.
"So boy, we gave it our best, do you think she'll get over it eventually?" Aislynn asked looking down at the dog.
Toto in response barked as if to say 'I don't know, probably.'
"Right, I'm talking to a dog, only Dorothy can understand you, ouch." Aislynn said as a large pile of books walked into her.
Both Aislynn and the pile of books fell to the floor. Aislynn was hit on the head with a few. She winced and looked up to see the scarecrow looking shocked and worried.
"Ace, I'm so sorry, are you alright?" scarecrow asked kneeling down to help her.
"I'm okay, don't you think you're going overboard with the books?" Aislynn asked curiously.
"You cannot go overboard with learning something." Scarecrow said teasingly ruffling aislynn's hair, as well as making sure she wasn't badly bruised.
"I'm sure you of all people could, you've nearly read every book in the emerald city library I assume." Aislynn said pushing the scarecrow's hand away as she started picking up the books.
"Not even close, normally I only read one book at a time and with the stuff that's been going on here the last several years, well I haven't much time to read as much." The scarecrow said helping her.
"Oh, I was just heading to the library to do some reading, I couldn't get Ellie out of her room, so when Elena finally showed up to bring her a tray I decided it was pointless for me to even try, so here I am now, sitting on the floor, helping you pick up a large pile of books that I walked into." Aislynn said.
"I wasn't watching where I was going to, so that's more or less my fault." Scarecrow said.
"Well neither was I, I was talking to Toto, which was rather pointless if you ask me." Aislynn said handing scarecrow a few books.
"Well, yes and no, Toto makes barks and gestures that get the point across well enough, but really Dorothy can understand him." Scarecrow said as they finished picking up the books.
"Yes, but she can also understand other animals as well and she go the power on accident." Aislynn said taking half the stack of books from scarecrow.
"Thanks, come on, I was taking these books to my room, but let's go to the chambers, its closer, and we can continue this conversation." Scarecrow said leading her off.
In Ellie's bedroom.
"I can't see it." Ellie said through tears.
"See what Ellie?" Elena asked setting the tray down on Ellie's bedside table.
"I can't see the room, I can't see things through Glinda's eyes, the connection." Ellie said squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
"Ellie, the room could be in a place where that kind of connection doesn't work, it could…" Elena started to say as Ellie cut her off.
"But what if it's not like that!? What the jester did something to her!?" Ellie screamed out.
"Ellie, you need to calm down, I'm sure Glinda is alright." Elena said.
"Elena she could be dead, she could be a statue again, and you know what that jester can do!" Ellie shouted at her.
"Ellie." Elena said trailing off.
Elena finally let out a sigh and gave up. She knew that until Glinda was free, or Dorothy was out of the room to come here and comfort her, Ellie would not budge.
Well then, such an odd turn of events I say, anyways, the next chapter will have Dorothy, alex, Glinda, and the cats out of the room.