Disclaimer, you know.
As Dorothy and the maids arrived in Oz they found that the chambers were completely empty. Dorothy however was too worried. She sighed and led the girls through the city until they got outside near the docks. This is where they found Aislynn and scarecrow setting up the balloon.
"Ace, be careful around that, remember it's an open flame." Jessica said.
"Scarecrow should be the one who is more worried he's made of straw." Aislynn said chuckling.
"She does have a point." Dorothy said turning to them, "I mean scarecrow has only really admitted to being afraid to one thing." She added.
"And what's that?" the two asked in unison.
"A lighted match." Dorothy, scarecrow, and Aislynn said in unison before they all looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"We see." Jenny and Jessica said in unison.
Dorothy smiled and walked over to scarecrow and Aislynn and helped them get the balloon filled up and soon they were floating a good distance off the ground.
"You know, it's funny, the last time I saw this balloon in action I was nearly getting brought back to Kansas in it, but it floated away." Dorothy said as scarecrow and Aislynn were trying to explain to her the controls.
"You know, that's the last time I saw this old gas bag too, now if you want to go higher you just pull this cord and it releases more gas into the flame." Scarecrow said pulling the cord causing the flame to get larger and noisier.
"And to move it you just activate the propellers like so." Aislynn said pulling the switches on the back of the propellers then grabbing the tiller.
"Ace, your grandfather was a genius, did I ever tell you that?" Dorothy asked curiously.
Aislynn smiled and motioned for Dorothy to take hold of the tiller.
"Yes, and to land this thing you just turn down the flame like so." Aislynn said walking over to scarecrow and turning a small knob next to the cord
All off a sudden the balloon began a slow descent downwards. As the basket finally touched the ground again Aislynn looked up and saw the clouds beginning to get worse. Dorothy looked up and sighed.
"We should get the balloon inside, I know its water proof but the jester will probably try to strike it with lightning or something, you know, I should probably be quiet before I give the clown any ideas." Dorothy said.
"Good idea, come on ace." Scarecrow said turning off the gas to the balloon.
Jenny and Jessica walked over and helped the three get the balloon packed away where it could be easily deployed later. As soon as the balloon was packed away they returned to the chambers where they found Ellie sitting on the throne making shapes in the air with her wand while Toto was playing her shoes in the corner while pockets sat on Ellie's lap watching the shapes swirl and dissipate in the air like wisps of smoke.
"Enjoying ourselves?" Dorothy asked giggling
"Quite." Ellie said not even sparing them a glance.
Dorothy sighed and walked over to the throne. She then sat down on the floor next to it. She took pockets off of Ellie's lap.
"Dorothy?" Pockets asked curiously.
"Yes pockets?" Dorothy replied.
"Why do I smell a storm coming?" Pockets asked curiously.
"I don't know, I smell it too, the jester's cooking up something fierce." Dorothy said craning her neck over the arm of the throne and glancing out the window.
No sooner had Dorothy done this there was a crash of thunder and the sound of shrieking monkeys. Dorothy immediately jumped up throwing pockets off of her.
"Sweet Oz, an invasion!" Ellie said jumping up.
Immediately several monkey's flew in and targeted Aislynn. Both Ellie and Dorothy did their best trying to stop as many monkeys as they could but more just kept showing up as Ellie or Dorothy could deal with. Scarecrow and grabbed Aislynn's hand and they were on the run everyone had heard the invasion start and had sprung into action. Alyssa and the other girls were fending off monkeys and holding them back for the time that was needed for Aislynn and the scarecrow to run.
"Keep running you two, we'll hold them off!" Alyssa shouted as they ran by.
And indeed they did.
"Where, exactly, are we going?" Aislynn asked through breaths while looking back
"No idea, where ever we can get away from these monkeys from, have you ever tried thinking in a situation like this?" Scarecrow asked rather quickly.
"I never thought, I'd end up, in a situation like this!" ace shouted.
"Exactly." Scarecrow said.
"Ah, ah, ah, now you're not playing fair." Came the voice of the jester.
Immediately a Nikko and a few monkeys caught up with them. Aislynn screamed loudly as both she and scarecrow were lassoed by the monkeys and carried away.
"Good, Nikko, it's time for your army to retreat!" The voice of the jester said as it echoed through the castle
As the monkeys began to retreat Dorothy felt her heart sink. She knew either they had captured Aislynn and scarecrow. Or that they had gotten to someplace safe. Though she didn't know the jester to give up that easily. The sinking feeling in her heart told her Aislynn had been captured and she knew it.
"You know the answer, you know they were captured, why are you going off and fooling yourself?" the voice in Dorothy's head told her and asked her.
Dorothy immediately fell to her knees. Dropping the scepter she broke down crying. Then all of a sudden for the first time in a very long time she blacked out.
Look, I'm sorry this was a short chapter but I promise you the next one will be much longer. Who do you think will be captured next? And what will the jester do to ace and scarecrow, will he actually turn them to stone? Or into puppets? Or is there a different plan? I hear dungeons can be nice.