Find me!

I'm trapped.

Find me!

Waking with a start, Melissa rubbed her eyes confused. For one thing, she and everything on her were dry as if she'd never been in the river at all. Secondly, Billina was beside her.

"Where did you come from?" she questioned the hen,

"I don't know, dear, I went to sleep in the coop, woke up here"

"Since when can you talk?" Melissa startled.

"Odd ain't it? Where is this pond anyway?"

"I don't think it's a pond, Billina," Melissa stood to inspect her surroundings, "Oh well, maybe it is"

A very dry pond, growing drier by the moment until sand and rocks were all that remained.

"Where did it go?" Melissa wondered aloud.

"Search me"

"I wonder if I hit my head?"

"Maybe"

"You're very helpful"

"I know what sarcasm is, Melissa," Billina replied evenly.

Melissa didn't respond, scanning their surroundings for a clue or two about their location. Not too far away the sand gave way to the greenest grass Melissa had ever seen. Squinting she leaned forward, trying to get a better look at the treeline.

"Oh, my..."

"What?" Billina clucked, hungry and irritable.

"We're in Oz, those are lunch-pail trees"

"You, my dear, have lost your senses"

"Then how do you suppose you're able to speak?"

The hen fell silent, watching Melissa drum her fingers against the side of the crate, "And if this is Oz this is the deadly desert!"

"Deadly...Desert?"

"Anything living that touches it, turns to sand but if we stay on these stones we'll be alright," she scooped up Billina, swinging her leg over the crate.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes"

The next minutes were slow, nerve-wracking. Melissa constantly scanned her surroundings, jumping from stone to stone until she finally managed a leap into the grass.

"Here you are, Billina," she set the hen down, "Let's see about breakfast"

Neither knew they'd been watched.

…...

"Your Majesty"

"What?"

"The Keeper has arrived"

"Good"

The servant, merely a face in stone grimaced.

"Well, what is it?"

"She has brought a chicken with her"

"WHAT"

…...

"Don't pick a green one," Billina advised watching Melissa scramble up the nearest lunch pail tree.

"Thanks for the advice," grunted Melissa picking a few pails, arms dropping with the weight as she jumped from the branches.

Slouching against the tree she popped the lid off the first pail before hungrily diving into her ham sandwich. Once finished she dusted herself off chose a direction and started to walk away, looking for a way to get home. It wasn't long before she discovered the remains of the yellow brick road, shuddering Melissa pressed on.

"Where is everybody?" Billina asked sufficiently creeped out.

"Oz is at war, Billina"

"War?"

"Yes, war"

"Do you know where we're going?"

"With any luck, we've landed in the forest just outside the Emerald City"

The half-destroyed turrets of the Emerald Palace were soon in sight. Slowly, the hope of a safe, quick return home was dwindling. There was carnage everywhere she looked. Destroyed homes, dead crops, crumbling buildings without a soul to be seen. It was creepy. Still, the two pressed on heading into the city with feeble hope for help only to encounter more of the Nome King's victims.

There was the head of the royal guard. Clawdeen Wolf frozen mid-fight. Not very far from where she stood was Duncan who appeared to have fallen from the sky as one of his wings was broken into several pieces around him.

"These seem to have lost their heads," Billina commented, glancing around at the unnerving number of headless females.

"Ugh, let's move on before I throw up"

though the scene was much the same in the streets, shops, and houses they visited. Just outside the palace gate, they came across a roughly painted warning.

Beware the wheelers.

"What's a wheeler?"

"I have no clue, Billina," Melissa shrugged, "Let's head into the castle now"

The creaking of metal stopped them cold. Slowly, they turned to find what must have been a wheeler, white-faced with a much too large grin the thing was set on rusty wheels.

"RUN MELISSA RUN!"

Melissa was already running. She may not have known what a wheeler was but she also didn't want to find out. There were unfortunate more than one all with that too-large grin and manic laughter as they made grabs for Billina who flapped as fast as she could to get away. Following behind the frenzied hen, Melissa found herself dead-ended against a large stone wall.

"Got you now"

Melissa wasn't giving up. This was Oz, after all, there had to be some way to get out of this mess.

The wheelers drew closer.

Still scrambling for a way out of her predicament Melissa found a small keyhole almost in the center of the wall. One hand on the wall the other dove into her pocket where the key she had just discovered yesterday still rested alongside her book which was still bone dry. Rather than marvel at this impossibility, she hastily twisted the key in the lock watching the wall slide open. As big as it was she dove inside before it was entirely open before pushing it closed once more.

"You can't hide in there forever," the wheeler snarled, watching her from the keyhole, "You have to come out sometime and when you do we'll tear you into little pieces"

"And what did I ever do to you?"

"Isn't that a stolen lunch pail in your hand? Isn't that a chicken in there with you? Chickens aren't allowed anywhere in Oz"

"Oh get lost you bunch of crazies"

Cackling still, the wheelers left her be.

"You're here"

Startled, Melissa turned to find they weren't alone. There was a blue-haired metal girl and a cloth boy with button eyes watching her.

"Who are they?" Billina questioned warily.

"My name's Robecca Steam and this," Robecca motioned to the cloth boy slumped against the wall, "Is Hoodude"

"What are you two doing in here?" Melissa asked.

"Christina put us in here and told us to wait for you when everything started turning to stone"

"She enchanted this place so we'd be safe," added Hoodude, "And left us Frankie's latest invention, the one-man army but he stopped working," Hoodude pointed to the metal statue beside him.

"Hm," Melissa circled the statue, "Look, here are his directions," she began reading, "For thinking, wind under his right arm, for talking wind under left, for walking and action wind middle of the back"

Hoodude took half a step to do it himself but seeing how his hands were made from cloth his fingers weren't suited for quite a job so he stepped back letting Melissa start with his thought which led to a gentle whirring noise.

"What do you suppose he's thinking about?" Robecca pondered.

"I'll wind up his speech so he can tell us"

The first few words were utter nonsense seeing as he hadn't moved his jaw in a while but the mechanical man finally managed to greet Melissa.

"Hello, young lady"

"Hello, sir," In her amazement, Melissa brushed aside the strangeness.

It really couldn't get any stranger.

"Are you Melissa?"

"Yes sir"

"I am Tik-Tok, the royal army of oz, we've been waiting for you"

I'll ponder that later, Melissa shrugged it off saying, "Billina found the key in the farmyard"

"The Queen must've sent it to you"

Again Melissa shrugged, "If you don't mind, Mr. Tok I'll wind up your action"

"Thank you, Melissa, you may call me Tik-Tok"

"Do you think you can help us get past the wheelers outside?" Robecca questioned.

"I'm certain if Hoodude and I put our heads together we can think up a plan"

…...

the wall slid slowly open. Warily, Melissa peeked out. Seeing no wheelers nearby she nodded to the others while handing Tik-Tok the lunch pail. Quiet as mice they crept from the space, edging to the center of the city where the same giggling green-haired wheeler and his lackeys tried to capture them.

"Melissa, you run up the stairs, we'll take care of them"

Melissa wasn't in the mood for an argument. Instead, she watched, mouth agape as Tik-Tok fought the wheelers by spinning faster than a top while Robecca and Hoodude kept any from getting to her. Soon enough only the leader remained in Tik-Tok's metal grip.

"Where is Christina?" Robecca demanded.

"Answer her! Answer her!" Tik-Tok shook the grinning wheeler violently.

"The only person who knows is L-la-Lady G-G-Gray"

"Take us to her!"

"No no no no no no no"

"NOW!" Melissa shouted reminding them she was there.

…...

Well, the name certainly fits Melissa thought looking at the decrepit gray building. They'd walked the crumbled remains of the yellow brick road for close to four hours to find the manor ghastly and out of place among the otherwise colorful landscape.

"Let me go, let me go!" their wheeler captive, now sporting two black eyes, writhed in Tik-Tok's grip.

"Should we?" Robecca asked.

"Yes, I don't see why we would need him anymore," Melissa replied.

"Behave yourself!" Tik-Tok ordered the wheeler before letting him go to places unknown.

"We should knock," Hoodude stated when no one moved.

"I have a bad feeling," Billina clucked.

Nevertheless, they pressed on finding the inside a complete contrast to the outside. Everything was reflective, gleaming gold and silver.

"I believe it is just up these steps," Tik-Tok drew their attention to a sweeping marble staircase.

"Let's go then,"

"I still have a bad feeling," Billina clucked following at Melissa's heels.

…...

I repeat not a lot happens in the film as it is a somewhat sloppy attempt at mashing to distinctly different books together cutting out stops on the journies and additional cast members. So here goes my own version of the story. The funnily ironic thing about Melissa staring in an oz story? Oz was Carmen's favorite story :)

You should also do yourself a favor and read the novels.

Please review they make me happy LOL.