This is really, really creepy, Melissa thought, slowly tip-toeing through the woods, I thought I'd find someone by now, she shuddered at the chilly wind that rustled the trees shaking their black crunchy leaves loose. She didn't dare call out for fear that she would attract unwanted attention as if her rumbling stomach didn't already do so, I wanna go home back to toto and the farm, I don't like it here. As careful as she was Melissa walked right into a trap, the net snapping shut around her and hoisting her from the ground. Startled, she yelled out only to clamp her hand over her mouth. Something could very well want to eat her, it was better if she stayed quiet, maybe she could figure a way out of her predicament.

The sounds of snapping twigs made her pause, recoiling with a fear she wasn't used to, clutching the basket to her chest.

"Well, well, you're not my dinner,"

Out of the shadows stepped a woman in a battered red cloak with a bow and arrows hung over her shoulders. Slowly, she drew closer, peering curiously at Melissa. Her blue eyes widened slightly, the ice within them melting away, "What are you doing in this wasteland?" she asked, lowering the net.

Melissa hated herself for how she trembled. What if this was a trick? A trap by one of the banished horrors to lull her into a false sense of calm before it ate her?

"Hey, it's okay," the woman spoke softly, almost with a motherly tone, "I'm as human as you are, I'm not going to hurt you, what's your name?"

"Melissa"

"It's nice to meet you, Melissa, my name is Carmen now how did you get here?"

...

Richard's injured leg burned like fire but he didn't dare stop. He had found his weapons scattered a few feet away from where he'd roughly landed in a crumbling tree. It had taken close to an hour to climb down. But now, with his sword in hand, Richard prowled the forest on high alert looking for any sign of the others. Any sign of anyone but especially Melissa even though he scolded himself for it Melissa didn't need protection, she didn't need help and yet, he felt honor bound to protect her anyway. After all, she had saved him from that ghastly prison and tended to his injuries. But, where was she now? Had one of the horrible beasts gotten to her? Was she stuck in a losing battle? Was she about to be eaten? The thought chilled him to the bone.

Melissa, where are you?

...

Still, on edge, Melissa followed Carmen back to her home, a falling-down house deep in the heart of the woods. Inside it was one room with a makeshift bed against one wall and a large tin tub on the other. There was no food but a small fireplace to cook with a large hanging pot to cook it in. Shutting the door behind them, Carmen hung her weapons and cloak beside the door, drawing the latch shut.

"I know it isn't much but it's all I have in the world"

"I thought Ev was abandoned?"

"It is now but it wasn't always sixteen years ago the ground opened and everyone fell in," Carmen began, "Our magic had fizzled long before that, most likely siphioned to the Nomes by some crooked means, the exiled beasts were left behind unwanted, uneeded for whatever they were planning"

"But if everything fell in how did escape?"

"I don't recall I just..."

"Just?"

"Melissa?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have a birthmark?"

"Yes...?"

"Where?"

"Here," confused, Melissa slipped off her shoe, lifting the skirt of the dress.

"I knew it"

"Knew what?"

"My sole concern the day everything fell apart was my child, oh, she was only a week old, so little and helpless, there was this great gust of wind and she was gone, out of my arms, only later did I discover she'd been taken from this world altogether"

"Wait you can't mean...me?"

"But I do," Carmen nodded, "Unless you have parents I'm not aware of?"

"No..." Melissa softly conceded, "I spent my life in an orphanage until recently"

The room started to spin as all this new information crashed over Melissa. Was her entire life a lie? Was this why she was so strangely connected to Oz? What did this mean for their quest? For her future? Was she stuck here? Would she never see Jenny, Toto, or the farm ever again?

"Here" Carmen gently took her by the arm, guiding her over to the bed, "You rest here, I'll go find your friends and then we can all discuss the next course of action, believe me, I want the Queen back as badly as the rest of you, Okay?"

"Okay"

Melissa was still reeling. Unable to even think about sleep she tossed and turned thinking back to all the incidents that had occurred at the orphanage over the years. The oldest kids shunned her when she was small, labeling her disturbed and whispering about her when they thought she wasn't around to hear. The head matron whipped her until her back was bloody to drive out her 'overactive imagination. Otherwise, she would be stuck there forever. Asking, begging pleading to know where she came from but no one had a real answer. Showed up after a storm, they'd always said. Swaddled in a warm blanket and clean but alone. The speculation was that she had been abandoned by a young couple, not fit or willing to care for a baby.

Head pounding, Melissa bit back the urge to scream her frustration.

Was her entire life a lie?

...

On and on and on, Robecca walked. Dented and aching she had been searching for hours for somebody, anybody. Were they hurt? Where was everyone?

"Robecca?"

"Richard!" Robecca turned with a relieved smile only for her face to fall as she took in his current state, "Are you okay?"

"I could ask you the same question," Richard replied.

"But I asked you first"

"I'll live," Richard waved her concern away, "Have you found anyone else?"

"No!" Robecca fretted, "Oh, Christina would be so upset with us if she were here"

"Why? What do you mean?"

"Hoodude and I were placed in that hidden room with explicit instructions to wait for and follow Melissa's orders"

"But, why?"

"She didn't say, she couldn't everything was falling to shambles around us already and now-"

"Don't worry, we'll find her and everyone else, let's keep going"

...

It didn't take long for Carmen to locate the Hungry Tiger who Melissa had named Tigger. The great beast was trembling with mournful Jack Pumpkinhead beside him. Not far from these two was Billina. Three down, four to go. It was swiftly growing dark causing Carmen to hasten to beat the nocturnal beasts of the forest. She was in such a hurry that she almost missed Hoodude altogether. Had it not been for his uncontrollable shocking abilities she would have walked right past him. One after the other she found them eventually crossing paths with Richard and Robecca.

"You two were certainly hardest to find," Carmen remarked, "Come on I suspect Melissa will be wondering where we are"

"How do we know we can trust you?"

"You don't have much of a choice now, do you?"

Richard deflated, lowering his sword, "I suppose you're right but..where's the Gump? He's how we got here"

"He did fall to pieces," Robecca gently reminded the group, "He's most likely scattered throughout the forest"

"Robecca is correct," Tik-Tock declared in his serious manner, "I came across one of the couches while searching for the rest of you"

"There's nothing we can do for him right now," Carmen replied, "Now come along unless you want to be eaten"

...

Melissa looked up with a start when the door opened. She had spent far too long on an unwilling trip down memory lane.

"I've found them," Carmen declared gliding through the door, "And dinner, I imagine you must be hungry"

Before Melissa could find the words to respond she had the wind knocked out of her by an obviously relieved Richard who despite his better reasoning had spent all his time worrying about her.

"I'm fine, I'm okay," she awkwardly patted his back, "I'm not hurt, I promise, please let go now, please"

"My apologies," he released her, quickly composing himself, "I just-"

"I know"

"And the basket?" Robecca dared to ask.

"Right here with everything still in it, surprisingly"

Carmen let the group catch up while she started on dinner, soon a thin soup was bubbling over the fireplace.

"Now, shall we discuss a plan of action?" she turned expectantly, "Or are you all planning to rush headlong into danger?"

"We don't have much of a choice in the matter," Robecca replied, "The Nome King has Christina captive in his mountain, she's the only hope of setting things right"

"There is always a choice," Carmen insisted, coming to sit beside Melissa, "We just have to put our heads together, the better our plan the better our sucess"

"Do you know much about the moutain?"

"Plenty"

...

The next morning a smaller group emerged from the cottage. Melissa, Richard, and Carmen alongside Robecca Tik-Tok and Jack whose head Billina was hiding inside. Hoodude and Tigger were to remain behind scouring Melissa's two journals for any useful information in the slim and scary chance that they couldn't locate or free Christina. Melissa still carried the ruby slippers tucked safely in the basket on her arm despite being advised not to. There was something deep within that told her not to leave them behind and Melissa had always followed her instincts.

"How far are we?" Richard asked.

"A few hours walk," Carmen replied, "Provided we don't run into any danger"

"We made a plan for that right?" Melissa shivered, tightly hugging herself. It was much colder in Ev.

"Yes, we did," in one swift motion, Carmen pulled off her cloak, tying it around Melissa's shoulders and pulling the hood up, "I'm used to the cold the faster we get moving the warmer I'll be"

...

Christina beat uselessly on the walls of her magical prison, bare feet cold against the floor. The phantom pain of having her magical shoes ripped from her feet made her pause, panting heavily.

"I'd give it a rest, your majesty," the Nome King mocked. "Unless you want to hurt them?"

"You'll get your comuppance, Roquat, they'll beat you"

"Please? Them against my power? Perposterous"

The Nome King faded from sight, meaning she'd been 'dismissed' for the day, Christina sunk to the ground, cradling her heavily pregnant belly, "Soon, very soon Darling one I'll be free"