"BOOM!" The Wizard pulled the trigger on his new invention. He was in an expansive and windowless compound at Glinda's castle. In the past three years, the Wizard ordered the construction of a large concrete room in a remote area of the castle, so he could demonstrate his latest inventions and creations to the Quadlings.
For this demonstration, the Wizard did not know if something was going to go wrong, so he gave a blueprint to the Tinkers on how to design and build protective goggles, which he also wore.
A group of Glinda's subjects had gathered, safely behind the confines of a large glass protective shield. They gasped collectively as the sound erupted throughout the room, ending as soon as it began.
A hole appeared in a tiny segment of the concrete wall.
The Wizard lifted his creation in the air as he smiled triumphantly. "People of Oz! I give you…the magic trigger! This is a magical weapon that will keep every Ozian safe from the Wicked Witches!"
What he designed, and had the Tinkers build, was in reality a late nineteenth century .41 Colt Deringer.
After speaking, he gestured to the Master Tinker, who had observed the demonstration alongside the Quadlings. He walked into the demonstration area. He was carrying a large and clunky protective vest with shiny leggings. He then handed it to the Wizard and walked to the opposite end of the room.
After the Wizard clumsily placed the vest onto his suit and placed the leggings over his legs, he offered an explanation to his second invention. "My fellow Ozians! This is a protective vest made of metal. We all know the powers of the Wicked Witch of the East. Metal is a great conductor of electricity and being completely encased in this metal will protect the wearer from any of her fiendish attacks!"
The Wizard began to look at the Quadlings who were on the other side of the glass shield.
"I can take questions as to either of these creations..."
A Quadling man began to speak. "Can that thing you fired before…can it kill a witch?"
The small crowd began to get excited and animated at the question. Some nodded while other murmured.
The Wizard gestured triumphantly and boldly. "Yes. This should not only level the playing field against witches, but offer ample protection to the good people of Oz as well." He smiled cheekily.
One small Quadling child raised her hand. The Wizard smiled and pointed at her. "Yes, go ahead…"
"What about the Wicked Witch of the West? Will the metal offer protection from her?" The child's question prompted low and inaudible banter among Glinda's subjects.
The Wizard lowered his head and sighed. He looked up and addressed the child, a solemn and sad expression on his face.
"…No, it will not offer complete protection. Metal is fire resistant, but it is not fireproof. Unfortunately, I don't have anything to offer that is…"
Another man eagerly raised his hand.
The Wizard pointed at him. "Yes!"
"That means you are going to kill the Wicked Witches with this, right?" All of the demonstrators cheered.
But before the Wizard could respond, a soft but coarse feminine voice addressed the crowd. "The good people of Oz do not kill…" As the figure emerged from behind the shadows, the Quadlings and the Wizard turned to the speaker. It was Glinda's chief lieutenant, Agatha. She was flanked by four of her subordinates, all of whom were part of Glinda's powerful all female army.
As she approached the Wizard, she looked at the Quadlings with a small smile. "My good Quadlings, the demonstrations are over. By Glinda's directive, it is time for rest once more."
As the small crowd began to dutifully depart the room, Agatha turned to the Wizard. "My, my, dear Wizard, that was quite a show you put on for us…"
He gave her a weak smile, his voice conveying annoyance. "I am glad you liked it…"
In the weeks following Evanora and Theodora's banishment from the Emerald City, the Wizard became acquainted with Glinda's chief lieutenant on a more regular basis. Indeed, Agatha was her right-hand woman. And unlike Glinda, who often gave deference to the Wizard's decisions, Agatha's fiery personality was often coarse and contentious. In the Wizard's eyes, the worst thing Glinda did was to leave Agatha at the Emerald City while she was away tending to the Quadlings. She and the Wizard would often argue over matters of policy, system of government and security measures. If the Wizard was going to confide in anyone, the last person in Nonestica he would have confided in would have been Agatha.
Despite the simmering acrimony between them, the Wizard grew to begrudgingly respect her as a highly competent administrator and a superb military strategist among Glinda's subordinates.
"Why didn't you reclaim the Emerald City before I arrived?" The Wizard once asked this question to Glinda during one of his visits to Quadling Country several months after Evanora and Theodora were banished.
"Because I didn't want to kill anyone, including Evanora. However, it was Agatha who could not rule out such a possibility. In order to ensure the security of the Quadlings and prevent violence, I protected my castle and the lands surrounding my people with a magical barrier…"
While they would seldom speak for any length of time, Agatha would talk about her upbringing to the Wizard when they did so. Agatha acknowledged that she was not a witch, but a mortal. She was pretty, with long flowing blonde hair and hazel eyes. She was charismatic in speech and youthful in appearance, but a wrinkle on her face prevented her from saying she was beautiful. Still, when she was in a good mood, she was often gregarious and charming.
Agatha was born in Oogaboo, an autonomous and tiny province of Oz located on the northeast corner of Winkie Country. While the Land of Oz was incredibly wealthy, Oogaboo was its poorest community.
Like most of its residents, Agatha was born into poverty. Both of her parents were simple woodcutters without any extraordinary abilities. She described her upbringing as chaotic and unpredictable. When she was five, a horrific famine swept through her province due to a poor harvest. Cut off from the rest of Oz by a mountain range, assistance was unable to reach its people in time.
And unlike the rest of Oz, Oogaboo experienced capricious and often unforgiving weather. As their food supply dwindled, her family became weaker and weaker. While her mother eventually succumbed to starvation, Agatha was able to save her father and brother due to her self-proclaimed "innate hunting, survival and military skills." She attributed the family's survival to a natural and inbred talent she had, none of which anyone knew existed until they experienced this traumatic hardship. The Wizard was skeptical of her story, secretly believing that Agatha resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.
Regardless, in the years that followed, it was undisputed that Agatha would hone her skills by tracking wild animals and hunting prey. She extensively trained using a bow and arrow with deadly accuracy.
She was 18 when she met Glinda. As a result, her life changed forever.
It was a chance meeting. As Agatha would later learn, Glinda was on assignment to meet Queen Ann Soforth. On this visit, she was acting as the emissary of her mother, Queen Lurline, and of her father, King Pastoria.
At the time, Agatha was an orphan and a street peddler in Oogaboo's capitol city of Oogami, selling the meat and skin of the various animals she had slayed.
The story told by eyewitness accounts and Agatha herself was that an unknown figure, cloaked in black, tried to assassinate the queen. However, this assassin was not a particularly good shot. When the arrow was released, its trajectory went straight for Glinda. And Agatha was in close proximity to intervene since the pair were passing her cart.
Using her lightning quick reflexes, she caught the arrow with her bare hands, saving Glinda's life. And before the would-be assassin could flee, she grabbed her bow and shot her arrow, which pierced the assassin's heart.
From that day forward, Glinda took Agatha under her wing. Luck and timing favored her that day, as Glinda was in the process of building and training an all-female army. The reasons for this are many. For one, King Pastoria never fully trusted the Emerald City Guards. This is because they once took orders from the witch Gayelette, who was Queen Lurline's sister. When Gayalette became King Pastoria's advisor, she agreed that her Winkie Guards would relocate to the Emerald City and would fall under the command and control of the king. And when Gayelette and her two daughters, Singra and Mombi, were banished from the Emerald City and declared "wicked witches" by the king, he kept control of the Emerald City Guards and appointed his daughter Evanora to replace her aunt as his chief advisor.
After her banishment, Gayelette cursed the Winged Monkeys by forging the magical Golden Cap after they played a prank on her husband.
Even after Gaylette was banished, King Pastoria desired an elite paramilitary guard in case there was ever a coup against his rule. For this, he tasked his favorite daughter, Glinda, to recruit and train this elite paramilitary force. And Agatha happened to cross Glinda's path at just the right time.
In the years that followed, Agatha quickly and quietly rose the ranks of Glinda's elite all-female taskforce. By 25, she became Glinda's chief lieutenant and her most trusted advisor and confidant. And after King Pastoria's untimely death, it was Agatha who stood by her and vehemently opposed her leaving the Emerald City.
However, since the Emerald City Guards followed Evanora after she accused Glinda of the king's death, the good witch decided to exile herself from the Emerald City in order to avoid bloodshed, much to Agatha's dismay.
Despite the simmering tensions often present between the Wizard and Agatha, Glinda tried to intervene and settle disputes calmly and amicably. Things would settle down, until another flare up eventually happened. Finally, the Wizard confided to Glinda that Agatha was not welcome at the Emerald City, forcing her to appear at the Emerald City herself.
One day, Glinda entered the Wizard's chambers and confronted him about her chief lieutenant. Her voice was as cheerful as ever, despite the choice of her words.
"Why don't you want Agatha here? Don't you understand that I am trying to run both the Quadling Country and the Emerald City at the same time?" This conversation occurred two years after the Wizard came to Oz. And even though a year had already passed, Glinda remembered this conversation like it was yesterday.
Despite flashing Glinda his usual plastic smile, the Wizard gave her an icy stare. "Because I don't trust her. She is arrogant and condescending."
"But you were also arrogant once", Glinda coolly stated. "And egotistical and a fibber", she spoke pointedly to remind the Wizard that he was not perfect. "Didn't you once tell me that you were nothing but a womanizer and a con man?"
The Wizard lowered his head, as he often did when he felt shame. "Not anymore."
After the demonstration today, the Wizard kept his interaction with Agatha brief. But it was not long until he ran into another blonde-haired beauty on the castle's main floor.
"Ah, there you are." Glinda smiled at him as she saw the Wizard strolling through the main hallway of her castle while conversing with Finley.
"Did he deliver the message?", the Wizard asked his monkey companion in a nervous whispered tone. "Yes, oh Great and Powerful Wizard", Finley exclaimed.
Miraculously, the messenger had agreed to go on this daring mission. The Wizard flashed Finley a small smile of relief and a nod of approval.
Looking up, the Wizard saw Glinda approaching him. He stared down again at Finley and sharply pointed at him as he continued to speak in whispers. "She does not want this spoken about, either to her or to anyone else." The Wizard's face was stern and his voice anxious as he nervously adjusted his top hat. For now, the Wizard wanted to abide by Glinda's request to keep this mission confidential. The only one who knew the details of this mission was his monkey companion, who nodded in approval.
The Wizard then turned and shot Glinda a cheeky smile. She spoke first as she beamed at him.
"Wizard, I see you are quiet today. And I am so proud of your accomplishments. But I do hope that your inventions will not bring unintended consequences to our land or to our people."
"It will not", the Wizard confidently assured her.
He continued. "When is the next time you will be at the Emerald City?"
"Not for another several weeks when we meet the Ambassador from Ev. Until that time, you are on break. I am sure you will have quite an adventure during that time." The blonde-haired witch then winked at him.
The Wizard nodded. "Yes, well, Finley and I must be going…err, back to the Emerald City!" He winked back at her.
Glinda smiled at the pair, but otherwise remained unfazed. "Take care, you two!" She then turned and walked away as one of her female lieutenants approached her.
"Where to now, oh great and powerful Wizard?" The monkey shot him a cheeky smile, but the Wizard merely gave him a deathly stare.
Finley became serious and mildly anxious. "Ohhh…there! But why do you want to go to that awful place?" The Wizard did not respond, but thoughts of jubilation and celebratory fervor came to his mind. He imagined triumphantly walking down the main street of the Emerald City, with people singing and changing his name.
"Praise be the Wizard, praise he for turning the Wicked Witch of the West into good!"
"Look at him girls, isn't he so handsome?"
"Wizard, can I get your autograph?"
He imagined addressing his adoring, cheering and fawning crowd. "Thank you! Thank you! It was nothing, really! Just another day in the life of the Great and Powerful, Wizard of Oz!" The Wizard would then chuckle to his fervent fans as loud and as boisterous as he could as the monkey would blow the trumpet at his awesomeness. The crowd would respond with glee, enthusiastically clapping, whistling and chanting "WIZARD! WIZARD! WIZARD! WIZARD!..."
"Wizard?" As he snapped out of his fantastical daydream, he looked down at the ground and saw Finley staring up at him. "Are you ready?"
Initially, he did not respond. Instead, he merely fastened the Colt Deringer that was hidden underneath his suit jacket to the holster and placed a pocketknife in his back pocket as the pair proceeded to leave Glinda's castle.
After several moments of initial trepidation, the Wizard calmly replied to Finley.
"Let's go."