Disclaimer, you know

As the winter drew in and on, the holidays past and spring came right around the corner. Dorothy found herself retrying the effort of swimming training in the palace pool. It had been quite a while since she had utilized it. and now she had Ozma in there with her. Alex was sat at the side, watching, ready to step in should that become necessary. Though he legitimately didn't think it would.

The Grimmerie sat on one of the chairs, the scepter having put a bubble of energy around it. Dorothy now had Ozma once more floating on her back. As ozma stared up at the ceiling of the room, she felt nervous. She still didn't know why. She had ruminated on this before, as Tip she had no problems swimming, and that lasted for a good while. She didn't feel any different so what had changed? She didn't know and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"So this is where you three have disappeared to?" Came the voice of Tora as he came in

"Oh don't tell me no one else thought to look here?" Alex asked, kind of chuckling at this, "or is Madeline just not being cooperative"

"I guess not?" Tora said, his boots clacking against the dampened floor, "Primarily because Madeline is out getting supplies for more hats, she's probably hung up at the seamstress's" he added

He hadn't forgotten that the palace had gotten a pool installed in it, it was honestly one of the more ideal places to go if you wanted some privacy, unless you tried getting deliberately lost in the corridors. This was something dorothy knew pretty well as well, though she definitely preferred the clearing.

"I've been…trying to build confidence to swim back…something changed in me after a bit and I suddenly found myself unable to manage it" Ozma admitted to tora, though she didn't know why she blurted this out.

"that's…strange…I've largely heard your story second hand from the others, about how you were changed into a boy named Tip…was were you able to swim then?" he asked curiously, sitting on the edge of the pool.

"That's the strange thing, yes, and for a while being in my normal form again I could too…then one day just found that I didn't have the confidence, like it was something that I had forgotten." Ozma said sighing "which quite frankly given my abilities is strange since I cant actually drown." She added.

"wait…you cant?" Alex asked genuinely curious.

"Don't get me wrong, I cant breath underwater either, at least not without a spell." Ozma said finally getting off her back and working her way though the shallower waters over to the edge of the pool to look at both of them "but I know I cant drown, because I cant even take a breath under the water."

"honestly I'd say that's probably more just a protection?" Tora suggested, thinking about that

"From whom?" Ozma asked with a giggle "That would be a very strange thing for my mother to come out of…wherever it is she's disappeared to just to put an enchantment over me like that." she said

"wouldn't be the strangest thing we've heard of faeries doing though, would it?" Alex asked, completely serious, the scepter pinging in agreement with this statement.

Dorothy swam over to them and joined Ozma at the edge of the pool. Immediately Ozma took her hand and squeezed it. this did get dorothy thinking though, about something Rose had told her about the lake in winkie country, the moon's lake. That if one were to swim in it, they wouldn't be able to even open their mouths while inside the water, let alone consume it outside. An enchantment that did this existed on a lake, it was probably possible to recycle the principle for a person.

"Ozma, that is a good point that Tora is making, as well Alex." She said looking up at the both of them, "like i personally wouldn't find suddenly having a protection like that incredibly unnatural, but that's because I've been hit with so many spells at this point that I'm not uncertain I don't." the scepter letting out a few pings that she interpreted as Trust me you don't "thank you windy, anyways, you suddenly found yourself without the confidence and the inability to drown in the first place, similar to the affects that rose described to me of the Moon's lake over in winkie country. Water cant enter your mouth or nose that way would be my guess."

"Generally speaking yes, cant even open my mouth under water." Ozma said thinking about it.

"well, Lurline is the one who put the enchantments over this land and made it faerie country way long back" Tora said thinking about it "stands to reason she'd be willing to reach out to put a similar enchantment on her daughter"

"and I honestly doubt its escaped her notice how much trouble this place tends to get into" Alex added getting up and joining tora at the edge of the pool.

"If it hasn't she's done a very bad job at doing something about it" Ozma said sighing

"I think that's more on account of the fact that things do generally tend to work out." Dorothy said wrapping her arms around Ozma gently, "for all intents and purposes every time something goes wrong, either myself, alex, or both of us manage to sort it out ourselves"

Ozma nodded, relaxing in Dorothy's arms, sighing.

"and I'm grateful, its just, people bring up my mother being missing, no one knows the fate of my father" Ozma said, unaware of the fact that he was in the room with her now, "I'd just really like to have some kind of a…what's the word?"

"Tangible connection?" Tora offered, trying to meet his daughter's gaze but finding her trying to not meet his.

"I guess that's the one" she said sighing "Tora you haven't been here long and neither has nadia, but these guys have done their best to be the family I never got to have."

"does anyone know why your father decided to give you up? And vanish as completely as your mother seems to have?" He asked curiously, wondering what the going theories of his disappearance were, "from what I've heard the popular belief is that he is dead"

"that's pretty much it really" Ozma said removing herself from dorothys arms and climbing out of the pool, she paced around the two as dorothy made her way over to a ladder "some people believe the wizard had something to do with it, but no one has truly ever been able to give incontestable proof, there has never been evidence of fowl play" Ozma said sighing

Tora stood and once more and looked at her.

"if you had to propose a theory then?" Tora asked curiously

"is now really the time for that?" Alex asked curiously.

"better while we're isolated and not in a group" Dorothy said grabbing her towel, the scepter pinging in agreement, "avoids some awkward stares and whatnot like when I had to bridge the subjects about my parents."

"I personally believe, considering that Oscar never came to check on me when I was stuck with Mombi, that he actually knew very little of my own location." Ozma said grabbing her own towel, "But that he took the throne of Emerald City, more likely with my father's blessing before he disappeared to wherever it was he disappeared to."

"still a rotten thing to do, leaving you with Mombi like that." Alex said letting go of the scepter, windy letting out a few pings. In a flash dorothy and Ozma were both dried off and changed into their normal outfits.

"but who was going to look in…what was essentially the middle of nowhere in Gillikin country for a princess who was enchanted into a different form?" Ozma said, curiosity in her own voice "even Glinda couldn't find me, and people largely avoided Mombi because of her reputation as something of an amateur witch, and not a good one at that…I have to wonder if she started sweet as she can be now and just got worse as time went on."

"I would say that's most likely the case" Tora said thinking on his own past actions.

Mombi had in fact been a pretty sweet old woman in isolation. She had a reputation for potions on occasions but otherwise had seemed completely harmless. He was glad things worked out, but now he regretted it.

"And for what its worth, she did take care of me, she was a rough guardian, but she did whatever her task was set to do, up until the point where she snapped." Ozma said with a sigh "and I cant say I was blameless either, as I had taken to being a level of antagonistic to her as well." she said.

"no one faults you for rebelling." Alex said going over to her and taking her hand

Dorothy smiled and took the other "and who knows, we've encountered stranger things, perhaps some day we will in fact find your father" she said smiling.

"Considering the goings on in Oz, he might be closer than we even believe" Tora added warmly.

Ozma smiled and pulled her two special friends into a warm embrace, giggling.

"honestly, I'd love to find my father, I hold nothing against him for what happened to me" Ozma said smiling

"even though any reasonable person probably would?" Tora asked seriously.

"I've never known my father, I may not be able to justify his actions." Ozma said turning to look at him "but that was also far in the past for me now, and I don't see the point of letting a grudge fester as I don't want to become a resentful ruler"

Tora smiled warmly at her, she had grown to be a better person than he had been. actually faced with that reality but unable to say a thing about it, his tongue magically tied to be unable to say a thing about it. but he knew that he probably couldn't be the better person if he were in the same scenario, and in a way with Lurline he was. He had been taken off the board until he was needed, which was pretty much what he had done to Ozma.

"I'd say then, based on all the evidence and lack thereof, given the circumstances, that makes you the better person, the better ruler." Tora said, the smile never leaving his face

"All I know about my father is that he was considered to be a very good king." Ozma said nodding, "but still chose to abdicate his throne to the wizard, which locked Oz into something of a permanent stalemate of the witches." She said

"perhaps he didn't think he could actually handle a war of the witches then?" Tora more said than asked, because this was actually his logic.

"would have been a war of chaos considering different levels of firepower the witches of the east and west had" Dorothy said with a shudder, "and it was pretty much heading in that direction before my house fell on the wicked witch of the east, and the subsequent death of the witch of the west at my hands."

"then the jester, multiple times" Alex said counting off on his hands "Jinjur, though you weren't involved with that so much as I was, then Evanora is the most recent."

Dorothy nodded "and as we said, its all worked out, but it hasn't been easy getting here."

"and honestly for all its ups and downs, I wouldn't change a thing given the option" Ozma said kissing both of them.

"well, just based entirely on observations alone, I'd say that you have quite the family here in the palace, there is no 'trying' about it" Tora said with a chuckle "and I'm sure your father, would willingly give his blessing to these two that you've joined yourself with"

Ozma giggled at this, looked at dorothy and alex, then blushed.

"I would certainly like to think so, c'mon, I'm sure everyone is still worried about us" she said with a giggle