No Place Like Home

by Erik Schubach

  Then the naked woman stepped forward offering a hand. “Toni Tomlinson, my friends call me Toto. And the Witch of the Four Cardinal Points, protector of Oz, Dorothy Gale.”

  Elle stared at them for a moment then hesitantly shook her hand, then offered her now flesh hand to Dorothy. “You pack a hell of a bloody wallop there, Dot.”

  Some of that madness twinkled around in the woman's eyes as well as some playfulness as she said,

  “You're no slouch yourself, runt.”

  Then Ella moved aside, but still keeping her body interposed between them and us. “My loves, Parker Devereux, and Countess Marie De La Fontaine.” Her voice was filled with wonder, just like her eyes as she looked at the impossibility of Marie being physically with us now.

  I had to smirk, Ella in her original form was extremely cute, in a girl next door way that made me yearn for her, but it was still her same old cocky smirk on her face. I could see why Marie had fallen for her so long ago.

  Ella repeated in an almost dreamy tone as they shook our hands, “Marie.”

  Marie gave her a longing smile and whispered, “Oui, mon cheri.”

  Then I turned to Marie. “It is so good to finally be able to touch you.” Then I turned to Dorothy.

  “Is it permanent? They have been trapped in the same body for so long.”

  I knew the answer just from the pained apology on her face. “Not even I can do that. They are two parts of a single person. When the magic I used to tear them apart dissipates, they'll rejoin each other.”

  Marie was quick to embrace Ella, and I cried as I watched their tears flowing over the joy of being able to touch each other if just for a short time. Then Toni was prompting, “The East Lands are being attacked by another wave of demons. Nobody could stand against my Dot like you have, you must be great warriors. Would you help us fight?”

  We looked down at the battle raging below, and I heard Ella cracking her knuckles and then crack her neck as she rolled her head on her shoulders, “Demons – we can do. Let's go fuck them up and bring a shite load of pain.”

  We all exchanged looks. Toto nodded then dove into the air, and when she landed, she was that hellish and monstrous dog again, bounding down the hill. Dorothy watched her go longingly then that green flame ignited in her eyes again as she roared out a challenge to the universe and dove into the air, a tornado scooped her up and traveled down the hill toward the battle raging below.

  The three of us exchanged a look, Elle kissed first Marie then me, leaving me in a happy daze, then we all embraced before charging down to help fight demons with Dorothy – of Oz.

  Just how weird is my life?

  Chapter 2 – Battle

  It didn't take long before we had won the field. They truly were demons we fought, and I had a lot of questions for later. They were the same sort of demons we had battled in the mortal realm that Styche the Trickster had been bringing over from hell.

  We may not have had the other Avatars with us to stem the tide, but Dorothy and Toto were captivating to watch as they tore through the enemy like an inexorable wave of carnage in a synchronized and deadly dance of death.

  There was all manner of fantastical creatures fighting the enemy. I swear I saw legions of porcelain dolls in uniforms being shattered to pieces by golem-like demons, and the animals poured in from the thick forests around the field to attack in formation, some wearing armor.

  But the most impressive were the small people, the tallest of whom was only around four and a half feet tall. They were proportional to us, just like shrunk down humans. I assumed these were the Munchkins. They didn't resemble the little people who played the Munchkins in the Oz movies. They were well organized, well armored, and well weaponed.

  Phalanxes of them would charge directly into the enemy ranks in formation, like the tip of a driving spear, and cut swathes through the enemy lines. Where Munchkins fell on their dual front lines, others would flow in to take their place in the formation, keeping it strong.

  Their armor flared when demon fire or acids would hit them or their weapons, telling me they were charmed. They had no fear, and they would roar out “For Dorothy! For Oz!” As they charged, again and again, reforming when necessary.

  The most terrifying of all was the cloud of what we thought were birds flying over the battlefield from our vantage point on the hill. When we arrived into the chaos of the fight, we found they were the flying monkeys from the books.

  And their description in the books was kind.

  Armored, long-haired simians who were about half the size of a man, with long, leathery bat-like wings. They were little more than demons themselves in my eyes as they swooped and savagely raked their clawed hands, swords, and spears across demon flesh, landing upon the enemy and biting with long fangs to tear out throats and claw out eyes. Or working as a team to fly bodies of dying demons into the sky to use them as falling ballistic weapons to rain down upon the other demons.

  One with blue armor instead of black had landed upon a viper-like demon in front of me, bearing them both to the ground. The flying monkey came up on top after a brief but vicious exchange in a flurry of fangs and claws. I swear the monkey looked directly at me and smiled as it held the

  struggling snakelike woman on the ground with his furry tail wrapped around her neck. He twitched his tail, and I heard the sickening crunch of bone as the life drained out of the demon's eyes.

  He finally looked away from me, letting the body fall as he screeched and dove back into the air, leathery wings flapping. I had swallowed hard at the display of vicious efficiency while I waited for the body to start decaying and dissolving into the black primordial sludge their conjured bodies left behind as the demon is sent back to the hell from where it came.

  That's when I realized that they weren't. Were these demons actually not being summoned, and somehow stepping out of hell? Were they dying true deaths? Was this tear in the fabric of reality shimmering in the valley, which the demons poured out of, not a summoning portal but a true bridge between realms?

  Once I had that on my mind, I took a good look at the tear using all my senses, as a demon who looked like a bleeding mass of black ichor and brimstone in the shape of a boar-like wolf chewed on my arm as I held it away from Marie. It's fangs shattered on my translucent crystal flesh.

  I was nothing but a living crystalline woman by that time in the fight, but nothing the demons had could get through my crystal skin.

  My eyes widened as I gazed at the portal with my abilities as a sensitive and I froze as my mind was overwhelmed by a wrongness that was beyond my understanding and I was powerless to look away as I felt my sanity being fractured.

  I exhaled in a long screeching tone of wind blowing across a crystal glass when Ella moved in front of the portal and pulled up with both hands. It felt like I fell into the earth itself ten feet as an earthen wall of dirt and stone covered the tear in space.

  And I fell to my knees shuddering, a second more and my broken mind would have shattered.

  Whatever that doorway was, it was wrong on so many levels beyond my reasoning, beyond my emotional spectrum that I would have been lost forever, trapped in my mind, trying to claw my way free of it forever.

  Marie was at my side, staying clear of the wolf-boar as I snapped its neck. “My Parker, are you ok?”

  I spoke in a shaky voice as I stood, sounding like glass chimes in the wind, “I... I'm... I will be.”

  Then I gave her a reassuring smile as she ducked on instinct as I slammed my fist into a catlike demon springing at her back. I felt the sickening crunch of bone and was infinitely thankful that when my body was fully solid crystal like this, I couldn't smell nor taste the acrid stench of brimstone and decay.

  I laughed nervously and shared, “Note to self. Don't look into the abyss with my sensitive abilities.”

  She paled, and I could tell she could see the madness I had almost fallen into. Then she smiled softly and started weaving her hands in the air as she seemed to
look through me. I chuckled as I realized she was looking through me, I was mostly transparent. She smiled sweetly and chimed out,

  “Down please.”

  I crouched as she let some sort of black and indigo purple pulse fly from an arcane symbol she had drawn in the air. It shot past me and expanded as it went, making a large spider web of power that swept through a group of three demons charging at us. They fell in pieces.

  She seemed even more powerful being apart from Ella, in her own body. She had only been able to do one or two spells before. I assume it is because she didn't have to expend so much energy trying to keep control of their body when Ella let her take charge. Or was it something about Oz?

  She smiled cutely at me, and I had to smile back. God Marie was beautiful.

  The demon bodies finally started to decay, the timing here in Oz seemed off, some things faster, some slower. I exhaled in relief, someone was summoning them after all.

  I flinched when the flying simian in blue armor landed in front of me, dropping the rotting corpse of a demon at my feet with a sickening thud. I looked at the snakelike creature with antlers and curved front claws, then the monkey. It smiled at me, its fangs dripping with the black ichor of demon blood of its victims. Then it leapt into the sky again.

  The munchkins and other people of Oz were quickly diminishing the demon ranks now that Ella had blocked the tear. Then with a roar of rage, I saw the three huge demons that were as big as houses, which Dorothy was battling alone, go flying through the air, as they bellowed in pain and... fear? The demons were afraid of Dorothy?

  The only other time I had ever seen a demon afraid of anything, was when Illy had gone on a rampage in her demon unicorn form. She could bring them true deaths by consuming their souls. They had fled from her like mice before a cat.

  When the beasts landed and tumbled to a stop, they were screaming and bellowing in the voices of a thousand tortured souls as they writhed and... shrank.

  The entire field of battle had turned to watch as they started flopping around as they grew scales as they shrunk. Then I blinked when three tiny goldfish flopped around on the ground where they had been.

  The blue armored monkey landed, screeching out a terrifying scream, he snatched them from the ground with a taloned paw, and... ate them...

  Dorothy was crackling with that emerald energy again. Where was she drawing it from? She leapt into the air with so much power that she cleared half the field to land in front of the blocked gateway,

  cratering the ground as she landed.

  She yelled out, “Enough!” Her voice booming like some ancient god's, then she slapped her hands together with such force that the ground shook violently, and the portal slammed together into a tight line in space, shattering Ella's earthen barrier.

  Then with an unhinged scream, she slowly curled an outstretched hand into a fist. Nearby bodies, weapons, and debris all started tumbling across the ground toward the tear as it compressed, emerald lightning stitching the edges of reality back together and pulling it tighter and tighter. I could feel the gravity of that much-compressed power pulling at me from across the battlefield.

  I – was afraid of the display of power, as there was nothing but silence left as the woman dropped her hand once she had fused reality itself back together.

  After a moment the Munchkins roared out again, “For Dorothy! For Oz!” And went after the last of the demons who were now moving away from Dorothy, trying to escape. I didn't watch them, as my eyes were carefully studying the emerald sorceress. I could feel raw evil and hate rolling off of her in waves as she turned toward the Munchkins. She looked as if she just wanted to unleash magic and violence. If there were no enemy left to kill, then her allies would do instead.

  She started gathering energy as she looked at them like a goddess who was displeased her subjects had dared speak her name. I was pulling Marie behind me again as I whispered, “Oh shit.”

  But then Toto was there, bounding through the shattered battlefield of the valley to her side. She leapt into the crater, transforming into the woman of feminine grace as she landed. I could see her saying something as she just walked toward the green ball of destructive energy.

  Dorothy looked panicked, and the magic was just gone. No fanfare, just gone like that invisible light switch had been flipped again. Then I watched as what had been a harbinger of evil and death a moment before, turned into a bashful puddle before the woman she so obviously loved. She wrapped her arms around Toni as the woman hugged her.

  I got it. I really did. It was just like Belle could soothe the beast in Illiya. They were two parts of a whole that made a balance which the Scales would appreciate. They were in love.

  Good lord... the Scales. Daria and Mari were the Scales now. That still hadn't had a chance to sink in for me yet.

  I finally tore my eyes from the scene when a cheer erupted around us. I glanced around as Marie took my hand. There were no more demons. The fantastical inhabitants of Oz had taken the field. I started to exhale in relief, then my eyes widened, and I glanced around scanning frantically around until my eyes rested upon the slight woman with a familiar cocky air about her who was striding purposefully toward us.

  Marie and I ran to her and engulfed her in a hug. I chimed out in my crystal voice, “Ella.”

  Marie cooed, “Mon amour.”

  Ella chuckled and hugged us back. I could see the crystal sheen of her skin retreating quickly. It had to be Oz. Did this realm affect our magic so differently? Was that why Marie seemed more powerful?

  I pondered the fact that Oz was a realm of magic. Was it that there was just so much of it that it bolstered what we had? I had no abilities of my own beyond my body crystalizing to protect me from harm. Well that and sensing magic.

  Ella feels she cursed me, I see it as a blessing. Since now I could fight by her side and not be a distraction or burden. But Ella commanded the very earth itself, while Marie has studied both white and black magics over their years in the same body so that she could protect her Ella.

  When we released each other, Ella and Marie staring at each other in wonder, I froze. There were hundreds of weapons pointing our way. We were surrounded, by animals, Munchkins, flying monkeys, porcelain soldiers, pumpkin soldiers, and even clockwork men and woman.

  Ella said in that new, almost cute tone of hers, “Oh, for fuck's sake.”

  I could feel her drawing on the ground, pulling it up inside as she balled a hand into a fist.

  Marie chastised, “Ella. Language,” as I laid a hand on her arm. I was still in awe that both my Ella and Marie were with me, even if it was temporary. They had lived as one person for so long they had basically become one, and I had fallen in love with them as that person. And now... I smiled as I wondered just how strange it was to be so in love with the two entities beside me.

  Ella looked at me and cocked an eyebrow then crinkled her nose at me. Damn, she was cute. I know the girls had been only eighteen, bordering on nineteen when they were cursed to live as one, never aging. But the centuries had matured them in ways I can't define, even though Ella was still impulsive and cocky. But in this form, she didn't have the same bearing as their blended maturity gave them. She looked and moved like the adult teen she appeared.

  She let her arm drop just to capture my hand in her's and laced our fingers in a familiar manner.

  Then she reached out to do the same with Marie. The warriors around us started murmuring, and they split like the wind around a tree and started dropping to a knee to bow as Toto and Dorothy strode through their ranks toward us.

  As they stopped in front of us, two monkeys came flapping down from the sky. Toto raised her arms up, showing her flawless feminine form off as the monkeys wrapped her in a silk kimono type wrap.

  Dorothy looked at us and cocked her head as her eyes burned in that emerald flame. It felt as if she

  were looking directly into us. She was murmuring as her brow furrowed, “Three beings sharing one soul? Black magics.
But you are from home.”

  She sounded confused, and I tried to comprehend what she was saying. Ella, Marie and I shared one soul? My eyes widened as I understood. The Scales had explained to us how each Avatar found their keepers. They were true soulmates because they actually shared a soul. It was how we all found each other. And Ella-Marie was my soulmate. And since she was two, we all had a third of a soul apiece? I kept the other part of their heart as they kept mine.

  Dorothy looked both amused and upset that we were an enigma to her. She huffed out in

  exasperation to the flying monkeys, “I don't have time to sort this out right now. I'll gather them up.

  Bring them to the Emerald City to deal with them later.”

  Toto started to protest, but with a wave of a hand, I slammed into the girls, pulled by some incredible magical force and my consciousness faded as I felt an odd melting sensation.

  Chapter 3 – Prison of Flesh

  I slowly woke, more sluggishly than I ever had in my life. As my consciousness flowed back in, I found myself sitting in a chair... speaking in a French accent to someone. I started to panic when I realized my body was moving on its own. I was eating some sort of breakfast.

  After chewing and swallowing a bite of eggs, I couldn't let go of the fork as I said, “This eeze wonderful. Thank you, Toni. Eeet is very sweet of you to sit with us in this dingy cell.”

  My panic turned into paralyzing terror, what was happening? I stopped moving as I looked across the small table to Toto in another silk garment taking a bite from a biscuit. I said to her, “Ah, my Parker is waking. A moment, s'il vous plaît.”

  I closed my eyes and she spoke soothingly, “My Parker, eet is ok. Do not panic. Here, I'll breathe deep for you, mon amore.” I was taking deep calming breaths as I started realizing what was going on.

  I said, “Oui, mon cheri, Dorothy put you and Ella inside me until she can come speak with us. It is so strange to be in control after so long.”

  The calm I was starting to feel was consumed by a new panic. I didn't know how to communicate with her. Where was Ella? She was in here too?