Kiki Uses His Magic
CHAPTER 12
Then arose a great confusion of sounds as all the animals began talkingto their fellows. The monkeys chattered and the bears growled and thevoices of the jaguars and lions rumbled, and the wolves yelped and theelephants had to trumpet loudly to make their voices heard. Such ahubbub had never been known in the forest before, and each beast arguedwith his neighbor until it seemed the noise would never cease.
Ruggedo the Nome waved his arms and fluttered his wings to try to makethem listen to him again, but the beasts paid no attention. Some wantedto fight the Oz people, some wanted to be transformed, and some wantedto do nothing at all.
The growling and confusion had grown greater than ever when in a flashsilence fell on all the beasts present, the arguments were hushed, andall gazed in astonishment at a strange sight.
For into the circle strode a great Lion--bigger and more powerful thanany other lion there--and on his back rode a little girl who smiledfearlessly at the multitude of beasts. And behind the lion and thelittle girl came another beast--a monstrous Tiger, who bore upon hisback a funny little man carrying a black bag. Right past the rows ofwondering beasts the strange animals walked, advancing until they stoodjust before the rock throne of Gugu.
Then the little girl and the funny little man dismounted, and the greatLion demanded in a loud voice:
"Who is King in this forest?"
"I am!" answered Gugu, looking steadily at the other. "I am Gugu theLeopard, and I am King of this forest."
"Then I greet Your Majesty with great respect," said the Lion. "Perhapsyou have heard of me, Gugu. I am called the 'Cowardly Lion,' and I amKing of all Beasts, the world over."
Gugu's eyes flashed angrily.
"Yes," said he, "I have heard of you. You have long claimed to be Kingof Beasts, but no beast who is a coward can be King over me."
"He isn't a coward, Your Majesty," asserted the little girl, "he's justcowardly, that's all."
Gugu looked at her. All the other beasts were looking at her, too.
"Who are you?" asked the King.
"Me? Oh, I'm just Dorothy," she answered.
"How dare you come here?" demanded the King.
"Why, I'm not afraid to go anywhere, if the Cowardly Lion is with me,"she said. "I know him pretty well, and so I can trust him. He's alwaysafraid, when we get into trouble, and that's why he's cowardly; but he'sa terrible fighter, and that's why he isn't a coward. He doesn't like tofight, you know, but when he _has_ to, there isn't any beast living thatcan conquer him."
Gugu the King looked at the big, powerful form of the Cowardly Lion, andknew she spoke the truth. Also the other Lions of the forest now cameforward and bowed low before the strange Lion.
"We welcome Your Majesty," said one. "We have known you many years ago,before you went to live at the Emerald City, and we have seen you fightthe terrible Kalidahs and conquer them, so we know you are the King ofall Beasts."
"It is true," replied the Cowardly Lion; "but I did not come here torule the beasts of this forest. Gugu is King here, and I believe he is agood King and just and wise. I come, with my friends, to be the guest ofGugu, and I hope we are welcome."
That pleased the great Leopard, who said very quickly:
"Yes; you, at least, are welcome to my forest. But who are thesestrangers with you."
"Dorothy has introduced herself," replied the Lion, "and you are sure tolike her when you know her better. This man is the Wizard of Oz, afriend of mine who can do wonderful tricks of magic. And here is my trueand tried friend, the Hungry Tiger, who lives with me in the EmeraldCity."
"Is he _always_ hungry?" asked Loo the Unicorn.
"I am," replied the Tiger, answering the question himself. "I am alwayshungry for fat babies."
"Can't you find any fat babies in Oz to eat?" inquired Loo, the Unicorn.
"There are plenty of them, of course," said the Tiger, "butunfortunately I have such a tender conscience that it won't allow me toeat babies. So I'm always hungry for 'em and never can eat 'em, becausemy conscience won't let me."
Now of all the surprised beasts in that clearing, not one was so muchsurprised at the sudden appearance of these four strangers as Ruggedothe Nome. He was frightened, too, for he recognized them as his mostpowerful enemies; but he also realized that they could not know he wasthe former King of the Nomes, because of the beast's form he wore, whichdisguised him so effectually. So he took courage and resolved that theWizard and Dorothy should not defeat his plans.
It was hard to tell, just yet, what the vast assemblage of beaststhought of the new arrivals. Some glared angrily at them, but more ofthem seemed to be curious and wondering. All were interested, however,and they kept very quiet and listened carefully to all that was said.
Kiki Aru, who had remained unnoticed in the shadow of the rock, was atfirst more alarmed by the coming of the strangers than even Ruggedo was,and the boy told himself that unless he acted quickly and withoutwaiting to ask the advice of the old Nome, their conspiracy was likelyto be discovered and all their plans to conquer and rule Oz be defeated.Kiki didn't like the way Ruggedo acted either, for the former King ofthe Nomes wanted to do everything his own way, and made the boy, whoalone possessed the power of transformations, obey his orders as if hewere a slave.
Another thing that disturbed Kiki Aru was the fact that a real Wizardhad arrived, who was said to possess many magical powers, and thisWizard carried his tools in a black bag, and was the friend of the Ozpeople, and so would probably try to prevent war between the beasts ofthe forest and the people of Oz.
All these things passed through the mind of the Hyup boy while theCowardly Lion and Gugu the King were talking together, and that was whyhe now began to do several strange things.
He had found a place, near to the point where he stood, where there wasa deep hollow in the rock, so he put his face into this hollow andwhispered softly, so he would not be heard:
"I want the Wizard of Oz to become a fox--Pyrzqxgl!"
The Wizard, who had stood smilingly beside his friends, suddenly felthis form change to that of a fox, and his black bag fell to the ground.Kiki reached out an arm and seized the bag, and the Fox cried as loud asit could:
"Treason! There's a traitor here with magic powers!"
Everyone was startled at this cry, and Dorothy, seeing her old friend'splight, screamed and exclaimed: "Mercy me!"
But the next instant the little girl's form had changed to that of alamb with fleecy white wool, and Dorothy was too bewildered to doanything but look around her in wonder.
The Cowardly Lion's eyes now flashed fire; he crouched low and lashedthe ground with his tail and gazed around to discover who thetreacherous magician might be. But Kiki, who had kept his face in thehollow rock, again whispered the magic word, and the great liondisappeared and in his place stood a little boy dressed in Munchkincostume. The little Munchkin boy was as angry as the lion had been, buthe was small and helpless.
Ruggedo the Nome saw what was happening and was afraid Kiki would spoilall his plans, so he leaned over the rock and shouted: "Stop,Kiki--stop!"
Kiki would not stop, however. Instead, he transformed the Nome into agoose, to Ruggedo's horror and dismay. But the Hungry Tiger hadwitnessed all these transformations, and he was watching to see which ofthose present was to blame for them. When Ruggedo spoke to Kiki, theHungry Tiger knew that he was the magician, so he made a sudden springand hurled his great body full upon the form of the Li-Mon-Eag crouchingagainst the rock. Kiki didn't see the Tiger coming because his face wasstill in the hollow, and the heavy body of the tiger bore him to theearth just as he said "Pyrzqxgl!" for the fifth time.
So now the tiger which was crushing him changed to a rabbit, andrelieved of its weight, Kiki sprang up and, spreading his eagle's wings,flew into the branches of a tree, where no beast c
ould easily reach him.He was not an instant too quick in doing this, for Gugu the King hadcrouched on the rock's edge and was about to spring on the boy.
From his tree Kiki transformed Gugu into a fat Gillikin woman, andlaughed aloud to see how the woman pranced with rage, and how astonishedall the beasts were at their King's new shape.
The beasts were frightened, too, fearing they would share the fate ofGugu, so a stampede began when Rango the Gray Ape sprang into theforest, and Bru the Bear and Loo the Unicorn followed as quickly as theycould. The elephants backed into the forest, and all the other animals,big and little, rushed after them, scattering through the jungles untilthe clearing was far behind. The monkeys scrambled into the trees andswung themselves from limb to limb, to avoid being trampled upon by thebigger beasts, and they were so quick that they distanced all the rest.A panic of fear seemed to have overtaken the forest people and they gotas far away from the terrible Magician as they possibly could.
But the transformed ones stayed in the clearing, being so astonished andbewildered by their new shapes that they could only look at one anotherin a dazed and helpless fashion, although each one was greatly annoyedat the trick that had been played on him.
"Who are you?" the Munchkin boy asked the Rabbit; and "Who are you?" theFox asked the Lamb; and "Who are you?" the Rabbit asked the fat Gillikinwoman.
"I'm Dorothy," said the woolly Lamb.
"I'm the Wizard," said the Fox.
"I'm the Cowardly Lion," said the Munchkin Boy.
"I'm the Hungry Tiger," said the Rabbit.
"I'm Gugu the King," said the fat Woman.
But when they asked the Goose who he was, Ruggedo the Nome would nottell them.
"I'm just a Goose," he replied, "and what I was before, I cannotremember."
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