An Introduction to Oz Before Dorothy

by Tarl Telford

  Oscar burned a large swath in front of the monster, stopping it in its path. "Ha HA!" he shouted in exultation. "You shall not pass!" The flames rose up in front of the giant beast, and it rose up on its hind legs standing nearly half the height of the Twisted Lighthouse. "I've got you now!" Oscar growled. This would effectively cut the beast right in half.

  Oscar whipped the beam back for another pass, and then saw Glinda standing up right in the path of the death beam.

  At the last instant, Oscar cranked the beam back the other way, singeing Glinda's dress as she lurched backwards away from the heat. The beam shot out toward the South Castle, melting two blood-sand warriors, turning them to glass, and then striking part of the castle wall as it rotated, blasting a hole in the wall.

  The monster dropped down to all six feet, its body halfway over the line of flame, and it moved forward. The heat from the flames polished the outside sand, but it was nowhere near as hot as the death beam from above. It thundered to the stone bridge connecting the land and the Twisted Lighthouse.

  "Are you okay? I am so sorry!" Oscar shouted.

  "You could have killed me with that thing!" Glinda screamed back.

  "Then get in here with me!"

  Glinda climbed through the broken window frame and crouched behind Oscar. "It's on the bridge."

  "Just where I wanted him." Oscar adjusted the lenses and fired down, striking the beam on the monster's tail, crystallizing it. He pushed the lenses further to continue his way up the beast's back, and the beam blasted through the window pane, outer balcony then floor of the cabin.

  "What are you doing? STOP!" Glinda screamed. She threw the cover over the lamp bell, stopping the sunlight from focusing and forming the beam. "You can't shoot straight down!"

  "Oh, yeah." Oscar looked out past the window to the blasted hole in the tower. The beast's tail was just snaking out of view. He turned sheepishly up to look at Glinda. She was scared, and she was angry at him. But he looked past her to see the mega-trump-o-phone. "Clouds! You can make clouds!"

  "But I'm not in the boneyard." Glinda protested as Oscar dragged her out to the voice amplifier.

  "There's a hundred foot sand dragon out there. It will be up here in about one minute. If we don't try, we are dead!"

  The entire lighthouse shook as the beast raised itself up and pounded the base with its front legs.

  "Do it!" Oscar commanded.

  Glinda took the mega-trump-o-phone and pointed it toward the distant junk piles that hid the Boneyard of the Clouds. She shouted as loud as she could the spell to create clouds into the amplifier.

  Far beyond the reaches of the South Castle, the clouds in the sky heard her cry. They heard the spell of making, and they assembled to join their fallen brethren in helping the maker of new clouds. Wispy clouds dropped down from their lofty perches and took on angry strength, becoming storm clouds. These storm clouds gathered, darkening the sky. From the Boneyard, a vortex of cloud matter rose up, whipping up a furious whirlwind. Winds howled across the entire region as every cloud within the sound of Glinda's amplified voice answered the call to battle.

  * * * * *

  The vicious winds whipped the fallen sand around, nearly blinding the wheelers and completely blinding the fighting girls. It blasted their skin raw. Still they kept fighting. Several of the fighting girls had fallen along with their wheelers.

  The blood of the fallen mixed with the half-destroyed blood-sand warriors. The wind whipped the bloody sand around, pummeling the fallen wheelers. The bloodsand mixed with the leaking fluids from the fallen wheelers and gave them new life. This blood was a mixture of wicked witch, magic sand, and good soldier. The fresh blood gave life, but it was not able to overcome the wicked purpose of the blood-sand warriors. The broken blood-sand warriors still able to move used this new blood to pack their limbs back on them. They were awkward and lurching, but they had new life.

  Two new types of creatures arose--the zombie bloodsand warriors and the bloodsand Wheelers. Neither type of creature maintained a clear vision of what it was supposed to do. The wheelers knew that they were supposed to fight, but so did the bloodsand. The confusion wrought among both the reanimated Wheelers and the blood-sand warriors drove them into madness and they became berserkers, attacking everything.

  The old blood-sand warriors had the blood memory of dealing with the good wheelers before, so they quickly recognized that removing them from the brick roads terminated their usefulness. Wheeler after good wheeler was knocked off the brick pathways.

  Then it was just Wickrie-Kells and her wheeler left. They were all that remained of her cavalry. That made her a target.

  The Bloodsand Wheelers screeched and attacked the nearest blood-sand warrior. It threw a Wheeler off the brick road, but the Wheeler picked itself up and came back at him. The bloodsand magic had given the Wheeler a greater life than the good wheelers. The pack of bloodsand Wheelers quickly overwhelmed the warrior and crushed it to powder.

  The sand blinded Wickrie-Kells and her wheeler, and it skidded to a stop. Just at that moment a large blood-sand warrior swung at them, sending the wheeler flying off the brick path. Wickrie-Kells still had the reins wrapped tightly around her hand, and she was pulled along with the flung wheeler. Her trowel-lance went flying from her hand when she hit the ground. A sharp pain seized her arm. The wheeler had fallen on top of her clenched hand, which still held the reins. She was trapped.

  From atop the walls, the trumpet sounded to retreat. Wickrie-Kells twisted her head to see the remnants of her fighting girls running back toward the wall. Then a monstrous shadow blocked her view. A blood-sand warrior stepped up to her and raised its spear high into the air for the killing blow.

  A crraaaaccck-thoomm sizzled the air as lightning slapped down at the upraised spear, instantly melting the blood-sand warrior into glass. Behind and through this glass body, Wickrie-Kells saw in a split-second a green-haired warrior swinging his sword. Then the frozen glass warrior shattered!

  Omby-Amby heaved the remains of the shattered statue out of the way and extended his hand to Wickrie-Kells. She gestured to the wheeler on her arm. Omby-Amby lifted the wheeler with one hand and pulled Wickrie-Kells easily to her feet.

  "I had him." The soldier declared.

  "I saw." Wickrie-Kells agreed, leaning heavily on him.

  Then the rain started. But it was no ordinary rain. This was vengeance from the clouds--unmitigated fury from the sky. Each drop was large enough to sting painfully when it hit. Wickrie-Kells and Omby-Amby headed for the smoking hole in the castle wall as the torrents sliced through the blood-sand warriors.

  Despite the slashing rain destroying them, the bloodsand zombies and the berserker Bloodsand Wheelers lashed out at everything they could reach. They even attacked each other. The zombie warriors fought the Wheelers even as the rain tore them to pieces. The pounding rain flooded through all of the open joints of the Bloodsand Wheelers, washing out the contaminants. The bloody-sand battle raged, but it was clear that the rain would be the only winner.

  * * * * *

  "Glinda, get in here!" Oscar called, working through the collection of lenses, trying to determine the best configuration for close combat. He glanced up to see panic and memories flood into Glinda's eyes.

  "My father wanted to be with Mother. He loved her more than me. I--my mother!" Glinda cried as she ran down the external staircase.

  "NO!" Oscar cried, reaching after her, but it was too late.

  Glinda raced down the outer winding staircase. Below her the great monster gouged deep furrows in the lower levels of the lighthouse. Glinda only needed to make it to the middle floors to get to the laboratory with the mirrors. Then she would be safe from the dragon.

  The beast pounded its body against the lower lighthouse wall, shaking the entire foundation. Cracks appeared in the base level. The entire tower groaned on its base. Far above the desert floor, the Twisted Lighthouse was perched precariously on the island pinnacle. If it fell, only death
would follow.

  Glinda rounded the twisted corner and met the bloodsand beast's alien gaze. It roared its metal-gravel shriek and convulsed upwards after her. Great rows of teeth opened wide only thirty feet below. The open door in the middle of the lighthouse slammed open between Glinda and the beast.

  It was a race--Glinda leaped down the steps, four at a time as the beast lurched upward. She dove beneath the huge snapping jaws into the open doorway, sliding hard into the wall. She scrambled to her feet as the dragon's head reared back and its massive jaws splintered the doorway behind her. She lurched side to side crashing into both sides of the hall as the tower shook.

  * * * * *

  Above Glinda, at the top of the lighthouse, Oscar finally figured out the correct lens configuration for maximum close range damage. He peeked over the edge to survey the situation. The beast's rear legs were scrabbling for purchase on the tower. With the cracks in the foundation, the churning rear legs damaged the bridge. The near side of the stone bridge crumbled. The broken bridge severed their escape route to the mainland.

  Oscar's heart sank. They had no path to flee. There was no escape.

  In addition to that, now Glinda was beyond his protection. Though he couldn't blame her, really. She wanted so desperately to cling to something that made sense in her life; even if that thing was her mother who she hated. She was willing to risk her life and limb and everything just to retain that reminder of normalcy.

  You know, on second thought, Oscar did blame her. It was stupid and foolish and crazy to go after a mirror when she had a flesh and blood Oscar right here. That blame led to anger, and that anger led to a foolhardy plan.

  "No escape. Big monster. Bigger death ray. Big, shiny blaze of glory." He stubbornly set his jaw.

  Thunder crashed all around them, shaking the lighthouse tower even further. The clouds expanded out to the lighthouse and they pounded torrents of rain down, but the blood-dragon was monstrously huge. It did not damage and melt as easily as the smaller blood-sand warriors had done. The fused glass on its back did not melt at all. The slicing rain bounced off the glass and fell the interminable distance to the deadly sand far below. Lightning jabbed all around, shaking the island even more and sending explosions of rock and mortar into the howling wind. The beast roared as the thousands of heavy raindrops pelted its exposed sandy skin.

  The clouds brought the weaponized rain, but they also blocked the sunlight. As long as the clouds were blocking the sun, Oscar had no sunlight to focus in the beam. He roared in frustration as the clouds prevented even a single beam of sunlight from passing through. He slammed open the crystal door and then pried it loose, opening the aperture up even further.

  Oscar watched for a break in the clouds for just a slatchy hint of sunlight, but none came. He ran out onto the platform outside the cabin and screamed at the clouds, "Hey clouds! Give me some sun!"

  The clouds obliged, and created a hole through which a beam of sunlight streamed directly onto the lighthouse cabin. "There's the slatch." Oscar ran inside and pulled the cover off the lamp bell. The crystal reactor blazed to life and the death beam sliced through the wall. Oscar pushed his end up further and further, tilting it so that the beam pointed more and more downward.

  The floor burst into flames as the death ray exploded through wood and stone and mortar. It blasted through the wall and hit the monster square in the upper jaw, crystallizing the blood-sand. The beast screamed and reared back, pounding its head against the wall, cracking the wall through completely. The dragon roared wider than it ever had, fracturing its glass jaw. It clambered up the weakened tower, blood-glass claws gouging deep paths in the stone.

  Another blast froze the beast's right shoulder, but it was already nearing the top. Oscar wiped the sweat and tears from his face. Smoke and flames choked the air all around him. The blood-sand dragon raised its head above the balcony. Behind the death ray, Oscar grinned and narrowed his eyes as he turned the weapon toward the monster. He screamed the one name that inspired him to fight and to die.

  * * * * *

  In the laboratory below, Glinda staggered as more lightning hit the tower. The mirrors were falling over, and in this reflecting maze, she could not find the magic mirror. Finally, she could bear it no more.

  "Mother!" she cried. At that precise instant, her gaze settled on the reflection of Gayelette looking at her. She lunged forward, but the mirror slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor, shattering.

  "No! No, no, no, no, nooo! Don't do this to me, Mother. Don't leave me." A great groaning in the tower froze Glinda in place, and she felt the floor start to tilt. She turned her head upward toward the ceiling, as if she could see through to the cabin high above. "Oscar." she gasped, and she remembered her dear friend that she had left all alone up above.

  Time moved in slow motion as she pushed out into the hallway and back toward the outside door. She could see individual particles of rock and mortar exploding as lightning struck. She could feel the building shudder as the winds buffeted and the giant sand monster thrashed and clawed.

  The floor tilted up even further--the tower was falling over.

  Glinda pulled her head out the door and looked upward. She grasped the railing and screamed silently at what she saw.

  With the winds howling and the torrents slashing down, the blood-sand dragon was wrapped around the top one-third of the tower. It was roaring in pain. Oscar's beam of death seared the dragon's eyes then mouth, and then pushed even further down into the neck and chest, crystallizing and superheating the glass. Even above the wind and monster, she could hear Oscar screaming, "Gliiiiiiinnnnnddddaaaaaa!"

  The superheated glass beast shattered, exploding into shards large and small. The lighthouse fragmented into four parts, the upper three them falling in slow motion into the Deadly Desert far below. Glinda screamed her world turned sideways, but then she saw Oscar flung backwards out of the cabin by the force of the explosion. His arms and legs flailed helplessly as the wind sliced around him.

  Glinda reached out for him. Her words were lost in the howl of the storm, but the Golden Cap heard her desire, and it glowed as its power was made manifest.

  The fallen Twisted Lighthouse fractured into three separate parts and collapsed into the Deadly Desert, raising a huge cloud of dust. Then everything was still, save for the pounding of the insensate rain.

  HH1: Chapter 27. The Girl with Red Hair

  In the Deadly Desert below, the Twisted Lighthouse was broken into pieces. Even the closest section would be far beyond the reach of anyone on the mainland. Omby-Amby and Wickrie-Kells watched the lighthouse fall in slow-motion from their refuge in the South Castle.

  The storm raged for hours longer. The blood-sand warriors and the zombie sand berserkers were finished. Their connecting magic was washed away in the pounding rain. The Bloodsand Wheelers were the only bodies left on the field of battle. They were damaged beyond any sort of repair that even Smith & Tinker might have attempted. They were all dead.

  The blood-sand dragon drained off into the Deadly Desert. The only pieces left to remind anyone of its existence were the crystallized portions. Those stuck out of the sand like frozen drops of blood. These were a grim reminder of the damage done in this battle. Much blood had been spilled, and these tokens bore solemn testimony in their grisly, crystalline memorial.

  Ondri-baba was gone. She left when she saw that her warriors were beyond rescue, and when she saw that the lighthouse had fallen with Glinda inside. Her work was done, so she left, heading north.

  Through the entire night, the storm raged on, pounding the South Castle. The huddled survivors of the battle crouched and worried through the darkness. They had survived the sandy warriors, but now they had the raging elements to contend with. The elements did not distinguish between friend and foe--they were angry and exacted their vengeance on everything, especially the South Castle. The storm bruised the South Castle, collapsing sections of the roof and completely demolishing other outlying buildin
gs. The monstrous ammonite water wheel fell over, toppling four of the five flagpoles and burying their standards in the mud.

  The sun dawned cold. A thin mist hung over the ground. The storm had subsided, but the damage was done. Physical structures had been destroyed, but the greater damage was done in the hearts of the survivors.

  Omby-Amby and Wickrie-Kells emerged from their hiding places, followed by the other shaken warriors. The devastation they witnessed was only matched by the despair they felt in their hearts. The castle was in ruins. The brick roads were destroyed. Even after they found a section of road that seemed to be connected, the wheeler they carried there did not respond. So none of the wheelers were left alive.

  They saw that the lighthouse was fallen. They could not bring themselves to say what each one of them was thinking, so they forced themselves forward into the new day and busied their hands so that their minds would not have to think.

  Omby-Amby put the people to work cleaning up. He later followed Wickrie-Kells out to the remains of the stone bridge. She stood on the edge staring out at the absolute devastation. The Twisted Lighthouse was broken into three massive pieces, but even the nearest one was far away from the island. The island was separated by thirty feet from the stone bridge. Given their very limited resources at the moment, the gap might as well have been three thousand feet.

  They called out to Oscar and Glinda for the better part of an hour, but they were answered with only silence. Finally Wickrie-Kells left Omby-Amby standing there in the cold desert wind. His warrior eyes searched, but there was no movement in the desert-trapped ruins. He stared and stared into the blowing wind until the tears streamed down his cheeks. Still there was only silence.

  Glinda and Oscar were gone.

  * * * * *

  Omby-Amby later searched the palace grounds but could not find Wickrie-Kells. It was mid-afternoon before he found her in the kitchen. She had her head leaned over a basin, and was pouring liquid from a glazed earthen jug over her hair.