Wizard of Oz

[One Radical Dude]

Heheh, keep it up, CG. This is magnificent stuff there.

[antgirl1]

Another great installment, CG!

["C" the Dragon]

Originally Posted by Cassini90125

I hope Craig and Lauren read this. It's very, very good.

I hope so, too. It's really great!

[InsaneFan]

Words cannot express how much I LOVE this. :bloogrin MOREMOREMORE!!!

[Carlaz]

Yay ~ brilliant writing CG!

[CG]

Chapter 4: The Lion & The Extreme-O-Saurs

Once the sun decided to make it's presence known to the Land of Oz below, Mac, Bloo and the Tin Bird awoke from their somewhat uncomfortable nights sleep. Well, Bloo had complained about sleeping on dirt so Mac had gotten little sleep. The Tin Bird, being part bird, was used to sleeping in trees. But even she had grown annoyed at Bloo's whining she had threatened him with her axe beak before he finally shut up. They climbed out of the tree to be greeted by the Scarecrow, awake and as bright as ever. He had gathered them more fruit, and a lunch box from somewhere, for breakfast.

"Wow thanks Scarecrow, that's really nice of you." Mac said as he took a pear, or at least what looked like one, from the Scarecrow's outstretched hand.

"Think nothing of it, I don't!" the Scarecrow replied chirpily.

"No one should be THAT happy this early." Bloo muttered with bags under his eyes as he searched through the lunch box. It had a wrapped up tuna sandwich, a piece of cheese and an apple in it. He wasn't about to ask where he found the lunch box, the Scarecrow could probably not remember where he got it, knowing his luck.

After they had fed themselves, they started on the yellow brick road again. They mostly walked in silence, since all of them had never been in this part of Oz before. The Tin Bird was still getting used to being able to walk again after over two years being rusted to a tree, and the Scarecrow hadn't seen anything beyond his cornfields his entire life. Mac and Bloo were equally new to this world along with their two newfound friends, and the foursome watched as the woods began to grow thicker with every step.

Dried branches began to take up most of the room on the road, with small shafts of light peering through the trees now and then. Unlike the beginning of their trip, there was little to no songbirds heard in the forest. Mostly since birds love the open spaces, and there were little room to flap your wings in all these trees growing and meshing together.

"Um... anyone know when we'll get out of here?" Mac asked, as he spotted a poor animal's skull half hidden by a branch.

"Cococococ, cococococo co coco co co!" the Tin Bird replied, and for some bizarre reason Mac actually understood her. She had said that she had never been to the Emerald City so she didn't know. But she did know that they'd be okay, since she had her axe beak and even if the Scarecrow couldn't be harmed they'd help protect both Mac and Bloo.

"Wait, protect?" Bloo, as well suddenly being able to understand her, asked.

"Co co!" she replied, "Co co coco coco co coco co co co co co." that string of 'coco' brought on a new wave of terror on Bloo and Mac. She had said there were wild beasts in the woods, from what she had heard before there were lions, tigers, and bears. This caused Bloo to stop short.

"Woah woah woah, hold up now. NOBODY said anything about monsters! Did anyone say that Mac? Cuz I don't remember anyone mentioning blood thirsty monsters when we were told to follow this stupid road!"

"Bloodthirsty?" the Scarecrow asked, glancing around the darkness. "...is there such things as STRAW hungry?" for the slightest moment you'd swear he was smart enough to know to be scared of the possibility of being eaten by a malicious straw eating monster.

"Now hold up," Mac said, moving his hands in a gesture to try to calm them all down. "This wood can't be that thick, we'll just walk as quick as we can. Scarecrow, you're the tallest you can keep a look out for anything in our path. Can you? Please?" he added, realising how bossy he sounded.

"No problem!" the Scarecrow replied, lucky to have forgotten his fear of being eaten.

And so the group started again making their way through the darkened woods. Bloo kept close to the Tin Bird especially, it wasn't that he didn't care for Mac. It was just that she had an axe for a beak, she'd do the most damage on anything that would try to take a bite out of the blue imaginary. They continued walking, the Scarecrow letting them know if there was a fallen log across the road, or a pretty mean looking bunny was watching them. But suddenly something happened to remind them of their terror, for a roar shook the darkness as if it was an earthquake, so much so it caused Bloo to all out leap into Mac's arms which resulted in the two sprawled on the brick road. The Tin Bird was shaking so much out of fear she rattled, for even if you have no heart you can still be terrified.

Meanwhile the Scarecrow just continued looking around before declaring, "Did you hear that?"

[CG]

He didn't get an answer from any of them, for a giant shape suddenly leapt out into the road. It was a lion, with large teeth so huge they jutted out from beneath his upper lip. His eyes were yellow with rage and his fur was.. purple. Well, it is Oz. Before they knew what happened the Lion had quickly batted one of his paws at the Scarecrow, sending him rolling over and over until he collapsed on the road a bit away. The Tin Bird released a loud 'coco' and leapt at the Lion, who was seemingly too quick for her and batted her away too with his other paw; thus leaving Mac and Bloo shadowed by this enormous monster. The Lion fell onto its all fours and stalked towards the two boys, and once he was close enough one of his paws began to reach out towards Mac, but that's when Bloo jumped into action. Nobody tries to hurt Mac, not even some seven foot tall Lion!

"GET BACK!" he screamed, and leapt onto the Lion's paw. This shocked the Lion so it stepped back, it's eyes suddenly going wide and as Bloo hung on, it suddenly screamed in terror.

"AAAHHH!! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFFFFFF!!!!" his voice was incredibly deep, but right now it was stricken with such terror you would think he was a little child with a bug on him. He waved his paw crazily, trying to shake Bloo off with such ferocity you'd be surprised Bloo hadn't been tossed off already.

Mac, afraid Bloo would be hurt once the Lion realised how small this thing was and might try to hurt him, jumped forward and managed to slap the Lion right across the nose. "LET HIM GO!" he screamed.

The Lion froze, arm up in the air and his eyes seemed to double in size; if that was possible given his eyes were already the size of dinner plates. His lower lip wobbled and he burst into tears, giving Bloo enough time to fall off his arm and onto the ground. Mac took a few steps backwards, holding onto Bloo as the two stared in shock at just how powerfully this monster was crying at just having a smack on the nose.

"I did not hurt him!!" the Lion sobbed, his thick Hispanic accent leaking through his words of shame and terror.

"Well.. yeah but you TRIED to!" Mac said defensively, taking another step back to avoid being rained on by the animal's tears. "It's bad enough picking on a scarecrow but to try and hurt my friend!"

"S-scarecrow?" the Lion asked, rubbing his nose to check if he was bleeding or not.

"Yeah HIM!" Bloo pointed at the Scarecrow who was still where he had landed in a tumble of limbs. The Scarecrow turned to stare at the group, and waved his hand even if it was under one of his feet. "And her!" he then pointed to the poor Tin Bird who was flat on her back, shocked into freezing once the Lion had smacked her. True he hadn't hurt either of them, given one was made of straw and the other tin, but being knocked around like a rag doll is never a happy experience to endure.

The talk had to halt for a moment so Mac could help untangle the Scarecrow's long legs and arm, and help him back to his feet. Bloo kept guard on the Lion, who just sat there in his sorrow sniffling now and then.

"Man, lookit you. I thought Lion's were meant to be brave, not scaredy cry babies!"

"I, I know." the Lion replied, burying his huge head in his paws. "I es been this way forever! Every animal is thinking I to be brave because I am King of Beasts, but I am nothing but big coward!" it was a sad truth. For as long as the Lion could remember, he had been scared of everything. He had a good default mechanism though, whenever he was afraid he would roar as loudly and as viciously as he could and the thing that scared him would run away. That is, only for the living things. The darkness wouldn't shy away from his roars of terror, neither would the rain, thunderstorms...

Soon the troop had regrouped and stood in front of the Lion, unsure what to do.

"I es sorry, I am." the Lion sniffled, his eyes looking down at the ground for he felt he had no right to look at these nice people (well, mostly..) in the face after what he had done.

"But why did you scare us?" Mac asked, curious if he was so afraid of everything.

"The squirrels dared me." he replied.

"...squirrels." Bloo echoed.

"Si! They es so awful, with their pointy teeth and fluffy tails!"

"Aw it's okay Lion," the Scarecrow offered good-heartedly, "I'm made of straw so you didn't hurt me at all! But hey! If you don't have any courage, as I'm guessing sorry if I'm wrong, you should come with us!"

Bloo stared agape at the Scarecrow, probably because he just had an idea but also because he had such a stupid one. "What? No! We can't let him come! He'll slow us up!" he glared at the Lion, "He's a cry baby and he'll hold us up!"

This caused the Lion to cry even more.

[CG]

"Bloo..." Mac started, wearily. "He's obviously not happy here, if squirrels can boss him around. And if the Wizard can give the Scarecrow a brain, the Tin Bird a heart and get us home I don't see how he couldn't give a lion some courage so squirrels won't boss him around anymore." he looked to the Lion, smiling slightly. "Tell you what Lion, you can come with us if you're brave enough to look us in the face."

The Lion continued to stare down at the ground in deep thought. Being afraid all the time, and living in such a dark place hadn't been a good combination. He was scared of the darkness, but he was even more afraid of what could be outside the woods. He could be hurt by something, but... he hadn't been offered by anyone to go with him before. And even if he had scared these poor folks terribly just to prove his worth to the squirrels, they were offering him a chance to get some courage. Very very slowly did his heavy head begin to lift and he finally stared at the small boy's face. He smiled shyly, before getting to his feet.

"That's that then!" Mac grinned, before looking over his shoulder to the rest of the group. "C'mon guys, we got a Wizard to see."

So the group had grown so within just two days. Mac and Bloo, no longer alone were now joined by a brainless Scarecrow, a heartless Tin Bird, and a cowardly Lion. It was quite an ensemble if ever you saw one. Finally the group left the thick woods behind them (it took some coaxing to get the Lion to leave his home but they did it after long enough) and the sun shined down upon them, leading their way. The only problem they had been that the Tin Bird had stepped on a bug whilst she was walking, and when she realised this she had cried something awful. Once again the group had to stop (much to Bloo's annoyance) to calm her down, and hold a tiny funeral for the dead bug before moving on.

But then they reached their first real hurdle. A ditch. It broke the yellow brick road right across, and it went on for as far as the Scarecrow could see in either direction. Bloo crept forward to look down, and the ditch was incredibly deep and sharp jagged rocks spiked the bottom. "Well that's just great." Bloo muttered, "Now what do we do?"

"Well we can't fly," the Scarecrow said, hand to his small waist. "And we certainly can't climb down it. I guess we have to stop."

"What?" Bloo asked, eyes wide. "We can't just STOP! We can't stay here! My paddleballs need me!"

Neither the Lion, Tin Bird or Scarecrow knew what paddleballs were but they guessed they must have been something of great importance for Bloo so they gave him their sympathies. Once sympathies were given the Lion walked forward and looked at just how wide the ditch was. Tilting his large head to the side and allowing some of his purple mane to fall in his face he thought for a few short seconds as the group continued to discuss just what could be done. He turned to look at them, "I am thinking I can jump it." he finally said.

"Really?" Mac asked, sounding a bit unsure.

"Si, I am thinking so." the Lion nodded his head.

"Well great!" the Scarecrow declared, not picking up on Mac's concern. "You can carry us over one at a time, if that's okay?" he asked.

"Si. We shall try." the Lion replied but then looked from Mac, to Bloo, to the Tin Bird then lastly the Scarecrow. "But who is to go first?"

"Me!" Bloo shouted, waving his arms.

"No I don't think so," the Scarecrow said, sounding like he was in deep thought. "If it's okay, I want to go first. That way, if Lion can't make it and we all I won't be hurt. Then the Tin Bird won't be dent, and Mac and Bloo won't die a horrible death."


The Lion seemed to have paled. "I no want to fall either." he mumbled in a tiny voice. "But." he shook his mane and stood as tall as he could. "We is having no other choice, so we is doing it this way. Get on my back."

Bloo, Mac and the Tin Bird watched as the Scarecrow stepped over the Lion, and lowered himself onto his back before gripping his mane with his one hand. The Lion nodded before walking to the very edge of the ditch and crouched. Male Lion's never ran and leapt, they got to where they wanted to jump like a house cat. He wiggled his behind for a second before springing like a coiled spring, and landed safely on the other side. "I did it!" he declared, his grin wide and powerful with those large teeth.

"I'm sorry but that was amazing!" the Scarecrow complimented with a pat on the head. The Lion purred loudly, and once the Scarecrow got off he jumped just as easily to the other end. Soon Mac, Bloo and the Tin Bird were all safely on the right side and the group continued along, all of them singing the Lion's praises for being brave enough to jump over the ditch. They continued along again, Mac and Bloo both trying to explain to the group about the world they came from. The wonders of television, video games, the Internet, everything like that. But it was all lost on the three companions, the Lion disturbed about meeting strangers 'on line' whatever that meant. Plus, he was afraid of spiders so this 'world wide web' sent terrors up his spine.

[CG]

The thick woods weren't behind them either, if anything, the woods were even thicker this side of the ditch. Not happy about this, the group continued along, Bloo and Mac hitching a ride on the Lion's back since the yellow brick road was so littered with tree roots they'd trip over it. Given how often the Scarecrow ended up falling over himself, it was obviously a tricky piece of road to manage. Mac and Bloo kept quiet, as did the others since they had the feeling something was watching them in the darkness and to draw even more attention to them would prove disastrous. But when they heard rustling in the foreground, the Lion finally spoke. "We is to be quiet and quick, the mice tell me this is where Extreme-O-Saurs live."

"Extreme-O-Saurs?" Bloo asked, voice low but sounding annoyed. "Why didn't you tell us this before?"

"You no ask." the Lion replied. "But they is big monsters, I have had nightmares of meeting one, the mice say they is tall as trees, terrible meanies with big teeth and big claws. But if we is quiet, we is okay."

And so the group continued as quietly possible through the woods, they finally broke free of the darkness and arrived on the other end. But this time they met another ditch, but this one was much larger then the last. So large that they knew straight away the Lion wouldn't be able to jump it. They reached the edge, which you could call a gorge by now, and stared down. It was far deeper then the last. "...well this is just great." Bloo muttered.

"Hey look!" the Scarecrow walked over to a large tree, which was growing by the edge. "Tin Bird, you have that axe right? Maybe if you chop this down, and it reaches the other end, we can climb over it! Is that okay?"

The group stood in silence for a few moments, shocked again that the Scarecrow had such a good idea, for someone without a brain.

"Are you sure you haven't got a brain in there?" Bloo asked, "You're not having us on just to be in on this whole thing?"

"In on what?" the Scarecrow asked.

"Never mind."

So, the Tin Bird began pecking away at the base of the tree. Given her axe was incredibly sharp, it didn't take long for the large tree to topple over (with some help from the Lion) and it did indeed create a lovely bridge for the group to move over. Mac and Bloo went first, the Tin Bird, then the Scarecrow and the Lion took up the tail end. They were half way over when two vicious roars filled the air. The group spun on their heels, and there were two Extreme-O-Saurs. One was dragon line, dark green in colour and large jagged teeth protruded from it's mouth and horns covered it's forehead, neck, and back. The other was just as awful, but with cleaner knife like teeth then it's companion. This one was deep red. The Tin Bird would have had a heart attack if she had a heart. Bloo and Mac did scream though.

"Keep going, KEEP GOING!" Mac shouted, and the group (save the Lion) rushed over to the safe side of the tree. The Lion however, had stopped and turned around to face the two monsters that were rushing to catch up with them and roared as loudly and as powerfully as he could. Once again, the very ground seemed to shake in terror at the King of Beast's voice. It even shocked the two monsters into silence and freeze at how loud he had been. Course, then they remembered they were bigger then him and there were two. So they roared back, and began charging forward.

"Go run!" the Lion shouted, looking over his shoulder to the group. "I will fend them off, get to safety!"

"I'm sorry but that's not okay!" the Scarecrow cried, and he suddenly snapped his one arm and it actually stretched and grabbed the Lion by his tail and pulled him right off the tree. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to but all we have to do is... well.. PUSH!"

They all caught on the second the two monsters had climbed onto the tree to reach them. The Lion, Tin Bird, Scarecrow, Mac and Bloo began to push and heave against the tree and with their combined muscle strength the tree was pushed free of the edge. It, and the two beasts went falling to the depths below. The group looked over the edge, down at the darkness below. They couldn't even see the bottom, or the tree and monsters. Their silence lasted for a few seconds before Bloo erupted like a tiny volcano. "WOO HOOOO!! YEAH OH YEAH THAT WAS AMAZING!! DID YOU SEE THAT?!? WE SO TOTALLY OWN'D THEM!"

Mac too had to give in to the joy of having survived such an awful experience and cheered. The Lion roared happily and the Scarecrow did a bizarre dance of joy while the Tin Bird ran in circles singing her one word out over and over again. After their little celebratory dance and singing had finished, they regrouped again and continued along the road. This time, the Scarecrow happily anounced, there was no more any thick woods in their way. It was a clear path from here on in.

To be continued

[Cassini90125]

Getting dramatic now. Well done! Don't you dare stop!