Return to Oz

[CG]

After a little discussion with those in the chatroom I now have my cast. Like my last one, the beginning is fairly small but it's only the introductory. Things will get bigger, and grander, like last time. Those who have seen the movie, the opening isn't exactly like that of the movie. A bit too creepy I think, for Mac to go in for electro shock therapy.

~*~

Chapter 1: The Key

Mac lay awake in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. How long had it been since he'd gotten a good night's sleep? Ever since the tornado had struck Fosters, and he and Bloo had been caught in the middle of it and off guard. There they had huddled in a room of Fosters, waiting out the storm. That's when, he thinks, he and his friend had been transported to this fantastic, magical land known as Oz. Where scarecrows talked, tin birds rusted and lions were scared of their own shadows. Coming back from it, he felt it must have been a dream brought on by a bump on the head he had received from the storm. But he had found those glasses, the souvenir that Bloo had gotten which made them late catching that darn balloon ride back home with the rabbit, who turned out to be a version of Mr. Herriman.

Rolling over he stared out the window, glaring at the moon that was peeking in through the window. It was past two o'clock in the morning now. He'll be a wreck for school tomorrow. Suddenly he saw a star shoot right across the night sky, and vanish into the horizon. Still being a child, and still believing that wishing on stars more or less came true, he made a wish. But being the rule is if you tell it, it won't come true, I won't say what he wished for.

The next day, Mac was making his way down his apartment's stairs to the ground below when he heard the all too familiar wailings of a certain yellow imaginary friend. A door was kicked open, and Cheese came running from the apartment that was Louise, waving his arms madly in the air as if impersonating a certain green muppet frog. He stopped as he hit the railings and stopped, wheezing. Louise hurried out after him. "Cheese!" she scolded like a little mother, shaking her finger at him. "Don't be stupid, Mum says we gotta dress nice for the photo 'n you hafta look nice!"

It was then Mac realised Cheese was actually in clothes. They didn't look right on him at all, polka dog scarf, blue pants too long in one leg and a red shirt. He looked irked to be wearing them, but instead of voicing his anger he just chewed on the scarf.

"Hey Louise." Mac said, being neighbourly even if he didn't like Cheese that much.

"Oh hi Mac!" Louise replied, helping Cheese to his feet. It had only been a week ago she'd gotten her retainer off, and it had improved her teeth 100%. "It's photo day," she said, "'N Mum doesn't want him naked in the photo. I said it's stupid, cuz he's naked all the time but you know Mum's."

"Oh yeah, do I know..." he cast a weary glance over his shoulder to his apartment, even if his mother wasn't home.

"Goin' to Fosters huh?" she asked,

"Yeah, Bloo says there's this hen friend who doesn't talk camping out in his bed 'n he wants me to chase it off. Besides, I go there every day anyway. Later Louise!" with that he waved his neighbour off, and began his walk across town to reach Fosters. He knew the walk off by heart, moving around hedges, houses, narrow street ways until he saw the large shadow of the mansion fall over himself. Grinning he began to cross the street, when a shout made him stop.

"YOU BRAT, GET OFFA MY LAWN!!" he turned, to see it was Old Man Winter at his porch, shaking his clenched fist at the perpetrator who had tried to step on his lawn. It was Phil, one of the flying unicorns that normally took up residence in the Fosters stables. But what was he doing out here?

"Ey, buddy," Phil snapped back; for being a pure white unicorn with rainbow coloured hair he was in no way a lady horse, or even a gentleman horse. He spoke with a thick New York accent. "I was flyin up there 'n my wing hurt so I figger best to land then crash so shut yer yap!"

"Phil!" Mac hurried over to him.

"Oh Mac, 'ey guy! Cin you believe that jerk?" he moved a wing to Old Man River, who was still shaking his fist and throwing expletives. "Fella steps on his lawn 'n he's off his rocket."

"Yeah I know, just ignore him. C'mon, I'll take you to Frankie so she can check your wing."

"Thanks very much."

But as Mac was leading Phil away he saw something sparkle on the grass of Old Man River's front lawn. Blinking he made his way over to it, ignoring Old Man River's shouting still. "Dagnabbit don't people respect well grown lawn anymore?!" and picked up the item. It was a key, a very old, well worn key with dirt and mud covering it. Phil trotted back over, lowering his head to peer at it.

"What's that?" he asked,

"A.. key I think." Mac mumbled, turning it over in his hands. He cleaned some dirt off, and picking up a stick he poked a hole in through some of the dirt that fell away. What met his eye wasn't what he was expecting. A large 'O' topped the key, with 'Z' within the 'O'. Oz. "...Oz." Mac read aloud.

"Oz? What's that, some kinda band?" Phil inquired, turning to leave, ruffling his wings at Old Man Rivers who was still prattling on. "C'mon Mac, let's get someplace you can check that lil' thing out without the noise pollution."

Mac led the unicorn around to the stables, ensuring him he'd go tell Frankie about his wing hurting. Making his way up to the house he spotted Bloo, who seemed to be occupied with something of more importance. A game of 'freeze when I say so', a game Bloo had come up with a while ago. His victims so far were Eduardo, Coco, a few other various imaginaries including EuroTrish and even Red. He'd allow the group to do as they please, jump up and down, talk, make wild gestures or whatever but as soon as he yelled 'STOP' they had to freeze, no matter what. Whoever twitched or blinked first lost. He decided to leave the guys to it, since he had to find Frankie.

But on the way towards the house Mac stopped short, for he heard something that sounded like a cry for help from further away. He looked to the near by imaginaries, but it seemed they were too occupied. Eduardo's tail had twitched, so Bloo declared him out and Eduardo was putting up an argument since sometimes his tail did as it wanted and he shouldn't be blamed, or loose, because of his tail.

Walking towards the noise, Mac finally came to a small stream making its way through the Fosters property. But as Mac stood there watching it, wondering just how long it had been here since he certainly didn't remember seeing it here before, it suddenly began growing wider and wider. The calls for help seemed to be coming from the water itself. Was someone drowning? He couldn't tell, since as soon as he edged closer an actual arm shot up from the water and grabbed his ankle, pulling him in. Mac wasn't even given a chance to call for help since the water was so rough, and fast, he was tumbling over and over within the watery depths but every time he thought he was about to drown the water seemed to sense this, and lift him up for a good helping of air, scream, then dive back down again.

After a few minutes, Mac finally ran into something in the water. It was a coop, apparently, or at least a box with pieces of wood missing. Climbing inside he clung to the planks of wood, hoping and wishing this river would calm down soon and he'd be able to get the heck out of here. But the river didn't calm down, or slow. If anything it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger... so big, until... it was the ocean.

To be continued

[Cassini90125]

Having never read or seen the sequel, I'm looking forward to this quite a lot...

[One Radical Dude]

Nice introduction. I look forward to reading more of this.

[CG]

This just in: CG needs a life!

Chapter 2: The city of Stone

The moon actually set whilst Mac was still drifting in the crate, and the sun finally peeked itself in from the horizon, casting strong rays of sunlight across the ocean. Mac, curled up in a ball and still finally sleeping after so many nights of not being able so, shifted as the light hit his face. He whined, waving his hand in a way to deter the sun from awaking him, but it was too late. Groaning he woke up, and he suddenly realised he wasn't by himself in the box anymore. Or maybe he had always had company, and just didn't realise it. The company in question, was a chicken. A yellow chicken, clucking as loudly as it could and making an odd face.

"Uh... right..." he said as he stared at the chicken.

Hearing his voice, the chicken's eyes snapped open. "Ah, you're awake!" she declared.

Mac could only stare a few moments longer, "Wait. What, wait. H... hello?" maybe this was one of those imaginary chickens that children on farms thought up?

"Good morning sun shine!" the chicken replied brightly, "Sorry for waking you deary. I was trying to lay my egg. Haven't laid on in years." she sighed sadly. "What good is a chicken that can't lay eggs? I'll tell you. Dinner!"

The young boy got to his feet, and rubbed his eyes. "I guess so..." Mac started, "So what's your name?"

"Bill." the chicken known as Bill said.

"Bill?"

"Yup. Good strong name, Bill." the chicken looked as proud as a hen could.

"But you're not a boy." Mac pointed out the obvious.

"So?" she asked, "When I was hatched the little boy of the farmer named me Bill. But when I grew up and realised I wasn't a rooster, I still kept the name Bill. It's a good name." she repeated.

"I guess... look. How about, I call you Billina? That way you're still Bill but... a bit more feminine." Mac tried to ignore how bizarre this conversation was sounding. A chicken should be just clucking, not talking about the masculinity of a name.

"..fine, if it'll make you feel better deary." the hen now known as Billina replied. "How big is this pond anyway?" she finally asked.

"Oh, no. It's not a pond, it's-" Mac turned to search the horizon but stopped. The ocean was gone, where it had snuck away to and when was anyone's guess. Mac had been so occupied with a talking chicken he hardly noticed it had slinked to nothingness. In its place was sand, miles of sand stretching as far as he could see on one side of the crate, on the other was the beginning of some green grass, trees, and a field. He blinked, before slowly looking around him. "...wait a minute..."

Now it all made sense. How a river had grown from nothing to an ocean, then shink into a desert. And why a chicken could suddenly talk. "I think... we're in Oz." he finally said after long enough thought.

"Oz?" Billina asked, fluttering up to perch on the crate. "What's Oz?"

"It's this whole other world," Mac said, looking towards the greenery ahead of them. "Where animals talk, just like you can. There are witches, flying monkeys, and all types of things! That explains why you can talk now rather then before!" he was besides himself, all this time he had wanted to find out if this had been a dream or not. And seemingly, it wasn't. He had returned to Oz after all! But just then he saw Billina was about to jump clear of the box onto the sand, but grabbed her. "Wait!"

"SQWARK!" Billina released a cry of surprise, "What's wrong?" she asked, ruffled and surprised.

"If this really is Oz, then this is the Deadly Desert." Mac said wearily. "The Tin Bird told me about it last time; any living thing that touches it turns to sand."

"I'm not thinking much of this Oz place, Mac." the hen replied, in a sour voice. But holding tight to her, Mac managed to hop from one rock to the other, until he finally landed on the grass. Pleased with himself, he set the hen down and began walking. "This'll be great Billina, you can meet the Scarecrow, Tin Bird and Cow-I mean, Lion!"

"Scarecrow? Tin.. Bird? A big cat?" the poor hen seemed confused to the nines as they walked.

"Yep." Mac nodded, "See, before I came here the first time there was a Wizard in charge. He wasn't really a Wizard though, just a big Rabbit who fooled everyone. When he left - see he was meant to take me home with him but left without me - the Scarecrow became the new ruler of Oz because of the brand new brains that the Rabbit had given him. So now, he's in charge. Then there's the Tin Bird, she was made without a heart so once she got one she went to rule in the West, where the Wicked Witch had been. She had been the one who wanted the shoes the Good Witch of the North gave me, but we had to kill her to prove we were worthy of the Rabbit's good graces. Lastly the Lion was once really Cowardly, but thanks to the Rabbit and all our help he became King of the Beasts." Mac stopped, looking down at the hen. "It's a lot to take in huh?"

"If I were to lay an egg right now it'll be scrambled like my brains." Billina replied.

[CG]

"Yeah sorry." Mac apologised, and the two continued along across the fields for quite a few hours. They actually found a few trees growing lunch boxes, and it suddenly made sense just how the Scarecrow had found one last time he was here. Lunch box trees! For sure they were in Oz now, so whilst Billina ate up a few worms and grubs, Mac age a tuna fish sandwich that he picked. Unbeknownst to them, somebody was watching them. A rock, just a little bit away, suddenly grew rocky eyes and observed the duo. Its eyeless sockets looked from Mac, to Billina, then vanished back into the rock.

Deep below the ground a face formed in a wall, besides a room of roaring fire. The figure in the room was hunched over something, the flames flickering causing its shadow to dance across the walls. The face spoke, "Your highness. He has returned." it spoke, the voice sounding like rocks being rolled together to make noise.

"Has he now?" the figure answered, sounding old and wheezy. "The Mac of Fosters has returned to Oz. Keep an eye on him."

But the face paused.

"What is it?" came the royal voice again.

"He... he has a chicken with him, sire." replied the face in the wall, voice shaking all the more. The reaction was cataclysmic, fire roared in all directions as the royal one hidden by flames and shadowed yelled in both horror and anger. A chicken, a CHICKEN? How dare they bring a chicken into the land of Oz! That Mac shall pay dearly.

Back on the surface, Mac and Billina, now well fed and well rested began their journey again. This part of Oz Mac had never been, it was probably South given he had been to the North, East and West. What lay in the South he didn't know, so he hoped it wasn't anything vicious like the Extreme-O-Saurs of the East. But swallowing his fear for Billina's sake they continued. At least until he tripped over something.

"Mac!" the hen fussed, hurrying over to him. "Oh dear are you all right?"

"Yeah I'm fine.." Mac sat up, rubbing his knee. But then he saw just what he had fallen over. It was a shattered remains of a brick, and only then did he realise there was a whole lot of them making their way through the trees. "...oh no..." he gulped as he picked up the remains of the brick.

"What's wrong? It's only a brick." Billina observed, eyeing the brick.

"No Billina," Mac stood up, looking at how it travelled from one way to the other through the woods. "This is... this used to be the yellow brick road. I travelled it before, with my friends. I knew it," he dropped the brick. "Something's happened to them, something awful has happened to them and that's why I ended up back here! Come on Billina, we gotta get to the Emerald City!"

He picked the chicken up, and carrying her he ran. The urgency in his heart and head were pulsating now, ever since he had arrived in Oz he hadn't seen a living soul. And he knew for a fact Oz was meant to be well populated in all directions, and when he had found the remains of what once was one of the numerous yellow brick roads his fears had been confirmed. Something had happened. The key landing in Old Man Rivers house wasn't just a coincidence, somehow it was sent to him on purpose.

It wasn't long until they finally saw something man made and green peeking in over a few tree tops. Mac hurried faster, but what he saw made him fall dead in his tracks. It was the Emerald City, but not as he once remembered it. If a city could be gutted, its innards removed and left to dye like a carcass in the sun that is what had happened to the once grand city. The sparkling green colour was gone, the windows shattered, the gateways open and empty. Billina looked at the city from Mac's arms. "...it doesn't look that impressive." she said.

"It didn't always look like this." Mac said quietly as he walked up to the same large gate he and his friends had once walked through. The girl who guarded the door was no longer there, in fact, it seemed like no one was. At least, until his eyes adjusted.

There were people, but they weren't moving. Or human anymore. They were stone statues, all frozen in looks of horror and shock upon their faces. Mac walked up to a few citizens, a woman clutching her child to her side and looked to be begging for mercy from whoever had attacked them. The child was crying, stone tears upon her face. Mac swallowed deeply, and continued on once he let Billina down on the floor. The whole city was like this, every ounce of colour was gone from sight and all remained of those who once lived here was now stone.

"So we come all this way to see a bunch of stiffs, that's luck for you." Billina said as she walked around a corner.

Mac spotted a few bodies of small children, he guessed they were girls from the gowns they wore. But... their heads were missing. He reached out to touch one of the necks when he heard Billina erupt into a squawk of alarm.

[CG]

"MAC! MAC! HELP!!"

He was quick to rush to where she was, "Billina what is it?!" he asked, and stopped in horror as he saw what had frightened Billina.

It was the Tin Bird. She was on a bench, one leg up showing she was about to jump off and she had the fiercest face he had ever seen her with. Besides her were a few Winkies, one was hurt, and being held by the other who looked just as scared or angry as the Tin Bird was. But she was no longer tin. She was stone, and her beak had been held high ready to strike whoever it was that had been in front of her. Mac stared, wide eyed for a few moments. He had seen the Tin Bird frozen so many times before, but that was through her tears of either sorrow or happiness. She had been still alive, well, as much alive as a Tin Bird can be. But she wasn't that anymore, she was stone.

He had to look away to prevent getting too upset, even if he felt already upset from what he'd seen. A beautiful city reduced to rubble, one of his friends turned into a statue. He guided Billina along, making their way towards where the Wizard once lived. But then he saw someone else who was very familiar, and it broke his heart all over again.

It was the Lion, the same Lion he had left behind before with the Scarecrow and Tin Bird. With him was the Tiger they had spoken with back in the woods, and a good many other animals. All of them looked angry, ready to attack at the command of the Lion who seemed to be in mid attack. He was up on his hind legs, one of his paws already reaching out and his claws extended. His massive jaws were open in a now silent roar, his teeth as stone as the rest of him. "Lion..." Mac said quietly, reaching out and putting his hands to the face of his friend. Even if the Lion looked as fearsome as he possibly could, all Mac could really see, and think of, was the large purple scaredy cat who used to cry in terror of his own shadow.

Who could do such a thing? To so many people? And to such a dramatic result that not only were the Winkies, led by the Tin Bird came to assist but also the beasts led by the Lion?

It was then he saw something scrawled into the dirt on the floor, apparently made by the beaver whose hand was just finishing off the last letter. Mac walked over to it, and looked down. Billina joined him, after avoiding the look of the angry cats.

"What's it say?" she asked, not being able to read.

"...beware the Wheelers." Mac read.

"What's a Wheeler?" the chicken asked again, in a world where she knew nothing made her feel kind of stupid. But you only learn by asking.

"I don't remember them... not at all."

To be continued

[Cassini90125]

Oooo, you've definitely got my attention...

[One Radical Dude]

Whoa......

Very impressive chapter.

[Carlaz]

Originally Posted by Cassini90125

Oooo, you've definitely got my attention...

Mine too! *Paces floor* waiting for the next chapter.

["C" the Dragon]

Ooooohhhh.... This is getting intresting!