(Fiction now, and my version based on the "Oz" stories. I've broken it into sections.)
There was a girl named Dorothy. Her hair was red and her eyes were green. Arriving at her aunt Emerald's farm, in her dainty yellow car, she wondered why the sky was so grim with clouds.
"A storm is coming," replied aunt Emerald.
Then no sooner had they left the car, a spinning tornado struck the dirt a few miles away.
"Quick! Run!" shouted Dorothy. Aunt Emerald pulled open the storm shelter door, and urged Dorothy to get in. Dorothy remembered her rucksack of food and supplies left in the car. She ran to the car, seeing the tornado still far away. Within the farm, a wandering grey wolf had been stalking the sheep but now it was looking for safety.
Dorothy had no time to worry about the wolf. She grabbed her rucksack, and ran towards the storm shelter. The door was jammed and wouldn't open. Aunt Emerald was inside screaming out for Dorothy. There wasn't anywhere to hide. The house was blown into pieces. The yellow car and a tractor took to the air, sucked against the spinning dark funnel.
Dorothy found only the rickety barn still intact. It was all she had. She fled to the barn, with the wolf running ahead of her. Soon that barn would disappear into a pile of spinning debris but she wanted some protection even if it was going to last a few seconds or less.
Dorothy ran inside the barn as it was shaking. The barn's roof blew off and then the whole barn was spinning around her and she could only lay down on the floor as things scatted over her. The world was spinning. Her head spun. She covered her ears. And all was silent.
Dorothy looked up and there was a heap of rubbish. What had been left of the barn was a pile of wood. The storm was gone, and now it felt calm, warm, and the clear blue sky had not one single cloud.
She saw the wolf moving under the debris and she panicked. She got up, and fled.
"Aunt Emerald!" she cried. Outside, expecting to see nothing but carnage and a ruined farm, there was... a forest! Exotic birds of rainbow colours flew around in circles. There were icy mountains in the distance that glistened. Hills of rich green with silver waterfalls. Flowers. Blue castles jutted from the trees like crystals.
"Where are we?" she asked the wolf, who looked just as amazed as she did. The wolf was dark grey and its eyes were golden. It looked at Dorothy with a puzzled expression, then howled.
"We're not in Kansas are we?"
It took a long time for her to process everything. If this wasn't her home, then where was this? The temperature was very humid, and there were massive winged creatures beside the birds that fluttered from tree to tree. Now the trees were not like any she'd seen before. They resembled giant redwoods and cypresses with spikes. No tree like that grew anywhere back home.
She looked at her new companion, the wolf.
"You don't know where we are either," she said. "That storm must've sent us miles from home".
It was more than that, she knew. She looked at the wolf and remembered a time when she was only 7 years old, and her aunt Emerald took her to visit an elderly Native American. The elder told Dorothy that "the wolf is your totem animal."
She spoke to the wolf, who looked at her with wise knowing eyes. "Wolf, can I call you Totem?"
The wolf's ears twitched. It's nose touched Dorothy's hand. "Be kind wolf".
She removed the rucksack from her back and opened it. Inside was food, and a bottle of water. She gave Totem a sandwich that he ate quickly. It was a weird, beautiful place, and the sounds of birds and distant great animals was unlike anything she recognised. Totem went off sniffing the grass, and his jaws closed upon something metallic, glistening and flashing in the sun. Dorothy went over to see what it was. There was a sword, attached to the lifeless body of a woman dressed in blue, silver and black. Dead. She screamed.
"You killed her!" shouted a voice all of a sudden from the trees. Behind her, standing hear a tree trunk was a strange fat man wearing blue. His hair was blue, and attached on his clothes, hair and pointed hat were small bones. Dorothy was startled, and she wanted to run, but there was a tree, or a log, stone, boulder, object in the way. More men like him materialised from behind trees. And the massive spiked redwoods glowed within. She noticed that there were windows in the tree trunks, doorways at the roots of the giant trees, and higher up on different floors. People dressed in blue were camouflaged like shadows against the forest.
"Where am I? Who are you people?" she asked.
"We're wondering who you are!" said the first man.
"Only the Witch will know that!" yelled another man from up in the tree, looking out of a high window.
This was a dream! It had to be, she thought. Dorothy ran, but fell over a stone that was carved into the shape of a human head. As she fell, a man in blue grabbed her and lifted her up onto her feet. Soon she was surrounded by dozens of strange blue-haired men wearing blue with dangling bones.
"Who are you!!!" They all asked her, speaking together.
"My name is Dorothy Storm!" she cried. "I want to go home!"
"Dorothy Storm!" Laughed the men in reply. "You killed our queen!"
"No I didn't!" she screamed. The wolf Totem lunged at the man holding Dorothy's arms, and with his scream, Dorothy broke free and escaped the crowd of blue men.
"Chase her!" she heard them shout. She ran and ducked into the long ferns. It was no use, the blue men found her and caught her again. Totem lunged at another man, and broken his neck. then tore at another man's throat.
"Kill that beast!" the man shouted. One of the men drew a sword and was about to take a huge swipe at Totem, when he was frozen solid. He slowly turned into a solid stone statue.
The men broke away and ran in all directions. "The witch!" they cried.
Dorothy was shaking, and her arms hurt. Totem snarled at the figure of a tall lady dressed in a snowy white gown, and snowflakes on her eyelashes. Her eyes were silver. Her hair was a blizzard shade of white blonde. Dorothy wasn't able to stare at the lady for too long as her eyes hurt at the white icy glare. The lady laughed an icy chilling laugh.
"You are lost, mortal girl!" the lady said in an unnatural voice that was an echo. "The wild beast from your world protects you, I see."
"Who are you? Who are those men? Where am I?" Dorothy asked in panic.
"I'm Helen, the Witch of the North," replied the lady. "I don't live here. I've come to look for the Witch of the East who has just died. You're in the East, where it is here".
Dorothy flinched. "Please, I just want to go home!"
Helen glowed brilliant, too bright to be seen directly.
"Your home and the beasts' home, is not here."
"I WANT TO GO HOME!" Dorothy cried, and tears fell from her green eyes.
"You have to walk home, it's a long way. Follow the golden pathway."
"What?"
The lady witch Helen handed Dorothy the sword that was found on the dead body of the woman. "Take this with you as it will protect you."
The sword was long and not too broad, with an odd metal blade that sparkled gold and silver.
Dorothy had never seen or held a sword ever in her eighteen years of life. It was something she only read about in books or seen in the movies. Her aunt Emerald often took her to the cinema and read books about knights of old. Her dear uncle Henry was away fighting in the war against the Japanese and Germans, using guns, not swords.
The lady Helen disappeared. All Dorothy had now was the sword, her rucksack of food, and her new friend Totem the wolf who had come along on this strange journey. She looked at the narrow yellow coloured dusty path weaving like a thread across the bright green grass, between the deep green ferns and huge shadowy trees. She set off that way, and never looked back to see if any of the blue men were following. Somehow, armed with a sword, and with her wolf friend, she doubted they would follow her now.....
(End of Part 1. To be continued in Part 2).
This story was written by me and it's loosely based on the "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" adventures by L. Frank Baum.The picture used here was created by me using a photo editor and a fantasy dress-up graphic maker.
Links:
Wizard of Oz
Dress up games
Photo editor
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