She looked at Totem, who had found something to chew.
"I guess this is an illusion," she sighed. "Another ruin.We might just press on, maybe forget about it."
"NOT A RUIN" spoke an electric sound coming from one of the onyx monkey figures.
"Did you speak?" she asked.
The small black statuette was unmoving. It had purple and pink pansies for eyes. Whoever carved these monkeys did an excellent job at planting flower seeds into their eye sockets.
"PASSWORD" it said.
"Oh no, not again. I don't have a password," she turned and was about to leave, when the monkey answered her.
"KING DOES KNOW PASSWORD," it replied.
"He doesn't know... he asked..."
"KING OF OLYMPIA KNOWS PASSWORD."
"He's not a king of Olympia," she laughed. "He fooled you toys as well?"
"KING ICARUS OF OLYMPIA GOLD PATH CITY."
"No! Monkey doll, king Icarus lied about that! The city of Olympia is empty."
"OLYMPIA IS POPULATED WITH THOUSANDS, RULER IS KING ICARUS."
Dorothy was confused. This onyx monkey was playing games with her head.
"Look, the city was empty when I woke up..."
"CITY NEVER EMPTY."
Totem howled after discovering bones that belonged to a bison. Bisons don't like deserts.
"THIS IS THE DWELLING OF PRINCESS NYX AND YOU FACE TRIAL."
Dorothy had enough. She didn't care about entering the door. She wanted to wake the men up and gather some fruit and water, then resume the treck on the path.
She couldn't find them. Star Corn, Stannum and Icarus had gone.
Dorothy was overcome by fatigue, and confusion. She picked herself up off the floor and noticed something in her hand. It was a leaf, a bright green lush leaf not found in the desert. The air cooled and a shadow comforted her from the heat. Opposite her was a round window, and outside that was a jade disk. A maiden with flowers in her hair splashed a bucket of water over this jade disk. The jade disk sounded a gong. A beautiful woman in black crystals appeared from the disk and walked out of view.
""Where am I? Dorothy was inside a white marble cell room, with Totem asleep beside her.
"What the!" Startled, she got up and took in her bearings. All around her were white marble walls and a couple of round windows. A rounded ceiling with a domed light. An arched door, and some bowls of uneaten fruit. She was back in the city of Olympia, and in the cell where the guards put her!
Dorothy sat down and cried.
"Aunt Emerald!"
The cell door opened. A guard entered, and stepped aside to let in the woman in sparkling black crustals. Her gown was long and made of black shining gems and black diamonds and black quartz. Her hair was a deep indigo and full of glitter. Her eyes were colours of starry blue, green and red. Her complexion was dark plum. She was the most beautiful lady that Dorothy had seen.
"Good morning, Dorothy Storm," the lady said. "I'm Nyx, the princess of the South. Come with me."
Dorothy had little choice. She went outside the cell with the lady. And they left the marble prison, and its flowery white walls, to find flowering palaces and a city filled with beautiful people playing harps and singing. They were alive, whatever they were.
"Where am I?" Dorothy asked.
Nyx smiled at her. "Olympia."
"But we left Olympia, a long time ago. We crossed a desert and came to a ruin with stone monkeys."
"That was no ruin, it's my house!" Nyx laughed. "I woke you up from a long deep sleep. You were unconsious for days, so I was called upon to attend your trial ending."
"What do you mean?"
"It was decided by everyone at the councel that you are innocent. You didn't murder princess Meng. She was killed before you arrived here on our world."
"But the ruin... we woke up and it was empty. Icarus said he's played here..."
"Icarus did play in the ruin with the sphynx. This one is a real city with real people. You dreamt everything else. Icarus is worried about you, so are your other friends Stannum and Star Corn."
Dorothy was more confused now. Everything in the desert had been a dream, according to Nyx. She was so pleased it had been a dream. She encountered so much and all was a fabrication.
Later after she was given fruit and bread, she was reunited with Icarus, Star Corn and Stannum. Totem ran around chasing his tail.Crowds of lovely people dressed in white made her feel special. Star Corn gave her a kiss on the lips. Stannum kissed her lips. Then Icarus kissed her hand. They put flowers around her, and she wallowed in joy.
"Dorothy. Dorothy! DOROTHY!!!" All stopped.
She opened her eyes. Dorothy saw Stannum looking at her, Star Corn and Icarus trying to break a door between two onyx monkeys.
She sat up. "What? Where am I?"
Stannum sighed. "We found you here, passed out," he said.
Icarus looked at her. "I had to give you the kiss of life. You must've been suffering from heat stroke."
Dorothy got up and looked all around her. She wasn't in Olympia. She was here, in the desert with stone monkeys and locked doors, with electric voices demanding passwords to let them in. She was annoyed, and kicked one of the monkey statuettes hard, so it fell and broke.
This made the door open. Inside there were shining black onyx stones and crystals. The dwelling of Nyx. Princess of the night. As the poppies in Olympia made her and the others hallucinate, the monkeys had also done that here.
(End of Part 9. To be continued in Part 10).
This story was written by me and it's loosely based on the "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" adventures by L. Frank Baum.
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