By Aimee
The group left Sweetwater at dawn the next morning, after getting directions to the Witch's castle. Lou carried a pair of scissors, Scarecody had a hairnet, Kid wielded a curling iron, and Jim desperately hoped his guns would prove an adequate weapon against the witch. The rest planned to use their tools not only as weapons, but as the tools to remove the witch's hairclip.
They stuck close together, traveling in a forest darker and more creepy than the one in which Kid had lived. There was an air of evil in this forest, and it grew stronger the further they advanced.
Meanwhile, Rosemary watched from the window of her castle. Seeing the travelers approach, she summoned her three most trustworthy guards. She had cast a spell over them, making them willing to do whatever her bidding.
"Noah," she said to the first of the guards. "I want you, Ike, and Buck to go and bring me the girl and her horse. Do whatever you want with her friends, but I want the girl alive and unharmed."
The three guards nodded and set off to gather some of the other guards and do what Rosemary ordered.
"Do you hear that?" Lou started at the sound of a bird flying overhead. "This forest is creepier and creepier with every step."
"I don't really want courage," Kid said. "I'm going back."
"I agree," said Scarecody. "I can live without a brain, I've made it this far. I'm going back too."
"Me too," Jim said. "I don't really need a heart. I say we all go back."
"You can go back if you want to," Lou told them. "But I'm going to get that hairclip. I want to go home."
Her three friends looked at each other and silently reached an agreement.
"We can't let you go by yourself," Cody spoke for all of them.
"Well, I have no choice it seems," Lou said. "Since all of you are going back."
"We're not going back," Jim said.
"Of course not," Kid agreed, wishing he hadn't come on this trip to begin with.
"Good," Lou said, not showing how relieved she was not to be on her own.
They had only taken a few more steps when suddenly men dressed in strange-looking uniforms surrounded them, pointing spears at them.
"It is the witch's guards," Scarecody announced, as if any of them really cared, or hadn't figured it out for themselves.
The guards closed in on the little group. Noah grabbed Lou while Ike and Buck took Lightning's reins and the rest of the guards beat up Cody, Jim, and Kid. They left the three lying on the ground and hauled Lou and Lightning off to Rosemary's castle.
Lou found herself locked in a room high in the castle tower. Rosemary had her guard take Lightning away.
"What are you going to do with him?" Lou asked.
"My pretty Louise," Rosemary said, laughing wickedly. "You will not see your precious horse again until you give me what I want."
"What do you want?" Lou asked fearfully.
"You have such pretty hair ribbons," Rosemary reached out to touch the ribbons in Lou's hair. "My hairclip is becoming worn out. Give me your hair ribbons, and you can have your horse back."
"Take them," Lou said, almost crying. "Just give me my horse and let me go!"
Rosemary reached out to pull Lou's hair ribbons out, but as her fingers tugged on the ribbons, they became entangled in Lou's hair.
"Drat!" Rosemary cried. "I forgot the spell. The ribbons will not come out of the hair as long as the wearer is alive." She laughed her wicked laugh, turning over an hourglass on the table. "This my dearie, is how long you have left to live." With that she left the room, locking Lou in.
Lou sat down at the table and began to cry. "Now I'll never get home," she sobbed. "I'll never see my family, or Auntie Emma and Uncle Sam again."
Scarecody, Tin Gunman Jim, and Cowardly Lion Kid crept up to the castle. They had stolen the uniforms from some of the guards they had managed to overpower and joined a group of guards entering the castle. Once inside, they separated from the rest of the group and began to search for Lou. They heard her sobbing from outside her door, and Jim quickly shot the locks on the door to open it.
"Hurry," Scarecody pulled Lou from the room. "The witch will have heard the gunshots. We have to get out of here right now."
The group hurried down the stairs and towards the door. Just as they were about to make it to safety, the door slammed shut, and the witch entered the room from another doorway.
"Leaving so soon?" Rosemary asked. "Why, the show hasn't even begun yet."
The guards with her held their spears on the group of friends as Rosemary continued her speech.
"The last to die, will see her friends die before her. Let's see, shall we start with you Strawman?" Rosemary held a torch to Scarecody's straw arm, and it caught fire. Lou, reacting out of instinct, picked up a bucket of water that just happened to be sitting right next to her, and threw it on Cody to put the fire out.
The water also hit Rosemary, and to everyone's surprise, the witch began to shrink. "I'm shrinking!" she screamed, terrified. They all watched, fascinated as she shrank away to nothing, leaving behind nothing but her witch's robe, hat, and hairclip.
"You killed her!" Noah said in shock.
"I didn't mean to," Lou said, afraid of what the guards would do now. "It's just that Cody was on fire and I had to put it out."
"Cheers to Louise, she killed the witch," the guards began to repeat, the spell now broken. One of them picked up Rosemary's hairclip and handed it to Lou at the group's request. Armed with the prize they had come for, the group once again set out for Sweetwater.
"We're back your wizardry," Scarecody announced. "And we've brought the hairclip of the Wicked Witch of the West with us.
Lou stepped forward and set the hairclip on the Wizard's desk. "Now we would like you to grant our requests as you have promised."
"But you see," the Wizard announced. "You're requests have already been granted. Scarecody step forward."
Cody stepped up to the desk as the Wizard pulled a thick book from a drawer. "Scarecody, you wanted brains. What you didn't know was that you already had them. What you don't have is proof that you have them. You just need a thick book to show other people that you do have brains. So I bestow upon you a copy of Blackwell's Common Law."
He handed the book to Scarecody, who immediately began quoting ancient English laws and sections of the United States Constitution. His friends all looked surprised. They didn't realize Cody had brains the whole time!
"And you Tin Gunman Jim," the Wizard continued, talking over Cody's ceasless chatter. "You want a heart, but you don't realize how good it can be not to have one. If you have a heart, eventually it will get broken. But unfortunately, you already have a heart. If you didn't you wouldn't have the capacity to care so much about getting one. All you need is for somebody to point it out to you. And to always remind you that you do have a heart, I bestow upon you this heart-shaped badge." The Wizard stuck the badge on Jim. "Wear it with pride as a constant reminder of the wonderful heart you have."
Jim looked at the badge proudly, and gave each of his new friends a hug. The Wizard then turned to Kid. "As for you, Cowardly Lion Kid, you think you lack courage. What you have is not cowardliness, but the ability to recognize when it is better to run away from danger. By facing the witch, you proved that you can be brave in the face of danger...one of your friends was in trouble, and you faced the witch to rescue her with no thought of your own safety. That is true courage. And to you, to serve as a reminder of the courage you had all along, I give this medal of courage." The wizard pinned the medal on Kid, who blushed at the attention.
"What about me?" Lou asked, knowing none of the trinkets the Wizard had in his desk would help her get home.
"My child," the Wizard looked at her. "All you have to do is get on your horse and ride home."
"That's it?" Lou asked. "But if that's all I have to do, then why did Rachel tell me I had to come here and see you?"
As she asked her question, a light began to float toward them. Soon Rachel appeared, and stood next to the Wizard. She smiled and answered Lou's question.
"Louise, if you had not made the journey to Sweetwater, you would not have met with Scarecody, Tin Gunman Jim, or Cowardly Lion Kid. You helped them realize that they had what they were searching for all along. And you realized how much your home and family means to you. That is why I sent you on this journey. If you did not take it, you would not want to go home so badly, and then you wouldn't be able to get home. All you have to do is mount your horse, close your eyes, and say 'There's no place like home' three times."
Lou looked around at her new friends. She did want to go home, but at the same time, she would miss them very much. Hugging Scarecody, she whispered a tearful good-bye. She repeated the action with Tin Gunman Jim, and then, walking up to Kid, the Now Courageous Lion, she gave him a hug, and said, "I'll miss you most of all."
Looking around her, Louise gave one last wave good-bye to her friends, and mounted Lightning. Closing her eyes, she began to say, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
Her world was spinning, spinning. She wanted it to stop, but it seemed as if it would never end. Finally, when she had decided that it would definitely never stop, the spinning slowed down, and eventually came to a halt. She moaned, her head aching from all the spinning.
"Louise, honey, it's Rachel," a voice soothed. "Come on honey, wake up."
"Is she gonna be okay Rachel?" another familiar voice broke through her haze, and she struggled to open her eyes.
"She's gonna be just fine Kid," Rachel smiled at her as she finally forced her eyes open.
"What happened?" she asked weakly.
"You fell off Lightning and hit your head," Teaspoon explained from his chair at the foot of her bed. Looking around, Lou saw all her family in the room, waiting for her to wake up.
"I had the weirdest dream," she muttered. "Rachel you were there, and Noah, and Buck, and Ike. I was in this strange land, and Cody had no brain."
At this all the boys began to laugh. "That's no dream," Jimmy joked.
"And Jimmy was there, and Kid, and Jesse was a munchkin," Lou continued, not really understanding all she was saying.
"That's enough for now Lou," Rachel tucked the blankets around her. "You need to get some rest. You can tell us all about it later." She chased the boys from the room so Lou could get some rest.
"And Teaspoon was a wizard," Lou muttered dreamily. "And Rachel, you know what? There's no place like home."
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Copyright 1999: not be be reproduced
