Oz: The Great and Powerful Junior Novel Disney Book Group (7 page)

He and Finley ran into the house, jumping over mounds of shattered porcelain and entering what had once been a parlor. There, sitting on the floor, was a beautiful little china girl. She had white china hair, big sad eyes, and she was wearing a white and blue dress.

“Hey there,” Oz called out. “Are you all right?”

The girl looked up, still crying. Seeing Oz and Finley, she recoiled in fear.

“It’s okay, we won’t hurt you,” Oz said, his voice gentle. Carefully, he made his way closer to the girl. He nodded at the monkey. “This is Finley. And my name is Oz.”

The little girl’s eyes grew wide. “Are you…are you the Wizard?” she stammered.

“You’ve heard of me?” Oz asked, surprised. She nodded. Apparently news traveled fast in this land. “Then you have nothing to be afraid of. Now come on out of there.”

“But I can’t,” the little girl replied. She looked down at her legs. For the first time, Oz noticed that they were broken off in several places. “I’ll never get back together,” she said with a catch in her throat.

Oz flashed back to his last show in Kansas and the little girl begging for his help. He hadn’t been able to do anything then—what were the chances he could do something now? He racked his brain, trying to think of a solution, and then it hit him. “Don’t worry, I think I have something!” he said. After ordering Finley to toss him his satchel, Oz began to rummage through it. With a cry of triumph, pulled out a bottle of quick-drying glue. “Here it is!” Oz said in triumph. But China Girl was confused.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Magic in a bottle,” Oz said with a smile. “Let’s give it a try!”

The girl’s eyes widened in amazement as Oz began to gather up the pieces of her broken legs. One by one he started gluing them together. As he worked, the shrieks of the baboons grew louder and closer.

“Oh, no! They’re coming back!” China Girl exclaimed. Oz quickly gathered her and Finley into a tight huddle. A dark shadow passed outside as the creatures flew over the house and then continued on their way. Oz let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“The Witch sent them,” China Girl explained. “The whole town was celebrating, out in the streets, because we had heard that you’d finally arrived.”

The little girl continued her tale. She told them how everyone was so happy and they couldn’t help but make noise. That they kept cheering, right up until the Witch’s baboons came in and began to destroy everything. As she spoke, the little girl’s eyes welled up with tears.

Oz listened, feeling a strange sense of guilt. His arrival had caused all this destruction, all this loss. Shaking his head, he glued the last piece of the girl’s leg. “Would you like to stand?” he asked, smiling weakly.

Nodding, the little girl mustered up all her strength and heaved herself into a standing position. A huge smile spread across her face.

“Now walk to me,” Oz said. But China Girl was afraid. She didn’t want to break her legs again.

“I don’t think I can,” she said.

“I think you can,” Oz said as he looked into her eyes. “Come on.”

China Girl steeled herself as Oz held his breath. Tentatively, she moved her foot forward, taking a small step. Then she took another. And another. Soon, she was walking all around the room.

Oz burst into laughter. He had done it! Reaching him, China Girl fell into his arms, overjoyed. Oz was surprised at the outpouring of emotion, and the fact that he, too, felt an overwhelming sense of both pride and hope. He turned to look at Finley, but the flying monkey had already looked away. He was trying to conceal the tear in his eye. The last thing he wanted was for Oz to see him crying.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHT

Z’S GOOD FEELINGS
were replaced
with guilt when he tried to send China Girl back to the Emerald City. Even though it would be safer behind the city’s walls, the little girl wanted none of it. She wanted to help Oz.

“On a witch hunt?” Oz asked. “No,” he said. “You’re just a little girl.”

“I’m not as delicate as I look,” China Girl said. And with that, she ran over and kicked Oz in the shins.

“That didn’t hurt,” Oz said, even though it did. But the girl wouldn’t budge.

“Look,” Oz began. “We have one rule in show-biz. Never work with kids or animals,” he said as he glanced over at Finley. Then he turned back to her. “The answer is no,” he said with grim determination. But Oz wasn’t prepared for what came next.

China Girl looked up at him and her eyes filled with big tears. Then her lower lip began to quiver. Before Oz knew what was happening, she was in hysterics. “You’re going to leave me alone? On a road? In the middle of nowhere?”

Oz was a goner.

China Girl continued to cry and cry until Oz could take no more. “Fine!” he yelled. “Fine! You wanna come? Come! We’ll all go! It’ll be a big party!” he said as he threw his arms in the air, exasperated.

And with that, China Girl immediately stopped her crying. “Great! Let’s go kill ourselves a witch!” she said as she skipped down the Yellow Brick Road.

Oz shot Finley a look of utter disbelief. “I think I just got conned,” the con man said to the monkey.

“Yeah? How does it feel?” Finley asked. The two just stared at each other. This little girl was quite possibly smarter than both of them.

Oz now found himself back on the Yellow Brick Road with a flying monkey and a girl made of china. And they were on their way to kill a witch.

The china village quickly faded behind them, and soon they found themselves in a dark forest. Bats fluttered past as they made their way deeper and deeper into the trees. From high in a tree, a crow as black as night cawed a warning to them that that would not make it out of the woods alive. This gave everyone the creeps, but no one more than China Girl, who lifted her arms up to Oz so she could be carried. Oz obliged and picked her up, only to notice Finley with his arms raised and a “pick me up too” look on his face. Oz just rolled his eyes and the trio kept moving.

“This is terrifying, but at least there are no spiders,” Finley said. “I hate spiders,” the monkey admitted. The place was giving him the spooks. And he wasn’t alone.

“Do you think there are ghosts out here?” China Girl asked.

“No, of course not,” Oz responded, trying to convince both her and himself that there weren’t any.

“Evil spirits, maybe? The undead?” she countered.

“The und—? Would you stop that!” Oz yelled. He didn’t think he could be more afraid—until a glowing snapdragon-like flower lunged from the forest at them, causing them all to scream. More and more of the odd snapdragon flowers attacked, causing Oz, China Girl, and Finley to weave and dodge out of their way…and run!

Rounding a corner, the trio was able to slow down and catch their breath. “Oh my gosh, that was close!” China Girl said. But before she could continue, something caught her eye. “Where are we?” she asked, and when Oz and Finley turned to look, they grew even more frightened. There, in front of them, was a rusty fence. And behind the fence was a sea of gravestones set amid bent and gnarled trees.

“This must be the place,” Oz muttered under his breath.

“So how you gonna kill the Witch?” China Girl asked when they reached the graveyard’s edge. Unlike Oz, she seemed to be enjoying the idea.

“All I need to do is get a hold of her wand,” Oz said grumpily. At least that was what Evanora had told him before she sent him off. “Once I destroy that, she’s finished.”

“Why don’t you just use this?” she asked, pulling out a large knife.

“Hey!” Oz cried, taking a step back. “Where’d you get that?!”

The girl shrugged. “I’m made of china,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’ve got to protect myself somehow.”

“Give me that! Honestly!” Oz yelled. This was out of control. Not only was he supposed to be killing a witch, he had a knife-carrying girl made of china trying to help. It was beyond absurd. If he weren’t so scared, he might have even laughed. But he didn’t. Instead, he grabbed the knife.

“Honestly yourself,” China Girl muttered. Then something appeared that caught their attention.

At the edge of cemetery, a lone figure in a long black cloak appeared through the thick fog. All three of them ducked behind a nearby boulder. Carefully, they peered over the edge. The Witch was literally floating through the air. As they watched, she landed next to the cemetery gate and pulled a basket from her cloak. Then she bent down to pick some flowers. As she worked, she placed her wand on a broken-down cart nearby, unaware that she was being watched. Oz shivered.

“That must be her,” China Girl said.

“She put down the wand,” Oz replied, sure that this was the Wicked Witch that he had to defeat.

“But how are you going to get it?” China Girl asked.

He racked his brain, trying to figure out a plan. Then it hit him! In magic, the most important element was misdirection. If the magician could get the audience to look
that
way while he did something
this
way, they were never aware of the sleight of hand, and the trick was a success. All he needed was some misdirection! Grabbing a tool from his satchel, he began to draw in the dirt.

“Now listen up. Here’s the plan,” he told the others when he was done. In front of him was a crudely drawn map of the graveyard with various symbols on it. “This triangle is the Witch. Monkey, you’re the ‘X.’ I’m the ‘O,’ and China Girl, you’re the squiggly line.”

“I want to be a heart,” China Girl said, pouting. “Can I be a heart?”

Oz stifled a groan. “Fine,” he said. “You’re a heart. Heart stays here. X moves there. O moves toward triangle, like this.” As he spoke, he pointed to the various symbols and indicated where they should go. When he was done, he looked at Finley. “Well?”

Finley leaned down closer to the dirt. He scrunched his eyes and then his nose began to twitch. And then…he sneezed!

“Good work. You just sneezed away the plan!” Oz cried under his breath.

“I’m sorry,” Finley said. “Now, was I the triangle or the heart?”

Oz didn’t have time to draw up a new plan and explain it. So instead, he told Finley to fly up into a nearby tree. When he gave the signal, Finley would start making animal noises and Oz would use the distraction to steal the wand.

With a nod, Finley flew into the branches. Then it was Oz’s turn. Taking a deep breath, he crept out from behind the boulder. His heart was racing. He had no idea what he was doing.

By that point, he had almost reached the cart. He reached out a hand, ready to grab the wand, and…

“MOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Oz ducked down just as the Witch whipped around to see where the strange cow sound was coming from. Crouched behind the cart, Oz slapped his forehead. A cow? Finley was imitating a cow? What was that crazy monkey thinking?

But…it was working!

As Finley kept moooing, the Wicked Witch turned again so that her back was now toward Oz. It was his chance! Reaching forward, he snatched the wand from the cart and hightailed it back to China Girl.

“I got it!” Oz exclaimed.

“Break it!” yelled Finley.

“Break it, Wizard! Break it!” echoed China Girl.

For a moment, Oz just looked at the wand. It didn’t seem particularly dangerous. It almost seemed like a toy. But, rules were rules. He had to destroy the Wicked Witch if he wanted the kingdom and to destroy the Witch he had to destroy the wand. He lifted it over his head and began to bend it down on each side when the Witch spoke.

“Are you really the Wizard?” the shrouded figure asked.

Oz wasn’t expecting her to talk, or for her voice to sound so delicate. The man from Kansas was caught completely off guard, and was still completely terrified. “Well, that’s a com—complicated question. I mean, what is a wizard?” Oz stammered.

Before Oz could go on, the Witch stepped forward and pulled off her hood. Oz’s breath caught in his throat. She was stunning. Her hair was long and so blond it almost appeared silver, and her eyes were warm and kind. She looked so familiar, so much like Annie, that for a moment, Oz was speechless. Then, he found his voice.

“Yes,” he said, seeing a chance to impress another beautiful woman. “I’m the Wizard.”

The blond woman’s eyes welled with tears as she smiled at him. “Then there’s hope,” she said, sounding relieved.

China Girl looked to Finley, confused. “What’s going on?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” the monkey replied. “I sneezed the plan away.”

“I’ve waited so long to meet you,” the beautiful Witch said to Oz.

“So…we’ve never met?” he asked, thinking of Annie.

The Witch shook her head. “Certainly not,” she said in a soft, gentle voice. “I would’ve remembered a thing like that,” she said with a soft smile.

But Oz was still staring at her in disbelief. “You’ve never been to Kansas?” he asked.

“What is Kansas?” the Witch asked. “Is that where you’re from? Oh my, you must have traveled very far to get to the land of Oz,” she said. Then, after a pause, she said, “I am Glinda the Good, the Witch of the South.”

“So, you’re the good witch?” Oz asked, once again confused. “I thought Evanora was the good witch.” Oz raised an eyebrow. Good witch? Wicked witch?
How many witches live in this land?
Oz was beyond confused. Clearly, someone was not telling him something.

Sensing his confusion, Glinda took him by the arm and began to explain everything. “Evanora is the true Wicked Witch. As conniving and cruel as they come. She’s fooled most everyone, including her own sister. She made everyone believe I poisoned my own father, but it was she.”

“Then…she’s the one who destroyed my village?” China Girl asked.

Kneeling down, Glinda told China Girl the truth—it had been Evanora who had sent the baboons to destroy her village. The baboons were her minions, bent on destruction. But China Girl didn’t want to be comforted, and pulled her hand away as Glinda tried to hold it. There was an awkward silence until Finley decided to break the ice.