The Oz Series
Chapter 14
Part of the Dorothy's Journey to the Wizard and Back to Kansas arc.
What happens
The four travelers set out from the castle of the Wicked Witch toward the Emerald City, but there is no road or pathway between them, since the Witch had sent the Winged Monkeys to bring them to her originally. Knowing they must go straight east toward the rising sun, they start correctly, but at noon when the sun is overhead they cannot tell east from west and become lost among the great fields of buttercups and yellow daisies. They sleep among the flowers under a bright moon and continue the next morning under a clouded sun, growing discouraged as days pass with only the scarlet fields before them. The Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion each lament they will never reach Oz to gain their gifts, and Dorothy loses heart; even Toto is too tired to chase a butterfly.
Dorothy suggests calling the field mice, who could tell them the way, and blows the little whistle the Queen of the Mice had given her. The gray mice come running, and the Queen tells Dorothy the Emerald City has been at their backs all this time. Noticing Dorothy's Golden Cap, the Queen reveals it carries a charm to summon the Winged Monkeys, who will carry them to the City of Oz in less than an hour, and that the charm is written inside the Cap. The Queen warns that the mischievous Monkeys plague the mice, so she and her subjects scamper away before Dorothy uses the charm.
Dorothy reads the directions written on the Cap's lining and performs the charm, standing on her left foot to say "Ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke," on her right foot to say "Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo," and on both feet to say "Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik." The band of Winged Monkeys arrives and their King asks her command. Dorothy asks to be carried to the Emerald City, and the Monkeys lift the travelers and Toto and fly off. The Scarecrow and Tin Woodman are frightened at first, recalling their earlier mistreatment, but ride cheerfully once they see no harm is intended.
Dorothy, riding in a chair of hands between the biggest Monkeys including the King, asks why they must obey the charm of the Golden Cap. The King tells the long story: the Winged Monkeys were once a free, mischievous people living in the forest before Oz came out of the clouds to rule. A beautiful princess and powerful sorceress named Gayelette lived in the North in a ruby palace, using her magic only to help good people. Finding no one worthy to love, she raised a handsome, wise boy named Quelala to become her husband. Just before the wedding, the King's grandfather, then King of the Winged Monkeys and fond of jokes, seized Quelala, who was dressed in pink silk and purple velvet, carried him over the river, and dropped him in, ruining his clothes. Quelala swam out laughing, but the angered Gayelette summoned the Monkeys and threatened to drown them with tied wings; on the pleas of the grandfather and a kind word from Quelala, she instead condemned the Monkeys to obey the owner of the Golden Cap three times forever. The Cap had been a wedding present for Quelala said to have cost half her kingdom.
The King explains that Quelala, as first owner, ordered the Monkeys to keep where his bride Gayelette could never see them, which they gladly did out of fear of her. Their next duty came when the Golden Cap fell to the Wicked Witch of the West, who made them enslave the Winkies and drive Oz out of the Land of the West. Now the Cap belongs to Dorothy, granting three commands. As the story ends, Dorothy sees the green shining walls of the Emerald City ahead; the Monkeys set the travelers down before the gate, the King bows, and the band flies away. The Lion remarks it was a good ride and a quick way out of their troubles, praising the wonderful Cap.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- Cowardly Lion
- Tin Woodman
- Scarecrow
- Golden Cap
- Winged Monkeys
- City of Emeralds
- great forest
- Oz
- Queen of the Field Mice
- Toto
- Field Mice
- Gayelette
- leader of the Winged Monkeys
- Quelala
- the Witch's castle