The Oz Series
Chapter 71
Part of the Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz: The Underground World arc.
What happens
When Dorothy recovers her senses she and Zeb are still falling, but more slowly, because the buggy top catches the air like a parachute and holds them back so they float downward gently. Crash after crash echoes above as the earth closes where it split, and stones and clay pelt the buggy top; Jim screams when a stone strikes him, though the falling debris does not truly hurt him because everything falls together. Dorothy gradually sees the sprawling form of Jim and the boy beside her, and realizes death is not in store but that she has begun another queer adventure. Leaning over the buggy's side to find the source of a strange light, she sees far below six great glowing balls suspended in the air: a central white one resembling the sun, surrounded like a star's points by five colored balls of rose, violet, yellow, blue, and orange, sending rainbow rays in every direction.
As they sink nearer the lights, the colored rays tint everything, turning Jim's ears violet and rose, his tail yellow, and his body striped blue and orange like a zebra, while Zeb's face appears blue and hair pink, and Dorothy has a green streak across her face. Dorothy laughs nervously and Zeb stammers that he sees nothing funny. The buggy tips onto its side and rolls completely over before righting itself; Jim struggles frantically, then speaks for the first time, saying 'Well, that's better!' Astonished, Dorothy asks if the horse can talk, and Jim replies these are the first words he ever said and complains this is a nice scrape. Dorothy answers cheerfully that they are all in the same scrape and something will happen soon, while the pessimistic Jim expects they will be sorry when it does.
They pass close beside the flaming colored suns, shielding their dazzled eyes, but find no heat in them. Zeb worries they must reach the bottom eventually, and Dorothy reasons they are somewhere in the middle of the earth and may reach the other side. Jim announces they are coming to something, and looking down they see a landscape of mountains, plains, lakes, and rivers like the earth's surface, splendidly colored by the six suns, with groups of houses that sparkle like clear glass. Dorothy judges they are in no danger since they fall so slowly they cannot be dashed to pieces. They appear to be falling into a big city with tall glass-domed buildings and sharp-pointed spires like spear-points, and Jim's ears stand up in fear, but they float gently down onto a broad flat glass roof and stop.
When Zeb leaps out he awkwardly kicks over Dorothy's birdcage, whose bottom comes off, releasing a pink-tinted kitten that yawns and blinks. Dorothy identifies it as Eureka, explaining the queer light only makes the white kitten look pink. Eureka demands milk and then, to everyone's astonishment, speaks and marvels that she can talk; Zeb declares it wrong for animals to talk, though Jim gruffly disagrees. The glass houses are so transparent one can see through the walls, and Dorothy makes out rooms below with queer forms huddled in corners. The roof beside them has a great hole smashed through it, a nearby steeple is broken off, and other buildings are cracked, marred by what must have damaged the beautiful glass city. The strangers wonder if the city is uninhabited.
Suddenly a well-formed man with a beautiful, serene face and snugly fitting brilliant green clothing appears through a hole in the adjacent roof. Noticing the strangers and especially the horse, he shows no expression of fear or surprise but walks rapidly to the roof's edge, steps into the air, and walks calmly through space down to the street, disappearing into a glass building. Eureka then wanders into the air a foot from the roof's edge, telling the distressed Dorothy she cannot fall in this country and has nine lives anyway; the air bears up her weight. Zeb suggests sending Eureka to fetch help, but Dorothy proposes they try walking on the air themselves; Zeb is too afraid to try, and Jim refuses, arguing that Eureka weighs half a pound while he weighs half a ton. Jim reveals he is old and drew a public cab in Chicago for years, which made him skinny, and complains about being without breakfast.
Dorothy points out gardens and fields below the city and wishes for a way down. Encouraged that Eureka walks on air, Zeb, not wanting to seem a coward, slowly advances to the roof's edge, puts one foot into the air, finds it firm, and with Dorothy holding his hand they both walk through the air with the kitten frisking beside them. Jim, being sensible and experienced, decides he can go where the others do, trots off the roof, and floats down faster than the children due to his weight, alighting softly on the glass pavement without being jarred. People begin emerging from the glass doors to look at the arrivals, forming a crowd of beautifully formed, attractively dressed men and women with handsome faces but no children; their features are as expressionless as dolls, showing neither smile nor frown nor curiosity, and they stare mostly at Jim and Eureka, having never seen a horse or cat.
A man wearing a glistening star in his dark hair over his forehead joins the group, and the others press back to give him room, marking him as a person of authority. Turning his composed eyes on the animals and children, he addresses Zeb and asks whether he caused the Rain of Stones. Zeb explains it was the earthquake, and when the man asks what an earthquake is, Dorothy describes it as a shaking of the earth in which a big crack opened and they fell through with the horse and buggy, loosing the stones. The man with the star states the Rain of Stones did much damage to the city and holds them responsible unless they can prove their innocence. Unable to say how they might prove it, he declares it their affair and directs them to the House of the Sorcerer, who will discover the truth. He leads the way down the street; Dorothy catches Eureka and climbs into the buggy with Zeb, Jim ambles along drawing them, and the glass-city people form a procession behind, moving through the streets until they reach an open central square containing a big glass palace with a central dome and four tall corner spires.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- the glass city
- the man with the star
- underground_traveling_party
- Zeb
- Jim
- the glass people
- Eureka
- the House of the Sorcerer
- the buggy
- the six colored suns