The Oz Series
Chapter 72
Part of the Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz: The Underground World arc.
What happens
Zeb drives the horse and buggy through the large doorway of the glass palace into a lofty, beautiful hall, and the glass-city people follow to form a circle around the room, leaving the horse, buggy, and the man with the star in the center. The man calls out 'Come to us, oh, Gwig!' and a cloud of smoke rises to disclose a strange personage seated on a glass throne before Jim's nose: formed like the other inhabitants but clothed in bright yellow, entirely bald, and covered all over his head, face, and hands with sharp thorns like rose-bush branches, even one on his nose tip. Dorothy laughs at his funny appearance, but the Sorcerer's cold, cruel eyes sober her instantly. He demands why they dared intrude into the secluded Land of the Mangaboos and accuses them of viciously sending the Rain of Stones. Dorothy denies it and refuses to prove their innocence, insisting the earthquake was obviously the cause.
The Sorcerer states that yesterday came a Rain of Stones that did damage and injured people, and today came another Rain of Stones followed by the strangers' appearance. The man with the star, addressed as the Prince, points out that Gwig had promised there would be no second Rain of Stones, questioning the value of his sorcery. Gwig defends himself by arguing his sorcery is truthful: he predicted only one Rain of Stones, and this second event was a Rain of People-and-Horse-and-Buggy with some stones incidentally accompanying them. The Prince asks whether there will be more rains of stones or people, and Gwig assures him there will be none, claiming his sorcery tells him so.
A man runs into the hall reporting more wonders in the air, and the Prince and his people flock out to the street; Dorothy and Zeb follow, while the Sorcerer remains on his throne. High in the air, lower than the six colored suns, an object like a balloon descends very slowly. The throng waits patiently, unable to leave the strange sight or hasten its fall; the earth children go unnoticed being near the Mangaboos' size, while Jim remains in the House of the Sorcerer with Eureka asleep on the buggy seat. Over three hours the balloon settles: first appearing bigger, then revealing a suspended basket, then a head looking over the side, until it finally comes to rest on the glass pavement of the square.
A little old bald man jumps from the basket, removes his tall hat, and bows gracefully; Dorothy recognizes him with amazement as Oz. He greets her as Oz, the Great and Terrible, and remembers little Dorothy from Kansas. Dorothy tells Zeb this is the wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Prince, the man with the star, asks the Wizard why he is in the Land of the Mangaboos. The Wizard explains he lives on top of the earth, went up in a balloon the previous day, fell into an earthquake crack, could not rise because he had released too much gas, and descended when the earth closed over him; he asks to be shown a way out.
The Prince asks whether a Wizard is like a Sorcerer, and the Wizard boasts that one Wizard is worth three Sorcerers and that he never makes mistakes, though Dorothy contradicts him by recalling his many mistakes in the Land of Oz. The Prince leads the Wizard into the domed hall to meet Gwig, warning that if the Wizard proves himself better he will be made Chief Wizard, but otherwise the Prince will stop him from living and forbid him to be planted. The Wizard laughs at the absurd thorny Sorcerer, and the two exchange insults; the Wizard, recognizing Gwig as a fellow humbug, invites him to join Bailum & Barney's Great Consolidated Shows circus, while Gwig corrects the Wizard's mangling of the name Mangaboos and challenges him to equal his sorcery.
Gwig waves a thorny hand and produces the tinkling music of unseen bells, a trick the Mangaboos find unimpressive. The Wizard, lacking a borrowed hat or handkerchief, uses his own empty hat, shows nothing up his sleeve, and after Gwig examines the hat, produces a tiny white piglet no bigger than a mouse from beneath it. He pulls the piglet apart into two whole piglets, repeats the process until nine tiny squealing piglets run about, then pushes them together one by one until a single piglet remains, which he makes disappear entirely under his hat. The Prince declares the Wizard's powers greater than the Sorcerer's.
Gwig retorts that the Wizard will not be a Wizard long because he intends to stop his breath, perceiving that the curiously constructed little man cannot live without breathing; he begins making signs and passes, giving it about five minutes. The Wizard, feeling the charm take effect and struggling to breathe, quickly draws sharp knives from a leathern case, joins them into a long sword, attaches a handle, and with a mighty stroke cuts the Sorcerer's body exactly in two. Dorothy screams, but the halves reveal Gwig has no bones or blood, the cut resembling a sliced turnip or potato. The astonished Wizard exclaims Gwig is vegetable, and the Prince confirms all Mangaboos are vegetable and asks if the Wizard is too. The Wizard explains surface people are all meat, and the Prince states the Sorcerer will die and wither quickly and must be planted at once so other Sorcerers may grow on his bush, inviting the puzzled Wizard to the public gardens to learn the mysteries of the Vegetable Kingdom.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- Gwig
- the man with the star
- underground_traveling_party
- Zeb
- Jim
- Kansas
- Land of Oz
- Land of the Mangaboos
- Mangaboos
- Oz
- the balloon
- the glass people
- Eureka
- the House of the Sorcerer
- the buggy