The Oz Series
Chapter 80
Part of the Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz: The Underground World arc.
What happens
Another climb brings the adventurers to a third landing with a rift showing only thick rolling clouds. Resting, the Wizard draws out the nine tiny piglets and finds them plainly visible again, proving they have passed beyond the influence of the magical Valley of Voe. Eureka, delighted to see the piglets, asks to eat just one; the piglets protest her savagery and betrayal of their friendship, calling her murderous and unfit for the party. Dorothy reproves Eureka that no kitten should eat a pig, and that the piglets are the Wizard's pets just as Eureka is Dorothy's, no more proper to eat than for Jim to eat Eureka. Jim glares and threatens to chew Eureka up instantly if she injures any piglet; the kitten, eyeing Jim's few but sharp teeth, agrees to leave them alone. The Wizard urges them all to be a happy family, and Dorothy notes no one can love a person he fears, so if Eureka behaves the piglets may grow fond of her.
The Wizard pockets the piglets and the climb resumes up the dark winding stairway, which grows narrower so that Zeb and the Wizard often help Jim pull the buggy from step to step and keep it from jamming the rocky walls. A dim light ahead grows stronger. Jim, in advance, sticks his head above the stairway sides, halts, ducks, and backs up, nearly falling with the buggy onto the others, urging them to go down again because the place above is dead, with no flesh, blood, or growing thing. The Wizard insists they cannot turn back; Dorothy adds they do not intend to stay. The Wizard cites his and Dorothy's many escapes from queer countries, including the Land of Oz, and orders Jim onward. Jim drags the buggy up the last steps, and all stand on a broad platform gazing at a startling sight.
The Country of the Gargoyles is entirely wooden: the ground is sawdust, the pebbles are hard tree-knots worn smooth, the houses are odd wooden structures with carved wooden flowers, the tree-trunks are coarse wood with leaves of shavings, the grass is wood splinters over solid wooden flooring, and wooden birds and browsing wooden cows appear. The most amazing things are the wooden people, the Gargoyles, who cluster near, gazing sharply at the strangers emerging from the stairway.
The Gargoyles are less than three feet tall, with round bodies, short thick legs, extraordinarily long stout arms, oversized heads, and decidedly ugly faces of many varied types, scarcely two alike. Their hairless heads are carved into fantastic shapes with points, balls, flower or vegetable designs, or waffle-like criss-cross squares. They wear short wooden wings fastened to their wooden bodies by wooden hinges and wooden screws, with which they fly swiftly and noiselessly, their legs being of little use. They make no sound at all, flying or trying to speak, and converse by quick signals of their wooden fingers or lips; the whole wooden country is silent, birds not singing and cows not mooing, despite much activity. The clustered Gargoyles stare motionless with evil eyes while the Wizard, children, horse, and kitten examine them silently in return.
Jim asks Zeb to unhitch him from the buggy so he can fight comfortably; the Wizard agrees trouble is coming and notes his sword cannot cut wooden bodies, so he takes out two deadly-looking revolvers from his satchel that alarm the children. Dorothy questions what harm the Gargoyles can do without weapons; the Wizard answers each of their arms is a wooden club, and even the revolvers can only damage a few wooden bodies before the party is at their mercy. He resolves to fight anyway so as to die with a clear conscience, doing his duty. Zeb, having unhitched Jim, wishes he had an axe.
The Gargoyles back away at the sound of talking, since even low tones seem loud in the silence, but when the conversation ceases they rise in a flock and fly swiftly at the strangers, long arms stretched out like bowsprits. They target the horse first as the biggest strangest creature. Jim turns his heels and kicks with his iron-shod hoofs, battering the wooden Gargoyles and scattering them like straws; the noise and clatter frighten them as much as the kicks, and the able ones fly off to a distance while the fallen pick themselves up and rejoin their fellows, so Jim briefly thinks he has won easily.
The Wizard is not confident, observing the wooden things are impossible to hurt, only chipped at the noses and ears, and predicts they will renew the attack, having fled because of the noise, as the Champion once escaped by shouting. Zeb suggests escaping down the stairs, preferring the invisible bears, but Dorothy stoutly refuses to go back and lose the way home, insisting they fight it out; the Wizard agrees Jim is worth a whole army. The clever Gargoyles this time avoid the horse, advancing in a larger swarm and flying over Jim's head to the others. The Wizard fires a revolver into the throng, the shot resounding like thunder; some wooden beings fall and quiver while most wheel and escape. Zeb picks up a nearby fallen Gargoyle whose head is carved into a crown and whose left eye, a hard wooden knot, holds half the Wizard's bullet, showing it was the jar and noise more than injury that felled it. Before the crowned Gargoyle recovers, Zeb winds a strap several times around its body, confining its wings and arms, buckles it, and tosses his bound prisoner into the buggy as the other Gargoyles retire.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- Valley of Voe
- underground_traveling_party
- Zeb
- Jim
- Kansas
- Land of Oz
- Oz
- Eureka
- Gargoyles
- Land of Naught
- the buggy
- the nine tiny piglets
- Overman-Anu