The Oz Series

Chapter 94

Part of the The Road to Oz: The Shaggy Man's Journey to Ozma's Birthday arc.

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What happens

Toto, now allowed to run free, is glad to bark at birds and chase butterflies as the party travels through charming country of wild-flower fields and leafy groves that contain no houses or inhabitants; birds fly overhead, white rabbits dart among the grasses, and ants carry loads of clover seed, but no people are seen. After walking briskly for an hour or two, with even little Button-Bright a good walker, they round a curve and behold a curious sight: a radiant, beautiful little girl, shapely as a fairy and exquisitely dressed, dancing gracefully alone in the middle of the lonely road, her dainty feet twinkling. She wears flowing, fluffy robes like woven cobwebs colored in soft blending stripes of violet, rose, topaz, olive, azure, and white, and her spun-gold hair flows around her unfastened by any pin, ornament, or ribbon.

The friends approach in wonder and watch. The girl, no taller and no older than Dorothy, suddenly pauses and, appearing shy as a frightened fawn, faces them with tears flowing from her violet eyes down her rose-hued cheeks. When Dorothy sympathetically asks if she is unhappy, the girl says she is lost; Dorothy notes she and her companions are lost too but do not cry, having been lost before and always found again, whereas the maiden has never been lost before and is worried and afraid. The girl explains she was dancing only to keep warm, though the weather is mild.

Asked her name, the girl identifies herself as Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow; Dorothy, astonished, remarks she could be nothing else, given her loveliness. Polychrome takes Dorothy's hand and asks her to be her friend, which Dorothy agrees to, and Dorothy introduces herself, the Shaggy Man (owner of the Love Magnet), and Button-Bright, explaining that the Fox-King carelessly changed the boy's head into a fox head and that she hopes to change him back. Polychrome, no longer afraid, pats Toto, whom Dorothy explains is just a dog with more sense than Button-Bright, and agrees to be called 'Polly.'

The shaggy man asks how the Rainbow's Daughter became lost, and Polychrome explains that her father stretched his rainbow so one end touched the road that morning, and as she danced upon the rays she drifted too far over the bend, began to slide faster and faster, and bumped to the ground at the very end; her father then lifted the rainbow again without noticing her, and though she tried to seize it, it melted away, leaving her alone and helpless on the cold, hard earth. She fears freezing, being used to living nearer the sun, though her dance has warmed her, and wonders how to get home.

Dorothy invites Polychrome to come with them toward the Emerald City in the Land of Oz, ruled by her friend Princess Ozma, who she is sure will know a way to send Polychrome home to her father. Polychrome agrees, reasoning travel will keep her warm and her father can find her anywhere. As they set off, Polly at first holds Dorothy's hand fearfully but soon darts ahead in a giddy dance and returns with sparkling eyes and smiling cheeks, having regained her happy mood and forgotten her worry; the friends find her a charming companion whose dancing and silver-bell laughter enliven and content their journey.

Who is in play

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