The Oz Series

Chapter 98

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

This encyclopedia covers chapters 1 to 100 of the story and shows the world as it stands at chapter 100, so it contains spoilers up to that point. To read it spoiler free, one chapter at a time, open the interactive codex.

What happens

The country grows less pretty as a rocky plain covered with barren hills appears before the travelers, who near some low mountains as the once-smooth road turns rough and uneven. Button-Bright's little feet stumble more than once, and Polychrome ceases dancing because the difficult walking keeps her warm enough. By afternoon their only luncheon is two apples the shaggy man took from the breakfast table, which he divides into four pieces for his companions; Dorothy and Button-Bright are glad, Polly takes only a small bite, and Toto dislikes apples. Polychrome asks whether this is the right road to the Emerald City, and Dorothy says she does not know but it is the only road, so they may as well follow it to its end. Dorothy reflects that if she had her Magic Belt—captured from the Nome King and able to do almost any wonderful thing—it would help, but she left it with Ozma because magic works only in fairy countries, not Kansas.

Dorothy explains that this must be a fairy country, because otherwise Button-Bright could not have a fox head, the shaggy man could not have a donkey head, and the Rainbow's Daughter would be invisible. Button-Bright then observes Toto is invisible, and Dorothy finds he is right: Toto has vanished from view, though they hear him barking furiously among the grey rocks ahead. Moving faster to investigate, they find perched on a point of rock a curious man-formed creature, middle-sized, slender, and graceful, with a face black as ink and a tight black cloth costume like a union suit; its hands are black and its toes curl down like a bird's, and it is black all over except for fine yellow hair banged across its forehead. Its small sparkling eyes, like a weasel's, are fixed on the barking Toto.

The creature jumps and turns half around in place, revealing that its other side is pure white, with a clown-like face and brilliant purple hair, its white toes curling as the black ones had; it can bend either way and has a face both front and back—or rather two fronts and no back. Toto barks louder at the white side. The shaggy man recalls once owning a two-faced jumping jack that worked on strings and was made of wood, and Dorothy wonders if this creature works with strings. Then Polychrome cries out as another identical creature appears on another rock, its black side toward them, the two twisting their heads to show mismatched black and white faces. More creatures keep appearing—four, then five, then six, then many—forming a row of two-sided black-and-white beings on the rocks all around, in a little hollow surrounded by jagged peaks except where the road passes through.

Toto stops barking, runs between Dorothy's feet, and crouches as if afraid; the creatures look unfriendly and the shaggy man's donkey face grows solemn. At Dorothy's whispered urging, the shaggy man calls out to ask who they are, and they yell in shrill chorus 'Scoodlers!' When he asks what they want, they yell 'You!' pointing their thin fingers and flopping to show white then black; when he asks what they want them for, they shout 'Soup!' Dorothy trembles, concluding the Scoodlers are cannibals, and Button-Bright begins to cry that he does not want to be soup, while Dorothy comforts him and says the shaggy man will take care of them, though the shaggy man looks worried.

Feeling the Love Magnet in his pocket, the shaggy man asks the Scoodlers whether they love him, and they all shout 'Yes!'; he then declares they must not harm him or his friends, but the Scoodlers yell 'We love you in soup!' and flash their white sides to the front. Dorothy remarks this is a time when he gets loved too much, Button-Bright wails again, and Toto whines. The shaggy man decides the only course is to get out of the rocky pocket and leave the Scoodlers behind, and he marches toward the opening in the rocks with the others close behind. But the Scoodlers close up in front to bar the way, so the shaggy man stoops, picks up a loose stone, and throws it to scare them off the path. At this the Scoodlers raise a howl, and two of them pick their heads from their shoulders and hurl them at the shaggy man with such force that he falls over in a heap, greatly astonished; the two then run forward with swift leaps, catch up their heads, put them back on, and spring back to their positions on the rocks.

Who is in play

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