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Return to Oz

for FriskeCrisps

by Draconicon

"Well...It's still nice to be back home...right?"

That was what he kept telling himself, what he kept trying to make true. But Theo knew that there was only so much truth to the statement, and only so much that the wolf could keep believing when he'd said it a hundred times in only a week.

True, it was good to be back with his family. True, it was good to be back in Kansas, where things were normal and no witches roamed the skies, where no flying monkeys were there to kidnap him, where the Ruby Sneakers were no longer anything but a dangerous memory, rather than a clear and present one. True, it was good to be in the fields where he and Roro could go back to playing together, where they could enjoy the day without so many worries...

But there was no more wonder.

That was, perhaps, the hardest thing for him. The fact that he was away from his best friends, away from the people that he considered some of the most loyal and wonderful companions that he'd ever had, niggled at him and worried him and - if he was completely honest - saddened him beyond what he could explain to his uncles.

The little wolf sighed as he sat down on the old stump at the edge of the family farm, staring into the sky and wondering. What was it like, back in Oz? Was the Scarecrow doing well in the Emerald City? Was the cowardly Lion still managing to be brave, in the face of everything that he was scared of before? And what about the Tin Man? Had he gone back to rusting and resting in place, or had someone remembered to keep him oiled?

He didn't know, and so Roro could only do so much to lift his spirits, bouncing around and barking gleefully.

Maybe I should...no, no, that would be stupid...

The Ruby Sneakers were the only things that he had left from the trip, the only thing that was any evidence that it had happened at all. But he didn't keep them nearby. Instead, they were hidden in a big bush a long ways off, where nobody that didn't know they were there could find them. He remembered seeing them when he woke up, and he remembered exactly where to find them. He just hadn't had the time, or when he did, the courage to go get them.

After all, the last time...well, it had been an adventure, but it had been terrifying at the same time. Why risk getting into trouble again?

But if he had the time now...

"Theo. Theo!"

Uncle Emilio called for him from the back of the house, and he immediately leaped to his feet as the older wolf walked into view. He brushed off his shorts, smiling.

"Yes, uncle? What's the matter?"

"There's a bit of a problem that Henry and I need to go into town for. Right now, actually."

"Is it -"

"Nothing serious, Theo, but we need you to keep an eye on the farm for a little while. Just for a couple of hours until we get back. Do you think you can do that?"

"Of course. No problem, uncle."

"That's a good boy. Thanks."

The older wolf rubbed his head, ruffling his fur for a few seconds before darting off towards the barn. Theo listened to the back and forth shouting between his uncles for a moment before turning back to the little dog at his feet, rubbing Roro's head the way his uncle had rubbed his.

"Alright, boy. Looks like we're the ones in charge for a little while. Let's not mess this up, huh?"

#

Waving as his uncles slowly faded from sight, Theo gradually turned his attention to the farm. It stretched out for acres around him, the fences along the road barely marking the property in any discernible way, particularly once it got far enough in the distance. He chuckled, remembering when he and Roro used to run along the fences for hours, thinking that it would never end.

That had been a long time ago, of course, but it was still one of those nice memories. Patting his thigh, he called the little dog to him and started walking. Even if it wasn't endless, it was still a big far, and his uncles were trusting him.

They kept to the edges of the field, and Theo ran his hand along the old wooden fence that separated it from the road. He kept up a good pace as he walked along, his eyes shifting between road and farm, farm and road, always looking for the most interesting things around.

"It's nice to be back, isn't it, Roro?"

Roro barked, but it seemed a half-hearted one, at best. Theo nodded.

"Yeah...nice, but not as nice as it could be, right?"

Roro barked again, and he nodded. Quiet was good, but only for so long. Theo looked towards the sky again, his feet following the well-remembered path as he wondered just where Oz was in the sky. Again, his thoughts slipped back to the friends he'd made back there, to the beauty of the Emerald City, and all the other things that had made it such a wonderful place. He wondered -

"Bark!"

Roro's bark came just in time, and Theo stopped just as a bunch of kids leaped over the fence in front of him. If it hadn't been for the little guy, he would have been bowled over by the careless troublemakers. They laughed and yelled as they ran onto the farm, shouting as they played with each other.

Theo's first thought was to chase after them. After all, he'd promised to keep an eye on the farm, and they could be a problem if he didn't get them off of the property quickly.

But then again, the farmhands were always good at keeping people in line...

And it might be a better idea to wait, just in case they were trying to steal anything, now that he thought about it. People liked to raid the farm for food every now and then. Uncle Emilio and Uncle Henry didn't begrudge a little bit here and there, but that had been a whole gaggle of kids, and if they all took something, that would be like having a thief in a store.

It won't take long. I'll just wait five minutes...

Theo leaned against the fence, crossing his arms the way that he'd seen his uncles do when they were waiting for him to come home after he'd done something wrong. It didn't feel quite right - and he wasn't as muscular as his uncles were, which didn't help - but he wanted to do them proud.

Two of the five minutes passed, and nobody came back. Bored, Theo started looking around, and as he turned his head to look across the road, he saw them.

The Ruby Sneakers stuck out, just barely in view, from underneath the bush just across the road. They glimmered in the afternoon light, throwing a little bit of red sparkles along the road. He gasped, looking all around. Nobody was there, nobody could see it but him, but he was suddenly nervous.

"Roro, fetch!"

It was the first thing he could think of, and before he could think better of it, the little dog was running across the road. Thankfully it was far from busy, so there were no problems with the little dog dealing with traffic or anything, but he couldn't believe he'd said that. Roro grabbed the sneakers in his mouth and carried them back, and as soon as he was back on the right side of the fence, Theo grabbed them, holding them to his chest.

Nobody could have seen them, right? It was his biggest worry, that someone might have seen them and moved them. After all, they were supposed to be further from here, hidden somewhere where nobody could have found them. Here, anyone could have. How did that happen?

He glanced down at them, his memories of the trip flooding back, filling his mind with every little exciting tidbit, every terrifying moment that he'd gone through. The flying monkeys, the poisonous poppies, everything that had been in his way back then; it was all real once more in his mind. Theo nearly cried thinking of it, and how the whole trip had been a quest to come home.

If only I'd known...

Slumping down against the fence, Theo stared at the sneakers, his fingers stroking along the sides of them. The rubies were still as firm and smooth as they had ever been, a reminder that they were no ordinary shoes. Nothing like; they were magic, to say the least, and powerful magic, from how many people had tried to take them from him before. Witches and wizards and people of all sorts, all of whom wanted these strange sneakers for all sorts of reasons. As wonderful as it was, Oz had been filled with people that he would have happily called crazy, at the time.

Yet, for all of that...

Maybe, just for old time's sake...

The temptation to put them on was overwhelming, and Theo knew that he had a little more time before the farmhands would be driving anyone off. The wolf quickly kicked off his normal sneakers, almost sending them flying over the fence in his eagerness.

However, before he could reach for the Ruby Sneakers again, they launched themselves towards him. The wolf yelped in surprise as they came to life, almost attacking him with a magical eagerness to be on his feet again. Shoelaces grabbed him by the ankles, lifting his feet off of the ground one at a time, and shoving them down into the soft, plush interior of the sneakers.

"Oh golly..."

They were intensely strong, and were able to bury his feet in seconds inside of the sneakers, pulling his toes all the way to the tip and wiggling back and forth to settle his heel in place. A soft rasping sound filled the air as the laces tied themselves, tugging back and forth. His feet felt constricted by the shoes as they suddenly pulled on them, and he gasped as they tugged hard; it was almost like getting a tie latched around his throat in the process.

As soon as the laces were tied, the heels suddenly swiveled inwards, clicking together. The first impact almost made him lose his balance, and as he windmilled to try and get it back, his heels clicked together again. And again. And again. Each click made the rubies in the sneakers sparkle that little bit more, until they were glowing brightly.

And then...then it started.

The world spun around him, and Theo realized that the Ruby Sneakers weren't done with him yet. He yelped, and held out his arms.

"Roro! Roro, come here!"

The little dog barked and leaped into his arms, the little guy coming back into focus as the world warped around him, turning blurry and spirally and all sorts of unclear. It spun around him, the gray and dull colors fading away before the world went black. Theo spun in the darkness, feeling like he was being pulled upwards, and he shivered as he left his home behind for the second time, though in a much different tornado than the first.

And through it all, his only thought was this.

What's going to happen this time?

#

The spiraling updraft of color and force faded away as he came to a sharp stop. The wolf gasped and almost fell over his own feet as he hit the ground, feeling something like solid rock under his feet in the process. He stumbled, wobbling back and forth in a vain attempt to catch his foot before falling backwards. And, unfortunately, he kept falling.

"Oof! Ack! Ow!"

His screams were almost comical, even to his own ears, as he tumbled down the slopes of wherever he'd landed. He didn't dare open his eyes, mostly because he was feeling the rocks bumping against his face, and he didn't want to put an eye out. Theo wrapped his arms tighter around Roro, using his own body to save the dog from being hurt on the way down.

Finally, he slowed, and came to a stop against a larger rock that was big enough to soar over him. Theo groaned, slowly pulling himself out of the wrapped-up ball shape that he'd taken on during the fall, and opened his eyes.

"Roro, we are...definitely...lost."

Obviously they weren't in Kansas anymore. That transportation method was too powerful to be anything on earth. But they weren't in any part of Oz that he recognized. It was like Oz - the world had the color that Oz had, and the beautiful nature, despite the sparseness around him - but it wasn't the Oz that he knew and loved. They stood on the slope of a mountain, somewhere way off in the wilderness, as far as he could tell, and no matter what direction he looked, he couldn't see anything familiar.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He could see something, way off in the distance. Something green. But it could be a forest rather than the Emerald City that he was familiar with; it was so far away and so blurred by distance that he couldn't even tell if it was the color that he remembered.

As much as he had wanted to see Oz again, this wasn't what he'd remembered. He didn't want to be here...Remembering what he'd been told, he started clicking his heels together again, the soft impacts vibrating through his heels.

"There's no place like home, there's no place like home..."

He waited...but nothing happened. Blinking, the wolf clicked his heels together again, harder.

"There's no place like home. There's no place like home."

Maybe he just hadn't enunciated well enough, but no, it still didn't work. No matter how he clicked his heels, no matter how he said the words, the magic didn't come. He sat down, shaking his head in annoyance.

"I wanted to come back...but I wanted to see my friends. Not be out in the middle of...nowhere."

"Nowhere?"

Theo jumped at the voice, whipping his head from side to side. The bleak gray stone around him was empty, the mountainside bare of anything but rocks. The wolf darted his head from side to side, looking for shadows, animals, something, but nothing was around.

"Nowhere?"

"He thinks he's nowhere."

"Little lost thing."

"Little lost nothing."

"Knows nothing?"

"Knows nothing."

"Who's there?!"

The various voices laughed around him, even as Theo backed himself up against the rock behind him, desperately trying to keep an eye out for whoever was talking. It was like being surrounded by people in a crowd, but without the crowd. Sweat pooled on his forehead and started to drip down, and he shivered as he pulled Roro close again.

"Who's there? Please, I can't...I'm lost. I don't know what's going on. Who are you?"

"Nome...Nome...Nomes..."

"I...What are Nomes?"

Cackling laughter answered him, but more than that, the earth seemed to shake. He pushed himself back against the great rock behind him again, only to feel it move. Theo tried to jump again, only to have something grab him and pull him against the boulder. He glanced up, and his eyes went wide.

The great rock had changed, the cracks on it forming into something resembling a face. A piece of stone that he'd thought was another big rock was actually attached to the boulder, and moved like an arm, thick and jagged. It pulled him off of the ground - little rocks acting like fingers as they wrapped around him - and lifted him to its big face.

"We are Nomes..."

"You...Oh my..."

He couldn't think of words, not when he was staring a great rocky being straight in the...eye? He supposed it was an eye, even though it wasn't a living one the way that he was used to thinking of them. It looked like a gemstone that had been placed in an eye-socket, glimmering and beautiful, and perhaps the only beautiful looking thing in the entire being.

Theo was helpless as the huge Nome turned him around, twisting him this way and that for its viewing pleasure. He was turned upside down, right-side up, and sideways in every which way that a person could imagine. As he was observed, he did the same to the mountainside, watching as various rocks came to life.

The Nomes were a jagged, horrifying looking people. They moved in slow, smooth motions, but had the ferocity in appearance of an avalanche coming down the side of a mountain. Each one seemed to have cracks across its body, their faces broken up and their eyes glinting with a fire that he didn't like the look of. Fingers jagged as broken rock - and looking twice as sharp - twisted into fists as they looked at him.

"This is Nome Mountain...and you are a thief."

Theo shuddered at the great gravelly voice of his captor, but shook his head as fast as he could.

"I haven't stolen anything! I swear, I just arrived."

"Then you carry stolen things."

"Stolen things."

"Horrid thing."

"Red treasure."

"Our pleasure."

He curled his toes in the sneakers as he realized what they were talking about, and the wolf shook his head again.

"No, you don't understand! I didn't steal these! I tried -"

"The Nome King will judge."

"King judges."

"King smudges."

"Nome king."

"Some king."

Their blabbering followed along as his captor turned in place, the slow movements giving Theo all the time in the world to take in what was happening. The boulder Nome stepped aside, and revealed a great hole that he had been blocking, a way into the mountain below. Half of the Nomes on the surface leaped into it, falling with all the speed they lacked when they walked, before his captor held him over it.

Theo realized what was about to happen, and desperate grabbed for the boulder Nome's arm. However, it was too big, too wide, and he would have had to drop Roro if he wanted to hold on.

So, again, he fell. He screamed, the echoes of it bouncing around in the glimmering rock tunnel until the laughter of the Nomes swallowed it up.

They fell and fell and fell some more, going deeper into the earth with each passing second. It was like he was being swallowed down some great throat, and soon, the only light came from the glitter off of his sneakers and the reflection of it off of the walls of the vertical tunnel. Gold and silver, emeralds and diamonds; they were all present, all there in the stone. After the first minute of falling, Theo felt almost fascinated by them, wondering how so many had been found to decorate the fall.

A burst of hot air distracted him, leaving him gasping and shouting as he suddenly worried about being boiled alive. He hugged his arms around him and Roro, anticipating falling into a pool of lava or worse.

Instead, he slowed, and as he opened his eyes again, he realized that he was merely being hit with hot air, coming out of vents in the rock. It was uncomfortable, but it was a lot less uncomfortable than hitting the ground at full speed would have been. Roro dug deeper into his arms, into his shirt, and the wolf was happy to let the dog do so. He would have done the same, if he could.

His arms felt slightly burned as he finally hit the ground, but there was nothing to do about that. The Nomes - hundreds of them - stood around him as he got to his feet, and they formed a rough corridor towards a hole in the wall of the grand cavern he found himself in. They pointed to it, en masse, and the wolf nodded.

He felt every single pair of eyes in the room on him as he walked, and knew that if he so much as tried to get away, they'd chase him down and...who knew what they'd do. He'd been afraid in Oz before, but this...this was new. The Nomes felt more dangerous than anything that he had fought before, anything that he had dealt with in his last trip. Even the wicked ones, the monkeys, and their master, had been nothing compared to this.

Why didn't anyone tell me about them? If anything, these are the dangers to the world, not the magical ones.

Stepping into the hole in the wall, Theo felt another drop down, but thankfully it was only a sloping tunnel, not another hole in the ground. He stepped inside, and heard the thunderous steps of the Nomes falling in behind him. They pushed him to walk faster, hard and sharp fingers against his back, and he obliged them, moving at a jog through the dark tunnel.

Thankfully, it was a short and straight walk. In less than a minute, they emerged into another cavern, this one far richer and grandly appointed than the last. Rather than paintings or tapestries, as might be found in the above world, the walls were lined with patterns of beautiful stones, with tiled mosaics that he could barely believe.

Looking closer, he realized that they were made of more than simply colored stone, but gemstones. Shards of emeralds, of rubies, of sapphires and diamonds created these pieces of beauty, and they were framed in onyx and jet for contrast. Heavy braziers lit them from below, casting a beautiful shine across each and every gemstone, making them glimmer like they were lit from within.

Large rocks, shaped almost like podiums, lined the walls beneath the art, and the Nomes following him climbed up them, taking their individual places, and getting comfortable upon them. At least, that was what Theo imagined they were doing; they seemed to just pull together into a more natural looking rock, more than anything else.

At the far end of the room, he saw a huge pile of stone, jagged and worn. It looked as if it had been left in the wind and the rain and the storms for hundreds of years, sharp and pointed in every spot that the eye could find. A single smooth point existed around the top, and Theo could only imagine that it was somehow hard and dangerous as well.

As he stared at it, it...unfolded, was the only way that he could think to describe it. Opening up, it turned and twisted and rotated, groaning and scraping stone against stone in the process. Arms that were more like stone swords reached out, stretching from one side of the room to the other. A head as cracked as the most wrinkled man he'd ever seen rose from the pile, and a torso that was scarred and pockmarked was revealed as the creature sat up. The points of a crown slowly emerged on top of the head, surrounding the smooth spot in the center.

"You...Your Majesty."

This could only be the Nome King. Theo had no doubt that this was the one in charge of the whole place, the one that would decide his fate. He barely kept on his feet, his knees shaking as he looked upon the monarch more than ten times his size.

This...this is no man behind a curtain...This is a true king...

The great rock looked about before turning its 'eyes' towards him. Unlike all of his people, the Nome King's eyes seemed living, as if there had once been more to him than just this hulk. Beyond that, there was a glimmer there, a power that reminded Theo of all the magic that he had seen before. His fear, already high, rose higher.

The King's massive eyes lowered and fixed upon the sneakers. He let out a great, booming grunt, one that shook the earth throughout the chamber and almost sent Theo to his knees.

"A thief...a thief of the second or even third generation...is still a thief...To steal the Ruby Sneakers from me, and leave me without...Such a thing cannot go unpunished..."

"But it wasn't my fault! I promise, if I'd known that they belonged to you -"

"The Emerald City stole them from me, and the witch stole it from them! You kept them for yourself, did you not...What are you? You are no creature of Oz."

"I...I'm Theo. Theo of -"

"It doesn't matter. You are a thief as much as they are. And now, I will take back what is mine."

The great hands of the Nome King, glittering with gems deep in the rocky body, reached out. Theo tumbled over in fear, almost landing on Roro. His loyal friend barked and growled at royalty, but of course it meant nothing to the Nome King. Rocky fingers touched the shoes -

Zzzzap!

And just as quickly released them. The Nome King showed none of the pain that the last person who'd tried to take the sneakers had, but several stones were burned on his fingers. He observed them, turning his hand this way and that, before shaking his head.

"A determined thief..."

"But I didn't -"

"Not you. The one that stole it..."

The Nome King pulled his hand back, the shards and bladed surfaces of his fingers disappearing into the mass of his body. Theo slowly pulled himself to his feet, already feeling a bit worried about what would come next. This already felt very familiar, and if this King was like his last captor -

"Imprison him. By order of the Nome King. A little magic will give me back what is mine...and then, I can take back the rest of what was stolen from me."

The Nomes around swarmed him before he could protest, and Theo was bundled away, taken into darkness by the rocky servants. And this time, he had no friends able to come to his rescue.

#

The prison was less than he'd expected. It was a single hole in the wall with a deep cavern on the other side. As soon as he stepped through, he found himself sliding down the wall, and only came to a stop halfway across the floor. Roro slipped down after, bumping into him before getting up and barking at the hole. Not that any of the Nomes seemed bothered; they might not even notice the little dog.

Theo sighed, sitting up as he stared upwards. The hole was more than twenty feet up the wall, too high to climb on that smooth a surface, and way too high to jump for. Not to mention that there were probably guards on the outside, even if he did manage to get up there. The wolf whimpered as his head slumped down.

"I'm not even back a day, and I'm already in trouble..."

"Trouble always comes for the dumb-dumbs."

Come on, I don't even get a cell for myself?

Theo slowly lifted his head, not even able to be afraid anymore after so many things had gone wrong. He turned around, glancing into the darkness. At first, he couldn't see anything, but then a chance bit of light reflected off of another gem-eye.

They'd imprisoned him with another Nome.

He shivered as his cellmate stepped forward, each step as thunderous as the ones outside. It was...different, though. While most of the Nomes were a gray, plain sort of rock, this one was...lighter. Almost like an albino in comparison to the ones he'd seen so far, he realized, and instead of gem-stone eyes, they were rockier, more common. The shine must have come from some sort of polish instead.

It sat down beside him, but it still towered over him by a good five feet or more. It cocked its head to the side, looking at him, then down at his sneakers. Theo twitched, almost hiding them before giving up. What was the point?

"I'm not a thief. I just...I want to say that."

"Not what I'd think. Won't cause a stink."

"You...what?"

"Gems are to be found. Not to be kept in the ground. King thinks it's all his. Not much of a wiz."

Theo groaned a bit. He had heard some rhyming from the Nomes so far, but this was something else. He took a deep breath.

"So...he thinks all gems are his?"

"Powerful where echoes sound, all is his underground."

"I...see."

But at least that was something. If the King thought that everything underground was his, that would explain why he considered the sneakers stolen. Whether they were footwear or not when they were first found, they were rubies, and that could, he supposed, be considered 'stolen'.

"But what did he mean, the rest of what was stolen?"

"Talked of his plans. Not a good man. Wants the city of green. Cut open, make a scene. The stones, the gems...."

He waited for the end of the rhyme, but it didn't come. Perhaps the Nome wasn't able to think of a good rhyme for 'gems.' Shaking his head, the wolf looked back towards the hole.

If he goes for the Emerald City, he might just get it...Scarecrow has no idea that anything's coming, and there's no way that he'd expect something like the Nomes attacking. Do they even have anything able to fight that?

There was no question. He had to warn them, but that meant that he had to get out of here. There was no way that he could climb out of the pit on his own, though, and the Nomes were terrifying. If he tried to escape on his own, they might just try and kill him and take the sneakers back to the King. He needed help.

But where...

He slowly turned back to his cellmate.

"Why -"

"He wants to mend."

"What - That doesn't even rhyme..."

The rocky creature shrugged, and Theo sighed.

"Why are you here?"

"I argue and I fight, they're dark and I'm light. We never get along, and King hates my songs."

"So, you don't like the rest of the Nomes?"

His cellmate shrugged, and Theo slowly nodded. It wasn't what he had hoped for, it wasn't as good as he would have liked, but at least he wasn't sharing a cell with someone that might try and hurt him in his sleep. And if he was lucky - if he was really, really lucky - he might just have someone to help him get out of his cell.

He just had to find the right way to bring it up.

The wolf crossed his legs, getting comfortable as he forced a smile for the light colored Nome. It was a little difficult - particularly looking at that ugly face - but he thought he managed it alright.

"So...can you tell me more about you? Maybe your name?"

"So easy to say my name, a Nome going by Rame."

"Rame...It's good to meet you."

The End