Missing Trilogy Book 1: Finding Home

Chapter 10: Ephemeral Successes

Vella and Shay, each in new clothes provided by Glinda (she claimed it would help them "blend in" with the others), walked through the forest with the rest of her subjects. They looked around the forest. Bright red apples hung from the branches of the trees. Everyone had been warned to not "provoke the trees".

Vella and Shay weren't exactly sure what that meant, but after their encounters with barfing trees, they really didn't want to find out. They looked around and realized they'd fallen behind in all of their spectating. The two started running, but were stopped short when Shay hit his head on a particularly low branch, knocking off several apples.

"Hey!" a voice exclaimed. "Watch where you're going!"

The two looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. The tree, whom the branch belonged to, was looking at them, a furious look on its face.

"I guess talking trees are more common than I thought," Vella whispered. Shay nodded in agreement.

"Sorry," Shay said. He picked the apples that he'd knocked off off of the ground. "Do you--er--want these back?"

The tree sighed. "No. At least you didn't pick them off to eat them. I mean, how would you like that?"

Shay gathered up the rest of the apples and walked away, slightly perturbed, with Vella as the tree continued its rant. They caught up with the others a few minutes later.

~~~

Everyone cheered. Their first plan was a success- their scarecrow people had lured most of Evanora's winged army into the deadly poppy field, sending them to an endless deep sleep. Next, Vella and Shay were to head to the Emerald City, to be there as support in case things went south.

As they made their way to the city (being sure to go around the poppy field), they noticed something in the sky. It looked like... Glinda? Sure enough, Glinda was being taken to the city herself- just not in the ideal fashion- two of Evanora's minions were lifting her through the sky, the wicked witch following suit, keeping an eye on Glinda.

Upon seeing this, Vella and Shay started running towards the Emerald City. They reached the gates and, passing the guard who was sitting with his eyes closed, rubbing his aching head (upon which a rather large bruise was forming), snuck into the city square. The two arrived to a scene which could only be described as pure freneticness. Glinda was in chains, people were yelling at Evanora, Evanora was yelling back at them, and guards were trying to push the people back to the center of the square.

"Look!" Theodora's voice rang out through the square, silencing all. "Your wizard!"

Murmurs of "what's he doing?" flooded the square.

The people watched helplessly as Oz's balloon, presumably filled with coins from the King's treasury, floated away into the sky. Cries of "no!" replaced the murmurs as Theodora threw a handful of flame at the balloon, effectively shooting it from the sky. Gold rained down upon the square and some citizens even started crying.

Shay turned to Vella. "What do we do now? If Oz is enslaved and we're enslaved along with it, how are we supposed to get home?"

Vella shook her head slowly. "I don't know."

Theodora and Evanora turned back to Glinda, raising their hands, which were flowing with power, above their heads, prepared to kill Glinda. And in those last few moments, all hope was lost.