Uncovered Project: Wonderoz Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Dorothy

The green beam coming from the broach on her lapel suddenly went from pointing straight ahead of her to the left. 

“Wait.” Dorothy grabbed onto Eye’s elbow and pointed in the direction of the green light. “It changed directions.”

“Why?” Eye asked.

“It’s guiding me towards Alice.” Dorothy pinched the emerald between her thumb and forefinger. “Something must of happened.” She started following the beam with Eye in tow. “C’mon. We have to go this way now.”

The way the light was leading went right into the Tulgey Wood. Even Eye with his limited brain knew about the terrors that awaited there. Years ago it had been the only way to reach the center of Wonderoz and come out in the Green City. But nowadays people went around on the new highway. No one used the Yellow Road anymore.

“But Dorothy!” Eye argued, trying to fight her surprisingly strong hand.

She turned and inspected his face, recognizing the twinge of fear. “What’s wrong?” She asked, dropping his hand.

“It’s really dangerous down that way.” Eye explained with surprising clarity. “No one goes that way anymore!” He said, grabbing her elbow this time. 

“But she could be in there.” Dorothy argued back and pulled her elbow away from him. “Eye, listen, you don’t have to go anywhere with me. This is my choice. My sister.” She patted him on the hand. “Don’t worry about me.” She touched her forehead where Glenda had kissed her. “I’m protected.”

Eye turned and looked behind him briefly before grabbing Dorothy’s hand back up. “I made a promise. And though I may not know what kind of man I am, I am very assured I am a man of my word.” 

“Thank you.” Dorothy squeezed onto his hand as they made their way into the woods. 

There it was so overgrown you could barely see the yellow bricks. The trees twisted in strange, deformed shapes. Glowing eyes peered out from between cracks in upturned stones. Voices echoed from beyond the shadows into the deepest darkness any of them had ever seen.

Dorothy reached into the basket and pulled out a lit, gas lantern. “Will you hold this.” She asked.

Eye jumped away from it. “No way! Unh-uh.”

Dorothy furrowed her brow but went back to the basket and pulled out a flashlight. She handed this to him. “Okay then, take this.” 

Reluctantly, Eye took the flashlight and turned it on. He shone it into the trees. In the eerie light of the battery powered torch, everything seemed all the more frightening. Dorothy adjusted the light of the gas lamp and held it above her head. The road was blocked with upturned earth which had broken the yellow bricks that were now piled on either side of the road. There were creeping vines and strange moving shadows across the way. Dorothy heard water, which she took as a signal that the upturned earth had released an underground stream, possibly even a river.

“What’re we gonna do, Dorothy?” Eye asked.

Dorothy lowered the lantern. “I have no clue.” She murmured. She tapped the emerald pendant, hoping it’d change direction. But when it didn’t she walked to the other side of the road and held the lantern up. “We can’t go around. Its horribly overgrown on either side.”

“Is there anything you could pull out of the basket that could help us?” Eye asked.

“Maybe a flare so that we could see better.” Dorothy said reaching inside. “Then we’ll need something to cut down the brush.” She pulled out the flare gun first, followed by a machete and a pair of sheering scissors. She sat all her things down and loaded the flare gun.

“This may scare you a little.” She warned him and aimed into the air. 

Certainly enough, as soon as she aimed the gun into the air and shot it, Eye went off screaming.

“Eye! Wait!” Dorothy picked her things up and went chasing after him. Amazingly, in the light of the flare Eye had  somehow found a little hidden path amongst the brush and growth. This was all the more intriguing about Eye. How did he know of the dangers within the Tulgey Wood if he had no brain? How did he find the trail as if by instinct alone? 

“Eye!” Dorothy continued shouting after him. She stopped, the light from the flare, which had taken to hovering over Dorothy’s head, shone upon a small dilapidated house. 

Eye, in his blind terror sprint had crashed into the fence and was now collapsed at its base. Dorothy rushed to him and sat him up, fanning his face and eased his mild panic. 

“You okay?” Dorothy asked.

Eye held his head. “Yeah. Sorry I took off like that.” He grunted. “I dunno what it is. But fire freaks me right out of my mind.”

Dorothy nodded. “I get it.” They then stood up and looked over the small house.

“What is this place?” Eye asked.

Dorothy opened up the gate and the door broke off its hinges. “Its obviously been abandoned.” She murmured as they approached the house. There was a sign just out front and Dorothy swiped her hand across it to clear away the mud and vines.

“The Looking Glass House.” Dorothy looked up back to the building and towards Eye. “This mean anything to you, Eye?”

Shrugging, Eye shook his head. “You know my answer.”

“You dunno.” Dorothy huffed and stood erect. She lifted the lantern and approached. Behind her Eye acted as if he were hearing something and wandered off beyond the gate.

Dorothy stood before the porch and looked about. In the left corner there was a decaying wicker chair with what looked like a green seat cushion. Beside it a table being held up by spider webs. Above there were rows of potted plants, some dead, some overgrown and now part of the forest. On the right side of the porch, aside from the rusted metal door that led inside, there was a green and pink sofa covered by a plastic sheet. Dorothy walked up onto the porch and went to this couch. 

She slowly removed the sheet, revealing the perfectly preserved couch and the two dolls that sat on it. She picked up the doll on the right and studied it.

“I know you.” Dorothy whispered to it.

“Dorothy! Help me!” Eye screamed.

Dorothy dropped then doll and hurried after Eye’s screaming voice. “Eye! Eye what is it?”

“I dunno! Something wants to kill me!”

“What is it?”

“I dunno!”

Dorothy stopped her hurry and took a deep breath. She heard nothing else aside from Eye and his drama. She sensed nothing and she felt nothing. So she quietly walked up behind Eye, who had come upon a woodshed, toppled over, and was screaming up at a pile of mossy, molded over wood. 

“Eye.” Dorothy huffed. “There isn’t anything there except your own shadow.”

“Behind it!” Eye gasped.

Dorothy frowned and walked around to the other side of the woodpile. She gasped and ducked back down. There was something there, and it was fairly big. She peeked back around and eased her head forward.

“It’s a suit of armor.” She said, disappearing around the woodpile.

“Dorothy, no!” Eye hissed.

Dorothy stood before the suit of armor, which had been taken over by vines, tree limbs, moss and the abandoned nests of animals. She brushed her fingers across it’s visor and suddenly lights shone from inside the helmet.

“Jiminy crickets!” Dorothy gasped, recoiling.

“Who goes there?” Someone spoke from inside.

Dorothy swallowed. “Um-”

“Never heard of you.” The armor huffed. 

“Oh, no.” Dorothy explained. “My name is Dorothy, and this is my friend Eye.” She said, motioning towards Eye peering around at them.

“Dorothy?” The armor asked. “I know that name.”

Dorothy smiled. “Can I ask what your name is and by chance, if you need any help? You seem kind of stuck.”

“Of course I’m stuck.” The armor sighed despondently. “I’m rusted in place. My oil is just inside the woodshed.”

“I’ll get it.” Eye muttered, dashing off.

“And you can call me Nick Chopper, the Royal White Knight of the Royal Army of Ozma.”

Dorothy took a deep breath. “You knew Ozma?”

“Knew her?” The White Knight laughed. “Of course I knew her! Not only was I her White Knight but I was her King.”

Dorothy’s jaw dropped. He mind was already working on the puzzle. If she and Alice were the lost princesses and Ozma their mother this meant he was their father! Dorothy eased closer. “You were married to Ozma?”

The light inside burst brighter for a moment. “Of course.”

“Here’s the oil.” Eye said, handing it over to Dorothy. 

“Help me knock this stuff off top of him.” Dorothy said to Eye and they began cleaning him off. Dorothy then took the oilcan and began oiling his joints.

“Ah it is sad.” Nick sighed. “I once looked like the purest platinum. But now I look nothing more than poor, cheap tin.”

“Its fine.” Dorothy said. “You can get polished any time now that you’re oiled.” She stepped back. “Try moving now, Nick.”

Nick stepped carefully and moved his arms up and down. “Well Dorothy, it seems you have saved me.” He knelt down on his knee and took her by the hand. “I am in your debt. I humbly offer myself before you.”

“Thank you but…” Dorothy murmured. “What were you doing here?”

“Hiding.” Nick answered. “Ozma and I had to disappear for a while. And one day while I was chopping wood it started raining and I rusted here.” He sighed. “Been here ever since.”

“What were you doing chopping wood in your suit of armor?” Eye asked.

Nick reached up and pulled his helmet off. “Because that is all I am!”

“Ghost!” Eye wailed, hiding behind Dorothy.

Dorothy stared. “What happened to you?” She was growing cold inside.

Nick put his helmet back on and his eyes once again glowed white inside. “I was cursed. The Witch of the East took my soul from my body and put it within my armor.” He looked down at his hands. “This is what started all of it. The War of the Witches and the Four Corners. Then the disappearance of my Ozma and my life.”

“I think I remember that.” Eye murmured. “The Princess Langwidere took over the East and started heading for the center of Wonderoz. The other witches tried to stop her, either to help Ozma or for their own power, and this caused great turmoil for everyone and everything.”

“Yes, boy.” Nick nodded. “It was this turmoil and tremor in power that left my Queen no other choice than to vanish in order to return the balance.”

“What about her daughters?” Dorothy asked. “Your daughters?”

Nick’s eyes burned hot at Dorothy, the lights growing brighter and brighter as if he were glaring at her. “How did you know about them?”

“I uh…” Dorothy hesitated. “I witch Glenda told me about them. I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to ask.”

Nick’s eyes dimmed. “I barely remembered them. Part of just being a soul in some armor. No heart to me.”

Eye scratched the top of his head. “But isn’t a soul also a heart?”

Nick shook his head. “The soul is merely a piece of the complex puzzle that is a single life force. The heart and mind are separate. Certainly my soul carries traces of them, but alas, they are mere specks of dust from what they had once been.”

Dorothy shuffled her feet. “So, what happened to Ozma? Where is she now?”

“Gone. I cannot say where or when she is but most certainly she is no longer here.” Replied Nick, heavily guilty. 

“And you?” Dorothy asked. “After she and your daughters disappeared?”

“Therein lies my heart.” Nick sniffled, clanging his fist against his chest where his heart should be. “And all I have done for them is to stand here and rust. I don’t suppose anyone suspects I am alive anymore aside from the body that witch stole from me.”

“Well…” Eye hummed. “Actually, she also has Dorothy’s little sister. We’re heading towards them in order to save Alice from the evil Queen of Hearts. Certainly us two cannot take her on alone. And certainly, a strong knight such as yourself would not allow a damsel in distress to go unsaved, or, alone into such peril.”

Dorothy arched her brow at him. “What’s with the sudden eloquence?”

“You are right, boy!” Nick stood erect and slammed his fist against his chest with more force. “I am a knight, dammit! I cannot allow myself to get bogged down with useless regret. Lady Dorothy, I shall take your back and help in your quest.”

Dorothy smiled and nodded. “Okay then.” She said, pleased. “But the road we need to take is completely blocked. We can’t get through.”

Nick’s eyes glowed, as if he were smiling. “Leave that to me.” He then pointed towards the house. “But first, please allow me to gather a few things from my home.”

Eye and Dorothy waited outside on the perfectly preserved couch as Nick went inside. Dorothy held the dolls on her lap and studied them. 

“Is something wrong, Dorothy?” Eye asked, putting his gloved hand on her shoulder.

“I can’t say.” Dorothy held a doll to her face and smelled it. The scent of dried leaves and candy overwhelmed her for a moment and she dropped the doll. Eye caught it and held it.

“Do you recognize these dolls?” Eye asked, sniffing it, but certainly not experiencing the same sensation Dorothy had.

“I think I do.” She lifted the one doll in her hands. “Queenie.” She looked over at the doll Eye was holding. “And she’s Scraps.”

“Were they yours?” Eye placed Scraps back into Dorothy’s hands.

“No. Just Scraps.” Dorothy opened her basket and set them inside. 

Eye furrowed his brow. “Does that mean you’re one of the lost princesses?”

“No.” Dorothy whispered. “It’s just coincidence.”

Eye put his arm around Dorothy’s shoulder and pulled her closer so she could lay her head on his arm. “I know I don’t know much, Dorothy. But I know that you know you can rely on me, even if you can’t tell me everything.”

Dorothy‘s heart fluttered then. “Thank you, Eye.”

The front door opened and slammed down onto the ground. Nick stepped out and sighed aggravatedly. “It’s getting late. And I’m sure you two are tired from your journey thus far. Why not come inside and I’ll light a fire we can sleep before.”

Dorothy stood. “Are you sure its safe to light a fire in-” She stopped when she saw the inside of the house so perfectly in place and glowing. It was as if no time had passed at all within the walls. “Never mind.” She muttered.

“I’ll prepare a meal.” Nick said. “You two feel free to look around and gather any supplies you may think we shall need.”

“Yes sir.” Eye said saluting. 

Dorothy stepped carefully into the house, noticing the mirror walls. She put her fingertips against the glass of the entrance and stared hard. “I know this place.” She sprinted forward and ran up a set of stairs. Eye watched curiously behind her.

Dorothy ran her hand up the banister then rounded the corner, nearly tripping over the rug, but knowing it was there, lifted her feet and jumped over it. She then came to a door painted green and went inside.

“My room.” She murmured. Inside, the walls hadn’t changed. They were still covered with paintings of family portraits and of her own artwork. In the middle of the room was a green and blue spiraling rug with building blocks scattered upon it. Hundreds and hundreds of yellow, wooden blocks. 

There was the bed, a four-poster canopy bed with curtains that showed off a rainbow and the land underneath it. Inside were the mint green bed sheets and pillows that smelled of lavender and chamomile that helped her sleep much easier. There was a shelf with books of pictures, poetry, stories, and family history. Her vanity was dotted with small toys and decanters. Inside the drawers she found paper and pencils, candy, and hidden secrets. There was a stone in the shape of a heart and when she rubbed it it changed from stone to emerald. And she saw the initials M.H engraved on it.

She looked up at the painting on the wall with the door. There she saw herself, dressed in a sky blue gown with white hearts on it. Beside her was Alice in a bright, sky blue dress and stripped stockings. Behind them sat a woman with long black hair, deep, brown eyes, and ivory skin who wore an emerald crown and a white gown. Behind her was a man with silvery blonde hair and a goatee. His eyes looks just like Dorothy’s.

“Dorothy?”

She jumped and turned, seeing Eye standing in the doorway.

Eye looked extremely worried. “I was calling you and calling you. Are you okay?”

Dorothy nodded, rubbing the stone in her fist. “I’m, okay.” She huffed. “I just…I’m just not what sure to make of all this. Nick. This house. My-”

“Your room?” Eye asked, motioning. 

Dorothy nodded slowly. “My room.”

Eye pointed across the hallway then. “And the one across from this one?” He asked. “Would that one belong to your sister?”

Dorothy sat down on the edge of her bed and remained quiet. “I can’t believe all this. Its really scary.”

Eye kneeled down at Dorothy’s feet. “So you are the princess?”

“Everything I knew about myself is all turning around and around. I’m not just some farmer’s daughter. I’m a princess.”

Eye watched her, listening. 

“What am I supposed to do?” She bit down on her bottom lip. “No one can know who we are. Then Alice and I will really be in danger.” She put her hand over Eye’s. “We have to be really careful not to let anything slip, Eye.”

“I’ll protect you.” He was speaking with purpose again. “I may not be a knight, or anyone important enough to protect you, but I will risk myself in your honor.”

“Now don’t go that far, Eye.” Dorothy chuckled. “But thank you for the thought. I mean…you barely know me.” 

Eye shrugged. “A friend is a friend, no matter how old the friendship may be.”

Dorothy stood back up, helping Eye keep his balance as he stood as well.

“But, are you going to tell Nick who you are?” Eye asked. “Shouldn’t he know that he’s helping his daughter find his other daughter?”

Dorothy took a deep breath. “I can’t risk anything, remember? So, for now, I can’t let Nick know about me and Alice. If he knew that, I believe that some how someone else would figure it out as well. Not only that, but it seems Nick is having a hard time remembering everything. If he knew this witch had not only his body but his daughter, he might short circuit, or worse!”

Eye tilted his head to the side. “Even without a heart?”

She placed the stone she had been rubbing back on the vanity. “He says he doesn’t have one, but he definitely does.”

Eye stumbled over a building block and kicked in the building built by the yellow blocks and inside sat a toy pumpkin. “You can see people really well, Dorothy. How do you do it?” Eye asked.

Dorothy was kneeling now to pick up the blocks. “What do you mean?” 

Eye licked his lips and looked up to the ceiling. “Well, you see who a person really is very well. You can see our souls.” He hesitated. “I suppose that’s what I’m getting at. Or would it be our hearts you’re seeing? Anyways, whatever it is you are seeing, you see it much clearer than anyone else I’ve ever met. And so far…well, that isn’t very many people. But-”

Dorothy put her hand over Eye’s mouth. “I get it, Eye. Don’t worry, I get it.” She chuckled. “You may not notice it, but your sight on people is pretty good too.” She went out the door and sighed. 

“Lets go see if Nick has something to eat ready.” She grinned. “I don’t know about you but I am starving!”

Eye stepped out of the door as Dorothy skipped back down the stairs, hiding from something she didn’t want to admit to or let Eye see. Eye, with his questionable knowledge, had already questioned this. And more and more I was questioning Eye and who he was. Or, more than that, what he was. It was beginning to annoy me like a bad itch. But I fear, the only one who could truly answer my question would be the Mad Wizard, and he annoys me more than anyone in Wonderoz.

But anyways, Dorothy had already figured out her game plan for traveling to find Alice. I was very proud of how smart she was going at things, even if she was reluctantly hiding herself from her father’s forgetful soul. 

She watched Nick in the kitchen, trying to force herself to remember him and her mother. But no matter how hard she tried the only things she could really recall were the dolls in her basket and the room she had just left.

“Dinner will be ready only momentarily.” Nick replied.

“No hurry.” Dorothy replied with a charming smile. She sat at the glass dining table and wondered to herself. Who do I favor more, my mother or my father? Who does Alice favor?