Oz; remake of the tale 1.15

15. The March to the West

"How do we find the Witch? She resides in the west but I am not sure which is west." I point to the red sky. "There are no sun there for me to coordinate on.For all we know we could be marching forever."

"Dorothy, what's with you?" Scarecrow looked at me. I know I am not myself. I thought I am done when I meet the Wizard, but it was not to end then. It was one more task and hopefully it would be the last. But I doubt it.

"I am sorry, Scarecrow. I am just not getting enough sleep." I lied; I did sleep well last night after I met the Wizard. His offer of the bed was too tempting to let go. I had the whole bed to myself. Droid and Scarecrow can shared the couch. I was inclined not to peek at them.

"I know where the west is or to be exact, the Witch location. Her castle lies over a march of two days in the western lands. Its not a peaceful place; full of Winkies and deadly creatures." Scarecrow told all of us.

"Hold on!" Scarecrow stopped us. She told us to stay there while she reached into her bag. She drew out a long overcoat. Its made of metal foil that glimmer in the light.

"Put that on, Droid. Its made of a rare metal that would protect you from any more bad cuts from Kalidah." Scarecrow hand it over to the droid. It took it and tried it on. The droid looked like a mobster with a battle axe but minus the hat and violin case.

"Dorothy, I got this one for you." Its a red overcoat that fitted me well. "I won't drop those buttons if I were you. You could reveal a more explosive nature out of you."

I counted ten buttons, and that is more than enough to me to blow my mind. I tried my vocal sonic boom again, but I got was only a tweak.

"Here, Toto. I got you a bone." Scarecrow offered my pet a bone which was what she needed now.

"Now follow me." Scarecrow led the way.

It was not a long walk when we met our first force de resistance. It was not any Kalidah, but a trio of gun toting mercenaries dressed in a sombrero and with a set of menacing looking cannons.

"Hello, ladies. Droid. ...Uh, Furry ball." The leader stepped out and the lowered the cannon he was carrying. "We are the Three Deadly Hatter. We work for the Witch who paid us in gold and silver."

"Mad Hatter, leave us alone or we would make you eat the hat." I threaten the trio. The leader laughed and then looked to his partners. They all start to spread out. So did we, with me in the middle and the droid taking the left and Scarecrow on the right. Scarecrow reached into her bag and drew up a set of long barrel rifle. She then cocked it and clasped it on her elbow.

"Three against three." The leader muttered to himself. "I find that unfair. We normally get two to one against us."

"Dino, you want to seat this one out. Mino, you stand close to me." The leader looked to one of his partner but Dino shook his head. "Okay, we do it, but you are getting half the reward."

"No, he is getting his share." I shouted back. "Droid, Scarecrow; this is mine."

They did not protest as I stepped forth. Instead of my vocal sonic boom, I put out a button from my overcoat.

"Mama-Mia!" The leader barked out and swung his cannon towards me. His partners did the same, but I had my button thrown like a frisbee at them. I can say one thing; there was not much to picked up from the leader but Dino survived with some bruises.

"Scarecrow, did you pack too much in? I cannot hardly hear myself hearing anymore." I looked at the small crater where the leader was standing at. Scarecrow could not hear me either as she kept on rubbing her ears. Droid was recalibrating his sensors again.

Talking about going out in a bang; that's one way.

Scarecrow walked up to me and showed me a written sign; "Advise to throw far or run back next time."

I nodded. We did not continue immediately as our body equilibrium was knocked silly by the blast. We sat to rest before we proceed.

I heard the shot and then Droid fired back with his five fingers. It was Dino trying to sneak in on an attack on us, but he missed. Droid did not take a chance and fired all his fingers at the mercenary.

"I could not dare to miss. So I took wide spread shots." Droid explained. "My system are still calibrating."

I looked at Dino; he ain't going back or anywhere unless he can walked from the dead.

Talking about the dead walking, we came to that soon when we met the Guards. There was one Guard standing to attention to five Officers seated before him. The standing Guard was dressed in his full regalia uniform and carrying a long pike, with a pistol on his waist belt. So were the officers buy they carried swords instead of the pike. The standing guard had one distinct feature, he has long green whiskers that reached his toes.

"Private Omby Army, see to those intruders to our outpost now." The Officers commanded him. "And don't trip on your whiskers."

Private Omby appeared before us and lowered his pike towards us.

"Halt or I would need to harm you." Private Omby then whispered back. "I got a pistol but its not loaded. So shoo and leave us alone."

"My name is Dorothy Gale. My companions and myself are in need to find the Witch of the West." I announced our intentions.

"Aye, this is the boundary of the West Lands. And we are the Frontier Guards. I am the only Private and those are my officers." The solider points to the spot where the officers were sitting but they are not here anymore. They ran for covers behind some trees.

"Nevermind, let no bad intents passed me, as long as I wore this uniform." Private Omby told us. He was very keen on carrying out his duty. Droid walked up the soldier and cut the pike off its head with his battle axe.

"Oh! That's the last one in the Armory. Guess I have to use the pistol on you." The soldier reached for his pistol, but I stopped him.

"Private Omby, I am Colonel Gale, First Marines. Who are your officers? Anyone who is ranked above me?" I held back Droid as I approached Private Omby.

"Nope, they are all Corporals, Colonel." Private Omby stood to attention. "Excuse me, Colonel. Who are the First Marines?"

I ignored his question and marched to the hidden officers.

"Get your butts here or I would had you Court Martial." The five officers came running and to stand before me. They apologized for their tardy behaviour. I sent them off to tell the Witch I am coming to see her. They ran off to deliver my order.

"As for you Private Omby, you would remained here to guard the frontier." Private Omby saluted me back and stood to attention facing the way I came in.

"That was a fine work, Colonel Gale." Scarecrow complimented me. I smiled as I had to improvise on the cue.

But the worse was to come, when we were came upon the officers' dead bodies. They were killed on route to see the Witch.

"Scarecrow, who could had done this?" I asked of her. "They were just an hour ahead of us."

Scarecrow leaned down to looked at the bodies, and then she shuddered at the thought.

"Its the Winged Monkeys." Scarecrow spoke up. "They can fly like birds and have sharp talons. They are the Witch personal army. Feared by all."

"Are those what you called as Winged Monkeys?" I point to the trees where a group of monkeys are watching us. The monkeys saw me watching started throwing half eaten fruits at us.

"No, those are monkeys. The Winged Monkeys are different." Just as Scarecrow spoke up, the skies turned from red to green. "They are here."

I looked up and saw the for the first time, the Winged Monkeys. They looked like Monkeys but they have wings and talons on their limbs. There are about fifty of them flying towards us which was why it looked green up there; they all have green wings. The wings are twice their height. They landed near us and spread out into a crescent formation of four rows. One of them stepped out on the long talons limbs as its wings flapped shut to appear like a long piece on the back.

"Dorothy Gale, you are warned not to approach the Witch or we would not hesitate to remove you. ".