Oz; a remake of the tale 2.14 & 2.15

14.        New Strategy

Napoleon stood there with his right hand tucked into his tunic. He blamed it on the liver pate he had for breakfast with the french beans. Not a good combination but it was delicious when served on the palate by Enrique. He is the adonis of the Macedonia descent. Now he is looking at the selected squad of his army; the regimental colors of the Royal Lances circa nineteenth century, the European leftovers of the last World Wars armed with Thompson and Mauser rifles, with the infamous 'pineapple fragment' grenade. They don't come cheap for the numbers he recruited; he has a point to prove against Dirt Dozen. In his words it rings like this; Je voudous gagner à tout prix

"Hauptmann Kruger reporting for duty." The ex-Wehrmacht officer salute the General while the Lancer Horse of the Royal Regiment was jousting for a place. Napoleon was to discuss when he was interrupted by the Mother Witch.

"General Napoleon," Mother Witch was playing up to his ego. "I hoped your military budget can cover their staying here. I am not happy bringing them here. We are supposed to be in stealth mode and not tourist-a-planet."

"Oui, they won't make it back. I have many prior arrangement." Napoleon gave out his famous smirk.

"For your love, I would do anything." Napoleon did a curtsy bow.

Across the the length of ten fields, Dorothy is marching her army of rag tag formation of Nomes, Rampsies, and the Ants covering the sides to report on any approaching army. The Hornets are flying overheads for air recon.

"Dorothy, I have something to discuss with you. I am worried about the army." Hicks was never one to mince his words. He always speaks his mind, most times on most issues but not the issue I want to hear.

"Hicks, I can agreed with you. That's why I am agreeing with you." I smiled at him. "I am parking the army in the nearby castle. I know from the Guardian of the Gate, that its empty and can housed the whole army we have. The Guardian have arranged supplies. We would then select a small squad to fight Napoleon army. I have their numbers and statistics. We are going to win this war my way."

Hicks did the unexpected macho expression; he burst out to tears. He must be overwhelm by my intelligence but I was wrong.

"Dorothy, I have never viewed you like today. I like you new looks and character. I think I .....love you." Gee, I hit the mark on the stubborn head of the boy. I was to kiss him but he held me firm on my shoulders at arm length.

"Dorothy, you are like a Queen in that look." He fell to his knees and prostrate to me. "Command me, my Queen."

I would had done worst but I had a war going on. I pulled him up to his feet and kissed him there. It was the sweetest kiss I ever done; it was my first. That seal our love for now; my father was watching and frowning at the expression.

While the army housed there, I made my new plans. I looked at the Mother Witch fortress, and wondered on all the strategy. Then I got it wrapped up in the head.

It was all to be unwrapped. I meant my life.

I found Hicks waiting for me outside my chamber. He was standing guard there; that's what he told me. I asked him to open the door and when he did it; I dragged him in. I kicked slammed the door shut. For a man with the shoulder length across of a bull; he is as weak as a turkey during thanksgiving.

For an important event that evening, he was more than a cold turkey; he was the life of the event. If I was a cold turkey I would turned to be one of a squealing hot chick. Sure worth the long wait, now a woman is taking on the world for her man.

"Hicks, do you love me?" I had to asked like most ladies.

"Yes, I do. Can you put the balm on my back? I can't reach it." I admit I did scratch hard when deep but I need to speak to Scarecrow on the location of those ecstatic points. His moans sounded more like groans.

15.        Raid on the Castle Witch

 "General Napoleon, we have the sight of the enemies." The General was informed. He asked what was their strength.

 Oui, how many again?" When he was told the number, he shot up from his seat.

 "Eight cannot be right, she ought to have more than that. My spies tell me she was traveling with an army of over five hundred and now you tell me eight. This is.....magnificent in numbers. Send in the Lancers."

Lancer Horse of the Royal Regiment numbering fifty of them rode in formation of two rows. They are the best of the Prussian Army. They trot their horses to a slow gallop but maintaining formation. Fine Arabian breed; these horses are well trained for military purpose.

When we saw the lancers and I gave the command to spread out too. The boys to my left, Hinkley and Henry to the right. Aunt Em kept to the rear with our excess luggage.

"Boys, we got some creatures to place into the corral." I gave the command.

The boys took off the hover boards from their back; and cocked their rifles. They took to the skies and hover over the Lancers. When the Lancers saw the boys overhead, they tried to charge them but the boys are expert on their hover boards. They zipped in between the rider and used their rifles to take sniping shots at the horses which made them uncontrollable. One and more of the horses starts to bolt and threw off their riders.

Meanwhile the two older men set up the force field to corral in som advancing Lancers. They rode into a force field which prevent them from escaping. a hundred Lancers. The older two man then fired their rifles to scared the Lancers and asking them to surrender. The boys meanwhile fired their rifles at the other Lancers and push the riders toward the force field The Lancers are ineffective with this warfare as they are corralled in. Their commander dismounted and walked to Dorothy. He threw the lancer to the ground and bowed.

"We shall return to where we come from. At least there we have more respect of the warring parties and not being corralled like sheep."

Hinkley arranged their passage back and then we were told that the Wehrmacht are holed up in the Guard House near the castle. There are twenty of them; and well armed with deadly metal projectile rifles. We decided to besieged them this time. We almost underestimated the Wehrmacht as they laid deadly fire on us as we approached the Guard House.

They must had some snipers there which made good use of the Mauser rifle.

We were all pinned down on the open clearing and could only return some sporadic fire. Droid tried to do a charge but he was turned back by the Thompson machine gun bursts. As I laid there, I recalled on ally which can helped us. I sneak off to the rear and called on the Hornets. I had assigned a squad of a hundred Hornets to be on standby for my command. I gave them the new orders and they went into action.

They split themselves into three groups and buzzed in from the sides and through the chimney. Soon we have the soldiers running out with stings all over their exposed body. The Commander of the Wehrmacht, Hauptmann Kruger walked towards Dorothy and salute her.

"Fraulein Gale, I am impressed with your strategy. We were hoping to delay you but you seem to have found our weakness. I shall report back to my battle lines now. Mercenary life is not my cup of tea."

Hinkley sent them off with a stern warning not to come back. Now its the main castle with the Hammer Heads and the icy cold cliff. The hundred odd Hammer Heads have all congregated at the Main Gate to protect it.

We discussed the option to attack the castle. Hicks tried to climb the icy wall using the hover boards but the wall was too hight to climb on. Later Droid tried to climb by punching hand holds but the walls seemed to rebuilt itself back just as it was cracked open.

"The walls alive. It heal by itself."

Hinkley tried his magic but nothing he does make any difference. So we decided to do the hard way; by barging in through the main gate. But how do we handle the Hammer Head. They are a bunch of hard heads and there are no Nomes around.

I decided to use the Ants but with some help from the Hornets. It was a bombing mission with the Ants as bombs. The Hornets flew their sorties over the Hammer Heads and dropped them off on top of the Hammer Heads. The Ants immediately went into action and crawled them way into any openings on the Hammer Heads.

The Hammer Heads tried to get rid of the Ants in their heads; they went knocking each other and on the icy walls. In the end they ended up knocked flat on the ground or going mad in their mind. We walked up to the Main Gates and looked at it.

"Anyone knows how to opened the gates?" It was Hinkley who showed us.

"It opened by a knob here." Hinkley showed us and the Main Gate opened. Inside the gate was a long path to the top. It was a icy path with no handles on the walls. We tried to walk on it, but we ended up falling on our butts. In the end, I got the boys to improvise using the hover boards. They had just dragged behind like on wind surf with two to every boy. Soon we reached the castle yard and I took my first looked at the new threat.

There was Dirt Dozen, the young crazy was there with one short older lady. They all looked nasty.

"Howdy Hinkley. The lady cleared me this time. We are going direct with no interference." Dirt singled out Hinkley. Hinkley stepped aside to faced the man who was bedding his wife. He then felt Henry standing to him. Hinkley looked to him.

"We are family." Both brothers nodded.

"Hicks, do you think the three of us can handle the young couple?" The three boys spread themselves out to face the young couple. They unslung their rifles and hold it loosely in their hands.

Aunt Em walked towards the older Lady and introduced herself. She told the older lady her intentions; 'we bitches would work out our own battle'. They stepped to the near the stables.

"Hey! What about ourselves?" I pretended to ask.

"You got the Witches upstairs. There are three of them upstairs. They are yours." Hinkley replied for the rest. "So go and complete the war."