“MOVE!!!” Scarecrow quickly shoved Beatrice out of the line of attack before raising his hands, palms out, towards the beast. “LION, STOP!!!”

Beatrice fell to the ground and screamed again when she thought the lion was going to tackle Scarecrow and knock him clean off his feet; but at the last minute the big cat halted inches away from Scarecrow’s face and growled menacingly. There was no way this could be THE Lion her mother told her so much about as a child. Needless to say, she expected him to be much friendlier, not to mention far more cowardly. Beatrice couldn’t help but notice that something was holding Lion back from hurting Scarecrow, despite the threatening look he was currently giving him.

“Out of my way, Scarecrow, before I take you in too,” Lion threatened through gritted teeth. “I told you last time that if I ever saw you again I would be obligated by law to take you to Wickus.”

What! Beatrice eyed the lion in disbelief. She prayed that she hadn’t heard him right. “You work for the warlock?” She asked, still in her spot on the ground.

Lion snarled and snapped his head over to her, baring his teeth. “You trespassed on the Emerald City’s grounds today, you and Scarecrow.” he accused and then shot his vicious glare back at his old friend. “You went to visit TinMan again, didn’t you?” When Scarecrow was quiet, Lion grimaced in disapproval. “Are you crazy or did you just turn stupid? I can’t put off your capture forever, you know that.”

“Lion,” Scarecrow spoke with the steadiest tone he could muster and only slightly lowered his white gloved hands. “Please.” His tone turned saddened as he begged. “You’re better than this. Okay? So don’t…” Lion roared and Scarecrow stumbled backwards from the impact and landed on the ground next to Beatrice. The two of them stared up at him with wild eyes.

“Be quiet!” Lion growled. In a lower tone he said while intentionally averting his eyes, “I made my decision.” Beatrice could have sworn that she heard a hint of disappointment when he said that. To her dismay, that spark of regret that was in him vanished when he fixed his eyes back on her and pointed at her. “If you cooperate and come willingly, I won’t have to hurt you.”

“Lion,” Scarecrow’s voice was softer than usual. “You don’t understand. She was sent here to help us. If you give us a chance, we can help free you from your servitude to Wickus.”

Lion groaned as if he was conflicted. “When are you going to let it go, Scarecrow? I’m doomed, alright? You’re doomed. Everyone in Emerald City is doomed. We’re all doomed. There’s nothing you and one girl can do to change that.” He reached down and yanked Beatrice up on her feet and began pulling her away.

Scarecrow immediately jumped to his feet.

Beatrice, however, wasn’t going anywhere without a fight. She fought as much as she could against his pull and cried, “No!” The moment Lion turned his face around to threaten her again, Beatrice ran her free hand across his cheek. “Listen to us!” she yelled. “We can help you!”

“Beatrice,” Scarecrow gasped in fear. It was obvious that he didn’t think that was a smart move on her part. When she peered at him he whispered, “He’s no longer the cowardly lion.”

Looking back over at Lion proved that Scarecrow was correct. Lion wasn't crying. Instead, he was displaying some fierce elongated fangs. Needless to say, he was furious and she immediately regretted her action. Oops.

Before Lion could react, Scarecrow frantically jumped between them and quickly stated, “She’s Dorothy’s blood,” hoping that would change everything. Although Lion was still gripping Beatrice’s arm, Scarecrow was able to shield the rest of her body from him.

Lion froze and processed his old friend’s words. All growling ceased and all that was heard were the uncanny background noises coming from the forest. Beatrice had no idea if the sources of the sounds were animals or the forest itself. In this world, it could go either way.

Lion was so quiet. Did it work? Had Scarecrow finally reached out to him? After what felt like an eternity of silence from Lion, he said, “You’re lying to me.”

Scarecrow shook his head. “If you look at her closely, Lion, you can see that she’s her daughter.” It wasn’t without reluctance and extreme caution but he side-stepped out of Lion’s way so that he could view her properly.

Beatrice could feel Lion staring at her with deep scrutiny. Even though she had difficulty seeing his features clearly in the dark, she knew that he didn’t possess the same problem. After all, lions could see about seven times better than humans could at night. This was a good thing though. After realizing who she was related to, Lion would see that she was sent here for a reason and give her and Scarecrow a chance to help him, a chance to help all of them under Wickus’ rule.

As soon as she was getting ready to relax under his stare, he snarled unexpectedly, “Do you think I’m a fool? You’re not Dorothy’s blood.” His grip tightened on her arm.

Her eyes widened with panic. “What?”

“If Dorothy did have a daughter she would have to still be a small child” He bared his fangs again.

That didn’t make any sense. Her mother’s visit here happened twenty-two years ago. That was plenty of time to have a full grown child.

Scarecrow stepped closer. “No, Lion. It’s true. Time works differently in their world…”

“I DON’T BELIEVE YOU!” He roared but Scarecrow didn’t flinch this time. He just appeared to be extremely overwrought.

“Ow,” Beatrice cried as she tried to get her arm out of Lion’s tight embrace.

“You’re hurting her!” Scarecrow willed a ball of blue light in the palm of his right hand. The illumination allowed Beatrice to see her friend’s pain stricken expression. She knew part of it was because she was in danger but the main cause of his emotion was the fact that one of his best friends was working for the enemy. This had to be so hard for him to accept. “Lion, please let her go,” his velvet voice pleaded. He pulled out his big slingshot and reluctantly got his two items in position.

“Scarecrow,” Lion groaned as if he was in a dilemma. “Please don’t make me hurt you. I don’t want to do it.”

“Lion, listen to Scarecrow, please,” Beatrice begged. “You have to trust us. We can get you out of this.” Man, she really did wish if he wasn’t going to let go of her arm anytime soon then he would at least ease up on his grip a bit. He was interrupting her blood flow, for crying out loud!

The illumination from Scarecrow’s weapon permitted Beatrice to see a flick of pain in Lion’s eyes. “You two don’t understand.” His voice croaked. “There is no getting out of this because there’s no way of defeating a warlock. It’s never been heard of.”

Beatrice eyed him with disbelief. “Have you forgotten how my mother defeated…”

Lion cut her off and spoke with annoyance. “Eviline was a witch and witches melt when they’re in contact with water. That rule doesn’t apply to warlocks. Water doesn’t affect them.”

Well that definitely was a bummer.

Scarecrow dissolved his ball of blue light and lowered his slingshot. “We’ll figure something out” Scarecrow crooned and nodded encouragingly at Lion. “Desmond Tutu said that ‘Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.’”

That quote made Beatrice smiled. She nodded too. “We can change things, Lion. You just have to be brave and trust us. Can you do that? Can you be brave enough to trust us?”

“Brave,” Lion whispered thoughtfully to himself.

Yes! They were reaching him. Scarecrow and Beatrice nodded eagerly.
They held their breaths as they watched him envision the possibilities of a change. Come on, Lion and say yes, Beatrice mentally pleaded.

The moment was gone when they heard someone clapping gradually off to the side. All three of them turned to peer at their unexpected audience. Beatrice stepped back as she witnessed three dark figures that were completely inhuman standing about twenty feet away. Since Lion was momentarily distracted by their observers, she was finally able to slip her arm out of his hold but she felt no relief as she stared at these beings. They obtained a frightening appearance to that of adult-sized voodoo dolls but with hands and feet. Judging by the way they were watching her, Scarecrow, and Lion, she figured they weren’t friendly beings either. Her heart accelerated in fear.

The middle one was clapping while the other two snickered. “Beautiful,” the middle stated in a deep muffled voice. Beatrice was surprise that they could talk at all since neither of them had any mouths, which made them even scarier to watch. The only feature their faces possessed were an over large pair of buttons which no doubt functioned as their eyes. “I must say, I was quite moved by that inspiring conversation. Heck, it almost made me want to switch sides.”

His two other companions laughed harder. The one standing on the left said, “Too bad we relish too much in other people’s sufferings.” There was no distinguishment of voices. Both tones were muffled with a sound that was deep and unnerving.

Beatrice moved closer to Scarecrow until their arms touched and she was able to entwine her left hand in his. He instantly wrapped his fingers around her hand in a protective embrace. Strange. Despite the frightening beings that were in front of them and the fact that Scarecrow was just as terrified as she was, Beatrice felt a bizarre zing of energy shoot through her as she made physical contact with him. If he wasn’t here with her now, she would be experiencing fear on an ultimate level.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Scarecrow stated carefully as he discreetly began willing a small ball of blue light in the hand that was connecting with Beatrice.

She tried not to gasp when she felt the tiny light’s warm and tingly sensation as it danced between their hands. Now she understood why Scarecrow loved this new ability so much. It gave off an exciting feeling of power. She could even feel it connecting the two of them on a whole new level, making her wonder if Miss One’s radiance was capable of doing more than just harming enemies, but also uniting the strength of companions.

“Well trouble definitely wants you,” said the third one before taking a step forward. “Well done, Lion.”

“About time you caught that scarecrow,” the first one cried out.

Lion stepped forward and laughed nervously. “Haha. Hey, Boomer, Zoomer, and…” He gulped. “Doomer. I thought you guys were examining the other side of the forest.”

“Wickus has been having doubts about you lately so we decided to follow you instead,” the middle on responded. “Good thing too. Apparently, this is where all the fun is.”

“Fun? Oh, no. There’s no fun here,” Lion rambled. “Just capturing myself some prisoners because that’s what I do. Haha,” he laughed nervously again and rubbed his mane. “Wickus doesn't have anything to worry about.Why don’t you all scan the west side? I’ll take care of these pathetic ones over here.”

All three voodoo creatures advanced on them as one of them said, “If I didn’t know any better, Lion, I would think you were trying to get rid of us so that you could help these…‘pathetic ones.’”

“Have you truly forgotten who you are supposed to be loyal to?” another one asked with obvious fury as they came closer.

“Stop! Don’t come any closer” Beatrice ordered as she, Scarecrow, and Lion took a step back for every step the voodoo creatures took forward. She and Scarecrow were careful not to break their connection on each other. She could feel the light getting warmer and warmer in their palms. It soon reached a point where it was hot like fire. Surprisingly though, the temperature didn’t bother her or Scarecrow. Did he understand what was happening between them? Because she had no clue. However, the quick glance Scarecrow gave her told her that she was right not to break their link. Whatever was brewing between them in this moment was obviously something extremely powerful and beneficial.

Lion cleared his throat. “Get rid of you? Of course not. It’s just…”

“NO!!!” Beatrice screamed when she saw a fourth life-sized voodoo doll lookalike a few feet away hanging Storm upside down from his bushy tail, getting ready to put him in a big sack. Storm’s wings fluttered frantically as he wailed in a loud panic.

A strange instinct came over her and Beatrice brought her and Scarecrow’s entangled hands up and aimed them in the direction of Storm's capturer. The blue radiance grew brighter as it enlarged itself, causing her and Scarecrow to break physical contact and grip the sides of the circular light instead. Suddenly, it shot away from them and aimed straight at the evil creature holding her pet. It was a perfect shot, aimed directly at his side and completely missing Storm. The FlyMam landed on his feet and ran towards Beatrice as fast as his little legs could carry him while the big Voodoo monster erupted into nothing but a pile of stringy fabric lying on the ground.

Beatrice gasped in disbelief at what she and Scarecrow had just done. When she peered over at him, his mouth was wide open with amazement.

Storm quickly climbed up Beatrice's back as the other three foes growled together in dismay, "NO!!!" And in no time, the creepy beings were charging at them.

Lion quickly locked gazes on Beatrice and whispered, “Don’t let them catch you” before he deliberately tackled Scarecrow, knocking him clean off his feet as he growled and began to attack him.

Beatrice screamed. What the hell was Lion doing? Before she could pull on Lion’s mane and get him off of Scarecrow, she was in an unrelenting hold of one of the giant voodoo dolls. The feel of him felt like a poor-stitched pillow case. “LET ME GO!!!” She tried to squirm away from him but was quickly hauled over his shoulder before he darted off with her. The other two were right behind him, not bothering with Scarecrow since Lion was handling him just fine. Beatrice could see Scarecrow struggling with Lion on top of him. “NO, LION. STOP!!!” she called as she was being hauled away. “SCARECROW!!!” Why was Lion turning on them? And right after he told her to not let these things catch her? He really needed to figure out which side he was on because he was starting to piss her off.

When Storm squeaked out of fear, Beatrice detached him from her and threw him in the dark grass knowing he would land on his feet. “GO! GET OUT OF HERE!!!”

One to the creatures tried to catch him as he scurried off but he was too small and too quick; although for some big creatures, these things moved pretty fast.

“Leave it” the third one ordered. “Wickus will be pleased with the one we have now.”

Although her fate didn’t look good one bit, she found it impossible to think about anything else other than Scarecrow. He was dying by his friend’s hand and instead of being able to help him she was being taken away to be either a prisoner or killed by Wickus the Wicked.

Tears fell down her face as she continued to hear Lion’s snarls long after she lost sight of the two of them. She could feel her heart shattering into a million pieces as she wailed out once more, “SCARECROW!!!”