Page 17 of There's No Place Like Oz

I straightened out my dress, then I crawled out of our makeshift shelter. Tobias followed, taking a small pot of water he’d gathered the night before, and starting a fire to get it boiling to disinfect it. I appreciated his ingrained survival ability. I didn’t entirely understand how or when he learned it, but I just assumed it was the natural instinct of animals.

The warm sun met my face, and I stretched out towards its pleasant rays. This really wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t high luxury living, but it was slowly bringing me back to the roots that I needed. I smiled broadly, not thinking at all about the chaos of Oz, until I turned to see Crowe leaning against a tree, staring into the distance with a look of utter disinterest on his emotionless face. And beside him was…

“Who are you?” I blurted as I realized my weird, undead, unsleeping and uneating companions had multiplied overnight. The new one had dark, slicked back hair and silver eyes that were almost metallic in nature. More notable was the metal mask that covered the bottom half of his face like he was some sort of cyborg ninja, and most notable of all were his muscles sculpted by the gods themselves. He was shirtless and he was fucking ripped like a body builder on competition day.

But his ranking at the top of my hotness scale was not the point. The point was that I had no clue who he was or why he was here or where he came from or even if he was safe.

He stared at me for several moments, then he looked to Crowe, then back at me without saying a word.

“Crowe, who is this?” I tried again.

Crowe shrugged. “Talos.” Was all he said.

“Is he… a friend of yours?” I waved a hand to demand he speed up the sharing of information. Crowe already seemed a bit off, so I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to meet his friends. But then, the one and only good thing I could say right now was that we had slept safely last night, so maybe I shouldn’t judge yet.

Crowe glanced at his companion. “I don’t have friends, but he’s more interesting than you and the dog in the middle of the night.” My expression flattened, and I waited with puffed up cheeks for him to elaborate. An annoyed enough scrunching of my eyebrows finally got him to take the hint. “If youmustknow, I found him in the woods while I was standing watch. He’s also been cursed by one of the four witches, and he would also like to see the Wizard to reverse his damage. I didn’t think you’d mind if I invited him along.”

I blinked several times.

“I… I guess I don’t.” I mean, I wanted to say he looked harmless enough, but I was pretty sure he could suffocate someone just by flexing. On the other hand, harmless was less helpful than being powerful in a place like this, so having another strong brute at my side would probably guarantee a safer journey to the Emerald City. If he needed help as much as the rest of us did, it didn’t make sense to kick him off the team just because I wasn’t expecting him.

I paused for several moments to contemplate this new development, when it finally dawned on me. “Wait, so does he… not talk?”

Crowe glanced at Talos again, then he returned his gaze to me. “The Witch of the South took his tongue, but we’ve formed a sort of unspoken trauma bond. I can be his translator.” The singsong way he said it was nearly comical and somewhat uncharacteristic, but again, who was I to judge this weird friendship. If Crowe trusted him, I guess that was good enough for me, even if I didn’t really trust Crowe himself.

I glanced over at Tobias, who had a squiggly and unreadable expression on his face as he held the now boiling pot of water over the flame. He shrugged his shoulders in a way that said“your call, Dorothy,”and I internally groaned at having to make all of these judge-of-character decisions myself.

“Well, then, the more the merrier…” I apparently said.

“Agreed.” Crowe nodded, then he stood up and dusted the grass from his jeans. He offered Talos a hand, and that’s how we ended up traveling with the weird, silent giant.

Chapter 13

Dorothy, Tobias, Crowe. These were my new travel partners. Crowe had saved my life, and I appreciated that fact, while the other two seemed to be plucky enough. I’d like to be able to speak to them myself, but it would require… some commitment I wasn’t prepared to make. As it stood, Crowe had no idea what he’d walked into, but I didn’t regret trapping him. There was no other reasonable way to break Sasha’s spell, considering I’d been in that spot for months on end without so much as seeing a munchkin walk by on the yellow road. Where Crowe had been granted an immortal body and a loss of his conscience, I had metal bones and lost any need for my vital organs to stay functioning. Being able to survive a night in bed with women who needed their partner to have those traits to get off typically wasn’t a recipe for healthy connection. There weren’t many among us who had survived such abuse, and only those who had could truly empathize.

Beside, I’d need him for communication when we at last found the Wizard. He’d serve as my translator for a while. I’d have plenty of opportunity to get a better read on him as we went.

As for the other two, Tobias walked with a certain guardedness to his every step. I couldn’t tell if he’d been abused or if he was simply overprotective and over cautious. It could go either way in a place like this, though I didn’t think either of that pair wasfromthis place. Dorothy, for example, was much too sweet and demure compared to the witches of Oz. She smiled, and not only when she was killing someone, and she had a range of expressions that danced along her brows when she spoke. I liked how simple and animated she was, and I had a feeling there was more to her than surface appearances.

I’d like to get to know her spirit better, but it would be difficult not being able to speak to her. Not having visible use of my mouth made that even more trying. I wished I could get this muzzle off.

We’d have to find ways to communicate with our bodies and our eyes. Sasha liked to communicate with her blades, but that was hardly a model I wanted to perpetuate and pass on to others. The only time I wanted to use a knife again was to sever her head from her pretty neck. For these two, I’d settle for hand signals.

We continued on toward the Emerald City, entering a wood speckled with fruit and flower trees. Dorothy’s big blue eyes took in the image like she was staring at a masterpiece. Which made sense in hindsight. She probably needed to actually eat.

She glanced up at an apple that was a solid foot out of her reach. Noticing her interest, I caught up to her and plucked it from the tree.

“You need to keep your strength up.”I wanted to say to her, but my words were, as always, trapped inside. She was an outlier from our kind, and something in my gut told me she was the only real hope we’d have to convince the Wizard to help the more cursed among us. It wasn’t like I or the scarecrow had anything to offer the Wizard—even in the form of simply being good people. Whereas this girl may.

“He wants you to keep your strength up.” Crowe stepped in, sharing a brief nod with me in understanding. I smiled behind my muzzle, though no one but him would know that. He stared into my eyes for a few moments, then he continued to serve as my voice. “This is a bit tough to explain to an outsider, but he and I are both what’s considered a cursed puppet. If we were ever human like you or… uh…” Crowe glanced at Toto, “well, likeyou, Dorothy, we have no recollection of anything we’d done prior to being kidnapped and rewired by a witch, and as such, the rulers of Oz don’t look fondly upon us. Munchkins may be the bottom of the food chain, but they are still given free will. He and I, on the other hand, lived in mighty castles as little more than toys for our masters. We have more physical strength, yet far less freedom to use it.” He tried to explain. I nodded again to thank him.

“I see.” Dorothy frowned: a look that didn’t suit her face. I didn’t like it on her at all. “So you’re like actors being forced to play a role by a director who only cares about his own gratification.” I could hear her heart beat pick up as she said the words. As if that was some sort of cue, Tobias reached over and took Dorothy’s hand. He rubbed small circles on her wrist with his thumb, and that same heart rate slowed again.Interesting.

“I suppose that’s a good way to put it. Only the director can make you do anything they want, and the consequences for speaking up are… severe.” Crowe rubbed his neck. Those were his own words, but his face never showed any emotion. Wicked joy, perhaps, but that was a pre-programmed feeling for all of us.

“No, I think it still sounds about the same.” Dorothy pursed her lips, and I couldn’t help but notice the nervous way she wrapped an arm around her torso as a small form of protection. Like she was hugging herself. Perhaps Oz wasn’t the only place that had some form of cursed puppets.

I plucked another apple from the tree, then I tossed it to her dark haired companion and looked to Crowe.

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