“Thank you. Er…we’ll see you back here soon,” Terra told her, hoping it was true. Then, with V’rone holding her left hand and Tem holding her right and Rive’s left, the four of them stepped single file through the spinning rainbow portal.
SIXTEEN
They appeared to be walking into the swirling vortex but when Tem’s foot landed, it was on solid pavement. Looking around, he saw they were in the middle of a crowded street with massive buildings rising overhead on all sides.
Many people, who were all humanoid in appearance, were rushing past them on either side but none stopped to talk or even gave them annoyed looks for standing still in the middle of what was clearly a busy thoroughfare. In fact, they acted as though they hadn’t seen him and Terra and V’rone and Rive at all.
“Where the fuck is this?” V’rone muttered, staring around himself. He was still holding hands with Terra, who was also clutching Tem’s hand. Tem found himself reluctant to let go of her or Rive either.
“I think it must be DY-12,” Rive said, frowning. “But do you notice anything strange about it?”
“Well, no—other than the fact that nobody is paying attention to us even though we just appeared,” Terra said.
“And the fact that everything here is white,” Tem added.
Because it was—the pavement they were standing on was a glassy white, as though it was made of some shiny stone. The enormous buildings soaring overhead were also the same blank white. Even the people rushing past on either side were wearing white clothing that looked like uniforms. Almost everyone Tem saw had a kind of one-piece garment that covered them completely from neck to ankles.
“What’s the deal with all the white jumpsuits?” Terra murmured, frowning.
“Look—the path!” V’rone exclaimed, pointing to the pavement behind them.
Sure enough, when Tem looked he saw a glowing golden path leading through the massive buildings as far as the eye could see.
“Oh, that’s weird.” Terra frowned. “So we’re going backwards?”
“Actually, there is no backwards or forwards in multidimensional travel,” Rive remarked. “There is only the way mapped out for us.”
“Well, I suppose we’d better follow it then,” Tem remarked.
“Follow the yellow brick road,” Terra murmured, which made V’rone frown.
“The path is made of light, not bricks,” he pointed out.
“It’s a reference to a piece of Earth mythology,” Rive told him. “About a young female whose domicile is lifted in a storm and lands on a wicked magic user, whose footwear she subsequently steals and claims as her own.”
“Wait, now!” Terra protested. “Dorothy doesn’t exactly steal the Wicked Witch’s ruby slippers!”
“The Wicked Witch? Ruby slippers? What a bizarre story!” Tem was fascinated by this bit of Earth mythology. “What happens next?” he asked.
Rive answered him.
“The young female—whose name is, indeed, ‘Dorothy’—goes on a quest through the enchanted land with three males—one of them is made of straw and lacks intelligence, another is made of tin and lacks the capacity for emotion, and the third is a large, anthropomorphic feline who lacks courage.”
V’rone shook his head.
“This gets fucking stranger and stranger.” He looked at Terra. “Was the human who was writing this high when he wrote it?”
“There has been some discussion as to whether the author of the myth was a fan of recreational drug use,” Rive said helpfully.
“No, he wasn’t!” Terra protested. “I’m sure Frank L. Balm never got high! He was a children’s book author—that’s all.”
“Did being an author render him insane?” Rive asked. “It would seem to be a good explanation for the bizarre details of this particular Earth mythology.”
“No, he wasn’t crazy either.” Terra blew out her breath. “Look, hadn’t we better get started on our own ‘yellow brick road?’ We can’t just stand here all day.”
“Very true.” Rive nodded. “We have a time limit on our quest for the Kat-sat-Suum—we need to get going.”
“All right,” V’rone said as they began following the glowing golden path that only they could see. “But now I want to know what happens to Dorothy and the males who went with her. Just skip to the end—what happens?”
“I believe Dorothy and her three companions melt the Wicked Witch of the West—who is notoriously hydrophobic—with a bucket of water,” Rive said. “Then Dorothy and her small canine companion are able to go home when she taps her magical ruby slippers together and says—”
“There’s no place like home,” Terra finished for him.
“But what about her other companions? The ones who all lacked something?” Tem objected. “Did she just leave them behind?”
“Well…they were part of her dream,” Terra hedged. “And they had a happy ending, too. The Scarecrow got his brain, the Tin Woodsman got a heart and the Cowardly Lion found his courage.” She shrugged. “So everyone ended up happy in the end.”
Tem shook his head.
“I don’t see how the males could have been happy without Dorothy,” he said softly.