Bently McQuinn Saves Literature

They went into darkness and stayed in darkness. At first, Bently panicked. Were they there? Had it not worked? Were they stuck in some kind of limbo?

“Can anyone else see?” asked the voice of Lucy next to him.

“Nope. You sure it worked, Meggie?” Pansy asked. She sure got back into the swing of things fast.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, frowning. “This must be what Jacob was talking about. Can anyone light their wands?”

And so Pansy and Bently did. They were tiny little lights in a vast, never-ending darkness. At least they could see the faces of their companions.

“Well… how about that light, Pansy?” Bently asked.

“Right,” she muttered, and pulled it out. She held it for a moment, then asked, “Erm… how do you light it?”

“Well, last time all I did was touch it…” said Bently, and Pansy handed it to him. As soon as the light touched him, it lit up, blinding them all.

When Bently’s eyes finally adjusted themselves to the light, they found the darkness gone from about a ten meter radius around them.

They were in Oz all right, in Munchkinland, to be precise. But all the bright colours were washed out, and there were chickens. Everywhere.

“What’s with all the chickens?” King asked as Bently pulled out the new notebook and pen.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to give Oz some more light,” he said, and Lucy held the light for him as he sat down and scribbled out a few lines.

“The elf light shined brighter than anything. It lit up all of Oz, every nook and cranny. It wouldn’t be a permanent fix, but as long as the light was on in Oz, there would be light, at least until the heroes got rid of Meyer and the world returned back to normal.”

And indeed, the world got a lot brighter, and they could see in every direction for as far as their eyes would let them. Bently pocketed the notebook, pen, and light, which stayed on even in his pocket.

“Good to know that won’t go out,” said Bently, and he looked around.

Out of the houses came Munchkins. They were very little people, and they too had that washed out look everything else around them had. They spotted Bently and started chanting gleefully, “The hero is here! The hero is here!”

“On behalf of the Munchkin people, I thank you, hero, for coming” said one Munchkin, who came up and bowed to them. “My name is Boq. What is yours?”

“I’m Bently McQuinn, here with Lucy, Meggie, Stephen King, and Pansy,” replied Bently. It felt nice to finally be able to introduce Pansy to people again. “Where is Meyer?”

Boq looked at the ground. “She is in the Emerald City, Bently McQuinn. She is heavily guarded, and she has some sort of power that makes it possible for her to do anything she likes to this world.”

“And how do we get there?” Bently asked, guessing the answer.

“Follow the yellow brick road,” replied Boq simply.

“Alright, thanks. Next time you see us, you’ll be free,” Bently assured them, and he started leading his companions down the yellow brick road.

-

Everything on the road was silent except for the clucking of chickens, which really did seem to be everywhere. Bently was very confused and slightly bothered by this plethora of chickens. They were of every size and colour, and by every colour, it really was every colour. Bently spotted a blue and a green one fighting over a pile of grain.

“This is so weird,” Bently muttered to Meggie.

“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on,” she muttered back, shaking her head.

Soon, they came to a split in the road. They didn’t know whether they should go left or right.

“Anyone remember which way she goes in the movie?” Bently asked as a joke. He knew only himself and maybe King had seen the movie. Lucy and Pansy probably didn’t even know what a movie was.

“You won’t be passing either way,” said a voice, and from out of the tall grass in the split walked the Scarecrow. “I’m not supposed to let you pass, and least not without payment.”

“Payment?” Bently asked, confused. ‘Well that’s great, we’ve got no money,’ he thought bitterly to himself. “Well, what do you want?”

“Gold would be nice. But…”

“But what?” Lucy asked encouragingly.

“I’ve always wanted… to be smarter,” the Scarecrow admitted.

They stood there looking at him for a moment. How in the world could they help him get smarter? A gift card to Sylvan Learning Center?

Then Meggie made a realizing noise. “Oh! Would this help?” She pulled from her bag a pen, a small dictionary, and the piece of stationary she had stolen from Phantom of the Opera. “You could practice writing! Writing helps you learn lots of things!”

“Let’s see,” said the Scarecrow. He took the items and sat down. “I don’t know…” he started, but his voice trailed away as he started writing. When he didn’t speak for almost a minute, the companions crept away down to the right.

“So if Meyer set up the Scarecrow to stop us, does that mean we’ll have to get past the Tin Man and Lion, as well?” Meggie asked.

“I would assume so, but I guess we’ll find out for sure soon, won’t we?” said Bently, and they started through a forest. It wasn’t a very thick one, for there was plenty of space between the trees.

“This is so weird, it being so quite,” whispered Lucy.

THUNK

“Ow!” Pansy yelped, whipping out her wand with one hand and rubbing the back of her head with the other. Then something hit Bently, too, and he found it to be an apple. A tree near them had another apple in its branch-hand.

And more and more trees were coming alive, stocking up on apples to throw at the travelers.

“Run!” Bently yelled, and they started sprinting down the (pale) yellow brick road. Apples hit their backs, their heads, and they tripped over them. It was literally raining apples.

“Protego!” Bently heard Pansy yell, and so he pulled out his wand and did the same. They ran on the sides of the group and their shields prevented most of the apples from hitting them.

They finally came to a stop when they saw the Tin Man in the middle of the road.

“You have obviously bested the Scarecrow, but getting past me will be harder,” he assured them, standing firmly in the middle of the path.

“And what do you want?” Bently asked.

“Again, payment. But… I’ve always wanted a heart,” he said a bit sadly, touching the part of his metal body where his heart should be.

“Um… erm…” Bently stuttered. He couldn’t think of anything to give the Tin Man.

“Here,” said Pansy. She reached inside Bently and pulled out the elf light. “This is bright and warm, like a heart should be. Put it inside of you and you’ll be like it soon.” The Tin Man opened up his hollow chest and Pansy set the light inside him carefully.

“Thank you,” said the Tin Man, close to tears. “I can feel it warming me already.”

They continued on quickly so that they wouldn’t get attacked by any more trees.

“What did you do that for?” Bently hissed at Pansy.

“Well, as long as it’s working, Oz is lit, right?” she said. “And what better place to keep it safe than right under Meyer’s nose?”

“I guess,” Bently grunted. But he questioned what they hell had happened to her in the Blank World.

They continued down the road. The forest got wilder and denser as they went. Bently thought that they had walked for hours, and yet, the light hadn’t changed at all.

“Do you guys get the feeling that… like, time isn’t passing?” he asked the others.

Meggie nodded. “I’ve felt like that too. Maybe it’s like in Narnia where the time was messed up.”

“Yeah, I bet that’s what happened,” agreed Lucy.

Then, there was a sudden, half-hearted snarl, and out of the bushes leapt the Lion. He didn’t look very fierce, but you could tell he was trying.

“You c-can’t pass me!” the Lion stuttered out. “I—oh, this is useless.”

“What would you like?” Bently asked, almost bored.

“I… I want to be braver. I want to be able to stand up to Meyer.”

“Here,” said King, and from inside his jacket, he pulled out the Subtle Knife. “This knife can cut through anything. You’ll feel very brave with it.”

“R-really?” the Lion asked, accepting the knife. He held it in his paw, looking at it in wonder. “I feel like I could take on an army!” he cheered.

“Good.”

“Thank you! You can pass, I don’t work for her anymore,” said the Lion cheerfully, and he walked back into the bushes.

“Well, that was easy,” commented Lucy as the continued on.

“How did you get that?” Bently asked King.

“Will gave it to me while you were busy writing Pansy back in. He thought we might need it, and it turns out he was right,” said King.

To Bently, it was another good hour before they were finally out of the forest. They stood on the edge of a field of flowers, and across it rose a sparkling green city in the distance. The city was the brightest thing in Oz.

“There it is,” said Meggie in wonder. “The Emerald City.”