Bently McQuinn Saves Literature

“Alright, group meeting,” said Bently, and they all stood in a circle facing each other. “This is going to be really dangerous. It’s the end of the road, but we’re not out of the woods yet. At least, not the metaphorical ones,” he added when Pansy pointed to the woods just behind them with a smirk.

“Meyer is in there. I’m betting she’s taken over the Wizard’s throne room. We need to get through undetected, and well, everyone we’ve met so far who’s been under her power knows who we are. Pansy, any suggestions?”

“I suppose we could do some minor Transfiguration on our faces and cloths, maybe change our ages and heights,” she said. “I could do that.”

“Would you please? I think being disguised will help a lot.”

And so Pansy went to work, waiving her wand all around each of them and muttering incantations. When she was finished, everyone was quite beyond recognition.

Meggie was a lot older, and she wore a plain dress now with a bag over her shoulder which contained her books. Her hair was long, strawberry blonde, and straight, flowing around her. She held Lucy’s hand, who had been shrunk to look about nine, and also had red hair, her hair braided back tightly. King looked a lot younger, and wore more Oz-like cloths, and didn’t have any glasses. Bently looked older and more Oz-y too, and his red-brown hair was almost black and a lot longer. His cloak had been transformed into a jacket that had a secret pocket right where the one in his cloak had been. As for Pansy, she looked like she could have been Bently’s twin sister, and wore a simple light green dress.

“Alright, I don’t know how long these will last, so let’s get going,” she said, and they set off through the field of flowers.

It was a long and slow walk. The heat was unbelievable, and the smell of flowers was so strong Bently’s head was aching, but at least there weren’t any chickens. Or if there were, they were the colour of the flowers and silent, because Bently didn’t see or hear any.

Finally, they got to the gates. There wasn’t a guard, so they simply walked inside.

Everything was ridiculously bright green. It seemed like all the colour in Oz had been concentrated into the Emerald City, and now there was an overflow of colour, like when you spill your paints in art class and they end up making bright green.

They walked cautiously. They tried not to make any eye contact with people, and didn’t talk, because Bently recognized the look in these people’s eyes; they had been zombie-fied.

And once again, there were freaking chickens everywhere, although these chickens were all white and green. It drove Bently mad, making him really, really want to know what was up with all the chickens.

But as they walked, he noticed that some of the zombies were following them. “I’ll distract them,” King whispered, and he stopped and turned around.

“Hey you! Yeah, you, wearing green, what is that? Did your grandma barf when she was knitting you that sweater and forget to clean it?”

All the zombies near them looked at King and started for him. He ran through a hole in them and they followed. Bently and the girls continued on, silently. ‘I hope they don’t catch him,’ he thought.

They wound down the streets. Bently was leading them to the tallest point in the city, where he hoped the Wizard’s throne and Meyer were. They reached a square that looked like it had been a market and stopped. It was full of zombies.

“I have an idea,” Meggie muttered, pulling a book from her bag. “Go, I’ll distract them.” She walked to the middle of the square and found a stool she could stand on. “Hey everyone! It’s story time!” she called out. The zombies started walking towards her and Bently lead Lucy and Pansy out of the square and as far away as possible.

“She’s going to read them out,” Bently explained in a voice barely above a whisper. “I think.” Lucy and Pansy nodded, and they moved on faster.

They were getting closer to the tall building in the city. Bently’s eyes were getting tired and starting to play tricks on him from all the green around him. They didn’t see as many zombies after they left the square.

They approached the steps and gates to the Wizard’s palace when they were met by another army of zombies. “I’ve got this one,” said Lucy, and she walked near the zombies. Then she started dancing, a kind of Irish jig. The zombies looked at her curiously for a moment before making awkward stiff movements in an attempt to dance with her. Smiling in amusement, Bently and Pansy snuck around the mob and into the palace.

It was darker in here, and there was a huge rustling noise. Pansy and Bently lit their wands, but as soon as they did, they were attacked by millions of sharp beaks and flapping wings. The room was filled with chickens.

“God damn it! Why are these freaking things here anyways?” Bently cried out, exasperated.

“I don’t know! FLIPENDO!” Pansy yelled, blasting a wave of chickens backwards. “We need to fight them to the door!”

And so with magic, mainly Flipendo and Incendio, the pair fought their way across the front hall to the doors in the back. But when Bently tried them, he found them locked.

“Figures,” he said, wiping blood off his cheek. “We need to time this. I’ll unlock if you hold them off for a moment.”

“Right.”

“One, two, three! Alohomora!”

“Flipendo!”

Chickens were blasted back with squawks and bird-screams as Pansy and Bently slipped into the hallway. “Colloportus!” Pansy said, locking the door. They heard many chickens throw themselves against the door, trying to get to them, but they couldn’t get the door open. Soon, the noise died down.

“Well, that was an adventure,” said Pansy, still panting slightly. They lit their wand tips and continued down the dark passageway.