Oz

“You know what my favorite thing in the world is?” Rowan asked bitterly, sarcasm in her voice. She was tired, as the rest of the group was. Though they had come out of the dark forest, her mood had only been deteriorating. “When there is a fork in the road. Because you know, one could lead to a really nice place to be safe and the other can lead to a dark, shadowy path of death and doom.”

Standing next to her, Niall craned his neck, raising a single brow at her. Though Rowan was sour, Niall was not. Her best friend was never in a sour mood, no matter how tired he was. “That was beautiful.”

“Truly poetic,” Cecily agreed, a hint of a smile in her voice. Rowan simply grumbled and crossed her hands over her chest, waiting for someone to make some sort of decision. “Which road do we take, Liam?”

Their fearless leader stood stoic in front of them, looking hard at each road. Even though she wasn’t in his head, Rowan could see all the cranks and gears working to make a decision. Liam never made decisions without thinking about it thoroughly, which she was thankful for. Most of the time.

The way Rowan saw it, immediate and last minute decisions could sometimes save their lives. Like their last minute decision to walk away from the stream instead of along it. A camp of flying monkeys had been on the stream, and they would have walked right into it.

“To the right,” he said finally, nodding and moving forward. He was not waiting to double guess himself, and neither was anyone else, hurrying after him. “It seems like a path least traveled.”

“And that’s where we want to go?” Louis asked from the back. He seemed to be the only one equally as irritated as Rowan. The pair of them had been passing the time with sarcastic comments. The only difference was that Rowan wasn’t slow and didn’t trip on tree roots. “Where no one else is? What if we need help?”

“We won’t.”

Falling into line, the group moved along once again. Rowan constantly found herself glancing at their newest member, Harry, to make sure he hadn’t made off into the darkness of the woods. Though he had not given her a specific reason to dislike him, Rowan was not overly fond of the traveler.

As they walked, the landscape began to move downwards. They were all pushing into land that they had never been into before, exploring the edges of Oz that was unknown to them. For now, they just needed sanctuary that no one would look for them and decide what to do about the great peril in Oz.

Walking towards the bag, Niall tapped Rowan, making her glance at him. He gave her a smile as if to say to be happy. She tried, but it wasn’t a good smile. Rolling his eyes, he reached into his pack and pulled out mint leaves, offering one too her. She accepted it, popping it in her mouth and chewing, letting the mint flavor take over her mouth and awaken her senses.

“If you think about it,” Niall said, just loud enough for her to hear, “This is all sort of fun, isn’t it? Going to places we’ve never been, protecting one another. You and I were made for this.”

“Yeah,” she said absently, but she was disagreeing. She always knew that Niall was meant to go into the city and become someone big, with his family and all not. Rowan would always be a field worker. “Sure.”

As if reading her mind, he touched her wrist lightly. “You know you’re meant for something great, Rowan. Maybe this is it. Maybe you’ll find out what you’re supposed to do.”

“How do you know I’m meant for something great? I’m just a farm girl.”

He frowned. “Rowan Timbers, you have never been just a farm girl, and all of Oz knows it. You’re the girl who is ready to take on anything, and who is meant to do something great. You’re too loud and proud to go unnoticed by history.”

She smiled at him then. Even if no one else agreed with him, it really only mattered that Niall thought of her that way. “Thanks, Niall.”

“I don’t want to alarm anyone,” Cecily said then, as they moved alone the narrowing yellow brick road, “But the trees here are weird. Not bad… but weird.”

Everyone stopped their sideline conversations and began to take in their surroundings. They had been walking for almost two hours, and no one had really paid a mind to notice that the world around them was slowly changing. The trees were denser, vines growing between them, fruit popping up and flowers were becoming exotic.

It seemed the group was stumbling into a jungle in Oz. A jungle that had a panoply of different colors, splashing up the vegetation and plant life. Butterflies flew by then, making Rowan duck away from them. Something about them had always made her uncomfortable, to which Illythia giggled lightly at. She threw the other girl an irritated glance.

“Do we keep going?” Niall asked, nudging Rowan and gesturing to a strange frog as it crawled up the tree. It croaked and glowed with it, a bright blue light. The two blinked in surprise. “Right into the ‘weird trees’ as Cec so accurately calls them?”

She gave him a look. “I mean it in a bad way. They’re just very different.”

“So she really talks to trees, eh?” Harry asked Louis, who just stared at the curly haired boy. It was obvious that Harry was trying to be light and chipper, but he was definitely choosing the wrong person to do it with. “Touchy.”

“Yes,” Liam said, nodding and pointing towards where the road ended. “Everything here is healthy. It either rains a lot, or there is a water source near by. I haven’t seen any storm clouds in this direction, have you?”

“Nope,” Marianne answered, also in a cheery mood.

“Then let’s go find that water. We need to fill our canteens.”

“And take a bath,” Niall added, making Rowan smile a true smile at him. He returned it, throwing and arm around her and squeezing her into him good naturedly. She tried not to let it show on her face that his touch had a serious effect on her. “Oz knows I need one.”