the rescue of OZ

can the scarecrow be beaten?

Prompt#1,2, and 3
Dorothy had been gone from Oz for nearly three years, the inhabitants that were there during that time began to age and die off, being replaced by others. Nothing ever changed in this land of wonders, the weather was always the same each and everyday.
One day there was a great earthquake in Oz. It shook everything with in the land very violently, and since this was the first time Oz had experienced this great shaking, as they called it, they were not prepared for it. The buildings throughout the land fell, a fissure opened up along the yellow brick road, causing most of it to disappear from sight. Even the Emerald City wasn’t spared the ravages of this shaking, as the throne room which once housed the great and powerful Oz, had caved in, exposing the mechanical devices he used to make himself more like someone to be feared by its enemies than anything else.
Many of the inhabitants of the lands were killed, the Loins whole family was killed when there Den, a cave in the side of a mountain collapsed in on them, they were all I there. The land started to fall into desolation, crops failed and for all intents and purposes the civilization of the once great Land of Oz had fallen.
What no one noticed as during the great shaking, when the first crack opened in the ground, and ancient evil came out of that crack and moved through the cornfield looking for a host to fill it needs. The entity moved through the cornfield killing everything in its wake, until it came across the body of the scarecrow laying beneath a fallen oak tree that toppled at the beginning of the shaking.
It was lifeless as it lay in the dirt, its head crushed beneath the weight of a big branch. The dark entity, which resembled that of a thick glob of grape jelly rolling across the field crawled up on the lifeless form, and it came back to life. The scarecrow placed its hands on the tree, which reacted to its touch by exploding, sending shards of it in every direction possible.
As the dust settled the scarecrow stood up, reached down and picked up its crushed head. A slight laughter could be heard as the head reformed itself, and he replaced it back up on his shoulders.
“Oh yes,” the scarecrow said, taking a deep breath, and fighting back a bit of laughter,” it’s good to be back!”
Taking its first step, which was a bit shaky, it slowly moved back into the field looking to fid its post to rest on for a bit. It didn’t take it long to find it, as it had been moved some years ago, a greater distance away from the yellow brick road, which was much more heavily used, or at least was before this happened.
A creepy laughter could be heard as it jumped up onto its perch, wrapped its arms around the supports, lowered its head and went to sleep. As the creature went into some sort of a sleep-like state, the creepy laughter died off until it could not be heard any longer.
With the catastrophe over, the road which was so heavily used, was abandoned, over time it fell into disrepair, as some of the bricks faded and tree roots which would have been cut away by the wood cutters tore up what was left of the road on either side of the crevice, leaving the once beautiful and sparkling road dark and muddy.
Time passed, and as time passed the scarecrow just stayed up on it post, sleeping. It came to the point that no one passing by ever even knew that it was there. And that which should not be forgotten, was forgotten, It was essentially forgotten by everyone, which is what the entity wanted as it afford him time to adjust to the new body and surroundings in this new land of his. Days turned into weeks, which turned into months, then years, and even decades.
The great cataclysm was eventually forgotten and repairs were made by those who remained to tell the tale. In time even they grew old and their stories became silenced as well.
It was a bright sunny day when the laughter was heard once again from the cornfield, where nothing but corn grew. Suddenly the scarecrow opened its eyes, leaped down off the poles where he rested, made his way out of the field onto the yellow brick road, the original was destroyed in the shaking, long ago, now it was replaced by a shiny new one, and a bridge over the crevice it created now stood.
The road wasn’t busy this day, but it happened that a tin man happened to be passing by the field as the scarecrow stepped out of it.
“Oh my Gosh!” he said as he saw his friend stepping out of the field onto the side of the road,” Scarecrow, Is it really you?”
The creature turned and looked at this being who approached him, unsure what to make of him, he decided to play along as this could become interesting.
“Why, Yes it is tin man,” the scarecrow answered,” It is nice to see you.”
“Its nice to see you too, but I thought you wee killed by the Old Oak Tree that fell in the field.”
The scarecrow tilted his head a bit as he thought a bit about what to say to him, “Well, obviously not! After all I am here.”
“That you are, my friend. That you are.”
After a few minutes of conversation, which drove the creature within the scarecrow crazy, as he wanted to just destroy this thing and move on, the two began to walk towards the remnants of the Emerald city, where he was on his way to the Lion memorial to remember him.
“Would you like to accompany me there?” he asked.
“Why I would be happy to, my friend.” The scarecrow replied in a happy tone.
The two of them made there way back onto the yellow brick road, over the bridge and on their way to the Emerald city. As they walked the creature looked about and saw the new Land of Oz that had been built over top of the old one he destroyed by coming here long ago now.
“Oh god they rebuilt everything,” the creature thought as they walked down the road.
The buildings were all new, the only difference between the past and now, was the presence of the cemeteries that now line the yellow brick road. Each one was more elaborate than the last one, all to commemorate the ones who died in the shaking.
Then they came to the one part of the land which was not restored, the munchkin village. As soon as they stepped on the part of the road that went past this village, a single tear fell down the tin mans cheek.
“Of course you remember the munchkins and what happened to them?” the tin man asked waving his hand over the village which they left undisturbed..
“My memory seems a bit foggy about that could you remind me?” the scarecrow asked.
The Tin man began regaling the tale of the great shaking which took place long ago, when there used to be a village here where the yellow brick and the read brick roads began, and how it was destroyed by the shaking, and caused a gas leak under the city, which resulted in an explosion that killed every single munchkin in the land.
During the tale being told, the two continued to walk slowly, making their way through the ruins of the town, and the cemetery just outside the village where they buried each and every one of them that they could find.
The tin man had to stop and wipe his tears away before he rusted again, only this time neither Dorothy nor Toto would be there to help him. While looking around at all the death that now inhabits this once happy land, the tin man caught sight of the scarecrow with a creepy smile on his face and a weird look in his eye, but he didn’t think much of it at this time. The two of them finally past the cemetery, and got back on their way t the Capital city.
“Did you hear that?” the tin man asked, as he heard some laughter.
The scarecrow listened rather intensely, or at least acted like he was.
“I don’t hear anything.” He said, “You are hearing things.”
“I thought I heard laughter.”
“Your crazy,” The scarecrow rebuffed him.
The tin man, in all the years they knew each other had never called him crazy. He began to take notice of this scarecrow as this don’t sound like the one he met years ago. As he watched the scarecrow, he began to notice all wild life; even crows were doing their best to avoid him. He even noticed that when the shadow of this scarecrow passed over a flower it wilted instantly; coming back to life once he passed. He knew this wasn’t the scarecrow he knew.
“Who are you?” the tin man asked stopping in his tracks where he was at.
“I am the scarecrow,” it answered.
Something within his head clicked, and he knew without a shadow of doubt this wasn’t his friend.
“The Scarecrow?” he asked.
“yes, The Scarecrow,” the scarecrow answered,” That is what I said.”
“No you aren’t,” tinman said,” What have done to him?”
Realizing that the gig was up, an evil grin wrapped itself around its face. He stopped and looked at him his eyes changed to its natural yellow with a black background, and his skin inside the mask he wore had turned back to its natural red.
“Me?” the scarecrow, now revealed to be a creature, answered him,” I have done nothing to your friend the scarecrow, he was already dead When I found him and took him over. You were right a tree did fall on his head, I just fixed it for me to use.”
“It was you that caused the great shaking! The tinman stated.
“Right again?” the scarecrow acknowledged as he bowed for all the credit.
As the creature bowed, the tin man, who was carrying his axe the whole time, raised it and tried to bring it down to chop off the head of this creature, In a move so quick they eye could not follow it, he reached up and grabbed the axe and refused to let it go.
The creature moved right up to the tin mans face, his dark eyes stared into the tin mans, which to him felt like he was on fire from the inside.
“Did you really think I could be destroyed so easily?” he asked, as he raised a hand to the sky, which on command darkens immediately.
As it did lightning came down and struck the tin man, followed by peals of thunder which rolled across the sky, and continued to strike him many times, when all of this had finished, the sky instantly clear up once again.
The scarecrow removed his hand from the tin mans body, which then falls over onto its back, with no life remaining in its body.
The scarecrow then hopped up onto the corpse, leaned over and looked into his now dark eyes.
“You see, tinman,” the creature said,” this is a new day for OZ, Dorothy is long since dead, you have no one to save you this time.”
The creature stood up, opened his jacket and a swarm of small four legged creatures emerged, their tiny wings carrying them towards his body and began to eat the tinman, devouring him within seconds. After the last of the tinman vanished, they returned to the creature’s coat. After he buttoned his coat, he turned around and started marching towards the emerald city which was just over the horizon, the strange eerie laughter filling the air behind him.
As he began to leave the spot where the tinman fell, and as the gates of the emerald city came into view, a strange green light appeared over the scarecrow. It grew brighter and brighter, as it grew brighter the creature could not tolerate it any longer. The light caused him pain, so he dropped to his knees while the pain the light caused ripped through his body like a hot knife through butter.
“Scarecrow!” A voice called out from the light,” I cannot allow you into the emerald city, for you would destroy this land.”
“I will destroy it. It is mine now, You cannot stop it.” The scarecrow said between screams of pain.
The creatures within his coat began to fly out to attack the cause of the light, but as soon as they got into the light, they turned to dust.
“You cannot win here,” the voice said,” I will win.”
“Who are you? the creature asked,” How can you do this?”
“Silly creature,” The voice mocked him,” I defeated you once creating this land and I will stop you now and defeat you forever.”
“That means you are God?”
“That is one of my names in one of my worlds,” The voice said,” I am called OZ here.”
The light suddenly got brighter and then the scarecrow turned to dust as the creatures did, and vanished from sight forever.