It was a warm sunny day in a thriving place with flowers growing and the river moving ever so slightly, almost something you would look for in a fairytale. King Timothy was out for his afternoon stroll admiring everything. He loved smelling the flowers and sitting by the brooke watching the dragonflies dance around him. His favorite was listening to the green slimy frogs and the dry soft crickets chirping in the yellow of the sun. He lived in a land called  Ruby City his palace in fact was right in the middle of it. He was the king of this land. Although there were not many people living there, he ruled over all multitudes including the creatures living in the dark forest beyond the well known grass field and the lovely stream. This was his home he knew it very well and never wanted to leave, never in a million years. He would see just how much he should have appreciated his beloved city, Ruby City.

    His day usually started with him going to breakfast. Which was actually his butlers and servants bringing food to his room. Unless he was on his deep thoughtful morning walk around the palace then they would just leave it in his office until he returned. One day he was out on his 

morning walk and he saw a shadow of someone out in the dark forest. He was frightened at first but the frightening shadow looked like it belonged to one of his shiny guards in armor out doing patrol around the forest to keep the fearsome creatures out. With this came a sigh of relief for he was not armed. As he continued his walk he heard a noise it sounded like the squeaking of metal when the hinges are not well oiled. He continued and as he did, more bizarre things started happening to him. He felt something brush up against him it was cold and rough, then he smelled something in the air. It was metallic and smelled of rusting metal. He then got a funny feeling and decided to leave because of the abnormal feelings that had been happening to him. He went back to his palace and started to eat breakfast as he worked in his office. Although he had been completely fine and unhurt, Prince Timothy found it very hard to work and he found himself drifting off and thinking about his morning walk. He wondered if the feelings he was having were because of his imagination. He would certainly find out the next day, when he met someone that would change his life forever.

    The next day started very normal just like any other day. He went out for his thoughtful morning walk to gather his thoughts before starting his day. He walked out by the grass field chasing the dragonflies and listening to the soft chirping of the birds. He watched the fish jumping happily in the brooke. This was how he wanted to spend his life. Everything was fine until the Tin Man jumped up into the air and landed on  Prince Timothy. The shock that Prince Timothy felt was enough to almost give him a heart attack.

 The Tin Man was jealous of the Prince.  He watched every morning as Timothy came out of his palace to go on his morning walks. He dreamed of being out there in the grass field with flowers growing and the brooke flowing freely. He wished he could be out there and not stuck and 

concealed inside of the boring dark forest. He wanted to be a river flowing with the current and moving with the wind so that he could be free to go traveling everywhere.

Which is why he wanted to kidnap Prince Timothy and take him to Oz.  He thought he could trap Timothy in Oz and then come back and become the all mighty king. This is why he sprung into the air and placed a black leather bag over the prince’s head. Timothy struggled and fought brutally against the Tin Man, but eventually began to get tired. The Prince became so tired that he couldn’t move at all while he was being carried away. He couldn’t even scream  as no one would hear him.

 After five days of hanging off of the hard uncomfortable metal of the Tin Man, without food and only two tiny miniscule sips of water a day, Prince Timothy began to get very sick and often wondered if he would ever see his family.  At this point he was about to die and didn’t even care where he was going. After five days of fighting the tin man he gave up. Every time he punched or severely dented the Tin Man he would just keep on strolling on without a care in the world.

    On the sixth day he suddenly felt a rush of magic.  He felt completely, totally, ultimately,utterly, wholly, healed. He could once again feel his head, arms, legs, feet, toes, and fingers. He could bend his arms and knees. He was perfect again but how?

 He tried to kick the Tin Man over and run for his life but when he tried nothing happened.  He fell over instantly. It felt like his legs were of straw and for that matter his whole body. He looked at the Tin Man and then back at himself.  And there lying on the ground was not a prince, not even Timothy. Lying on the ground was a scarecrow. He was startled and started to slowly pat himself. He slowly realized that he was a scrawny skinny scarecrow. He asked the Tin Man what had happened to him in a demanding voice. The Tin Man replied in a sly voice with a grin 

painted all over his face. The Tin Man said to him you are in Oz, the land filled with pleasant little munchkins and two evil witches, the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East.  You’d better watch out he said or they will get you! But then the Tin Man realized that the scarecrow had no brain not even an undersized one. You also have no brain the Tin Man said. I don’t know how you will ever escape. Ahh...well I have to go back to Ruby city to be the new king he said. And right after that he helped the scarecrow to his feet and led him over to a brown wooden towering pole. He propped him up against the soaring pole and then hoisted him up onto a hook by his green itchy sweater.  The Prince was now dangling. He screamed after the Tin Man but he didn’t look back. The scarecrow was all alone.

 He started to cry. He wished he could be with his family in the palace again. Soft wet tears rolled down his straw cheeks. For once he felt the feeling of true loneliness. It was completely wretched and dramatic and he kept crying for hours. Finally he fell fast asleep. Every day he woke up and started to cry. Then he would fall asleep again in the cold of night. It was a never ending cycle.

    One cold brisk morning scarecrow woke up to a extremely pleasant sound. It sounded like a girl singing sweetly. A young girl with brown braided hair and a small black dog came right up to the fork in the road where the scarecrow was and stopped her glorious singing.  She had a look of dismay on her face and was very confused. The scarecrow pointed and said that way is a pretty nice way. Then the girl got even more confused her face looked as if she had a permanent frown streaked across her beautiful face. Then he pointed the other way and said some go that way too. She looked at the scarecrow as if he had talked. She stared at her dog that was sitting so patiently and intently as if he was a statue. She looked at the dog as if to ask if the scarecrow had

just talked. It was as if she had never been in Oz before in her life. Everything in Oz was alive, even the trees. As she started to walk to the left the scarecrow then pointed both ways and said well some go both ways too. Then the little girl walked over to prince Timothy and said you do talk. With excitement in her voice she took the scarecrow down and Prince Timothy could finally stand and talk. And as he knew… coming to Oz was a pleasant catastrophe.