"Professor Danton? That's her isn't it?" Professor McWigglesworth
said appearing catlike suddenly at his side as the girl vanished down
a corridor on her way to her new accommodations.
"Yes, Professor McWigglesworth, but we must not speak of it."
"She's not a true-shifter! She was changed! I can see the magic all
over her!"
"Tut, tut, McWigglesworth, she's of Faerie blood and their magic
allows them to change into whatever they wish - well, almost."
"That's not Fairy Magic residue dripping off her!"
"Glinda felt that her sudden discovery of her true identity and gender
was too much for young Ozma, and gave her a drink made with a potion
that - well, she created this new reality for her without the
pressures of being a head of state."
"You mean Coup d'etat. Why don't you say it? Pip, Ozma or Lisa
wouldn't play ball with pretty old witch, so she disappeared with a
case of poppy induced amnesia."
"We don't know that's the case at all! Besides she's not enchanted to
be a girl, she had been enchanted by that old witch Mombi into being a
boy for most of her life. After a few weeks and she comes to terms
with being female, maybe we can see about removing some of those
magical influences."
"Oh, Mombi, transformed into a rose again by Glinda and shipped off to
that poor beast man in France. No doubt ignominious ends for them
both. If Mombi remained in Oz, she wouldn't die. Though I suppose
being pressed in a book for eternity might be a form of torture. But
in the outside world, I've seen the reports in The Transformation
Standard, and she's dropping petals, and he's no closer to love that
poor man who Glinda turned into a frog for making a pass at her."
"Yes, I never understood that last part. I read it in the Standard,
but at the time Glinda - a master of transformation - was disguised as
a man. However did he see through her spell?"
"If you recall, Glinda was in Amsterdam at the time," McWigglesworth
said with a knowing nod.
"Uh? Yes, but I still don't see what that has to do with it?"
"When was the last time you were in Amsterdam?" she said pointedly.
"I was at Club Church last weekend, why?"
"Well, I -then why don't you understand why a man hit on Glinda when
she was in the form of a man?"
"Oh, come now, haven't you seen her as a man? Balding, big nose, late
middle age if not downright old!"
"You're describing the Wizard of Oz!"
"I thought you knew. Glinda and the Wizard are the same person."
"But I've seen them together!"
"Well, she is a powerful witch."
"But then what was all that with Dorothy, and the Wizard disappearing
in a balloon."
"To tell you the truth those magic slippers scared the pejeebeez out
of Glinda - me too. Nasty things, too powerful for their own good, and
full of capricious magic. The worst kind."
"Fine get Dorothy to wish herself home, but why the scene with the
balloon."
"Well, she won't admit it, but with the power vacuum created by
atomizing her two rivals in the East and West, and with a strawman to
set up on the throne in Emerald City, she really didn't need the
Wizard any more, and he was spreading herself a bit thin maintaining
to identities. She need to shore up things and home, and establish
friendly dictators in the East and West. Tin Man of course in the
East, though I guess the Scarecrow nominally took control of the East
too."
"I hate politics, and to involve such a little girl!"
"Well, she is the hereditary monarch and immortal fairy queen of Oz."
"Only as long as she remains in Oz. She's in Kansas now,"
McWigglesworth added with distaste.
"I don't care I think 50 feet over the Corn Palace and invisible is
the perfect place for the school."
"Oh, Danton, sometimes I think you'll be the death of me."
With that Danton shifted into a huge hairy wolfman monster of the like
that roamed the Earth in the days of the caveman. Standing nearly as
tall and broad as a black bear the dark gray creature bared his fangs,
"Here, kitty, kitty," he growled.
"Very funny!" said the catwoman sitting on the parapet 50 feet above
where they had been standing. "Come and get me."
"Grrowl," Dantonwolf shouted leaping 33 feet into the air.
"Are they always like that?" asked Hairy Petter the latest lycanthrope
to join the academy.
The weaselboy answered, "Pretty much." As he slunk on the ground with
his spine twisting in a very unnatural for humans, but natural for
weasels way.
Himoinie whispers, "The poor girl to think she lived all those years
as a boy without knowing she was really a girl."
Hairy opened his mouth, but the look he got from Weasleboy that said
don't even think about saying it, unless you want Himoinie to hurt you
really really bad.
"I say maybe we should go meet this Lisa and welcome her!" Hairy said
leaping out of his robes and scampering on all fours down the corridor
which Lisa had left earlier.
Weaselboy shot out of his robes in his tiny furry form in hot pursuit.
"Wait for me, boys," called Himoinie. The thunderous footsteps told
anyone within a 100 yards that Himoinie was coming, and it might be
wise to get out of the way, as she tended to be a bit of a Juggernaut,
flattening everything or one in her path.