The Giant Garden of Oz by Eric Shanower

Author:Eric Shanower
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2015-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Imogene sank lower. Her shoulders disappeared, then her cowbell. She stopped mooing as soil flowed into her mouth. As Imogene disappeared, soil closed around Dorothy’s hands. It crept up her arms, but she wouldn’t let go. She watched the ground coming up to meet her.

“Wizard!” she screamed.

The Wizard was pawing frantically through his black bag for something to help. At Dorothy’s scream he dropped the bag. He sprinted to her as soil engulfed her head and chest.

Dorothy kicked her legs in the air, trying to find purchase. She felt the Wizard’s hands grab her ankles and pull. Her shoes and socks slipped off. Soil covered her bare feet.

She was pulled down through loose earth. Small stones scraped her face. She wanted to breathe, but didn’t dare open her mouth. Suddenly, she was tugged free of the loose earth into a hot, black tunnel sloping steeply downward and drawn behind Imogene down the rough tunnel floor. It hurt, but Dorothy did not let go of Imogene’s horns.

Dorothy tried to call out, but the dusty, burning air was nearly impossible to breathe.

Pointed teeth stabbed the backs of her hands and fingers. Her fingers convulsed in surprise and pain. She released the horns, though she meant to hold on. Her downward motion stopped. Imogene’s despairing moo receded down the tunnel until Dorothy heard it no longer.

Dorothy lay still. What now? How could she find Imogene underground in the dark? She remembered Aunt Em and Uncle Henry waiting in the farmhouse. She wondered about Toto and Billina. She felt responsible for all of them, but didn’t know who to help first or how to help at all.

She started to raise herself on hands and knees, but the movement made her slide headfirst down the steep tunnel. She dropped flat onto the slope and dug in her fingers, slowing to a stop.

Dirt and stones inside her shirt made her itch. Her hands stung where the moles had bitten them. If she moved she would slide farther down the tunnel. She wished that she had never visited Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. Then she wouldn’t be lying underground in a mole tunnel. None of this would have happened.

But it had happened. She was alone and frightened. She didn’t know what to do. She lay on the steep tunnel floor and cried.

After a while she felt better. She realized she was no use to anyone lying in a black tunnel. She had to climb out. Carefully she rolled onto her back and felt the tunnel around her. The rough earthen sides curved up from the floor. Dorothy braced her hands against the sides and cautiously sat up. Her head bumped the ceiling of the tunnel. By bracing her arms and head against the tunnel, she managed to turn so that she stood on hands and knees facing up the slope.

Digging her fingers into the earth, shifting her hands and knees rhythmically upward, she crawled up the tunnel. Sweat dripped from her hair. Her shirt and shorts stuck to her body.

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