Hello lovelies! Did you miss me? I had to take a break
from illustration as I ran into technical troubles (my laminator kept chewing
up paper) and then needed to restock on some coloured paper (because they had
all been eaten by my laminator), but the shops were out of stock. Then I needed
to dedicate my time to painting some signs for the Black lives Matter protest
in town, so I put away Oz for a week until I could get things sorted.
We last left off with the Wicked Witch being melted
and Dorothy rescued the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow and had them restored to
life after freeing the Lion. Our intrepid friends are now heading back to the
Emerald City, but they get lost. In a strange continuity error Dorothy blows on
a silver whistle that was supposedly given to her by the Queen of the Filed
Mice. This never happened in their previous meeting. I have checked and double
checked.
Anyway, the Queen tells Dorothy she can use the Golden
cap which she thought was just a bit of bling to call the Winged Monkeys.
Dorothy blew the little whistle she had
always carried about her neck since the Queen of the Mice had given it to her.
In a few minutes they heard the pattering of tiny feet, and many of the small
grey mice came running up to her. Among them was the Queen herself, who asked,
in her squeaky little voice:
"What can I do for my friends?"
"We have lost our way," said
Dorothy. "Can you tell us where the Emerald City is?"
"Certainly," answered the Queen;
"but it is a great way off, for you have had it at your backs all this
time." Then she noticed Dorothy's Golden Cap, and said, "Why don't
you use the charm of the Cap, and call the Winged Monkeys to you? They will
carry you to the City of Oz in less than an hour."
"I didn't know there was a
charm," answered Dorothy, in surprise. "What is it?"
"It is written inside the Golden
Cap," replied the Queen of the Mice. "But if you are going to call
the Winged Monkeys we must run away, for they are full of mischief and think it
great fun to plague us."
"Won't they hurt me?" asked the
girl anxiously.
"Oh, no. They must obey the wearer of
the Cap. Good-bye!" And she scampered out of sight, with all the mice
hurrying after her.
Dorothy looked inside the Golden Cap and
saw some words written upon the lining. These, she thought, must be the charm,
so she read the directions carefully and put the Cap upon her head.
"Ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke!" she
said, standing on her left foot.
"What did you say?" asked the
Scarecrow, who did not know what she was doing.
"Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo!" Dorothy
went on, standing this time on her right foot.
"Hello!" replied the Tin Woodman
calmly.
"Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!" said
Dorothy, who was now standing on both feet. This ended the saying of the charm,
and they heard a great chattering and flapping of wings, as the band of Winged
Monkeys flew up to them.
The King bowed low before Dorothy, and
asked, "What is your command?"
This is my illustration. I decided to model my Winged Monkey
off of those monkeys from that game A Barrel of Monkeys. I loved this game as a
child where you tried to hook all the monkeys together with their strange S-shaped
arms until you had a whole string of plastic monkeys. Hours of entertainment. I
tried to print the monkey on the piece of grey card, but the printer jammed destroying
my paper (what is it with all electrical appliances conspiring against me and
eating all my paper???) so I had to draw it myself based on a photocopy on
plain paper. Sigh…I made him a little waistcoat and fez (fezzes are cool!) from
felt.
"We wish to go to the Emerald
City," said the child, "and we have lost our way."
"We will carry you," replied the
King, and no sooner had he spoken than two of the Monkeys caught Dorothy in
their arms and flew away with her. Others took the Scarecrow and the Woodman
and the Lion, and one little Monkey seized Toto and flew after them, although
the dog tried hard to bite him.
The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman were
rather frightened at first, for they remembered how badly the Winged Monkeys
had treated them before; but they saw that no harm was intended, so they rode
through the air quite cheerfully, and had a fine time looking at the pretty gardens
and woods far below them.
Dorothy found herself riding easily
between two of the biggest Monkeys, one of them the King himself. They had made
a chair of their hands and were careful not to hurt her.
"Why do you have to obey the charm of
the Golden Cap?" she asked.
"That is a long story," answered
the King, with a winged laugh; "but as we have a long journey before us, I
will pass the time by telling you about it, if you wish."
"I shall be glad to hear it,"
she replied.
This is my second illustration. One of the things Baum
is so good at is backstory. In the film the Flying Monkeys are just scary, but
here they have a whole backstory of their own. And what an interesting
backstory it is! I thought it was worth having a story in a library pocket.
Now, the story was meant to be printed on yellow card, but the laminator ate
it. Twice. And then there was no more yellow paper. There are so few shops open
right now due to lockdown and arts and craft materials are not being restocked
quickly (or at all.) No more coloured card could be found so I printed it on
white.
"Once," began the leader,
"we were a free people, living happily in the great forest, flying from
tree to tree, eating nuts and fruit, and doing just as we pleased without
calling anybody master. Perhaps some of us were rather too full of mischief at
times, flying down to pull the tails of the animals that had no wings, chasing
birds, and throwing nuts at the people who walked in the forest. But we were
careless and happy and full of fun and enjoyed every minute of the day. This
was many years ago, long before Oz came out of the clouds to rule over this
land.
"There lived here then, away at the
North, a beautiful princess, who was also a powerful sorceress. All her magic
was used to help the people, and she was never known to hurt anyone who was
good. Her name was Gayelette, and she lived in a handsome palace built from
great blocks of ruby. Everyone loved her, but her greatest sorrow was that she
could find no one to love in return, since all the men were much too stupid and
ugly to mate with one so beautiful and wise. At last, however, she found a boy
who was handsome and manly and wise beyond his years. Gayelette made up her
mind that when he grew to be a man she would make him her husband, so she took
him to her ruby palace and used all her magic powers to make him as strong and
good and lovely as any woman could wish. When he grew to manhood, Quelala, as
he was called, was said to be the best and wisest man in all the land, while
his manly beauty was so great that Gayelette loved him dearly and hastened to
make everything ready for the wedding.
"My grandfather was at that time the
King of the Winged Monkeys which lived in the forest near Gayelette's palace,
and the old fellow loved a joke better than a good dinner. One day, just before
the wedding, my grandfather was flying out with his band when he saw Quelala
walking beside the river. He was dressed in a rich costume of pink silk and
purple velvet, and my grandfather thought he would see what he could do. At his
word the band flew down and seized Quelala, carried him in their arms until
they were over the middle of the river, and then dropped him into the water.
"'Swim out, my fine fellow,' cried my
grandfather, 'and see if the water has spotted your clothes.' Quelala was much
too wise not to swim, and he was not in the least spoiled by all his good
fortune. He laughed, when he came to the top of the water, and swam in to
shore. But when Gayelette came running out to him she found his silks and
velvet all ruined by the river.
"The princess was angry, and she
knew, of course, who did it. She had all the Winged Monkeys brought before her,
and she said at first that their wings should be tied and they should be
treated as they had treated Quelala, and dropped in the river. But my
grandfather pleaded hard, for he knew the Monkeys would drown in the river with
their wings tied, and Quelala said a kind word for them also; so that Gayelette
finally spared them, on condition that the Winged Monkeys should ever after do
three times the bidding of the owner of the Golden Cap. This Cap had been made for
a wedding present to Quelala, and it is said to have cost the princess half her
kingdom. Of course my grandfather and all the other Monkeys at once agreed to
the condition, and that is how it happens that we are three times the slaves of
the owner of the Golden Cap, whosoever he may be."
"And what became of them?" asked
Dorothy, who had been greatly interested in the story.
"Quelala being the first owner of the
Golden Cap," replied the Monkey, "he was the first to lay his wishes
upon us. As his bride could not bear the sight of us, he called us all to him
in the forest after he had married her and ordered us always to keep where she
could never again set eyes on a Winged Monkey, which we were glad to do, for we
were all afraid of her.
"This was all we ever had to do until
the Golden Cap fell into the hands of the Wicked Witch of the West, who made us
enslave the Winkies, and afterward drive Oz himself out of the Land of the
West. Now the Golden Cap is yours, and three times you have the right to lay
your wishes upon us."
As the Monkey King finished his story
Dorothy looked down and saw the green, shining walls of the Emerald City before
them. She wondered at the rapid flight of the Monkeys but was glad the journey
was over. The strange creatures set the travellers down carefully before the
gate of the City, the King bowed low to Dorothy, and then flew swiftly away,
followed by all his band.
Here they are side by side.
Stay tuned –next time we meet the Wizard!
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