Where EQ meets the Old West

AU from the world of ElfQuest  •  Posted at EQ Forums  •  EQ Mainsite

All Good Things are Three - part 2

By Rainflower

Since no one have posted something for a while I'll allow myself to post the next piece of the backstory of Crescent. Enjoy everyone and please tell me what you think.

The only thing Crescent could remember from the horrible trip up in the air was that she had been very, very dizzy when the stable was spinning and spinning until she lost track of time. Therefore she couldn't tell how long she had been up there. She only remembered the stable had made a huge crash when it finely landed.

She wasn't able to get up at the first moment and had to lie down for a while. The stable had stopped spinning; now she had to wait till her head stopped spinning. That took a while before she finely managed to sit up. Instead she could hear birds singing and feel a sweet smell of flowers and nature.

The stable had landed with the wall down, but the walls had been badly treated ion the landing. There was planks hay all over and the hay was stuck on incredible places; including all over her. She had to sneeze when she got a straw in her nose and wondered how she had managed to get hay in her bloomers.

While she was picking out the straws in her braids, she heard barking outside of the stable, and she remembered the little puppy she had brought with her. How did he get out? She noticed several holes in what had been the roof. Planks were sticking out from everywhere; several of them were missing and brought fresh daylight in. Crescent got up and tried to climb to the best place to get out. Then she discovered the doors; they were damaged, but made a big opening for her to get out.

Outside she was amazed by the sight that met her. A lovely forest surrounded the place, flowers on the size of her head in shapes she had never pictured herself. There were little round things on the ground in between the trees; she could swear it looked like little houses. They were also to be found in the trees, with little sticks that run out of the tree that looked like circular stairs up to the houses.

"I'm not home anymore, that's for sure." she said to herself.

She had heard of houses and thing, even people and animals that was taken far away by tornadoes. That had just happened to her; she had been taken away with the stable to this strange place far away from her hometown.

The barking interrupted her thoughts and she remembered the puppy.

"Buddy?" she called when she heard him, it came from the other side of the stable ruins and she run to see if he was alright. The little dog was barking at something at the ground, but stopped when Crescent lifted him up. She started petting him and scratch behind his ears. "What are you so noisy for you little..." she paused when she looked at the ground.

A couple of striped stockings with some beautiful sparkling shoes on them were sticking out under the ruins. The toes pointed right up and they weren't moving at all.

"Oh, high ones..." she gasped as she realized what had happened. "I have killed someone!"

She stepped back from the feet pointing out from under the house. Then she became aware of some strange noises behind her and turned around but couldn't see anyone.

"Hey! Bigthing watch'it!" she heard someone say from down.

"Sorry I..."she jumped back and gave a little cry at the surprise. At first she only spotted flowers, but then she became aware that they were moving. A couple of large eyes showed up under them, then a face, and then a body. One had purple skin, one had yellow, and one of them, probably the one who had called out, was green. He walked over to the two legs that showed up under the stable. Then he turned to his fellows and yelled out. "She's dead! We're free at last."

The other little creatures suddenly started to exult happily and more of them came out of the little houses. Some were running down the stairs around the trees, and some others were flying on birds. They all came to see the dead one under the stable to see by themselves. Then they started singing, theirs voices high.

Badthing flatsqueezed, Badthing dead

Badthing got big bang in head

And now Wethings finely

Happy happy we can be

Crescent stood and watched them while they sung of joy. The thought that she had been the reason for someone's death wasn't much to celebrate she thought, but obviously these little creatures were happy to get rid of her. The song was quite silly, and for a moment she could only laugh.

Highthing save us

Highthing kind

Highthing came from big blue sky

Untill Highthing flingy down

And now Wething safe and...oooooh!

They suddenly stopped singing and looked up at the sky. Crescent turned around to the place where they looked and saw a large blowing bubble coming right to her. She had to duck to not get it in her head. The bubble kept flying and crashed right into one of the trees before landing in the grass. Then it appeared a tall woman appeared out of the light, an elf. She was dressed in a large light blue garment that looked like cloud. Her hair was white and a crystal diadem with a star in it that was covering her forehead. She looked like and elder, Crescent thought, but she eyes were not at all old, neither did she have wrinkles or anything like that. She held a long staff in her hand with a star like the one on her diadem. This elf woman was now lying on the grass pretty confused after hitting the tree with that speed.

Crescent wasn't sure of what to do, but decided to go help her. "Are you alright ma'am?" she asked her. The elf woman shocked her head before answering.

"My oh my, I always hit something when I'm flying…" She noticed Crescent and smiled at her. "I didn't hit you did I?"

Crescent smiled back. "I'm fine, but are you?"

"Oh, I'm alright, thank you. Oh thank you, my dear." she said and took the hand Crescent offered her. "Oh I really hit it this time." she said before she suddenly started laughing out loud, followed by all of the little creatures around them. Crescent couldn't find the humor in crashing in a tree like that; this was obviously a thing that happened normally in this place.

The woman rose and looked at her again. "Now tell me, who are you my dear?"

Crescent looked up at the woman's face. "I am Crescent, ma'am."

"Crescent? What a beautiful name. Myself is named Northa, and I am the witch of the north."

"You're a witch?" Crescent asked. Witches was something she had imagined looking more like a troll, and old and wrinkly; this woman seemed as young as she was, except she was much taller. "But you're so...young and beautiful."

The elf obviously found her comment funny because she started laughing out loud again. "Oh my, oh my , oh my. That was really funny. Me - young? Well I'm happy it looks that way." Then she suddenly turned to the broken stable and got silent. She walked over to it and to the side where the dead person known as Badthing was lying with her toes up. "Oh my, what happened here?"

The little green man run over to her. H"ighthing made her dead and Wething's free at last."

Crescent looked over to the feet under the crushed stable. "I swear, it was an accident. I didn't mean..."

"Of course you didn't, but anyhow, by showing up, you have just saved the village of the preservers."

"Village of the what?" Crescent asked.

"The preservers. Their job is to preserve all the beauty in the forest here, which was very difficult with the wicked witch of the east, Easta, lurking around wanting them to work for her and sometimes even taking prisoners. But now they're free thank to you. You defeated her."

"Hey, hold on! I didn't defeat anyone. I was just flying with the stable which landed on her."

"Oh, but you defeated her anyway. You did or else you wouldn't have the magical crystal shoes on you."

"What do you mean? I haven't got…"she gasped when she saw that the beautiful shoes that had been on the witch's feet, was now on her feet. How did they get there without her noticing it?

"Do you believe me now?" Northa said.

Crescent didn't know what to say. The shoes couldn't possibly have walked over to her and put themselves on like that? "I...I don't understand..."

"It's magic, my dear." Northa said. "It's not meant to be understood, all you can do is to accept it."

Crescent suddenly felt helpless. She knew now that she was far from the home she knew. When she thought back she hadn't really wanted to leave home. Be careful what you wish for, a thought hit her; now she really knew the meaning of that. But it had all been so unfair that she hadn't thought. She felt how tears started filling her eyes.

"Oh my, what is the matter, Crescent?" the witch said and laid a hand on her shoulder. Crescent wiped the tears away and looked at her.

"I wanna go home. I didn't mean it when I wanted to get away from home. I was just so sad."

"Oh, but Crescent, you cant go home. There is no way." The witch raced her eyebrows. "When we talk about it, how did you get here anyway? Normally there is no way to get here to Oz. There is a large deadly desert around the Land of Oz, impossible to get over without flying."

"I was in the stable when the tornado passed and took it with it; I did fly over here!" Crescent said trying hard to stop crying.

"Oh? That explains. Northa didn't answer at first, she seemed to be thinking. After a minute, she smiled.

"Now I know it! Crescent," she said lifting up her cheek to face her. "Thjere is a way for you to get home."

Crescent's eyes went wide of happiness. "Really? How? Please tell me!"

"You have to get to the Wizard of Oz. He is the most powerfull wizard that has ever exsisted in Oz. Maybe he'll help you find your way home."

"Do you really think so?"

"I'm sure he will."

"Where is he?"

"He lives in the Green palace, and that is in the end of this road." Northa said and pointed with her staf in the direction of a road that went from the little village. It was a long way made of yellow bricks, reaching as far as her eyes could see. It looked beautiful against the blue sky and the green grass.

"Will you go with me, please ma'am?" she asked the kind witch.

Northa burst into her loud clucking laughter again. "Ma'am? Ha ha ha. That was a funny name. Please, just call me Northa." Then she went serious again. "But no, Crescent. I cannot go with you. I have to protect the preservers. Now that the witch of the east is gone, her sister, the witch of the west might will show up looking for her sisters shoes. She might come look for you too, since you're the one wearing them, but don't worry. As long as you wear them on, nothing will be able to hurt you, so you will be completely safe."

Crescent didn't like the thought of having a witch, an evil one, chasing after her, but realized that she had no choice. "Well, alright. Thank you anyway."

Northa bent down and kissed her on her forehead. "There. Now you are protected with my mark too. I wish you good luck, Crescent. Good bye."

"Good bye, Northa. Thank you so much. Come'on Buddy." The little puppy yelped after her when she started walking to the road she had to go to get to the Green Palace. After a while she turned back and saw that Northa and the little preservers were waving at her. She smiled and waved back to them, feeling a sudden strength grow inside of her. Maybe it was the kiss from Northa that in a magical way made her feel better? She couldn't tell, but right now she didn't care.

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She hadn't walked for very long before she came to a field with apple trees, and she discovered that she was feeling terribly hungry. She hadn't come for lunch, and it had probably not been lunch at home at all.

"Wait here, Byddy. I'll just grab some food here." The owner couldn't possibly blame her for taking just a couple of the apples. She started gathering in between the lowest branches when she suddenly heard something.

"Hello there?"

Crescent let out a yelp whe she heard it, quickly turning around when she heard the call. At a moment she thought it was the owner of the apple field, but there was no one there, and she let out a sigh of relief.

"Hello? Help me please help me!"

She turned around again. She couldn't possibly figure out where the voice came from.

"Heeelp!"

There! It came from the tree. Could that be possible? She had head of talking trees in fairytales as a child, and since she was in a magical world right now, maybe...

She didn't get time to think before she heard it again. "I know you're there, why don't you answer?"

Crescent didn't know what to say, she had never spoken to a tree before and didn't know how to react at all. "Um...I'm sorry, Mr. Tree, I..."

"Tree? Who do you call tree?" the voice responded. "I may not be a man, or an elf or anything whatever moves around, but I am absolutely NOT a tree!"

"But what are you then? WHERE are you?"

"Up here, up here. Help me get down, please?"

Crescent looked up and discovered a couple of legs dangling down and kicking wildly from the upper branches. "Hold on, I'll come up and help you, sir."

She had great experience in climbing in trees, and it was a small piece for her to get up to the man hanging stuck. When she climbed she swore she could recall those pants from somewhere, but couldn't figure out where from. She had reached the branch where he was stuck and tried to get from behind him. "Okay now, I don't know how to do this, but I'll do my best. Your shirt seems to be stuck, but I'll see if I can - WHAT THE..."

As the person turned around she got another shock. There was no man, or an elf or anything like that; it was the scarecrow from the oat field back home. He was here in this weird magical world. She flow back at the sight of him and almost fell down of the branch. She managed to grab another branch sticking out before she fell, and clenched hard to it.

"High Ones help me!" she whispered.

The branch she was holding wouldn't bare her and before she could get it the branch broke and she fell of the branch with a scream. Luckily she managed to grab the waistcoat of the scarecrow.

"HEY! Let go of me; you'll rip me apAAAAAAAHH!"

The scarecrow was dragged along with Crescent and the next moment they were both at the grass covered ground. It wasn't as hard as expected, but to have someone landing on you isn't good when you fall as well, Crescent thought. The scarecrow was practically lying on her lap. For a moment she thought that she had been having visions, but the next the scarecrow tuned his head once more and looked at her. "Gees. If I had known that it wouldn't hurt to land like that I wouldn't have screamed that much for help. But then again I don't think...wait, I can't think, can I?"

"Y-you-you're...TALKING?" Crescent managed to get out.

The scarecrow started looking out in the air like he was reasoning. "It sure sounds like I'm doing so, but don't ask me how I do it."

"But that's not possible!" Crescent exclaimed. She was unable to make any movement, partly because she was stunned and because the scarecrow was sitting on her.

"Get of me!" she shouted to him. This was getting once too much out of control for her sake. The scarecrow rolled over and tumbled on the ground while Crescent stumbled to get up on her feet. This is insane, he was hanging in the field like a lifeless sack of straw, how could he possibly be moving and talking like a real person? Maybe this magical place had affected him and made him real. But how did he get here?

The Scarecrow tumbled off her and got up in sitting position. "I'm sorry. Did I do anything wrong?" he asked.

"No eh...no you...but..." Crescent closed her mouth realizing that she was talking to the Scarecrow again. He's not real, she kept telling herself. But as she took a look on him she could see that he looked pretty lost and confused, just like herself had been a couple of hours ago. Was he afraid too? "It's okay, you didn't do anything. It's just that you're the least person I had expected to meet here. I thought maybe...you were back in Two Moons on the field."

"Well I was when that horrible twisting and turning and blowing thing dragged me of my stack and took me here."

"You mean the tornado?"

"Is that what you call it?"

"Call what?"

"The thing that blows. You know, it drags on the trees and carry things away. it takes little leafs with it, bow down the oat and the grass and blows sand in your face."

"Are you talking about the wind?"

"Right! That's it. The wind took me here."

Crescent stood in silence for a moment. Never in her life had she ever met someone as stupid as the Scarecrow. "No, you don't understand. The wind blows, but when it gets as strong as that and starts to spin around it creates something we call a tornado."

The Scarecrow scratched the straws on his head under the hat. "Really? But what's the wind then?"

Crescent rolled her eyes. "But you just said it!"

"Said what? I said so much I don't think I catch it myself."

"You said that the tornado blew you away." Crescent said trying hard not to start yelling.

"Yeah, but I still don't know how I got here."

"Oh High Ones!" she said and rolled her eyes

"Who're they?" the Scarecrow asked again.

"Not the point..." Crescent was getting so annoyed by his stupid questions, but knew it wouldn't help if she got angry on him. Instead she took a deep breath before she slowly started explaining again. "The tornado blew you from Two Moons and into this land. Did you get in now?"

The scarecrow did nothing but looking at her for about ten seconds before he suddenly nodded. "Oooh, I see. My, you are really incredibly smart. I wish I had your brain."

"What? Haven't you got one of your own?"

"No, I haven't." suddenly the scarecrow bowed his head. "My head is made of straws and there's nothing else inside of me either." He looked so sad, Crescent thought suddenly remembering how pitiful he looked at the field, just hanging like a sack you didn't need for anything. His shirt was patched up several places. The purple waistcoat was worn out and had lost two buttons and the head, an old sack with painted eyes and mouth, was stuffed and bounded with a rope around the neck. As a scarecrow he looked ordinary, but as a living, walking and talking creature, he looked miserable. The strange understanding she had felt for him then came back and blew away her anger.

"I'm sorry." She didn't know what to say to him. what could she talk about with a scarecrew? "Are you...I mean did you break anything?"

The scarecrow looked up. "No, I don't think so. You know what+ I really forget my manners. Thank you so much for getting me down from the tree. Did you get hurt when I landed in you?"

"No I didn't. I guess I'll get a blue mark, but nothing serious. Besides you weren't heavy at all."

"Good. I didn't think that far, but then I'm not able to think - I think." He started scratching his head again, but was soon interrupted by a strange rumbling sound. "What was that?"

"That was my stomach." Crescent said holding around her belly. She had completely forgotten why she walked out here. "I really need to eat, you don't mind that?"

"Of course not. You don't mind that I sit with you, do you?"

"Sure you can. You don't eat much, do you?"

"No, but I'd like a talk."

So they sat down under the large apple tree, Crescent eating while the Scarecrow watched Buddy sniffing around and playing.

"Why do you want a brain so much?" she suddenly asked. The scarecrow looked at her, his painted mouth smiling.

"Well if I had one I would be better in everything. Or at least I would be a better scarecrow."

"But do you need a brain to only scare crows away?"

"We scarecrows do nothing but that, but I'm not particularly good at scaring crows." He suddenly lowered his head. "You saw that for yourself."

"Yes, I..." Crescent said before almost jumping up from her sitting position. "Wait a minute; you saw me there?"

"Of course I did."

"Did you hear me too?"

"Yes. It was a really sad story you told me, but I didn't understand much of it."

"You mean you heard everything I said?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"But you weren't alive then, were you? I thought you came to life when you came here."

"No, I have been alive from the day I was made. Don't know why, but I have. I could move and talk and do things I do now. But I seemed to scare people away every time I did something and someone saw me. There was a man walking when I waved to him, and he screamed like he was bitten or something. So I only did it when I was alone, or when I scared the crows. I was quite proud of myself cause I managed to scare the crows away for a long while. But one day one craw landed on me and started picking on me and pulling out my straws. And when he flew away he figured out I couldn't get loose from the post I was bounded to, so the crows could continue eating the entire oat without getting trouble." He looked down again. "And when the farmer found out he and his son stood and complained that I was so useless. His son said it was because I was a brainless straw bag. And he's probably right."

"It sounds boring to just hang and scare crwos all the time. Wouldn't you like to become something else?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know. But maybe you could get an education or something. That's where I have my knowledge from, because I've learned it in school."

The Scarecrow raced as he got on the thought. "Oh that would be wonderful. But wait." the happiness he had felt a second ago disappeared and he leaned to the tree with a sad expretion. "Don't you need a brain to do that?"

"Um...I guess..." Crescent stopped eating and looked at the half eaten apple in her hand. She was thinking about the Wizard the witch of the North was talking about. In fact she wasn't sure she believed that he had so much power that he could send her home again, but if he had, he must have enough power to help the Scarecrow. "On the other hand." She said looking at him, "I'm on my way to a powerful wizard who's to send me home again. Maybe he'll be powerful enough to give you a brain."

The Scarecrow looked up and his painted eyes were shining in new hope. "Do you really think so?"

"I'm not completely certain, but I have no other place to go and if he really can do it then it's worth a try. What do you say, wanna come with me?" she rose and reached out a hand to him. The Scarecrow face was now a big smile and he grabbed her hand and got up. "I'm as ready as a pumpkin."

"What?" Crescent had to laugh at his silly comment, and if the Scarecrow had been able to blush he would have done that right now.

"Eh...nothing. Let's go." he said and started walking when Crescent stopped him.

"It's this way." She said pointing in the direction she had been walking in before.

"Eh... right. Why didn't you say so?"

Crescent shock her head and started walking beside him. She might as well get use to his behavior; without a brain he couldn't help what he said. At least she didn't have to travel alone all the way to the green palace she thought.

"By the way, what shall I call you?" she asked grabbing his arm.

"I don't know. Do you have to call me something? A scarecrow doesn't exactly have a name."

"Can I just call you Scarecrow then?"

"Sure, why not? But shall I call you something too?"

"You can call me Crescent." She said smiling.

"Well if I haven't said it, I'll say I'm happy to have met you, Crescent."

Crescent felt a warmth feeling growing inside of her heart. "I'm glad I met you too, Scarecrow."