The Forest Monster of Oz Part 11

"Ahh am," came a rumbling voice. "Ahh am ze vatchman uff ze Land Sharks.

But chew do have a point. Ve cannot eat gla.s.s. Ve can break it, but ve can't eat it. Chew are uff no value to us. Ve vill only be able to eat ze meat creatchures. Chew that are a made from gla.s.s may go."

Watts and his friends made their most ferocious faces at the Land Sharks. "You will allow us all to go!" said Watts to the Shark. "You will not hold any of us back! Besides, we have with us the Queen of Oz.

Your own Queen, for crying out loud!"

"Chew does have some pretty teeth, don' chew?" said the watchman. "But I am not afraid of chew, zo chew should leave now. I do not know chust 'zactly vat a queen might be, but I am sure that it iss delissious."

"We do not have time for this," hooted Lisa. "We are on an important mission to save the Lunechien Forest of Oz from a gigantic Forest Monster, and you had better not hold us back! The Forest Monster is already bigger than the lot of you, and he will come for you sooner or later if you don't let us stop him!"

"Vorest Monzter?" echoed the great shark.

"That's what I said," replied Lisa angrily.

"Chust vat iss ze Vorest Monzter made uff?" asked the shark.

"Er, I don't know. Whatever monsters are usually made of," answered the female owl. "Flesh and blood, I guess."

"Und he iss a.s.s big a.s.s chew zay he iss?" asked the shark.

"Probably bigger by now," put in Tweaty, realizing what was happening.

"Zen ve shall eat ziss Vorest Monzter!" said the shark. "Ve shall eat him 'til he iss only bones!"

Lisa was not entirely sure the Forest Monster had any bones, as she suspected that spiders had exoskeletons instead, but she saw no reason to bring this up at the moment. "Then you really don't need us. It is against the laws of the jungle to kill more than you can eat, and the Forest Monster will easily tide you over for a good long time."

Ozma was not quite happy with the way things were turning out. She was not an advocate of killing at all. The thought of her willingly placing one of her subjects--even one so wicked as the Forest Monster--in mortal danger was a hard pill for her to swallow. Still, this development had apparently removed the threat to her own hide. "Then we shall be on our way," she said. "I will wish you a good night."

The shark thanked her and, having no one left that he had to guard, settled down to sleep among his fellows.

"This is odd," said Ozma as the group continued on its way. "We set out to rid ourselves of the Forest Monster, and now I feel inclined to find him so that we can warn him of his pending danger."

"You are kidding, aren't you?" asked Watts.

Ozma only looked solemnly at the ground and kept walking.

CHAPTER 12

THE LION KING

Now, when the Cowardly Lion of Oz had first tangled with and beheaded the Forest Monster, the other animals of the area had named him their king. They had since come to recognize Ozma as the overall ruler of Oz, but they joyfully accepted their tawny savior as their local leader.

The Cowardly Lion had taken to the job as well as any coward could be expected to do. He knew that, when he had accepted this position of power, he also took on a responsibility. The other animals were now his subjects, and he felt it was his duty to protect them from outside dangers such as hunters or other predators. He also thought it politic to offer his advice whenever one of his new charges had a question or a problem. It was one such event that is pertinent to this part of our story. About a week prior to Queen Ozma's meeting with the Land Sharks, a young wombat had come to the Cowardly Lion to ask his advice.

"h.e.l.lo," said the smaller creature. "Your majesty, Mr. Cowardly Lion, Sir?"

"Yes?" replied the Lion, looking around to see where the voice had come from. "W-who's that? W-who said th-that?" When his large eyes came upon the wombat, he seemed to smile. "Why, Ricardo, there you are. I didn't see you at first. How are you doing?"

"Okay, I guess," said the wombat.

"And your mother?" added the Lion.

"She's fine," said Ricardo.

"I am very happy to hear it," said the Cowardly Lion. "But tell me, my friend, why you seem so glum. A boy your age shouldn't have any problems that would cause such glumness. What's wrong?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cowardly Lion and Wombat]

"Weeeeell," began the wombat slowly. "It's kind of silly, I guess. But I wanted to ask your advice about something."

"You think it's silly to ask my advice?" said the Cowardly Lion, pretending to be hurt.

"No, that's not what I meant," replied Ricardo. "I mean, what I wanted to ask you about is kind of silly. I'm not sure it would be right to waste your time on. I think I should leave now ..." He turned to leave.

"Now now," said the Lion, becoming serious again. "No problem that is troubling one of my subjects is silly. Nor is it a waste of my time to hear the needs of today's youth. What's troubling you, my boy?"

"Well," began Ricardo, "you see ... well, I have this friend ..."

"Oh, it's about a friend is it?" said the Cowardly Lion knowingly.

"Oh, no," said Ricardo. "I'm not trying to pa.s.s the buck. It really is about a friend of mine. You see, he's a real copy cat. He likes to do everything I do, and he does it exactly the same way, and it's driving me wom-batty. I want to tell him to think for himself, but I'm not sure how to go about it."

"So what is it that he does that you don't want him to do?" asked the Lion. "I mean, if he is doing exactly as you are, you must be having a good time together. Aren't you?"

"No, I mean, like ... Like last week I found a really neat shiny rock that I thought I would like to keep. I took it home with me, and when Henry saw it, he went out and got one that was just like it."

"Is that bad?" asked the Lion. "The rocks are there for everyone to use as they need them. What's the matter with that?"

"And when I made a welcome mat for my mom to put in front of our home, Henry went and made one like it for his mom! It's like he can't think of anything for himself. He has to use all of my ideas. I wish he would find his own means of expressing himself, instead of always stealing my ideas. It's like, I learned a new song that I was going to sing at wombat school, and then Henry went and learned it, too!"

The Cowardly Lion looked at Ricardo and seemed to smile again. "Ah, Ricardo," he said. "I think your little friend is doing it out of affection for you. Imitation, after all, is the highest form of flattery--well, next to bringing you food, at least. I think your friend just admires you so much that he wants to be just like you."

"Really?" said Ricardo. "Gee whiz, I hadn't thought about that. I thought it was just that he refused to think for himself. Or maybe that he felt I didn't deserve to have anything he didn't. Or that he simply wanted to drive me insane. But maybe you're right. He does seem to like to hang around with me a lot. Maybe he just wants to imitate me because he admires me! That's pretty neat!"

"Yes it is," said the Cowardly Lion. "So you have a responsibility to Henry now as a role model."

"A what?" asked Ricardo.

"A role model," explained the Lion. "If Henry is going to do everything you do, you certainly don't want to do anything too foolish."

"Oh, yeah," agreed Ricardo. "That's true. Thanks for your advice, Mr.

Lion King, Sir."

"Any time, Ricardo," laughed the Lion. "Be sure to give my respects to your mother."

"I will," said the wombat, scampering off happily and chanting something under his breath about being a role model.