Get your own Free Home PageTo the south of the Land of Oz, just to the east of the Land of the Scoodlers, stand the Orange Cliffs, which overlook the great Orange Juice River. These cliffs are home to the Orange Ogres, who dwell in caves and stone huts. Every other week, the Ogres descend the cliffs, and raid nearby towns. They take all of the treasure from these villages, although they really have no use for it. Also, the hideous creatures kidnap people, both men and women, and enslave them. The slaves either tend the orange groves that surround the river, or wait on the Ogres. The Orange Ogres have no Ruler, but a Council, made up of the ten most successful Ogres, decides which villages to pillage.
One day, late in July, the Council had a problem. All towns within a twenty-mile radius had already been raided by the Ogres. Now, these orange beings were very lazy, and refused to walk to a village that lay more than twenty miles away. So the ten Council members were forced to think, which did not come easily to the Orange Ogres.
After three hours of deep thought and foolish suggestions, Citrus, the smallest and most intelligent member of the Council, came up with an idea. "If no one's willing to walk, then we'll use the river," suggested this Ogre.
"The river?" questioned Seedz, an obese Ogre with most of his teeth missing.
"Yes, the river. We'll ride boats down the river, and we'll be sure to come to a town eventually. Once there, we'll raid it."
"But we don't have any boats," objected Pulp, a tall Ogre with long orange hair.
"Some of our slaves most know how to make boats. We'll make them build the vessels, and then we'll make them row. That way, we won't have to do any extra work."
The rest of the Council applauded at this idea, and a search was soon made for humans who could construct boats. Eventually, two hundred carpenters were found, and they made vessels, as well as oars, from orange trees, which, in the Ogres' territory, sometimes grew to enormous proportions. Eventually, a fleet of five hundred boats, each large enough to carry two Ogres and three humans, were created.
Eight days after Citrus had made his suggestion, one thousand Ogres armed themselves with swords and spears, and directed fifteen hundred humans to begin rowing down the Orange Juice River. Luckily for the slaves, the current carried the boats most of the way, so the oars were largely unnecessary.
Well, the course of the Orange Juice River is extremely interesting. This river flows to the north, right through the Great Sandy Waste. The Waste is a desert of dangerous sand and poisonous fumes, but the stream and its banks were pleasant and fertile, and the sands and fumes never penetrated into this beautiful area.
The Orange Ogres, however, cared little for the beauty of the land, and were anxious to find a town. It was not until two days after the journey had begun that the creatures did discover a village. This urban center was located in the southwestern Quadling Country of Oz, a few miles west of South Mountain.
"Aha! There's a village to raid!" shouted the Ogre in the lead boat. "But what a red one!"
This was quite true, since nearly everything in the Quadling Country was red. Although the river retained its orange color, the grass, flowers, and trees that grew on either side were tinted with many different shades of red.
At the order of their masters, the humans rowed the boats to shore. After everyone had gotten out of the vessels, the people pulled the crafts up onto the banks. While a few Ogres stayed behind to guard the slaves and the boats, the others ran toward the village, brandishing their weapons.
The villagers were taken by surprise at the sight of the ferocious Ogres, and had no weapons with which to defend themselves, so the place soon fell to the evil beings. The creatures discovered a great deal of gold, silver, and jewels, more, in fact, than they had found in any other town. But the most exciting discovery was made at the library.
"Look at this green city," stated an Ogre, while pointing to a picture in a book.
The picture depicted the Emerald City, the famous capital of Oz. Although the Ogres could not read, they obtained some idea of the wealth that this city contains from the pictures in the book.
"We'll have to go to this green city, and capture it," said Citrus. "We'll have more wealth than we ever imagined."
If the Ogres had known of the powerful magic that the Emerald City contains, they might have been reluctant to try to raid this place. After all, Ozma, a powerful fairy, and the great Wizard of Oz both live in the City, and the Magic Belt and other magical properties are stored there.
However, the Ogres had no knowledge of these facts, so they decided to travel to the "green city." When Citrus asked the librarian where the city was, she replied that it lay to the northeast of the village. Since the Orange Ogres knew that the Orange Juice river flowed in a northeasterly direction, they returned to this stream, leaving one hundred of their number behind to guard the town.
Now, the Orange Juice River ends in an expansive lake of orange juice, located near the base of Big Top Mountain. Many of the Giants who live on this mountain come down in the mornings to drink from the lake. On the morning after the Ogres had conquered the small town, one of the Giants had a surprise in his breakfast glass of orange juice.
"There's something solid in this juice," the Giant complained to his neighbor.
"It's probably just seeds, or pulp," said the other Giant.
Actually, the Giant was partially correct, since the solid object was the orange boat containing Seedz and Pulp, as well as three human rowers.
"It's a boat," stated the first Giant, as he held the craft in front of his right eye, "and there's something alive in it."
"Really? Let me see!" shouted the second Giant.
The Giant who had discovered the boat tried to pass the vessel to his neighbor, but he accidentally dropped it back into the lake. The boat promptly disappeared from sight.
"What happened to that boat?" asked a bald Ogre.
"Let's find out!" ordered Citrus.
All of the boats entered the area where Pulp and Seedz had disappeared. As each craft entered the place, it also vanished. You see, that particular spot was a transportation zone, which led to another lake of orange juice. This lake surrounded the Island Inn, on Orange Avenue in the Emerald City.
"We're in the green city!" exclaimed Pulp, as soon as he had recovered from the shock of being magically transported.
Soon, all of the Orange Ogres had materialized in the City, and they were ready to attack. They left their boats, and rushed out into the street, waving their swords and spears, and shouting.
When Citrus and some other Ogres reached the palace, they were able to distinguish it as an important place. So they rushed up to it, and hurried through its beautiful gardens without so much as a glance at the many interesting plants. The Soldier with the Green Whiskers was marching back and forth in front of the castle doors, but he quickly ran inside when he saw the armed Ogres.
The invaders followed the Soldier into the palace and through its halls. They finally came to the Throne Room, where Ozma was sitting on her throne and reading The Ozmapolitan, the Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger were sleeping by the sides of the royal chair, the Wizard was playing solitaire on a mahogany table, the Patchwork Girl was turning cart-wheels, and other famous Ozites were engaged in a variety of other activities. When Citrus entered the room, he yelled, "You must now surrender to the Orange Ogres! You will all become our slaves, and all of your treasures will be turned over to us!"
The Ozites in the room, except for the Soldier, laughed at this threat, thinking it was some sort of joke, until the other Ogres entered the chamber. At that time, Ozma arose from her throne and rushed to the wall safe where she kept her most powerful magic items. But an Ogre tackled her before she could get there. Shortly after that, all of the Ozian celebrities were captured by the invaders.
"Now how are we going to get back to the Orange Cliffs?" asked the strong Ogre who held Tik-Tok.
Instead of answering, Citrus mounted Ozma's green throne, and sat down among its soft cushions. He then announced, "I like this place. I like it a lot better than those old cliffs. I think I'll stay here."
"But I wanna go home," whined the strong Ogre.
"Ask our new slaves for help. One of them will probably know of a way to get back. But I don't see why you'd want to go back to those cliffs. Here, we have more treasure and slaves than we ever imagined back there."
So the conquerors remained in the City for two weeks, during which they forced the Ozites to work for them. Dorothy and Betsy Bobbin swept the floors, while the Patchwork Girl mopped. Ozma had to serve orange juice to the Ogres whenever they wanted it, which was quite often. The Scarecrow polished the creatures' weapons, and the Wizard ironed the Ogres' clothes. Jack Pumpkinhead combed the orange hair of the Council members, which was not an easy job for him, as he had no hair himself.
"We have to get these Ogres out of the Palace!" said Jack Pumpkinhead to the Wizard. "Every time I get a hair-style wrong, an Ogre knocks my head off. I'm not sure if I can take much more of this!"
"If I could get to the safe, I'd be able to get rid of them," stated the Chief Magician, "but I never even get a chance to enter the Throne Room."
Eventually, however, all of the Ogres except for Citrus became homesick. When the others complained to Citrus, he repeated his idea to ask the new slaves for help. So the creatures asked everyone that they found, eventually coming to the Wizard.
"I know of an easy way for you to get back to the cliffs," replied the magician.
"How?" asked Peel, the Ogre who questioned the Wizard.
"Just take me to the Throne Room, and I'll show you. But we'd better go there when Citrus isn't around."
"Why can't Citrus be around?"
"Well, he doesn't want you to leave. He wants you to remain here forever."
"He does? Oh, yeah, he probably does. But Citrus sits on that big chair almost all day. He even sleeps there!"
"Is there any time when he's not there?"
"Not that I can think of."
"Well, then, why don't you lure him out of the room?"
"Lure him out?"
"Yes. Tell him that something important is going on in another room."
"Good idea! I'll do it tonight."
That night, after notifying the Wizard that he was about to put the plan into effect, the Ogre told Citrus that the green-bearded slave refused to wash the windows in Dorothy's bedroom, which Peel was occupying. Citrus followed Peel to this room, allowing the Wizard of Oz to reach the wall safe. The magician quickly opened the wall safe, took out the Magic Belt, wrapped this instrument around his waist, and magically turned all of the Orange Ogres into oranges.
The Wizard notified the other Ozites that they had regained possession of the castle, and that a meeting was to be held. Ozma and a large number of courtiers gathered in the Council Hall, and tried to decide what was to be done with the Ogres.
"Why don't we just let them remain oranges?" suggested Scraps.
"No, I think we should return them to their rightful forms, unless it is absolutely necessary to keep them transformed," disagreed Ozma.
"Well, what do we know about these Ogres?" asked the Wizard.
At that moment, a few of the people who formerly lived with the Ogres in the cliffs were admitted to the conference. They explained how the Ogres had enslaved all of them and stolen their possessions, and how they were forced to row the creatures into the Land of Oz.
"Even though your country is not within my dominions, I cannot allow the Ogres to continue their raids," stated Ozma.
"Well, is there anything useful that the Ogres could do?" inquired the Wizard.
"They don't seem to be good at anything but fighting," said one of the former slaves.
"Didn't you say something about the Ogres having orange groves?" questioned Dorothy.
"Yes, I had to work in them," replied one man. "They yield some of the finest oranges I've ever tasted."
"Well, then, why don't the Ogres sell their oranges to nearby towns? That way, they'll still get to travel, but they won't be hurting anybody."
Queen Ozma used the Magic Belt to restore Citrus to his proper form, and explained Dorothy's idea to him. At first the Ogre refused to try it, but he eventually agreed.
So all of the Orange Ogres were restored to their homes in the Orange Cliffs, and from then on they tended their own orange groves. Every other week, they travelled to a town, but instead of raiding it, they would sell their oranges and orange juice to the village's inhabitants. All of the people and treasures were restored to their proper places, and the country to the south of Oz became a much more pleasant place to live.
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