Fantasy fiction; Oz (Imaginary place) -- Juvenile fiction
"And a good law, too," observed Kabumpo, looking resentfully up at the
Thunder Colt's fading message. "Permit me to introduce myself again.
Your Highness, I am Kabumpo, Elegant Elephant of Oz, and this is Randy,
King of Regalia, which is also in Oz."
"Oz?" marveled Planetty, lifting her spear-like silver staff, whose
tip, ending in three metal links, fascinated Randy. "Is this, then,
the Planet of Oz? And what are those, and these, and this?" In rapid
succession the little Princess touched a cluster of violets growing
round the base of the oak, a moss-covered rock and the tall tree itself.
"Why, flowers, rocks and a tree," laughed Randy. "Surely you must have
flowers, trees and rocks on Anuther Planet."
"No, no, nothing like this--all these colors and shapes. Everything on
my planet is flat and greyling." The metal maiden raised her hands, as
she searched for the right words to explain Anuther Planet. "It is all
so different with us," she confessed, dropping her arms to her side.
"Yonder, we have zonitors; not trees, but tall shafts of metal to which
we fasten our nets when we sleep or rest. Underfoot we have network of
various sizes and thicknesses with here and there sprays of vanadium.
In our vanadium springs we freshen and renew ourselves, and without
them we stiffen and cease to move."
With one finger pressed to his forehead, Randy tried to visualize
Planetty's strange greyling world, but Kabumpo, ever more practical,
inquired sharply:
"And how often must you refresh and renew yourselves, Princess?"
"Every sonestor in the earling," answered the Princess with a bright
nod.
Thun, tiring of a conversation he could not hear, had cantered off to
investigate a rabbit, and Randy, sliding to the ground, came over to
stand nearer to this strange little Princess.
"Kabumpo and I do not understand all those words," he told her gently.
"'Sonestor--earling'--what do they mean?"
"Why, a sonestor," trilled Planetty, throwing back her head and showing
all of her tiny silver teeth, "is one dark, one light, one dark, one
light, one dark, one light, one dark, one light, one dark, one light,
one dark, one light, one dark, one light, and earling is when you waken
from ret."
"Help!" shuddered Kabumpo shaking his ears as if he had a bee in them.
"I know what she means," crowed Randy, snapping his fingers gleefully.
"A sonestor on Anuther Planet is the same as a week here; all those
lights and darks are days, and earling is the morning and ret is rest!"
"Then, do you realize," worried Kabumpo, as Planetty looked
questioningly from one to the other, "that if this little lady and her
colt are separated from their vanadium springs for a week, they will
become stiff, motionless statues? And that--" the Elegant Elephant
looked the pretty little Princess first up and then down. "That would
be a great pity! We must help them back to Anuther Planet as soon as we
can, my boy."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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