Chapter Nine

DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD COME TO THE MEETING OF THE ANIMALS

A great Lion, very big and very strong came up to the clearing. A little girl was on his back. Behind the little girl sat a funny little man. In his right hand he had a black bag. The little girl and the funny little man jumped down from the Lion's back and stood before Gugu the King.

"Who are you?" asked Gugu and looked at the girl. All the animals looked at her too.

"I am Dorothy," answered the girl. "And who is the man with you?" asked the King. "This man is the Wizard of Oz," answered the girl. "He is my true friend. He can do wonderful magic tricks. And here is my other friend, the Cowardly Lion. We all live in the Emerald City."

"Were you not afraid to come here?" asked Gugu the King. "Oh, no," answered the little girl. "I am never afraid when I am with the Cowardly Lion. I know him very well. He doesn't like to fight. That is why we call him 'Cowardly'. But when he must fight he fights so well that no animal can conquer him."

 

 

The animals of the forest stood around Dorothy and her friends. They listened with great interest to their words.

They forgot all about the two Li-Mon-Eags. But what became of them? Of course, you understand that when the Nome saw Dorothy and her friends he was terribly frightened. He knew them at once. He said to Kiki: "Here are my enemies. They are very dangerous." Then he thought: "I hope that they will not know me in this animal form. They will not know who I am."

And what did Kiki do? He stood all the time behind the Nome. He was terribly frightened too. "Now they will learn our plan to conquer the Oz people," he thought. "They will tell the animals of the forest all about us. The animals will kill us."

Then he looked at the Nome and thought: "Oh, that wicked Nome! I hate him! How I hate him! I am the magician. I know the magic word and I don't want to obey him. He forgets that I am not his slave. No, I shall not obey him now!"

Then he looked at the Wizard and thought: "That Wizard is a real magician. I think he has brought his magic tools in that black bag. I want to have his magic tools. My magic word cannot do what his magic tools can."

Kiki thought hard. He ran away from the clearing into the forest and said: "The Wizard of Oz must become a fox: Pyrzqxgl."

Suddenly the Wizard's body began to change its form. In a moment he became a fox. His black box fell to the ground. Kiki flew up to the Wizard, caught up his bag and flew away.

The fox cried out as loud as he could: "There is a wicked magician here. Help! Help!"

His friends heard his cry and were frightened. Dorothy heard his cry too. She looked at her poor friend. Then she cried too: "Help!" But the next moment the little girl's form began to change. Dorothy became a little white lamb.

The Cowardly Lion was terribly angry. He looked around. He wanted to find the wicked magician and to kill him.

But Kiki said his magic word again. In a moment the great Lion became a little boy. Now the Lion could not harm Kiki.

"Now I shall change the wicked Nome too," thought Kiki. And he changed the Nome into... a goose.

"I am afraid of Gugu," thought Kiki. "He is clever and can harm me." So he changed Gugu into a fat-woman.

Then he flew to a very high tree. He looked down from the tree at the fox, at the little Lamb, at the Goose, at the Boy and the Fat Woman.

"Oh, how funny they look," 1 he cried and he laughed and laughed.

 

 

1 how funny they look — до чего они смешные