The Witches in Oz (Book 2 in The Witches Series)

Chapter 4 Red Bricked Road

I was falling. Falling through the earth like a bullet through water. The soil around me was dark, a pinprick of light at the end of the hole I was falling through below me. I recalled Alice's fall through the rabbit hole, but there were no ticking clocks with me or falling teacups. I was alone in the narrow hole that seemed to be eternally deep.

There was a cry of pain that emitted from deeper in the hole and I changed my position, so I fell headfirst to reach them faster, recognising Ren's voice.

"Ow!" He exclaimed in agony.

"Where are my children!" Aster's voice joined his. "Mason!"

"I want to go home." Olive's voice joined the chorus accompanied by Rae and Bianca's wails.

My urge to find them was as strong in my dream as it was in my waking consciousness. It was strong enough to stir me from slumber.

I jolted awake, kicking out in the ashes that remained of our campfire.

"What? Did you dream you were dying or something?" Iris was already awake, her dark hair a tangled mess.

"Falling." I clarified before releasing a big yawn.

The knight re-joined our group to toss a rabbit into the coals.

"What's this?" Iris asked warily.

"Breakfast." The knight replied with a smirk.

"But I'm on a paleo diet."

"It's either rabbit or we go back into the jungle and pick the bananas that hang over Kelpie pits." The knight retorted.

Iris looked away to mutter something about the deaths of the other knights being the current knight's fault.

We ate the rabbit, anyway, roasted in the smouldering coals.

"We need to keep moving." The knight stood and mounted her horse, a lot more energised than the rest of us.

My back felt a little better, though the bruise still ached.

Drake so kindly held out his hand to help jump me up onto my stallion's back.

I planted my foot hard on his hand and he supressed a yell by biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. I tried to supress my own expression as I found my seat on my horse's back.

Iris settled in behind Will on horseback, four horses trekking in line along the yellow brick road over rolling green hills.

"Anyone know any jokes?" Drake asked after about ten minutes.

"I know some anti jokes." Will put forward.

"Can we go back to man eating Kelpies please." I remarked dryly.

"What did the farmer say when he lost his tractor?" Will started.

"Where's my tractor?" I ended and ruined the joke for him.

"Come on." He looked over his shoulder in annoyance. "Okay, I have another one. How do you confuse a blonde?"

"I don't know, how?" Drake played along.

"Throw a fork at her." Will burst into laughter while the rest of us rode in confused silence.

"Honey, I love you, but that wasn't funny." Iris patted him on the back.

"I have one." I spoke up. "Five Witches on four horses ride down a yellow brick road in Oz towards a Coven of Bloodwood Witches so we can purge hell spawn that escaped from purgatory when I died and ripped a hole from the land of the living and the dead and figure out whether a wolf is just a sheep in a mask or something truly terrifying." I blurted out.