Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 31, 2025
Kiki Aru didn't know much about Oz and didn't know much about the beasts who lived there, but the old Nome's plan seemed to him to be quite reasonable. He had a faint suspicion that Ruggedo meant to get the best of him in some way, and he resolved to keep a close watch on his fellow-conspirator.
Ruggedo thought he was fooling Kiki, and Kiki thought he was fooling Ruggedo; so both were pleased. "It's a long way across the Desert," remarked the boy, "and the sands are hot and send up poisonous vapors. Let us wait until evening and then fly across in the night when it will be cooler." The former Nome King agreed to this, and the two spent the rest of that day in talking over their plans.
He could not use his teeth or his claws and as his body was still in the passage he had not even room to strike his foes with his terrible tail. Ruggedo was delighted with the success of his stratagem. He had just transformed the Rose Princess into a fiddle and was about to transform Files into a fiddle bow, when the dragon appeared to interrupt him.
Polychrome looked from one to another of the queer party of travelers and a bewitching smile suddenly lighted her face. "A donkey, a mortal maid, a Rose Princess and a Shaggy Man!" she exclaimed. "Surely you need help, if you intend to face Ruggedo." "Do you know him, then?" inquired Betsy. "No, indeed. Ruggedo's caverns are beneath the earth's surface, where no Rainbow can ever penetrate.
"I have sent the people of Oogaboo back to their own little valley," announced the Ruler of Oz; "so do not worry over their disappearance." "That was very kind of you," said Shaggy. "But Your Highness must permit me to report that my own mission here is now ended. I have found my lost brother, and he is now beside me, freed from the enchantment of ugliness which Ruggedo cast upon him.
"You'd better make me a Unicorn again," he said. "I like being a man, but the forest beasts won't know I'm their friend, Loo, and they might tear me in pieces before morning." So Kiki changed him back to his former shape, and the Unicorn departed to join his people. Ruggedo the Nome was much pleased with his success.
"Now, Pang," said Ruggedo, addressing the leader of the executioners, "fetch the Army of Oogaboo and their Queen from the pit and torture them here in my presence as well as in the presence of their friends. It will be great sport." "I hear Your Majesty, and I obey Your Majesty," answered Pang, and went with his nomes into the passage. In a few minutes he returned and bowed to Ruggedo.
He wore dull-gray clothes that were tight fitting, and his pockets were all bunched out as if stuffed full of something. "I didn't know you were here," said Kiki. "I didn't come until after you did," said the queer old man. "Who are you?" asked Kiki. "My name's Ruggedo. I used to be the Nome King; but I got kicked out of my country, and now I'm a wanderer."
"Why did you let them do that?" asked the boy. "Well," said Ruggedo, "I couldn't help it. They rolled eggs at me EGGS dreadful eggs! and if an egg even touches a Nome, he is ruined for life." "Is any kind of an egg dangerous to a Nome?" "Any kind and every kind. An egg is the only thing I'm afraid of." A Happy Corner of Oz There is no other country so beautiful as the Land of Oz.
But tell me, Ruggedo, why my friends have been wound with cords and bound with chains?" "They threatened me," answered Ruggedo. "The fools did not know how powerful I am." "Then, since they are now helpless, why not release them and send them back to the earth's surface?" "Because I hate 'em and mean to make 'em suffer for their invasion. But I'll make a bargain with you, sweet Polly.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking