Shadows of the Emerald City by Jw Schnarr Page B

had been nothing more than a bald spot within the forest, there had been plans to unify Oz. According to the Wizard of that time—a beloved man by the name of Rondolpho—and his council, it was illogical for such a diverse scope of citizens living in such seclusion from one another. For Oz to truly be great, it was believed that everyone in the land should live as one rather than as individual societies.
    It was also believed that witches, Munchkins, common folk and all races in between should be able to live in a harmony that was befitting of the Land of Oz. There had been talk of clearing out much of the forests and connecting the villages and small towns with the rest of Oz. For Munchkins that needed to travel to the Emerald City, there was no sense in having to hike for eight days through the grueling and terrifying forests. There should be an easier way, a way for everyone to share the same conveniences of travel.
    The Tin Woodsmen had been hired to work with transportation personnel from the Emerald City. Together, over a very tiresome period of four years, a great portion of Oz’s woodland was knocked down. As the Tin Woodsmen chopped down the trees, Emerald City employees followed behind them, leveling the earth and laying down brick. When work was not going as fast as planned, mill workers and magicians from the Emerald City worked overtime to create new Tin Woodsmen.
    It was a gruesome process, one that required actual human woodsmen to be transformed. The legs and arms were magically altered into large chunks of tin, molded to resemble something akin to human appendages. Most of the real work had gone into the eyes and hands—the finest detail ever created by the wizards within Oz.
    And that was how he had been made.
    Formerly a man named (rather aptly) Nick Chopper, he remembered very little of his human life. With his transformation into a Tin Woodsmen, he had easily forsaken his mortal memories for a life of immortality. But his was a life that hadn’t been worth remembering.
    His shrew of a wife had broken his heart and left him with nothing. So when the Wizard’s men came calling, he gladly accepted the task. It gave him purpose and made him feel important for the first time in his life. And from what he could tell, the majority of the other Tin Woodsmen were there for the same reason—to escape a life that had been less than hospitable to them.
    Of course, when the offer had been extended to Nick and the hundreds of other participants, they’d had no idea that they were agreeing to participate in a life of servitude.
    The first glimpse of this life of slavery came two and a half years into the construction of the Yellow Brick Road. The crew at that time consisted of just over eight hundred Tin Woodsmen and three hundred employees from Emerald City. They had come to a clearing in the woods that, according to the topographers and mapmakers of Emerald City, had never been discovered.
    The clearing was specked with small huts and shanties and was populated by a race of Munchkins that Nick had never seen. They were actually a bit smaller than typical Munchkins and looked rather like trolls. As the Tin Woodsmen awaited instruction, Nick heard murmurs from those around him.
    “ I’ve seen these creatures before,” said a Tin Woodsmen named Alzo. “Several years ago in the village of Yull. There were perhaps a dozen of these creatures living among the people. They are called Woodkins.”
    “ Are they creatures of magic?” another Woodsman asked.
    Their answer came from behind them. One of the Emerald City employees was peering into an odd ocular device and studying the Woodkins. “No, they have no magic. We simply believed them to have gone extinct.”
    There were whispers behind the Tin Woodsmen as the Emerald City men discussed their plans of action. Nick and the other Woodsmen stared out to the little creatures and it was in that moment that Nick Chopper felt the last surge of dread that his heart