Chapter 11
The Emerald City
"You'll have to wear these sunglasses so the brightness and glory of the Emerald City won't injure your eyesight," the gatekeeper said. He was carrying a basket of green sunglasses in his mouth. Dorothy noticed something odd about him, aside from his green fur. "Hey! You're not a Scottish Terrier!" The gatekeeper just looked at Dorothy and said, "it sure took you a pathetically long time to notice that. And I'm not a Scottish Terrier...but are you a dog? No. My name is Emmet, and I am a dachshund. And you are...?" "Dorothy." "Okay then, Dory, if you would just put these glasses on..." Emmet rummaged through the basket of sunglasses. "Okay, this is the biggest size of sunglasses we have." Dorothy put them on, muttering, "why is everybody calling me Dory?", and suddenly everything went dim and various shades of green. She took them off. Everything was bright and normal colored. She put them back on. "This is an amazing invention!" She marveled. "Yes, isn't it?" said Emmet, beaming. Dorothy looked at Destiny, Checkers, and Werren. Checkers was twirling around to look at everything. "Dory! Look! We're here already!" He shouted. Werren looked very irritated. "Do we have to wear these ridiculous things?" He scratched at his sunglasses, which Emmet had fastened onto his head with string. Destiny was running around in circles. "Let's go! Let's go! I want to see if anyone I know is here! I want to see home again!" Emmet looked hard at Destiny. "Do I know you?" Destiny stopped. "I used to live here. I'm Destiny, remember?" There was a short pause, then Emmet jumped in the air. "Destiny! Destiny! You survived! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!" They both ran around in circles, playing tag. "Okay, okay," Emmet said, panting, flopped on the grass. "Why...why are you here?" He got up and resumed his pose of official-ness. "We're here to see the Great Paws!" Dorothy said. "I don't see why not," said Emmet, and he opened the gates.
"Wow!" Dorothy gasped. Everything in the Emerald City was...well, green. The ground was green, the gates were green, and the little doghouses scattered around the place were green, with green flowers growing in the green window boxes. Even the sky looked green. Destiny frowned. "Something seems a bit off." She bounded off into the group of doghouses and came back a few minutes later. "Where is my house?" "I can't tell you that." Emmet said, leading the group into a huge doghouse. "This is where you shall stay before you meet the Great Paws, after that he might either kick you out or send you off questing, the outcome is a bit random each time," Emmet explained. He led them into a room with three doghouses and a large doghouse with a blanket in it. "Those ones are for you three." Emmet gestured to Checkers, Destiny, and Werren, and then to the smaller doghouses. "Dory, you get this one." He pointed to the largest one with his paw. "As you can see, we're not used to accommodating humans." "Oh, I can see that. When can we see the wizard?" Dorothy asked. "Tomorrow. Goodnight!" Emmet said, and he left. "But it's only noon!" Dorothy shouted, but Emmet couldn't hear her. "Oh, well. What now, guys?" Checkers asked, staring at the ceiling and counting the emerald stars. "I dunno about you guys," Werren said, scratching at the string keeping his sunglasses on, "but I vote we ditch the glasses, run outta here, and pretend like this entire endeavor never happened!" With that, the string on the sunglasses snapped, and they fell off of Werren's nose.
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