Billina

"Don't hurry, my dear,"

Cried Billina.

"They can't follow us among these rocks, so we're safe enough now."

Dorothy stopped at once and sat down upon a broad boulder, for she was all out of breath.

"Some day I'll have her fried for breakfast."

"She looks rather tough, your Highness," said Nanda doubtfully.

"That is a base slander," cried Billina, struggling frantically in the colonel's arms.

"But the breed of chickens I come from is said to be poison to all Princesses."

And then our first kind of character we meet in, in the new Oz, or the Oz that we're returning to, is the chicken.

Billina.

Billina.

Billina, the animatronic chicken.

So Billina is a very sassy chicken.

Do you have any peak sassy Billina moments that you wanna bring to our attention? [laughs] Yes.

It's just, it's very blunt, I think.

'Cause Dorothy, when she's in Oz, she's like, "Look, Billina, these ones have lost their heads," when she sees that circle of-

Yeah

... it's, there's a lot of sort of filling in gaps, you know? But, like, there was one line I remember in book two, I was just pre- 'cause, because Billina, you know, spoiler alert, animals can talk in Oz.

Um, and-

Ooh.

Yes

...

but I, but I guess I didn't really understand that because, like, I had a line, I just assumed that Billina just started talking when she got done, so, so I had a, I had a line that Billina, that Rosa, "You can talk" and Billina's like, "Yes." And now I'm annoyed because I can't remember the name of it, and I said it went to such an, like she went to a finishing school for, like, young hens-

[laughs]

When she came to him, the copper man lifted the little girl in his copper arms, and kissed her cheek with his copper lips.

"'Oh, Billina!' cried Dorothy, in a glad voice, and the yellow hen flew to her arms, to be hugged and petted by turns.

The others were curiously crowding around the group, and the girl said to them, "'It's Tick-Tock and Belina, and oh, I'm so glad to see them again!' "'Welcome to Oz,' said the copper man, in a monotonous voice.

Dorothy sat right down in the road, the yellow hen in her arms, and began to stroke Belina's back.

"'This,' turning to her travelling companions, "'is Mr. Tick-Tock, who works by machinery, "'cause his thoughts wind up, and his talk winds up, "'and his action winds up, like a clock.' "'Do they all wind up together?' asked the shaggy man.

"'No, each one separate.

But he works just lovely, and Tick-Tock was a good friend to me once and saved my life, and Billina's life, too.' "'Is he alive?' asked Button-bright, looking hard at the copper man.

"'Oh, no, but his machinery makes him just as good as alive.' She turned to the copper man and said politely, Mr. Tick-Tock, these are my new friends, the Shaggy Man and Polly the Rainbow's daughter, and Button-Bright and Toto.

In addition to the Wizard, two other personages from the outside world had been allowed to make their home in the Emerald City.

The first was a quaint, shaggy man whom Ozma had made the Governor of the Royal Storehouses, and the second a Yellow Hen named Billina, who had a fine house in the gardens back of the palace where she looked after a large family.

Both of these had been old comrades of Dorothy, so you see the little girl was quite an important personage in Oz, and the people thought she had brought them good luck and loved her next best to Ozma.

During her several visits, this little girl had been the means of destroying two wicked witches who oppressed the people, and she had discovered a live Scarecrow who was now one of the most popular personages in all the fairy country.

He had always remained big, and he dressed like a dandy and was so full of knowledge and information, which are distinct requirements, that he had been made a professor and the head of the Royal College.

Dorothy had a nice visit with these old friends and also talked a long time with the Wizard, who was little and old and withered and dried up, but as merry and active as a child.

Afterward, she went to see Billina's fast-growing family of chicks.

Toto, Dorothy's little black dog, also met with a cordial reception.