The Nome King

So I, too, will be glad to help the Shaggy Man find his lost brother." "That's very kind of you, ma'am," said Shaggy.

"But unless I can find the underground cavern of Ruggedo, the metal monarch, I shall never find poor brother." The King was formerly named Roquat, but after he drank the Waters of Oblivion he forgot his own name and had to take another.

"Doesn't anyone know where it is?" inquired Betsy.

"Someone must know, of course," was Shaggy's reply, "but we are not the ones.

The only way to succeed is for us to keep going until we find a person who can direct us to Ruggedo's cavern." "We may find it ourselves, without any help," suggested Betsy.

"Who knows?" "No one knows that except the person who's writing the story," said Shaggy.

"But we won't find anything—not even supper—unless we travel on.

Won't you come with us and help us?" Polychrome looked from one to another of the queer party of travelers, and a bewitching smile suddenly lighted her face.

RUGADO'S HISTORY IN SIX ROCKS On the same night that Prince Pompa and Kabumpo had disappeared from Pumperdink, a little grey gnome crouched in a deep chamber tunneled under the Emerald City, laboriously carving letters on a big rock.

It was Ruggedo, the old gnome king, carving and grumbling and grumbling and carving, and pausing every few minutes to light his pipe with the hot coal which he kept in his pocket for that purpose.

A big emerald lamp cast a glow over the strange cavern and made the gnome look like a bad green goblin, which he was.

"'Wag!' screamed the gnome, suddenly throwing down the chisel.

Now see here, the rabbit twitched his nose rapidly, I'll get you a cup of melted mud, but don't you call me an idiot.

I don't mind working for one, nor digging for one, and listening to his foolishness, but nobody can call me an idiot, not even a make-believe king.

you make me tired fumed the gnome then go to sleep advised the rabbit with a yawn what's the use of trying to pretend you're a king rug ho ho king over one wooden doll six rocks and twenty-seven sofa cushions you may have been a king once but now you're just a plain gnome and nothing else and if you go and sit quietly in your plain rocking-chair i'll bring you a cup of plain mud With a chuckle the rabbit retired, and Ruggedo, spluttering with fury, flounced into a doll's broken rocker that was set in the exact centre of the cave.

here i give that rabbit everything i steal and he won't even allow me the little luxury of calling him an idiot or of pulling his ears how can i pretend to be a king without an ear to pull grumbled the gnome what are you grinning at bouncing out of his chair ruggedo flew at a merry-faced wooden doll who sat propped up against the wall and shook her till her head turned round backwards and her arms and legs flew every which way.

And without the picture, how are we going to find out who it is? Can't you do something, Wiz dear? Or do we just have to sit around and wait to be conquered? "I shall go to my laboratory at once," decided the Wizard importantly, "and there, by some magic means, I'll try to discover who is at the bottom of all this wretched plotting and thievery.

Lock up the magic treasures in your safe, Ozma, especially the Nome King's magic belt, and have them guarded day and night." Briskly, the little Wizard rushed out of the room, returning in a moment to repeat gloomily, "Day and night." "And I'll go and drill the army," declared the Scarecrow, stepping recklessly out an open French window and falling flat, but undaunted, in a flower bed below.

"And I'd better call Teeg and the Cowardly Lion," said Dorothy, who had always found the Lion a splendid fighter in spite of his cowardice, and the hungry tiger ready at the drop of a handkerchief to protect his royal patrons with tooth and claw.

"They can sit right here beside the safe, and I'd just like to see anyone get by them." "Maybe it will be someone they cannot see," shivered Betsy, peering out into the darkening garden.

You can see the entries appearing at this very minute on the open page." "I see, I see." Five scarcely glanced at the Record Book.

"But this magic picture shows you any person you desire to look at.

With this picture and the help of the powerful Nome King, now disguised as a jug, we can soon make ourselves rulers of Oz.

All we need to do is release Rogetto from his enchantment.

Otherwise, I am sure I could easily get over the mountains." "Unfortunately," observed the Woozy, "none of us has wings, and we're in a magic country without any magic." "What is that around your waist, Dorothy?" asked the Wizard.

"That? Oh, that's just the magic belt I once captured from the Nome King," she replied.

"A magic belt? Why, that's fine.

I'm sure a magic belt would take you over these hills." "It might if I knew how to work it," said the little girl.

"You're afraid," said the Patchwork Girl, "because so many things can hurt your meat bodies.

Why don't you give it up and go home? How can you fight a great magician when you have nothing to fight with?" Dorothy looked at her reflectively.

"Scraps," said she, "you know that Oogoo couldn't hurt you a bit, whatever he did, nor could he hurt me, because I wear the Nome King's magic belt.

Suppose just we two go on together and leave the others here to wait for us." "No, no," said the Wizard positively.

And then I reread, well, I never, I read the first three books.

Okay.

And it's, so we can blame L. Frank Baum for, like, Princess Mambi, Bellina, The Wheelers, The Gnome King.

Yeah.

But not the electroshock therapy.

I guess she had a vibe for it.

So she plays those characters.

Nicole Wilson plays the doctor, J.B. Worley, but he also plays the gnome king in Oz later on, who's another, again, you know, Dorothy's sort of whatever trauma she's experiencing manifests itself in Oz, where the people who are traumatic to her in actuality are traumatic to her in Oz.

RUGADO'S HISTORY IN SIX ROCKS On the same night that Prince Pompa and Kabumpo had disappeared from Pumperdink, a little grey gnome crouched in a deep chamber tunneled under the Emerald City, laboriously carving letters on a big rock.

It was Ruggedo, the old gnome king, carving and grumbling and grumbling and carving, and pausing every few minutes to light his pipe with the hot coal which he kept in his pocket for that purpose.

A big emerald lamp cast a glow over the strange cavern and made the gnome look like a bad green goblin, which he was.

"'Wag!' screamed the gnome, suddenly throwing down the chisel.

Then, yawning again, he lit a candle and started for the passage at the back of the cave.

"'How are you getting on?' he asked, pausing to look over the gnome's shoulder with a grin.

"'Fine,' answered Ruggedo, forgetting to scowl.

"'I'm up to the sixth rock and expect to finish to-night.' Who do you think will read it? asked the rabbit, putting back both ears and stroking his whiskers.

RUGADO'S HISTORY IN SIX ROCKS On the same night that Prince Pompa and Kabumpo had disappeared from Pumperdink, a little grey gnome crouched in a deep chamber tunneled under the Emerald City, laboriously carving letters on a big rock.

It was Ruggedo, the old gnome king, carving and grumbling and grumbling and carving, and pausing every few minutes to light his pipe with the hot coal which he kept in his pocket for that purpose.

A big emerald lamp cast a glow over the strange cavern and made the gnome look like a bad green goblin, which he was.

"'Wag!' screamed the gnome, suddenly throwing down the chisel.

Bring me a cup of melted mud, idiot, roared the gnome, pounding on the rock, and serve it to me on my throne at once.

Now see here, the rabbit twitched his nose rapidly, I'll get you a cup of melted mud, but don't you call me an idiot.

I don't mind working for one, nor digging for one, and listening to his foolishness, but nobody can call me an idiot, not even a make-believe king." you make me tired fumed the gnome then go to sleep advised the rabbit with a yawn what's the use of trying to pretend you're a king rug ho ho king over one wooden doll six rocks and twenty-seven sofa cushions you may have been a king once but now you're just a plain gnome and nothing else and if you go and sit quietly in your plain rocking-chair i'll bring you a cup of plain mud With a chuckle the rabbit retired, and Ruggedo, spluttering with fury, flounced into a doll's broken rocker that was set in the exact centre of the cave.

here i give that rabbit everything i steal and he won't even allow me the little luxury of calling him an idiot or of pulling his ears how can i pretend to be a king without an ear to pull grumbled the gnome what are you grinning at bouncing out of his chair ruggedo flew at a merry-faced wooden doll who sat propped up against the wall and shook her till her head turned round backwards and her arms and legs flew every which way.

Each of these kingdoms has its own ruler, but all four are under the sovereign rule and control of Ozma, the small but powerful fairy who lives in the Emerald City.

On all sides Oz is surrounded by a deadly desert, and beyond the desert lie the independent kingdoms of Noland, Loland, Ix, Plei, Ev, the dominions of the Gnome King, and many other strange and important principalities.

These countries form a narrow rim around the desert.

beyond this lies the nonestic ocean itself stretching in all directions and to no one knows what far and undiscovered shores each of the four kingdoms in oz shown on samuel's map was so dotted with smaller kingdoms cities towns villages and the holdings of ancient knights and barons there was scarcely room for another castle with young princes growing up on every hand roger could well sympathize with the need of ozma for more territory won't the ozians have too long a way to come before they reach these new islands and countries we discover inquired the reed bird after staring at the map for some moments in silence Not a bit of it," Samuel dismissed Roger's objection with a snap of his fingers.