Tale's Beginning

"Hurry you fools! So says your master!" The woman barking out orders was an attractive blonde woman in a beautiful red dress. She was also a giant. The people she was commanding were in chains, building a statue of a male giant. This was their life for the past 30 years. They had heard that the witches who ruled other sections of the country would simply terrorize and kill their subjects. They knew running wasn't even an option, it would just make things worse. It was hopeless. They had long given up on freedom.

"Well now, what do we have here?" A strange white-haired man in a green suit had just... appeared. He was holding a wooden cane with a gold sphere at the top.

"I am the Witch Yoop, ruler of this land! I don't know from where you came human, but I know this- you will either bow to me or die!" The man laughed.

"You are not the first person to say that to me today. The first was this guy!" He slammed his cane on the ground and from some emerald mist the head of a giant appeared.

"My-my husband... YOU'RE DEAD!" The woman slammed her hand down on the man, but this caused the man to be turned into more green mist.

"An illusion?! Stop hiding and face me, coward!" The man's voice could then be heard coming from multiple places.

"Sorry, but I'm not dumb enough to face a giant head-on!"

"You're a witch, right? Your magic can't handle this?"

"All's fair in a fight!" The woman got more and more enraged with every single word. She screamed and transformed into a dragon. She started shooting balls of fire randomly, desperately trying to get a lucky hit,

"JUST DIE!" Each fireball exploded on contact with the ground. One landed close to her "subjects" and exploded. It should have incinerated them, but when the smoke cleared they were protected by a green barrier, cast by the now visible man. 

"Ah, so there you are you pest! DIE!" The dragon shot a massive torrent of flames toward the man and her own "subjects", but the man dispersed his barrier and put his hand out. All the fire disappeared. The dragon looked confused, but before she could do anything the man snapped his fingers and emerald blades suddenly appeared and tore through her flesh like hot knives through butter. Her appearance reverted and she collapsed on the ground dead.

"Seems I put too much effort in. Transformation magic can be powerful, but you and your husband were just weak." The people in chains stared at the man in nervous anticipation, before one woman stepped forward.  She was an older woman with brown hair. Strangely, the woman had no fear or nervousness towards the man.

"Well, since you killed those two you're the new master of this place. What is it that you want of us?"

"Ah, nearly forgot about that. Say, where is this place exactly?"

"This is Gillikin Country."

"Ok then, this is a good enough place to start"

"What is it you seek to start?" The man started grinning as this question was asked.

"To reunite and free this Land by driving out all the Wicked Witches plaguing it! Oh, and to answer your question, I just want you all you to rebuild this place and reclaim your lives!" The people started to cheer some, but the woman had one question left.

"Do you really think you can accomplish that?"

"Of course, for I am the awesome God of Magic-" The man snapped his fingers, vanishing before appearing as an Emerald Giant in the sky,

"OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL!" The people started murmuring to themselves.

"OZ?! Like, the same Oz this Land is named after?!"

"Is it really him? I thought he was just a myth..."

"We prayed to our own Gods and they did nothing... maybe we should place our faith in him! A human defeating all the Wicked Witches would be impossible, but a God could definitely achieve that!" Eventually, they all started cheering and praising Oz.

"Lord Oz!"

"Lord Oz!"

"We'll be your humble servants!"

"You have our eternal faith!" Oz chuckled to himself before reverting his appearance and appearing back on the ground.

"Oh, no no I don't want your faith, only your aid. I want to restore your faith in yourselves! Now, there are others here, right? Could you go tell them what has happened?" All but one of them rushed to complete Oz's request. The woman who talked to him initially stayed back.

"So what's your true goal "God"?" 

"Oh? You don't believe me, despite my displays of power?"

"Nope. Sure what you were doing was impressive. Invisibility and Illusions to fake transforming and teleportation, along with creating those swords stuck in that witch's body. All the spells you did were done at a high level, I'll give you that. Still, it was all magic a human is capable of."

"Oh? You ever see a human absorb magic?"

"No, but apparently there are some relics that can. For some reason, I can see the flow of magic, but you don't have any. I'm guessing your staff and something hidden by your clothes is responsible for your magic." The man shrugged his shoulders.

"My magic is just immune to your magic sight."

"Nope. I could see the magic you used to cast spells, so that's not it. I can also see the magic in that cane of yours. So I'm guessing whatever lets you absorb magic keeps it in a formless state until you use it for spells, so I can't see. Am I wrong?" Oz sighed.

"Well, if you could tell all that why didn't you say anything about it earlier? Are you trying to blackmail me?" The woman laughed a bit at this.

"No, I just want to judge your character I guess. If you actually succeed at uniting this Land and driving out the Wicked Witches that would be wonderful, but it would be terrible if you became a tyrant yourself. So "Oz", why are you doing this?"

"Well... actually having someone on my side as perceptive as you would be a great boon so... fine. Just don't expect my whole life story alright?" Oz took a breath before continuing.

"Well you see, seeing the state of this Land makes me so sad, my only goal is helping-"

"Cut the crap. Ugh, I guess blackmail it is. Tell me the truth or I tell the others about you." Oz groaned before continuing.

"How annoying... well if I can get you on my side the truth will be worth it. Well, I do genuinely want to save this land... but that's just the beginning of my plans. So in that vein, there are two reasons I'm acting as a God. First is that this will make reuniting this Land far easier than if I admitted I'm human. People are far more willing to follow a God than a "mere" human. The second is because I want to draw the attention of real Gods."

"Real Gods huh? I don't think such a thing exists. Wouldn't they have helped us if they existed?" Oz gripped his cane tightly and his voice became strained, as if he was trying to hold some emotion back.

"That's the thing though. I thought like you once but then I found something. Those Gods really exist. I've lost a lot due to those inactive  Gods" Gods was said with a particular venom.

"So I'm thinking, if a false God gets praise for reuniting this country, they'll come to strike me down. When that happens, I'll wipe them all out." 

"So you're taking on a task thought to be impossible to kill beings thought to be unkillable?!" The woman started laughing at this.

"HA! Ah, in that case, I think we'll get along just fine Oz!" With a cheery smile, she pulled a vial out of the sleeve of her shirt. It was a clear crystal poison.

"Is-is that poison?"

"Strychnine to be exact. It doesn't matter how strong a human being becomes, poison will still be lethal. Getting the plants to make this beneath the notice of those giants was hard enough, it was even harder trying to find a way to get them to ingest a fatal dose without them noticing. What you're planning seems harder, but I'm game. Us old folk have to stick together after all!" The face Oz made was a mixture of confusion and shock.

"Old?! I'm 35 you old bat!" 

"Oh the white hair threw me off-" she looked Oz up and down.

"-Yeah you do look pretty young... so don't call me an old bat you young'un! I'm pretty sure I'm sixty-something anyway." Oz rolled his eyes.

"How did you forget your own age?"

"Same way I forgot my name I suppose. Or most of my past I guess."

"So probably magic then. Guess you were cursed. What do the people here call you then?"

"Chalk."

"That... is a name. Why though?"

"I always have chalk and a whiteboard on me."

"Ok then... well Chalk, as the great and powerful Oz, I'll break your curse." Chalk gave a wry smile.

"I'll hold you to that. Well, come on then "God", you should go greet your new followers." The two walked off, ready to blaze a path toward a new future.