Alice didn't know how long she slept, but when she woke she could tell it was daytime. She tried to look through the debris flying around her to see how far she had traveled, but no matter where she looked, she could not make out the landscape below. Dinah, lazy as she was, remained asleep in the basket with the biscuits. Seeing the biscuits reminded her that she hadn't eaten in a while and she unwrapped the bundle and made herself a breakfast of biscuits and jam.

"I wonder how much farther we must travel Dinah" she wondered aloud to the slumbering cat once she finished eating. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than the wind stopped blowing and the tornado disappeared, sending Alice and her cat free falling from several hundred feet in the air. Alice screamed and Dinah finally woke up, yowling and clawing at the basket, both sure that they would hit the ground hard enough to shatter their bones.

Their terror was short lived though, because in a matter of seconds their fall abruptly ended with the two of them landing in a river. Dinah howled furiously and practically sprinted across the surface of the water to the shoreline. Alice swam toward the same bank until her feet touched the sandy riverbed. When her feet hit solid, albeit underwater, ground she remembered her basked and looked around for it. She finally spotted it about ten yards down river, the bottled of wine bobbing like a cork and the biscuits floating about, polka-dotting the water.

"Oh no!" Alice exclaimed. "So much for my careful planning." She waded the rest of the way out of the river and sat on the muddy bank next to her slightly dry and extremely puffy cat. Her pretty, blue party dress was streaked with mud, and a slimy clump of algae was stuck in her hair.

Alice pulled the algae out of her hair and sat on the riverbank drying off until the hunger pangs drove her to move. Dinah, by then, had moved on from scowling at her to ignoring her. The cat was upset about Alice losing the basket, the forced bath, and to top it off, she had yet to see a single bird or mouse, despite Alice's assurance that wonderland had plenty.

With the sun high in the sky above them, Alice stood and looked around. She didn't know where any place was in wonderland -having wandered around lost during her first visit- but since she didn't even know where she was at that moment, she supposed it wouldn't even matter if she knew where everywhere else was either because she would still be lost. She did notice that the sun had been rising to her right so at least she knew which way was east. She didn't wan the sun in her eyes so she decided to go east, along the riverbank.

Water usually leads to civilization. " She reasoned aloud to Dinah, who stopped ignoring her long enough to glare at her. "Come along, Dinah. Let's see what lays to the East." Alice took a few steps and turned to see if her cat was following.

Dinah stared at her, but hadn't moved at all. "I told you,"Dinah said, "You can carry me."

Both Dinah and Alice's eye flew open in surprise when the cat spoke. Alice, because she'd never heard the cat speak, though she remembered that the animals in wonderland spoke quite a bit. Dinah was surprised because while she understood human, she had never before spoken it out loud. Always before, she'd heard a satisfyingly confusing meow or hiss that conveyed her feelings but kept her thoughts private. I will have to guard my tongue here. Dinah thought. Alice recovered from her surprise and meekly walked over to Dinah and obeyed the command, carrying the cat like a baby as she followed the riverbank to the East.

After about an hour of walking, Alice spotted what looked like a small blue house. While the house excited her, the cornfield behind it was what screamed out to her hungry tummy. Dinah also saw something that made her kitty tummy growl. Crows. The cat jumped from her owner's arms and bounded into the corn field, ready to stalk herself some dinner. Alice followed at a quickened pace, hoping the farmer would share some food with her.

As she neared the farm house, Alice wondered if an animal or human lived there. She saw how small the house was, and guessed animal, for if it were a human that lived there, they would have to be very small indeed.

Her knock on the door was greeted by a short man dressed in blue. It was clear that he was as surprised to see her standing outside his door as she was to find that the house was inhabited by a little person.

"Oh! Hello." Alice said, recovering quickly again from her surprise. "My name is Alice. My cat, Dinah, and I have dome a long way and I was hoping you would be so kind as to share some food with us."

"I have plenty of food," the little person replied, stepping inside and opening the door more. "You are welcome to come in and have some. Though, I don't know if I have anything a cat would eat."

Alice ducked down under the just barely too short doorway and entered the tiny house. "Oh, Dinah will be content eating a couple of the crows flying about out there." She said absently as she looked around the living area.

"Your cat eats birds?" The little man asked with wonder.

"Of course," Alice looked quizzically at the man. "Don't cats here eat birds?"

"I don't quite know. I've never seen a cat before. But I may get on for my corn field. The crows are constantly eating up my corn." The man walked into the small kitchen as he spoke and Alice followed. A pot of corn chowder sat simmering on the stove and a fresh pan of corn bread was cooling on the counter. The food looked and smelled delicious. Alice's mouth watered as she took the seat offered by the little man. The table and chair were just a little too small for her and she wondered if the food would make her shrink so she fit in the house better. Surely it wouldn't make her grow, or the man wouldn't give it to her whilst she sat in his kitchen.

She spooned a mouthful of the chowder placed before her and almost groaned from pleasure. The chowder was warm and savory, spices she'd never tasted before and the sharp bite of onions and peppers mellowed by sweet cream. The corn kernels burst in her mouth like capsules of sugared butter. She took a bite of the buttered corn bread and the delicate, warm morsel dissolved on her tongue.

She was so hungry, and the bowls were so small, Alice ate three bowls of chowder and two pieces of bread. While she ate she talked with the little man. She learned his name was Rinda and he was a forth generation corn farmer. His farm occupied a large portion of a country called Munchkinland, and he was soon to wed a pretty Munchkin girl who lived at the Capital of Munchkin land, Sapphire City. He told her about the Wicked witch, who ruled over the Munchkins, whose castle lay on the far East border of Munchkinland on the edge of the Impassible desert.

"I'm surprised that the queen hasn't commanded 'off with her head' by now." Alice said after learning of the witch.

"What queen?" Rinda asked.

"The queen of hearts of course."Alice replied with a smile. "The ruler of Wonderland."

"Well, I don't know where Wonderland is but Oz doesn't have a ruler. The four lands are governed by witches. The witch in charge of the Munchkins was killed by the witch to the East and she took over ruling us and the Winkies. If you ask me, the sooner we can get some witches trained up at Shiz to challenge these older witches, the better."

Alice fell silent for a minute digesting the food and the words. She wasn't in Wonderland. She was in some random place she never heard of. She started to freak out, but she realized that until she fell down the rabbit hold eleven years before, she had also never heard of Wonderland. And did it really matter where she lived? She had no roots in Wonderland so would this Oz place be any different? Not to mention, she remembered the inhabitants of Wonderland being by and large rude. Also, she could eat the food of Oz without shrinking or growing. The more she thought about it, the more she like the idea of being in Oz.

"It occurs to me Rinda," Alice finally said after processing the news that she wasn't in Wonderland. "That as a newcomer to Ox, I have no place to live and no means to pay for a house."

"Well," Rinda said doubtfully. "you are welcome to stay here, though, you are quite tall so you might not find it comfortable."

"Thank you so very much," Alice smiled at Rinda. "I appreciate your hospitality and I will spend tonight here, but I think I would much prefer someplace more my size."

"Well, You'll be able to find a larger house and work in either Sapphire City or Emerald City. Though, if your cat is really getting rid of those pesky crows I'll be sad to see you go."

"Why don't you build a scarecrow?" Alice asked. The short little corn farmer had never heard of such an thing, and said as much. "Oh, well, it's a straw man that you stick on a post in your corn field. The crows think it's a man and stay away. If you like, in the morning I'll help you build one."

"I would like that. Thank you" Rinda and Alice spent a good portion of the evening talking about Oz, the Sapphire and Emerald Cities, and of course, the witch who enslaved the people of Munchkin and Winkie Countries.

Alice felt her cockles go up as he regaled her with tales of the witches wicked deeds and as she went to sleep that night on the small couch, she decided that she would go to Sapphire City and become an Advocate for the Munchkins. She didn't like people being bullied and she wasn't scared of the witch. Well, she couldn't say she wasn't scared, but even being afraid of the witch, she felt she had to do something.

It was noon before they finished building the scarecrow, having spent the time to paint a cheerful face on the dummy. They hung him ion a newly erected post in the center of the corn field. At the suggestion of Alice, they build the scarecrow to be larger than a munchkin, as to better scare the crows. With Alice as a size model they sewed an outfit, stuffed it with straw and placed the cheery smiling head on top.