In the comforting light of day, the dark forest they had conquered was but a whisper behind them. This motley fellowship—fashioned of flesh, metal, straw, and bravado—faced their new day with a unity forged deeper by each shared strife and triumph, embarking upon a raft that would carry them over the gleaming river's divide, oblivious to the fate that the capricious currents intended to script.
Alas, as the river held the raft in its watery grip, the travellers found themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control. Each companion, weighed by their own longing—a brain, a heart, courage, a way home—faced the ominous possibility of their quest's premature end. The Scarecrow's solitary plight, ensnared upon a pole midstream, served as a poignant echo of their collective vulnerability.
And yet, in a display of the courage he so fiercely sought, the lion's decisive leap into the waters to rescue his friends stitched a new patch in the quilt of their unfolding story. As stirring as their escape from the river's grasp was, a field of treacherous beauty awaits, weaving a perfumed peril through the tapestry of their journey—a reminder that even the most enchanting of scenes may harbour hidden threats.
