Follow-up of

[link]

When Crowett is following the Paved Road to the Ruby City, he sees a girl in a field yelling to a scarecrow. Since he's pretty much lost despite there being only 1 road and since he hasn't seen a soul for days, he gathers his courage to ask the girl for directions. Turns out the girl, named Kimu, is heading to the Ruby City too, to talk to the Wizard of Zo. He'd rather not travel with this crazy girl with her obsession for Scarecrows, but since they're heading the same way, since there's one route... it's kinda impossible not to travel together.

Not much later they come across Tinnium, who is a soldier without direction. He's lazy, doesn't care about what's happening to whatever around him and suddenly... Kimu starts demanding he joins them! Something about Crowett being a Scarecrow and Tinnium being the Tin Man. Tinnium doesn't get it, but gets dragged along anyway.

Not much later, Leo tries to rob them, but alas, he fails horribly. He's a thief but a true coward. Kimu drags him along as well (Tinnium rather would have tied him to a tree and left him for the forest animals to nibble on).

Crowett is looking for wisdom (and tries to be a wizard as well).
Tinnium gets a wish pushed down his throat by Kimu: looking for a heart (why would he need one, according to him?).
Leo would love to be a heroic thief, not scared of anything!

During the travels, Crowett (17) find his magical powers (Kimu, on the other hand, can't seem to access her powers for some reason). Tinnium (21) starts to care for the people around him (and actually devellops some crush on Kimu). Leo (14) finds his courage because Kimu is plunging herself into insane danger more than once.

When they face the Wicked Witch of the West (better known as Mateo), the boys learn a stunning truth. When Mateo transported Kimu in a strange story, he needed 3 characters he couldn't control or predict. He chose 3 boys who were, at that moment, ending their lives.

(The background stories changed a bit since the image of The New Dorothy)

Crowett always wanted to be a scholar, but his father forbid him. His father also considered his son a weakling, not worth any food. He let Crowett know that more than once, by using his strength. Crowett chose poison over leaving the house.

Tinnium fought in a war to help defend his country and king. When he returned home, he found his sister murdered and dishonoured. His only clue was an emblem, from a high ranked soldier in the army he just fought alongside! When demanding an audience with the King, the King stated he had no proof and should leave. Tinnium soon found out that the murderer of his sister was none other than the general - the son of the King! Tinnium took revenge, but instead of awaiting punishment, he took the bloodstained knife that killed the prince and turned it around...

Leo was an orphan who ended up with the wrong crowd. When his gang stole a holy item, Leo got caught and trialed for it. He would get a lighter punishment if he would betray his gang, but Leo was loyal to his friends. After the trial, which ended in a death sentence (which Leo knew and didn't want his friends to die), he found out his so called friends didn't care about him and thought it was wonderful he took the blame and thus the punishment. The judge, not without a heart, allowed Leo to chose his own death. Leo chose the cliffs he visited so often and with the townsmen behind him, Leo ran for the sky...

When Kimu and the boys found this out, Mateo gave Kimu two options to end the story. She'd either kill Mateo and let everything return to the moment before they got trapped within the story... or she'd become his queen forever...

Project KiMa and characters © Kitty Ocean
Crowett is named by . I actually wanted to call him Crowan, but I already have a character called Crow XD