Taral Wayne
Prisoner of Oz
Art © Taral Wayne. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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Note by Leem: Scaled to fit - see full-size image. Originally posted on
Taral’s FurAffinity pages, with the comment: There is a surprising amount of petrification in L. Frank Baum’s Oz books ... also a surprising amount of taxidermy and beheading, but I don’t find those to be as appealing. In one of the books, some Quadling’s or Munchkin’s elderly parents are accidentally turned to stone (by a witch’s potion, I believe) and the bereaved son seeks an audience with the Princess of Oz herself. But Ozma has outlawed witchcraft throughout Oz, and declares that she cannot break her own law by bringing the statues back to life! Tough nuggies, she tells the kid, in a winsome, adorable way you have to love. So the kid goes off to find a magical counterspell anyway. Wouldn’t you? This drawing of one of Ozma’s courtiers turned to stone was inspired by the story, though it would mean that Ozma could hand out magical punishments at will, even if she wouldn’t use magic to do good. But at my age, I expect hypocrisy from government.
Leem here. It occurs to me that if Ozma wants to pass a hypocritical sentence she can always do what Cordwainer Smith’s Lords of the Instrumentality would do under similar circumstances - order it added to the record, and then strike the record from the record.

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