This Week's Oz Short Story

I skipped the second story in the 1993 edition of Oziana for reasons I will explain next week, so this week is the third and final story, "Jubulut" by Onyx Madden. Madden was a beloved figure in Oz circles who wrote The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz, and "Jubulut" is an excerpt from his next book, which sadly remains unpublished, as Madden died not long after this was published. Presumably he never completed the book. But what we do get is our American heroine, Robin (a name Oziana editor Robin Olderman was jealous of, as she wanted to have adventures in Oz, too), has made her way onto a cloud so that she can cross the Deadly Desert into Ev. She meets Tracey, one of Polychrome's less adventurous sisters, lounging on top. Good thing, too, as a yagmur starts to suck the water from their cloud. (Yagmurs are nearly invisible flying cloud eaters, of course.) They scare off the yagmur, but the cloud needs some TLC to continue the journey. Tracey takes them to Jubulut, the cloud tender, and Robin and Tracey have some fun exploring Jubulut's palace while they wait for their ride. And that's about it! As a little slice-of-life tale, it's fun, but it's disappointing that the book has never been published.