"I need a heart." Cried the Tinman in despair. The axe had cut his flesh so many times he had thought he would never feel pain like that again… but he was wrong. A horrific beast sat before him, with five arms, five legs and five beady eyes that watched from the rhino head. It was not the lady or giant head as the other two had seen, if he had a heart at this moment it would be having an attack. But as his chest was empty it stood silent.

"Why should I grant you a heart, Tinman?" Asked the woolly monster with an in-Animal voice.
The Tinman shook in fear and bowed his head so he couldn't see the great terror. "I need a heart to love, without it I am nothing." The last word was barely heard over the roar of machinery that was the Wizard's constant companion.

"Then I have a deal for you, kill the Witch of the West and if you bring her back quickly you could have her heart?" Said the Wizard after a long thoughtful pause.

The Tinman stepped back horrified. "But she is wicked, it is said she has no heart!"

The beast rolled its five eyes. "Whose heart would you like then?" The Tinman didn't pick up the sincerity of his statement.

"Someone like Dorothy, she is good and kind. She has a good heart."
The creature roared then so loudly the room shook… the Tinman was shocked, guards rushed into the room. The Tinman's arms where snatched behind his back and he was pushed to his knees.

There was a voice, more human, but no less commanding. "Let him go… and bring the girl."
An elderly man emerged from the green mist that had covered the dais in the throne room while the Tinman was being retained.

"Sorry about that…" The man paused looking at the confused face of the Tinman. "I am the Wizard, this is just one of my other forms. I feel I should be nicer, you have travelled a long way. Follow me." He said leading the way to a small room behind the throne.

"I shall have to cut a hole in your breast, so I can put the heart in the correct place." Said the Wizard pointing to a pair of tinner's shears.

"I shall not feel at all." Said the Tinman slightly saddened by the thought.

The man leaned over and cut a fist sized square from the Tinman's chest. "I shall just get your heart." The Wizard turned quickly toward a curtained off section of the room, he slipped quickly behind the curtain. "Don't worry; you'll be home soon…" The Wizard's voice said soothingly… then the screaming started. Piercing, blood-curdling shrieking. The Tinman thought he recognised it but he passed off the strange feeling; believing fully in the Wizard.

The old man's arms rang red with blood as he emergered from the curtain, in his hands a plump still beating heart. The front of the man was stained crimson along with streaks of the stain along his face. He fitted the organ into the Tinman's chest and sealed up the gap by soldering the tin together.
"Is it a kind heart?" The Tinman asked subdued.

"Oh yes… very kind."

***

The Tinman rushed upstairs to tell Dorothy and his friends what had happened; how the Wizard had favoured him… but his friends were gone.