The Yhappers of Folly | Oz Travelogue

The Yhappers of Folly

Once Tip felt there was enough distance between him and Mombi; he began to tell Jack Pumpkinhead about all the history of Oz that he knew. One tale in particular stuck out to Jack, and that was the story of the village of Folly.

Folly’s story begins with the two explorers; Verden from Emerald City and Viola from Gillikin. As fate would have it, they both discovered a wondrous, towering blue crystal that glinted and sparkled; occasionally shifting to the colors green and purple.

Upon this discovery, Verden immediately exclaimed, “As this crystal lies within the borders of Emerald City, I, Verden, hereby claim it for The Emerald City!”

Viola stammered in a flabbergasted tone, “You can’t do that! This crystal is clearly on Gillikin land, so I, Viola, hereby claim it, for Gillikin!”

The argument between the two had gotten more and more intense by the minute. Realizing that the conversation was going nowhere Viola bursted out saying, “Fine, if you can’t see reason let’s have the crystal decide! If it turns purple more times than it turns green, then I claim it for Gillikin!”

“Fine!” spitted Verden, “But if it turns green more often than purple, it shall be claimed for the Emerald City!”

Three days. Three days was what was agreed upon. Once that time had passed and they tallied how many times the crystal shifted to green or purple; only then would they know to whom the crystal belonged. As the seconds turned to minutes, the minutes to hours, and hours to days; there came a realization between the two. After about one hour passed the crystal would, like clockwork, momentarily change color; only to revert back to its neutral state of blue.

As time went on and the final hour approached, Viola haughtily declared, “The tally is 36-35, in favor of Gillikin. Looks like I was right after all!”

But just before Verden was going to fire back at her, the crystal turned green in the final moments of the contest. “Ha!” Verden cried, “Looks like the crystal changed its mind about you and Gillikin!”

Seeing as how neither had won the contest, and both were running low on supplies, they agreed to have a redo in a weeks time.

During the week that passed, they both went to their homelands and news of the crystal spread like wildfire. In no time at all the crystal was swarmed by people from both nations. And at the appointed time the contest began once again still ending in the same fashion as before, a tie. Still not content with this result, a recount and redo was demanded once more. The cycle repeated so many times that the temporary camps that were nestled in the quaint grassland hills; quickly became the towering, more permanent structures that encircle the crystal to this day.

As time has passed, some things had changed. The crystal was given a name, “Yh-tapa, The Fickle;” and the original argument of whose crystal is it, instead turned into the layman's contest of which color is better, Gillikin Purple or Emerald City Green? In an attempt to prove which is the better, each side would display their superiority by constructing large, obtuse structures whose main purpose was to display large banners and décor of their nations colors. When not creating ramshackle houses, the two sides would often argue the day away, convinced that Yh-tapa, The Fickle would finally be persuaded into deciding which color is best, green or purple.

With the argument going nowhere, and the original charm of the crystal fading, the people of the two countries began calling the village Folly; for all the time that was and will be wasted on the debate. As for the people that still live there keeping the argument alive, they are now known as “The Yhappers,” because all they seem to be able to do is yap, and hoot, and holler all day and all night long.

“Fascinating,” Jack stated “Who knew arguing over nothing would turn out to be so unproductive.”

“I did,” said Tip matter-of-factly, “That’s why I was telling you the story!”

“Oh! Of course dear father; it is just as you say.” Jack replied.

Tip and Jack had then decided it was best to avoid the village of Folly and instead find another route to take them to The Emerald City. It was during this time they encounter Sawhorse and eventually crossed the river to get into The Emerald City.

. . .

Neerg, a tailor who is always up for the challenge proving that green is better than purple and does he ever prove it. Neerg has earned a reputation as being one of the best tailors in the realm of Oz. But the fame is nothing to him, he just wants to create new and interesting designs. But being limited to just using one color has been a contentious point in Neerg's life. He has been feeling bored and depressed by the limited possibilities he has to work with. People don't really notice or pay any mind to his comments about not feeling inspired, because they can always see that he is drawing up new designs for banners or clothes in his sketchbook; so they think he is just "Having one of those days." What they don't see is that he has a pressed, purple flower tucked away in his sketchbook that he is always drawing inspiration from. 

Well, one day upon hearing the news of this marvelous tailor the king of Oz, Scarecrow, payed a visit. He demanded that the tailor make him the finest suit the world of Oz had ever seen. Since after all, if he was going to be the smartest person in the land, he had to be dressed smartly. Well, Neerg said he can't for that would require him to use both the colors green and purple, and since he lived on the green side of Folly he could only use the color green. At hearing this, Scarecrow suggested that Neerg makes all of the green parts of the suit on the green part of Folly, and then move north, to the purple side of Folly and make the purple parts of the suit there. Neerg thought it was a brilliant plan, and went to work right away, after all, he's been wanting to work with purple for a while now and one doesn't refuse the demands of the king of Oz.

So Neerg went to work on making the finest of suits in all the land from the color green. And once he was done with green he grabbed all he could and happily trotted over to the purple side of folly and finished the suit. Neerg handed the suit over to Scarecrow, who at that moment was known not only for being the smartest in all the land of Oz, but also the most smartly dressed.