that Goose. We will separate and search in different directions,
and the first to find the Goose must bring him here, where we will all
meet again in an hour."

14. The Wizard Learns the Magic Word

Now, the Goose was the transformation of old Ruggedo, who was at one
time King of the Nomes, and he was even more angry at Kiki Aru than
were the others who shapes had been changed. The Nome detested
anything in the way of a bird, because birds lay eggs and eggs are
feared by all the Nomes more than anything else in the world. A goose
is a foolish bird, too, and Ruggedo was dreadfully ashamed of the shape
he was forced to wear. And it would make him shudder to reflect that
the Goose might lay an egg!

So the Nome was afraid of himself and afraid of everything around him.
If an egg touched him he could then be destroyed, and almost any animal
he met in the forest might easily conquer him. And that would be the
end of old Ruggedo the Nome.

Aside from these fears, however, he was filled with anger against Kiki,
whom he had meant to trap by cleverly stealing from him the Magic Word.
The boy must have been crazy to spoil everything the way he did, but
Ruggedo knew that the arrival of the Wizard had scared Kiki, and he was
not sorry the boy had transformed the Wizard and Dorothy and made them
helpless. It was his own transformation that annoyed him and made him
indignant, so he ran about the forest hunting for Kiki, so that he
might get a better shape and coax the boy to follow his plans to
conquer the Land of Oz.

Kiki Aru hadn't gone very far away, for he had surprised himself as
well as the others by the quick transformations and was puzzled as to
what to do next. Ruggedo the Nome was overbearing and tricky, and Kiki
knew he was not to be depended on; but the Nome could plan and plot,
which the Hyup boy was not wise enough to do, and so, when he looked
down through the branches of a tree and saw a Goose waddling along
below and heard it cry out, "Kiki Aru! Quack--quack! Kiki Aru!" the
boy answered in a low voice, "Here I am," and swung himself down to the
lowest limb of the tree.

The Goose looked up and saw him.

"You've bungled things in a dreadful way!" exclaimed the Goose. "Why
did you do it?"

"Because I wanted to," answered Kiki. "You acted as if I was your
slave, and I wanted to show these forest people that I am more powerful
than you."

The Goose hissed softly, but Kiki did not hear tha