by J.A. Sprouls
Chapter 24
As soon as the tunnel forked again BB and BJ told the others to stop. They then tied and gagged their captives and deposited them in a small side tunnel that was a dead end.
"That should keep them out of the way, at least until we can achieve our objective," BB said with a satisfied tone.
The pirates and Knarls then took the other fork and headed out on their quest for the power sources.
The tunnel was darker than the other tunnels so Tally pulled the lamps and lit them, handing them t to Pigtail, Jethro and Wicket. As soon as the tunnel was illuminated they headed out again cautiously.
"When do you think we'll start getting into the booby traps?" Pill asked with a bit of a tremor to her voice.
"I don't know but it should be soon," was Arbordale's response.
Jethro stopped and said to the others, "Maybe we should stop here and tie our pant cuffs down, in order to keep the stalagmice from crawling up our trousers." They all thought that was good idea so they stopped for a few minutes while they all tied their cuffs. Once that was done Tally handed out the long sticks to Jethro and Pigtail, since they were in the lead positions so they could detect any sand, rope, pointed stick or water traps ahead.
They walked on with Jethro and Pigtail tapping the ground in front of them to make sure the path was clear. Pill and Lark were just behind them with Tally and Wicket bringing up the rear. Pill and Lark had their eyes on the ceiling looking for the stalagticks as they went since the front two were focusing on the ground before them. It wasn't until they had gotten a good half a mile into this particular tunnel when Lark saw them. Dangling from the stalactites were hundreds or maybe even thousands of little black bugs. They seemed to know of the pirates presence because they were moving in a frantic wild way.
"Hang on, there are the stalagticks," Lark said pointing to the ceiling.
"Not a problem." Wicket said as he pushed to the front of the group. He had forgotten to bring the fire lizards but luckily he had brought a small flask of rum, for a bit of liquid encouragement. He pulled the flask out of his pocket and took a sip and then took a lantern and lit a torch with the lantern fire. He then put the torch up to his face and angled it so that he was facing up towards the stalagticks. He then took a deep breath and blew on the torch. A great ball of fire came from the torch and engulfed the stalagticks who dropped to the ground, burned to a crisp from the fire ball Wicket had made.
The group gave a resounding cheer for Wicket's success and they moved on with the burnt stalagticks crunching underfoot.
Twenty feet farther in they got to a small chamber area of the tunnel and to the first sand trap. Jethro had hit a soft spot and told everyone to stop. He poked the soft part harder with the stick when suddenly there was a loud whooshing sound that filled the tunnel. Then the spot where Jethro had prodded suddenly gave way and the sand seemed to become a whirlpool and slowly drained out from the pit it was covering and revealed sharp pointed sticks at the bottom.
"Well, now that's just cold. They suck you in with the swirling sand and then drop you unceremoniously to your death by being impaled on a stick like shish kabobs. Man, that Wind Hag is one mean ugly cuss, isn't she?" Pigtail said in disgust.
"Well, the whole point is to make sure you don't get to the power source, and that would pretty much take care of you and anyone else going this way." Orida said in a matter of fact tone.
Suddenly the cave was filled with this horrible shrill siren that echoed off the walls and only seemed to intensify. They all slapped their hands over their ears and hit the ground in hope that the sound wouldn't be that low to the ground. Unfortunately, it seemed the siren was even louder closer to the ground. It was then that Pill nudged Pigtail and handed him some cotton puffs to put in his ears. They knocked out a good portion of he siren noise. She handed the cotton puffs to the others and they followed suit. Once the siren was deadened a bit they got to their feet and headed out of the small chamber as quickly as possible.
Pigtail pulled Jethro back before he could enter into the narrower portion of the tunnel just in time to keep him from stepping onto the ooze of doom. The purple ooze was smeared all over the floor of the tunnel.
"That's how they get you, make you want to run out to escape the siren and then, smack, you're stuck in the ooze of doom." He shuddered as he looked down at the ooze.
"Good thing you saw it and stopped me. I would hate to be stuck here for an eternity with that stupid siren going." Jethro yelled at Pigtail. He had to yell to be heard over the siren and the cotton stuffed in their ears. Wicket hit Pigtail on the shoulder to get his attention and handed him a plank of wood. Pigtail grabbed it and placed it over the ooze so they could cross it safely. As soon as they all got over the ooze of doom they went down the tunnel as fast as they could in order to escape the siren that was still blaring. When they finally turned a sharp corner in the tunnel the siren ceased to reach them any longer.
They all stopped and cautiously took the cotton out of their ears. Pigtail held the lantern up high looking all over the tunnel ahead of them to see if he could see any traps. Then he turned the lantern to look at the tunnel behind them.
"I'm guessing that the Wind Hag and her troops will now know that there is someone trying to get to her power source. I'm sure that siren was not just to hurt the ears of the intruders but to also alert them of our presence," Pigtail said in an exasperated voice.
"I'm pretty sure you're right about that. Okay, guys and gals, keep a sharp lookout for any of the special troops she has guarding the tunnels, like the moles and puffer worms. We want to make sure we don't suddenly come face to face with any of them," Jethro ordered.
"Okay, but now that they are alerted to our presence shouldn't we reconsider this attempt?" Tally asked in hopes that they would all agree and decide to go back to the security of their hideout.
No such luck, because Pigtail gave him a stern look and said, "You knew the dangers we would face and you still came. Besides, you don’t see the girls whining about going home, do ya?"
"Yes sir, you're right, just a brief moment of weakness sir, it won't happen again," Tally responded. Under his breath he mumbled something about not being given a chance to say no in the first place, before he started following the others again.
When they came to a very narrow part of the tunnel Jethro held up the lantern to get light onto as much of the tunnel ahead as possible. On the ground there were these worms wiggling up the tunnel.
"So are these the grub worms or the puffer worms?" He asked Arbordale who was sitting on his shoulder.
Arbordale squinted down at the worms and said, "Puffers, so no whistling and singing, nothing to make them think that you are happy. Now Jethro and Wicket might ought to go first since the puffers like the Flugs. That way they can lead the us through, hopefully."
"Is he kidding, think no happy thoughts? Now why in the name of survival would I be thinking something happy right now? I mean we were nearly sucked into a sand whirlpool, impaled on sticks and suffered a hearing loss, which I'm betting you anything is permanent. Yeah, I'm really thinking of frolicking puppies and bunnies right now." Tally spat out.
"Hey, that's doing the trick, Tally. The puffers are turning back and heading back up the tunnel. I bet they are sensing your negative feelings so they are reacting to them by letting us pass. Good work, keep it up." Pigtail said beaming at Tally. His happiness at Tally's success was short lived because the puffers sensed his happiness and turned around and came back p towards them.
Tally, realizing what happened shouted at the Captain, "Oh, yeah, nice job, your royal happiness, here they come back to destroy us. Yeah, that was real smart, and you think I'm the dumb one, well, it's not my fault that they are coming back, now is it?" He said frustrated and worried about becoming skewered.
The puffers stopped, trying to figure out what to do. They were getting mixed signals, someone was happy. They could sense that. But then again, someone was very unhappy too.
So which was it? Was it someone happy or not? What should they do? So out of the confusion they decided it would probably just be best to puff up and fill the tunnel so that whoever it was would be stopped. This is exactly what they did and blocked the tunnel completely.
This frustrated Tally even more and so he sat down to sulk. Wicket, on the other hand decided to take matters into his own hands, but that was only because he didn't see any choice on the matter. Either they stay there and die, go back and get stuck in ooze, go deaf from the siren, or they could go on ahead. He grabbed his spear tighter in his grip and them gave a great whooping holler and charged the puffer with his spear held out in front of him.
He hit the puffer worm with all his might and thrust the spear in as far as he could get it. He stood there for a good minute or two, amazed at his own daring and also a bit sick at his stomach. What was he thinking? He looked back at the others and gave a sickly-sounding chuckle and then grabbed the spear and pulled at it to get it out of the worm's body. After all, he might need it later on.
It was stuck rather deep into the body and he had trouble pulling it out. Tally, deciding that he might just as well help out than sit there depressed, got up and started to pull on the spear also. It took about three jerks on their part before they finally got the spear out. As soon as it was free they stepped back from the worm, waiting to see what was going to happen next.
Suddenly, without any warning there was a loud raspberry sound and then the puffer worm began to deflate. The next thing they knew the puffer worm was flying around the tunnel like a balloon that suddenly lost all its air. Then it landed at the feet of Lark, who looked down at it and laughed for a moment before raising her right foot and stomping on it. The others cheered and clapped and then were suddenly silent.
The silence was caused by the sudden inflating of the other puffer worms who heard the happy cheers. They had been further down in the tunnel. That meant the tunnel was once again blocked.
Wicket and Tally looked at each other and then Wicket raised his spear and with a roaring holler bounded towards the other puffer worms, spear out and ready to puncture another one. Tally grabbed Jethro's spear and followed suit. One would lunge at a worm and then the others would help pull the spear out and the other would lunge at the puffer worm just behind the recently deflated one. Pill and Lark would follow the descent of the deflated worms and then they would stomp on them, making sure they weren't gonna cause any more problems for the group.
With all the hollering and cheering at the defeat of the puffer worms they never heard the troops that were coming up from behind. It wasn't until Pill, who had turned her back on the others to stomp another worm, saw them and gave a yelp. Jethro turned and saw the troops of moles headed their way. Luckily the moles weren't moving really fast. They were, being blind, having difficulty navigating the tunnel. They kept bouncing off the walls and losing their sense of direction. Behind the moles, bringing up the rear, was the prairie dog battalion. Their progress was impeded because of the ricocheting moles and they were getting frustrated at the bouncing moles bumping into them and knocking them down. Lark grabbed her backpack and pulled the food out they had brought to distract the moles and grub worms with and started to throw it at the advancing forces. The moles and prairie dogs stood still for a moment. The aroma of the food was hitting their noses and putting them in a quandary. Should they keep after the intruders or should they stop and eat? As soon as their stomachs started to growl with hunger, Lark knew they had made their choice.
As they settled down to eat, the pirates took off down the tunnel away from the moles and prairie dogs. They ran as fast as they could, trying to put as much distance between them and the moles and prairie dogs. They weren't able to go at full speed for fear of running into another trap. Sure enough, before they knew it they were surrounded by fire lizards. Small jets of fire were coming out of their mouths and aimed at the pirates. The pirates were jumping as soon as a flame was directed at them. It was only as Tally climbed up Wicket's back that he saw that there was a wall behind them. Now that hadn't been there before, had it?
"Hey, where'd that wall come from?" Shouted Tally to the others.
"Daggum, that's not a wall it's one of the self-closing doors, we must have triggered the mechanism. What do we do now?" Jethro asked Arbordale.
"Run forward before the door on that end closes otherwise we'll be trapped," Arbordale yelled at the others.
They didn't need to be told twice so Pigtail took the lead with his lantern held high and they continued down the tunnel as fast as they could, stepping on fire lizards as they went. They could hear the yelps of those behind who got singed by the flying flames. As they got to the end of that particular tunnel they could see another door slowly coming down from the ceiling. Wicket, thinking fast, grabbed some of the planks they still had and jammed them up under the door to keep it from closing completely. The others got down on the ground and crawled under the door as it strained to close, ending up in a sort of antechamber. As soon as the last person got out from under the door, Wicket, Tally, Jethro and Pigtail grabbed the planks and pulled them out from under the door. When they got the last plank out, the door made a hissing sound as it sealed tight.
Wiping the sweat off his brow Pigtail said, "That was way too close. We need to be more observant. We have a tendency to focus on what's ahead and not what's behind. We've got to stop doing that." He leaned back against the tunnel wall.
"I could be in charge of looking back behind us often enough," Tally volunteered.
"Okay, that should do it. Now let's rest a bit and catch our breath." Pigtail was bent over grabbing the stitch in his side. The others were all for that and each one collapsed onto the ground and sat there breathing deeply.
"Um… not to be the one to rain on the parade, but do you think we have enough air to breathe?" Tally asked.
"Certainly, they had to be able to breathe when they built all this, didn't they? So if they had enough air then we should too. Besides, I can feel a breeze, can't any of you?" Wicket answered.
"Actually, I do feel a breeze. Now where the heck would a breeze be coming from down here? Surely, we're miles beneath the surface." Jethro responded.
Tally spoke again, "You don't think it's the Wind Hag do ya? I mean her job is to make wind and a breeze is a form of wind."
"Naw," Orida said shaking her head, "The Wind Hag isn't gonna travel down this far. She leaves that to her troops. The breeze could be coming from the tunnel up ahead. Maybe they put air vents into tunnels to insure the creatures that live down here would get plenty of air."
"Well, there's only one way to find out." Pigtail said as he stood up, grabbed his lantern and headed out of the antechamber into the tunnel. He stood at the opening of the tunnel and held his lantern up high so that the light would cover as much ground as possible. As he stood looking he gave out a long whistle and said, "Well, I'll be darned."
~~~~~~
