by J.A. Sprouls
Chapter 26
They took off down the tunnel again once they were sure they had stopped the lizards' approach. This time Wicket had taken the lead and was followed by Pigtail and Jethro with the girls and Tally bringing up the rear. Arbordale, BJ and BB were with Pigtail, Jethro and Wicket, while Orida was sticking to the girls to make sure they were safe. It was when they entered a new antechamber not far from the rubble that they found out why there was rubble there and not elsewhere.
Wicket had stepped down only to find that there wasn't any ground to step on. He tried to backpedal but his momentum carried him forward. He and BJ fell straight down. Luckily Wicket was able to grab a rock jutting out from the side and stop his descent. Unfortunately, BJ kept going. Then there was a soft 'splash' sound as BJ hit the water.
Arbordale was at the hole's edge before anyone else really realized just what had happened. He was bending over and hollering for BJ to answer him.
Then he was joined by Pigtail and Jethro at the hole's edge and they too were yelling for BJ and Wicket.
Wicket returned their call and informed them that he was holding on but the rock was slowly slipping. Pill had grabbed Pigtail's backpack and was pulling the rope out as she shouted, "How are we gonna hold onto him? He's awfully heavy for me and Lark to pull him up."
Jethro grabbed the rope and replied, "Don't you worry about that. Pigtail and I will manage it. Tally, you keep watch on the back of the tunnel and let us know if anything is coming." Tally nodded and turned around with lantern held high.
Jethro tied the rope around his waist and Pigtail tossed the end down to Wicket. He readied himself to pull as soon as the rope was taunt from Wicket's weight. Once Wicket got hold of the rope he let go of the rock which proved to be just in time because the rock went plummeting down the side. There was another splash and then an exclamation, "Ow, what the heck are you trying to do? Knock me out so I can't stay afloat?"
Arbordale squealed with excitement when he realized that his son was still alive and hollered down to him, "Hold on, son. Once we get Wicket up then we'll throw the rope down and pull you out too."
BJ replied, "No hurry, it's just a well of water and doesn't seem to be going nowhere."
They strained to pull Wicket up, and Tally kept glancing over his shoulder, worried that his best friend might not make it up safely.
"Daggum, he's skinny as a railroad rail, how come he weighs so much?" Pigtail grunted in the effort it took to pull him up.
It wasn't until they had Wicket over the side that they found out just why he weighed so much. In is free hand Wicket held a huge gold cup the size of a punch bowl.
"I've struck gold," he exclaimed beaming at the others. They all looked from one to the other and were amazed at what he had in his hand.
Then Orida broke the moment with her desire to get her son back up safely too. That shook Pigtail to action and he dropped the rope down to BJ as Wicket explained where the gold cup came from.
"There's another tunnel down there. And this was in the mouth of the tunnel. I shouted down the tunnel and could hear my voice echo so it must be pretty deep. I'm guessing and hoping there is more of this treasure there. We could be rich!" He said with a self-satisfied smile stretched across his face.
"No, no, no, it's another of her traps. You focus on the treasure and forget all about the power source. Besides, gold is too heavy for any of you to carry. So you couldn't carry out enough to make yourselves rich. It's just another trap, that's all." Arbordale explained.
Pigtail scratched his head and said, "How about this, we let Wicket go back down there and take a look around in the tunnel. If it's nothing but gold and is a dead end then we pull him back up and head on down this tunnel. But if there is another tunnel there, then it might be the one to the power source." As Arbordale tried to argue with him Pigtail held up his hand and continued, "It makes sense for the Wind Hag to set up a trap of gold to distract us. But by the same token, it makes sense for her to have created a totally different tunnel to the power source. After all, what are the chances of someone finding this particular tunnel? You're supposed to drown in this water trap so that may mean that this new tunnel is the true tunnel." Before he could finish his line of thought there was an exclamation from BJ down in the hole.
"Hey, guys could you please pull me up, there's something swimming in the water and I don't think it's friendly." The last part was in a higher squeak than usual and it was definitely a squeak of desperation. Pigtail immediately began pulling and Jethro grabbed the rope to help pull him to safety.
"See, that makes my argument even sounder. There was something in that water to keep you from climbing back up and discovering the new tunnel. So that could very well mean that it's the tunnel to the power source. Okay, Tally come here and we'll lower you down to the tunnel and you take a gander at what's down there. If there is another tunnel, give us a holler. If it's just a big room of gold then tug on the rope and we'll pull you back up, got that?"
But Tally didn't particularly hear what Pigtail had said to him. He was way too busy looking at the gold cup and drooling.
Pigtail and Wicket looked at each other for a moment before Lark said exactly what they were thinking, "Maybe Tally isn't the best one to send down there. He seems to be consumed with gold fever. Pa and I have seen it before, when we were out west, in California. There's not much a person sees aside from gold when you got the fever," she explained to the others.
"Good point, Lark, Okay, Pill, it's your turn to help out." Pigtail said as he turned to her with rope in hand.
"Me, no way, I climbed the wall in the labyrinth room, it's Lark's turn. Besides, she's seen gold before so she shouldn't be consumed by gold fever. Who's to say I won't succumb to the temptation?"
Jethro was about to protest and volunteer instead, when Lark chimed in.
"Hey, I thought you were my friend? Why are you trying to pawn this off on me?" Lark exclaimed in frustration.
"You are my friend but I've already helped out once, it's your turn now, fair's fair," Pill explained to Lark.
Lark knew deep down inside that Pill was right, but she really didn't want to go down in a hole all by herself. BJ walked up to Lark and put his hand on her leg and told her, "I'll go with you. I've already been down there and it's not all that scary."
"Yeah, but you said that there was something in the water." Lark felt the need to point this out to him.
"Well, sure, but I don't intend to go into the water again, do you?" BJ countered.
"No, I don't intend to but who says I won't accidently fall into it."
"I do, because I intend to keep a strong hold on the rope and make sure you don't fall in at all," her father told her as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Orida came up to her also and said, "And I'm gonna go with you too. That way we can get a lot better look at what is down there."
This seemed to perk Lark up and she finally agreed to be lowered down to the tunnel mouth. Pill, meanwhile, was a little ticked, no one offered to climb the tunnel wall with her but they all seemed to be rallying behind Lark. That didn't seem nice to her. But she kept her mouth shut because she didn’t want to appear to be a baby about it.
Lark was slowly lowered into the hole. BJ and Orida were hanging on to the rope just above Lark. BJ was holding the lantern and seemed to be excited to head back down the hole. Lark gave a yell when she got to the mouth of the new tunnel and the rope slacked as she gained entry to the gold room.
They were down there for about thirty minutes before she hollered for her father to pull them back up. Once they made it back up Jethro grabbed Lark and hugged her. BJ then laid out some smaller pieces of gold he had brought back up inside Lark's bandana. Everyone just stood staring at it.
Wicket finally broke the silence, "The coins are nice but they don't compare to my gold cup."
"This isn't about what is better and greater. Besides, we need to focus on what they saw and not what they brought back
up," Pigtail pointed out. He turned to Lark and looked expectantly.
Orida was the one who decided she should give the report. "We got inside this really big room. It's filled with gold and I mean a lot of gold. There were small pieces of gold, like Lark brought up and there were huge pieces."
Lark broke in and added, "They even had these wagons made of gold. It was so cool."
"Once we got over the grandeur of that much gold in one spot, we got to work," Orida gave Lark a reproachful look for interrupting her. "We headed to the back of the room and found another tunnel. I think Pigtail is right. I think this might be the right tunnel to proceed down. We could see some more ooze down the tunnel and I think there were some slugs or puffer worms too. I didn't want to go out too far because of the ooze but there are definitely other traps there. If it weren't the right tunnel then there wouldn't be more traps, would there? And I think the gold is just another trap in that it would make most people try to figure out how to get it all out of there, instead of focusing on the power source."
"I think we need to take a vote what to do next," Jethro spoke, still holding Lark in a tight hug.
"I thought that we had decided that if there was another tunnel at the end of the gold room then we would follow that," Pigtail replied.
"No, you decided that. There are more than just you here and it affects us all. I think we need a majority vote to pursue that tunnel or to continue on with this tunnel," Jethro said still a bit ticked that Pigtail had made his daughter take such a risk.
Pigtail sighed and said, "Fine, okay all those who what to pursue the new tunnel raise your hand." BJ, Orida, Pill, Wicket, Tally and Pigtail all raised their hands. "And those who want to go down this tunnel," he indicated the one they were standing in, "raise your hand." Arbordale, BB and Jethro all raised their hands.
They all turned to look at Lark, who hadn't voted and she said, "My vote wouldn't matter either way. Y'all got the most votes to go to the new tunnel so what's it matter what I want?" She shrugged as she said this.
Pigtail looked at her and said, "I don't care if you don't think your vote matters, it does to us. In the future, I want you to vote with your heart and forget whether it'll make a hoot of difference or not. You promise to do that?"
Lark looked up at Pigtail and smiled and nodded, "I promise."
Jethro looked at Pigtail approvingly and then saw a flaw with choosing the new tunnel. "How exactly are we gonna get back up here? If we leave the rope tied to a rock then whatever has been following us will remove it, we will be stuck here."
"Actually we won't," Tally said as he pulled a grappling hook from his bag. "I thought it might come in handy."
Pigtail walked over to Tally and grabbed the hook. "Good thinking, Tally." He proceeded to tie the rope to the end of the grappling hook. "Okay, I'll go last since this was basically my idea. The rest of you go first. I think we should leave at least one of the girls as last before me so that I will be able to lower her down."
Pill immediately volunteered. She figured it wouldn't hurt to put it off until the very last. Each of the crew took their turn being lowered down into the hole. Jethro went first so that he could be sure to grab the next person and pull them into the tunnel. Once they all were down Pigtail flipped the rope and it and the grappling hook came lose. They pulled it into the tunnel and then started through.
"Grab some of those plates, Wicket, Tally," Pigtail ordered.
"Hey, we don't have time to focus on grabbing the loot. I thought we had decided that this was as much a trap as anything else," Jethro said huffily.
"Yeah, I know that. We're gonna use these plates instead of the last couple of planks we have to cross the ooze with. That way if we need the planks farther on then we still have them," Pigtail explained.
"Oh, I gotcha, my misunderstanding, how about these?" Jethro said pointing to a stack of rather flat plates.
"Perfect, Okay everyone grab a few and let's get to the tunnel entrance," Pigtail said.
They each grabbed a couple of plates had headed for the tunnel. It was hard not to look at all the gold. Tally and Wicket seemed to be dragging their feet as they went through. Each one was trying to figure out how to grab some gold and take it with them and not let the others know what they had done. Pigtail, sensing that something was up with those two finally just grabbed them by the scruff of their necks and pushed them to the tunnel entrance.
Jethro, Lark and Pill were in the process of laying out the plates as the last three caught up. They each crossed carefully to make sure they stepped on the plates and not the ooze. When they were past the ooze they turned their attention to the worms. Though the closer they got the less they looked like worms. Wicket was the first to get to them and he bent over and carefully picked up the round dark shapes.
"These don't look like worms. They don't even look alive, if you ask me," Wicket said.
Arbordale jumped down from Pigtail's shoulder and walked over to Wicket. Wicket lowered the thing down to Arbordale so that he could get a better look at it. Then Arbordale started to laugh and said, "You're right, it's not a worm or anything living for that matter."
"Well, just what the heck is it then?" Tally asked.
"It's poo." Arbordale said still laughing.
"Poo? Just what the heck do you mean poo?" Wicket asked as he quickly dropped it.
"It's the droppings of a horny toad. And from the size of the droppings I'd say a really big horny toad." Arbordale explained, "Most horny toads are about the size of a silver dollar and almost as flat. You can hold them in your hand, no problem. But they leave very small droppings. These are considerably larger."
"A horny toad? What kind of a toad has horns? Are you talking about horns like a cow has horns?" Tally asked, liking the sound of the horny toad even less.
"Naw, they just have these little types of things like spikes over their body. So people call them horns. The horns and the horny toad are harmless. They eat ants so they aren't gonna eat a human, or for that matter, a Knarl." Arbordale proceeded down the tunnel without a bit of hesitation so the others followed. Wicket and Tally brought up the rear hoping that Arbordale was right about them not being carnivorous.
They rounded a slight bend and there, chained up were four giant horny toads the size of miniature horses. They had collars around their necks with the chains leading to a spot on the tunnel wall where the bolts holding the chains were fastened.
Pigtail looked at them and figured that if they had been bred to a bigger size then they might have been bred to be carnivorous too.
"Are you sure they don't eat humans?" He asked Arbordale skeptically.
"Um… well, the ones topside don't. These," he indicated the four, "who knows what they have been bred to do."
Jethro stepped forward and said, "Well, there's only one way to find out." And he headed to the closest one. He slowly reached out his hand and as he got closer the horny toad stretched out its head towards the hand. When Jethro got close enough to the horny toad's head he started to stroke the bridge of the nose and horny toad went kinda slack as he let Jethro pet him. Jethro turned and smiled as he petted the horny toad. Lark went to the next closest one and did the same thing. It became just as docile as the one Jethro was petting. So the others followed suit and went to pet the other two. Pill pulled a jar out of her pack and unscrewed the lid. She poured these little dark spots out in front of each horny toad.
"What the heck are those?" Wicket asked.
"Chocolate covered ants. The last captain really liked them and ate them constantly. I figured no one was gonna eat them and they might come in handy on the adventure. I know they are chocolate but they're also ants and let's face it, as far as I'm concerned, there ain't enough chocolate in the world to get me to eat ants."
The horny toads sniffed them for a moment and then started to gulp them down. Pill poured the rest of the chocolate covered ants on the ground and then the others moved past the horny toads. They got clear of the horny toads and
proceeded down the tunnel. They got a little farther down the tunnel and they could hear the horny toads straining at their chains trying to follow them.
"That's horrible to keep them chained up like that. They are living creatures and deserve to be free," Lark said in a disgusted tone. "We have so got to stop that horrible hag! Then we can free the horny toads and let them roam the range like they should have been doing in the first place."
"I agree with you, Lark, but right now we need to focus on getting to the power source. Once we get that, then we can let them free when we head back to the surface," Jethro consoled her.
~~~~~
Chapter 27