Ty the Parson yelped when a drop of hot wax landed on his bald spot.
He looked up to find he stood under the shelf with the burning candle—and more! Firstly, the cloth he had placed over it had burned completely away. Secondly, there was a split between shelf and wall, and despite the hardened wax filling most of it, that the shelf was connected to the wall by a pipe. A drop of wax landed on his cheek, but he paid it no mind. In fact, he smiled.
This discovery might mean something. He dug deep into the harden wax, broke it away. Then he grabbed the shelf and rotated it to the side. A five by five feet section of the wall slid back and to the side, revealing a dark passage beyond.
"The way is revealed," Ty the Parson dove through the opening.
Next through was Tarl, struggling with his hold on the stretcher, which slid in after him, giving Tarftenrott a chance to struggle with his hold on their burden getting through.
"Oh, oh. Oh!" Majestus Sinobe articulated his feelings during the procedure. "Oh, please. Please! You. You there. In the front. Carefully. Carefully! Oh my, oh my, oh my. Oh my! How dark it is… You! In the back, please. Easy, easy now. Easy, please! Oh my, please. Take care not to harm my broken body any more than it already has been. Please!"
Once they were through, Grash took his turn, followed by Shing, who peeled Orlon free from his self proclaimed protector to help through the opening ahead of him.
That left Sharna alone to combat the room full of loin seeking, jowl snapping monstrosities. Tired though her sword arm was, she did an admirable job of it, too, but bravely as she stood against them, lopping heads off to the left, right and center, she wanted desperately to make her own escape. But just as she prepared to leap through the opening after the Party, a yellow hand stopped her, pointed up.
"Get the candle," the Oriental Ranger said.
To do as requested demanded a mighty feat from the battle worn warrior, but never let it be said Sharna evaded a challenge. With a frightful scream and back-and-forth sweep of her saber, she drove the Eunuchs back a step. Their startled hesitation gave her what she needed, time. Precious little of it, she knew, and she did not waste a second of it.
Sharna grabbed the sideways candle and yanked.
The flame flickered, but the candle remained secured to the shelf.
With an oath, she yanked even harder.
Reward for her second effort was the shelf righting itself.
The soft grind of the opening closing followed.
"Oh, for the love of…" she breathed, eyes rolling.
Urged by the snap of a snout, she kept hold of the candle and cut it free of the shelf with her saber. Two things put wings to her feet: the snapping of more jowls and the ever shrinking opening. In quick order, she screamed and swept her sword to hold the creatures back a little longer, sent the blade slamming home into scabbard and dove through the opening. The opening clanked shut right after her feet passed through and in time to crush the head of a lunging Eunuch.
Her dive sent her across the dark tunnel beyond to smack into a slimy wall and fall to the slime covered floor. The double impact jarred the candle from her hand. It hit the floor with a splash and the flame went out—for good.
"Sorry," she said into the surrounding darkness.
"What I want to know is—" there was a chorus of splishes as everyone jumped when Tarl Bimbo’s voice broke the silence following Sharna’s apology "—why those critters dared to come up the stairs?"
"It is simple," Shing said. "When the threat of their evil master disappeared there was nothing to stop them."
"And," Grash put in, "well the Eunuchs knew we, who served them a devastating blow, were there. Never will those dastardly creatures let a victim escape, and we were ripe victims that escaped them once. And now twice." A pause followed wherein each and every one of them pictured the old warrior twirling an end of his handlebar mustache. "Ah, I am reminded of a time when—"
Hating to interrupt a story as he did, a sniff of the slimy tunnel’s stench forced Orlon to do so. "What I want to know is," he said, "how we are going to get out of here?"
Silence followed his question for a second, two, three, four…
"The children form a chain behind the adult during an outing! Join hands that I, Ty, the Parson, may lead the way."
In a series of splishes and splashes the Party sought to do as the Parson requested. The chain was finally formed as followed: Ty the Parson, Shing, Grash, Sharna and Orlon, who linked to Tarl by a handful of his shirt, thus linking Tarftenrott to them all through the stretcher he and the Midget bore between them, upon which lay Majestus Sinobe, a man that let his bearers hear of every uncomfortable move they made with him, along with appeals for care.
With the chain now complete, Ty the Parson put the tip of his staff to the wall, sinking it through the slime until it hit solid stone, and they started forward through the darkness.
So they trudged through the slime for mile upon mile, or so it seemed, following the tunnel’s winding, turning and curving ways. To add to their difficulties were inclines, both shallow and steep, they slipped and slide up—and all the while listening to the magic man’s endless bellowing.
"Oh my, oh my, oh my. Oh my! You’re tipping me. You! You in the back lift me, up. Lift me up, please. Up, up! Oh, the pain. Do remember my invaluable contribution to the quest’s success. Oh, oh. Oh! Careful, please."
And with each step, Orlon did not want to believe this was how his first, and hopefully last ever, quest would end. Oh, in a book or two he read there were quests involved, and they always ended with a glorious return home, with at least some hometown folk welcoming the journeymen home— and a new period of peace and tranquility followed…. Was this quest—his quest truly going to end with them lost in these dark and smelly tunnels, struggling on and on until they died of thirst and hunger?
Tarl had his own qualms about their present situation, but on quite a different line of thought. When they found themselves trapped by the Eunuchs he was disappointed and angry that he was stuck lugging the injured loudmouth instead of partaking in their defense with his trusty sword "Wasp." He huffed. To think his first journey beyond Dwarf Road, a quest of all things, would end with them walking blindly, endlessly through this smelly tunnel sickened him.
This was no way for his first journey to end, yet he could see it ending no other way.
A clank, then disappearance of the wall stopped Ty the Parson, Shing bumping into him, Grash bumping into the Oriental Ranger and so on… Once all were stopped, Ty the Parson pulled his staff back. It hit the wall, slid into the slime. He advanced a step, stretching out his staff. It hit the wall again, slid into slime, some three feet ahead. It was a doorway!
He turned his head to see a distant rectangle of daylight and smiled. Without a verbose or flatly stated explanation, he entered the doorway and started up the tunnel beyond, dragging in those behind him. The trek up the tunnel proved tough due to their slime covered feet and the tunnel’s incline. But they refused to let it stop them, all eyes on the rectangle of light, which represented their way out of their predicament, out of the volcanic mountain.
Torchlight flared before them, bringing them to a slippery halt. From a doorway stepped the lost Shibtarr, a torch in his hand, its flame spotlighting his youthful, stern face.
"Thank goodness," Orlon pushed his way past those ahead of him, hand proffered. "I’m so glad you survi—"
The torch dropped from the boy’s hand, illuminating his lower extremities. The crotch of his breeches was torn away, jagged edges blood stained, and his genitalia—gone. Before their eyes a transformation occurred. Shibtarr’s clothing fell away, as did his blonde hair. His skin grew grayish, scaly, his hands and feet clawed. His jowls creaked and popped as they expanded into a fang toothed mouth, the eyes above becoming red, beady.