Tunnel Rat

Tweedle and Ringtail were waiting for him at the start of dinner. They had on sturdy outfits of dull brown with many pockets, backpacks, a bandolier of knives, rope and grapples, bedrolls, and a bag of jelly beans. They'd had two bags of jelly beans, but had shared with Larry. Several of the smaller children snuck away from parents to listen to Larry tell stories after dinner, from the safety of nearby window close enough that they could listen. More people in the Hollow were warming up to Larry, but it was a slow process. After stories, during a jelly bean break, Milo spoke quietly to Larry.

"Larry, I need to ask you a favor."

Larry thought about it. "Larry thinks it is ok for a friend to ask Larry for a favor."

"Thank you, Larry. Can I show Ringtail and Tweedle your house and the secret door?"

Larry looked very excited. "You are going to use the Secret Door?! Do Larry's friends in flower land need help? How does Tallsqueak fit? The secret door is very small unless you have a Tunnlemuggle for a friend. Can Larry come watch you squeeze through the door? That will be fun to watch!"

Milo remembered Larry's stories. Larry's house had one secret door that he knew of, so why not two? Stranger things had happened in the Hollow. He had no idea of what a Tunnlemuggle was, so he was sure he didn't know one. Maybe Larry would introduce him?

He whispered to Larry. "We are using the secret door I found in the rock, the one I told you about that I found when running from spiders."

Larry was less excited. He really had wanted to see Tallsqueak squeeze through the other door. "Oh, that one. That is not very special. It is a boring secret door. No Tunnlemuggle making it magic, and no one but Tallsqueak ever came out. You can show that one to new not-sneaky friends. Tell them it is a boring secret door though; that way they aren't disappointed. Larry sees it all the time and is not excited. Not special like other one." He looked down at his feet and got a big smile. "Larry needs to go dance now. Weasel slippers need exercise."

Larry hopped to the wide-open area next to the mess hall and began dancing. Several people were clapping, and two small children were dancing with him, having snuck away from their parents. Milo motioned to Tweedle and Ringtail and they made their way to the tunnel that led to Larry's House. Larry had added things to his house since Milo had been there last. High up in one wall was a very small opening with a round green door only six inches high. It was set into the rock with very small hinges. Milo thought it was cute. Milo examined it, but couldn't see how it was joined to the wall, or how it opened. He'd have to ask Larry more about it.

The other new item was a potted plant. The bush was only two-foot tall and sat in a corner of the cave. Little fruit were growing on some of the branches. Tweedle and Ringtail stopped in their tracks when they saw it.

"A Bean bush?"

"Cannot be, is only one."

"And that one guarded by aunty."

"Fiercely guarded!"

"This one is bigger."

"And all fruit not ripe yet."

"Yucky bad, sour."

"But...."

"Yes, but..."

Milo wasn't sure what the problem was. He moved past the bush and opened the secret tunnel, moving into the room beyond. The twins were still arguing about the bush for some reason. "Are you two coming? Secret scout mission? Remember?"

"Oh, yes. Sigh"

"The mystery of mysterious Larry deepens."

"He surprises us at every turn."

"And he turns a lot. So many surprises."

"But we are scouts!"

"Time to scout!"

They made their way through the tunnels. Milo showed them the traps and warned them about the poison, even though most of it was old and weak. "You might find one that is still good, and that could hurt."

"Brother?"

"Yes, Brother?"

"We should not have slacked on poison training."

"We may have erred, I agree."

"Poison traps are a lot scarier when they are real!"

Milo paused as they got to the center area. "Did you perhaps shirk Mycology classes too?"

"We must have, I don't know Mycology."

"I don't know what shirk means, I skipped shirking class."

Sighing, Milo explained mycology to the twins. They nodded in understanding.

"Mushroom picking. We did that. "

"But none of the other stuff. Drying, mixing,"

"Suspensions? poultices? Rennet? All shirked."

"Because if you admit knowing something...

"Then you have to go do it all the time for Old Healer."

Milo pulled out his spanner. "This is the Wrench of Wisdom. It can impart knowledge to scouts that lack it, bringing forth submerged memories of things you didn't even remember knowing. But gaining such knowledge comes with pain."

"Ah! I believe you. My head hurts already."

"And I feel the wisdom already."

"Mushroom class! Basic Alchemy!

"Making the nasty rennet..."

"What mushrooms are not edible."

"All mushrooms are edible!"

"All?"

"All mushrooms are edible once. Maybe not twice."

Milo stepped forward and raised the wrench.

"Ah, wisdom. I see it."

"I am smarter and willing to stay smart."

"Good. First job. I have brought many gathering sacks. We need to harvest the Puff Balls first. Listen please. Very important. Tasty mushrooms that way. Mushrooms that are only edible once are that way. Don't harvest those."

"Are they truly that bad." Tweedle was peering down the tunnel to the cave of poisonous mushrooms.

Milo started walking to the other cave. "We can ask your Great Uncle. He died from them and his bones are still poisonous."

Ringtail hit Tweedle upside the head. "Here, have some wisdom."

Tweedle nodded. "Thank you, brother. The stupid part of me really does want to go see the bad shrooms. I'll ignore it for now."

The puffballs filled many gathering sacks. He had the twins take them back to the room next to Larry's House and went to gather one gathering bag of the various poisonous shrooms for Professor Cremona. By the time he was done, the twins were back. They stared in awe as Milo showed them where he had found their great uncles’ corpse. Then he took them to where he had buried the body. There was a patch of earth where the dirt was a different color and nothing grew. They put on masks and gloves and carefully removed the soil until they found his bones and placed the brittle, toxic remains into a bag that was then sealed inide several more. Milo put them into Tweddle's backpack.

Ringtail pointed to the unexplored tunnel. "I notice that you have not mentioned that tunnel. In point of fact, you said you didn't know what is down there. Being that we are brave, brave scouts, should we not explore a bit?"

Milo couldn't see why not. They skulked carefully down the tunnel, looking for traps. Milo found the first one, and showed them the mechanism, and now familiar trigger. They studied how it was made and how it could be reset. The twins saved the needle for 'poison practice' that they wanted to do later. Further along, the tunnel branched again. They took the rightmost tunnel. Ringtail went first this time. He was carefully looking for traps when he spotted one a few feet ahead. "Look brother, I am getting better at this." And then his next step went right into the floor and he fell through it.

Milo had known something was wrong as soon as Ringtail's foot hit the not-really-there floor and he was diving for his apprentice scout. His stone sense told him where the rock ended and the illusion started. He managed to grab him by his foot as he fell into the deep hole, and his claws dug into the rock on the other side. Ringtail looked down. The hole went far, far down and he could see a small ring of light at the bottom hundreds of feet below.

"I am not getting better at this!"

Milo was thankful for his increased strength from mining. He was able to hold onto Ringtail until Tweedle secured a rope and dropped it down to him. Milo was now on the far side of the incredibly clever illusion, and the twins together on the other.

"Wait here. I'll go a little further and then make my way back." He skulked forward slowly, staring into the darkness and using his stone sense to the fullest.

The tunnel ended abruptly in a rock wall. Stone sense showed him that there was a small door on the side. Two more needle traps protected it. Once opened, he saw a narrow passage filled with steep, crumbling stairs leading downwards in a tight spiral.

On the small landing was the long dead remains of a small humanoid, smaller than a dwarf or ratkin. It was only two-foot tall, and the corpse was light and mummified. The clothing was just rags held on with ropes. The cause of death was most likely the arrow in its side. The other side of the door showed where the poor thing hand scratched at the stone with a tiny iron sword, trying to get through. Milo decided this was a scouting mission for another day.

It felt wrong to leave the tiny body. He picked it up to move it and a tiny silver globe the size of a marble rolled out of its pouch. Milo pocketed it to examine later for clues as to what type of creature this was. He wrapped the body in another gathering bag, shut and locked the door, and retreated to the pit. Knowing the pit was there, and were it ended, made the leap across look easy. The twins exhaled as he landed safely. He handed Ringtail the bundle.

"Here, you can carry the other body."

"More dead people?"

"How many dead people are down here?"

"As many as it takes brother."

"Takes for what?"

"For people to quit annoying Tallsqueak, careful, you might be the third."

"That would be bad. You can't carry three of us!"

"I would leave you."

"Oh, I know, you could toss me down the convenient hole!"

"You always did want to travel."

"I am a good scout."

They retreated to the other branch of the tunnel. "Time for good scouts to be quiet." To his relief, the twins became silent. At one point Ringtail touched Milo on the shoulder and pointed. The dust had settled oddly on the floor ahead, leaving a slight line. Milo uncovered a very clever trap with a nearly hidden tripwire. They all carefully stepped over it, not knowing what it did.

This part of the tunnel system seemed better constructed. Stone slabs and bricks made up the walls and floor, and very little was unworked stone. The tunnel ended in a T juncture, that ran two ways. The twins began sniffing the air. Milo smelled food.

"I can smell onion soup."

"And I note a touch of garlic."

"And is that fresh bread with chives?"

"Strange..."

"Very strange...."

Milo looked at the two of them and tapped his foot.

Ringtail looked at him, and shrugged. "Aunty Meg is baking bread today, and she puts chives on each loaf."

Tweedle nodded and added. "And dinner is onion and garlic soup."

Milo went right, towards the food. He saw light coming from holes on the left side of the wall. Peering through he saw a large room with three women bustling around preparing food, and soup cooking on an open fire. The spy hole was set high in the wall, nearly ten feet above the floor. The twins were visibly nervous. They retreated to a safe place to talk.

"That was the kitchen, and if the tunnel continues, I suspect we can look into the common areas and classrooms." Ringtail was drawing a map in the dirt. "And the other way is sleeping quarters and Old Healers rooms."

Milo headed in that direction. They passed spyholes that looked down on many bedrooms. Finally, the last spyhole gave a view of Old Healer, sitting at his desk. He was looking through the pages of a very old journal and mumbling to himself. Suddenly he stiffened, and looked around. Going to the door, he listened, heard nothing, opened it, and checked the hallway. Seeing nothing, he came back to his room, closed and locked the door. Visibly frustrated, he returned to his seat. He made an effort to relax, drinking his tea and sitting back in his chair. He mumbled to himself. "Paranoid old man, seeing shadows where nothing skulks."

That was the moment Ringtail leaned too heavily on the wall, and the clasp holding the secret door shut opened up. A section of wall slid silently sideways revealing an opening high in the wall. The twins tumbled forward; Milo tried to grab them but overbalanced himself. Old Healer leaped twenty foot forward, dodging left in a roll and coming up with daggers in his hands and tail. He saw his three scouts land in a heap on his desk.

"Surprise!"

"Always expect the unexpected!"

"We get a lot of points for this, right?"

"All the points! So sneaky."

Milo stood up, he'd caught the mug of tea as it was heading for the floor and handed it to the old ratkin who sighed, put away his daggers and sat on the floor. "Well, that explains how my brother scored so many points on me! I always wondered how he moved around so easily. Tell me about your adventures boys, but one of you lean against the door and listen for sneaks. I'm feeling a bit skittish today for some reason."