Page 42 of Tiger's Curse
I looked at Ren and gulped as he started forward, determined to go through the passage. He looked back at me.
“Okay, Ren, I’ll do it. But this will really,reallyfreak me out. I’m running the entire way, so don’t expect me to wait for you.”
I took a few steps back, tightened my grip on the torch, and began to sprint. Squishing my eyes to slits, I ran with my lips tightly closed, screaming in the back of my throat the entire way. I darted through the passage as quickly as possible and almost lost my balance a few times when my boots rolled across several bugs at once, crunching them. A horrible image flashed through my mind: landing in the hoard face down. I resolved to be more careful with my footing.
I felt like I was running on a giant roll of bubble wrap, and every step popped several giant, juicy bubbles. The beetles burst like ketchup packets and splattered green slime in every direction. This action, of course, disturbed the other bugs. Several of them took flight and started swarming around my body, landing on my jeans, shirt, and hair. I was able to bat them away from my face with my free hand, which was poked by their pinchers several times.
Finally making it to the other side, I began shaking my body in great convulsions to rid myself of any hitchhikers. I had to reach up and grab a couple that wouldn’t detach, including one that was climbing up my ponytail. Then I began scraping my shoes against the wall and looked around for Ren.
He was running fast through the now-buzzing passageway, and with a great leap, landed next to me, shaking himself fiercely. Several bugs still clung to his fur, and I had to push them off with the butt of my torch. One of them had pinched his ear hard enough to make it bleed. Luckily for me, I’d made it through without any of them pinching me to the point of breaking skin.
“I guess it helps to wear clothes, Ren. They end up pinching your clothes instead of your skin. Poor tiger. You have squished bugs all over your paws. Yuck! At least I have the benefit of wearing shoes.”
He shook each paw in turn, and I helped him pry bug bodies from between his toe pads. Shuddering one last time, I doubled my pace to put as much distance between the bugs and us as possible.
About ten turns later, I stepped onto a stone that sank into the ground. Freezing in place, I waited for the next booby trap to spring. The walls started to shake, and small metal panels slid back to allow sharp, spiky, metal barbs to emerge on both sides. I groaned. Not only were spikes sticking out of the walls, but also the trap was compounded by a slick black oil that poured out of stone pipes, covering the floor.
Ren changed into a man.
“There’s poison on the tips of the spikes, Kelsey. I can smell it. Stay in the middle. There’s enough room for us to pass through, but don’t allow yourself to be even scratched by those barbs.”
I took another look at the long pointy spikes and shivered, “But what if I slip?”
“Hold tightly on to my fur. I’ll use my claws to anchor us as we go, and we’ll go slowly. Don’t rush through this one.”
Ren changed back into a tiger. I adjusted my backpack and tightly gripped the scruff of his neck. He stepped gingerly into the pool of oil, testing it with one paw first. His paw slipped a little, and I watched as his claws emerged and sank through the oil and into the dirt floor. He forced them deep into the oily ground. After locking his leg, he then took another step and sank those claws in. Once that paw was firmly in place, he had to yank hard to get his other foot back up.
It was a painstakingly tedious process. Each deadly spike was placed at random intervals so I couldn’t even get comfortable with a rhythm. I had to focus all my attention on them. There was one by my calf, then my neck, my head, my stomach. I started counting and stopped after fifty. My entire frame shook from clenching my muscles and moving stiffly for so long. All it would take was one second of slipped concentration—one wrong step and I’d be dead.
I was glad Ren was taking his time, because there was barely enough room for us to walk side by side. We only had about an inch of free space on either side of us. I planted each step carefully. Sweat dripped down my face. About halfway through, I screamed. I must have stepped into a particularly oily place because my boot slipped out from under me. My knee buckled, and I staggered. This spike was aimed at chest height but luckily I twisted at the last second and my backpack took the spike instead of my arm. Ren froze in place, waiting patiently for me to right myself.
I panted and righted myself limb by trembling limb. It was a miracle I didn’t end up impaled. When Ren made a whining sound, I patted his back.
“I’m fine,” I reassured him.
I was lucky, very lucky. We continued on going even slower and finally emerged on the other end, shaky but safe. I collapsed on the dirt floor and groaned, rubbing my stiff neck.
“After the spikes, the bugs don’t seem so bad anymore. I think I’d rather do the bugs again than that one.”
Ren licked my arm and I petted his head.
After a brief rest, we went on. We walked through several more turns without event. I was just beginning to let my guard down when a noise set off again and a doorway sunk down behind us. Another doorway started descending ahead of us, and we ran for it but didn’t make it. Well, Ren could have made it, but he wouldn’t go through it without me.
A rushing sound started banging against pipes overhead, and a panel opened in the ceiling. A moment later, we were knocked to the floor by a flood of water that fell on top of us. It doused our torch and quickly began filling the chamber. The water was already up to my knees by the time I was able to stand. I yanked open a zipper and felt blindly. Finding a long tube, I gave it a snap, shook it, and the liquid inside began to glow. The color changed Ren’s white fur yellow.
“What do we do? Can you swim? It’ll go over your head first!”
Ren changed into a man. “Tigers can swim. I can hold my breath longer as a tiger than as a man.”
The water was now up to our waists, and he quickly pulled me past the surging pipe and over to the door in front of us. By the time we reached it, I was floating. Ren dove under looking for a way out.
When his head popped back up, he shouted, “There’s another Seal mark on the door. Try to insert the Seal and twist it like you did before!”
I nodded and took a deep breath. Diving under the water, I felt along the door for the mark. I finally found it, but I was running out of air. Struggling to the surface, I kicked hard, weighed down by the heavy backpack and the Seal around my neck. Ren reached down under the water, grabbed my bag, and yanked me to the surface.
We were floating near the ceiling now. We would drown any minute. I took a few deep breaths.
“You can do this, Kells. Try again.”
