Part 70: Tunnel Vision

Main story folder & table of contents: "Escape From Manitou Island" 
Previous chapter: "Part 69: On Edge" 

PART SEVENTY:
Tunnel Vision

KENU LIFTED HIS foot, and lowered it, stomping against the tunnel floor just as a BOOM shuddered throughout the tunnel, its side splitting open and sending in a burst of splattering water.

Kenu jumped back, eyes wide. His hands flew up to his mouth and he started gnawing on his fingernails, casting an anxious glance back at the others. They were already dripping from the spray.

Augwak turned to look back at Charmian, his eye twitching. "May I eat him now?"

"What just happened?" Charmian exclaimed, hurrying forward to examine the cracked wall. She had to shield her face from the spray; Mani nudged his way forward and blocked part of the crack with the flat of his antler, while Marten hopped down and pressed himself against the bottom part of the crack. The water slowed to a few stray spurts coming out around them, but they could feel the earth vibrating by now.

"TOLD you something bad was going to happen!" Winter Born said reproachfully.

"Well--what exactly WAS it, then?!" Charmian hissed between her teeth, trying her best to examine the crack. Even as she watched, bits of earth were crumbling away, and more water started squirting out, drenching Mani's head.

The Weaver began motioning with her front legs. "She says that the tunnel wall is weakened now, and we'd best hurry out before it breaks further," Stick-In-The-Dirt translated.

Charmian cast Kenu the most furious glare she could muster. "I HOPE you're happy!" she snapped, and the little Thunderbird lowered his head meekly and took a step back behind Moon Wolf.

The Weaver tapped Charmian's shoulder and started gesturing again. "She says that it wasn't exactly the Animiki's fault," Stick-In-The-Dirt said, then bit his lip.

"NOT his fault--? Pffttaatthh!!" Charmian started sputtering when some water smacked her in the face; Mani shifted his antler. She swept a hand across her forehead and tried to keep herself from growling. "What's THAT supposed to--"

BOOM. The sound came again, louder this time, and the entire tunnel again shook. Charmian yelped and fell, taking Thomas with her; Marten yelped also when a fresh burst of water shot him across the tunnel like a cork from a champagne bottle, and he smacked into Winter Born and knocked her over as well. The tunnel started dimming as the water sprayed over the webs lining the walls.

"I didn't do THAT one!!" Kenu cried, trying to pull the sopping feathers away from his face.

A smaller boom came from further behind them, and they glanced back uneasily. "Then--what is doing that?" Thomas asked, brow furrowing.

Mani stared off into space for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he whistled at Charmian. She turned to him.

Red Land One--! He sent an image into her head.

Charmian gasped and whirled toward Stick-In-The-Dirt. "Mishupishus--!"

"What?" Thomas exclaimed. "What would THOSE be doing down here?!"

"They came when they heard the Animiki," Stick-In-The-Dirt said in a small voice, gnawing on his lip. "They started following us then, and right here the earth is shallow enough..."

All eyes again turned toward Kenu, who now vanished behind Moon Wolf's leg. "I...didn't...mean it!" he said in a tiny, quivering voice.

"I think blame can wait until later," Moon Wolf said, himself holding up a hand to shield his eyes.

"Maybe we can patch it up--?" Charmian suggested, and turned to Manabozho. "Do you think--?"

Manabozho blinked in surprise, then puffed his chest and went to the crack. He placed his hand against it and shut his eyes.

Charmian's and everyone else's eyes goggled when a giant copper horn suddenly jammed through the earthen wall, missing Manabozho by mere inches. Charmian heard a ridiculously girly scream and looked at Winter Born, only to realize that the sound was coming from her. She blushed furiously and cut herself off when Thomas clapped a hand over her mouth.

Manabozho darted back from the wall and the horn withdrew, a new gout of water gushing out of the hole that it left. He gave Charmian an aggrieved look.

"I can hardly KEEP fixing it!!" he protested.

"I think we should listen to what the spider says, ma chère!" Francois suggested, holding up an arm to cover his head; Niskigwun and Singing Cedars had joined in trying to block the water's flow from several new openings, without much success.

"Where do we go--?" Charmian asked.

"She thinks if we keep running the way we were going, and then turn left, we should get to the surface fastest!" Winter Born cried, trying to squeeze out Marten's sopping tail and holding him over her head like a furry umbrella.

"Agreed then!!" Charmian turned next to the others blocking the flow of water.

"Get going!!" Niskigwun said between his teeth. "We'll hold it off until you're out of this part of the tunnel!"

Will be fine, Red Land One, Mani added.

Charmian bit her lip--"Come on!" Thomas ordered, grabbing her arm and hauling her forward. The Weaver waved and they all rushed after her. The giant spider bumbled along the tunnel a good distance until a fork appeared leading in three directions; she halted and gestured into the left one. Charmian held back, even while the others started darting inside without a second thought. She craned her neck.

"I can't see the others!" she cried.

She nearly screamed when the Weaver patted her shoulder with one hairy leg. "They're coming!!" Stick-In-The-Dirt replied, grabbing her arm to pull her after him. "Now come on! SOME of us have to reach Gitchi-Gami!"

That's right. Gitchi-Gami. Charmian blinked, then hastened to follow, Thomas at her other side. This tunnel was abruptly plunged into darkness and she found herself wondering whether it would even work or not without webs. The booming noises started coming more regularly now, and she could swear she even heard growling noises reverberating deep through the earth, making her stumble. She suddenly felt Stick-In-The-Dirt let go of her arm, and then she ran facefirst into something large and soft and hairy. She sputtered and put out a hand against it and felt it flinch, then a barrage of oddly indignant images flashed through her mind, and she backed away with a startled cry.

"She's saying we have to keep going ahead!" Winter Born's voice said. "She'll go back and try to--"

She didn't get to finish. With another BOOM another horn appeared--Charmian saw it, as at the same instant she lifted her hand and raised a flame, the light glinting off of the copper--then another, smaller horn followed, then both were pulled free and she did hear the growling noises from just outside, under the water as it turned out. The Weaver batted her aside with one leg and she didn't bother to stick around and find out what might happen next. Her flame went out and the tunnel was plunged into chaos; someone grabbed her hand and started hauling her forward. She felt the Weaver brush past, then they were all running, their feet thudding against the tunnel floor as the booming and gushing noises started coming like crazy. Whoever was pulling her along let go and gave her leg a shove so she nearly fell; someone else grabbed her hand then, pulling her along again.

"Come on!" Thomas's voice called over the din. "Leave it to the spider to figure out!!"

"But--what about--"

"Listen, could you just stop worrying about others and worry about YOURSELF for a change--?!"

"Why should I--? YOU seem to be doing a hell of a fine job FOR me--!!"

She gasped and shivered when a cold gust passed over them--then the spray of water stopped, the thudding noises seeming even louder now in the sudden silence. Charmian lifted her hand and lit up the tunnel; she blinked in confusion to see that the gout of water nearest them had been frozen in place, yet even as she watched, it started to melt, and she gasped again and put out the fire.

"Come on!!" she cried. "Before it decides to start drowning us again!!"

There wasn't really much time for conversation following that. Charmian was reminded, somewhat belatedly, of the awful cracks she'd seen far beneath the Island, and finally realized for certain what they must be from. She'd never known of any kind of creature big or strong enough to cause such damage--but if Mishupishu himself was any indication, these things must be huge--

"You say Thunderbirds fight these things all the time--?" she managed to get out as they ran. She spotted a flash of web here and there and the noises started to get left behind them.

"This is the duty of the--ow!--Animiki!" Kenu cried; she caught a glimpse of him toddling along, his arms over his head. "If Grandfather Nigankwam were here, he'd have those beasts dead FIVE MINUTES AGO! Mmff--!" He was cut off when Singing Cedars snatched him up and clapped a hand over his mouth; Charmian saw Kenu's eyes flash, and gave him such a withering look that he promptly shrank in on himself in surrender.

"Well--Nigankwam isn't here--" she ducked her head when a crack opened in the wall, spraying them "--so we're just gonna have to make do with what we've got!"

"Asabikeshiiquae says we're almost where the tunnel heads upward again," Stick-In-The-Dirt said. "The earth grows thicker, but there's likely a body of water nearby, so there may be trouble even when we DO get out!"

Great, Charmian thought with a frustrated sigh. When they reached where the tunnel started to slope upwards, the Weaver hurriedly stepped aside and continued waving them forward; Charmian noticed Stick-In-The-Dirt pause this time, gnawing his lip and wringing his hands. He finally offered some sort of gesture to the spider, who offered the gesture back before shooing him on. When he joined Charmian she could have sworn that his eyes were damp.

"I will miss that spider," he said in a quavery voice, and she had to force herself not to laugh, feeling guilty that she had the urge to do that at all.

"It's getting brighter!" Marten exclaimed, wriggling in Winter Born's grasp; his fur was wet and bedraggled like the others' feathers. "I bet Gitchi-Gami's right up THERE!"

Charmian's spirits rose; she could see light just starting to shine into the darkened tunnel. The thudding and booming noises were even further than ever behind them by now, and she dared to hope that perhaps they'd left the Mishupishus behind. She didn't say so aloud, however; Thomas's earlier comment still stung.

"Isn't this around the time that you say things are looking good...?" Thomas muttered to her as they went, and she nearly elbowed him in the gut, but told herself not to, if only because she would probably miss.

The tunnel grew narrower, but not by much, so even Mani was able to pull himself up through it when it at last opened up, showing pale gray and blue sky overhead; everybody began pouring out, helping to haul out the others. Charmian felt a pang as she was pulled out and hoped that the Weavers would be all right; they'd seemed like good people, for giant poisonous spiders. She found herself clambering over rocks that were slick with water and algae, and slipped and scraped her elbows several times. The others hurriedly got to their feet and hopped from rock to rock, or else stayed on all fours and clambered across like crabs; Charmian opted for something between the two, half-hopping, half-crabwalking. She slipped again and fell in a puddle of silty water, sputtering and whipping her hair back from her eyes.

It felt as if the rocks broke apart then, and that was what it sounded like as well, the stone heaving up beneath her and hurling her forward. She let out a cry as she saw herself plummeting forward at yet more stone--then something grabbed onto her and hauled her up and out of the way as the rocks she'd been sitting upon smashed against the ones she'd been headed toward. She watched this in confusion--how did rocks fly?--before the stone she was looking at split open, a huge black head shooting out, its coppery horns glinting and its yellow-green eyes fixing right on her as its jaws gaped wide open.

Charmian couldn't believe it. This Mishupishu made the Mishupishu look like...a kitten.

Her mouth fell open. The Lynx zoomed up toward her--when whatever was carrying her flew up even higher, and she finally started shaking with cold, her teeth clattering. She could feel Pakwa's claws digging into her arms, and nearly threw up when he spun about and whisked her along the--beach?--the others coming into view below her, impossibly tiny. They all looked up, a few waving at the water; she drew closer and closer until the GeeBee dropped her, and Thomas and Stick-In-The-Dirt hastened to catch her before she could receive a hard landing. A moment later Augwak made an awkward landing of his own, carrying Remy and Winter Born; Charmian nearly panicked, until Kenu showed up, sputtering and shaking water from his feathers. She finally thought to glance back, and at last saw first one, then three, then five giant black necks shooting up into the sky, hissing and snarling. Her eyes goggled and she scrambled to her feet.

"Crap!! RUN!!"

"But where--" Winter Born managed to get out, then screamed--the ground right next to her erupted and another Mishupishu reared out, hissing like steam escaping from a vent. It opened its mouth, then hissed again--Peepaukawiss hit it with a snap of wind--and then shook its head and snarled. Charmian tried looking around for dry land, but they seemed to have surfaced in the area of some rapids--all that she could see was rocks, water, more rocks, more water, and some trees. She found that she couldn't move as quickly as she usually could, what with her clothes sopping wet and her arms and legs going numb from cold. How far north were they--? And where was Gitchi-Gami--?

"GET MOVING!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, grasping Winter Born's wrist hard enough to make the girl grimace, and hauling her around in a circle. They both halted and screamed when the rocks in front of them broke apart--Underwater Lynxes seemed to keep popping out of the ground like the world's most frightening game of Whac-A-Mole--and this one blocked off the only avenue of escape that she could see. She glimpsed Moon Wolf and Singing Cedars, and they both blinked at her in stunned surprise before raising their hands--and then they were gone from view when yet another Lynx reared up with a demonic hiss.

Little Island girl, a chorus of raspy voices said in Charmian's head, and her eyes grew in disbelief. Without thinking, she dug her fingers into Winter Born's hand and pulled her back behind herself, crooking her free hand and gritting her teeth. Wabun's fireballs weren't much, but they were better than--

All her thoughts fled her when the ground just several feet off to her right burst open and another Mishupishu arose--but rather than attack her, it launched itself at one of the others in front of her. Its teeth sank into the bigger Mishupishu's throat, and the bigger one started snarling and swaying, trying to shake itself free. As several of the other Lynxes drew closer, something large appeared at Charmian's side and she let out a shriek, but all that Winter Born did was pull her forward, now.

"X'aaru!" Winter Born exclaimed, jumping atop the demon's back when he ducked and spread his wings. Charmian stared at him in disbelief, but the two of them waved her frantically forward. "Come on!" Winter Born cried.

"They're all over!!" X'aaru said, and she didn't need any further prompting than that. She clambered atop him and dug her fingers into his fur as he flapped his wings and ponderously arose, just managing to clear the Lynxes as they fought; Charmian twisted her head around to look at the squabble, and blinked to notice that the Lynx that had popped up right beside her was none other than Mishupishu himself. He looked quite small next to the other Lynxes, which were starting to gather in a circle around him, and she hated the thought of leaving him behind.

"Doesn't he need help?" she yelled.

"He'll be fine," X'aaru replied, wings flapping. "He said he has a secret way out, but he wanted to wait until everyone else was safely away! We've been following them about half the way here! They showed up ahead of us when we were down in the tunnel--we could sense them under the water. They must have been in this place waiting all along, because the Weavers knew nothing of them. They started battering the earth wall underwater and we figured that you must be in there! So we hurried to catch up before they could ambush you, but we weren't fast enough..."

"You did good enough," Charmian said, more to settle her own nerves than to comfort the demon. He tilted sideways and began descending, everyone gathering on a patch of land that finally showed itself alongside the water, shielded from it by boulders. They waved their arms and shouted; X'aaru landed a little hard, snorting and shaking his head, but when Charmian looked at the others they all seemed none the worse for wear. She tried to look back to see Mishupishu, but apparently they'd gone around a stand of pine trees, as all that she could see was that, the booming hissing snarling noises coming from some distance away now. She let out a tiny puff of a breath.

"I hope he'll be okay," she murmured, brushing back her sopping hair.

"I get the feeling he will be, if he remembers to use his getaway in time," Thomas panted, stepping up beside her; he lifted his arm and winced at a long bloody scrape running from his wrist to his elbow, and she gasped and hurriedly pressed her hands over it. "Don't worry...nothing too bad."

"Is everybody okay?" Charmian called out, and did a mental head count; everybody but the two loons seemed to be present, and even as she watched, Kwemoo and Maang appeared, flapping down and making awkward landings on one of the nearby boulders. She didn't like how they seemed to wince and flex their wings a little, but at least they were in one piece...two pieces. She looked up and finally got a good glimpse of where they were, only...

She blinked, then felt her face grow hot. "All right," she said, raising her voice to such a pitch that they all peered toward her, "where's frigging GITCHI-GAMI?"

Several of the others who hadn't been paying much attention to their surroundings finally started looking around as well. There were many confused looks, and then some murmuring. Charmian clenched her fists and nearly started growling; "No COMMENT!" she hissed at Thomas, who merely held up his hands and shook his head, eyes wide.

"Wasn't going to say a word!" he insisted.

"You...you mean...all that trouble...and we're not at that damned LAKE?!" Augwak yelled, his voice getting as strident as Charmian's. He stood nearer the water and flung up his arms, shaking his hands at the sky with a strangled scream.

"Well...we did exit the tunnel earlier than intended," Stick-In-The-Dirt said meekly, rubbing his hands. "Perhaps the lake is just a little further off...?"

"HOW little?!" Charmian shouted, before Moon Wolf grasped her arm hard enough to make her wince a bit, and she forced herself to take a breath and let it out. "Did you get any idea?" she asked. "Have any of you ever been here before?"

Everybody lowered their eyes, glancing briefly at each other; Charmian's jaw fell. "None of you have ever been here before...?"

Singing Cedars glanced over his shoulder and then stepped aside. Francois came forward and raised his hand a little, like a student in class. "I have, ma chère," he replied, looking briefly at all the others and then back at her with a small shrug. "Most Islanders have never been too far from their home, if ever at all."

"But you've been to Superior?" Charmian asked; he nodded and she let out a breath. "Finally." She gestured at the river. "So...where is it? How far away are we?"

"It looks like we somehow ended up north of the Straits," Francois said. "Meaning that the lake isn't too far away...but we might still have a bit of work ahead of us, seeing as we have to go against the current." He glanced at the rapids they stood near. "I'm thinking that just walking for a while would be good, seeing as we had to leave our canoes behind."

Charmian sighed, and heard a few of the others do the same. "Do you think we should wait for..." she started to say, when she spotted something drifting up the river toward them, and squinted, then hurried toward the rocks. The others began crowding atop them to watch it come closer; she could at last make out Mishupishu's sorry form, his spines drooping and crooked, several slashes and bitemarks lining his muzzle and neck. She bit her lip and reached out as he came near, and the Lynx let out a shuddery sigh which smelled like fish when she touched his muzzle. It quivered.

"I'm guessing...whoever is in charge of them all...called them back," he murmured. "Because they would certainly never leave on account of me..."

"You mean they're gone--?" Charmian asked, glancing down the river.

Mishupishu nodded. "It's a good thing, too--because one of them had me by the neck! I surely would have been killed!" He reared up, making several of them take a step back as water rained down over them. "I gave them every little thing I had! I don't believe I've ever fought nearly so hard before, not even against Manabozho himself! I dragged one left, and right, and down under the water...nearly had him...oooohhhhh!" He let out a groan fit to rival anything from Tooth, and sank down over the rocks. Charmian and Winter Born hurried to look him over, and Charmian didn't like the look of the gashes to his long neck; she couldn't even see the rest of his body, as it was still submerged in the river. She glanced back at Francois.

"What...what do we do with him?" she cried.

Francois seemed somewhat at a loss, and shook his head. "I'm not certain that we could pull him along, ma chère, and he looks not quite right to make it on his own..."

He trailed off, staring off into space. At first Charmian thought maybe he was getting an idea, until he turned away to look down the river. She opened her mouth to ask what he was looking for when something in the distance made her shut her mouth as well, and she stood there, brow furrowing.

Marten's ears pricked and he clambered up Peepaukawiss's shoulder. "Hey! Am I hearing things...?"

Charmian slowly shook her head. "No...I'm hearing it, too." She craned her neck and frowned. "Is that...what I think it is?"

No one answered her at first. For a moment they all stood beside the water, mouths shut and ears open, as the faint sound of singing came from further down the river.

Continue:

Part 71: Bonshommes  (13+) Charmian and company get acquainted with some friendly voyageurs... #1554692 by Tehuti, Lord Of The Eight

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