Chapter 6, Part iv

The passageway inside the Tumtum tree was dark, musty and damp. It sloped steadily downward, but in a tortuous, convoluted spiral. It was so dark that Hector couldn't see his own hand in front of his face, and they had to proceed single file with their hands on each others' shoulders. Hector was in the back. The explosions from outside rocked the structure of the gigantic plant, but even more unsettling were the arrhythmic thumping sounds coming from somewhere deep in the earth. Burr whimpered as he stepped on something that audibly squished.

“Be careful,” Lilly advised. “There are more things down here than the Jabberwock.”

“Like what?” Burr asked. Lilly was silent for a moment.

“I do not wish to tell you, and you do not wish to know.”

Burr whimpered again.

“This tunnel isn't gonna branch off again, will it? Like in the forest?” Aric asked. “'Cuz if if does, we ain't gonna split up again, that's for sure.”

“No, we will not,” Lilly said firmly. “And Aric, I wish to apologize to you... I am sorry that I lost my temper in the forest. We would have avoided much of this trouble if I had not become so angry.”

“No, it was my fault,” Aric admitted. “I was provoking you. You were right all along. And with the map, too, when we were in the mountains. I'm sorry I was being so demanding; you were the Guide – still are – and you were just doing your job. And,” he said, cutting her off, “I also apologize for running off in the mountains and making you all chase after me. We could have avoided a lot of trouble there if I had just been less of a pansy and not run off.”

Burr spoke next. “Did you run because you was scared to have the Bandersnatch make you see the yours past?”

There was a pause as they kept walking, ever downward into the dark.

“Yes,” Aric said.

Burr grunted in understanding. “I was going to run too. I have things I don't want remember. But you waked up first I guess, so it was me who chased after you. Ha ha!”

Aric let himself laugh as well. “Yeah... What past have you got to hide from, Burr?”

“I am a dishonored prince of the Aztlav.”

“Oh. That is pretty bad.”

“Yes.”

They walked along in the quiet for a while. They had reached a depth where the noises from outside were almost inaudible, but the thumping from below was stronger than ever. “Lilly, do you know how to get to the Jabberwock? Did the Tulgey Wood togom tell you how?” Hector asked. The spongy walls absorbed the sound of his voice, preventing an echo. It made him feel quiet, small, and vulnerable.

“She did not tell me how to get there exactly,” Lilly said carefully, “But she did teach me how to listen to the energies that come from the Wabe. They will guide us there, and we will not get lost.” Hector could tell that she was speaking as calmly as possible, so as to keep everyone else from panicking in the dark, dismal maze.

“Look, sister, you need to come here in front if you're gonna be our Guide,” Aric exclaimed. “Burr, get out of the way and let her in front. Actually,” he said, his voice muffled as the sounds of clothes and movement filled the narrow passage. “Lilly, is it all right if I stay in front? You know, just in case there's something nasty to be stepped in.”

“As you wish, Aric” she said, and it sounded like she was suppressing a laugh. Though he felt scared and worried, Hector was inwardly glad that the bickering had stopped between Lilly and Aric. A great peace settled over his heart concerning the matter. He put his hand Burr's shoulder, and once they were all ready, they started walking again.

They continued for a while in the dark. Occasionally there was a branching in the path, but Lilly would tell them to go left or right. Ever they moved downward, and soon the air was stale and smelled strongly of mold. Every fifty yards or so they would see a glowing mushroom hanging from the wall.

“Hey, Aric?” Hector asked after a long while. “What is the Jabberwock like?”

“It's... um... well, we know it's an ancient, powerful creature that's bent on destruction and mayhem,” came Aric's voice from the darkness. “We've got to stop it not just because the Mome Raths might take control of it, but also because it's incredibly dangerous in itself.”

“Yes, I know that,” Hector insisted, “but what is it like? Is it shaped like a person? Or is it like a dragon? Or some kind of animal that we've never heard of?”

This time, Lilly answered. “It has terrible, monstrous teeth, and it rends its prey with sharp claws. Apart from that, the Gimble says little about what the creature itself looks like. In some drawings it has appeared almost like a serpent, but with legs and sometimes with wings. But I am not certain.”

The company stopped, and Aric announced that there was another fork in the tunnel. Lilly meditated for a few seconds, then spoke. “We must take the path to the right.” Aric led them to the right without argument.

“Well, Hec, I've always heard that it's the size of the Archon's Tower in New Poliston, and it's got horrible slimy skin,” Aric continued.

“I hear it has scales,” said Burr.

“Nope. Sorry, Burr, it's definitely slimy.”

“Is it related to the Bandersnatch, or perhaps to the Snark?” Hector asked.

“It is unlike anything, living or dead, that you have ever before heard of,” Lilly said ominously.

“But nobody actually knows what it's like? Lilly, your shaman said that a Tove named Mountain wounded the Jabberwock a thousand years ago; didn't he come back and tell everyone what the Jabberwock is like?”

“He did not come back, and the records do not have a description of the beast itself.”

“He didn't... oh.” Hector thought for a moment. “What tribe was he from?”

“Aztlav,” Burr instantly answered.

“What do you know of Mountain, then, Burr?” Aric wondered.

“He was a king. He went out to slay the Jabberwock to protect his people. It is all I know.”

“I'm not gonna lie,” Aric said, “The fact that nobody knows for sure what the Jabberwock's like, plus the fact that Mountain didn't kill it when he had the chance, kinda makes me nervous. Makes you wonder why he didn't finish it off.”

Nobody spoke for a while after that. Lilly guided them up and down, left and right, through the Tumtum tree's tunnels, and all Hector could think about were slimy wings and terrible claws. He started muttering to himself.

“What's that you're mumbling back there?” Aric said. “Please don't whisper at us in the dark, it's creepy enough as it is.”

“I'm just remembering a part from The Adventures of Sir Jimbo,” Hector explained. “It's one of my favorites, and it has to do with him completing his quest.”

“Out with it, then,” Aric said theatrically.

Hector cleared his throat.

“Then Jimbo left that village,

And crossed the valley fair

To sample woodland atmosphere

And taste the ocean air!

He forged a path through swampland

(Having to skip Saint Grilbag's Feast)

He even found the Bork-Troll's son

And slayed that nasty beast!

Then in the windy dustland,

Without a gnurd to spare,

Sir Jimbo dug with trowel

And found a grobbit there.

'O what a day for digging!'

Jim chortled in his mirth,

'To find such bocious treasure

On such a plot of earth!'”

Hector smiled, glowing with pride, and he hoped that the silence that followed his recitation was one of awe and grandeur and not one of awkward confusion. After a while, Aric coughed.

“Yes. Very... inspiring, Hector. Thank you... I think.”

When nobody else commented, Hector spoke up again. “You know, this whole adventure has been pretty hectic and confusing. It's even been dangerous and frightening, at times. But I can't help hoping that maybe some day somebody will think to tell our story to their children around the fireplace.”

“You could write that story, Hector Blithe,” Lilly suggested amiably.

“Just make sure to make us look good,” Aric said.

Hector laughed at the thought. “No, I'm no good at writing. I love reading, but I've never written anything myself. It would be silly.”

“I would very much like to read it, even if it were silly,” Lilly said.

“Me too,” said Aric.

With his hand on Burr's shoulder, he felt the young Tove's head droop. He gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Don't worry, we'll teach you how to read,” he whispered, and Burr perked up.

Suddenly Aric put his hand up and stopped dead in his tracks. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down!” he hissed. Then Hector realized that he could see Aric put his hand up, and he realized that the darkness wasn't so absolute here. A faint, bluish light emanated from the dozens of mushrooms that dotted the walls and ceiling. Hector slowly released Burr's shoulder and looked around in awe.

The tunnel had opened up into a vast chamber, which, upon further inspection, was much larger than it had seemed from the dark passageway. Not dozens, but hundreds upon thousands of the glowing mushrooms filled every last inch of surface space in the cavern, which must have been several stories tall and big enough to house the Dunberg City Library. Hector gasped and took a few aimless steps. Lilly gently stroked several mushrooms and carefully sniffed them. Aric slapped Burr's hand and made him spit out one that he had put in his mouth.

“What is this place?” Hector said dreamily.

“It looks like a natural cavern,” Aric answered slowly, as he craned his neck to examine the ceiling. The mushroom-light made strange shadows on his face. “But you can never tell with the Tulgey Wood. There don't seem to be any exits. What do you think, Lilly?”

“We are very close to the Jabberwock,” she said. Hector swallowed. Lilly closed her eyes and idly felt along the wall. She inhaled deeply. “It smells of human. Of Mome Rath. Professor Trellis was here recently.” With her eyes still closed, she sniffed and sniffed, following an invisible path until she reached what appeared to be another solid wall, covered with the blue fungi. “The trail leads here, but I see no door.”

“Can you see any more Gimble?” Hector asked. Lilly examined the wall and shook her head.

“I could blast a door,” Burr offered eagerly, but Aric placed a hand on Burr's chest as he gazed around the room.

“No, buddy, I don't think that'd be such a great idea. Let's think first, shoot lightning later.”

“He had to have left this room through this door, for the trail really does end here,” Lilly insisted. Apologizing softly to the mushrooms, she plucked them off the dirt wall and tossed the still-glowing things on the ground. She worked systematically until she had cleared an area about the same size and shape as the hole they had originally entered on the surface. The wall was made nearly entirely of solid earth; a few mushroom stumps poked through and a couple hairy roots were laid bare, but other than that it seemed like a normal, solid wall. “I hope Burr does not have to cut himself again,” Lilly said half-jokingly, and Burr nodded in agreement.

“Hold on, what's this?” Aric said curiously, and approached the bare space. He ran his hands over the surface, took out his knife and scraped away a decent amount of dirt. “Ah, yep, here it is,” he said with relief, and stepped back. In the center of the space where he had scraped away at the wall – a circle about two handspans in diameter – a complicated rune had been cut deep into the dirt. As Hector watched, the rune began to glow a deep green color.

“What is that?” he asked.

Aric pointed to its various parts in a knowledgeable manner. “This, my friends, is a rune of secret passage. It's not used for opening doors, but rather for closing them. See, there was originally an opening here, say about an hour ago. But the good Professor drew this rune on the ground, and the dirt and mushrooms rose up to fill the space. Like the door had never existed. He's a clever bloke, but not clever enough to escape our Guide!” Lilly folded her arms and smiled proudly.

“So how do we get through?” Burr asked.

Aric clapped him on the shoulder. “That's where you come in handy, my prickly friend. Fire away. Everyone else, stand back.”

Hector gathered with Aric and Lilly some distance away, while Burr flexed his fists. Starting at his shoulders and moving toward his fists, electric flashes lit up Burr's thick hair. With a shout, Burr thrust both his hands together, and a rod of lightning leaped from his body and onto the wall. The explosion left a resounding ringing sound in Hector's ears, but after the dust cleared there was a clear doorway blasted in the smoking earth. The wall had been about two feet thick at that location, and beyond that a new tunnel stretched on into the dark.

“After him!” Hector cried, and the four of them crawled through the hole.

*

Trisha brought her club down heavily on an attacking human's head, and the lady crumpled to the ground. Amid the battle, she spared a glance up at the huge tree, the one they called the Tumtum. Something about it didn't seem right; it was as though the tree were melting somehow. The branches sagged, and parts of them were falling off before her very eyes, leaving dark, fibrous holes that leaked a brownish dust. Leaves fell like snow from the sky, but they weren't the leaves of late November; they seemed green and whole, but as soon as they touched the ground or anything else, they instantly crumbled to powder.

“What's up with that tree?” she shouted. “What's wrong with it? Is something bad about to happen?”

“The Jabberwock is about to come free,” shouted back the girl Tove, the first one that Hector had freed from Mome Rath mind control. She stood at Trisha's back with her own heavy stick, and batted away the cultists that dared come close. The battle was going rather well. Trisha and her companions were outnumbered nearly three to one, but thanks to the Jubjub bird and the huge Bandersnatch lizard – whom they had recruited on the way to the Tulgey Wood – and a lack of tactical organization on the Mome Raths' part, they had driven off most of the enemy. The last remaining Mome Raths scurried away to regroup with their fellows, who had bunched together somewhere on the other side of the rotting Tumtum tree.

Trisha gasped for breath and propped herself up with her stick. Tom was all right, sitting on top of his boulder with an endless supply of rocks for his slingshot, while the town clerk Gribley had been instrumental in countering magical attacks with his own. The friendly Toves gathered around and began talking in Tovish.

Trisha grabbed the girl Tove's arm before she could turn away. “Hey, you, what's your name?”

“Meadow. And yours?”

“Trisha. Nice to meet you,” Trisha panted, and shook Meadow's furry hand. That brown Tove with the white patch on his chest approached. He was bleeding in several places, but didn't seem to notice or care. He was smiling.

“We have won!” he exulted. The Toves around him cheered; he seemed like a natural leader, like an alpha male, if the Toves had such a thing. “We have driven away the cowards. We have captured many of our enslaved brethren, and they await the yellow-haired man to return to them their Gyres.”

Trisha glanced over the man's shoulder and saw a pile of unconscious black-robed Tove thralls. The Mome Raths that Aric had befriended, the Sneaky Hand of Banishing, stood in a group, excitedly discussing a book that they passed around among themselves, but at second glance it wasn't the Manxor Slithe. “Remind me of your name, mister?” Trisha asked of the brown-furred Tovish man.

“I am Thorn, of the Aztlav,” he said, and bowed formally. “Trisha of the Blithe tribe, we await your command. I and my warriors will go and finish off the traitors, while you may enter the tree and follow the One Who Reads, that we may free our companions.”

Trisha opened her mouth to speak, but Mr. Gribley appeared at Thorn's side with a nervous look on his face. “Um, actually, I think we'd best stick together for the next while...”

“What for?” Thorn said with invincible confidence. “They are already broken and defeated. I and my warriors have--”

“No, you don't know the Mome Raths,” Gribley shook his head, close to laughing with anxiety. “They'll be back any second now, and they have more than a few nasty secrets up their sleeves. The ancient magic is very... how can I put it... resourceful.”

“Resourceful?” Trisha asked, and as if on cue, an eerie screech rent the air, accompanied by a pallid purple light. The screech suddenly cut off, but was replaced with sound that made Trisha envision hundreds of snakes slithering through the dirt at once.

Gribley moaned. “Oh no.”

“Now what?” Trisha demanded, and seized the clerk's arm. She shook him. “What have they done?”

He looked at Trisha despondently. “They've created a Boojum.”

“Retreat! They have a Boojum!” Thorn bellowed. The Toves scattered like cockroaches. Trisha gulped.

“Um... should we run?”

Gribley nodded even as he turned toward the glowing forest behind them. “Yes, Trisha, I think running would be a good idea right about now.”

*