Chatterbox:

Labyrinth Tunnels Code14

If you're new here, start at the first labyrinth post. All the labyrinth posts live on the Power of Claw page.

I feel a little silly, everyone...we were stuck in that last tunnel (the twelfth tunnel, not the thirteenth, as it turned out) for about a week, when the answer was right at our fingertips the whole time. The birds left to get water. I heard Claaws ranting in another part of the cave: "How about...fire? Or water or ice? You like water? Well of course, you're a pirate dragon capacha. So I will now say water instead of what." And then I put my sleeping bag in an unfortunate place, and the cave ceiling must've dripped on me all night as I slept. When I woke up it hit me: HHO. Two H's and one O. H20. Water!

I peeled the wet sleeping bag off me and ran over to the combination lock: "W-A-T-E-R." Gears clicked, and the gate swung open. 

"Everyone! Water! I figured it out—water!"  

"What are you talking about?" Silverpaw said drowsily. 

"The combination lock—the answer was water. H-H-O meant two parts Hydrogen, one part Oxygen. The code wasn't damaged after all!"

"Well that was rather obscure," the old badger, who was suddenly at my side, mumbled.

Wait a second. The old badger mumbled something coherent?

I stared at him as he swallowed a huge handful of the green stones and hobbled through the gate. He stood looking at the dimly lit tunnel before him and exclaimed, "THE LAST LOCKS! THIS IS THE LAST LOCKED ROOM!"

"You can talk?!" I said. Of all the weird stuff that had been going on in the tunnels this week—epic serpent battles, Powers clashing in the other tunnels—this surprised me the most. Silverpaw and I locked eyes, and she cat-shrugged.

The badger didn't respond. He just went back to reciting letters and numbers and wandering in circles: "-J-M-E-M-I-A-K-Z-G-E-F-H-P-Q-X-S-B-Y-W-R-C-T-O-N-U-V-D-L-. Seventeen will leave. -J-M-E-M-I-A-K-Z-G-E-F-H-P-Q-X-S-B-Y-W-R-C-T-O-N-U-V-D-L-. Nine left over. -J-M-E-M-I-A-K-Z-G-E-..." 

But we don't have time to mull this over. We're short on food and water. The birds still haven't returned. (I'm not so worried about Little Crow and Who this time. For one, they made it back fine last time. For another, Storm went with them this time.) We need to find the answer to the final lock. Now, let's find it, here in the REAL thirteenth tunnel...

The last stretch of the room is slightly flooded. Gross. And the last door is huge and solid. I rap my knuckles against it and can't even hear an echo on the other side.

But I can hear something above and all around us. The drills. B.I.G.'s drills are louder than ever, all of a sudden. We must be close to the dig site we saw at the entrance to the tunnels. I hope the birds bring us back some news. I'm a little concerned that they could be building a new animal prison—or something even more sinister. 

I'm craning my neck to listen to the drills. One of the drills almost sounds like a deep growl somehow. I'm puzzling this over when my bare foot touches something under the water. Carvings in the stone floor! THREE of them. And it looks like there's another one on the door. 

Decoders, we need your help!

There only seems to be one combination lock to go with all this code... 

Oh, wait! Silverpaw waves me over to the corner of the room. There seems to be a second combination lock on the side wall. Thimble squeaks from the opposite wall. Another lock! At almost the same time, Arra shouts from the back of the room. Four locks! Looks like we need four words this time—so much for this last room being easy.  

These tunnels have been long. And I'm not even sure we'll find any answers behind this door. For all we know, it'll open up to the old badger's kitchen, and he'll cook us breakfast while we sob into our hands and paws and talons. There's chaos behind us, and we can only guess there will be chaos in front of us. But if we believe the old badger, we're almost to the end of this.

Courage, everyone! Let's do this!