Quick and the dead

Tuber communities tended to sprout up at entrances to The Tube, in large rotundas, and where two sections of The Tube intersected.

But not at Ka-hale-pohaku just under the southeast coast of Molokai, where the lava tube that would take them to Lanai and ultimately to the Big Island intersected with the Tube of Ka-lai-pahoa.

"Say your prayers," Kaneloa, a young Tuber chief of lowly status, heard one of the other young chiefs journeying to the Big Island to contend for the hand of Princess Tuberosa La'a say. "An evil power lurks nearby."

The Tube leveled off beneath Penguin Banks as they approached Ka-hale-pohaku, and one of the others explained: "Ka-lai-pahoa, the old god of sorcery, has poisoned The Tube there. It's faster that way to the Big Island, but if you just touch the wall or one drop of water falls on you, you will die."

"How much faster?" Kaneloa said. The Great King's bones were calling.

"Three days, maybe more. But that's just hearsay. Nobody has survived that portion of The Tube since Ka-lai-pahoa poisoned it. Nobody"

"Three days? Or more?"

"Don't be a fool, my new friend. The princess may be impatient, but the announcement from the royal runners said everyone who wishes to contend for the right to be her husband will be given the opportunity. You're from Oahu, right? Others from Kauai are coming behind us. Speed is not of the essence. Arriving is."

"And the hardest part is over," added another. "The Tube is shallow from here on."

"But the Great King ... " Kaneloa started to tell them that the bones of King Kamehameha the Great were calling to him from the Royal Rotunda of King Kavawai, but stopped. He'd shared that with his friend Puka, who just laughed at him, called him a doofus and gave up the journey back at Bellows.

The Tube was at least 40 feet high here, and as it angled to the right to cross the Kalohi Channel between Molokai and Lanai, another Tube opened onto it from the left.

The pilgrims veered to the right side of The Tube, staying as far way as possible from Ka-lai-pahoa's poison, and quickened their pace.

The air was dank here, like some fermenting industrial waste site, or like a humpback passing gas, and Kaneloa was not alone in covering his nose and mouth.

And yet Kaneloa found his steps slowing, found himself drifting to the back of the pack, found himself glancing over his shoulder.

In his head, in his heart, the Great King's bones called out to him.

They're wrong, young chief. Time is of the essence. I need your service. Be swift.

He found their voices disappearing, soon found himself standing at the entrance to the Tube of Ka-lai-pahoa.