Myth-ion Improbable by Robert Lynn Asprin

“Send Tanda up second,” I whispered down to Aahz below me. “We need to make sure no one is in the room above the trap door up here.”

“Good thinking,” Tanda said, climbing up under me as I went higher. She got up just under me, paused, and then nodded. “No one up there at the moment.”

“Good,” I said.

“You go next,” I heard Aahz say to Glenda down in the tunnel.

“No,” Glenda said, her voice firm. “You get stuck in that opening it’s going to take both Tanda pulling and me shoving to get you through.”

I couldn’t hear what Aahz said, but a moment later his green-scaled head came through the hole below Tanda.

“No, both arms ahead of you,” Tanda said.

Aahz backed down a step, put both his arms over his head, and climbed back up into the hole. From what I could see, his shoulders were wedged pretty good in the rock.

Tanda braced herself, grabbed one of his hands, and then said, “Ready to push, Glenda?”

“Ready,” Glenda said, her voice muffled as if she were a long ways away.

“Now,” Tanda said, pulling on Aahz’s arm as he pulled on the rock surface with the other.

With a rip of his shirt, he came through.

Tanda let go and moved up under me. Aahz had his shoulders through the hole, but he wasn’t climbing any higher at the moment.

“Glenda,” he said. “Grab a hold of my leg and I’ll pull you up.”

“I think I can make it,” she said.

“Just do it and quit arguing with me,” Aahz said.

I stared down at the top of my mentor’s head. The old green-scaled guy had a soft spot after all. Always knew it was there, just hadn’t seen it that often.