The goddess was made of wicker panels, bound together with straw rope. Tom threw his weight against them and a hole appeared. He widened it and peered through the gap. A stinking pit lay on the other side. Rotten flesh littered the ground. The stench was overwhelming.
He lost balance and landed on a pile of offal. The big girl shouted down at him. She was sticking out of the wall above his head. He clambered over a mess of decaying meat and grabbed her hands. Bodyweight did the rest.
'This way!'
He yelled and they scrambled over a pile of dead sheep and entered a chamber stacked with straw dolls. Tom guessed they had progressed from the stomach to the womb and were nearing the approved exit. A hole suggested the birth channel and they plunged down it.
Something felt wrong from the start. He wished he had paid more attention to the figure's anatomy. The channel was far too long. They pressed on and came to a vault. Five protuberances stuck up from the ceiling. There could be only one explanation ... they had gone down a leg and landed in a foot.
'Back. Back ...'
His military training took over.
'Keep going. Don't stop.'
He yelled at the girl and they fought their way up calves and past knees. Smoke filled the air. Somewhere ahead there was coughing. They ran towards it and entered a chamber packed with naked bodies.
The exit was in front. A glance told Tom it was undersized. The smaller initiates had got through. Their bigger companions were finding it increasingly hard. He placed a foot on the buttocks of a departing youth and pushed him out. A series of blows stretched the orifice in one direction and a mighty heave widened it in another.
He hurled the initiates through with the help of the girl and they made their exit together. Thunder was waiting for them with his clothes.
'You took a long time.'
'We got held up,' Tom said.
'You'll have to do better next time.'
Thunder handed over Tom's denims.
'This fabric is awful. You'll need something better now that you are going to serve in Her Majesty's household. I'll get our tailors to work as soon as we get back.'