The Great Endeavor - A Tuffnut Love Story (HTTYD/RTTE)

11. The Beneath

Endeavor moved ahead of Hiccup and continued to lead. The dragon rider fell back, a look of frustration on his face. Noticing this, Astrid tried to comfort him. "She's just trying to help us," she spoke in a quiet tone.

"I don't like this," Hiccup told her, eyes squinting at Endeavor from behind. "She's the only one here who's managed to keep her head, and her life, for so long," Hiccup reminded, "you can't tell me that's not suspicious."

Astrid sighed. "No, it definitely is," she agreed, "but she's our only hope...my only hope." She glanced down at the peeling dead skin on her arms.

"Well, someone's jealous," Snotlout butted in obnoxiously, laughing at Hiccup. "Just because you don't get to play 'leader' right now, doesn't mean you have to throw a temper tantrum."

Hiccup glared at Snotlout. "I'm not jealous, Snotlout," he argued, rolling his eyes, "oh, gods."

Meanwhile, the twins jogged up to walk beside Endeavor, one on either side. "Hey, where are we going first?" Ruff asked excitedly.

"Below the island," Endeavor answered, "there's something I need to check."

"Under the island?" Tuffnut repeated, "cool."

Endeavor gave him an amused smile. "You two are much different from the other humans that come here," she observed, "you're less...panicked."

"Is that..good..?" Tuff asked, unsure if this was a compliment or not.

"Regardless of 'good' or 'bad', it just means you're like me," Endeavor laughed as she responded, "you feel at home amidst the chaos." When Tuff saw her bright smile, he blushed. It was unlike him to be so anxious around a girl, and he wasn't sure how to act yet. Having a crush was definitely a new experience for him, but it was an exciting one. Suddenly, Endeavor stopped. She scrunched her eyebrows together and looked around. "We should be here..." She muttered in confusion.

The other riders caught up, all standing in a cluster. Then, the ground beneath them disappeared. It didn't fall or crumble, it just vanished. The seven found themselves falling into a pit of darkness, some of them screaming the whole way down.

By the time they reach the bottom, their faling had slowed. They hovered in mid air just inches above the ground for a few seconds, then finally hit the bottom. Snotlout didn't stop screaming until a couple moments after the falling had ceased. Endeavor, who had landed gracefully on her feet looked around in satisfaction and announced, "ah, found it!"

She looked to the dragon riders who were discombobulated by the sudden event. Tuffnut looked up, but the hole they'd fallen threw was gone. "Uh, how are we supposed to get out of here?" He questioned, "I mean, I love a good dark soggy place as much as the next Viking, but I still wanna go home."

Endeavor shook her head and laughed as she began lifting people to their feet with haste, not having the patience to wait for them to recover from shock. All around them the walls glowed faintly with silver and white speckles, as if stars were trapped inside of them. "Good question," she agreed, "it's always different. I was stuck down here for a few weeks when I first found this place."

"Oh, great," Snotlout remarked sarcastically.

"This way," Endeavor beckoned to the riders to follow her.

As they walked, a question occurred to Fishlegs. "How do you know where you're going?" He wondered, "don't these tunnels just change like the rest of the island?"

Endeavor frowned. "Actually, they don't," she answered, obviously just as curious about it as the rest. "It's odd, things still happen down here that are unnatural, but the tunnels are always the same."

"How interesting," Fishlegs remarked, admiring the walls as they walked. Just then, a lizard with an extremely long body scampered ahead of the group. It's eighteen sticky feet allowed it to crawl against the wall. The riders watched in horror as the six foot long creature scurried to the ceiling and hung it's top half down in front of them. Swirling rainbows in it's eyes, it looked at Endeavor. "What brings the Great Endeavor to the Beneath?" It spoke in a hissing voice.

The riders were all quite unsettled by it's ability to speak. But Endeavor was unphased, which helped the others remain somewhat calm. "It's none of your business, Tangle," Endeavor responded in an annoyed voice.

"But it is," the creature, Tangle, argued, "you've entered the Tangle's tunnel."

"And it was I who gifted it to you," Endeavor growled.

The lizard sneered and crawled away, muttering nonsense to himself. "I think we should leave the Tangle's tunnel," Tuffnut suggested anxiously.

"You gave him the tunnels?" Hiccup asked.

"Just this one stretch," Endeavor explained, "he may be a lizard, but he doesn't like the jungle."

"No, I mean," Hiccup clarified, "you gave him this tunnel, as in..it was yours to give?"

Endeavor nodded slowly in understanding. "Right," she began, "I'm the one who first discovered the Beneath, after all." She paused to look around as they began to walk on, "I was sure that if I dug deep enough, I'd escape. But instead, I found these tunnels. It's safer than the jungle, and only the more civilized monsters are permitted."