They didn't fall far, so they weren't hurt, just sore. The six friends and their unexpected guest were in a large, warm underground cavern with small orange lanterns fixed upon the walls, glowing so dimly, with barely enough strength to resist the darkness. The stone felt ancient; small bits of dead plant matter hung limply from the cracks in the walls and the places they touched left grainy black dust on their hands and clothes. Essence examined their surrounding best she could. The collapsed ceiling had righted itself, sealing them in and Toothless out.
"Toothless!" Hiccup shouted upward. There was no answer. "Toothless!"
"I don't think he can hear you." Rapunzel said sadly, putting a hand on Hiccup's shoulder.
Jack looked at his friend, "Do you think he'll be okay?"
Hiccup bit his lip, "I'm sure he'll find a way out. And he's pretty tough. Let's just hope there aren't anymore unpleasant surprises."
All but Mortia stiffened, anticipating a possible attack. Instead, she shrank into herself; thin, bony arms crossed, shoulders tight and stiff, a hard expression on her pale, sickly face. "Do you know a way out of here?" she asked Essence.
"I think so." Essence answered uncertainly, bashfully tugging at her short hair. "There are a lot of underground tunnels and I've seen most of them, but not when it was this dark." She turned around several times, trying to find a familiar route.
"Maybe the will-o'-the-wisps can help us." Merida offered. She raised her hand to summon the wisps, but they disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Merida frowned, "That's odd. This place must have a lot of negative magic if it scared the will-o'-the-wisps." She tried again, with the same result. "Does your magic work when you're down here?"
All eyes turned to Essence, who ran a hand through her short, black curls. "This is really unusual. Trap doors, this darkness, negative magic. I've been playing in these cavern since I was kid but nothing like this has ever happened. Maybe things are already falling apart." she muttered, more to herself than the others. "I can sense something vile that's not suppose to be here." The room chilled.
"Then let's find it." Jack declared, hands tightening around his staff. "Whatever's here has to had something to do with your parents."
Essence shook her head, "We need to let the adults know what's going on. We might not be able to face this thing alone."
"There's no time to get a message out to them or tell them in person and come back!" Jack argued, "What if this thing escapes? This could be our only chance to find out what's going on."
Essence pressed her lips and tightened her eyebrows. "Alight." she decided, "I think we should split up."
"Your not suppose to split up in times like this." Jack interrupted.
She ignored him. "Siobhan, you're the fastest; you can fly to the North Pole and warn to adults. Here's my necklace so you can find your way back."
Before she could remove her necklace, Mortia, awkwardly shifting her weight from one foot to another, spoke up. "We'll need to get out of here first."
"Oh." Essence mumbled. "We'll go a random path and hope it leads us out of here. You and Siobhan can go another way."
"No offense Essy, but that's a terrible plan." Hiccup remarked, "What we need to do is stick together like Jack said until we know exactly where we are and what we're dealing with. Plus, I think we should go the route with the most light; then we won't be caught off guard if anything shows up down here. If we do run into whatever it is your sensing our heavy hitters - Jack, Merida, Punz - should hold it off while Siobhan sends a message to the Guardians and the Holidays. Es, I think you and I should find Toothless; nothing gets by him. Mortia, you should duck for cover; I don't think you're in any condition to fight."
Essence blushed in embarrassment. "Right." she admitted quietly, "Good plan Hiccup. Thanks."
The team went down the brightest, though still dim, corridor. They walked for a while and the further they went, the cooler it became. Their hope of exit grew as the floor inclined higher upward. Above them, a series of loud, deep roars ripped through the air.
"It's Toothless!" Hiccup cried as he started running. A stone wall blocked his path. "No!"
Rapunzel ran her hands over the wall, hoping to find a weak spot. "There are a few large cracks near the center. If Jack freezes the wall, the ice might cause it to crumple."
Jack nodded and stood directly in front of the wall; the others moved behind him. A blast of icy wind exploded from the tip of Jack's staff. When the snow settled, the wall was carved up by ice and collapsed.
"Not bad." Merida smiled, giving Jack a congratulatory slap on the shoulder.
They all walked through the rubble, out of the labyrinth. In all their walking, they'd crossed into the winter side, where the air was thin and sharply cold. The hilly landscape was dotted with tall black trees that were naked save blankets of snow thrown over their branches.
The hairs the back of Essence's neck stood up.
"Mortia, darling, aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" a smooth, throaty voice called from above. They all looked over to see a woman casually perched on a wolf statue. She was tall and voluptuous, with silky red-blonde hair resting on her shoulders and green eyes so bright they seemed to be lit from the inside. "I at least want to know their names before I kill them. Or should I let you father have them? Decisions, decisions." She look down at the youngsters and smiled wickedly.
"Where's my dragon!" Hiccup demanded.
The woman smirked, "I got some friends to get rid of it. I did you a favor if I do say so myself."
Hiccup paled in fury at her answer.
"This is my home and you are not welcome here. Leave." Essence growled. Inside, she was shaking, but she wouldn't allow herself to let anyone know.
The woman laughed, "Do you think that concerns me?"
Jack glared at Mortia, "You know her?" he accused furiously.
With a tiny nod, Mortia admitted that she did.
"Know me?" the woman said with fake shock, "Mortia, you didn't tell them about your mommy? Acosmist. Don't call me Misty or I'll hurt you more than I need to. Actually, I'm gonna hurt you anyway, so it doesn't really matter." She flashed them a wide toothy grin.
Mortia tight face flooded with the color of shame as the others stepped back from her. "I didn't think she would find me here." she stammered, holding her palms out. "I was trying to leave her. And my father. I don't want anything to with them, I swear."
"Oh sweetie, you're hurting my feelings." Acosmist pouted. "Everyone knows that blood's thicker than water. But in case you aren't sure, I'd be glad to give a demonstration." She reached into the back pocket of her dark grey jumpsuit and pulled out a four inch dagger. "Any volunteers?"
Merida responded by shooting an arrow and knocking the knife from her hand. Acosmist shrugged, completely unfazed. With a dismissive wave of her hand, she launched a bolt of grey lightning at her daughter. Mortia dodged but barely; she fell into a snowbank. Part of her hair was singed off.
Acosmist's dark cheer faded, and she began hard and solemn. "Your father is waiting and very...displeased with you."
"Back off." Rapunzel cried, standing between the mother and child. "She staying with us."
"Then I guess we'll have to take you with her." Pitch voice arose from the icy forest. Before anyone could even blink, his horrid black sand swallowed them all whole.
When Mortia awoke in chains; she was tied to a post in the middle of a large cage. Her whole body from her painful position she'd been put in. It didn't bother her since she'd been use to this kind of thing. She looked around. The others were tied up in the same way. None of them were conscious, but most of them moaned and cried from their nightmares. The attic-like room they'd been placed in wasn't as dim as the tunnels, but not as bright as the outside forest. The space was empty, so each sound was magnified.
Mortia noticed that she was sweating, and what was left of her hair prickled to her thin skin. Her joints felt as soft as pudding, her bones as brittle as uncooked pasta. Each breath was a labor and the beat of her heart pounded in Mortia's ears. She closed her eyes, ever though she knew she wouldn't sleep, in hopes of mentally preparing herself to come face-to-face with the monster that had created her.
