Too Many Teeth

Chapter Three

When Hiccup woke up it was dark, nearly pitch black. His head hurt, and he blinked frantically, trying to reassure himself that his eyes were, in fact, open. Two blurry shapes loomed over him, and he gasped, scrambling backwards.

 He ended up inhaling a mouthful of dust and leaned forward, sputtering and coughing.

            “Just relax, it’s me.” Astrid’s voice echoed in the darkness, and she patted him on the back until he could breathe again.

            Where were they? The ground felt hard under his hands, but it wasn’t cold or wet. There was no snow anymore. When he glanced up he could see a few faint strains of light rippling overhead. Aside from that it was completely dark, hard to see anything other than vague shapes. The air felt different too. It was warmer and staler than it had been a moment ago.

            “What just happened?”

            “We fell down a hole I think.” Astrid stood up and stepped back. “A big one. Come on, get up.”

            The other blur turned out to be Toothless. The dragon lowered his head and licked Hiccup’s arm, covering his skin in sticky dragon spit.

            “Ugh. Yes, thank you. I’m alive.” Hiccup climbed to his feet, feeling a bit shaky. In the faint light coming in from the top of the hole high above them, he could almost make out the others. They were walking around, looking a little dazed, coughing and choking on the dust that was slowly settling around them.

Eventually Snotlout sat down on the ground beside Hookfang, leaning his back against the dragon’s side. The burly Viking started whining, more to himself than anyone, clutching at his ankle. The twins walked over to the opposite side, trying to climb up the wall by grabbing tree roots and rocks that were sticking out of the dirt. Ruffnut was actually climbing Tuffnut and attempting to stand on his head while stretching for another root. Then they started arguing about who was heavier, and Ruffnut reached down to smack her twin.

            “You alright, Hiccup?” Fishlegs gave him a wide smile. “You landed pretty hard. Lucky I had Meatlug to cushion my fall.” He looked over at his dragon who gave him a huge, toothy grin and looked very pleased with himself.

            “I’m okay.” Hiccup looked around, blinking, trying to get his eyes to adjust better. “How did a hole this big get here?”

            “This is some kind of tunnel we’re in.” Astrid looked deadly serious. She gestured up at the thin stream of light above their heads. “It collapsed on us, and now our way out is blocked. It’s too heavy for the dragons to push away. And I don’t think they have the room to launch themselves anyways, not without injuring us. I tried to follow the other side of the tunnel to see where it goes, but it’s blocked too. We have no way out.”

            The twins came over, both of them covered in dirt from head to toe. They had given up their attempts to climb the wall.

            “How did we miss something like a giant tunnel in the middle of our forest?” Tuffnut said. “I would have explored this thing ages ago if I knew it was here. Do you think there’s treasure in here somewhere? Maybe we can find a map.”