I Have a Smart Idea

                                    

                                          
I took off my shoes and socks, then handed them to Millard. "Hold these for me, please?"
                          
He seemed confused, but I just ignored him as I rolled up my pants and began wading through the lake, over towards Cuthbert's head. Quickly, I was able to join Emma as we took our time, strolling over to our destination.
                          
"We've got wights chasing us!" Enoch shouted at the two of us. "We're desperately lost! What on bird's green earth are you two thinking?"
                          
"We're thinking peculiarly!" Emma shouted back.
                          
We got up to the stone's neck-thing, and I looked up at it's face. Emma helped me get a boost up, and I crawled up onto it. I pulled Emma in as well, and we leaned down into the large black gap that was his mouth.
                          
"What do you see?" Jacob shouted at us.
                          
"Don't know!" Emma replied. "Looks like it goes down a long way, though. I'd better take a-"
                          
A thought hit me. Before Emma even finished, I got on my bum, and slid down into his mouth. Emma called out after me, but it was too late. I was gone.
                          
Down in Cuthbert's throat, I was in a dark chamber full of water. There was no way to climb back up, so I decided the only way to get out would be down, right? That totally made sense. I saw Emma sliding down towards me, and I dived back under before she could land and squish me.
                          
I held my breath, and swam under, quickly finding a person-shaped hole. I was about to swim in it, but heard Emma call my name out again. I swam back up to meet her at the surface, and she jumped a bit.
                          
"Where'd you go?" she asked me.
                          
"There's a hole underwater that we can swim through," I told her. "I'm going in first, to make sure it's actually what I think it is. Go gather the others, and I'll meet you on the other side."
                          
I dived back into the water and swam through the hole. No longer was I in the rock anymore, but outside of it. Quickly and diligently, I got out of the water to see bright blue sky. My ears popped, and I knew that I was no longer in the 4th of September, 1940 anymore.
                          
"Now, should I wait for everyone, or....?" I wondered out loud to myself.
                          
But right as I said it, Jacob and Emma resurfaced. 
                          
"See?" Emma said to Jacob with a grin. "We're somewhen else!"
                          
It was actually my idea since I slid in first and found the entry way, but whatever. She was happy, and that's all that mattered. 
                          
One by one, more people popped up, until all ten of us were clustered in the lake. It was really exciting to see everyone's reactions, until I realized that Millard brought my shoes with him, which were now soaking wet. 
                          
"Do you realize what this means?" Millard squealed. He kept turning in a circle, still out of breath. "It means there's secret knowledge embedded in the Tales!"
                          
Well, I thought that we already knew that, with the Trosia and Celtings story existing, but okay. A badass woman-ambassador gets married to an invisible dude, has his child, then gets burned at the stake. I mean, their kid was a real person who supposedly lived and grew up just as the stories described. 
                          
"Not so useless now, are they?" Olive laughed.
                          
"Oh, I can't wait to analyze and annotate them," Millard said, and I chuckled. What a dweeb.
                          
"Don't you dare write in my book, Millard Nullings!" Bronwyn said. "And that includes you too, (Y/N)!"
                          
Oh darn.
                          
"But what is this loop?" Hugh asked. "Who do you think lives here?"
                          
"Wolverine and Professor X," I told him matter-of-factly. "Then he'll lead us to the other X-Men and Avengers, and I'll get to marry Peter Parker like I was always destined to do."