The Land Under

A mystical land lies beneath the world we live in that has never been seen by the human eye — until young Frank Repleh witnesses the Land Under. Frank, the main thirteen year old character, is saddened one day when he learns the house he has lived in all his life is being foreclosed on. On this day, as he lies in a lounge chair in his backyard and contemplates what he can possibly do to help, life takes a dramatic turn when a woodchuck named Eb emerges from the nearby forest. Eb lures him deep into the woods, enticing Frank inside a hidden cave, one that leads to a tunnel that ends in the depths of the earth. This hidden paradise is called the Land Under, and is a land known only to the animal kingdoms.Frank quickly learns that animals speak his language, but only when they are underground. Once in the Land Under, Frank continues his journey, meeting three more animals that he befriends. Together, these characters introduce Frank to a different world, one lit up by a spectacular forest of glowing trees above, and thousands of talking animals within the valleys and mountains of this perfect environment. As Frank journeys through the Land Under, he quickly learns more about this mystical place, as well as the different personalities of these four unique animals.These four animals lead Frank to an important location, where three massive rivers, known to the animals as the Water-Y, originate and thrust out into three separate directions (that portray the letter Y from an aerial view). Here, these three swift-flowing rivers start from a massive ledge structure that the animal kingdoms refer to as the Nevaeh. When Frank arrives at this location, he is joined by thousands of animals from the Forest Kingdom and is shown the Safari and Jungle Kingdoms that reside on opposite sides of the rivers. The Nevaeh has three waterfalls at the top, where each one separately controls the rugged flow of water into its own river below. Frank is asked to help solve a problem caused by people in the land above, a problem that would lead to a disaster if not fixed. Trees have fallen from the underside of the earth’s surface and have landed directly on two of the three waterfalls. The trees have lodged themselves in a position that has caused both dams to have a sizable decrease in the flow of water into the two rivers below. As more trees continue to fall, the dams hold back more water from entering the rivers below, which would allow the Safari and Jungle Kingdoms’ animals to safely cross over the rivers. If this were to happen, the Forest Kingdom would be outnumbered and destroyed.
At first, Frank does not want to help the forest animals. But with continuous pressure from Eb, he eventually changes his mind and comes up with a solution for them. The animals and Frank work together on his idea to fix the waterfalls back to their original ways of operation by using sections of rope the animals steal from the land above, tied together to create a tug of war scenario. The intent is to tie one end of the rope to the main fallen tree that causes one of the dams at one of the waterfalls; the other end of the rope is pulled by the larger animals until the tree is freed. Once the tree is freed, the pressure of the water will do the bulk of the work by pushing the rest of the trees over both waterfalls. This allows the proper water flow into the two rivers again, which maintain separation of all three animal kingdoms, as it is in the land above. As time runs out, animals from both Safari and Jungle Kingdoms start to cross the rivers. This leads to massive fighting with the animals of the Forest Kingdom — the first time in history. With a few problems to overcome, the difficult task leads to success. Frank is brought back to the land above and is woken up from what seems to be a deep sleep by his mom. He is convinced it was all a dream until suddenly his luck begins to change. Soon Eb arrives in his yard and Frank is certain it was not a dream.