I got super inspired when I watched the first trailer for The Hidden World and this was what came from that inspiration. I'm not planning for this to be a super long fic, I'm aiming for 10 chapters give or take. Not sure how quickly I'll be able to finish, especially with my other two fics going on, but I'll do my best to post when I can. Please leave me a review if you have any thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Journal

I had spent the early morning reading, as I usually did, mom had left my bags out for me, she didn't like how I had procrastinated packing until the last couple days. She kept asking me if I would be homesick, I think she was worried that I didn't want to go but wouldn't speak up about it. The house was empty by the time I started packing, which was how I liked it, I focused better when I was alone. I placed all of my essential items across the floor of my bedroom, looking over them to make sure I had everything. Passport, toothbrush, shampoo, headphones, laptop...would they have a place for me to plug in my computer? Maybe it would be smart to bring a book with me, encase the plane had no outlets, something classic, something old. I stood up from the floor and moved towards my bookcase, scanning over all my options, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells popped into my head, it was a good read, one I hadn't enjoyed in a long time. As my eyes moved over the books shelf by shelf I began to realize it was missing and cursed under my breath. Had someone borrowed it without telling me?

I stepped over the items covering the floor and made my way down the stairs and towards the family bookshelf, I didn't look at it often. I liked keeping my own books, and I didn't much like it when anyone took from my shelf without asking, or at all really. I didn't see it upon first searching, but the shelf was quite high, reaching all the way to the ceiling. I stepped up onto one of the lower shelves, grabbing onto the highest and using it to pull myself up. It was dusty up on the top two shelves, most of the books up there looked like they hadn't been touched in ages. I couldn't see anything that resembled my book, but right by my nose, I noticed a thick nylon case in army green, with a zipper going around three sides of it. I grabbed it from off of the shelf and carefully climbed down where I could get a better look at it. The case was coated in a thick layer of dust that fell off in clumps as I unzipped it to see what was inside, as I was about to open it, a loud knock came at the front door.

I grumbled, placing the case down onto the coffee table and walked over to answer it, taking a brief moment to look at myself in the mirror. I had not brushed my hair since waking up, we weren't expecting visitors until tonight. I raked my fingers through my moppy auburn hair and smoothed it down a little more with my hands, trying to seem at least a little presentable, before unlocking and opening the door.

"Mr. Jorgenson," I said, a little surprised at the sudden visit. It was an old friend of my parents who lived nearby, he stood on the doorstep in his military uniform, straight black hair combed back neatly, meaty hand holding a bottle of chardonnay. "Dinner won't be for a while, it's still the morning."

"Is your father home?" he asked, eyes scanning the inside of the foyer.

I shook my head. "He left for work a couple hours ago."

"Still? I thought classes ended last week?" I shrugged. "Too bad, I thought we could catch up a little before all the guests arrived, my wife and son won't be here until tonight, guess I'll have to drive up with them after all."

"Guess so," I moved to close the door, but he continued.

"You graduated this year didn't you?"

"Yeah, you were there remember? Your son was the same year as me?"

He slapped his hands together. "Ah, of course, yes, I remember now. They put you way in the back, I could barely see you. Well, congratulations, I never did say it."

"...Thanks."

"Your mother isn't home either?"

"It's only me at the moment."

He leaned in a little and spoke quietly. "Between you and me...she's not the one cooking tonight is she?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, Gobber said he'd come over to do the cooking, should be here later this afternoon I think."

He sighed in relief, leaning back away from me. "That's good to hear."

I stared at him. "Is there anything else?" I asked, eager to get back to the case that I had left sitting on the coffee table.

"No, no, I won't keep you any longer, I'm sure you have plenty to do. I'll see you tonight then," he said as he turned around and headed back down the steps of the porch and onto the street where he had parked his truck.

I closed the door, quickly walking back to the living room and sitting down on the floor with my legs underneath the coffee table. I opened the case, inside was a worn old journal, filled to the brim, not a page left blank. Never had I seen this journal before, despite how old and used it looked, the pages were slightly crinkled and didn't quite shut completely, most likely from being opened so many times. The words on the pages were all handwritten, parts of it seemed informative, a few sketches, but most of it was dated journal entries. I flipped back to the front, the first page, it was entitled: "Expedition; Guiana Highlands, Venezuela"

My interest was piqued, even I could admit that. I wondered if the journal I held was even real or not, if it had been bought by one of my parents or maybe left behind by the house's previous owner. Either way, I wanted to read more, so I flipped the page and continued on reading.

"The flight had been a miserable one, and the layover in Caracas was several hours longer than had been expected. Nothing seemed to be going right, at every turn there seemed to be more and more delays. Gobber had flown in two months earlier to BC so he and my mother could hammer out the details before the expedition. For the past year, Gobber had been working in West Bengal studying animals in the Ranthambore National Park. He was an old family friend, and he had come early with the intention of spending some time with us before the trip. Of course, nothing seemed to go smoothly, and the majority of his time had been spent trying to work everything out on time.

Even with his best efforts we still ended up pushing the expedition back slightly. Mom's work had asked last minute for her to stay a little longer, and of course she accepted, she never was the type to turn someone away. It was decided that Gobber would go ahead without us to make sure everything was good on the Venezuelan end.

All that time had just made me think that maybe this trip was a mistake, I was too eager and the whole thing had been poorly planned from the start. We were working with a small crew, something I thought would be better, but which I had slowly begun to regret. For such a long expedition we should've gotten more people. Unfortunately, we were too close now to hire anyone else nor cancel the thing entirely. Even the little crew we did have were from all different parts of the world, and most of them I had never met before, something I was very against from the beginning, but my mother seemed unconcerned about. I had a sinking feeling that this trip wasn't going to go well, but I pushed forward anyway, hoping for the best.

When the plane touched down in Venezuela it was dark and cloudless out, not too cold, a bit of chill in the air. Gobber met us outside the terminal and took us over to the Hostel in an old rental van..."

"Who else is here?" I asked, using two hands to lug our suitcase up the hostel stairs and towards our second-floor room. Gobber came up behind me, grabbing one of the handles and giving the suitcase a good heave to get it over the final step and into the narrow hall. "Thanks."

"It's us and the geologist right now, he's waiting in our room for us, the others haven't arrived yet, or are meeting us at the helicopter site," Gobber explained, shuffling past me so he could lead us to the room. He rummaged through his pockets and fished out the room key as he walked. "Gothi will be flying in from Belize tomorrow morning so I'll be up early to go get her, you don't have worry about that though, I won't wake you."

"Gothi?" I said, looking over at my mom then back to Gobber. "Who's she again?"

My mom touched me on the shoulder. "You remember Gothi right? She's an old friend of mine and your father's, she visited a few times when you were quite young. Around six or seven I think was the last time you saw her."

"You and dad have a lot of old friends mom, that hardly narrows it down."

Gobber stopped by one of the doors and gestured low to the ground. "Real short lady, old, doesn't talk any," he said before turning towards the door and unlocking it.

I shrugged and walked into the room, pulling the suitcase along with me. "I don't remember her at all, what does she do?"

"You were young, you've probably forgotten," my mom said as she followed in after me. I could hear the click as Gobber shut and locked the door behind us. "She does a lot of things, not much these days because of her age, I'm a little surprised she agreed to come out here."

Gobber chuckled to himself. "I was certain she would refuse us, almost didn't bother asking. She's been retired for a few years now, doesn't even teach anymore."

"What's her field?"

"A botanist and a mycologist, a great one at that. She's not quite as nimble as she used to be so she might slow us down a tad, but she's well worth it I promise," Gobber said.

As I walked further into the room I noticed another person sitting by the window on a laptop. He was a heavy-set fellow, sandy blonde hair and a large round face, he looked up at me from his screen, the light reflecting off of his small wire-framed glasses. My mother brushed past me and approached the man, hand extended forward. "You must be Fishlegs, it's a pleasure."

He moved his laptop and stood up, taking his glasses off as he did. "Yes, thank you for the opportunity," he said carefully shaking her hand.

She quickly turned towards me and motioned for me to come closer. "This is my son, Hiccup, he's the ethologist for this trip, you and him are a similar age, you both just graduated recently too."

"Hi," I said awkwardly as I took a few steps closer. "You're the geologist I take it?"

Fishlegs nodded. "That's right." Mom smiled at both of us and walked off to speak with Gobber. It was clear she wanted me to make more friends, she always seemed concerned with how little time I spent out with others, but this felt like an awkward play-date. Fishlegs seemed just as socially inept as I was, and that probably didn't help much either. "Your first expedition?" he asked.

I pressed my lips together and nodded. "Yeah, you?"

"Yeah."

There was a long awkward pause and we both glanced across the room to where Gobber and my mom were, they had unrolled a large map onto one of the beds and stood over it, inspecting it. She pointed. "We should…"

He nodded. "Yeah."

We walked over to the bed and stood on the opposite side, looking down at the map. "Do we have a plan for tomorrow?" I asked, glancing over at Gobber.

"After we've got Gothi and packed up we'll head out in the rental van and pick up two more before driving to the other airport, that's where we'll meet the others and head out in the helicopter. It'll probably take an hour and a half to fly to the closest clearing, give or take. Once we're on the plateau the expedition leader will take us from there, said it would take a few days to a week of hiking to get to the holes."

"Wait, wait," I said waving a hand. "Expedition leader? I thought you were the expedition leader?" I asked turning to my mom. "When did this other guy come into the mix?"

"Well there's an expedition leader, and an expedition leader, you know?" Gobber explained, rather poorly.

My mom laughed. "What Gobber is trying to say is that; I am the expedition leader as in I am the person in charge of what's going on and the research, but we need someone to keep us from, you know, dying or getting lost and then dying."

"So you hired, what? A tour guide?"

Gobber shook his head. "No, no, survival expert would be a more accurate term, this isn't any old tour we're going on, this is uncharted territory, we need someone who knows how to handle the wilderness, we're going to be out there for a while."

I turned towards my mother. "You're an ecologist, and we have a biologist and a geologist, if we needed more help why didn't you hire more scientists as I suggested?"

"Honey it's not about how many scientists we have, trust me, I've been on plenty expeditions to know. You should always have someone who knows how to navigate the area you're working in, it's a safety issue," she said looking over at me. "Besides, we need someone with rock-climbing experience to get us into the sinkholes."

"Did you do a background check?" I asked. "There could be some very significant findings and I don't want him to-"

Gobber plonked a hand on my shoulder. "We did the same checks that we do for everyone we hire, Hiccup. You don't have to be worried, everyone on this expedition is top notch."

I sighed and crossed my arms. "I thought it was just going to be scientists coming with us, this is a protected area, and we're dealing with sensitive materials, possibly undiscovered species."

"Hiccup, sweetheart, I understand your concerns, but Gobber and I have been doing this for years. We always take care in who we hire, and we always speak to everyone to make sure they understand what kind of a place we're entering," she said smiling down at me. "Every precaution has been taken."

I nodded reluctantly. "Alright, I suppose you know better than I do."

"Don't worry so much boy'o," Gobber said giving me a grin and a pat on the back. "This isn't our first rodeo, we know what we're doing."

My mom rolled the map back up and put it aside, leaning it up against the wall by the closet. "We can discuss the rest on our ride over, right now we should be getting as much rest as we can. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"She's right," Gobber said shuffling over to the other end of the room. "I'll open up the pull-out, you boys can share the double over there," he said gesturing to the larger bed on the far side of the room.

We both nodded and began preparing for bed. I climbed in beside Fishlegs, who turned over and quickly fell asleep. I shuffled through my bag and pulled out my journal, it was still brand new, in a shiny waterproof case. My mom had bought it for me a few days before the flight, said it would be good to write my thoughts down during the expedition. I unzipped the case and plucked out the pen that was tucked inside, clicking it with my thumb. The words came easier than I thought they would, and before I knew it I had nearly three pages full.

Gobber looked over at me from his own bed across the room. "I'm going to call it a night, you should do the same," he said, reaching over to his bedside lamp and shutting it off. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I echoed quietly. Rest would be important, hiking was nothing to be scoffed at, especially not hiking in the uncharted jungle. I had been camping a few times before, even went on a couple of hiking trails. My mom, however, had made it abundantly clear to me that this wouldn't be even remotely close to that. This trip wasn't a vacation, it was work, and it was hard work.

Gobber woke up early as he had said, the sound of him shuffling around the room had roused me but I was too sleepy to remember much else, and I fell back asleep soon after. It only felt like minutes before he had returned, and the loud ringing of my alarm split through the silence and jolted me awake again. I shut off the alarm and stumbled groggily out of bed, my mom had already gotten dressed and she stood near the door speaking with Gobber and a small old woman. By her age, small stature, and a distinct lack of speaking I could tell right away who it was, Gothi, our botanist and mycologist. She was older than I had expected, I knew she was retired, but she was so small and frail looking, I was certain she wouldn't make the trip out to the sinkholes.

My mom waved me over upon seeing I was up. "This is Gothi," she introduced, gesturing towards the small woman. "You probably don't remember her, she visited your father and I a few times when you were little." Gothi smiled up at me and began signing to my mother. "She says you've grown quite a bit."

"Hi," I said waving to her awkwardly. "It's nice to meet you, uh, again."

Gothi signed to my mom. "She says she looks forward to working with you."

I nodded. "Same here."

From across the room, Gobber threw me a granola bar and I caught it against my chest. "Make sure you eat something, and start packing we leave in thirty." He turned and tossed Fishlegs one as well. "That goes for you too."

My mother pulled out our suitcase and unzipped it, revealing the packed up tents inside. I made sure I had all my things in my bag, going over the items carefully, passport, toothbrush, shampoo, headphones, laptop. Most of the rest had been provided for us, pre-packed into the bottom of our prepared bags. It didn't leave much space for personal items and I was barely able to fit in the rest of my things, by the end my bag was nearly thirty pounds. I could already feel the aching in my shoulders, I scowled at the thought.

Once everybody was packed and ready, we piled into the rental van headed out. My mom and Gobber took the passenger and driver seat while Gothi and Fishlegs took the middle row and I sat at the very back.

"Make sure to tuck in back there," Gobber called out to me from the front. "We still have two more to get on the way there, so we'll be at full capacity."

"Okay," I said, making sure to scooch all the way to the last seat in the row before buckling myself in.

"Who are we getting?" Fishlegs asked, clutching onto a large camera that hung from his neck.

The van's engine rumbled to life and we began pulling out of the hostel parking lot. "We're getting the herpetologist and the entomologist, they wanted to do a little sightseeing before heading out so they arrived a week early," he yelled with his head tilted upwards. The combination of the engine, the rough ground, and the wind whipping past the open windows made quite the racket as we drove along. "They're staying at a hotel nearby."

"You should get along, they've also recently graduated," my mom called out, she looked at Fishlegs as she spoke but I knew it was mostly meant for me. "They came straight over after finishing at ETH Zurich, they're very passionate about their work."

"They went together? Do they know each other?" Fishlegs called back.

"Brother and sister!"

I peered out the window at the hotel as we began pulling up to it. Standing by the entrance, bags in hand, were what I could only assume to be the herpetologist and the entomologist. Despite being a man and a woman, they were very similar in appearance. They were both lanky with long, dirty blonde hair. Her hair had been done into braids while his was in dreadlocks. Gobber honked the horn to get their attention and they both grinned at the sight of us and jogged over, opening the sliding door and squishing in next to me.

My mom twisted around in her seat so she could face them. "Ruffnut, Tuffnut, it's great to see you here, this is our team so far," she said looking around the van. "I'm Valka, this is Gobber driving, Gothi, Fishlegs, and that's my son Hiccup sitting next to you."

"Sweet," the brother said nodding. "I'm Tuffnut, and this is my sis."

"Ruffnut," the sister finished for him.

"The others are waiting for us at the other airport," Gobber called out as he started the engine again. "We can do full introductions later, no time to waste." The van pulled back out onto the road and we began driving out of the city centre. The closest airport to the highlands was a small local airport in a town with no more than a few thousand people. Flying by helicopter was expensive, so Gobber opted to drive to the closest airport possible.

As we drove down the long country road I pulled out my journal again, taking a quick glance around the van to make sure nobody had noticed. Fishlegs had begun taking photographs out at the landscapes as we passed them, Gothi had her nose buried in a book, and the twins chatted amongst themselves as they gazed out the window.

Although the ride was rough and loud, I still managed to get a little writing in, and more importantly, some sleep along the way. By the time I had awoken, we were already in the town, the first thing I saw as I opened my eyes were the clay houses as we passed them.

I lifted my head and looked around the van, Gobber drove along humming to himself, and with the exception of Gothi, who was reading, all the others had also fallen asleep. "How much longer?" I asked groggily.

Gobber looked at me through the rearview mirror. "Good timing, we'll reach the airport real soon, you can see it ahead there," he said pointing out the window.

I poked my head out and looked on, it really was quite small. The airport only consisted of a one-story building, a small metal airplane shelter with a garage door, and two dirt runways. As we pulled into the small parking area out by the front of the airport, a bulky man with dark hair stepped out and waved at us. Everyone began to stir as soon as the van came to a halt. Gothi slid open the door and stepped out, using a hand to wave away the clouds of dust from her face.

My mom opened and rubbed at her eyes as the man approached, leaning his arms on the edge of her window. "It's been a long time Valka," he said smiling at her.

Her face lit up when she realized who it was. "Eret!" she opened up the door and climbed out of the van, then turned to me and gestured for me to approach. "I have someone for you to meet."

I walked towards them cautiously. The unfamiliar man was large, tall, and buff with a well-defined chin. My mom put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me in closer. "This is my son, Hiccup, this is his first expedition."

Eret chuckled. "Quite the trip for your first time," he said, putting a hand out towards me. "I'm Eret, your mother here took me on my first expedition as well, in the Antarctic."

I shook his hand. "Yeah, I remember that one, saw the pictures of it."

Gobber got out, slamming the door behind him and walking around the front of the van and over to where we were. "Where are the others? Are they here yet?" he asked looking around.

Eret nodded. "The climatologist is inside, she didn't like the heat."

"That's a little ironic isn't it?" I said with a chuckle.

"And the expedition leader?"

"Arguing with the helicopter pilot, seems he doesn't have enough space for all ten of us. Wants us to take two trips," he explained with an amused sigh.

Gobber groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Oh boy, more setbacks, exactly what I needed," he grumbled under his breath.

"Well let's talk to him, maybe we can work something out," my mom said as she walked towards the airport doors, gesturing for the rest of us to follow.

Eret and Gobber went to the back of the van and gathered up the tents and equipment. Everybody else grabbed their bags and shuffled inside the building. It was cramped and musty inside, no air conditioning so it wasn't much cooler than outside, though it was nice to get out of the sun. There were only a few worn-out chairs scattered across the room and a small front desk area with no receptionist. "Charming," I said glancing to Fishlegs, who gave a small laugh in response.

A pretty, young woman, who I could only assume was the climatologist, stood from her seat as we entered. She was drenched in sweat, dark hair clinging to her face and neck, eyes darting around the group, probably trying to guess who was in charge. "You must be Heather," my mother said flashing a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

Heather returned the smile. "Valka right? I really appreciate the opportunity," she said before turning to scan the rest of us with eager eyes. "I'm Heather, I'm working on getting my doctorate in climatology, specializing in micro-climates."

Fishlegs was the first to react, which surprised me since he seemed like the shy type. "Fishlegs, recently got my doctorate in geology, hoping to learn more about unusual geological formations like these sinkholes." He lifted the camera in his hands up slightly. "I'm also the acting photographer."

"I'm Ruffnut, the idiot over there is my brother Tuffnut-" she began.

"I'm the entomologist, basically bugs and shit for the losers who don't know," Tuffnut interjected, arms crossed and a smug look on his face as he spoke.

Ruffnut rolled her eyes at her brother. "And I'm the herpetologist, reptiles and amphibians. So, you know, the things that eat his bugs for dinner." Tuffnut glared then elbowed his sister in the rib.

"I'm sure you all know who I am," my mom chimed in. "Ecologist and general zoologist," she turned towards Gothi. "This wonderful lady here is Gothi, she doesn't talk a lot but she's very smart I assure you. Gothi is our botanist and mycologist."

"I'm Gobber," Gobber said waving a hand. "I'm also a general zoologist, and I'm the technician for this expedition, so if you have any questions about the equipment, I'm the one to ask. I've also been dabbling a little in taxonomy, so let's hope that comes in handy everybody."

Eret gave a charming smile and nod to the group. "I'm Eret, I specialize in mammalogy, and I'm a pretty good trapper if I do say so myself. Looking forward to getting to know everyone along the way."

Everybody turned to look at me and I felt a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach, I hated to be the centre of attention. I cleared my throat uneasily. "I'm Hiccup...recently got my ethology doctorate." There was a definite confusion amongst the group, and they began to glance around to one another. "If you don't know, ethology is the study of animal behaviour, specifically as an adaptive trait," I explained almost like I was reading it from a dictionary. A slow nod and resounding silent ahhh went through the group as I spoke.

Then, from in the distance, we could all hear a loud clang like a piece of metal hitting the ground, followed by a faint yell. Eret sighed and turned towards the back. "I think that's my cue," he said heading out of the lobby and down a hallway, two tents tucked under each arm. The rest of us followed after him, I stayed at the back of the group. "The door is over here," he said pointing forward as he walked.

"What is she even saying to him?" my mother asked. "I didn't know she could speak Spanish, not fluently anyway."

"Oh I don't know about speaking it fluently," Eret said as he opened the door and stepped out into back where the runways were, "but she's sure has been speaking it to him."

"She? Who are you talking about?" I asked, looking back and forth between them as we walked.

My mom glanced back at me. "The expedition leader, who else?" she replied before following Eret through the doors.

"I thought the expedition leader was a man," I said as a walked out behind the others and stepped over beside my mother.

She shook her head with furrowed brows. "I never said she was a man."

There was another loud clang as a wrench hit the ground, it rattled for a moment before settling in the dirt of the runway. "You son of a half-troll, rat-eating, munge bucket!" A female voice rang through the air, intermixed with Spanish words that I didn't understand. My head jerked up at the sound. There I saw her.