Chapter 2: Jungle

"When they described her as a survival expert I had expected an old hulking man, with a thick beard and a scarred up face. Instead, she was a young woman, large blue eyes, and long blonde hair. Even in her dirty, sweat-soaked clothing, matted hair done into a loose braid, I had to admit she was gorgeous. When we found her she had already…"

There was a bang as the door flung open and it gave me a start. I quickly stood up from the floor and rushed over to see who it was. Gobber stumbled inside, two large bags full of groceries in each arm, using his good leg to hold the door open for himself. He looked over at me and seemed surprised to see me there. "What are you doing down here? Shouldn't you be upstairs packing?" he asked as I grabbed the door for him.

"Uh…" I stared at him blankly. Gobber cocked an eyebrow at me and I cleared my throat. "I, I was."

Gobber turned towards me. "Was? Do you know what your parents will say if they find out you've been slacking off? They won't be happy, that's for sure."

I took one of the bags from him, his prosthetic hand seemed to be having trouble holding it. "I'll get it done, I was only taking a break."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You do realize the flight is in three days right?"

"I know," I said as we continued towards the kitchen. "It won't take me long, I'm not bringing much with me."

Gobber dumped his bags down onto the kitchen island and moved towards the fridge, opening it up and looking inside. "Sheesh, he wasn't kidding, you really don't keep a lot in here. Good thing I went shopping first." He looked over at me. "It's not always like this is it?"

I shook my head. "No, there's usually a little more than that. You know, they're both pretty busy with work so we order in most of the time."

"I've told him a thousand times that he should retire, it's not like he needs the money," Gobber grumbled to himself. "Your father is as stubborn as they come."

I chuckled. "Tell me about it."

"Where's your phone by the way? Your mum has been calling you," he said as he began shuffling items out of the bags and onto the countertop.

I patted down the pockets on my pants and shrugged. "I guess I left it upstairs."

Gobber sighed. "Well, she called me anyway, said she would be getting back later than expected. Apparently work asked her to stay a little longer."

"Stay?" I asked. "It won't affect us leaving will it?"

He shook his head. "Oh, I wouldn't think so." Gobber began humming to himself as he peeled potatoes over the sink.

"I'll be upstairs packing," I said before quickly returning to the living room, snatching up the book, and rushing up the stairs towards my bedroom. I stumbled over the items scattered about the floor and sat down at the foot of my bed. I flipped back to my place and my eyes found their way to where I had left off.

"When we found her she had already given the pilot quite a talking to, though I didn't understand at first what had happened, I didn't speak Spanish in the least. All I knew was that he was terrified and she was angry, that was easy to tell. The pilot was pressed up against the side of the helicopter and her face was flushed and crunched up. The former might've been due to the heat though…"

"What's going on?" Gobber asked approaching. He turned towards the pilot, who was visibly distressed and exchanged a few words with him in Spanish. "Ella no va a lastimarte, ella no va a lastimarte," he kept repeating while shaking his hands.

Astrid crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Oh please, he's fine. What am I going to do? I'm two-thirds his size."

"He said something about a problem with the seating arrangement?" Gobber asked, turning towards her. "Not being able to fit all of us?"

"He says that the helicopter can't accommodate ten people, so we'll have to make two trips of five each," she huffed shaking her head angrily. "Not only that but he can't take all the equipment and rations either, so that'll be a third trip to do the airdrop. So, despite knowing from the beginning that we have ten people and a bunch of equipment he neglected to mention any of this until now. Of course, he gets paid by the hour so I'm sure this is of no consequence to him!" her voice began to rise in volume, and the pilot jumped back slightly, clearly rattled.

"Alright, alright," my mom said walking over. "There's nothing we can do about it now, if we have to do it in two trips then that's how we'll have to do it."

Gobber shuffled over to the helicopter and peered inside through the window. "Uh, how exactly are we going to take five people plus the pilot in a helicopter with only four seats?"

"Oh, I asked him the same question," Astrid said, an irritated look on her face. "So he pointed out to me that there's space on the floor."

Gobber looked back in the helicopter, then towards Astrid. "Hm, yeah that might be a problem."

"...So what does that mean?" Fishlegs asked looking around. "Are we going to have to take four trips? Five trips?"

Eret shook his head. "No, no, we can't do it in four trips. It takes an hour and a half to go one-way if we did that it would take us almost eleven hours to get out there. Two people can stand, there are doors so it'll be fine."

"Yeah," Gobber said in agreement. "If we do it in four trips, we'll be an entire day off schedule, and we're already behind. Eret is right, it won't hurt for a couple of us to stand."

The twins grinned to each other and high-fived. "Sweet, dibs on being the ones who get to stand!" they both called out.

Fishlegs looked around the group, completely aghast. "Wait, are we seriously considering this? What if we get in a crash? What then?"

"I don't see any seatbelts," Ruffnut said, taking a peek into the helicopter. "So chances are you'd die in a crash either way."

My mother put a hand on Fishlegs' shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure he's an excellent pilot, nothing's going to happen." He nodded reluctantly.

"Alright, well, we still need to decide who's going on the first trip, and who's going on the second," Gobber said looking around. "Whoever goes first will have to wait around on the plateau for three hours until we can head out. Any volunteers?"

"I'll go with the first group, you go with the second," my mom said to Gobber. "Astrid, you should come with me, you can survey the area before we head out." Astrid nodded, shoving past the pilot as she walked over to the helicopter door. "Heather, dear," she called out, motioning for her to come closer. "You should also come with, you can test the climate and weather on the top to compare it to the sinkhole later. You have your portable weather station don't you?"

"Oh! Yes!" she said rushing away for a moment before returning with a large metal case and a strange looking tripod. As she struggled to climb in the helicopter, Astrid reached out to help, taking the tripod from her with one hand and yanking her inside with the other. "Thank you."

"No problem, I'm Astrid by the way."

"Heather."

"Fishlegs?" my mom called, and he reluctantly shuffled forward. "You should take some rock samples on the plateau before we head into the sinkhole." Fishlegs was visibly distressed, his face showed complete and utter dread. "Don't worry, nothing is going to happen on the helicopter, we've got perfect clear skies for flying," she said gesturing upwards.

"Listen, I'm going to stand so you can take one of the seats, okay?" Astrid said as she stood leaning against the doorway of the helicopter. Fishlegs nodded reluctantly and shakily climbed up into the back with Astrid's help. "They were just teasing you," she said as she helped him, "I've been on many helicopter rides, I'm still here aren't I?"

My mom looked around the group until her eyes settled on me. "Hiccup, you should come too," she said, and I paused to let her give a reason, but she never did. I suddenly felt embarrassed, like the kid who brought his mom on the field trip with him. She was trying to keep me by her side, was she worried about me? I was a grown man, only a few years away from turning thirty. I didn't say that, of course, instead I gave a nod and climbed into the helicopter with the others. Making a fuss about it would do more against my point than for.

Once inside, I looked around the small space where we would be crammed for over an hour. Fishlegs had tucked himself in the smallest corner, clutching his things tightly in his lap. Astrid and Heather stood together at the far side, chatting quietly with one another.

Astrid's eyes drew up towards mine and she gestured towards the seat next to Fishlegs. "You can take one of the seats if you want," she offered.

I shook my head and cleared my throat. "No, I can stand."

My mom climbed up behind me, shuffling around me as she looked around the inside. The pilot was still outside, probably nervous to enter while Astrid was there. "Is everyone ready? she asked, and we all nodded. "Have you decided who's sitting and who's standing?"

"I'll stand, mom."

"So it's you and Astrid standing then?" she asked glancing between us.

"Yeah, you go ahead and sit Mrs. Haddock," Astrid said.

Heather sat down next to Fishlegs in the back and my mom sat in the cockpit next to the driver's seat. As the pilot climbed up into the helicopter, I shuffled over to the other side and stood next to Astrid. I started to feel nervous, and I wasn't completely sure why. The pilot got into his seat and started up the engine, causing everything to vibrate softly as the blades began to spin. I gripped the handle by the window tightly to keep myself from stumbling.

Fishlegs let out a high-pitched squeal and he squeezed his bag even tighter in his arms. Heather reached out and touched his shoulder. "It's okay," she said over the loud rumbling, "that's the engine starting."

He looked over at her, his face was drained of all it's colour. "I can't," he said breathlessly.

"You'll be fine," she insisted. "You can hold onto my hand if you'd like," she offered, holding out an open palm towards him. Fishlegs nodded, and slowly took her hand into his, squeezing it.

I peered out of the window as we began to lift up in the air. If I wasn't looking out, I might not have even noticed that we had moved from the ground, the experience of going up in the air was much more visual than sensational. It was so smooth, exactly how I imagined hovering to feel. Nothing like being in an airplane. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Astrid leaning up against the window next to me. She smiled softly as she looked out over the endless jungle. "It's so big," I said.

Astrid turned to look at me. "What?" she asked.

"It's so big!" I repeated, louder this time.

"That's one way to put it."

My eyes trailed back towards the vastness of the jungle below us as we began flying over it all, then bounced back to her. I couldn't help but think she didn't look like a survival expert, she looked much more like an actress playing a survival expert. She was pretty, very pretty, unrealistically pretty, to the point where it made me irrationally nervous. "It's, uh, it's my first time," I said dumbly, unsure what to say.

Astrid looked at me. "First time in a helicopter?"

"No, well, yes. I actually meant my first time travelling away from home, but I guess it's also my first helicopter ride too."

"...Really?"

I suddenly started feeling self-conscious. Why did I say that? Was I trying to make myself look like a complete loser? "Uh...yes?"

"Well you've been places close to home though right?"

I nodded. "Oh yeah, of course. I've been to a lot of different cities in my province."

"Province? I was thinking more like Seattle, is this the first time you've left your home country?" Astrid looked me up and down. "I mean you were probably busy with school. How old are you? Twenty?"

I shrunk slightly. "I'm twenty-seven."

"Oh."

"I mean, you were still kind of right though...I was in school getting my doctorate, I graduated a month ago." I smiled sheepishly. "I take it you've done a lot of travelling?"

She nodded "I've done my share, yeah, expedition leaders tend to move around a lot."

"Do you have to go to school to do what you do?" I asked. "I mean, there aren't schools for hiking is there?"

"No, but there are for rock-climbing, that's where I started out."

"Rock-climbing?"

"Yeah, when I'm not guiding scientists around Venezuela, I'm leading climbing expeditions. I think that's why I was hired, your mom needed someone with climbing experience to help you in and out of the sinkholes."

"Do you like leading climbing expeditions?"

She smiled to herself. "It's a pretty amazing job. Though it's always nice to get the odd job like this, especially in places with warmer climates."

"Where are you normally? The Rockies?"

"Nepal. Everest."

"Wow, that's...far."

Astrid chuckled to herself. "Tell me about it, I've still got jet lag, and if there's such thing as climate jet lag, I've got that too," she said wiping the sweat from behind her neck. "I'm disgusting right now."

"No, you're…" I cleared my throat. "You're not disgusting, whatever the opposite of disgusting is, that's what you are. Uh, I mean, you're-" I laughed awkwardly. "That was meant to sound like a compliment."

She smiled, lips pressed as she held back laughter. "Don't worry, I could tell."

"There! You can sort of see it!" my mom called out. "Hiccup, come here and have a look," she said gesturing for me to move towards the front. I carefully made my way over, making sure that I didn't move too quickly as to not rock the helicopter. "See it's that mountain in the distance," she said pointing out the front window.

It was small from so far away, but I could see it. A wide, flat-topped mountain with rocky sides and plenty of green on the top. It was a unique shape to be certain, and that unique shape was the exact reason the sinkholes were even able to exist in the first place. As we neared, I watched as the piles of wispy clouds split and glided around the mountain, I looked back towards Fishlegs to see if he wanted to take a picture, but he looked nauseated and utterly terrified. Instead, I pulled out my journal, flipped to the next empty page and began sketching what I could see. The mountain, the jungle, the clouds as they passed. The mountain only looked more beautiful the closer we got. I could really see the details, all the cracks and crevices along the walls and the jungle as it spilled over the cliff sides. Drawing really made the ride feel shorter than it actually was.

"We're coming in now," my mother called to the back as the helicopter began flying over the top. The sinkholes were easy to see as we soared over the plateau, some were very small, similar to a well, others were so wide they could fit entire apartment buildings inside. The true scale didn't quite set in until we began slowly lowering down, the jungle atop the flat was so vast and thick my eyes became lost in it all. We could hear the sounds of plants getting whipped around by the strong winds that the helicopter blades made and there was a soft crunch as it landed onto the jungle floor.

I looked back to Heather and Fishlegs, the latter of which had began shakily climbing out of his seat. Astrid went first, grabbing her bag, giving the door a hard yank open, and leaping out onto the soft green earth outside. The propeller blades kept on turning, the sound and movement made a storm around us as we climbed out one by one. I clutched my journal close to my chest as I walked, worried that the wind would suck it up and blow it away. Fishlegs practically crawled away from the helicopter despite both my mother and Astrid telling him that the blades could not hit him. Once we had all made it a few meters away, the pilot pulled up and began turning back around to get the others. Once he was overhead, the peace and silence of the jungle took over rather abruptly.

"That was something," Heather said as she smoothed out her wind-blown hair.

My mom let out a breath and looked around at all the greenery, she seemed more at home than I had ever seen her. "Welcome to Cerro Sarisariñama," she said, "I'll give you all a moment to collect yourselves but we do have a few things to do before the others arrive."

Astrid wasted no time, she tightened the straps on her backpack in one quick motion and set out to survey the area. With no more than an; "I'll be back!" yelled over her shoulder.

Fishlegs climbed to his feet, resting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath, wheezing and coughing. "Are you sure I can't hike back after we finish? I don't mind getting home a week late."

My mom laughed. "Well you might mind dying of exposure. This is a jungle Fishlegs, it's not something so easy to walk through. Not to mention that you'd run out of food before you even made it halfway."

"Just think about where you are," Heather said smiling as she looked around. "Only a handful of living people have been able to see this place for themselves, isn't that worth the trip out?" she asked him.

"I...suppose…" he replied through heavy breaths.

"Heather's right," my mother said. "We're very lucky to have been allowed in here, this is a place of both scientific, ecological, and cultural significance like nowhere else. It was quite a feat getting permission to venture out here."

"Cultural significance?" Heather asked. "Did people use to live all the way out here?"

She nodded. "The Ye'kuana tribe had legends about this place, though most of their ancestors don't live in the jungle anymore. In Brazil and Venezuela mainly," she explained. "Actually the most well known of their legends was where the name of this mountain came from."

"Really? What legend is that?"

"It's the tale of an evil spirit said to find and eat lost humans, the 'sari sari' part is their interpretation of the sound of said spirit eating human flesh."

I turned to look over at Fishlegs who had stopped to stare horrorstruck up at my mother. "Uh, I don't think you guys are helping right now."

My mom smiled and shook a hand towards Fishlegs. "Don't worry Fishlegs, these are only stories, folklore. I can't believe I have to say this, but there's no such thing as evil human-eating spirits okay?"

Fishlegs let out a nervous, high-pitched breath. "Uh-huh, yeah, okay."

"That's enough stories though, how about you two get started? It's better to rest after you've finished, once the others arrive we'll be heading out immediately, no time to lose," she said looking over to Heather and Fishlegs, who both nodded in response.

I turned back to her once they had both grabbed their things and headed out to do their tests. "Is there anything you want me to do?" I asked, though I suspected she didn't. Despite my age, my mother liked to keep me close to her.

"I don't think so dear," she replied, touching a hand to her cheek in thought. "How about you stay here in case anyone comes back? I have to go speak with Astrid, and there aren't exactly many landmarks out here," she said looking around. "When Fishlegs and Heather return, tell them to have a rest."

"Sure." My mom smiled and kissed me on the side of my head before hiking off in the direction that Astrid had gone. I watched until her figure disappeared into the jungle. I glanced around at all the green around me, it was thicker than I had imagined. Most of the brush, even here in the clearing, came up at least past my knees if not all the way to my stomach. I trudged through it a few metres until I managed my way to the edge of the plateau, a steep rocky cliffside. To call it amazing would be an understatement, it was like standing at the edge of the world and looking out. The sheer endlessness of it all was like nothing I could've ever imagined. Breathless, I quickly turned and began back to where I had started, I knew if I stood there too long I would get vertigo. Once I returned to the flattened patch of jungle where we had landed, I found myself a comfortable place to sit and pulled out my journal once more. Flipping it open to the next empty page, I put my pen to paper and began writing.

It felt like no time at all had passed when I heard the sounds of someone approaching, rustling through the thick brush as they got closer. I looked up to find Fishlegs peering down at me, sweat beaded on his forehead and face red from the heat. "I thought I was lost, I didn't see you behind all the grass," he said looking around. "Then I saw the plants blown and flattened by the helicopter...what are you doing on the ground?"

"You're back already?" I asked.

"Already?" He looked down at his watch. "It's been over an hour since we landed, almost two actually."

"Really? Time flies when you're having fun I guess," I said shrugging.

His eyes drifted down towards the book in my hands. "What are you writing?"

I snapped the journal shut. "Nothing, notes, it's good to keep track of events for later research."

Fishlegs nodded as he grabbed a rag from his cargo shorts and used it to wipe the sweat from the back of his neck. "None of the others came back yet?" he asked looking around. "You think they're alright?"

"I'm sure they can take care of themselves."

"She's nice isn't she?"

I held back a smile, zipping up my journal and packing it back away into my bag. "Oh, yeah, I would say so."

"I thought maybe she wouldn't like me, most girls don't. You know what that's like right?"

"Uh, yeah," I said cocking an eyebrow at him.

"But she wasn't mean about it, the whole afraid of flying thing I mean. She was actually pretty nice, sitting right next to me, making me feel better about it. Honestly, I probably would've puked if not for her."

I looked over at him. "Who are we talking about?"

Fishlegs furrowed his brows. "Heather? The climatologist?"

"Oh."

"Why? Who did you think we were talking about?"

I stood up. "No, no, I thought you meant her, uh, Heather."

"What about me?" a voice called out from the jungle. We could hear the sounds of someone plodding towards us through the thick grass and vines that covered the ground. Heather appeared then, covered in sweat with her clunky metal briefcase in one hand and that strange tripod tucked under the other arm.

I could see the colour drain from Fishlegs' face again, though it was easy to tell by her demeanour that she had only heard her name, nothing else. "Oh, uh, we were wondering when you'd get back, it's already been an hour," I said quickly before Fishlegs could get out a word. He didn't seem like the type to be good at lying.

"Yes," he agreed enthusiastically. "B-because you took so long."

"Are Valka and Astrid back yet?"

"No, but they should be soon, it won't be much longer until the others arrive in the helicopter," I said looking around. "Did you guys find anything of interest?"

Heather shrugged. "I don't know if 'find' is the right word, I did some tests and compared my data to the climate data already on record for the region. Nothing of note, the real analysis comes in once we're in the sinkhole. This information is only for comparison purposes." She turned to Fishlegs. "What about you Fishlegs?"

"Me? Oh, uh, well I took some rock samples with me. I won't be able to make any conclusions until I can to return to my full lab. Most geology research is done after the expedition ends. I am excited to take a look in the sinkholes, I've read a lot of research about how and why they formed in the first place."

"Oh? That sounds interesting, what do they say caused them to form?"

Fishlegs smiled. "One of the most prevalent theories is that water collected beneath the mountain, eroding caves beneath the surface of the plateau. They say the ground above these caves eventually collapsed in, creating the sinkholes," he explained.

"How did water get beneath the mountain?" I asked.

"Rainfall created underground rivers is the theory, though previous expeditions have yet to find clear evidence of these supposed rivers. Maybe we'll be able to find proof of their existence, or disprove it, who knows."

The crunching of approaching footsteps caught our attention. We all turned to find Astrid and my mom walking toward us, they smiled, chatting with one another as they came closer. "Good, you're all here," my mom said looking over us. "The helicopter should be here soon, make sure you're all prepared to head out."

"So we're going that way?" Heather asked, pointing in the direction that they had arrived from.

Astrid nodded. "We cleared a short path and I checked the GPS, it should take maybe a couple of days best case scenario, but be prepared to be hiking for a week if the terrain is particularly unforgiving."

"Yes, so make sure to keep track of your rations, everyone," my mother added. "We won't be getting any more until we reach the sinkhole, that's where they'll be air-dropping our extra supplies and equipment."

"How long will our current rations last?" Fishlegs asked.

"If we're careful, they should last eight to ten days, more than enough to get us to the sinkholes," Astrid said. "So pay attention to-"

"Hey!" Heather called out. "There's the others!"

Everyone turned around to see the Helicopter returning, it was far away enough that it looked like an insect in the vast cloudless sky. Fishlegs fumbled to put his glasses on so he could have a look at it, even then he said it only looked like a speck. My mother rounded us up a few metres from the flattened patch of grass, not wanting to block them from landing properly. The sound of the helicopter blades soon drowned out the quiet of the jungle, the wind whipping and blowing around all the plants as they approached the ground.

The twins climbed out first, with huge goofy grins across their faces. Eret followed close behind, and Gobber helped Gothi climb down and walk over to where we were standing. The helicopter soon lifted back off the ground and flew into the distance, leaving us all there in the thick of it.

My mom and Gobber spoke briefly, while the others who had just arrived gathered themselves. Not much time was wasted though, it felt like only a few minutes before we were already on our way, trudging through the jungle that only seemed to get thicker and thicker the further we went. It was exhausting to say the least, nothing at all like what I had known to be hiking back home. By the time we had finished for the day, my limbs were shaky and numb, and I felt like I could collapse at any moment. To make matters worse, when it came time to stop for the night there was still plenty of work to be done setting up camp. Turns out, setting up camp in a rainforest is significantly more complicated than setting up camp in a regular forest.

Heather and the twins were appointed to setting up all the tents for everyone, something that was quite important for keeping us dry and sheltered in all the wet of the jungle. Heather seemed less than impressed with being assigned to work with Ruffnut and Tuffnut, though she said nothing of it and did as she was told. Eret had the much more difficult job of preparing a dry place for the fire to be made, this involved building a rock barrier and suspending a tarp overtop, low enough to keep out the rain, but high enough to let the smoke vent out. He seemed utterly unconcerned by this, like he had done it dozens of times already. Gobber had brought with him a shiny new set of camping cookware, and he was set to gather up everyone's rations and have them cooked once the fire was going. Astrid had collected a small amount of dry tinder during the hike that he was to use to start the fire.

My mother had assigned me to help her collect fresh water from the river to be boiled and sanitized, but Fishlegs had begged her to let him do it instead. He had been tasked with accompanying Astrid to gather more firewood, a job that would involve venturing off quite far from camp, and that absolutely terrified him.

"It's too dark, what if we get lost?"

"Fishlegs, it'll be fine, Astrid will be with you the whole time," my mother soothed.

This did nothing to calm his jittery nerves. "I can't, what if there's a leopard or a tiger or something? What if it tries to eat us?"

"Tigers don't live in South America," I pointed out.

"Whatever, a large feline okay? I don't care what kind, just that I don't get eaten by one!"

Astrid sighed and crossed her arms. "You're not going to get eaten, don't be dramatic."

"Uh-huh, then what's that for?" he asked, pointing to the rifle that hung around Astrid's torso. "If not for a leopard then what?"

"There aren't leopards in South America either, how do you not know this?" I asked. "You're on a nature expedition in Venezuela, didn't you study up on the environment?"

"I'm a geologist, I came here to study geology, not animals."

Astrud turned to my mother, arms still crossed. "This is the guy you got from Australia?"

She sighed. "He studied internationally."

"It's fine," I said. "I'll help Astrid, Fishlegs can go get water with you."

My mother seemed almost upset by this. "Hiccup, you don't have to do that."

"It's fine," I repeated. "I don't mind."

Though I wasn't exactly thrilled to be back hiking through the jungle, now in much poorer lighting, I was glad to have some time away from my mother. I could see her trying to keep me close all the time, I wondered if any of the others noticed it too.

"Boy scouts did not prepare me for this," I groaned, rubbing my legs as we stopped to gather a few dry logs we had found. "Please say I'll get used to this."

"You'll get used to this."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Are you just saying that?"

She shrugged. "Alright, next time I won't listen to you."

I chuckled lightly. "You must be used to this by now, you hardly look tired at all."

"I'm tired too," she said, "the difference is I don't complain about it as much as you." Astrid looked over at me with a steely gaze, and I completely froze. I felt like a child being scolded by my teacher, but the edge of her mouth quirked upwards slightly as she held back a smile.

I couldn't help but grin. "That's not funny."

"That's because you couldn't see your own face," she said with a chuckle, passing me a few branches to hold. "Don't worry, everybody is the same on their first trip. You'd be surprised how many tourists think they can brave Everest with no experience because they hired a guide."

"What's it like?"

"Everest?" I nodded. "Cold."

"I'm serious."

"So am I," she said tucking a few more branches under her arm before heading further into the jungle. "It's not something where a description could ever encompass what it's like to really be up there. You'll have to go and see it for yourself if you want to know."

"It's that hard to describe?"

"Try describing the colour blue to someone, then get back to me."

I snickered. "Deep." Astrid elbowed me, but smiled. "So...would you-"

"Wait." Astrid's hand darted to the rifle that hung on her side, letting the branches fall to the ground. Her eyes flashed around in the dark, looking for something. I couldn't see what she did, only the brush and trees around us, nothing else. She pulled the rifle up, grasping it with both hands and aiming it forwards.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

"A cougar," she replied, her tone louder and firmer than I would've expected her to use.

It was then that I noticed the shiny yellow eyes glinting at us from the darkness, and I felt shivers up my spine. "I thought you said we wouldn't get eaten?" I whispered back anxiously. "What happened to 'don't be dramatic?'"

"We're not getting eaten, if it comes at us I'll shoot it," she replied. "And if you're going to talk, don't use such a frightened tone. They can hear that you're scared in your voice." The eyes slowly disappeared as the cougar slunk back into the jungle. Astrid lowered her rifle and turned back to me. "If you see one of those, don't run. Back away slowly and talk in a strong tone, if you run they'll chase you, and you won't outrun a cougar."

I nodded shakily. "Noted."

"Don't worry, cougars aren't in the business of killing humans. They'll only attack you if they think you're prey, so don't act like prey." I nodded again. "This should be enough," she said, bending over to gather the branches she had dropped. "Let's head back, there isn't much light left."

"You don't have to tell me twice," I said, quickly turning back to where we had come from.

The next day proved to be even more difficult than the last, but on the third day somehow it became easier. My body had adjusted, if only a little, to the rough terrain and long hours of hiking. The heat and humidity, on the other hand, I never got used to. The closest I had ever been to the equator previous to this was my high school summer trip to Toulouse, France. The two weren't even comparable. By the fourth day, everyone was getting cranky. We were all hot, stinky, and completely exhausted.

"Are we seriously not there yet?" Tuffnut groaned, hiking his backpack a little higher up. "We better not have to camp another night, I'm on the last side of my last pair of underwear."

"Last side?" Heather asked eyeing him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Eret shook his head. "You don't want to know, trust me."

"We'll be there soon enough," Astrid said, eyes glued to the compass in her hand, her legs weaving through the brush and broken branches with ease.

Ruffnut groaned. "You said that half an hour ago! We're lost, admit it."

Astrid turned around to glare at her. "First of all, it's only been four days. I told you when we left that the hike could take up to a week, you should feel lucky that the terrain hasn't forced us off our path. Secondly, we're not lost, if you kept up with my pace we'd have arrived already."

"Me?" Ruffnut choked, completely aghast. "If you're going to complain about anybody's speed it should be tubby over there," she said pointing to the back where Fishlegs was. "He's been a straggler from the start."

"Hey!" Fishlegs cried out.

"Okay, there's no need to point fingers guys," I said calmly.

Eret shrugged. "I mean it's a fair point, he has been slowing the group down. Which is kind of surprising considering one of us is an old woman. No offence," he said turning to Gothi.

"Okay, okay," my mother said calmly, moving her palms downward. "We're all here as a team, there's no point in getting angry. Astrid said we would arrive by tonight, so we should all have fresh clothing and warm food very soon."

"Maybe we should split into groups, anyone who can keep up with Astrid could go ahead and set up camp," Gobber suggested. "That way anyone who has a slower pace won't feel pressured to hike faster than they can."

"Yes!" Tuffnut said enthusiastically.

My mom frowned. "What? We can't do that, how will the second group find their way? Astrid is our only guide."

"She can tie flags along the way, the second group will follow that," Eret suggested. "That's how deep-forest hunters keep track of where they've been."

Heather frowned. "Should we really be splitting up right now? Astrid said we'd be there soon, there's no point in going to all this trouble so a few of us can arrive slightly earlier." Gothi pointed to Heather and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, so we'll continue on together," Gobber said, looking around for approval.

"Hold on, you guys can't decide that for everyone else," Tuffnut said clearly annoyed as he looked around at everyone.

"Yes he can, he's in charge," Fishlegs argued.

Eret shook his head. "Actually, Valka's in charge here."

"Uh, guys," I began, pointing to where Astrid was, or more specifically, where she had been.

"It doesn't matter, we should be taking a vote on this, that's the only fair way," Tuffnut interjected.

Ruffnut nodded. "Yeah, raise of hands, who wants to split up?"

Heather crossed her arms and glowered at the twins. "That is not how this works, this isn't a democracy here, Valka is the expedition leader. Do you have any idea how expeditions work?"

"Guys."

"So you're saying you're on the side of dictatorships?" Ruffnut asked. "Stalin much?"

Fishlegs groaned. "We're not talking about government systems, this is the same as any business. Somebody has to be in charge or everything will go to chaos."

Eret sighed, leaning back onto one of the nearby trees. "Look around, I think we've reached chaos already."

"Guys!" Everyone turned to look at me. "I think we should get going, Astrid's already left." I pointed to where she had been standing, there was a small clearing she had passed through, like an archway made of leaves and vines.

"What?" My mother replied, shocked. "Where did she go?"

"Through there."

Everyone gathered up, and we began filing through one by one. It didn't take long for us to make our way through the brush and out to where Astrid had been while the argument erupted. She stood there, looking out over the gigantic sinkhole, the gentle breeze blowing her braid around. The hole was much wider and deeper than I would've thought, like an entire lake had been drained of all its water. The shape, on the other hand, was almost too perfect, a cylinder with flat vertical sides. At the bottom was more jungle, what looked like twenty stories below us, maybe more.

Astrid turned towards us, having heard us approaching. "We're here."