The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#13 Curiosity Strikes Again

[Sophia]

It's a whole strawberry field!

My eyes lit up. I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing. It wasn't just a normal strawberry field. It was a wild strawberry field!  And I noticed a lot of these strawberries had grown to incredible sizes! There was no way strawberries could grow this big, but somehow, these ones managed to. Most of them were normal, but I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing. I couldn't stop myself from moving towards them. I didn't understand how this was even here. It seemed pretty abnormal, but I was too amazed to question anything at the moment.

You should know that strawberries are my favorite fruit. But I don't eat them very often. I only like the ones you can find in a farmer's market. Those ones are always the right size and they have the perfect level of sweetness. Sometimes I like to sprinkle a little sugar on them for a little extra sweetness.
As I made my way through the wild patches, I tried not to squish any strawberries under my shoes. I lightly stepped over them as I explored the area. Then an idea popped into my head. I observed some of the strawberries around me, until I finally went over to one of the large green bushes and plucked off a large strawberry the size of a basketball. It was heavier than I thought, but I bet it had to be really tasty. I managed to shove it into my satchel and looked back to where I came from. I think I spent enough time out here already, I should probably start heading back to see if I could find Apollo again.

Until something else caught my eye. Just out of the corner of my vision. I had to do a double take to make sure I knew what I was seeing was correct. Nope, it wasn't.
I trotted over to see what it was, carefully making sure I wasn't stepping on any of the strawberries.
There was a giant hole in the ground.
No strawberries grew near it, but there were some skinny vines creeping into it. It was big and obviously deep. But something about this hole gave me an odd feeling...
I carefully leaned into it, wanting to see how deep it really was. But it didn't. It just led into darkness. I sat down on my knees and carefully peered over it again. I still couldn't see anything, just a big hole fading into darkness. I picked up a little rock that sat next to me, hovered my arm over the edge, and dropped it into the hole. And I waited.

And waited...

And waited...

No sound followed. I stood up, amazed. Was this a hole to the center of the Earth? Some sort of cave? A dungeon filled with beasts and monsters? Possible powerful supernatural beings? How could I know? As all these thoughts began to swarm into my mind, I started to forget that I had to go back and look for Apollo. But for some reason, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the pit.
Something about it was pulling my head closer and closer over the edge.
Something inside was telling me...

Hmm... it looks big enough for me to drop into with my wings open. It doesn't seem like it's dangerous or anything. I just... wanna see how deep it really is. Who knows, maybe it's just a really deep hole? If it takes too long to get to the bottom, I can just come back another day, right? It's probably not that bad...

I unfolded my wings, slowly hovered myself in the air, and gently lowered myself into the pit of possible doom.