Little Green Bean's Big Adventure

Chapter #1 (Sinkhole)

Green Bean scratched and poked at the stones beneath his claws, enjoying the gentle clinking and plunking noises they made. He liked when his family finally left him alone and didn't constantly worry or fawn over him. Today, his family was hunting and Green Bean smiled to himself as he remembered waving goodbye to his father, mother and two older siblings as they promised to not be gone for long and to bring him back a treat.

It's not that Green Bean didn't love his family, he was just fed up with them treating him like the baby of the family. After all, he was only one year younger than his siblings... just quite a bit smaller. On Green Bean's first birthday, he remembered seeing his mother crying and his siblings quietly explaining that he was the only one in his clutch to survive.

At first, Green Bean didn't understand what this meant, but now he understood why his family was so protective of him. Even though he objectively understood his family's motives and allowed their doting to continue, Green Bean thought that all of their worrying was useless and unjustified. He hoped that one day his family would see his strengths instead of his weaknesses and allow him to travel with them.

In order to practice for this, every time his family left Green Bean would gracefully dart down the cliff-side where his family's cave was located and make his way to the river to fish. Each time he did this, he proved to himself that despite being small, unable to fly and only able to produce a small flame, he was still capable on his own. Instead of raw strength and speed, Green Bean was calculated and quick-witted.

Today in particular, Green Bean had caught two large salmon, using a new technique that involved luring the fish with his long whip-like tail. After grasping the fish between his teeth in preparation to climb back up the cliff-side, Green Bean suddenly felt the ground rumble.

He took a moment to consider his options, but in the end, his curiosity won out and he dropped the fish to investigate the rumbling further. He followed the vibrations by sensing them with his claws and padded softly through the forest till he reached a clearing that felt like the source of the rumbling.

Green Bean observed the clearing in an attempt to find what was causing the rumbling.e sniffed the air, raked his talons through the dirt and even pressed his ear against the ground. After nearly 20 minutes of this, Green Bean huffed in defeat and turned to leave, but then the ground behind him abruptly fell away.

He was left with his front legs desperately clawing at the loose dirt while his hind legs dangled over the chasm of unknown depth. Despite how hard he tried to pull himself up, his front legs weren't strong enough. He slipped, sending Green Bean tumbling into the deep deep darkness.