Wow. This didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would.

Yazu is now…I’m gonna say…fifteen, so it’s a few years later. I’m setting this one after the second game, for those of you who care.

By the way…you can probably tell I get bored very easily.

Enjoy!_____________________________________________________________________________________

A long time ago, there used to be many of us. Ferrins, that is. We populated the skies and the thick jungles that no other creature dared to enter.

That was before the metal jaws began appearing in our territories. We would be walking around, minding our own business, then suddenly…

SNAP!

The jaws would clamp shut on our feet, trapping us there. We’d lie in agony until the tentacle-faced creatures came and tore the jaws off our feet. Then, they’d throw us in their metal monsters and carry us away. To where, we didn’t know.

Now, only I, Flora, remain. I constantly search the skies and our former jungles, which have now been turned into toxic wastes. I call for my kind day in and day out…but no one calls back. I have managed to evade these strange creatures…

But I must save them…no matter what it takes.

When Flora awoke, it was still dark, maybe early morning. She was still tired and wanted to get more sleep, but somehow, she couldn’t. After her vision finally focused, she knew why.

Something was wrong. She wasn’t in her jungle territory, a large clearing with a waterfall and a river running through it. Instead, she was outside what appeared to be a temple. On the edges of the path that lead to the interior, there were huge, moss-covered statues of strange creatures that she had never seen before. They were kneeling and bowing their heads. The temple itself was also covered in a thick layer of moss.

Where am I? she asked herself. Suddenly, she saw something walk out of the temple. The creature looked exactly like the statues outside the temple. When it saw her, it stopped in its tracks. She got up and approached it slowly. “Excuse me?” she said. But the creature ran away from her. “Wait! Please, I have to ask you something!” She began running after the creature. She tried getting the creature to stop, but it just kept running away from her. She chased it into the temple before she finally ran out of breath. She leaned against a wall and looked around her.

More of the green-skinned creatures were walking around, despite the time of night. Some were meditating, bright balls of energy swirling around their heads. There were statues of two different creatures; one of them had four legs on the bottom part of its body and a beak-like mouth. The other was much smaller. Its mouth looked like it had long fingers for teeth. There were the same creatures scurrying around the grounds, the taller ones chasing the smaller ones, then the smaller ones would attack them in large groups of ten or twelve. The tall ones were red with light yellow bellies. The smaller ones were a kind of dull golden-yellow. Then, everything stopped and all eyes were on Flora. The green-skinned creatures surrounded her and stared at her in wonder.

She was probably a few inches taller than these creatures. She looked somewhat like a cross between a dinosaur and a bird of some kind. She was tall and slender, with a feathery tail and crest on her head. In place of arms, she had large, bat-like wings with feathers around the membrane. Her mouth looked kind of like a large beak with a few sharp, saw-like teeth sticking out. She was as green as the forest that she had come from. Her eyes were a deep emerald-green.

Suddenly, she heard a voice from behind the crowd. “What’s going on here?” it said calmly. The crowd parted to reveal two more of the same creatures. One of them was wearing a large red mask. The other one had blue skin and a scar on each hand. The two walked closer to her. Behind them was a white cat-like creature. “Excuse me…” Flora began as they stopped in front of her. “Could you tell me where I am?”

“You are in a sacred Mudokon temple,” said the one wearing the mask. “And we have long awaited you.”

“We have?” the blue one asked. The masked one jabbed him in the side with his elbow, knocking the wind out of his lungs. “I mean, we have!” he said after catching his breath.

“What?” Flora asked. “You’ve been waiting…for me? But why?”

“Come,” the masked one said as they turned to walk away. She followed them. “I’m sure you know that many of your kind, the Ferrins, have been captured?” She nodded and said, “But I know there are a lot more out in the jungles somewhere. They’re probably just hiding, like me.”

The masked one shook his head. “I’m afraid you are wrong,” he said. He turned to face her. “You are the last of your kind, Flora.”

“What do you mean I’m-” She cut herself off and looked at him suspiciously. “I…don’t recall telling you what my name was…uh…”

“Call me Bigface,” he said.

“Okay…”

“We have known about you for a long time, Flora. You are a legend.”

She stopped and looked at the three confused. “I-I’m a what?” she said.

“You are the only green Ferrin that has ever existed. All others have been purple. You have been spoken of only in legends passed down from generation to generation.”

“Before we move on with the explanations here, who are you two?” she asked, pointing at the cat-like creature and the blue-skinned one.

“Abe,” he replied. “This is Crystal.” She smiled at her. Then, they heard another voice.

“Hey, Crystal!” it said. This voice sounded a little younger, probably around Flora’s age. She turned around to see another cat-like creature, one that looked exactly like Crystal, except for the fact that it was a male. What she noticed about him first was he seemed rather charming. He stopped right next to Flora. “You got any idea what all the Mudokons are so worked up about?” Crystal pointed to Flora. He looked to his left. He seemed at a loss for words for a moment. “Oh,” he said. “Uh…hi.”

“Hi…” Flora replied nervously. They just stared at each other for a moment, then Flora extended a wing and said, “My name’s Flora.”

“I’m Yazu,” he replied. “I never thought I’d see one of your kind before. I was always told that you were all extinct.”

“I’ve been hearing a lot of that.” They both laughed. “How did you end up here anyway?” Yazu asked. She was silent for a moment. “I…I don’t know…” she said. “I just…woke up here a little while ago.” He scratched his head. “Well, that’s weird,” he said.

“Well, you can’t figure out what happened when you look like you’re about to fall asleep now, can you?” Crystal said as Flora began yawning. She nodded. “Follow me. You can rest here.”

“Alright,” she said, following Crystal.

“See ya, Flora,” Yazu said as he walked away. Flora waved as she continued to walk on.

Eventually, they came to a doorway with long, thick vines growing around it. She opened the door, revealing a large room with a rock covered in a thick layer of moss that Flora assumed served as a bed. “Just try to get some sleep for now, Flora,” Crystal said as she turned to walk away. Flora nodded and closed the door. It took her a while, but sleep finally found her, and she drifted into a deep sleep.

Well, I’m partially happy with the way this first chapter turned out.

But heck, who cares what I think? What matters is what YOU think! So tell me in a review! Thanks!