A New Life as a Toad
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 115697
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Well, that does it, thought Fred miserably. I get turned into a mute princess and forced to live in a castle but escape, only to become a toad forced to live with a witch in the woods? I'll never win. Hopping came fairly naturally to this new, tiny body, and eventually she learned to get around, and started to explore the woods immediately outside the hut. Wenda didn't want her straying too far, but she'd already turned her into a toad; what more did she have to lose? In any case Fred quickly found a few small water sources where she could swim about, something she soon found she immensely enjoyed. She didn't find any other toads around, which she supposed was why Wenda had felt the need to do this to her. She experimented with croaking, and found she was able to. Well, at least she wasn't a mute toad. Gotta look on the bright side. Unfortunately, she realized there was definitely more that came with being a toad when she saw some dragonflies zipping by and realized how empty her stomach was. The last time she'd eaten had been that stew, but who knew how long she'd slept after doing so? With great chagrin, eventually she let her instincts take over, and her tongue snaked out to try to snag an insect. It missed, for which she was somewhat thankful, but after hours of failed attempts, she was beginning to fear she may starve. At last she managed to catch a fly, and her muscles worked without her telling them to in order to swallow it down. She quickly decided she'd like to vomit, but no luck for her - toads have no gag reflex. That first night was terrifying. She was tiny and helpless, and spent ages trying to find the best hiding place she could, but could not sleep. Early in the morning, she finally succumbed to exhaustion, and when she woke a few hours later and tried to crawl out into the sun, she quickly found her dry skin itching in its light, and immediately retreated back to her damp hiding place. It occurred to her toads were probably at least somewhat nocturnal. That day and night, she started listening to her toady instincts more. It was necessary, because this place was not without predators. Birds of prey circled overhead, and she glimpsed a raccoon in the trees not far away, all on day one. Both times she darted into the water to hide, and stayed there, trembling in fear. But she had to spend so much time hunting, how was she to survive? She began to miss the castle she had spent such scant time in. Perhaps she should have simply accepted her lot - she'd rather be there than here. Perhaps she shouldn't have accepted the king's mission in the first place. But it wasn't as if she, then a knight, could very well have said no to her king... his king... How long did toads even live, anyway? How old a toad was she already? Poor Fred, over the following weeks, learned all the ins and outs of being a lady toad living near a witch. Wenda mostly stayed in and around the hut, spending a lot of time mixing potions and working in her garden of supposedly magical herbs next to said hut. Fred was nervous to go near it for a while, but after curiosity won over, she hopped around it, nosing about all the plants, and found it pretty unexciting in the end. Sometimes Wenda would see Fred and approach, talking in a booming voice. Time and again Fred tried to steel herself, and, time and again, she could not bear being approached by such a frightening giant, and would scurry quickly for cover. Every time, Wenda laughed. A few times, a traveler approached the hut. Every time, Fred hopped out to try to get their attention in whatever way she could. And every time, they looked at her, at the hut, back to her, and shivered, ducking their heads and moving on. It seemed Wenda was correct - the embittered part of Fred thought Well it's good to be useful, while the part that was still desperate and somewhat hopeful would question why they, suspecting she was rightfully human, didn't lift a finger to try to help her. Once in a while Wenda pursued her and brought her into the hut, placing her in a glass case. Each time this happened, Fred thought she would die, her tiny heart was beating so fast with terror. But Wenda was only extracting a bit of blood or saliva or something else, presumably for a potion. She would let Fred spend a day or so in the case, which was admittedly nice - she didn't have to fight for survival for a little while - and then release her back into the wild. Months passed. Fred became no less miserable, but at least she was getting used to this. Her time spent as a human woman had been a transition, a blip, lasting only a few days. Though sometimes she tried to find the bright side in her current situation, many other times she found herself wishing that period could have lasted longer. Simply being on top of the food chain - well, except for dragons - was a blessing she hadn't realized she'd taken for granted all her life. When autumn came, Fred felt her instincts taking over once more, and one day she buried deep into the dirt and fell fast asleep. When she woke up, she hardly remembered what was happening - for a moment she forgot completely about being human, and then for another moment she forgot completely about being a toad. But finally, both lives rushed to her, and she quickly squirmed upwards, to be greeted by a dark night in a mild breeze. It felt like spring! How long had she been asleep? She began to panic, and crawled to her usual hidey hole in the water. The next time Wenda saw her, she laughed, and said, "Welcome back, sleepyhead! You were out for about seven months - I was beginning to wonder if you'd died! Good thing that in the colder weather there aren't too many travelers at risk of wandering by, eh?" Fred felt faint. That long?! Not only was her lifespan likely drastically reduced, but it seemed she was destined to sleep through half of it! Also after waking up, she found she was experiencing some urges she definitely could have done without. It was a very, very good thing there were no other toads around. She wondered how her family was doing. How her kingdom was doing. Was the dragon still terrorizing the outskirts of Allaria? Had things gotten worse - or perhaps better? Had some other, more successful knight slain it long ago? She often thought that if she could speak to Wenda, just for a moment, this is what she would ask. A few months passed. Things finally began to dull to her - this life became less miserable and a bit more... not peaceful, certainly not, not the least because there were still predators afoot, and even some confrontations with those predators (she felt ridiculous rising up on her four legs to appear bigger in response, but it came naturally to her), but at least predictable. Soon the time for hibernation came again. She slept soundly in her little burrow, and woke again in the spring. This time Wenda informed her that it had been closer to six months. Well, at least there was that. Now about a month into Fred's third spring as a toad, Wenda received her first true visitor. It was a fairly young man with dark hair and a pack on his back, who did look somewhat perturbed upon seeing Fred, but approached the hut anyway. Wenda answered the door, and he introduced himself as Rhys. Fred tried frantically to signal to him that he should turn around and run away, but it was difficult just to get his attention, let alone communicate anything with him.
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9/10/2020 12:26:05 AM
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