Guess we'll stay a bit longer
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 118170
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They were sitting by the lake when Lila's pre-transformation tingles began. Tandrus clearly felt it at the same time, which was to be expected, since they had been transformed at the same time a week prior. He said nothing, but squeezed her hand tight in his for a long moment before beginning to disrobe. This was not too uncommon of a practice; it made it much easier, not to have to squirm out of their clothes afterwards. Lila followed suit. They stood waiting for less than a minute, and in that time, Lila's chest suddenly became tight. She was about to lose it again. For ten years now she had been happy at the amount of time she was allowed to spend as a human, but now... now it felt like it would never be enough. She was not human, and never would be; she was a toad, a toad who sometimes took human form. Tears suddenly began to flow from her eyes, and Tandrus held her in a silent embrace, clearly understanding. The embrace was brief, interrupted by their sudden morphing into tiny toads. It took only a few seconds, and suddenly the world was so much larger. Tandrus croaked, and Lila, who had come to know him well enough to be able to distinguish his basest meaning, knew it was meant to be a comforting sound. Her mouth wasn't built to give him the weak smile she might have attempted, which was just as well; smiling was the last thing she felt like doing. Ginnie had informed them that she would time their teleport home to more or less coincide with their return to their true forms, and so for several long minutes they sat there apprehensively. But time stretched on, and on. Clouds moved overhead. The wind picked up a bit. Nothing was happening. At length Tandrus croaked again, a questioning sound this time, and Lila blinked in response. She didn't know any more than he did. Hours passed, and dark fell. They had left the door to the lakehouse standing open, but they were toads now, and such a dwelling was hardly suitable for them anymore. Fortunately, there was a place to sleep a stone's throw away. Finally, resigned to spending at least another night here, they hopped into the water, swam over to the bank, and burrowed a bit into the mud, the moisture relieving their dry skin. They spent a few hours there before awakening to go hunting. They rested a bit more throughout the night, always sticking close together. When morning light came, they naturally gravitated towards the natural hiding place beneath the dock to wait out the hot sun. There was no word from Ginnie. There was no sign of anything. They were alone in this place, and who knew how long they would remain that way. The following day, they began to find some other members of the small toad population around the lake. Lila could always pick out Tandrus, even if it took a bit of concentrating. Which was good, because eventually it became inefficient to be constantly joined at the hip. They would separate for at least several hours at a time to hunt, and sometimes wouldn't even find each other when it was time to rest.
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Toad
5/19/2021 12:14:11 AM
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