Life… Sometimes it’s utterly miserable and sometimes it of pure bliss. For the occasions that life may be unfathomably miserable… It opens the way out. Though, the path out may not be easy – A steep price may be due.
Like the Indiana Jones movies, there’s probably a trapdoor, a pedal that makes the room into a trash compactor with spikes, maybe a pit of vipers or maybe it’s cutting your time in half with a giant rolling boulder.
But there is a way out. Definitely not an easy way out. And here… We follow our dear frog, Froggy. A simple amphibian with a not so simple situation.
You see… Froggy isn’t your typical frog. He doesn’t hop, jump nor croak. He does however know how to hiss. Mimicking the vipers that have adopted – Let me correct that… Kidnapped.
Froggy was an unlucky tadpole among his brethren, hatched and trapped on the same day. Vipers with the smarts who encased him in mud the day he was born, taken back in the fanged jaws to their nest close to the riverside – Close to the rapids.
Raised their like his own, Froggy didn’t know much of the outside world. He was fed and taken care of, kept far from the world outside. It wasn’t strange that Froggy thought he himself was a viper, he had yet to meet another amphibian. Oblivious and unable to jump in the small den, Froggy wasn’t much of a frog. He didn’t even know the real reason he was capture by the vipers he had for parents.
But one day… All that would change. Froggy was asleep you see – A sleeping little frog with the dreams awoken by instincts. Hopping and frolicking amongst the grass, closing into the pond before him. He looked out with a glee – A newfound feeling. He had only felt grateful for life so far but the sight of the water… It conjured the spirit of his ancestors.
Unaware Froggy accidently kicked his unused long webbed feet. He woke up with the sloshing and chilled sensation by his feet – Wide eyes with the slits looking frantically around. He noticed he had broken the egg his mother and father had left in his care.
Froggy’s throat bubbled up uncontrollably and his heart ached. He looked to the tunnel with a kick in the head from his instincts. Death was looming near. He could sense the cold touch that would soon chase for him… Yet the light leading to the world outside had the warmth which countered it.
He hopped closer for the first time and looked up. Feeling as if something had cut his time in half. Looking around and finally noticing his webbed feet and recalling the limbless serpents.
A leap of faith as he crashed out the snakes den.
His eyes felt strange as he saw bright light – A delayed welcome to the world. The warmth flooding on him was a change of pace, the nights of shivering as the vipers stole his warmth were over. His feet sunk a little to the mud and welcomed him out of his home.
Homeless… But not completely.
The world outside would be his home.
But the fear of what happened called the welcome to a short. Froggy felt his heart pump hard and strong in an instant forcing a hiss like the vipers.
Something strange that had always caught his curiosity was ahead. The moisture in the air and subtle vibrations in the ground accompanied by an unknown sound. His heart knew the sound but Froggy had yet to see what he had forgotten.
Hopping as fast as he could driven by fear he arrived by the end and looked around at the river before him – Rapid flowing, with something strange jumping in and out of it every now and then.
Froggy was lost for words as he loved the scent and the sound. His eyes entranced yet he was terrified. Never had Froggy swam, not since he was a tadpole. No memory of water remained in his head but only his soul. He didn’t know if he could sink or swim. But the boulder that cut his time in half was approaching yet again…
Cutting his time by another half.
Froggy felt the piercing gaze and coiling hisses from the vipers. He recalled the dream he saw before one which started this chase. He looked back to the vipers.
“Thank you.” He hissed to them.
And with a step back he coiled a leap in his other leg.
A leap of faith.
A leap into the running rivers that dragged him away, Froggy closed his eyes and let fate steer his act of foolish bravery.
The vipers stared maddened by the escaped prey that murdered their unborn, the prey they had raised for their feast. But… They didn’t care much… They could always trap another tadpole. They could always lay more eggs.
Hours had passed and the rapids by the end of the river had crashed to a shallow slow. Froggy laid frozen in paralysis and pain on the stone. He slowly looked up at the night sky, which was a new experience, tiny little lights painted up above… Taunting stars which made Froggy feel like jumping higher and higher than before. Afterall, he had to make up for all the lost hopping and jumping.
Sadly, he wasn’t ready for that yet. His body couldn’t move. Looking down he noticed the oddly long tongue of his which was rolled out ahead with it sticking by the tip.
Froggy remained still as he teared up lost for what he was. During the brief stalling thought he heard a screech followed by a gust aimed at him until it raised him up. Two claws lightly pierced him as he was raised off the boulder.
Bleeding slowly from the new wounds, adding more pain upon pain, making his body unable to muster any strength.
However, his tongue still worked, his eyes and mouth too. As he readied, he was dropped by the creature of the night skies into a twigged nest. The fall was ungraceful as he fell on some protruding twigs and was met with the hungry sharp beaks of the creature’s kin – Smaller and hungrier.
Froggy let out a hiss defending himself and in an instant was met with a kick from the hovering big creature above.
Thud!
Froggy looked up weakly as he fell from the heights once more. It was a shorter fall than the waterfall yet hurt the most.
He looked up in failure as he went through so much in a day…
He must have truly been a prey…
Short Story by Sanjeev ‘Cimeries’ Retnasingam
Art of Cimeries 