12. A Toad Mistakes a Human for a Faerie #2
Kaelen’s basket smashes to the ground as a massive gust of wind blows through the trees. Sapphira’s hair whips around her face, the sound drowned out under the roaring wind as she drops her own basket and grabs onto the nearest tree. Her feet are nearly swept out from under her.
“What is this?” she shouts to Kaelen, who has dropped to his belly, his hands gripping the river radish bush as the wind tries to sweep him away. He doesn’t hear her.
Sapphira’s heart beats fast as she squeezes her arm around the tree.
A terrifying vortex of wind is barreling toward her.
Despite the grip she has, it carries her away without a fight.
One moment, she’s standing on solid ground; the next, she’s inside that screaming tunnel and floating off the ground.
She lands with a painful thump, rubbing her backside as she stares up at the sky. With a grunt and a dull thud, Kaelen lands on top of her, knocking the breath from her lungs. Sapphira curses, pushing the man off her. He’s heavier than he looks.
“What was that?” she says breathlessly, her head thudding back against the ground. “I thought we were goners for sure.”
“That . . . was a . . . warping vortex,” he wheezes, holding his side. “Annoying things.” He looks around. “I guess we’re lucky it didn’t drop us in the lake. I think we’re still in Bastama.” Kaelen climbs to his feet, and Sapphira follows, wincing at her twinging ankle.
“Great,” Kaelen hisses, staring at the sky as raindrops fall. “We’ll have to go back and find those baskets before we return home. Or all that work will have been for nothing.”
They wander through the forest for a long time. Sapphira grows more frustrated as the rain gets heavier, and they become increasingly lost, entangled in the endless woods.
“How have you lost the path again?” she growls at Kaelen, who stares in confusion. You’ve walked these jungles an infinite number of times, and you still don’t know the way?”
“Yes, I know the forest. But I haven’t walked the jungle much.
Besides, I’m horrible with directions,” Kaelen says, scratching his head.
“And . . . none of this looks familiar.” He huffs, squinting into the jungle like it might reveal its secrets if he stares hard enough.
The clouds grow darker, and Sapphira shivers as the rain soaks through her clothes.
It’s the coldest it’s been since she got here.
Kaelen’s stomach growls, and Sapphira’s stomach echoes his. “Here, at least there’s something to eat,” the man says, smiling as he spots a bright-orange fruit. He plucks two from a tree and hands one to Sapphira.
“What is it?” she asks as he tears into the flesh.
He shrugs. “I’m not sure. Tastes sweet though. Like a mango.”
Sapphira hesitantly bites into it, but her eyes widen at the burst of flavor on her tongue.
“Maybe we should just go,” Kaelen says, ripping the flesh with his teeth. “I can shift and fly above these trees. I should spot the way home from there. We’ll lose the food and the fish we spent hours collecting, but I don’t think I can stay another minute in this rain.”
“I agree,” Sapphira says, though she hates to give up. Her chattering teeth make the decision for her.
Kaelen drops the pit of his fruit on the ground and cracks his knuckles. Sapphira steps back, arms crossing over her chest. She’s glad to be leaving this jungle anyway. It gives her the creeps. It feels like something is watching her.
Her eyes wander as she waits for Kaelen to transform. But when something familiar catches her eye, she freezes, her blood running cold.
“Kaelen . . .” she says. The takops doesn’t hear her. Sapphira walks closer to inspect the bush that grabbed her attention, crouching to stare at the lumpy, purplish things clinging to its branches, then shouts, “Kaelen!”
The man turns confused eyes to her. “I know, I know. I’m going,” he says.
“No. Don’t. Come here.”
Kaelen huffs but joins her side. “What?”
“Have you seen these before?” she asks, pointing to the things.
Kaelen raises a brow at her. “No. Why, what is going on with you? You’re acting weirder than usual.”
Sapphira swallows. “I’ve seen this before,” she whispers. “In one of Isabel’s books the first day I woke up here.” She looks around the dark jungle, and that creeping feeling grows more potent. “I don’t think we’re in the Bastama jungle anymore,” she says. “I think we’re in Jakartha.”
Kaelen freezes beside her, his eyes widening. Sapphira can see how his chest rises and falls, his breath quickening. “We need to go. Now,” he says. Then he turns, preparing to shift, but his face goes a grayish-blue. He gasps for breath like he’s run out of oxygen.
“Kaelen? Kaelen, what’s wrong?” Sapphira calls out, panicked. He didn’t eat the Portfruit, did he? I only saw him eat the orange fruit. But who knows what that one does. And I… I ate it too.
Before her eyes, Kaelen’s body begins to shrink. Similar to how he changes size from his takops form to human, his entire body begins shrinking until he’s not much bigger than a blade of grass. Sapphira barely has time to squeak out “Oh no” before she has shrunk down too.
Large raindrops plop around her, nearly drowning her as they splash back into her face and leave her soaked from head to toe.
Sapphira shares a look with Kaelen. “What are we going to do?” she cries, shaking his shoulders.
“Calm down,” Kaelen says, though the paleness of his cheeks gives away his horror. “It should wear off soon.”
“Should?” she screeches. “This is all your fault. If you didn’t go around eating random fruit and had any sense of direction, none of this would have happened.”
“Excuse me,” Kaelen says. His hair and eyelashes are dripping wet, and pale bangs are plastered to his forehead. He looks like a drowning rat. “I remember you eating it too.”
“After you gave it to me!”
They both turn at the sound of crunching leaves and a snapping twig, heads turning slowly as they grab onto one another. Behind them is a giant toad. Its stomach bloats out as a loud croak bellows from its throat, and slimy eyes blink down at them—first the right one and then the left.
Kaelen screams.
The toad’s tongue whips out and nearly smacks Sapphira, who jumps out of the way. She rolls, evading the long, pink tongue as it follows her.
“Why is it trying to eat us?” she shrieks as she races through the grass, vaulting over giant twigs and swerving pebbles that loom like boulders. The toad chases them, hopping behind and loosening its tongue to try to trap them.
“It probably thinks we’re fairies,” Kaelen huffs, racing beside her.
“What? Faeries . . . Why would a toad eat faeries?” Sapphira knows faeries only in legend, but nothing she remembers about them makes her think they would be a good snack for toads.
“Don’t ask me,” Kaelen says, “I didn’t create these monsters.”
Then he shifts into a shrunken takops form, swoops down beneath her, and takes off with her on his back. He flies low, nearly to the ground, as Sapphira grips his fur tightly to stay on.
The toad continues to hop behind them, moving quickly across the jungle floor as Kaelen’s tiny wings flap hard and fast. Dodging trees is difficult, as the trunks are too wide for Kaelen to maneuver quickly.
When a tongue flies past them, he smashes into the side of a tree, and Sapphira is hurled from his back and crashes to the ground.
She skids across the dirt, the toad catching up as she tries to get her bearings.
Sapphira’s vision is blurring, and her head is pounding from the impact. She crawls toward a fallen leaf, her ears ringing like bells, and pulls it over her body. Lying flat on the ground, she grips the edges of the leaf with her small hands, hoping the toad doesn’t see her.
When the sound of dull thuds plods farther from her, she peeks out from her hiding spot.
The toad has passed her and is headed straight for Kaelen, who is still lying on the ground.
He’s shifted back to a human, his eyes fluttering and a low groan coming from his lips.
Sapphira looks around frantically . I have to do something quick!
Sapphira races across the ground and scoops up a pointy twig. She’s sawing it back and forth over a rock to sharpen it further when Kaelen cries out. The toad has reached him and wrapped its tongue around the man’s small body. Then it begins curling him in toward its mouth.
Sapphira runs again, a loud cry leaving her lips as she raises the sharpened twig over her head.
She brings it down in a fast arch, severing the toad’s tongue as she does so.
Kaelen crashes to the ground, and the toad lets out a panicked Ribbit as the remainder of its tongue withdraws.
Sapphira watches triumphantly as it turns and hops away.
“That was . . . so cool,” Kaelen groans from the ground, holding his side.
Sapphira drops down beside him, unraveling him from the toad’s severed tongue. She smiles toothily down at him, pushing her dripping hair from her face.
“It was, wasn’t it?” she says. “And you look totally lame covered in toad slime.” She falls back beside him as they both bowl over in laughter.
They laugh uncontrollably, tears pricking at Sapphira’s eyes as the adrenaline dies.
“We were almost eaten by a toad,” she says very matter-of-factly, and they break out into laughter again.
When they have finally settled down, Sapphira stands and helps Kaelen up. “We should get somewhere safe,” he says, wiping his hands on his clothes. “Before we run into any more slimy creatures.”
They bunker under a mushroom, away from the rain and prying eyes. The silence stretches for so long that the rain becomes muted in Sapphira’s ears—just an echo in the background.