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Heartbeat: CHAPTER ONE IS HERE!
The Storyteller: *blows on a party blower while confetti blasts out from behind her*
Heartbeat: I have to say, I have never been this excited to update a fanfiction before! Given the response to the prologue, I have super high hopes for this one. Also, while we're on that subject for everybody who missed it, I posted an (A/N) before this and by the time you're reading this right now, it's gone. I deleted it, but basically, let me just paraphrase what it said.
Thank all of you for such positive responses to the Prologue. I'm so happy like my story and I can't wait to show you more of it. I love each and every single one of you and I am so happy to have you here. But hey, with that out of the way, let's get this show on the road. HIT IT, STORYTELLER!
The Storyteller: *thumbs up*
Ahem...
*inhale*
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After being unconscious for a while, You woke up. Your eyelids slowly but surely opened to a dark and starry night sky. It was a pretty sight, nonetheless, but your body also felt as if it wasn't touching the ground. Instead, you felt cold, wet, and like you were floating.
That's because you were. When you sat up, you found out that you woke up in a body of water. That wasn't everything that was around you, though, because when you looked around you, you saw some kind of... village.
Luckily, you ended up right next to dry land, so you took the opportunity to climb up and try to assess the situation better on your feet rather than swimming in place. Once you did, you were quickly surprised to find out that you were evidently not in the same familiar town that you knew oh so well. As a matter of fact, this looked nothing like your old homeland. Rather, the houses that you saw looked like they were using elements of nature, such as logs and mushrooms, to make them up entirely or serve as features to complete them. You even saw that most of them had roofs made out of moss.
"Where am I?" You thought to yourself, continuing to stare at the buildings in front of you. There was nothing familiar about this place at all. You were clearly in a place that you in no way knew at all, let alone well. You had no idea what to do... or where to go... so you just took your first steps trying to think of a plan.
Still taking your surroundings in while you were crossing a small bridge connecting one part of the village to the other, an idea crossed your mind to try and see anybody who might be inside of those houses, which you noticed were much smaller than the average human, and try and ask anybody who might live in them for any help... or at least to give any help to make sense of the situation you're in.
You walked up to the first house you saw on your left, then went to knock on the door after crouching so you could be at its level. Much more than you normally would since you figured that they might be sleeping, and though you didn't like waking anybody up, you also wanted and desperately needed help, so you stood in front of the door and waited, or rather hoped, for someone to come and answer.
Though, it didn't surprise you when nobody came so you kept knocking more and more and more until finally, you got a sign that you were about to have somebody come to assist you. You heard somebody who sounded like a middle-aged man grumbling as he got closer to the door. It was hard to tell since there was a door between you and him muffling the sound, but it sounded somewhat like he was saying, "Who in their right minds would come knocking at someone's door at this kind of hour?" followed by some more angry grumbles.
When you heard such, you had a small glimpse of hope that you'd finally be able to have somebody aid you. All you needed to do was wait until somebody opened the door... provided they aren't too annoyed at you to help.
Anxiously, you waited to see somebody in front of you so that you could have a chance at making sense of the entire situation. However, once that time came, your brain was bombarded with more questions than answers when the entrance to the house swung open, leaving you to see... a green frog on two legs? If that wasn't weird enough, it was also wearing clothes. It was in a stained white shirt and a pair of briefs while it was rubbing its eyes before stepping out of his door.
It then looked up at you while your eyes were long locked on it out of slight surprise and confusion as you were left wondering to yourself yet again what kind of backwoods universe you ended up in. Once it caught sight of you... however.
"Um, hello there... mister." You said, looking past the strangeness of all this. "I'm sorry to wake you up so late at night but-"
Unfortunately, all you got was a bloodcurdling scream paired with a finger pointed at you before nearly tripping trying to turn around and then retreating back to his house and slamming the door in your face.
"...O-kay?" You said to yourself.
You saw the upstairs light being turned on and heard the cranky voice of a jaded woman muffled from within the house.
"Jared! What the heck is with the screaming?" She shouted. "It's three AM in the morning and some people are trying to sleep!"
"Honey... listen to me." You heard the same voice at the door say. "You're probably not going to believe me right now, but I think we might be in danger."
"Danger?"
"Yeah, danger! Remember that knocking you sent me to go answer? When I opened the door, I saw something I haven't seen in my entire lifetime. I don't know what it was but it looked so weird and repulsive that I don't know what to think about it."
"Hey!" You exclaimed at him, offended.
"Oh croaks! It heard us! HIDE!"
The lights were shut off, leaving you noticeably hurt, confused, and alone in the night once again. Though, at least you were able to learn something out of that exchange. Such as, that anthropomorphic frogs live in this... uh... wherever you are right now. However, you were only given just enough time to make a mental note of that before you just faintly heard an old woman's voice from your right side.
"Oh, well that's... odd."
An elderly frog holding a candle on a plate was seen just outside of her door, the glow of her candle making her morbidly curious expression more apparent as she stared at you. Instantly, as soon as she saw that you know she was eying you, she turned away and ran back into her house. Not giving up entirely on watching you though, as you could still see her eyes peek out from her front door's small window.
All you could do was rub the back of your neck awkwardly. You didn't mean them any harm, all you wanted was some help. Unfortunately, the hate didn't stop there.
"Holy heaping dung piles on lily pads!" You heard another voice exclaim. "What the heck is that thing?"
You hesitatingly raised your hand and waved it as a form of greeting with an awkward smile, only to see it give you no reaction in return. Just staring at you with bewildered eyes, which slowly were replaced by disgust and fear. You wanted to try and approach it, do away with all of its fears and convince it that it wasn't something to be afraid of. It was to no avail, however, because it still looked like it was just as wary of you as ever. Raising your hands up in the air, you tried to approach it, only to have a pitchfork, which happened to be next to the frog's front door, pointed at you.
"No!" It screamed. "Stop right there! Don't come any closer!"
"I- I'm not going to-"
You were cut off again by another frog stepping onto the scene to investigate all of the ruckus going on.
"Oh my goodness..."
"Uhh, hi?" You awkwardly said.
"What... IS THAT?!"
"Get back, gertrude!" The other frog said. "You don't know what it could do!"
"But I'm not-"
"I'm warning you! Beast! Don't come any closer!"
You didn't even get a chance to begin your next sentence before someone else came along.
"What the heck is with all of the screaming. Some of us are trying to get some shut-eye around here for-"
A gasp shortly ensued. You looked back to face them, but as you did, the one threatening you with a pitchfork spoke up.
"There's a monster roaming around here!" It called out to the frog you were looking at. "Be careful, there's no telling what it could possibly do to you!"
You looked back and forth between the two. You just wanted to try and reason with the townsfolk but your efforts were in vain, because their panicked screaming wouldn't even give you a chance to let you talk. Soon enough, you saw more house windows lighting up, which you can't see as a good sign in any way.
"Please... PLEASE!" You tried to say, only to get a pitchfork thrown at your head.
"Oh, what's the matter, beast?" The frog said. "You scared? Well MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE COMING TO OUR TOWN!"
Your body tensed up as you heard more screaming around you.
"What... IS that thing?!"
"Oh my goodness... There's a monster in the village!"
"Agh! It's hideous!"
"So, I'm not the only one that's seeing this?"
"My wife left me... Oh and I don't like that thing either."
The stress you were feeling only heightened under all of the negative attention you were getting. Before you knew it, they all started wielding weapons, some going further outside to go around the house to get them, some going back inside, and the smallest amount of them were even picking them up right at their doorstep.
You looked around and the angry mob was only increasing in numbers and its clamor for your demise was only picking up in volume. A pleading look came across your face as you looked at the frog but it wasn't buying it. They were still aiming for you, and there was still no talking your way out of this. At all.
Now might be the perfect time to get out of there... while you still can.
"There's no way we can talk about this, is there?"
You looked at the frogs around you and in the far back, one of them shook their heads.
In that case, it was time to take another option, run as fast as those legs of yours can take you. Lucky enough to get out of the way of a few dangerous items thrown your way, you broke off into a sprint into some random direction that you hoped could squeeze past your attackers. Lucky you did that when you did, because the crowd was just starting to charge at you.
The creatures were talking among themselves while they were doing so as well.
"Hey! It's getting away!"
"Oh, it's not getting away that easily. Let's get it!"
They all were charging right after you, murder tools in hand, but you kept fleeing the scene, because that was the only thing you could do. Unfortunately, before you could proceed any further, you ended up tripping over a twig on the ground and face planting into the dirt. Looking up, you saw an axe in front of you, its head buried into the ground. It has to have been thrown into the ground by one of the people chasing you. Speaking of whom, their cries for your death grew louder as you heard them approaching.
"Nowhere to run now, Monster!"
You were just about to get up, while looking behind yourself, but then you were shocked to find out that one of them launching themselves towards you, a knife in hand. You ducked just in time, but it went just over you and landed on the ground.
Quickly getting to your feet, you quickly strafed to your right when you caught a glimpse of another pitchfork being thrown at you. Not fast enough, however, because the side of it still caught you, giving you a deep cut on the cheek that it struck.
"What the heck is your problem?!" You exclaimed at all of them.
"Die, monster!" You heard a feminine voice say from behind.
She raised her axe above her head in front of you, and by instinct, you dodged it by jumping sideways and grabbing its handle. You tried pulling it away from her, and even though she showed some resistance, you were able to take it away and disarm her before kicking her on her back.
Turning your attention back to everyone else, you decided you've had enough and swung your newfound weapon back and forth as a warning to all of them, still trying not to hit any of them. They all stepped back in fear of being hit, hovering just above your weapon's range.
"Stay back!" You screamed, wide eyed before swiping again. "Back! All of you! I didn't run all around my city to get my ball back just to get ripped to shreds by frogs on two legs!"
One of the townsfolk gasped in surprise.
"It has one of our weapons!" A voice exclaimed in fear.
"Please! Stop-" You tried to plead.
Still, you didn't even get a chance to explain yourself because their assault never stopped. Three of them jumped right towards you and they tried to stab you with their pitchforks. You were forced to block their attacks by parrying their weapon strikes with your axe. After that, two more frogs with knives came up to you and went to slice you up, clumsily, you stumbled out of the way and tried to push one of them away with the butt of your tool's handle. It stunned him for a short while, but the other was still looking to defeat you. A quick look around later, you realize that the rest of the mob was closing in on you and you had to escape quickly before they all surrounded you and closed off any kind of escape that you could possibly have.
You made your dash once again, only this time, the window was smaller than before, and it was only getting smaller as time went on. You had to hurry. Unfortunately, you didn't have all that much time yet, because they were all starting to surround you to the point that when you got to the other side, you had to kick two frogs in the face, and hit one of them with the back of your axe to get them out of the way.
You then looked behind you to find out that they were following close behind, reaching out to your legs with their tools to still attempt to inflict some kind of harm on you, and their attempts were actually successful. Because a long range spear in the from of a pitchfork was a part of their arsenal, some of them were able to reach your legs and as they poked and prodded at them, you had to do some slight shuffles as you ran to try and avoid them, trying not to trip and fall.
Not long after, you slashed at the tools they were using to attack you, hoping to knock them away or at least. In doing so, you failed to pay attention to what was in front of you because your head was turned behind you and as a consequence, you bumped into a tree, slowing you down a little bit, but you still managed to keep up your pace and run into the bushes.
However, surprisingly, you saw the mob suddenly stop. The frog in front dropped its knife and spread its arms to the rest of them, causing them to stop in their tracks. Looking behind yourself before stopping, you took one last look at them before you continued to run. As the gap in distance between you and the creatures was getting larger, you were still able to hear one last thing from one of them.
"Yeah, that's right! Keep running! You have no place in our village!"
The cheers of its peers filled the woods that you fled into but died off as you kept running and running.
| End of Chapter 1 |