He had grown so much since he fled the eternal vernal pools. He saw more of the world than even the most frontline of their warriors would have, confined to the swamps as they were.
A strange sense of fulfillment welled up inside him. He was officially a well-spoken, well learned, and now, a well-traveled gentleman. He might even thank the two bumbling idiots that captured him for dropping him off in this bountiful shop.
Now it was officially time to leave. He hopped around the floor looking for an easy to abuse path to freedom. The halls between the shelves showed the only real avenue of escape.
Traveling down the row of caged animals showed a distinct lack of amphibious creatures. It was quite strange to him given the many alchemical properties his people had, but it made sense the more he thought.
‘Why live in a shithole of a forest when the beautiful swamp he called home was not far off. Well, if I didn't drift too far at least.’
His thoughts took off on their own as fear tried to win him over.
What if he had drifted and what if the place he drifted to was so far away from home that he didn't stand a chance in getting back? Egosum shook his head as an act of physically forcing the thoughts away. He had to focus on the tasks at hand
He took one large leap to get closer to the shuttered window when a familiar figure startled him as he landed. In a glass cage, not unlike some of the other large, trapped creatures, sat the beaten and battered figure of the cat that nearly caught him the day prior.
‘Oh, how the tides have turned.’
Egosum walked over the sleeping mess in the cage and bumped it to awaken the prisoner. It startled awake as if terrified of another beating coming its way.
It saw him and relaxed slightly despite the beating Egosum had given it the day before. Regardless of how hard he hit it with his legs, the sheer number of wounds that covered it spoke wonders about how upset that hag must've been at it.
‘She probably thought it got bored and killed the goblin thing while she slept. Tough stuff. Shouldn't have been a stupid cat in the first place.’
“Oowa oowa.” The intense need to rub salt in the creature’s wounds tore through him and his trademark call blasted the thing before him. It bared its teeth and arched its back before hitting the roof of its short cage
‘Muahahah. Egosum two, stupid cat zero.’
He shot his tongue out to the cage to jostle it slightly for entertainment when the cat quickly backed up to one corner of the glass cell and deflated as small as it could.
‘How pathetic. A little provocation and it shies away in fear.’
“A stupid toad was the downfall of weeks of work and depleted my stock of rare herbs in its bottomless gluttony.”
“Oowa?” His heart dropped out of his chest as the harsh and poisonous words fell from the hags mouth. He turned his head slightly and was welcomed by the large eyes of the crone at floor level with him.
‘Oh fuck.’
“I can smell the frog bulbitis on your stinking breath. You will make a wonderful ingredient considering how much expensive shit you ate.”
Her hand moved from the ground where she was crouched to reach for him in his frozen state.
Breaking out of the feeling of complete dread, he leapt with every fiber of muscle in his back legs. A frog of similar size would have flown out of the window. He merely traveled to the end of the row. A far cry from safety, but better than nothing.
The witch burst into action with large steps carrying her deceptively far. Within a second, she was on him and lunged for the ground as he hopped out of the way.
“Oowa oowa, bitch! Leave me alone!” Egosum shouted out in common as she narrowly missed the rough grab.
“A sentient frog? Now that might just make all the shit you ended up eating actually worth it.”
‘My stupid dirty mouth’
With surprising agility, she bounded forward and swiped the ground for him only to miss by a hairs width.
“Don’t run, I just want to talk with you.” She tried to tempt him into indecision with her words only to reach for him as he turned around to look at her.
Another masterful dodge avoided her dry claws she would call her fingers.
“Evil bitch, eat ass and choke.” He shouted out in anger before diving under a shelf just out of her sight.
The huge rack housed the recently ransacked herbs and had to weigh ten times the old beldam. His perceived safety lasted only a few seconds as she lifted the large wooden structure all the way above her head and stared him down from above.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Now sit still you stupid thing!”
‘That is a horrifying discovery.’
Opting to take advantage of her lack of free hands to capture him with, he dived through her legs and deep into the other rows behind her.
The hag chucked the shelving across the room and out of her way as she turned around to find him. A momentary silence overtook the room as she lost sight of his retreating figure.
Egosum from beneath the animal-filled shelves, hoping to stay hidden long enough to find a way out.
“Come on out. I won't hurt you; I swear it.” The crone patrolled the rows, searching with her intense glare to find any traces of him.
“I'll take good care of you, ya know? You won’t have to worry about any wild animals coming after you or struggling to find food.” Her voice sounded sweeter than ever before. What an insidious trick.
He watched her dark leather shoes trudge along the floor. Before stopping a row away from where he hid.
“If you don't come out now, I might have to resort to some drastic actions.” The tone she spoke with wavered slightly as a loud cracking noise startled him.
The plank that held the lowest shelf off the ground was smashed into smithereens with her small shoe in the middle of the carnage.
“Shit, why did I make it so dark in here?” She had mumbled to herself so close to him, he could hear the phlegm deep in her lungs as she said each word.
“Fine. Don’t come out. I will find you and I will dice you up.” He watched her feet travel down the rows and over to his. If he could sweat, he would be pouring from every orifice.
She stopped a few good leaps away from him and stopped in his tracks.
‘Did she truly find me already? There's no way.’
“This is your final chance Felicity, find him or you are my next experiment.” Glass clinking together gave hints to him as to what his next hide and seek opponent was. Soft paws connected with the ground as his theory was proven right.
‘I guess the Egosum versus stupid cat game was still ongoing.’
He slowly crawled towards the other end of the wall, careful of any noises. The belly crawl proved horrible at gaining distance but effective enough to separate himself from the prowling cat by a few hops length.
Light sniffs drew his attention away from his actions. The feline seemed to pick up a smell as she walked closer and closer to his direction.
The stupidly slow crawl became a lot less careful than before as he started shuffling under the cluttered shelving.
The cat sped up her walk with the black leather boots trailing right behind her. The tension was high in the room. He would need to take the moment they discovered him to power through their guards.
Just as the pair got close to Egosum, their pace dropped.
‘It’s do or die right now. Let's do this shit.’ Power filled his back legs as he tensed up for the incoming brawl.
Each step caused him to be more and more on edge for the inevitable. Only a few more steps and he was done. They came to a stop as the cat sniffed the ground to his side. Its light blue eyes glowed brightly in the dark. He was only inches away now.
Right as he thought the jig was up the cat started to walk forwards again leaving him behind and draining all of the tension from his body.
His relaxation allowed his body to spread out and push the trash under the shelf around.
Light clinks made him freeze in place the same time his pursuers did.
‘Stupid shitty glass. This hag needs to learn to clean under her stuff.’
He glanced to the side that the pair stood. A few feet away the bright cat eyes stared straight at him.
‘Fuck.’
He shimmied out from under the shelf and started leaping like his life depended on it.
“Stop running my precious little toad.”
The strange supplication sent shivers down his spine as he bobbed and weaved in and out of danger. All cracks in the walls were way too tight for him to squeeze through leaving only the shuttered window as the final plan of escape.
His target was within reach. All he needed to do was leap and burst the wooden hatches open.
The pair behind him homed in quickly. The hag shattered wooden shelves like they were dry reeds while the cat ran in and out of the lower levels to reach him quicker.
“See ya never stupid beldam! Eat shit!
“Now that's not very nice!” The hag lunged for him on the ground, sliding across the densely packed earth like a runner going in for a base.
Egosum leaped with everything in him and went flying through the air and straight into the shudder. The wood shattered to pieces as he flew straight into it. Termites and wood dust went flying around him in a smoke screen.
“Dammit. I’m gonna kill that fucking thing.” The old witch screamed out loud as more crashes came from inside the shop. The door flung open, crashing off the hinges as they crumbled to pieces.She looked around the ground where she had seen the toad jump though and found nothing. The dry ground out front of the shop left no signs or signals as to where it might go.
“Argh. I'm going to murder something! Mother fucker!” She ran around the place in hopes of finding it hiding under the littered trash around.
“There is a bounty on a huge ass toad! Bring it to me and I'll give you 20 silver! Hear me now.” She roused the citizens that loitered around the streets. Young boys and women poured out of the houses in hopes of securing the prize.
Up on the roof of the alchemist’s shop, a lone toad sat overlooking the chaos unfolding. People were tripping, knees were scuffed, and babies were crying. It was a beautiful symphony to Egosum’s ears.
The angry lady paced the streets in hopes that someone would come up to her with her prize in hand. Not an insignificant number of times did a stupid human walk up with a lizard or turtle and claim it to be him only to be shouted at profusely.
Eventually, the daylight started to fade and the crowds below thinned out as they gave up the search.
Night finally overtook the sky and he found the time to slink out of the village and seek out safety. He leapt to the ground and looked back at the shop where the hag toiled away in the back room in anger.
He froze as light blue eyes glowed from inside.
‘Cut your losses you stupid cat.’
It bolted out the door and straight into an alley nearby, fleeing the irate human inside.
‘Guess it finally learned.’
He left the village borders, watching out for any bell ridden traps and made it back to the safety of the dark forest.
Loud howling and horrible screeches assaulted his ears as he hopped deeper inside.
Maybe it wasn’t so safe, but it was the best alternative to whatever the alchemist had in store for him.