“My people are normally spread out amongst the pools. As a result of that, we need to call into the abyss when we want to meet one of our kind to have some of our tadpoles.”

The three onlookers nodded their heads in understanding

“So we stopped you mid-way through your flirting?”Egosum interrupted

“Yes! Exactly. I mean, how demotivating do you think that is? Hours on hours on hours of trying to get a girl's attention and then you guys start chasing me all over the place. Not cool.” The frog had been trying to explain his annoyance for the last few hours to the onlookers.

“How long have you been trying?” The little caecilian spoke up.

It grumbled something under its voice.

“What was that?” She put her clawed hand to her chin.

“I said three years! Stop asking me. It’s embarrassing.” The trio looked amongst themselves in amusement.

“And you said it was your job....how long does it normally take to find a mate?” Cinera egged him on.

“A little shorter than that.” He looked defensive as he spoke.

“How much shorter?”

They all watched as he squirmed under their gaze.

“Just…two years… less.” They stilled as he finished.

“It takes about a year to find a mate normally? Did something happen to your people? Was there a disease, a predator, or maybe you guys are just small in number so they are picky?” The caecilian felt for him and tried to find an out.

The familiar situation began to eat at her amusement while the other still maintained the shit-eating grin that plastered their expressions.

“Why can’t you get a nice slimy girl to come say hi?” She had the beginnings of tears welling up in her beady eyes.

The frog looked into the distance with a stoic expression.

“You see this scar?” He motioned towards his injured face. “Well, in my people's culture, scars are a thing to be shunned and repulsed by. If you have a scar you are screwed. Even a scarred female won’t look in your direction. It's just the guys that are put down! It's unfair!”

“So the cool eye scar is considered trashy and no girl will look in your direction once they see you?” Egosum could hardly believe it.

“Yes. It pains me to the core. I got it while fighting off a walking shiner. The thing came out of nowhere and scratched my face good. I live with shake cause of it.”

The mood was heavy amongst the two marital strugglers.

“You guys should go out together.” Cinera chirped up.

They both turned to her with complete looks of disgust.

Their eyes darted to each other, turning their expressions an even deeper shade of horror.

“Ugh. You are freaky. We are different species. I have thought of some horrible things in my loneliness but even I have standards.” His voice sounded near to gagging as he fought the words out.

“I agree with fake Coyotl over here. I can do much better than trying to crossbreed.”

Egosum looked at the pair with a slight amount of amusement flitting across his face.

‘It’s not thaaaat weird. It was common practice to cross certain amphibians together in Quetulopus’ holdings. The offspring were usually stronger for it. Usually. I guess that did come out as horrific monstrosities sometimes but it wasn’t that bad.’

“Hey, didn't hurt to suggest it.” She tried defending herself from the two.

They scoffed and turned from each other as a show of dismissal.

“Wow. Let's move on from that then. I want to ask you some more stuff about the pools. I felt completely lost when I hit the water. My body was weightless and my sense of up and down was long gone. Your call was the only way I got out.”

Tenocolotl’s face turned up in confusion.

“You followed my call through the abyss? You, the toad, followed my, the abyssal hopper’s, call to safety?” Every word he said was filled with disbelief.

He let out a sigh after a few seconds.

“I guess that explains how you snuck up on me. Not many beasts can succeed in that.” He sounded mildly impressed.

“A walking shiner can.” The peeved caecilian spoke under her voice for none but the toad to hear.

He fought off a smile before talking.

“What exactly is this ‘abyss’ as you call it? It feels…empty. Not even a single drop of energy was present. I tried to use my own Qi and it just slowly disappeared.”

The frog must have thought what he said was the funniest thing he had ever heard as he began to cackle.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Hahaha. Of course it did. It’s the abyss. You would have better chances boxing a disarray darter than using mana in there. You need to be abysally aligned for it to even allow you to feel halfway comfortable with swimming in it.”

He tapped his webbed hands on the ground in thought.

“My people can only traverse it because we were blessed by the goddesses. It's normally a death sentence if you fall in. I guess you could say you owe me your life.”

“Oh, how kind of you. Back to the topic at hand. How will we be able to meet more of your kind at the meeting? What’s the route, technique, or whatever we will need?”Egosum was growing increasingly tired of the way he spoke.

Every sentence was crafted to make him sound like a moron.

“Well there really isn’t anything any of you can do to find the meeting. It will be a subspace created by the abyss’ water so my talents will be required for any of you to tag along.”

Egosum fought back the groan that wanted to be released.

“Alright. How many days from now do we have to meet up?”

“Five days from now, I will be leaving as the sun crests the pools. You can find me at the closest edge where the pools begin amongst the spagnum. You should have crossed it on your way here. I will be calling for you. Don't be late.

“He turned from the trio with a flick of his head.

“Oh yeah, only one of you can go. I have my own limitations after all.” He leapt into the black water with barely a plop and disappeared into the murk as if he had never been there in the first place.

-

He could feel the aches wracking his body, the months of nonstop action and draining had left him nothing but a husk of his former self.

‘That must be her plan. If I am too weak to run, then I have to keep helping her.’

He could feel her presence slinking closer and closer to where he had plopped onto the mud to rest.

‘I need to get out of here now or I won’t have another chance.’

He dropped the letter onto the ground and fled for dear life.

The muck flung him hundreds of meters forward. He stretched his tense senses as far as they could reach in every direction. If she felt him fleeing, it was over before it even began.

Every mountain he crossed was another step further from his master's control he was.

The old volcanos that sat around the school smoked with ashes of molten earth.

They quickly became pinpricks in the distance as he made ground.

After several days of traveling as fast as he could master with his limited mana, he came to a stop. He was confident that he had gotten away from Cihuatlatoque, the head wetlands witch of the Embermount School of Wizardry.

His body dropped to the ashy base unceremoniously.

“I’m…..finally…free!” He couldn’t help but shout at the top of his lungs. Tears of joy poured from his face as he threw his hands into the air above him in triumph.

“Free from what?” His heart literally stopped beating for a few moments as the deepest state of fear Quetinctol had ever felt poured over his body.

His eyes flew open, and the imposing figure of his master was standing right overhead.

‘Auditory and visual hallucination at the same time? That has to be rare.’

“Nope. I don’t buy it. You aren’t actually here. I left hat old bag in the dust.”

He couldn’t believe his eyes or ears. There was absolutely no way that she had followed him all the way here. It was insane.

“Old bag?!” She exclaimed loudly into the cool night air. Her eyes glowed with a vibrant orange that he had only ever seen in her line.

He gulped down the spit that pooled in his mouth.

He took in a few whiffs of air.

Her scent wafted off of her robes and over to him.

His heart sank and a cold chill ran over his entire body.

“Ah, I see you finally accepted reality. Took you long enough. Now that you understand, I expect an apology.” She crossed her warty arms and looked down at him imperiously.

The old salamander shot to his knees and slammed his head to the ground.

“I am so so so so sorry! Please forgive!” He refused to look up at her.

“Hmmmm. Okay, I accept it.”

He let the breath he was holding onto fall from him as the tension disappeared.

“But I want an explanation on why you made me come all of the way out here to drag you back. I mean really. Not ever a word to your beloved master before you took oft. How cruel. My old fragile heart almost couldn’t believe it.”

He slowly looked up to her glowing eyes.

“Please, mam, I left a note that described why I needed to leave. You must have found it. I left it in my normal hiding spot.” She scoffed.

“You mean this thing.” She withdrew a soggy piece of paper with mud and ink smeared across the surface. “ I can’t even read this. What am I supposed to do with this shit?”

His heart sank once again.

“I tried. I swear I needed to leave immediately. I have a great reason. You just need to listen to me.”

Her brow creased and she motioned for him to continue.

“Well, you see, my sole surviving student has been forced to roam the wilds of the world for the last month without a hint of guidance. You know how dangerous the world can be and he was only a toadling the last time I saw him. He can’t be much bigger than the size of my fist by now.” He clutched his hands together to try and add some emotion to his speech.

“And this was enough reason for you to just run away in the middle of our experiments? To go help one of your students? And a toad? I am surprised you willingly took one as a student. They are horribly mana nonconductive.”

Quetinctol looked at his master's warty skin and large poison-filled glands.

The toad before him was right despite her own overwhelming abilities with the winds of mana at her control.

‘Maybe they are prone to the extremes? I wonder how he is still doing? That little blighter was always an interesting one.’

“He was talented, and he had the drive. Didn’t even shy away when I projected my intent around the ponds as a tadpole. A tadpole! I am telling you he is something special.”

He tried to convince her of his access.

“And the only other living amphibian from your little project. I understand. Why didn’t you just tell me you needed to leave then? Look what you cause. We are so far away, it's ridiculous.”

His eye twitched as she spoke.

“I did say it. Many times in fact. Hundreds if my memory doesn’t fail me which it doesn’t.”

She looked confused for a second before a realization dawned on her.

“Oooooooh. That's what you were always going on about. I forgot about that. Should have tried harder. You didn’t seem that energetic when you talked about it.”

His draw dropped open.

“You drained me day and night. What did you expect?!”

He was screaming as the emotions took him over.

“Woah. Calm down there. You will have to accept my apologies. If this means so much to you then you are free to go.”

He took in a deep breath before adding a heroic tone to her speech.

“Head out into the wide world. Track your lost disciple's movements. Fulfill your oath with the little shit. Once that is all done, come back to me to help me continue my projects. That is an order”

His shoulder fell in defeat.

“Yes, mam.”