The cool water sloshed against his skin as he realized where he was.

‘I really just dived into a dark abyss. How smooth.’

He turned his vision up to where the sky should have been shining down from and squinted.

Not an ounce of light filtered through the water.

Egosum channeled his Qi to his vision and took in his surroundings with the enhanced sense.

The normal flood of energy and bountiful information it carried was nowhere to be seen.

It was just black. Everywhere he turned his head was darkness.

Behind him, in front of him, to his sides, everything was a void that he couldn’t see through.

‘Goddesses damn this.’

He kicked up with his powerful legs in a bid to get to the surface as fast as possible. His webbed feet carried him with ease through the liquid but he never broke the surface.

‘What's going on here?’

He kicked once more.

The strong pushing of water did little to bring him close to the sunlight.

He felt a light tug on his Qi as he strengthened more of his body.

He focused internally on the source of the drain but couldn’t pinpoint its exact cause.

‘It feels like it's coming from everywhere.’

He looked towards his skin and watched as the Qi slowly diffused into the black water.

He locked his energy down like he had once done in the desert.

The feeling disappeared immediately.

‘Is the void around me sucking the power out of me because it is too empty of energy?’

The faintest hint of swampland Q began to dissipate before his eyes, dissolving into the black expanse.

He was conflicted about his next choice.

‘Do I keep kicking for the surface? I definitely should already be at the top. Do I go down?’

He looked towards his feet and the same abyss welcomed him.

As above, so below.

He began to swim down but felt no change in his equilibrium.

Nothing felt different.

It alarmed him to no end.

Swimming to the side was identical to swimming upwards.

His body slowly stilled in the water as he collected his thoughts.

‘I don’t know which way is up anymore. Did I ever? Should !-’

His thoughts were cut short as a familiar low rumble stole his thoughts away.

The water was filled with the vibrations of an amphibian's call.

It surrounded him with the familiar feeling of a comforting blanket.

He searched for its source to no avail. The motion had so thoroughly enveloped him that it was hard to tell where it originated.

He turned his full attention to his skin and just felt the waves bumping into him.

Slowly, his senses found exactly what direction it was coming from. He just needed to follow it now.

He kicked in the vibration’s direction and slowly felt the call increasing in magnitude.

‘Some actual progress.’

He could feel it battering against his skin when the faintest hint of sunlight broke through the dark water.

He readied his Qi as he grew close.

It was ready to come alive and capture the frog.

He slowly let his eyes pop above the surface and scan the surroundings. Across from him, the amphibian sat with its eyes closed with a serene look over its face. The low vibrations echoed across the surface in a completely undulating pattern.

All in one moment, his Qi lashed out for the moss that surrounded the pool.

The ground came to life with earthen tendrils under Egosum’s control. They whipped forward to grab the careless creature with speed even the caster hardly believed.

Its eyes barely fluttered before it was completely encased

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Egosum let a sigh escape his mouth as he clambered out of the confusion-inducing pool.

He could feel the frog squirming against his power.

Slowly, he turned it towards him and opened up just enough of the earth to look the creature in the face.

Its single, usable eye shot around as it tasted just the barest hint of freedom.

Egosum snapped his fingers, a new trick he had been practicing in recent weeks.

It turned its attention to him before struggling harder than before.

“You really need to figure out how to relax buddy.” He spoke in the guttural tones of oHppity to the horrified creature.

Its face warped with confusion as he spoke.

“A….toad?” The disbelief in its voice was palpable.

“What else would I be? A hawk?” It sputtered around in confusion.

“I uh, I don’t really, well, you have to… Hello.” It finally settled on a greeting after stumbling around with its words.

“Good. Hello to you too. I am Egosum.” He waited for it to respond.

“My name’s Tecolotl. Why have you trapped me?” It was still nervously squirming in its confines.

“Well, you ran away the last…three times we tried to greet you. Not very kind to run when sometimes is just saying hi.” He slowly opened the casing more and more to offer the frog some freedom before stopping just short.

“I believe you forgot my legs." It grabbed at the solid earth with frustration.

“No, I just didn’t free them yet. You look really flighty for some reason, and I would rather we get to have a nice long talk for now. Now, if you will excuse me for a moment.” He let out the loudest call he could manage and watched the frog flinch back.

“Gotta let my friends know here I am. Before we start, is there anything you would like to know from me?” He nodded in the frog's direction for it to speak.

“Can you let me go now?” He merely lifted one brow before asking him to continue. ”Guess not, well then. Um, why are you doing this?”

“Ah, a good question. It's gonna take a bit to explain but it should satisfy both our curiosities in time. I guess It all goes back to passing the impassable mountains.”

“The impassable mountains…” It repeated the words in disbelief.

“I know, not very impassable.” He barked out a laugh. “While crossing it, one of my friends, who just so happens to look like you, decided to jump off and disappear into a portal.”

“Spacial leaping!” It interrupted once more.

“Sure, now here we are. My friend is missing somewhere in this swamp, we are looking for him, and we find one of his species chilling out around some pools. So, I would like whatever information that could help us out.”

Tecolotl stared at him for a few moments before coming to a conclusion.

“What was his name?”

“He can’t talk from what I know, so I just decided to call him Coyotl.” The trog took on a contemplative look.

“I see. So, he is a little strange then?” He looked at Egosum for confirmation. “If he isn’t talking to you then he might an instinctive. No way to really tell, but that name is all too common in these marches. Coyotl has been the top name for the last two generations.”

“That doesn’t make sense. I said I came up with the name.” Egosum cut him off.

“Well, it doesn’t change the fact that it's common here. If your friend truly came this way then it isn’t much of a surprise if he will be hard to find. Now I don’t rea-”

The sound of shuffling startled him mid-sentence. He thrashed in his shackles to try and free himself to no avail.

“Egosum!” The familiar voice of Cinera cut through.

“Let me out, man. We are gonna die!” He couldn’t help but scoff in the frog's face.

“Oh yeah, my friends are gonna kill us both. You need to calm down.” He turned in the direction her voice came from. “Hey guys! I am over here!”

His call seemed to inflame the frog’s struggle even more than before.

The shuffling grew closer with each passing moment when the red and black figure walked into the clearing with the caecilian in tow.

“You found him!” She began to run towards him to the absolute horror of Tecolotl.

“I’m gonna die!” He screamed in hoppity at the top of his lungs.

Cinera faltered in her steps.

“He talks now?” Egosum nearly burst out in laughter before responding.

“He isn’t Coyotl. He just looks like him.” He watched as her shoulders deflated and she turned to question the look alike.

“Are you his brother or something?” Tecolotl reared back in disgust.

“How dare you! Just because we look alike doesn’t mean we are related.”

“If he looks like you, I get a feeling he is being overhyped.” The caecilian put in her two cents as everyone came to understand the situation.

“Whatever. It is always nice to find someone else to talk to. My name is Cinera. It isn’t every day that we meet another kinsman. Though, I guess we have been on a hot streak.”She rolled with the punches and introduced herself.

“They call me the hot streak.” The long worm-like amphibian to their side remarked with a sly grin tugging at the sides of her mouth.

“Oh shut it. You are a virgin like the rest of us. What do you go by?” She turned to the frog and waited for an introduction.

“I am Tecolotl. An abyssal hopper of the Ek Bahlam fiefdom.” He turned to Egosum. I feel like you can let me go now that we are all acquainted.”

“That’s funny 'cause I don't think so.” He dismissed the attempt and moved on to his next set of questions.

“We haven’t been here too long, but we haven’t seen very many amphibians. Truthfully just you two. If there would be more somewhere, where would that be?”

The frog looked side to side, nervous about how to respond.

“Not anywhere specifically at this moment. You would need to wait till next week for our gathering but you won’t have any way to get there. You need to traverse the abyss for that and only my people and Ek Bahlam can do that.”

The trio looked amongst themselves before Egosum spoke up.

“We can wait. I expect your kind help for that.”

The frog was getting increasingly testy.

“Listen, you don’t want to do that. The noble will be there, and he doesn’t take kind to change. Beyond that, I need to get back to talking with the pool. It’s kind of my job around here and others are relying on me to continue.”

Egosum slowly let the shackles holding him to the ground to dissipate. Tecolotl looked to his feet and then back to the pool behind him.

“You won’t make it before I can stop you. Consider this a show of good faith. All I ask is that you just listen to our plea. We lost our friend. My best friend.” He heard a low murmur from Cinera to the side.

“We have no other leads and no idea how to find him and you are our only hope currently. All I can say is that we would pay you back in whatever way you wish If you can help facilitate our meeting back up with him.”

He could see the frog's mind working away with thoughts hidden just below the surface.

He didn’t want to force the skittish creature into subservience any more than he wanted to the baby goblin he killed so long ago.

His feelings did little to change the fact that his options were limited. If it said no then they were back to square one and they had alienated one of the first amphibians they had met on their journey.

He clutched his hands and waited for a response.

“Fine. Just don't trap me anywhere ever again. It freaks me out really bad.”