Mikel Errins crept slowly and quietly along the shore of the pond. He’d seen the flash of green among the reeds and he had hoped that this was exactly what he had been searching for these last few days. It had been nearly 2 weeks already and still no progress had been made locating his quarry. Maybe this time would be different though.

Finally close enough, he gently pulled a few of the plants off to the side to find the creature staring at him with deep black eyes, flecked with yellow. It’s mottled green skin, slick with a slimy, cold, wetness glistened even in the dim light. 

He sighed with disappointment. “A common giant green frog.”

He grabbed a thin wooden trident off his back, and with a quick thrust, speared the rather sizable amphibian through the body. It tried to leap away, but the barbed points kept it held fast. Mikel didn’t like to let animals suffer, and so dispatched it swiftly. He was getting rather tired of frog legs and wild onions for dinner, but it was much better than going hungry.

He found a secluded rock overhang not far away and set up his camp there. It was starting to get late, and he was in mostly unfamiliar territory deep in the woods. An accident out here spelled certain death and only the scavengers would find his body. He wanted to get back home, but traveling in the dark was always too risky a maneuver, and so he decided against it.

It took him a little while to get the mostly damp wood going into a decent campfire. He had been thankful for coming across that large chunk of pine sap earlier in the day and was able to use some of it to get the fire going hot enough to sustain itself. He set the cooking pot over top of the now red coals and filled it with water. To this he added in the legs of the 4 frogs he’d found that day, and a handful of wild picked vegetables and mushrooms.

While his dinner cooked he reviewed a crudely drawn map. It was a copy of his fathers old map of the surrounding area, and despite Mikel’s poor artistic skills, was surprisingly accurate. He studied it thoroughly, making sure that he’d visited every single area that had been marked. He’d been to them all, except for one location, and he really didn’t want to go there.

Drommonds Scar. A small swampy area nestled within a large, and nearly inaccessible plateau. It was dangerous to go there, they'd all been told as kids. There’s big spiders and venomous snakes, and the ghost of old man Drommond still lingers, looking for fresh victims. He’d made leather coats from the hides of childrens and built his house with their bones. Father had said Drummond had been dead and gone for many generations, but they shouldn’t ever go there regardless.

Mikel sat watching the flames of fire slowly burn away the wood, creating an enticing warmth in the chilly evening air. It was at times like this, when he’d think back to happier times, watching his mother cook, or seeing his father work at the alchemy station. He’d give nearly anything for another day like that.

He remembered the day when he asked his father why they still needed potions and salves when there was magic in the world. His father looked at him and laughed. “Magic can be good and is quite powerful, but it’s limited. When the practitioner of spells is too tired or simply cannot be found, who will heal your cuts? Who will soothe your burns?”

His father was a brilliant apothecary and the family made a decent living from collecting a strange mixture of ingredients  in the area and creating medicines with them. He’d helped save countless lives with the craft he practiced and passed down to his children.

Mikel wanted to travel and go on adventures, see the world, and fight legendary monsters. He was a dreamer at heart and only begrudgingly paid attention to his fathers teachings. Julia, his dear sweet sister, had the talent and ambition to carry on the family legacy the way their father wanted. Mother was always frustrated at trying to raise a proper young lady who wanted nothing more than to play with science.

Now they're all gone.

Devastating storms that summer killed crops throughout the area leaving a pitiful harvest when the weather started cooling. Everyone panicked, and rightfully so. They knew there’d be a famine in winter and many wouldn’t see the next spring.

Mayor Blevins came up with an idea that he claimed might just save them all. He knew that the glands of the rare ‘Wild Fae Frog’ could be harvested to create a powerful elixir said to be the most powerful aphrodisiac ever known. The wealthy would pay a fortune for it in the capital, and they’d have food to see them through. 

Father tried to talk them out of it, pointing out that they would hunt it to extinction trying to get enough for such an insane plan. He had tried to come up with a rational plan, but the mayor refused. Even as they started bringing in the rare frogs, father tried to hold out, begging them to stop. Only when the mayor held his family under the blade of a knife did father finally give in and start the process. After a few weeks, everyone was saying there were no more frogs to be found anywhere.

When the last elixir was brewed, the mayor, with two of his closest friends, set off for Ebonrock Hold. He promised to return as soon as possible with enough food to last everyone until the next harvest. His wife wasn’t there to see him off, and about a week later it was discovered why. She had been murdered before he left, and he knew he’d be long gone before anyone suspected it.. It was a sign that he had no plans of returning. In the end, he’d played them all for fools.

Father took over and tried to direct everyone into harvesting what food they could from the area while there was time. He still cared enough to help people, even after they had turned on him. He was like that though, always trying to show the world a better way to be.

Mikel stoked the fire with a thin stick. The flames burst alive again, sending sparks flying high into the night sky. His stew was almost boiling now and would be ready soon. He added a few herbs and a pinch of salt to the pot and gave it a stir. 

By the time the first snows arrived that year, Mikel’s father believed that they all might have a chance to survive. The people ate very little, and day by day grew hungrier. Skin hung on bones like laundry on a line, and the faces sunk in like they were already dead. The meager rations were enough to only keep them from passing over death's door.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

People do as they do though. There were some who took the most drastic of measures and decided they’d simply kill their neighbors and take their food for themselves. Bartrund the smith and his son, Maesner, kicked down the door one night and murdered Mikels father and mother as they were tending to a very sick Julia. 

There was nothing he could have done to save his parents from their gruesome fate, but he wasn’t about to let their transgression go without punishment. He grabbed his bow from the corner and burst from his small room putting an arrow into Bertrands chest without a second thought. The man screamed hoarsely and fell to the ground, the missile piercing through his lungs and heart.

Maesner turned to flee, but never made it out the door. As the arrow soared to its target, Mikel had flashes of the past growing up with the young man, only two years his senior. They’d played together and had even teased him about liking Julia. None of that mattered now as Mikel watched his former friend slump down to his knees and then fall face first to the ground.

Without his father’s expertise, Julia’s condition worsened. Even with the extra rations they’d been given, it was too little too late. She passed away only a few days later. 

When the springs came he buried his family and disposed of the remnants of the other two men. Nearly everyone in the town had died and those who hadn’t said nothing about how they survived. They’d packed up possessions and silently left, leaving Queen’s Hollow a town of the dead.

His stew bubbled violently now. He removed it from the pot and scooped the morsels onto a small plate. Considering what he had to survive on once, frog legs really weren’t so bad. 

He ate the meal in silence, wondering why he was bothering to do all this. The town had hunted all the wild fae frogs in the area to extinction, and his father felt so guilty over being a part of it, even if it were unwilling. He told Mikel that the elixir was meant for those already in love to strengthen their eternal bonds forever and shouldn’t ever be used against the unwilling.

Mikel knew that no matter what he did, he couldn’t ever bring his family back. He was searching the countryside for a little frog that may or may not still exist as a way to make some sort of amends for what had happened. Something that would maybe help his father find peace in the hereafter.

The sounds of the night grew louder, nearly deafening at times. Off in the distance a wolf howled, a mournful sounding wail it seemed. He added a few large logs to the fire and laid his weary head upon his pack. He’d check Drommond’s Scar, and then he’d probably be done with it all. He would finally be able to pack up his meager possessions and leave for somewhere new. A place that didn’t have so many waking nightmares.

***

Sometime, shortly after the sun had passed the noon mark, he had made it almost to his destination. He had followed the trails marked on the map and managed to find a way up to the top of the plateau from the side. Hidden narrow corridors and a few steep climbs, got him all the way to the top. He looked out over the trees down below, bright with their new green foliage, ready for spring.

He turned inward and saw the trunks of pines sticking out of the ground, long dead and blackened. The ground was soggy and moist, and the air was fetid with rot. Nothing about this place felt safe or welcoming to him, but he’d resolved to at least try and see this through.

He walked further in and soon enough his boots began to sink slowly into the reeking mud, each step becoming more difficult. He trudged, cursing silently to himself, until up ahead he spotted a bundle of reeds sticking up from the waters edge. He attempted to approach with some amount of care, trying his best to be quiet, but struggling each time he lifted his foot from the mire.

He finally got there and ever so gently parted the outer edge of reeds. Within he saw a bright green frog, with a soft pink underbelly. It stared at him with small black eyes, its mouthy pouch skin vibrating rapidly. Mikel let out a small laugh, startling the small frog and sending it off into the water along with 3 others.

He laughed loudly now with joy at this discovery, they hadn’t been exterminated after all it seemed. It was obvious that this place being so hard to access, along with the superstitious folk, had created a perfect sanctuary for the small creatures. They were here in abundance now, and with a small amount of effort, he could even reintroduce them to new habitats they once called home.

A large plop sounded behind him and a moan the likes he had never heard in his life. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end and the air around him seemed to take on icy cold that was anything but natural. He slowly turned, fighting against his body’s natural fear trying to freeze his muscles tight, and what he saw would haunt him forevermore.

A pallid corpse was rising from the water,  red flamelike energy burned within empty eye sockets. The skin around its face hung loosely, exposing bone and rotting black flesh. Hair and beard, intertwined with dead grass, clung to it giving a look of a creature that belonged in the morass. It moaned again, spewing putrid water from within its lungs. The sound increased in pitch louder and louder as it tried to gain a footing on unsteady legs.

Common sense finally overrode his rigid muscles and he turned to flee, forcing his legs to navigate the treacherous muddy bog. His legs ached at the strain of running so unnaturally, but he knew from the sound of its yelling, the creature had begun to give chase. He didn’t know what it was, and he didn’t want to find out either.

His feet began to hit more solid ground, and that was a relief to his already strained muscles, but he knew the chase wasn’t over yet. Time and time again it let out an otherworldly scream that sent chills down his spine. Each one seemed closer than before, and he knew any second it would be upon him.

He leaped over a fallen tree that had been long dead, its branches he ran into breaking apart from the force. He scrambled atop the boulder beside it, trying to gain a height advantage, though it was mostly a move of desperation. A gnarled clawed hand wrapped itself around his ankle trying to pull him back down. It had him, but he couldn’t give up.

“Let go damn you,” he yelled. He brought his other leg up and violently down, smashing the sole of his boot right between the creature's burning eyes.

It lost its grip and stumbled backwards onto the dead tree, a jagged branch piercing through its back and emerging from its chest, coating it in a viscous black liquid. It howled from either pain or simply sheer hatred, and began to claw at the branch. Mikel knew that it wouldn’t keep the creature down for long. 

He pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow, firing it off into the creature's skull. It found its mark and penetrated rotted flesh and bone, sticking into its head with a wet thunking noise. That didn’t do anything at all from what he could tell. It still thrashed and yelled, trying to be free.

He had to think fast. He knew that he couldn’t outrun it, so he’d have to find some way to kill it. He grabbed one of the large nearby branches and brought it down on the creature's head. There was a sickening crunch of bone and black ooze splattered out from it. He hit again, this time breaking the branch. He grabbed another, and followed through until it broke as well. He took a third and smashed it down, breaking it apart on the first swing.

Where its head once was, lay a pile of crushed bones and inky fluid running across the ground like little black tendrils amongst the piles of leaf litter. It had stopped its infernal moaning, but still languidly moved its arms and legs. Mikel screamed in frustration. 

He pulled off his pack and rummaged through it, finding his fire starting kit. He used the remaining pine sap to start a fire and within minutes had it burning hot. He turned back to the creature, debating in his head on how to best burn it to ashes.

It was now that he had a chance to really look upon the foul thing. It wore old worn boots and pants just like a person, though the garments had long been stained to match the dark mud it seemed to reside in. It was the coat that it wore that gave him enough reason to turn tail and flee that accursed place. What he had originally thought was loose and sagging skin was a stained coat with what appeared to be dozens of screaming faces crudely stitched together.

“Old man Drummond,” he whispered.

He didn’t know what this thing was now, but he knew that’s what it once was. Apparently his desire to kill had somehow kept him alive all this time. It was apparent that there was some truth to the legends after all. Did the adults tell the children those stories, but know the truth all along? Sadly he’d never get an answer to that question.

He took out a small handaxe and cut off an arm. It shuffled around on the ground slowly, as if still trying to claw his flesh. He tossed it upon the fire and added more wood to the blaze. He had no idea if it would be enough, but if this thing somehow reformed, he’d be long gone by then.

After some time, he had finished adding the entire corpse and it was now slowly burning away. A disgusting scent filled the air and he wanted nothing more than to get out of this place. He had no fear of the fire spreading, deciding that it would be best to just let it burn itself out.

He found what he was looking for, and so much more. If he lived long enough, he’d come back there with capable friends to back him up. He knew he got lucky this time, and didn’t ever want to risk anything like that again on his own. For now, the frogs could wait and they’d be just fine. For now, he just wanted to go home.