Twenty minutes later, he found himself entering the Archipelago hut near the edge of the city with a list of items pulled up on his phone.

The musk of dried insects and humid vegetation stunk the air. The hut was spacious enough that calling it a small shop was not a wrong description. Shelves of fauna and flora that lined the walls stopped at a door and cashier booth. Unlike the rest of the hut, the door seemed reinforced with a darker-colored wood and a chrome padlock hanging off the door latch.

Several minutes later he stood in front of the peeling wood with a handful of items. Unfortunately, the curmudgeon of a store owner that he met the night was not behind the counter. Walker had always wondered how these stores dealt with theft because of the seemingly lack of security. If Walker was raised any differently, he just may have walked out of the store right then and there.

He spotted a dingy bell standing alone on the table in front of him and tapped it. A few sputtering dings later, the door behind the table creaked open, and the store owner hobbled out. He leaned on a tree branch of a walking stick with every step as his feet lagged behind him. Crooked glasses sat upon his crooked nose, and the silver hair that dared grow on his reached for the ceiling.

He limped to the table, grabbed something from underneath the table, and dropped a cashier machine on the table. A plume of dust erupted, eliciting multiple moist, hacking coughs from the aging man. Walker let the items cascade from his arms onto the table with as much elegance as he could muster.

The man eyed the items, then glared at Walker. “Quite the diversity of items here.” The old man stared at him, “What are you attempting to accomplish with a landing net?”

“Trying to catch some frogs.”

“What kind?”

“Wilting Frogs.”

He cackled, “You are severely underequipped for that task. Welting Frogs can hop short distances extremely quickly. And a single graze of their moist skin could kill a man eight times over.”

Walker eyed his items, he picked out: a plastic bucket with a top, a net, a wrist brace, and some work gloves.

“How so?”

The old man answered his question with another question, “Why do you want to acquire poisonous amphibians anyway?”

Walker pursed his lips and said, “I like frogs.”

The man shuffled around the desk to face Walker.

“You’ve dislocated your wrist.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“What-“

Quick as a military wife shacking up with another guy after he left on tour, the man’s hand whipped forward and grabbed Walker’s swollen arm.

Black dots pixelated his vision and pain wracked from his arm to his testes. Walker’s other hand clawed at wood as he endured the initial shock.

The carved wood walking stick hit the ground with a clatter. The man’s other hand grabbed his arm and promptly relocated his wrist into its socket.

“Should I come back another time?”

And just as fast as a married man pulling out of his decades-younger mistress, the man let go of his wrist.

Both heads turned to the other side of the store where the voice originated from. Clad in leather with chocolate curls and a smirk, a woman sauntered toward them.

“Sonya, pleasure seeing you today,” the man coughed.

“You too, Egor.”

She slid past Walker to bend at the waist and grab Egor’s walking stick. Walker’s relocated wrist throbbed in response.

“How’d you…”

He rotated his wrist, drew his hand into a fist, and flopped it around a bit, “It’s fixed,” Walker proclaimed.

“Dislocated mine several times in my youth. Now it just pops in and out whenever it wants,” bragged the man Sonya called Egor.

Sonya hopped on the table that housed his items.

“Why are you buying a giant-ass net?”

She grabbed the shaft of his net and swung it around a few times.

Egor pulled out a notepad with names next to numbers and began picking up items plugged into the cashier.

“Big frog guy,” Egor responded.

“Mhm…”

She swung the net around a couple more times before dropping it on the table.

“Would the Wilting Frog task have anything to do with it?”

Walker cocked his head.

“You’re a part of PIP?”

She jumped off the table with a grin.

“Yup, signed up last year when I started working, but after my so-called-friends kicked me out of our team… I haven’t been able to do much.”

TW let out a laugh that turned into a series of hacking coughs.

Sonya shot him a glare.

“45.63 for the lot,” announced Egor.

Walker checked his wallet.

“Do I still need the brace?”

“Probably not as much as before, but since I helped you out how about you help me out and buy the brace?”

Walker paid the man.

“Do you even know how to find or catch poison frogs?” Sonya taunted.

“I was going to figure that out when I was out there.”

Sonya’s mouth contorted into a grin.

“Give me 5 bucks and I bet I can tell you exactly how.”

Walker furrowed his brows.

“Why should I pay 5 dollars when I can just look it up online?” Walker retorted.

“If it was that easy why has the task been open for a while now and hasn’t been completed?”

Walker smiled, “Let’s see then.”

He dropped a five next to the bell on the table.

Sonya grabs the 5 and turns to Egor who had been leaning on his stick and watching them silently with a face of stone.

“Can you tell us the best way to find and catch poison dart frogs for five dollars?”

Walker’s jaw dropped a bit, “Hey, wait a minute-”

Egor barked out a laugh, snatched the waving five-dollar bill, and pulled a sturdy flashlight from a bucket nearby.

Walker stood there, still confused, as TW pulled out a map and explained the process.

She held up the now marked-up map and flashlight with a cunning grin. Walker didn’t know if that was the best five dollars or the worst five dollars he ever spent, and that didn’t stop him from thinking through this decision either.

“Do you want to frog hunt with me tonight?”

A couple of seconds passed.

“You want me, a girl, to follow you, someone’s name I don’t even know, into a dingy swamp at night on short-term notice?”

“Yes… maybe a friend too.”

Sonya glanced at Egor who nodded in response.

Walker’s eyes ping-ponged between the two of them.

Sonya picked up Egor’s flashlight and flashed him in the face, “You’re walking in front of me though.”