Knock knock knock!
Morg awoke bleary-eyed and somewhat dazed. She had been having the strangest dream in which her parents had become frogs. With a yawn and a stretch, Morg eventually looked down at what strange object she was clutching tightly against her chest. Her face paled instantly at the sight; two frogs in a glass jar.
Oh no no no no…
Morg hopped frantically out of bed and started towards her parents’ room, certain they would be sleeping there in their bed, just as they did every night.
Knock knock knock!!!
Morg jumped at the sound resonating through the front door. It was still dark outside- far too early for visitors. Morg felt a sense of nervousness begin knotting up in her stomach.
The little girl scrambled into her parents’ room, her anxiety only increasing to see the bed empty and well made. It made sense for her father to get up early for work. Though she had thought that today was one of his days off… But she couldn’t think of a reason for her mother to get up at this hour… She frowned deeply. Were they… were they really frogs?
“H-hellooo?” called a mysterious voice, tinged with a slight southern accent.
Morg froze. Now someone was inside her house!? How did they get in!? She paused, struck with realization; she had forgotten to lock any of the doors before going to sleep! Of course her parents hadn’t been able to lock anything up- they were frogs! Kicking herself internally, Morg ran back to her own room and hid herself under her bed, that precious jar still clutched tightly to her chest.
“Hello?!” the voice called out a little louder, “I-I’m here to help!”
Morg slid herself further beneath the bed, her back pressed up against the wall as the stuttering voice continued.
“You-you’ve turned s-someone into a f-f-frog, right? I can h-help you turn th-them back!”
Morg’s ears twitched at the prospect of a solution to her frog problem. Still, she didn’t know anything about this person and… how could they possibly know she had turned someone into a frog? Wasn’t that a bit too suspicious?!
With her heart thumping in her chest, Morg held her breath, trying to keep as still and silent as possible. But when something wriggled from inside the pocket of her dress, she couldn’t help but look down in repressed horror.
“AAEEEEGH!” Morg screeched in terror when she locked eyes with the bright green snake slithering towards her face. Still screaming, the young girl scrabbled out from under the bed and immediately toppled into the stranger who had just entered the room.
“AAHH!” cried the young man, equally startled by Morg’s sudden attack. “A-ah. N-no need to b-b-be alarmed,” he explained to Morg after realizing the situation, “Ua, that is, the sn-snake is a-a-a-a-a friend.”
Morg cast a panicked glance up at the stranger- a man, maybe in his late teens or early twenties. Rectangular glasses covered a pair of wide brown eyes, and a smattering of freckles ran across his rosy nose and cheeks. Light brown hair curved around his face, the wavy strands threatening to obscure his vision, and a necklace bearing a cross hung from his neck. He smiled warmly at Morg, dimples creasing his cheeks.
That bright green snake slithered out from under the bed, and Morg watched in alarm as it wrapped itself up the man’s leg and torso before draping itself across his shoulders and flicking its tongue out at her.
“S-s-s-see?” the man said, gesturing to the snake with a grin. Morg clutched the jar tighter against her chest.
“My parents did NOT turn into frogs,” Morg suddenly said matter-of-factly as she stared up at Henry with wide eyes. Henry glanced at the jar clutched in her arms, the two green creatures inside peeking out at him. “My parents are… are just out… running errands,” Morg continued to explain with a wavering voice.
Even if they ARE frogs, she thought to herself sullenly, it's not MY fault… for all I know, it was this guy who did it! How else would he have known!
But even as she thought this, her heart trembled with uncertainty. The man crouched down in front of Morg.
“Little witch, m-my name is Henry. Ca-can you tell me your n-name first?” he calmly asked.
Witch? The word floated through Morg’s mind but was quickly dismissed- there was already too much else to think about. Morg blinked away the tears rapidly gathering in her eyes and sniffled.
“Morg,” she said with a raspy voice before clearing her throat.
“Morgan Byrne. My name is Morgan Byrne.”
“Well Morgan Byrne, I-I know this m-may be hard-d to process… but it w-would seem that your parents…” Henry paused to glance down at the frogs Morg held captive in her jar. “Are indeed trapped in the b-b-bodies of frogs.”
At that single statement, Morg immediately burst into tears. It was all too confusing. Henry froze, instantly sorry he had said anything at all and completely unsure of what to do. Ua the snake flicked Henry on the back of the head with his tail as if in disapproval.
“It’s all m-m-my fault, isn’t it?” Morg cried out through sobs.
“N-n-no, no! This isn’t your fault, l-little Morg. You may have turned them into f-frogs, but y-you can’t-t blame yours-self.”
Morg’s sobs calmed into sad little sniffles. Ua sneakily slithered into one of Henry’s long black sleeves as the man said gently to Morg,
“Magic is p-powerfully unpredictable. You j-just have to learn how to c-c-control it. Then not only will you avoid harming your l-loved ones, you will also be able to p-protect them.”
Morg looked up at Henry with watery eyes.
“I can learn to control it?” she repeated in a small voice.
“Yes, y-yes of course!” Henry exclaimed, pulling Ua out from inside his sleeve and placing the snake back on his shoulders.
“I’ll take you to the kindest witch I know. She can turn your p-parents back int-to humans and teach you how t-to control your m-magic.”
Ua crept back into Henry’s sleeve, his bright green tail just barely poking out the end.
“How come you can’t teach me? And where is this witch?” Morg asked with a sniffle, still wary of the stranger, “And how do we get there?”
“Ah, I cannot tea-teach you because I am n-not a w-witch. The witch Maisha lives on an island i-i-in the Salish Sea. In the P-pacific Northwest; all the way on the o-other side of the coun-ntry. We’ll have to use your m-magic to get there, but I ca-an g-guide you through that.”
Morg paused in thought. The man seemed honest and kind, but she couldn’t help but feel uneasy about him. How did he know that she needed help? Who even was he? What was his motive? But at the same time, the little witch was in over her head. Her parents were slimy green amphibians and she had no idea how to remedy that. Now a too-good-to-be-true solution appeared in front of her - of course it was suspicious, but…
“How did you know I needed help?”
“Ah! Maisha i-is a fortune-teller. She saw that you needed help and asked me to fetch you. Maisha… has a ki-kind heart.” This last part Henry said with a gentle smile.
“O-okay! So um,” Morg continued, perking up a bit as she wiped her watery eyes with the collar of her dress, “you said we need to use my magic to see Maisha. How… do I do that?” Henry smiled and began rummaging through his pockets.
“You just n-n-need to dra-aw this … symbol…. wh-where did I…” Ua slithered out from inside Henry’s sleeve and around his shoulder before letting out a hiss, the snake’s black forked tongue flickering alarmingly close to Henry’s ear. Morg grimaced at the sight.
“What?! W-w-why would you put it th-there?” Henry exclaimed. Ua hissed again.
“Right, well I doubt she meant it that literally,” Henry said, as if replying to the snake. “Morg, will you l-look in your dress p-p-pockets for a card? There should be a s-symbol drawn on it?”
Still clutching her frog parents in one arm, Morg hastily plunged her free hand into her dress pockets, quickly finding the mysterious card.
“Excellent,” Henry said, closing the door to Morg’s room. “Now what does it say? There should be a symbol, yes?”
Morg nodded, scrutinizing the strange symbol. Sketched on the card in red ink was a triangle with a circle in its center. In the center of the circle was another circle and in that circle was a dot. On each of the three edges of the triangle was a set of three hash-marks. She looked up at Henry.
“Well g-go ahead,” he encouraged, “No n-n-need for ink, just trace the s-symbol with your finger.”
Setting the jar on the floor, Morg did as she was instructed, tracing the symbol on the door.
This… This is ridiculous.
Morg peeked up at Henry to see the young man wrestling Ua out of his sleeve again. Seeing that she was done drawing the symbol, Henry lifted the frogs off the floor and placed the jar in Morg’s hands.
“Go ahead then, open the door,” he encouraged. Morg reached a tentative hand towards the doorknob, cautiously cracking the door and peering through. When golden daylight began pouring into the room, her eyes widened in fascination and she opened the door even wider, slack-jawed and mesmerized. She was about to step through the threshold when she felt a hand on her shoulder, firmly pulling her back. Morg looked up at Henry inquisitively.
“I-I’m not sure what h-hap-happened, but this is the wrong place. Let’s cl-close the door and try th-the symbol again.” Henry instructed before his face contorted into a grimace.
“Ua, I know you’re c-c-cold but you have got to stop cr-crawling into my sleeves!” he scolded the snake, gently reaching back into his sleeve to tug at the stubborn creature hiding there. Ua, however, seemed determined to stay wrapped around Henry’s arm this time, for no matter how much Henry tried to tug and pry at Ua’s body, the sneaky snake didn’t seem to budge.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
With a huff, Henry finally managed to yank the snake free of his forearm. But having used a bit too much force, the young man accidentally flung the slithering creature away from himself and directly at Morg!
With wide eyes, Morg watched the menacing snake fly through the air, coiling and writhing like some nightmarish monster. The little girl leapt away without thinking, but unfortunately the snake still landed with a thud against her chest. Morg squealed with terror as she fell onto the dusty ground with an “oof.” She suddenly felt a shoe land in her ribcage, sending a shock of pain through her torso.
“HEY! WATCH I-” Morg’s voice cut off abruptly as soon as she opened her eyes. Sunlight warmed her face and a bustling crowd of people flowed around her like a river. Creatures of all different shapes and sizes surrounded her, some tossing strange glances her way, some ignoring her completely. But so shocked at the circumstances was Morg that the young girl didn’t even notice the stares of the people around her; one minute, she had been in her bedroom, and the next… well where on earth was she?
Morg leapt to her feet, hoping to return through the mysterious door she had presumably fallen through. However, not knowing which direction she had come from, nor what the door should even look like, she realized the situation to be rather hopeless. What’s more, the strange man Henry was nowhere to be seen! Morg fumed silently and stamped a foot. That man was useless! She thought spitefully.
Just then Morg felt something slithering up her arm, hidden beneath her clothes, making her heart stop momentarily. She slowly looked down, horror taking hold of her when she spied the tip of a narrow green tail disappearing into the sleeve of her dress. Afraid of directly grabbing the snake, Morg began waving her arm wildly about, hopping up and down and screeching,
“Get OFF me, GET OFF ME, get off get off get OFFF!!!!”
It was a miracle she managed not to drop her jar of frogs with all the reckless dancing about. The passerby around her all paused to stare at the young girl, their eyes gleaming as if watching some amusing spectacle.
Ua clung on for dear life inside Morg’s sleeve, determined not to leave a nine-year-old kid alone in a city of demons. No matter how formidable of an opponent Morg was, this child was no match for the scolding he would get from Maisha if he let Morg wander around WūChéng without him. The mere thought made Ua coil more tightly around the girl’s forearm.
Twirling and jumping about, Morg accidentally bumped into a pot-bellied stranger and fell on the ground once again.
“I’m sorry, I’m so-” Morg froze mid-apology when she glanced up at the person’s face- they wore a monocle attached to a gold chain and had a white mustache that drooped down their lips. But Morg noticed none of this because… this person had the head of a squirrel!
“孩子，你做迷了路吗?”
Morg let out a short scream and scampered away, only to trip over someone even shorter than her. They wore a necklace of pearls around their scaly neck and walked with a cane, though Morg had accidentally kicked them and sent them sprawling face first in the dirt. That someone raised their fish head and started chasing Morg, whacking the poor girl with their cane and shouting,
“BLUUUUUb blublublub! Blub BLUB blubb BLUUUU!!!”
In her frenzy to escape, Morg toppled into a vendor’s stall, breaking one of the cart’s wheels and spilling soup all over the street. Several unlucky passers-by gave disgruntled looks at Morg when their clothes got splashed by the pinkish-brown liquid. The vendor- an elderly looking man with a crooked nose and a third arm growing out of his back- began attacking Morg with a ladle while the fish person continued to smack Morg with its cane. Morg took a fearful step back and felt something squish beneath her feet. She looked down and lifted her now sullied shoes, only to find a deflated eyeball plastered on the ground directly where her foot had been.
With wide eyes, Morg’s gaze flitted across the contents of the unspilled buckets of soup; tongues, eyes, and suspiciously flesh-colored mystery chunks floated on the surface.
Were there human eyes in there, too? Were they going to try to eat her eyes??
Morg shrieked again and covered her eyes with her free hand, then sprinted as fast and as far as she could, brushing and bumping into people as she fled without stopping. Of course Ua wanted to help the little witch, but she moved about too sporadically- it too everything he had just to stick by her side!
Eventually the young girl crept into an empty alley and hid. She checked the jar in her hands, making sure the two frogs were still there, then hugged the jar to her chest and burst into tears.
“女孩子，你为什么这样不快?”
Morg’s head shot up, but when she realized the person who spoke was just a regular human boy, she relaxed a little. She jumped to her feet, but didn’t run away. Ua hissed menacingly from inside her sleeve but, seeing as she couldn’t do anything about him, and that he hadn’t hurt her yet, she just ignored him.
“Hmm, perhaps you speak English?”
Morg felt a little shocked when she could understand his words. She looked the boy up and down. He couldn’t be more than two years older than her, maybe 11 or 12? She nodded slowly.
“Are you lost? Are you looking for someone?”
“I-I’m looking for… um… I’m looking… for Henry?”
“Oh! Henry! I know Henry! I just saw him!”
Morg stared at him, feeling something was amiss. Henry hadn’t made it through the door though… right?
“…really? ”
“Yes of course!”
Ua hissed again. The boy flashed a smile and said, “Quick, I saw him this way, follow me!” He grabbed her hand and started pulling Morg further into the alley. Morg snatched her hand away, suddenly not wanting to follow the boy.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, moving to grab her hand again. Ua suddenly sprung out from Morg’s sleeve and snapped at the boy’s hand, his tail coiled around Morg’s wrist for support. The boy in turn grinned broadly and snatched his hand out for the snake’s neck. Morg dodged and raced out the alley, Ua still clinging safely to her arm. When she looked back, the boy’s limbs were suddenly twice as long, as if he were walking on stilts. His smile stretched all the way up to his cheekbones and his teeth had grown long and jagged.
“Please come back little girl, human flesh tastes the most delicious kekeke!”
Morg felt her hair rise as she raced into the street and ran back the way she came, her eyes wide and her heart pounding frantically.
“Stop! Stop her! She stole my frogs!!” The boy cried before shouting something in a foreign language. All the eyes in the street now focused on Morg. She glanced down at her parents and kept running, not knowing what else to do. All at once, a crowd of ghastly faces surrounded her- a woman with an apparently melting face on her left, someone wearing an ornate mask on her right, a man with too many eyes and too many legs in front of her- all shouting angrily and closing in on the frightened little witch. Ua hissed, now wrapped around Morg’s shoulders, snapping at the hands that grabbed and snatched at the young girl and her frogs.
Morg clambered through gaps between legs as best she could, trying to escape, when suddenly she felt her feet lose contact with solid ground as someone grabbed her by the collar and dangled her squirming body above the crowd. Ua quickly slithered back into Morg’s clothes as if hiding. Clutching the jar tightly to her chest, she peered into the face of her captor and felt her soul leave her body.
It was the three-armed vendor whose cart she’d destroyed! She was done for. Water welled up in Morg’s eyes and she couldn’t help but tremble in fear. The man started speaking in a language Morg didn’t understand. With vigor, he pointed at the frogs in Morg’s hands, then flicked her forehead with one of his alarmingly long and clammy fingers. Morg flinched, then continued observing with wide and frightened eyes. He then pointed at the boy, who once again looked like a normal boy, and spoke with a reprimanding tone. The crowd tossed strange looks toward both the boy and Morg, looking less and less vicious. The boy started arguing loudly with the old man when a large wolf stepped out of the dispersing crowd. Morg only caught a glimpse of the wolf’s black, grey, and reddish markings before she abruptly turned into a tall woman wearing a fitted pine green dress with long flowing sleeves, reminiscent of a kimono.
As soon as the woman appeared, the boy’s aggressive expression turned to one of fear. He disappeared from sight in the blink of an eye, leaving only the three-armed man and the mysterious woman. The remaining two began conversing. When the woman spoke, her voice was calm and her body still. The man, on the other hand, was so animated, that he began swinging Morg around while he spoke. Seeing this, the woman lost her patience with the man and plucked Morg from his third hand, tucking her by her side. Morg wanted to escape, but the woman held her firmly.
When the three-armed man eventually left, the woman knelt down beside Morg.
“你叫什么名字?”
Morg just stared at her blankly, still trying to wrestle her arm from the woman’s grasp.
“你会说中文吗?” the woman tried.
“English? Do you speak English?” She said with a mild accent. Morg stared at her fiercely, not sure if she wanted to respond this time.
“I speak English, but I’m not going anywhere with you! Or with anyone else!”
The woman smiled, releasing Morg’s hand as she said, “Where are you going to go then?”
Morg paused.
“I-I’m… um…”
Where was she going to go? Where was she even trying to go? At this point, Ua poked his head out of Morg’s sleeve, almost sheepishly as Morg continued to ponder.
She had no idea where she was. Maybe she could find her way home, but more likely she would run into someone else like that creepy boy who wanted to… eat her? Seeing the woman already walking away from her, Morg rushed to catch up. However, she still felt suspicious of the woman, so followed her at a distance in the crowd, doing her best to fit in with the strange creatures that seemed to make up this city.
Morg followed the woman like this for a couple of minutes until she lost sight of her. She sighed. Now what was she supposed to do?
“Gah!” A firm hand appeared on Morg’s shoulder, making her yelp with fright.
“If you want my help, stop hiding in the shadows wasting time.”
Morg spun around and peered up at the woman.
“I’ll take you back to the human world,” she said. Mild annoyance laced her voice as she fanned herself with a crimson folding fan, hardly sparing Morg a glance. “Stupid human. How’d you stumble in here anyway?” It was a rhetorical question, but Morg didn’t realize this and answered.
“I-I’m looking for someone! I, um, well…” Morg wasn’t really sure what to say. Should she tell the woman that the frogs in her jar were actually her parents? That would be believable here, right? In the end, Morg fumbled through the pocket of her dress and pulled out the little card that had led her here.
The woman took the card curiously, collapsing the folding fan with a stern expression when she saw the symbol on the back. Now she stared at Morg, her dark eyes boring holes in the young girl’s heart.
“Where did you get this?” she asked in a voice that made Morg want to cry.
“I, um, well…” she paused and took a deep breath, “well… I turned my parents into f-frogs, and th-then this guy showed up saying he could…”
“Wait, you what?”
The woman stared down at her and her jar of frogs and let out a “hmmmm,” tapping the collapsed fan against her chin in thought. At that moment she finally noticed the snake shyly peeking out of Morg’s sleeve, as if afraid of being chastised. Indeed as soon as the woman saw him she snatched him up out of Morg’s clothes, the poor creature dangling by his neck.
“You! Ua! Why didn’t you show your face sooner, eh?!”
Remembering the way the snake had desperately protected Morg from the spooky demons earlier, Morg couldn’t help but protest.
“L-Let him go!”
The woman glared at Morg, causing her to shrink back a couple steps. With a “tch!” the woman tossed the snake at Morg, which landed against Morg’s chest with a thud before slithering back into the confines of Morg’s sleeves.
“Let’s go see what that woman is plotting,” she muttered under her breath as she stole Morg’s free hand and began dragging her along. They stopped in front of a nearby shop, and the woman drew a symbol on the door, similar to the one Morg had drawn earlier. Just like when Morg had drawn the symbol, when the woman opened the shop door, the scene through the doorway looked like another world entirely.
In the city where Morg had found herself lost, the sun hung low in the sky and the streets were bustling and brimming with life. When they stepped through the threshold, they entered a quiet little town. The sun had only just risen, and the sound of little bugs and birds filled the air. Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted, low and eerie.
“Wh-where are we?”
The woman gave no reply. Even so, Morg began feeling a little more confident now that they had left the overwhelming hustle and bustle of a city and entered a peaceful village.
“And who are you anyways? My name’s Morg.” The woman remained silent. “And where was that just now? And why did some of those people seem…. Weird. Was I hallucinating?”
“…”
“Do you really think this woman can help me get my parents back? I really didn’t mean to turn them into frogs, I don’t know how it happened! I-I was just so worked up and I lost my temper, but I really didn’t mean to. When can we turn them back?”
“Stop asking questions,” the woman growled. Morg stopped talking, feeling a little frightened by the woman’s harsh tone. Seeing her crestfallen expression, the woman sighed.
“Shān Sōngbǎi. You can just call me ‘Song’ if it's too hard to pronounce.” She said, pinching Morg’s cheek.
“Let’s go.”
Morg froze in place, momentarily stunned by the woman’s almost affectionate gesture. After coming to her senses, the young girl hurriedly caught up to walk beside Songbai, stealing curious glances at the mysterious lady from time to time.
Songbai led them to the forest surrounding the village. They followed a trail that wove through the towering pines for a little over a mile, winding up in a little clearing. At the back edge of the clearing sat a hut, the windows leaking a dim orange glow onto the garden patch out front. Songbai led Morg toward the little abode. Warm light spilled across the doorstep when Songbai opened the door. Taking a deep breath, Morg followed behind the woman, and the two of them stepped inside.