A Frog-Boy’s Tale

The sigh grew into an agitated rustle that swept through the crowd like a chill wind. The Frog delegation, which had designed a plan of radical import, was strangely small, and many of its members appeared damaged. Frog-Boy, missing part of a leg, hopped awkwardly to the central rock to speak, but while his body was less than perfect, his voice was strong.

"In spite of many and repeated warnings from many of you, frogs have long lived alongside Who-Mans, and nothing any of you can do or say will change that fact.” A rather defensive beginning, thought some, but frogs will be frogs. “The young Who-Mans are especially fascinated by us, by our beautiful colors and graceful movements, and in spite of personal harm--uncounted injuries and even deaths--the Frog-Collective long ago decided to take it as our special task to introduce new generations of Who-Mans to the Green Realm.

"Some in the Collective even believed frogs to be favored by Who-Mans above all other beasts...that they...perhaps, even loved us...” A multitude of snorts and hisses burst out of the audience, causing Frog-Boy to swallow his sentimental gush in a startled gulp.

"Fantassssy!” cried out an incensed member of the Snake Consortium. “Frogs have broken our Co-Species Pact, and we suffer great hungers because there are so few of you! Last week I was driven to eat a toad whose foul aftertaste lingers even as I speak...a bitter experience that foolish frogs could have prevented had they not...”

Madame President interrupted what promised to be a long rant, saying brusquely, “While we commiserate with your digestive woes, Friend Snake, you must let Frog-Boy continue.”
The frog, buoyed by this unexpected Presidential support, proudly puffed up his throat until he was three times the frog he had been. “Call us foolish romantics, but our relationship with the Who-Mans was of profound significance!

"Or so we thought,” he added, deflating with a long sigh back down to a more diminutive size.
“You see, we entered the Who-Man’s lexicon. We became part of their stories passed down from generation to generation, tales rooted in greener days about creatures--fairy-folk and leprechauns and trolls and yes, frogs--who carried the powers that Two-Leggeds left behind when they became Who-Mans. Frogs became a conduit to the Green Realm, manifesting a message of faith in what lies unseen, that under our lumpy flesh lies a great and metamorphic beauty, that all Who-Mans needed to do was believe, believe in our green power, and to place their lips on our tender flesh....”

"Hah! They’ll eat you alive!” the wolves interrupted.

"Don’t be taken in by their welcome grin!” warned a skeptical crocodile.

“‘Happily ever after’ is a dead end!” called out the bears.

"Order!” Madame Lion demanded of the fractious crowd. “Let Frog-Boy speak!”

Shaken by the lioness’s roar and the anger of the other animals, Frog-Boy shrank into a tiny green spot on the great rock. But screwing his courage to the sticking place, he stuttered, “N-no, you...you...misunderstand! Belief in ‘happily ever-after’ is not responsible for our condition. We made the decision to code our young ones to stay unborn because we thought that Who-Mans would look around and wonder, ‘Where are all our green friends?’ As our presence was dear to them, so our disappearance would strike at their hearts.”

Frog-Boy’s throat bulged and beat with emotion. “The frogs who remain are in this sad shape as a warning!” The malformed leg which he had tucked under his body was now presented for all to see. “As the Frog Prince goes, so goes the Who-Man! We metamorphose not into beauty but into nothingness, and it will take more than kisses to bring us back.

"But we may have sacrificed in vain. Who-Mans seem not to care about our disappearance. Indeed, there are still frogs everywhere--made not of flesh and bone but of false cloth and stuffing--yet Who-Mans are not unhappy with these lifeless substitutes. Real frogs who are left wish to warn other Wilds: Survive at all costs! Do not follow our example!”

At the end of the frog’s lament, the Animals of WEarth loose a great cry of pain, sending it round and round the world, to every hidden place, to every ear. Did you hear it? Perhaps you did--it was a sunny day, a quiet day when the world was going about its business, and suddenly a great quaking and quivering shook the stillness, and shook and shook again.