The crab’s hands were almost onto it by the time panic morphed into action. They snapped violently… on nothing. But so close that the wind they moved raged against its skin, as it dove out.

  It landed some distance away, but didn’t stop at that and jumped a few more times to be sure. Even if the crab wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon, the frog was wary of relying on assumptions now.

  That had been close. Really close. If it hadn’t been ready for something, if it had been just a little too slow…

  The panic was slow to fade away, essence moving faster and pooling at its extremities. How could it have forgotten to look upwards? How could it have been so focused on imaginary threats as to ignore the only real one?

  But that would have to come later, as now it had an attempt on its life to reciprocate.

  If it found out how.

  Except for that death trap, the rest of the creature was protected by a thick shell that was almost impossible to get through, as it had thoroughly checked. Maybe if it really put its mind to it, with quite a lot of effort, it could eventually bite through... but that would take a very long time. Time that it might not have.

  There was movement at the edges. Scavengers. They’d kept low and avoided detection until now, but had stopped trying a while ago. The frog should’ve known. After all, their kind liked to scurry around stronger creatures and take advantage of fights, even by outright attacking the winner if it was too wounded. What they were planning here was clear.

  Of course, the frog itself was far from drained after this little playing around and felt confident in itself. But already one misjudgment had almost been its death. Plus, their number was getting worrying, and those were only the ones it could see: a lot more would be hiding.

  This diversion had taken entirely too long, drawn too much attention in a place where nothing else was happening.

  And even ignoring all that, there were simply better ways to spend its time. It needed to get on with it.

  Unfortunately, the problem was still the same: there was only one weak point, and it was guarded by oversized, deadly hands.

  Or was it?

  They certainly made a perfect shield for its front, but now that the crab was on its back, clearly unable to turn…

  Its gaze fixed back on the puny arms. Now completely defenseless.

  There was still some way to go before biting it off entirely, but the arm was already lying on the ground, completely still.

  As expected, the crab couldn’t reach here with the other limb. Too heavy and drained, it had even given up on trying to swing left and right, to roll over the frog. Now it was just making this strange burbling sound. Almost pleasant, if a bit loud.

  There was no real danger anymore: anything it tried would be slow and obvious, easy enough to avoid.

  But better not to underestimate the thing again: even if its weak and awkward attempts had stopped long ago, even if the scavengers were getting impatient and time was running out, there should be enough to do things properly. Just a little more, and…

  The shoulder finally snapped off, and the frog jumped out of the way as the rest of the limb smashed to the ground.

  The crab burbled even harder, shaking faintly. It could move a little more now that it was freed of a burden, but the other limb and weighty hand were keeping it in check. More care would be needed to not get crushed on the other side, but it should be doable.

  Once the other arm ended up the same, the frog stepped back to admire the results of its toils: the creature was now truly defenseless, and completely drained. It swayed weakly, burbling much softer, stumps dripping profusely and losing essence.

  Now, it could just wait, and the crab would die on its own. No need to risk another trap or getting caught with the opportunists that were drawing near, encouraged by the wails – the crab had truly been loud when the biting on its other arm had started.

  It could just leave, and they would finish the thing in its stead.

  But what if they didn’t? Or if the crab somehow managed to get up and then crushed the beaver? That creature would have to be incredibly simple to die to this, but the frog hadn’t left with the best impression of its mental faculties.

  And also, there was something familiar now... Something reminiscent of what had been inside the otter. What if the crab had a treasure like that too? Would it really let the scavengers have the spoils?

  …

  The frog stepped under the crab and dug in.

  Starting from the bottom, reaching the source of the feeling would take more time. And even if the creature’s inner flesh was much softer than the outside shell, it was still an unnerving process: knowing that predators could be approaching this very moment, hearing their calls and howls getting closer and closer while it was stuck in such an awkward position. At least the crab had stopped warbling and thrashing about.

  With nothing else to do but hurry, the frog freed its mind from distractions and focused on digging deeper. Until it held a familiarly disgusting gem, wrapped in countless filaments that were, but also weren’t.

  This one was quite different: more angular and spiky, and crossed by endless ridges. But the disgust the frog felt touching it was exactly the same. More important than that, it wanted to do… not quite the same as it had done with the otter’s. This creature had been very weak, so transforming with its filaments might do more harm than good, and take too much time regardless. Better not find out what would happen if that stuff ever got interrupted.

  Rather, it wanted to… feed from it?

  … yes, it definitely wanted to do that.

  In fact, this thing might be what had brought the scavengers here, in the first place. It felt precious. And if given the chance, they would take it for themselves.

  The frog wouldn’t let them.

  It refused the filaments and their offer to make it more like a creature that had felt – and been – lesser. Then it wiggled backwards, no more time to lose, tearing the gem away with it. Luckily, getting back out was much easier than getting in, with a path already made.

  Soon enough, it jumped back outside… and faltered.

  It was surrounded.

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  The scavengers were closer than ever. None of them felt particularly intimidating, and they clearly did not get along well, with how they snapped at each other when they got too close. But there were just too many.

  And they were all looking this way.

  Quite a frightening situation, especially the way each of them, as soon as they noticed its exit, would drop everything to stare in absolute silence.

  However, not all was lost: since they weren’t together, there were some gaps in the encirclement. It just needed to run before they got past their differences. So, it creeped towards the biggest opening, trying to avoid attention. Though when the creatures easily followed its movements and started to get on their feet, it wondered how it could ever have thought this a good idea. They had all come here for a reason. And now they had lost all interest in the crab.

  The frog dropped all pretenses and broke out into a run, and the creatures followed behind lazily.

  Where exactly it was headed, it didn’t know. The terrain was too flat up here, with nowhere to hide from determined pursuers: no trenches, no caves, and the few rises were way too gentle to make any difference. The ledge definitely would, but was way too far.

  Though there was no time to worry about overcomplicated things like its route right now, not when it needed to focus on getting away. That it had managed to steer clear of the beaver’s pile – avoided leading a violent throng straight to it – was already a lot.

  The scavengers might be looking a bit slow and lazy and like they couldn’t be bothered. But even when taking their time, they were persistent. Even if they didn’t attack outright, they would chase, harass and bother it. Until it was too drained to do anything! And then...

  they would take its treasure! The one it had risked its life- well, not exactly. The one it had struggled so hard to...? The one it had won fair and square!

  and that was its.

  They would take the gem, and use it for themselves. And then, there wouldn’t be a gem for the frog anymore!

  And they would also kill it, probably.

  It was outrageous! The fight with the crab might have been for entirely different reasons, but now that it had gotten this thing, it wanted it. It had earned it. And it wouldn’t give it up!

  Instinctively, it triggered something and the gem shifted on its own, slipping out of its grasp. Surprised and alarmed, the frog almost went sprawling to the ground trying to catch it, but the gem simply floated away, a tendril of some kind the only thing connecting them: from the gem, straight into the frog’s flesh, melding into both.

  From its vague memories of the time before it was the frog, it remembered something like this happening and was quick to recover, if a bit peeved. It tried to slap the annoyance away – unsuccessfully – before remembering itself and hastening its escape. Fortunately, the gem followed around easily.

  What was really worrying were the side effects. Luckily, this… whatever this was, its effects weren’t remotely on the level of what it remembered. Yet they weren’t negligible: its skin was getting itchy and rough, and some muscles lost all feeling. At least they seemed to respond as usual, though it was pretty strange to run without feedback.

  Until they didn’t. In its flank, the numbing worsened first into stiffness, then into complete paralysis. Terrifying, but fine as long as it wasn’t a part of its body needed for running.

  Then the sensation flowed lower, locking one leg.

  The frog fell on its front, slammed onto the rocky ground and rolled forward with its momentum. It got smacked all over and scratched everywhere.

  But much more worrying, even when the disastrous fall came to a stop, its legs didn’t seem to be getting better. They were getting worse, if anything, forcing it to lay there paralyzed.

  As it heard the chasers’ howling coming closer and closer, it was unable to even turn to look, with the awkward way it had gone down. It was horrible. Things were going to eventually heal better than before: its flank, where it had started, was already feeling better. But there wasn’t time to wait for that!

  It put all its weight on its arms and dragged itself forward. Because it was determined, and if it couldn’t walk then it would crawl. It would never-

  There was a rush of... good, exploding from the legs and passing throughout its body. Enough that the frog stopped to savor it.

  Wherever this sensation flowed, felt renewed; its limbs responsive once again, lighter and ready. Not perfect, but definitely better than they had any right to feel after such a drawn out fight, escape and then fall.

  Truly unfortunate that it had to end so fast.

  It stood still for a moment, savoring the remnants for all they were worth as the gem completely disappeared. Truly a pleasant experience.

  This was why. Pleasure was the least of it: the way it had flowed around its body, empowering and reinforcing exactly the parts that needed it more, was marvelous. It could understand why predators-

  Right. The predators.

  ...

  It shoved against the ground and stood back up with a jump, ready to face the horde that had surely…

  There was nothing.

  Rather, there were still quite a few predators around. But they’d completely given up their chase, and were just loitering: some had engaged in fights between themselves, some were playing around, and some others had laid down to feed. Most had simply left.

  In any case, they had all abandoned their pursuit and seemed to have forgotten about the frog, as if it had never existed. Pretty strange.

  Looking at them more calmly, they were less menacing than it had thought. Still, had they kept coming all together, it probably wouldn’t have stood a chance. So what might have caused them to give up like that, when they had seemed so intent before?

  Well, no use speculating. Even after the gem, it was still somewhat drained and felt like laying down a bit. That crag right there should do.

  It finished climbing and checked that the way was free, before vaulting over.

  A fine enough place.

  It laid down against some rocks close to the edge, so that it could look down the plains, and fed.

  From this vantage point, the whole plateau was in sight: the predators had gone back to do whatever it was that they had been doing, and the crab’s body was exactly where it had left it. Most importantly, the beaver was still doing its beaver thing, completely unbothered by the fight.

  And the frog was directionless once again. Its plan had failed completely.

  Though it felt that it hadn’t been a complete waste.

  Each annoyance was slapped away distractedly.

  For one, it had understood the nature of predators: they weren’t just out to hurt others. They simply wanted what was inside them. Not that it changed in any way its feelings about the matter – though it would happily take the gem of anything that tried for its own.

  It had also discovered that creatures didn’t necessarily know what they were doing. It would have to be much more careful in the future when trying to learn. Even if it did feel somewhat stronger, now.

  Could it be because of the activities with the beaver? Maybe the creature was onto something after all, and had been secretly incredibly strong! Maybe it could have crushed the crab easily… Unlikely – and it wouldn’t be much of a feat either way – but what did the frog know?

  Also, whatever had happened before that made the predators give up their chase, it doubted that they would have left so easily, had it been weaker than them. Same thing with the fight against the crab. If it had happened before becoming the frog, when it was simply ‘the being’…

  Though, even if that were the case, even if the beaver truly knew its stuff, no way it would go back to that droll!

  It would find another way to grow stronger. Its very own! Along with something to do.

  It had been right with its first impression: the new world was immense. This plateau might have been disappointing but...

  There was a flash in the sky, far away. Shiny. Gone before the frog could do anything more than realize it had been there, leaving it stunned and unbalanced.

  But with a strong sense of yearning that it couldn’t really place, that felt as if it should be able to...

  It was confirmation: there were wonders in this new world, things far beyond its grasp and understanding. Waiting for it to uncover.

  While it searched for something to do, it would look for them! And also for a way to get stronger. And for that mysterious flash first of all! Between all of them, it was bound to get at least one right.

  Slapping away the annoyance, after a last check that no predator was going to bother the beaver, the frog turned its back to the plateau, and made for the ledge, towards the shiny.

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