One of the coyotes overextended again, and this time the frog was ready: it jumped onto the creature's back, knocking it down with its weight, and grasped at its neck for its go-to attack.

  The predator stood back up immediately and tried to shake it off, howling in pain, but the frog’s claws had improved. They’d pierced the treacherous skin and dug into the flesh below. No matter how the coyote tried to wiggle out or twist its neck, the frog only tightened its grasp, easily keeping the head down.

  And while the creature couldn't find a piece of flesh to close its jaws around, it wasn't so for the frog. It bit the coyote’s neck and shook hard, managing to topple the enemy back on its side, once again. Unfortunately it was forced let go with its mouth, though it still held the thing down.

  Its perfected strategy wouldn't do the trick this time, because its teeth, unlike its claws, hadn’t gotten any better and couldn't penetrate deep enough. The coyote’s skin was too thick and annoying for them: it would just slip away, sliding over the flesh underneath, resulting in a shallow wound.

  And most importantly, it couldn’t lose sight of the others.

  They had a strange behavior, as they would come to the rescue of one of theirs, but only up to a point: if their similar looked like a lost cause, their fear would win out and they’d just yip and scratch at the ground, but nothing more. The frog had found they were cowardly creatures, deep down.

  But things would change if it ever lost sight of one and offered its neck for it to bite.

  Luckily, there was a good alternative: the new move that it had seen from other nimble creatures should serve it well.

  It squeezed the neck hard to keep the coyote from trying anything, and slipped on its front. The creature still attempted to push away with its legs, but they were clumsy things, unfit to do anything but carry its body. The real threat were the teeth and they could do nothing right now.

  Then, the frog started kicking with its own legs at the same time, raking the coyote's belly with its lower claws – which were just as brutal as the ones in its hands.

  Still keeping a careful eye out, it kicked and kicked and kicked… until the coyote’s front was completely ravaged, opened up, with the gem and other stuff coming out.

  Satisfied that this threat was neutralized, the frog jumped off towards another, trying to take it by surprise... Unfortunately, the creature dodged easily. It was very hard to surprise them, when they were ready.

  They were extremely good at avoiding confrontation, and preferred slowly harassing their quarries safely, overwhelming them with numbers and exhaustion. This one had only fallen because it had underestimated the frog and thought it an easy prey. That was when they were most vulnerable: when they were sure of their victory, they committed more to their assault.

  Well, no matter. If they didn’t back off, the frog knew how to be patient and could keep this up until none were left.

  It knew they wouldn’t let go.

  For some reason, the creatures here were far more aggressive, refusing to run away even when it was in their best interest to. The frog blamed it on the owl: it must have spread its madness around, somehow.

  Or maybe it had killed all their friends? All the strong ones, at least. That would explain why these ones were so weak, when coyotes were supposed to be forbiddingly strong. This gem right here felt as unappealing as those back at the owl's territory - the ones outside the clearing, of course.

  They were still clearly dangerous of course, especially as they had it cornered. But compared to how vicious and lethal they had been when meeting them before the owl, this was nothing.

  Truly, everything bad could be traced back to that thing. But why complain that things were easy? It should-

  The world hummed.

  The frog's everything stopped. It all disappeared, entirely overwhelmed by this… thing.

  It was a scream, but it had no sound. A vibration, but nothing moved. Familiar, but completely different from anything else it had ever experienced.

  It was horrible.

  Worse than any wound, worse than having its lower half pulled off, worse than having mad filaments unravel it from the inside.

  It thought that surely it would end now. It had to end, and soon. But it showed no sign to.

  It kept growing, and growing, and growing.

  Pulling the world along with it, twisting it out of shape.

  Always more and more, until the frog thought that there was no more future for it, nothing but this ever growing worsening, this twisting of everything it was and it knew.

  And that there was nothing it could do about it, forever trapped into this mockery of the world it had found.

  Until it almost wished that it had never transformed in the first place. That it was still just the being, without awareness and ambition.

  And that it could hide back into its little crevice, its little safe world. Almost.

  And then it was over. Suddenly. ...like any other ‘humming attack’.

  But this hadn’t been an attack at all. Not this one. This couldn't have come from any kind of creature. It had been impossibly worse than any before, and this time, it wasn't gone without consequences. This time, nothing would ever be the same.

  The frog found itself to the ground, not knowing when it had fallen.

  Where was it? What had it been doing?

  It struggled to its feet, but was still confused. And it was taking a while for its mind to catch up.

  … So this was what it had forgotten. What had been missing. There had been a time where these hummings were incredibly common, and yet since before it had entered the owl's domain, they'd been absent. Perhaps they’d been building up to this? If only there were a way to make sense of it…

  If only the annoyances could stop piling up on the confusion, maybe…oh right. The coyotes.

  The creatures hadn’t been spared by the thing that had just hit the frog. They might have had it worse, judging by how they were still lying on the ground, twitching every once in a while, but otherwise still.

  The frog could understand their plight: it felt so very dazed.

  What should it do? Right now, it felt like all of its previous worries were meaningless. That there should be something immensely more important, but it was just so hard to really pin down what…

  In the meantime, maybe it should put down the coyotes, while it could. It should right? Something at the back of its mind thought so.

  Getting closer, apparently not having recovered as much mobility as thought, it stumbled forward and all but collapsed on top of the nearest coyote. Fortunately the creature didn’t react at all, but slicing it up was still quite awkward. Without its wits, the frog found it much harder to pierce the skin. But pierce it it did and soon there was one less predator to worry about. Then, it kept wiping out its would-be killers for a while, methodically. More to give itself something to do than anything else.

  Until it started feeling a bit better, and the daze began to turn into a realization. And foreboding.

  Something had changed radically. The world... it wasn’t... straight anymore, but bent towards a place. A place where the frog was supposed to be. An epicenter.

  It snapped towards that direction as if yanked by an invisible force, and stared. It was a direction like any other, but the frog knew that that way lay something fundamental. More... real. Perhaps not because it had grown greater than the rest of the world, but because the rest of the world had grown lesser. Even the currents felt as if they were going there.

  There was no change in them that could be seen or otherwise perceived, but the frog knew it to be true: the currents were still going everywhere, suffusing everything in their wildness, but now they preferred to flow that way.

  Just as the rocks, and the ground, and the air. They hadn’t changed, but they seemed as if they were…

  Now it was getting confused again. It should put aside these considerations that were clearly beyond it, when there was really only one thing to focus on: whatever was over there, the frog needed to reach it.

  This must be what it had been feeling. The thing it had known was going to happen: the premonition it had, come to fruition. And more.

  It would be a long trip, but the frog was going to be happy to make it. It couldn't wait, really, as if something was pulling it forward, enticing it to start.

  And this would be a good diversion in any case. It had been searching for something to do, after all, and this felt like it could be a good distraction while it searched.

  And as for getting stronger... Its gaze swept over the coyotes – only one of which was still alive and trying to get up – and felt bad.

  Once, these creatures would have been almost impossible to even escape, let alone to fight. And the frog would have jumped at the possibility of transforming through one of them.

  Now, they felt like a step back.

  Even if it hadn't grown stronger, it had made progress in its current body. Learned and improved its control over it. If it transformed now, no matter how much it tried to stay close to its form, it would lose some of that. A lot of that, if it gave in to temptation and changed more things.

  It would be weakening itself for a long time before it could adjust to the new body, which wasn’t worth it for this little gain. No, the frog would only transform through a gem - and filaments - as strong as... as the badger had been. At least!

  Unfortunately, creatures of that level were a bit out of reach. The frog felt completely certain that it wouldn’t be able to face the likes of the badger right now, not even close.

  So it was stuck.

  If only it could have taken one little thing from the clearing! There had been so many…

  It would either have to be lucky enough to stumble across an unclaimed body, like with the owl’s stash, or find another way to grow stronger.

  Aware of how unlikely that was, the frog leisurely headed towards the last remaining coyote that was just starting to get up. By the time it got there, the creature had recovered enough that it pounced... But the frog was ready, and the creature was really out of it.

  In a fit of inspiration, it ducked low and to the side, and managed to claw the creature in a way that made use of its own momentum against it, straight to its neck.

  Their combined strength made the claws slice even through the coyote's thick skin, and deep. The creature was dead before it even touched the ground… dragging the frog with it.

  The frog kicked away the coyote, pulled back its claws, and got back up. It was so proud of this move that it didn’t even get too annoyed with the annoyance, and felt hopeful for the future.

  Surely a way to get stronger was bound to come up. And if not, it would only have to improvise one.

  With this new conviction, the frog stopped resisting the pull, and set out towards its objective. This time, it didn't even spare a second glance for the place that had tormented it for such a long time.

  It had somewhere else to be.

  And what a strange feeling that was.