The Frog Collector

That afternoon Mirian was restless sitting in a chair at the entrance to the house. Every moment she looked in the direction the princess had left.

“She’s taking her time. But she’ll arrive sooner or later”, she said reassuringly and went into the house to make herself something to drink from the magic table.

Emily was in the garden, but this time she was not tending to the plants. She was also restless, always looking northwest from there hoping that Mirian would not notice her concern. Until she saw, in the distance, a silhouette appear among the trees. It was the princess who had entered the invisible wall. Emily saw that she carried a cloth of the same color as her clothes in her hands and fearing that it was the black flowers, she signaled for the princess to go to her and not to the witch’s house. The princess saw Emily’s signal and gestured for the girl to calm down. Emily did not understand and lamented that the princess went towards the house.

The princess appeared at the door to the astonishment and joy of Mirian, who soon put her drink aside. Agatha was panting, dirty, with part of her clothes torn and a little bloodied, but this mattered little to the old witch who only had eyes for the cloth in her hands.

“You did it… give it to me!”, said Mirian, reaching out to take the cloth.

But the princess pulled it to herself and said in a tired tone:

“Tell me first where my beloved is and what he has been transformed into”.

“I need the flower, dear. To make the magic”, said the old woman annoyed.

“Use the one you showed me before. I brought you many others”, said the princess, showing several black flowers she had brought in the cloth.

Mirian’s eyes sparkled.

“Ohh… I haven’t seen this many in a long time… All right!”, exclaimed the woman, who at first was not very happy.

The witch took the crumpled flower in her pocket, removed the yellow part from the center, and ate it. She closed her eyes, looked up, and was silent for a while. Agatha waited for the witch to touch her, but the woman didn’t and finally said:

“Oh yes… He’s turned into a fox, dear. He is two hours away from here in the north lying under an ancient oak tree”.

“I see…“, said the princess, bowing her head.

“Now give me the flowers”, said the witch.

The princess handed her the cloth that had been improvised to hold the flowers. Mirian took it and, with a huge smile on her face, placed her hands on the flowers and lifted them into the air, letting them fall back onto the cloth. Then she went to the edge of the invisible dome that held her there.

“I will…”, the princess started to say, but soon stopped when she saw that the witch was no longer paying attention to her.

Then Agatha entered the house looking for Emily. It was easy to find the girl hiding nearby listening the conversation. When they met, the princess said:

“Emily we need to go quickly. I’m going to get you out of here, and my prince too”.

Emily, who was distressed, pointed at the desperate witch and put both hands on her head.

“Everything is fine! Hurry, I found your mother, I know the truth”, said the princess, leading the girl to the back door.

Upon hearing this, Emily’s eyes widened.

“I need you to show me where the frog is that you saw yesterday trying to pass inside. Do you remember?”, asked the princess.

Emily ran into the garden and motioned for the princess to follow her. The young girl searched endlessly among the plants until she found the frog in the middle of the garden and very happily handed it to the princess who was behind her. Emily pointed to the frog and to the princess. The princess smiled and took it.

“Is that you my love? You look terrible”, said she and added: “I’m sorry about that, I’ll get you out of here”.

Then she turned to Emily to tell her something, but she was gone. The princess looked around the garden and saw the girl looking for something in the dirt and managed to reach her more distressed than ever. Emily had pulled a root out of the ground and showed it to the princess, radiant with happiness. Without understanding either the root or the happiness, the princess took her by the arm and went with her to the opposite side from the witch to finally leave the place.

***

“Yes… finally after so long…”, said Mirian touching the invisible wall and feeling her fingertips burning.

She put the cloth on the floor, examined it, and saw there were more than thirty flowers there, picked them up, ate thirty yellow centers, and dropped the black part of the flowers on the floor. Then she stepped back a little, looked at the wall and said in a commanding voice:

“Ohiah Wobh Gyon!”

She waited a while and, with his eyes closed, walked with his arm outstretched. However, the wall impeded her progress. She was surprised and ate more flowers and again said the command words to the invisible dome.

After that she took a deep breath and tried again to leave, but was barred again. The witch’s face filled with fury.

“What is going on? I memorized it right!”.

She looked nervously at the cloth, took all the remaining flowers and started to eat them without differentiating the black part from the yellow one. That’s when she realized that the flowers were falling apart in her mouth.

“I don’t believe it”, she whispered.

She knelt down to pick up a black petal from the ones she had dropped. She put saliva on her fingertips and touched the petal, which completely crumbled. The witch lowered her head. For a moment her face showed a slight smile that was quickly changed into an intense rage. Then she stood up, looked toward the house, and headed for it.

***

Agatha was trying to walk quickly together with Emily even though she was very tired from so much walking that day. She held the frog firmly in her hands and Emily the root she had picked up in the garden. At every moment one of the girls looked toward the house.

“The witch must have already discovered the fake flowers. Let’s hope she doesn’t have any cards up her sleeve to trap us here”, said the princess as she looked again in that direction.

This time she saw that the witch was coming towards them. She got a fright and warned Emily who saw what was going on. They both started to run. They were already near the edge of the invisible dome when suddenly Emily stopped scared and looked towards the witch with tears in her eyes. The girl looked at the root she was carrying and back at the direction of the house, and for an instant Agatha thought the girl was going back. She quickly ran to take Emily by the arm and ran, forcing her to run with her.

“What are you doing? Do you want to be stuck forever with this crazy woman?”, asked the princess.

Emily pulled on her own arm and was now crying copiously as she ran and the princess could not understand why. Mirian roared following them.

After a while, Emily slowed her pace and held out her hands. Agatha did the same. Then Emily touched an invisible wall. Agatha smiled and said:

“Here we are!”.

Emily looked back again at the still distant Mirian. Then she felt the princess’s arm around her and they both left the invisible prison. Mirian screamed with rage at this moment. The two of them fell to the floor from exhaustion.

Emily stood up looking everywhere, turned around and touched the invisible wall. Tears streamed down the girl’s face as she realized that she was outside. The princess, who was still holding the frog, hugged her and smiled. She was almost out of breath, but she could speak:

“It’s over!”

Emily wiped away her tears and now smiled admiring her surroundings.

“Your mother will be here soon. She wanted to go into the prison with me, but I told her the witch would find out we were working together. I told her to turn around and we would meet near here. We’ll meet her going around the edge of the prison”, continue the princess.

Mirian reached the edge of her side of the invisible wall in anger. She roared and punched trying to get through it, and although the witch’s hands were burning into the wall, she didn’t seem to care. The princess looked ruefully at the old woman and said to Emily:

“Let’s go!”

But suddenly Emily’s body glowed and disappeared. The girl became a frog. The princess looked back at the witch with a serene face. The woman’s white eyes were returning to normal.

“Lilian said you could try something like this. It won’t do any good, because Lilian will turn her back. Both of them”, said the princess and showed the old woman the frog she was holding in her hands and completed: “I hope you enjoyed your last magic”.

The witch became even angrier.

“… I should have killed this filthy frog. One day I will get out of here and destroy this kingdom. I will finish what Isra started… And I will kill you like he killed your mother”, shout the old woman and walked towards her house crying with rage.

The princess felt her blood boil. She remembered the story her father told her and started to walk back to the invisible prison, but the frog in her hand started croaking non-stop. Then she remembered James, Emily and Lilian who was probably already catching up with her, and the king who still thought she was in the castle without knowing anything that was happening, and she calmed down. Then she picked up the frog and the root that had fallen to the ground and left.