A frog hopped through the long grass surrounding Terim. His name was Adam, and he was quite a normal frog. He was going about his business, looking for juicy flies, as he did everyday. Suddenly, a giant hand swooped down from out of the sky and scooped him up. He gave a loud, very unbecoming croak, but the hand didn't let him go. "A nice specimen. He'll do nicely," said Angela as she looked down on the frog. "And it's definitely a frog, not a toad." Then she laughed. "Of course, it couldn't be a toad. Toads don't exist! And here is my proof! Or part of it, anyway," she said, looking sadly down at Adam the frog. Yes, we will have to get many more to prove that toads do not exist, said Solembum, as he stared up at Angela's pensive face. What are you thinking, anyway? "Oh, nothing," Angela waved the question away with an extravagant flick of her right hand. "Come on, Solembum; let's get back to the shop. I need to open before the mid-morning wave of customers dies down." Solembum sighed, and followed her back towards the tall gates of the great city. In Angela's hand, Adam had listened to the exchange with a growing sense of foreboding. Adam was a clever frog, and knew that toads did in fact exist, and had met many in his time. So why this silly human and her werecat were trying to prove otherwise was a mystery to him. He wondered whether to be scared, and croak, but thought that he might as well see where these adventures lead him to. He liked his normal, froggy life in the grass, looking for flies all day, but he couldn't help feeling that if the time came when he was presented with an adventure, he shouldn't hold back. He felt that he should throw himself into it with a sense of expectation of high drama. So he happily sat in the hand of Angela the witch as she walked back into Terim, happy in the knowledge that he would soon be having adventures to die for, and, as an added bonus, would probably be fed well, too. "As long as I'm not fed to the cat!" was his last thought on the matter, as the strong gates of Terim closed behind them.
