A/N- Wow! It's been way too long since my last update. Just a quick note. Those who have already read "chapter 15" please note that I took it down and rewrote it. Some people didn't read it, so those who didn't, ignore this little note. :) I didn't like the way I had gone about things, and I wanted El to spend a bit more time with the prince while he was a frog. So those who read the part about the lake and the fairies and the kiss (sorry I had to take it out, it just didn't feel right!) ......scratch that from your mind like it never happened. I may put in a part like that in the future, but it didn't go well IMHO with the development at this particular time in the story. Sorry if that is confusing. Anyway, enjoy and feel free to leave comments! Hopefully it won't take me as many weeks to write the next chapter! Peace!- Md

The Peasant and the Frog

Hysterical cackling filled the

room. Small animals locked away in their cages jumped in fear at the high pitched screeching. Una looked into a glass ball as the image of a girl holding a frog swirled inside of it.

"A frog! Just what the little man deserved. I couldn't have asked for anything more entertaining than that. I must pay a visit to that old bat and thank her for a job well done."

Una's bodyguards stood in their corners with no expressions on their faces. Una looked at them and then rolled her eyes.

"Maybe I should give you guys a little personality."

She looked back at the glass ball and giggled some more. When The Prince and Cinderella had escaped from the witch's house, she hadn't panicked at all. She knew their was no way two people as incompetent they could make it out of the forest. They still had many dangers they could run in to, she would make sure of that.

****

"Ok. Don't panic." I said out loud, holding the small frog close to my face. I leveled my eyes with his.

"Prince, if you can understand me, give me a sign."

With a wet slap, his tongue flew from his mouth, hitting me on the cheek. I jumped back and accidentally dropped the frog.

"You jerk." I said as I struggled not to kick him.

The frog Prince jumped to the side of my leg. I picked him up and made eye contact with him again.

"Ok, so that was a sign right? Just in case, we're going to try this again. If you can understand me, blink twice."

The frog's eyelids blinked once, and then again. A surge of relief washed over me. That relief turned to anger when his tongue slapped me in the face again. This time I dropped him on purpose and then walked away. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that he was following me.

I stopped and sighed, putting my hands on my hips. I took a quick glance at myself. I looked awful. My dress was ripped and dirty, my feet looked so bad I couldn't even imagine living through all the infection I was probably going to develop. When I ran before, away from the COW, I'd tripped over my dress more than once. I needed to do something about that. I bent over and took a hold of one of the torn pieces of dress. I pulled and pulled, taking a few of those hideous layers away. I ripped it to about halfway up my shin. No more tripping for me. I looked at the torn pieces of fabric in my hands.

Sitting down, I wrapped my feet as much as I could. I moaned in pain as I did so. I had enough to cover all the flesh on the bottom of my feet. That was good enough for me. I stood again and gasped in pain. I needed to clean out my wounds.

"Ok Frog Prince." I looked down at the slimy amphibian who was hopping next to me. "We've got to find us some water."

In reply he swatted my bare leg with his tongue.

"I swear I will rip that thing out if you don't stop." I warned.

****

I couldn't believe my ears when I finally heard the soft running of a stream. I had the Frog Prince on my shoulder. I quickened my pace as I walked toward the sound. Soon we came upon a small creek. It was very shallow and not very wide at all, but the sight of any type of water lightened my mood considerably. I knelt next to it and the prince jumped off my shoulder right into the water. I gasped and reached for him, afraid the current would take him away, but it wasn't strong enough. He continued to hop around the shallow creek, splashing this way and that. I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm glad your having fun. Us human's have it a bit harder I'm afraid." I said, unwrapping my bloody feet. I slowly set them in the water, letting it wash away all the dirt and blood. It stung at first. As I sat there with my feet immersed I dipped my hand in and drank my fill. The prince was swatting at tiny flies hovering over the water.

"That is so gross." He ignored me.

The stinging eventually died and I started to get really sleepy. There was a tree nearby that in a patch of sunlight. I crawled to it and laid down. I took one last look at the Frog Prince still jumping around in the water. Then I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I found the frog snoozing on one of my ankles. His eyes were half closed. I couldn't help but get my revenge on him. I flicked my ankle and the poor prince went flying in the air. He flailed his stubbly little legs as he flew. I burst out laughing. He didn't land too far away. He hopped angrily back to me and started to hit me with his tongue.

"Stop!" I laughed. "Now we're even."

Before I stood up I rewrapped my feet with the extra cloth from my dress. They were still pretty swollen, but cleaning them had done a lot of good. After that I stood, only moaning a little, and placed the frog on my shoulder. I took one last drink from the stream.

"I think we should follow the water." I said to the non-responding frog.

As we did so, I felt the need to talk. Maybe it's because the forest was so big and I was beginning to get a little nervous. And I may have felt a little lonely too. I didn't feel lonely very often, so it was a weird feeling.

I began to tell the prince my whole life story. I told him about my father, about his death and my stepfamily. I told him about my love for growing things and the market that comes to town every year. I told him about Katy and the things we liked to do together. I told him that Katy had a brother named Nathaniel, but I skipped the part about me being in love with him. Then I told the Frog Prince all about the last month. The hard times, the wolf attack, the robbers attacking me. I didn't know if he was listening of even cared, but the sound of my own voice masked the eerie sounds coming from around me.

I stopped when I spotted something through the trees. I squinted my eyes and could see the outline of a small house. It didn't look anything like the COW's cottage, so I decided to move closer. I didn't have to go very far from the stream. The house sat right next to it. I went within about twenty feet of it and hid myself behind a tree. I waited there for about ten minutes. I didn't see any movement inside the windows.

"I think we should go inside." I whispered.

A tongue slapped my face in protest.

"What if they have a pair of shoes I can wear! And I'm getting pretty hungry. I didn't eat a bunch of flies all afternoon."

He licked my face again. I told him he didn't have to follow me and shrugged him off my shoulders. Just like I suspected though, he hopped after me as I moved slowly toward the house.

I peered inside one of the side windows. I didn't see any one inside. I walked to the front door and it was unlocked. I went inside and took a deep breath. It smelled so delicious. The first room of the house was the kitchen and there was a big table in the middle of the room. Sitting on the table were three bowls. A big one, a medium one, and a small one. I tiptoed to them, feeling guilty that I was about to steal their food. I was so hungry though. So very hungry. I first decided they wouldn't notice if I took a few bites from the biggest bowl. Inside the bowls was a creamy soup. I scooped a spoonful from the big bowl and placed it my mouth. It was so delicious I quickly ate three more bites. I then moved on the medium sized bowl. I figured that if I took a little from each bowl, no one would notice any was missing. I took a few quick bites and then looked at the little bowl. I gasped when I didn't see soup inside. Instead I saw the Frog Prince laying inside, small droplets of soup covered his mouth.

"How did you get up here! And why did you eat all that! Now they're going to know someone was in here! Get down. Down." I demanded. The little frog was so stuffed from his meal that he had a hard time moving. I picked him up and placed him on the floor.

"Don't touch anything else."

I moved through the rest of the house. There was a closet in one of the hallways. I opened it and smiled widely when I saw a bunch of shoes inside. I rummaged through them and found a pair that looked like they would fit me. I found a room that had three chairs, one big, one medium, one small.

"Huh." I said, determining there must be three people in the family that lived in the house. The big chair I couldn't manage to sit on, the medium chair wasn't very comfortable, so I chose to sit on the small chair as I slid my feet into the stranger's shoes.

"Oh crap." I said out loud as I heard a cracking sound. With a thump, I fell off the chair as one of the legs broke off.

"Oops."

The Frog Prince hopped inside the room. He looked at me on the floor and blinked a few times. I could only imagine the laughter that was going on inside of him. Good thing he couldn't laugh as a frog, I noted.

"Well, maybe if I just place this here, they won't even notice." I explained to him as I placed the broken leg under the chair and tried to steady it. Once I had it disguised as an unbroken chair, I moved slowly out of the room, afraid to cause even the slightest breeze that might knock the chair down again.

I found myself in a bedroom. Once again, the furniture came in threes. One big bed, one medium sized, and one small.

"Ok, let's get out of here." I looked at the prince who was jumping on the floor.

My heart stopped as I heard the front door to the house open. The voices were deep and rough. Except for one, which was almost like a child's voice, but strange somehow. Before too long a gasp sounded.

"What happened to my food!?" The child-like voice asked in concern.

I didn't know what to do. Without thinking I did the first thing that came to my head. I grabbed the Frog Prince and jumped in the bed closest to me, which happened to be the small one, and pulled the covers over my head. I tried to curl into the smallest ball possible, though I knew it would do no good. Any minute those people would come waltzing into that room and find me there, though by the sound of their voices I had a haunting feeling they weren't people at all.