Chapter 4: The Meaty Encounter

The meaty encounter

By sundown, we were deep in the forest, and unlike the Vale, it smelt repulsive. Once or twice, we heard the bellow of a beast we weren't used to.

"That is the sound of a frog", the old man looked at us with a smile "Pretty creatures. It must be really close by, they have the best of meat"

"That loud sound is a frog's?" Tonia asked out of surprise

"Yup", the old man smiled

The dwarf looked at Tonia, and put his index finger to his temple, indicating the the old man was crazy.

Truth be told, the mention of meat forced a grumble out of my belly. And I supposed it would not hurt to take a break and hunt this frog once we had set camp. Afterall, a frog could only satisfy one person. We had covered a considerable distance by the time it was nightfall, it was a full moon, and it gave us enough vision to continue our mission, but the sorcer would not stop complaining about how he was getting old and needed to rest from all the stress. I was tempted to throw him in a sack and toss him away, but owing to his sorcerer status quo, I decided it was best to let the sleeping dogs lie. We made camp, and I waited till everyone, but Tonia slept off. She had insisted on taking the first watch, and to ward off the arousal of suspicion, I pretended to have slept. A few hours into midnight, she tapped me and told me to take over. In all honesty,I had actually dozed off, but now, I felt active and starving. I waited till an hour had passed before I crept away from the camp, there was a tree with low branches beside me and I felt that would give me a better hunting vantage if I were to catch the frog. I was beginning to doze off when I heard a croak, immediately, I sprung into action, and searched for it intensely from above. Then, I found it hopping towards the camp which was miles away at that point. I pulled a dart out of my toolkit and aimed for its head, but it missed the mark by a lot of inches, it was almost as if the frog saw it coming, which would be impossible.

I thought the impossible to be possible immediately the frog turned to my direction and began to grow in size, it grew almost taller than the trees. It was so close to me, I feared to breathe lest it found me out

"Old wizard didn't mention this part", i cursed under my breath. My mutter caught the attention of the frog, and it sent its tongue flying towards my direction. I barely escaped it as its coarseness and stickiness ripped the arm of my cloth off, immediately,it retracted. Then, the run began, every tree I jumped to, it followed me hotly behind. At that moment, it hit me that the hunter was being hunted,and discovered I was drifting too far away from camp, so like a cornered dog, I stopped in my tracks and faced the frog beast head on

"You're my dinner, not the other way round". I shouted

It bellowed back and rushed me at me with its head faced down like a buffalo. Its speed was outrageous for its size, and upon contact, it tossed me into the sky. It was a nice show of strength and speed, but certainly not a decision that favoured it. I noticed I had forgotten to put my dagger in my bag while at camp, and was not with my sword because it was ridiculous to take a sword to catch a frog. Setting my dagger free of my belt, I plunged downwards through the air, and drove it through the frog's eye. The pain the blade inflicted on the frog was evidently intense given the way with which it roared and began lashing its tongue out anywhere it could. During its episode of pain, its leg hit against a stump and it crashed to the floor. Its tongue flew by me twice,and I knew it had located where I was on the ground, it was important the final blow be delivered as soon as possible. In haste, i pulled my dagger out of its eye, the frog was lying sideways on the floor before, but the sudden pain pulling the dagger caused it, activated reflexes that made it fall on its back. It caught sight of me as it landed on the ground with me directly beside its good eye. Without a moment's hesitation, its indestructible tongue came after me, and then it became a race against time. I worked my feet hard as fast as I could and jumped on its belly,then dug my dagger in . I had expected the blow to be fatal, and the tongue to drop,but it still came for me. Fear burnt in me and I almost froze, but with the determination of not dying, I dragged the dagger across it belly which was opening up like a zip, and spewing blood into the air with my every movement. By the time, I had rent its belly open, I jumped to the ground but unfortunately missed my footing, which resulted in a sprained ankle. The tongue was still after me, and by then, I was out of ideas and strength. I closed my eyes knowing the end was near, my only regret was my inability to save the igwoba. A few minutes passed, and I discovered I wasn't dead. Opening my eyes, I saw the tongue lying a few feet in front of me, turns out it stopped functioning just before it had the better of me. A clap resounded from the distance, it was the sorcerer sitting down on a broken branch and munching on a fruit.

"You were there this whole time and couldn't lend a hand? What if it had killed me?" I asked half angrily

"Then, you wouldn't have been the chosen one", he replied between mouthfuls of whatever he was eating "Off to bed I go now, it was a wonderful show"

He turned his back, and I shouted after him " You could have at least said something about the frog's size, you know?"

After an audible snigger, he waved his hand and I felt my ankle straighten itself, then he replied "Then you wouldn't have gone to hunt it

Morning was an entry of cold air, and a slight fog. The sun was not its usual angry self but seemed to be sleepy eyed, and hit the forest mercifully. Everyone greeted each other and packed up for another day of running. I went to the meet the old man because I was still shaken from the night's fiasco.

"Old wiz! Where's the meat?" I asked hungrily

"Safe from decay and predators in a portal somewhere, you'll eat later"he replied without looking at me, more focused on his spell book.

"Old wiz! How did you know I was going to hunt the frog?"

He replied jeeringly " Your belly grumbled", then chuckled, and left me rooted to the spot. Our journey to find the igwoba resumed as we picked up our pace and began running.