James sat and stared out at the pond in front of him wondering if he should go for a swim or if any hidden dangers lurked in the muddy waters before him. He was aware that things which he could have swatted away or trodden on before could be hazardous to him now. He also wondered if he should just give into temptation and eat one of the flies buzzing around him or if he could supress his appetite long enough for Kayla to return.
His thought process was interrupted by a youngish sounding female voice across from him.
"Hey, you, new boy! Over here!" James tried hard to identify the source of the sound but saw nothing capable of human vocabulary.
"Right across from you, on the lily pads!" the voice encouraged him helpfully. He looked and saw a female amphibian staring straight at him.
"The frog?" James projected his thought unwittingly and the other creature somehow seemed able to pick it up."
"Yes, the frog! Come over here, I think we can help each other!"
Seeing know danger James leaped into the water and swam across to the patch of lily pads, planting himself on one right next to his new acquaintance.
"Hi, I'm Sophia" the frog ribbited.
"I'm James. Um, have you always been a..."
"No. I'm supposed to be human too. I was a powerful witch, if you can believe that. Until my half sister decided to ruin my life that is"
"Your half sister?" James anticipated what was coming next.
"Your friend Kayla" Sophia confirmed "She convinced my stepfather I was some kind of evil sorceress and he let her do this to me. I mean, can you believe it? I'm not the one who goes around turning random dudes into frogs"
"She said she'll turn me back"
"Well, she may do. But then she'll probably just turn you into something else. She does this kind of thing all the time, just picks on someone and treats them as her personal plaything until she gets bored. At which point you'll probably end up stuck as the last thing she felt like making you for life."
"You said we could help each other?" Weirdly James still trusted Kayla - but was that just the effects of her enchantment?
"She said she was coming to find you tomorrow, right? Well, you stay out of the way and I'll go pretend to be you. She is too ditzy to know the difference. Then, when she turns me back into a magical human she gets to be a frog and you can join me in human form. Sound good?"
"And her father?"
"I'll deal with him. Look, this is probably the only chance either of us will get to use opposable thumbs again on a regular basis. And I'm sick of eating bugs. Are you with me?"
James thought about the offer a moment. What if Sophia really was an evil sorceress? But then again, what if Kayla wasn't as friendly as she made out - her actions so far hadn't exactly been kind.