After a mercifully brief walk/hop the pair arrived back at Lucy's place. She let Annie in through the gate at the back of the garden to avoid getting dirty pond water on her carpet but her friend didn't seem to care about being treated like an animal and leapt towards the smallish pond nearby with great enthusiasm.
"This is great *croak* I can really make myself at home here *croak*" Annie enthused "I'd better *croak* introduce myself I guess"
Annie then began making a series of very authentic sounding croaking noises, to which a chorus of frogs ribbited back. A couple even hopped towards Annie as if to greet her. This was totally crazy to Lucy - even if she believed she was a frog surely Annie couldn't actually communicate with these creatures?
Annie then hopped back towards Lucy excitedly "This is great *croak* Lucy, so much nicer than the pond in the park *croak* and..."
Suddenly the naked girl stopped talking and seemed almost frozen in fear.
"Annie, are you alright?" Lucy asked with concern.
"Get it away from me *croak*" Annie whimpered "it wants to *croak* eat me!".
Although she was unable to gesture from her new squatting posture Annie's eyes were fixed firmly on Lucy's pet cat which had wandered into the garden to investigate the new guest. While eating her would be a physical impossibility, Lucy had to admit the feline predator was eyeing up her friend the way he would a potential meal.
"I'll take him inside" Lucy reassured her as Annie dived into the dirty water for safety.
"Hey, Lucy what's up!" A familiar voice enquired as Lucy entered the house.
"Back home already?" Another chimed in.
Shit. Lucy had forgotten about Sophie and Laura, her two housemates. How was she going to explain Annie to them?
"Are you OK Lucy? You seem a little anxious" Sophie asked. Sophie was shorter than average and a little on the chubby side but with a cute face, big brown eyes and naturally tanned skin. She was a kind and caring girl, though also someone who would never believe in magic crystals or witches curses and who looked for a logical answer to every situation.
"Nah, she always looks like that!" Laura joked. She was a strikingly pretty woman who almost seemed to try to hide her good looks with her causal, alternative dress sense, lip piercing and hair dyed darker than it's natural brown colour. She was the oldest of the group, humorous and laid back and more likely to be open to the supernatural than Sophie but even so, what had happened to Annie would be hard for anyone to believe.
"Ok, look, my friend is in the garden. I'd like you both to meet her" Lucy began awkwardly "But there is something I need to explain to you first..."