The car, driven by his former human body, had departed before James even thought of producing a belated "ribbit."
Now what should he do?
He made an experimental hop, trying to judge how far a leap could take him. He landed with a splash a good distance into the pond, surfacing with a blanket of algae and duckweed coating his head and back.
He climbed onto a fallen log partially submerged in the pond. The sun felt good. He relaxed, or made that his goal, but the worries refused to leave him free to simply mindlessly bask in the sunshine.
As he contemplated his options, a tall feathered figure slipped from the nearby reeds. A long leg with a foot attached to four toes raised out of the water and then dipped back down as the heron, attracted by the earlier splash, stalked patiently. The large bird, almost half the height of a human being, froze when its quarry crawled onto a fallen log.
James tried to enjoy the sunshine, but now his paranoia increased due to that strange feeling that he was being watched. The gangly bird moved in slow motion across the pond, doing an imitation of a feathered statue between each painstakingly stealthy step. The bird's long neck stretched out even farther as it drew closer.
James gazed into the water and sadly stared at his reflection. Was he doomed to be a frog the rest of his life?
Something in the reflection moved. His eyes bulged as he stared at the stillness of the pond's mirroring surface. He saw his reflection as a warty, green frog, but now he saw the tall, feathered shape in the background. His cold blood grew colder. He might not enjoy a life much longer if that bird...
James croaked in panic something that, if translated into English would have been "Oh shit!" and leaped just as the heron launched its dagger-like bill toward his position on the log.