Matilda smiled.
"Well, he has paid the the next six months, so it is only fair and square that he lives here for the next half-year."
"Agreed, sister," said Hilda. "No one said he had to be human to live here and in the end, he's the winner. He gets to be fed too and he is allowed to room in a house that is much, much bigger than he originally thought. As a frog, he lives in a real gigantic apartment!"
"A penthouse!" trumped Matilda.
Hilda waved her hand and an open terrarium, complete with a little aquarium and lush, warm and rich tiny garden appeared in a corner. Gilda set him on the ground.
"Here you go, little pet. We don't have a permanent cat. Yet. So you should be safe. Don't go outside the apartment for your safety. Be careful of things in your new world populated with giants, though. She kissed him on the head and patted him on the head as well, letting him go. Frightened and repulsed by these old women, James hopped away as fast as he could. As for the witches, they all had a cup of coffee and talked about how it was nice to have a little frog around, because it was traditional and because he was a little sweetie as a green frog. Although care should be taken when leaving doors open or closed or when walking. It was nice to have their own little hopping green pet instead of just considering how to transform the tenants, grab their money and how to sell them back with humongous profit to other witches or to residents of the Fay World.
James just started getting accustomed to his new body. Jumping on all fours, with amazing leaps, was strange and new yet exhilarating. He was as amazing as one of the performing athletes at his schools! The world being now a world of giants, with chairs as tall as buildings and tables as high as mountains felt odd, doubtless, but it made the exploration rather exciting. As if he was discovering another land, another world, like in a movie! It made the most mundane objects incredible and worthy of wonder. Everyday things took on new meanings and fun usage! The next few days just brought on more and more discoveries.
An empty shoe became a leathery soft burrow. The dining room was a forest of tall trees. The tiny pond was a safe haven and it was easy to bound to it to get his skin moist and heathy again. When the witches wanted to assure himself of his location, he croaked and bounding wherever he wished, like a green bouncing rubber ball with hyperactive tendencies, was refreshing. Food was placed for him every day and he had no worries or responsibilities. Work or human related, that was. However, the food consisted of dead bugs in a plate next to his pond. James had tried eating from the witches' plates, in spite of his abysmal revulsion, hoping to survive on their leftovers but he had almost choked on a piece of sausage and he had had to resign himself to trying tentatively the bugs in his tiny plate. After chewing one up with his tiny teeth (he had discovered to his utmost surprise that frogs indeed did possess them), he had gobbled up the entire platter of crickets and grasshoppers before he knew what he was doing. As nothing else was coming, he had to admit that he;'d be eating bugs from now on. He also forced himself to forget that these bugs were life fried marshmallows, chewy on the inside yet crunchy on the outside. Plus it was healthier than actual fried marshmallows. He'd burn up all his extra calories just by hopping around. The witches did seem to like him, calling him "the transformed prince". Not everything else had advantages, either, though. The stomping and arrival of huge feet in ugly clogs and old shoes was never pleasant and it forced him to jump out of the way and move far and be cautious as he had never had to consider as a much taller human being. The bathroom was another problem. The steam coming from a bath was very nice, making the atmosphere as humid as in a rainforest, but it contained a lot of horrors. The first was the warm water. A bit of hot steam was nice. Hot water was vile, though. It was strange, yet James just liked cold water, like any amphibian and just went along with his new taste. A webbed feet in the leftover of a bath had been uncomfortable to the utmost. As if his skin shouted in discomfort and his blood retreated to the fresh recesses of his organism. His brain let go a warning to stop this at once or else his skin would peel off and his nerves and heart overheat. It felt like a sauna to be in for hours. Hopping on the cool tiled floor in the warm steam was a lot less unpleasant and there were tiny puddles to splash in! Waiting for the water in the bathtub puddles had been easy and it was funny to slide in the porcelain container. However, barging in and seeing one of the old witches in the nude had been horrid. They just laughed and called him teasingly a little voyeur or winked at him and asked him if he was enjoying the show. They cackled and James was left with the images of naked old women and their flabby folds of wrinkled skin. Even seeing their awful ugly clothes in their closets was less scarring.
However, the most disturbing element of the apartment had been a room that had been always looked but in which the witches came in with food and later emerged from it with empty plates. They also talked with guests, also witches, about certain nights like Halloween or Walpurgis during which they would 'trade with the fay and their world'. James was told to not go into the room by the witches but it had been left ajar one day and he thought a peek could bring no harm . He could hear noises issuing from the mysterious room at times too. He therefore slipped into the room through the door that was ajar and was greeted by darkness. He croaked and could see shiny eyes staring at him and odd shapes. Suddenly, he jumped in fright at something coming at him. He darted out of the way to avoid a big black paw with sharp claws pawed the ground where he had been. It miaowed angrily. It was a black kitten with green eyes, locked in a wicker carrier. There was a crow in a wired cage, a big lizard that resembled suspiciously a dragon, a few fat white rabbits, two parakeets and eggs settled in nests of hay. James croaked more. Some animals made their own noises. The door did open with a creek and James fled in great leaps back into the apartment, surprising Hilda who was coming with food. Too bad she had seen him. He had to get out of there. It was just too much. He leaped to the underside of a crockery buffet and hid there to rearrange his muzzy thoughts. He had almost been caught and eaten by a cat. There were poor creatures that would be sold to fay creatures, whatever they were. Also, were those the other tenants that had come before him? Would they be sold to bad fay creatures? Did the witches get a lot of gems or gold or coins for these hapless animals? What did the eggs contain? Why had he not been transformed to be sold? Why was he a frog allowed to remain in the human world? Were these creatures really the former lodgers? Were they about to get sent to the Fay World or for elsewhere? Were the witches going to punish him for knowing? Did they care? It's not like he could go to the police and croak his version of the story. What would happen now?