Chapter 7- Rana tells a story (
Back to the beginning)
It was an unusual day. It was raining. That in itself is not very unusual in a rainforest. But usually it rains . . . rain. Little drops of water. What made today's rainfall stand out was the fact that it was raining frogs. Dozens of orangey gold frogs were falling from the sky.
Roar watched this in amazement from his perch on an aloe leaf. He saw some of them land more or less upright, and were able to hop, albeit with dazed and stunned expressions. Others, though, landed awkwardly and didn't move. Recovering from his surprise, he was just about to go down and help when he was knocked off his leaf and into the mud with a plop. A half second later he broke the impact for the little golden cousin who had slammed into his frond, causing his fall in the first place.
“Are you okay?” asked both frogs at once. There was a brief cacophonous moment as each of them strove to assure the other that he was indeed unhurt. Roar backed away a few paces, to give the other space and to be safe- he didn't want to poison this new-found friend who seems to have had enough misfortune already today. As he examined the cousin he realized it was not a frog at all, but rather a toad. Roughly his own size.
“What's going on?” Roar finally thought to ask. In the chaos it was hard to think straight. Too much going on.
The toad looked around as if noticing his surroundings for the first time. He blinked his dark eyes. He puffed out his caller once or twice, tentatively. He looked bewildered. Finally he said, “I don't know what's happening . . . we were all gathered for . . . and then . . . now we're here.”
Roar grunted as if that made perfect sense. He knew now was not the time for detailed explanations. What was needed now was someone to help these poor creatures out while they were still too lost and confused to think for themselves. In his most soothing voice, he said, “Okay. It's okay. What's your name?”
The toad blinked again and seemed to snap out of his near-trance. “Rico. I'm Rico.”
“Okay, Rico. Good. My name's Roar. What we need to do is get these frogs out of the rain, and see which of them are hurt or, you know . . . “
“Toads.”
“Eh?”
“We're toads, not frogs. But you're right.” Rico drew in a full breath of air into his caller and let out a huge, authoritative blap.
Nothing happened. At least the rain- both of the hydrous and amphibious variety- had stopped. Roar told Rico to keep calling. As his voice carried his kin would hear and draw near, and then they could come up with a more long-term plan. Roar started singing too, a song of comfort. Ree would hopefully hear and come help. She always knew what to do, even if raining toads was outside of her area of expertise.
Still very few toads were responding to Rico's call. Roar decided to approach them and point the way, and offer words of encouragement. That way he could get some inkling of how many were hurt. He had no idea what he would do about those who hadn't survived the fall.
With care and patience Roar went among the . . . what? Victims? What do you call a toad who has fallen from the sky? How does a toad become rain? Could anything become rain? What if some day spiders rained down? Or snakes? Or even himself? Weird.
His idle daydreams seemed to burst to life as suddenly the sky was again full of creatures. But there was nothing unusual about these. Birds! Roar had never paid much attention to birds before, as even the predatory ones left him alone. So his stomach lurched in shock when a beautiful green bird landed and casually scooped up one of the stunned toads with its long yellow beak. Roar realized the toads had no defence against this aerial assault.
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I always have to remind myself that this is just the draft. Like an animatic or storyboard, it doesn't have to be totally polished just yet. Because in all honesty I don't really know if this is really going to be all that much about the Frog Chorus. I can imagine Rana finishing the story and Dart saying, "But what does that have to do with the Frog Chorus?"
"Not really anything but it has raining toads!"
Anyways, the toads are of the species
Bufo periglenes, sadly thought to be extinct, but I hold out hope that there are yet some survivors. And the bird is an emerald toucanet,
Aulacorhynchus prasinus.
Soundtrack: Singing in the Rain
Dedicated to: For the second week in a row, a Travis. This time it's Travis Hanson, creator of the ever-inspiring Storyteller print, and maybe a Poison Dart-related art too, soon.
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