The Frog

Too Close.

     Ambrose waved to Sorin, putting on a polite and friendly face to keep his mother satisfied as the tutor made his way back home. Once a week, Sorin was to come back to Valorin to tutor Ambrose again.

     "We'll see you next week darling, safe travels!" Aridelle, Ambrose's mother, called to Sorin, waving her fingers to him. She smiled as Sorin peeked through his window of the carriage and waved back at her and Ambrose.

     Ambrose exhaled, not realizing he had been holding his breath while watching Sorin disappear into the woods. He couldn't wait to get back to his regularly scheduled activities. Not that he loved his activities, he just hated his time with Sorin. He turned and went inside again, pulling at his shirt collar and taking a deep breath, inhaling the relief of a Sorin-free environment.

     "Damien!" Ambrose called, needing to find some way to get back into the loop of things. It didn't take long for the sound of tiny feet tapping against the stone floors of the castle to make their way towards Ambrose. A croak from a frog finding its way into the mix of castle sounds.

     "Do you still have that damned frog?" Ambrose searched for what corner Damien would be peeking around.

     "Of course I do, I couldn't just let him go!" Damien giggled, running into Ambrose's leg, knocking the older boy over. Ambrose let out a grunt of surprise, not expecting to feel such force coming from behind his knee.

    "He would probably be a little more comfortable, don't you think?" Ambrose coaxed, afraid of what their mother would say if she saw a frog in the castle, especially one of this size.

     "No, he's fine, I brought his home inside." Damien grinned, picking himself up off the floor.

     "You brought his home inside?" Ambrose questioned, a deep despair beginning to form in his stomach as he prayed this didn't mean what he thought it did. "What do you mean, you brought his home inside?" He asked anyways.

     "I took it out of the ground!"

     "Show me."

     Ambrose was dragged upstairs and into Damien's room. There was no sign of earth in here, Ambrose took a breath of relief. That is until Damien opened his closet.

     "Oh my Lord." Ambrose whispered under his breath. A big box was leaking mud and moss onto the floor below it, soaking the clothes that were lazily tossed onto the floor around it. "You brought his home. Into your closet."

     Damien's stomach flip flopped around his torso, his head lowering. "Yeah, he needed his home."

     "And you couldn't find any other place to put it." Ambrose was too angry to yell. Too afraid their mother would hear his snapping tone to speak anywhere above a whisper.

     "He would have run away if I put it anywhere else!" Damien defended himself. At least he tried to, he was starting to see his fault, he just didn't want to admit he was wrong.

     "It's a wonder how he hasn't run away already!" Ambrose almost lost his head, briefly shouting. He quickly covered his mouth to stop himself, pressing his eyes shut and taking five deep breaths, trying to regain his composure.

     "Please don't make me get rid of him!" Damien pleaded, hugging his amphibian friend.

     Ambrose slowly opened his eyes, trying to approach the situation the best way he could. He didn't want to make Damien say goodbye to the frog, he even enjoyed the slimy thing. However, Damien wasn't equipped to take care of him. Not on his own anyways. If their mother were to ever find out what was hopping around the castle, she'd have his head for allowing something like this to happen. She would kill them both if she ever saw the box of mud still draining onto the floor. The mud. Oh Lord the mud!

     Ambrose snapped himself out of his thoughts, hurrying to pick up the box and get it outside as quickly as possible. "Before we do anything with that frog, we need to get this out of here, go clean up that mud right now!" He panicked, trying to find the quickest way outside, where he could also avoid his mother. Damien nodded, hurrying to pick up his dirty clothes, tripping over them as he shoved them in a basket. Ambrose would take care of those later but for now, he was looking out Damien's window, trying to decide if it would be too loud for him to drop the box from this height.

     Both Damien and Ambrose froze as they heard footsteps coming towards the room. Their mother. Ambrose took a leap of faith, tossing the box out the window and shoving himself and Damien into the closet, closing the door behind them. Both the boys had mud all over their clothes from trying to clean up the gigantic mess. Ambrose covered Damien's mouth with his hand, both their hearts beating out of their chests with cold mud soaking their pants.

     The door opened, swishing skirts and tapping shoes following. "Those boys are never where I need them." Aridelle grumbled to herself. She turned to leave until she smelled something familiar. Nothing she enjoyed, but she knew it was familiar and this wasn't the environment for whatever she was smelling. Aridelle started looking around the room, lifting sheets and looking through toys. Shadows came up to the closet door, threatening to open the door. Ambrose closed his eyes, accepting the cold hands of death when he heard his father calling.

     "Aridelle! I need you, quickly!" The king shouted for his wife.

     The shadows in front of the door huffed and left the room. "I'm coming, one moment!" Aridelle responded, closing the bedroom door behind her.

     Ambrose gasped for air with Damien, both of them were too scared to even think about breathing and make the slightest of noise for their mother to hear. Ambrose fell back, covering his face, begging his heart to slow down.

     "That was close." Ambrose croaked. "Too close."

     He sat up, ignoring the mud sliding off his back, and looked outside to see how the box of mud survived. Unfortunately, someone must have been standing nearby when Ambrose took the last moment decision to toss the box outside. Mud splatters trailed away from the scene, a sword left behind.

     "Oh Lord..." Ambrose groaned. "That's Weylin's sword."