The Enchanted Forest of Mangga

5. Fairies have pretty wings and frogs have soft hearts...

This smooth-skinned forest frog had a name.

His name was Kaloy.

Kaloy was a good frog.

Kaloy was a big frog.

Kaloy was also a very sensitive frog.

So when Kaloy lost the three children behind and hid into his secret home inside a dilapidated tree trunk, he had tears in his eyes. Wait, tears? Frogs have tears?

Apparently so...

Frogs cry and have feelings too. Kaloy had tears in his eyes because the fairy had spewed awful names at him. She had called him Pangit. Ugly.

It made Kaloy sad. When she was spit out, she landed against the touch tree bark upside down with saliva covering her body and wings.

Yuck! she said in disgust as she touched the sticky and slimy residue on herself. Her wings were damaged even more. Her papa wasn't going to be happy about it.

I didn't like that you called me pangit, the frog said. He slowly crawled to the opposite corner, looking upset.

The fairy huffed and sat cross-legged with her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at her kidnapper. You shouldn't have kidnapped me then! I thought you were going to eat me! She wrung her dark hair from saliva.

Frogs don't necessarily eat fairies, at least to the Engkanto's knowledge in the forest. No frogs even dared to. They were simply attracted to pretty things. That was how Kaloy instinctively caught the fairy from the young boy's shoulder. His tongue took control of the situation and took off leaping without thinking.

Ugh! I'm still covered in spit!

Kaloy looked apologetically. I'm sorry. You have pretty wings.

Not anymore, the fairy grumbled.

They later heard leaves and sticks crunching nearby Kaloy's hiding spot.

"Where did they go?" Sez said.

"Oh no! We lost them!"

"What are we going to do, Ate?"

Bea sighed and wiped a sweat above her eyebrow. Should they keep searching or go back home? Although, it would be pretty sad to see the fairy leave like them like that. They have to try. "Let's keep looking for them."

"This time, I'm going to shoot that frog!" Ali said, stretching his thick, blue rubber band with a small rock. He had collected several rocks as his ammo in his pocket.

Hearing that, Kaloy shivered. Oh man. This wasn't what he had intended. He was just jumping peacefully in the forest and got curious as to why there are three children wandering in the forest. He wanted to be friendly, but pretty creatures and humans don't know that because he was big and ugly. They get disgusted.

Tsk. The fairy put her arms on hips and exited the tree trunk with no problem.

"Look, Ate! I found her!" Ali cheered. "Now where's that ugly frog?"

The fairy pointed inside the tree trunk and squeaked. Ali bent down on all fours and squinted through a big hole in the tree trunk.

"A-ha! I see you now!" Ali carefully aimed at the frog.

Kaloy couldn't close his eyes even if he wanted to.

"NO!" Sez blocked his older brother's aim with his palm. "Don't do it!"

"Why not? It almost ate the fairy!"

The fairy squeaked and nodded. She ignored the frog's helpless stare.

"Nooooo! Don't hurt it!" Sez found a stick long enough to reach the frog. He bent down on all four and tried to let the frog come out of its hiding spot. "C'mere, froggy, froggy, froggy~"

"Um, Sez, be careful," Bea said. She stood farther away from the boys. She wasn't as brave as them, but she still had to take care of her younger brothers.

Sez was daring. He scooped up the frog in his hands and patted his head. Ali watched and assuming nothing bad had happened, patted the frog's head too.

"Ate, do you want to touch it?"

Bea grimaced. "No, thank you. Put it away."

"It's not going to bite you."

"Nope."

"Fine." Sez placed his new friend in his pail.

Bea examined the fairy's slimy body so she gently wiped the fairy with her shirt, careful not to damage her wings again. The fairy squeaked and when Bea looked up, the fairy was pointing at the same tree that she and the frog hid in. Circling the dead tree was a ring of brown and white mushrooms.

702 words

3581 words total

April 4, 2021