Frog Catchin

“W-will Christoph be okay with this?” Grey stuttered as she carefully descended the small dirt dropoff. With Snowdrop in her arms, she basically had to slide down, she didn’t want her to get dirty.
“Of course!” Max exclaimed, he was a bit ahead of her, following the dirt trail. He constantly checked behind him, making sure that Grey was still in view. So, he was never that far away from her. “We are just catching frogs,” he said once Grey caught up to him. “I know… Christoph just doesn’t like it when we get near the river.” Grey whispered nervously. Max scoffed and shrugged his shoulders, “ehhh he’s just scared of water, he’ll look at a cup of water and freak out.” He finished with a chuckle, Grey stood there silently as Max continued onwards.

“S-shouldn’t we listen to him?” Grey murmured, she shuffled her feet and held tightly onto Snowdrop. Max turned around and blinked at her for a moment, he looked confused and a bit bored.
Silence fell in between them; it was only for a moment, but the quietness pounded at her head. “Is this about the I’m your older brother blah blah blah- stuff?” Max started as he walked up to Grey, she flinched when he got close. “Cause guess what? If you're supposed to listen to your older brother, I’m actually older than Christoph! Soooo,” he gestured to himself mischievously, “your oldest brother says it’s okay.” He finished with a smile and some thumbs ups.
“Ok… If you say so.” Grey said, her anxiety eased a little bit, but she still felt unsure. At her response, Max’s green eyes suddenly sparked with excitement. “YES!! Cool! The river isn’t too far from here! You can probably hear it- come on!” Max yelled out, without wasting a second, he ran ahead. He was so fast that Grey had to pick up the pace, but she didn’t dare run. He thankfully still stopped and waited for her whenever there was a distance between them, his big smile never fading.

She followed Max for a little bit longer, until they finally reached the river. Max said it wasn’t that long of a walk to get here, but for Grey, she felt as if she walked ten miles. At the sight of the bubbling river, Grey sat down onto the dirt to rest for a moment. While Max was immediately darting up and down the riverbank.
Grey held onto Snowdrop as she watched Max excitedly pace along the river. She’s never really seen him like this, usually Max likes to create problems, mischief, just some sort of trouble, but here? He was really excited to catch frogs. 
“Do you hear that, Grey?” Max suddenly called to her. Grey blinked at him for a moment, before focusing on her surroundings. She could hear the wind rustling through the leaves, the bubbling of the river, bird songs, buzzing insects… For a moment, Grey felt light, a wave of familiarity hit her. She felt like she was remembering-

“It’s FROGS!!” 

Max’s yelling immediately tore Grey from her thoughts, but before she could process anything, Max turned around and ran into the river. Grey sat there for a moment before scrambling to stand up, panicked, she ran to the river. “Max!!” She yelled, she had no idea where he went, he was completely out of sight. Could he have gotten swept away? Did he go under and get stuck?? What was she supposed to do!?
Grey stood there trembling, her heart pounded in her ears and then-

SPLASH

Max popped out of the water, holding something in his hands. He looked at Grey and held whatever it was above his head proudly, before bringing it to his face.

It was a rock.

“Oh come on! It felt softer when I grabbed it.” He muttered, he dropped it back into the water and brought his attention back to Grey. His smile faded when he saw her anxious expression. “Are you okay?” He shouted to her, only as loud as he needed to be. “I-I-I t-thought you- I…” Grey continued to stutter, but Max seemed to understand what she was trying to say.
He immediately stood up, “oh! Grey I’m alright! Look,” he pointed down at the water, which was up to his stomach, “it’s not that deep! And this part of the river is very calm, there’s no way it’d take me! Plus, I’m a good swimmer- just trust me!” Max finished with another big smile. Grey didn’t say anything, she just watched him for a moment longer before reluctantly nodding.

Max nodded back and immediately began slowly wading through the river, he constantly scanned the sides of the river, turning to every close croak. This went on for a while, Max would sometimes dive and sometimes catch something, but if he did, it immediately slipped away from him. The longer Grey stood next to the river, the more relaxed she felt around it.
Grey glanced to the river and back to Max. “S-should I come in and try to catch one too?” She asked, glancing around for a dry and clean area to place Snowdrop. Max quickly snapped to her direction, “no, no that’s alright Grey! You shouldn’t get in the river! Don’t worry, I’ll catch one and show it to you!” He responded, shaking his hands at her. He mumbled something else under his breath, but Grey couldn’t catch exactly what.
She stood there, a little bored, she didn’t like being still for too long. She looked around the river, eventually her eyes rested on some smooth rocks sticking out of the water. She could probably walk on those! Grey gently placed Snowdrop on a dry rock nearby, far enough from the water where she wouldn’t possibly get wet, but close enough to see.
Grey quickly walked back over to those rocks, but as she stretched out her leg.

“GOT ONE!” Max yelled, like the rock before, he held the frog above his head. The small frog kicked and wiggled around, Grey could hear the faintest eeeeeeeeee emitting from the frog.
Max moved as fast as he could through the water to show her, his face beaming with pride. Grey quickly moved over to where he was, at least, the closest without getting into the water. It took a moment, but he was able to meet her there, holding a small brown frog in his hands.
Max slowly moved it towards Grey, trying not to startle her with it, as she looked down at it. Its weird brown eyes stared at her and its throat kept pulsing, Grey couldn’t take her eyes off of the little thing. “You can touch it if you want.” Max said, leaning the frog a little closer to Grey.

Grey pondered that for a moment, she felt like she shouldn’t touch it, but also it looked so smooth she couldn’t help it. She lightly bapped it on the head, the frog flinched at her touch but otherwise did nothing.
“You know… I would like to try one of these things…” Max murmured suddenly, Grey looked at him for a second, trying to figure out what he meant. Then she realized.
"You want to eat that??” Grey somewhat shouted. Max glanced at the frog, then at Grey, then back at the frog.
“Kinda…”

“You can’t eat that! It’s a frog!”

“Have you ever heard of frog legs?”

“Please don’t eat its legs!”

Max stared at her for a moment with a mischievous look in his eyes. He turned the frog and opened his mouth. “NO DON’T!” Grey darted forward, Max stepped back as she did, roaring with laughter. “Relax Grey!” He said as he caught his breath, “I’m not going to put the frog in my mouth- that would be a terrible idea… Or is that toads? I don’t know, I don’t care! I’m not stupid,” he ended with a chuckle. He got down to his knees and gently released the frog back into the river.

They both watched the frog swim into the river until it disappeared from sight. Once it did, Max turned to Grey. “Ok! Do you think I should try to catch another frog? Or do you want to go back?” He asked her, Grey pondered that for a moment, she couldn’t really tell if it was getting late or not. It did take him a bit to catch that frog…
“I don’t mind either way,” Max added when Grey was taking a while to respond. Grey glanced at the river, “I’d like to stay next to the river for a while longer, if that’s ok…” She added the last part quickly. Max nodded and walked back into the river with a determined look in his eyes. “I’ll try to catch another frog! Maybe I’ll find a green one this time,” he said once he was in the deeper part of the river.
Grey watched and waited for him to get a bit of distance from her, before heading back to those rocks. She didn’t know if he’d try to stop her, but she didn’t want to take the risk. She wanted to see what was in the river and no one was going to stop her.

She carefully stretched out and stepped onto one of the rocks, once she got her foot sturdy, she immediately jumped onto it. She nearly lost her balance, but by using her arms, she was able to catch herself. Once she was comfortable, she stepped to the next rock. Thankfully, the rest of them were fairly close to each other, she didn’t have any trouble reaching them. However, some of them were wet and slippery. She had to take some time poking her foot at them, trying to find a spot to step on without risk of falling. But, she was able to do it, and she was proud of herself as she reached the last one.
Even though she made it, Grey was a little nervous being out in the middle of the river. As the water lapped at the rocks, she huddled close to herself and slowly leaned over to look.

The river was so clear that Grey was able to see the bottom. There were a lot of pretty brown, white, and black rocks at the bottom that Grey was tempted to reach in and grab them. The more she looked at them, the more she wanted them. Well… She slowly got down on her knees, the rock was big enough for her to do so, and carefully reached into the water.
She flinched at the touch of the water but, as she focused on the feel of the water, it began to feel somewhat soft to her. It was cold but in a refreshing way, it lightly ran through her fingers, and Grey couldn’t help but put both of her hands in the water. She was fascinated by how cold and soft it was.

“Grey!” Max’s voice made her flinch, she immediately took her hands out of the water and braced herself for trouble. “Be careful not to fall in!” He called out to her, he gave a reassured smile and returned to his frog hunting.
Grey wasted no time putting her hands back in the river. She pushed and splashed the water around, staring at the rings of water that appeared from the droplets. This felt amazing... And somewhat familiar?
Then she remembered the rocks! She got closer down towards the river and stuck her arms down as deep as she comfortably could, but she still couldn’t reach them. But they look so close! Grey thought, frustrated she couldn’t get them. She pulled out her arms, which were dripping wet, and shook out her hands like a wet kitten.

“What are you trying to get?” Max murmured, Grey flinched. When did he get here!? She thought as she looked at him. He wasn’t looking at her, he was scanning the spot where she was reaching to figure it out himself. 
Grey pointed down, “rocks.” Was all she said, Max looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, I can grab you a handful and see which ones you like.” He murmured before diving down into the river. Grey watched him, leaning over where he dived to see if she could see him grab them. It took him a bit, every second made Grey more and more nervous. Until he finally popped out, sending water everywhere, Grey had to shield herself from it.
“How are these? I kind of just grabbed all the ones I could see,” Max said, shaking the water out of his hair. He held out his hands to her, showing the rocks. Grey immediately grabbed his hands and moved the rocks around, looking at all of them. Some of them were jagged, others were very smooth and round, some had cool patterns and nice colors! It was really hard for Grey to just choose which ones she wanted, she wanted all of them.
She kept moving them around, flipping them over, looking at them. That Grey didn’t notice Max’s arms were getting tired of holding all these rocks. “Do you just want to take them all?” Max finally asked, “YES! PLEASE!- T-thank you,” Grey shouted with excitement before immediately lowering her voice. “Alrighty, I’ll just bring them over th- oh boy…” Max said, slightly exasperated.

Grey followed his gaze and saw Christoph standing close to the riverbank. “GUYS!?” Christoph exclaimed as he stared at both of them with wide eyes, he held onto his hair as if he was going to rip it out. “GREY??” Christoph continued to yell as he slowly processed the situation.
“We were catching frogs,” Max said, unphased by Christoph’s anxiety and stress. “FROGS????” Christoph continued to shout, “yes. Frogs.” Max murmured, a little tired of his brother’s yelling. 
A bit excited, Grey stood up on her rock. Christoph immediately shot out his hands, as if he could reach or catch her from there. 

“He c-caught a frog!! And h-he’s got me some rocks! They look c-cool, do you wanna see!!” Grey stuttered, her excitement causing her to stumble over her words. She hopped up and down on the rock, causing Christoph to get even more anxious.
“S-sure but can you PLEASE get out of the river???” Christoph shouted, a bit more calmly, even though his shaking betrayed his calmer voice. Max let out an annoyed sigh, “ok-ok, we’re coming. C’mon Grey,” he muttered, he held the rocks tightly in his hands as he waded towards the riverbank. Grey followed on her rocks, very carefully; Christoph was already freaking out enough. 
“Why? Why is it always the river?” Christoph murmured as they got closer, “I was just catching frogs??” Max mumbled irritably.

“Grey could’ve DROWNED!”

“I know how to swim.”

“She DOESN’T!”

“I know how to swim.” Max repeated, Christoph stared at him, somewhat appalled. When he said nothing, Max spoke. “I could teach her how to swim if you want,” he shrugged a bit. “Absolutely NOT!” Christoph said angrily.

“It’s a good thing to learn.”

“It’s not necessary?? How many situations is Grey going to be in that requires swimming Max??” Christoph snapped, trying to find any reason for Grey to not be in water.
Max shrugged again, “you never know.”