"Wow," I said. "So it's real?"
Ari shot me a glare. "You doubted us?"
"Not really, but you have to admit, it is weird, especially for someone like me."
"Who are you?" the man asked. "You have no right!"
"Get over yourself," Ari snapped. "I broke the spell that made you a frog for God knows how long, so the least you could do is show me some gratitude."
He jolted, looking almost like he'd been shot, then gave Ari a courtly little bow. "I sincerely apologize. I beg you to forgive my poor behavior. I am most grateful, in spite of my churlishness." When he rose from his bow, the panicked look returned to his eyes. "Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I must be leaving. Terribly busy.
Somewhere else I must be. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
He then took off in an all-out run. I could have tripped him as he passed me, but I felt sorry for the guy. Besides, Ari had wings. If she wanted to catch him, she probably could.
But she didn't. She just folded her arms across her chest and said, "You're welcome."
Isabel patted her on the shoulder. "Like I said, it's the assholes who get that done to them. Not to mention out-of-date assholes. Casting frogging spells was outlawed decades ago. He'd want you to do his laundry and cook for him."
"You could try another one," Trix suggested.
"No, it's Kane's turn. An old-fashioned guy would be just right for her."
I had no intention of actually kissing a frog, but I didn't want them to think I was a stick-in-the-mud. It could just take me all night to catch a frog, if I worked hard enough at it. They didn't have to know I was a country girl who knew all about catching frogs, bugs, and other critters. With my brothers, I either had to learn to get used to them or spend my life screaming. "I want to look for a good one," I said as I headed toward a stand of bushes on the other end of the pond. I could hide in there, pretending to look for frogs, until they sobered up or got bored.
I parted the bushes, stuck my head inside, and then shrieked at what I saw.
thirteen
There was a naked man crouching on a rock behind the bushes. Fortunately, the way he crouched kept me from seeing more of him than was really appropriate on such short acquaintance. He looked up at me and said, "Ribbit."
"Urn, news flash, but you aren't a frog," I told him. The others then reached me. Ari and Trix got there first, their wings flying them over any obstacles. A crashing sound behind them told me that Isabel was on her way, flattening anything in her path.
"What is it, Katie?" Trix asked.
I pointed to the naked man. Words failed me.
"It's a frog," Ari said.
Isabel arrived, breathing heavily. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"Katie found a frog," Trix explained.
"No, I didn't. I found a naked guy who seems to think he's a frog. With that other guy, I saw a frog before Ari kissed him. This is different."
"Ribbit!" Naked Frog Guy said, with great enthusiasm.
I knew there were a lot of less than mentally stable people who lived in the streets and parks of New York, and a guy who thought he was a frog wasn't out of the realm of possibility, but the fact that everyone else also thought he was a frog made me suspect that something else was going on here. It must have been the results of an illusion spell rather than an exhibitionist crazy homeless guy or a real enchanted frog prince.
"It's probably a practical joke or a fraternity prank," Ari said. "If you see him as human, that must mean someone cast an illusion on him to make him and everyone else think he's a frog. You don't see the frog because of your magical immunity."
"What do we do about it?" I asked. "We can't leave him out here like this. He'll die of hypothermia. It's cold at night, not to mention the fact that he's naked and around water."
"Ribbit?" he said in a pleading tone of voice.
I snapped my fingers in front of his face. "You're. Not. A. Frog," I told him firmly.
"You'll have to kiss him to make him snap out of it," Isabel said.
"Kiss him?"
Ari rolled her eyes. "How else do you break a frog enchantment?" She left off the
"duh" at the end of the sentence, but her tone implied it.
"But why me? Why do I have to be the one to kiss him?"
Trix ticked off reasons on her ringers. "A: You found him. B: At least you'd be kissing a human. If one of us kissed him, we'd be kissing a frog. Kissing any human is better than kissing any frog."