Chapter 1

It was a marvelous spring night. I could feel the warm breeze passing by, bringing nothing but good faith wishes. My first night as a human had been exactly like this one, in fact, it had exactly made a year that my curse had been lifted. Today I could stand on the castle's tower whilst I gazed the coastline, the woods, and marshes of my new kingdom. Well, the kingdom wasn't mine. My father-in-law was the true king - I had only married his daughter. Precisely one year ago, after a gentle kiss that cost me all the charm a small frog could have.
During the last year, I lived with gratitude for the gesture, although knowing now it was more loveless than I wished for. I made by best trying to cope with behaving like a man once again. I had to learn how to eat with a fork and a knife; I learned how to ride the horses; how to kiss; how to fence.Everything to please her and the king. Well, I was going to be the next one in line, unless the princess thought about divorce. One year before I was still an anxious amphibian...after a curse placed on me by the witch when I was a teen. I was just wondering in the woods with the royal hunting party of my father. It was a tragic event to cross her path... I didn't even think about going back to my kingdom afterward. So many years after I'm sure they already had another heir.

I descended from the tower to the path. I passed the guards with a quick compliment. I fasted my pace so I wouldn't hear their question about where was I going to. After all, I was the prince, I had my rights... I started whistling while passing the south bridge over the stream and I entered the royal garden - an orchard that extended through miles in the southern area of the castle, where the king would hunt and have his royal picnics. The woods were quiet...I could hear the crows and some rustling in the bushes. Suddenly a familiar sound made me go a certain way.The sound of croaking frogs. I soon found the origin - a pond with muddy soil all around and the corpse of a rotting tree that had fallen in its margin. I sat on the tree and took if my boots and socks...The mud was cold but embraced my feet with a soft touch. I walked to the margin and inside the pond until my knees were submerged by the murky water. The ripple marks swayed the pond's surface and made some lily pads dance under the scarce moonlight, that the trees' cup allowed in. I looked at my reflection. I was going to miss that's for sure. I scratched my beard while scanning the pond for life.

"Sorry if I scared you guys" I apologized when I found nothing.One year ago I had probably done the same.

I took off my belt and my trousers and tossed them in the tree. I snuck my precious possession from the jacket's pocket and enveloped it with my fingers making sure it wouldn't get lost. I took the jacket off and also my shirt.

I opened my hand and looked at the little flakes with a glowing green liquid. I took the cork out and without further ado, I gulped it all. The flask too was tossed towards the tree. I soon felt my stomach rumbling and my upper body sweating. But sweating madly...drops of water formed on my forehead and my chest.

I whipped my chest and the sweat turned into a gooey substance that took my chest hair off too. I took a while to get used to, to be honest. I was transformed into a frog when I was fourteen years old, I hadn't developed much hair by that stage. Seventeen years later when my wife's kiss turned me back I had the body of a 31 years old. There was a lot of new changes everywhere. Not only did I had to surpass those body changes but also my mentality - I had to grow up in months and put my adolescence aside and become a man. For sixteen years I had been free and careless, truth be told and suddenly I was being told what to do, how to do it and when to do it. And none of them were my beloved mother or father. They had already probably forgotten me, by now.

My body hair started to "glue off" as my skin got more and more sweat. I didn't notice but my back developed a green hue and my belly started to get paler. I rubbed myself to get the sweating out. My arms weren't covered with the gooey substance any longer, but they were wet, however. I looked at my fingers as they enlarged in from of my eyes. Under the glooming moonlight, they became thinner and my finger heads bulgier. I took my hands in my face and felt the cold touch searching my features. That was a point I almost ignored, I wasn't feeling cold anymore. The water's temperature was cozy and welcoming for a full dive. I followed my instinct and plunged into the water. It enveloped me like hot blankets on a rainy day. When I came back I combed my hair with my hands - like I usually did; this time I felt the webbing between my fingers. my beard had been washed away by the water, like any other sing of masculine pilosity, only my head had some sparse hairs ready to fall. The green hue intensified and little darker spots developed on the outer side of my arms and muscled legs. I was ready to give a cry of victory. As I opened my mouth - an involuntary movement made me feel like vomit; the result was my amphibian tongue was spit out in a midst of drool and saliva. Its pinky sensitive skin coiled on the water's surface. I slurped it in like a spaghetti string. How I had missed my tongue.

I still remember the first time I had to use my frog tongue. I detested the fact that I had developed an appetite for flies, but it had been two days since I had eaten. The same two days since I had been transformed into a frog, I was too disgusted with myself to even face the fact that I had to open my mouth and slide a slimy tongue to snatch my lunch from the air. When I finally ate my first fly it tasted like crunchy rice, but overall I was more surprised how my tongue serpented trough the air to catch that fly. (I still remember: the was resting on leaf that had fallen on the lake and I sat on rock by the pond's margin, by the day's dawn). From that day on I began to think that my slimy tongue was actually a weapon, like a knight's sword. It was strange but it made more acceptable to my condition. 

I climbed on top of the dead fallen tree by the pond's margin. My feet splashed around when I took them out of the water - they were frog feet like I recall them. I sat on the tree like a frog waiting for my flying snack and the rest of my changes. My legs were muscled and decorated with three darker green stripes. I stood there waiting. My respiration accelerated, my ribs expanded more and more -they became less expansible. My bone structure was changing, that was when my neck popped and conjoined to my chest. My lower bones shifted and buttocks disappeared - the new rearrangement made my panties extend too much and rip off. My virility had disappeared already, being cloaked into my inner body...I'll be honest sixteen years after that was the only member I still had a memory about. I did mate during the period I was a frog, but nothing as enjoyable as the deal. (Even if it was just under the blanket, before falling asleep...). 

My spine cracked; I let go a cry and felt the transformation forcing me to adopt a more amphibian posture, which was fine as it made more down-to-Earth, although I always was an airhead. My mouth widened suddenly, my head flattened after a faint little pressure, my eyes shifted positions and bulged and my nose disappeared. Now, I had lost all the human traces in me, apart from my brain. I was nothing more than a human-sized frog on top of that dead tree. For a moment I thought the witch could have wronged me with a false potion...but she gave me exactly what I asked for three golden coins. I could feel it now, it was only a matter of seconds until I would go back to my previous cherished life. 
And it came... With a magical "POOF" and cloud of sparkling green dust I shortened and there I was again: another frog in the pond. Now I was truly free, now I was truly me. Why be the prince, tied to the responsibility of being human when I could be a frog and face the consequences of the animal kingdom.