The sky practically glowed with good energy along with the bright, clear sun of late October. The trees had already turned, and many of them had lost their leaves, too. The air had that oft mentioned crispness to it, not quite the brittle quality it would have in another month, and ten or twenty fewer degrees...just different. Clean. It whispered through the gradually undressing forest that Eloise should enjoy this sun while she had the chance, because it would soon lose its power, and the fires indoors would be the closest she could get to basking in its rays. The wind sought to steal what warmth could be found, and moisture along with it.
As Eloise scampered down the cabin steps and out into the swirling leaves, a tiny pair of eyes watched her from just to the left of the threshold. Blink. Swallow. They looked around, bouncing above a tiny green set of legs, and discovered a warmer wisp of air coming through a small crevice nearby. Squirming through, Froggie gulped at the little space full of shoes and various small objects just inside the cabin door. He carefully sneaked along the edge of the floor, up the wall a little way to the shadow of a hanging coat, and from there picked out a likely spot: a philodendron trailed along a window across the next room, with a little tray of water under its pot. A few quick hops had him nestled behind a leaf and dozing comfortably.
***
As winter set its hooks into the land and her bones, Eloise felt her mood sagging. Less warmth, less light, fewer green things gleaming at her from pathways and windows; life had gone to bed. Yet she busied herself just like the rest of the year, nose to the grindstone as she'd been raised. Her job as an accountant paid her bills well, but consumed a lot of time with few spots of genuine interest. Not to say it wasn't satisfying. There's a reason she chose that route, after all. But combined with the dreary drudgery of days shortening and thermometers creeping ever closer to the bottom of their range, Eloise felt like her own life was drifting off into the void. Would she find herself again when the axis tilted back? Was she going to be lost forever? She couldn't really tell if this was living, or even existing.
How had she made it to 35 years old without so much as a textbook date? Hell, throw out the textbook. She'd never really dated at all. Her thoughts clouded over as she drifted towards sleep, staring blearily at the calendar just past the foot of her bed. Rows of red x marks, like dead cartoon faces glaring at her. Just as she got to the first empty square, she tipped into a deep sleep, to the sound of a tiny splash behind her at the window. Great. Rain. Guess she'd be working from home on Christmas Eve. No use trying to drive out of here with the roads frozen solid.
Eloise let a soft snore escape along with some unintelligible mumbles. In the philodendron's pot above the head of her bed, Froggie chirped at nearly the same instant. Whew. That lady was interesting. With her glasses on, her eyes looked big compared to her face, just like his. He'd been peeking around his current leaf-perch as she got ready for bed. Luckily he blended in well with the leaves, and she hadn't noticed him quietly eating insects that followed the same tendril of warm air he'd noticed and found themselves a well kept space to overwinter. Why hibernate if you didn't have to? Froggie didn't want to lose his hiding place, though, and he needed something to snack on if he was going to stay awake and hopping. Tasty little buggers. He swallowed again, and blinked his eyes.
Now that Eloise was asleep, Froggie took the opportunity he'd been ignoring for weeks. He hopped, squirmed, and slinked his way up and onto the bed below. He noticed how warm it was under the covers, but instead he clambered up onto the pillow. The closer he got, the more curious he became about the texture of Eloise's skin. So different. He peered at it from millimeters away, fascinated. He reached out a wobbling foreleg and touched the bead of moisture trickling down the side of her face. He tasted it. Salty. He noticed a small gnat flying close above Eloise's mouth, and almost jumped. What if it woke her up? He carefully sidled toward it a little, calibrated, and shot out his tongue just in time to keep the bug from landing between her slightly parted lips.
Froggie had just enough time to swallow the gnat before his body started to feel tingly. Nose to toes, he felt buzzy, almost like he'd sprouted wings of his own. At the same time, Eloise smacked her lips together, made a slight face, and wriggled into a more comfortable position, now facing Froggie. His eyes widened, body continuing to buzz. Then he realized his eyes had kept widening, and so was the rest of his face. The buzzy feeling rapidly progressed to sharp prickly waves of sensation that were difficult to name. His perspective changed. The bed creaked as he fell off it, banging and bouncing clumsily off the floor.
Eloise sat bolt upright. "What the HELL," she exclaimed.
Froggie blinked, looking around. Everything seemed much smaller and closer together. He made a noise that should've been a small, almost inaudible chirp, even for him. Instead, it came out of his odd-feeling mouth as a short growling groan that vibrated his....lips? He looked down. He looked up at Eloise, just as she looked down at him, blinking the sleep from her eyes.
All four eyes grew very wide indeed, and both sets of amazingly compatible lips opened to match as jaws dropped.
"WHAT THE HELL!!" Eloise shouted again.
"Urgh...Urmm...Um. Hi?" Froggie tested the new shape of his tongue, and tried to copy a word he'd heard Eloise say when she spoke to other humans on the phone.
Eloise was torn between fear, anger, surprise, and a few other nameless emotions all vying for supremacy, and she stopped shouting long enough to take a deep breath, quivering.
"Why are you in my house, and why are you NAKED!? Who ARE YOU!?" She practically squealed by the end.
Froggie didn't know the first thing about how to answer any of that. Well, the first part. Good thing he was a smart...frog? He had been continuing to marvel at the way his mouth worked.
"Well...I came into your house to get warm. My name is Froggie. I used to live under your porch, but it was getting awfully cold out a couple of months ago...I'm sorry. I couldn't ask your permission back then, but I've been hiding in your plant up there. Then there was a bug, and it almost landed in your mouth, but I SAVED YOU!! But then...I grew? What does naked mean?"
Eloise sputtered. She'd never imagined herself a sputterer. She was always prepared. Always calm. Always decisive. She took another deep breath.
"Are you saying you're a FROG?" Eloise burst into hysterical giggling, an itty bitty snort threatening to turn into tears as she considered that her mind had broken somehow.
Froggie considered the look on Eloise's face, and found himself entranced by the way the light of the moon was reflecting off her somewhat disheveled ringlets. It reminded him of ripples in a stream running through the woods. He shook it off when he realized she was staring at him, calmer, waiting for an answer. She looked like she might start laughing, or screaming, again at the sound of a twig snapping.
"I was a frog. I guess I'm not sure what I am, now." Froggie sighed, looking up at Eloise despondently.
"Oh my God. You're serious. You actually think you're a frog." Eloise reached for a book on the nightstand and tossed it at Froggie's bare chest.
