'Dee and Dum then scratched their rumps and Dumpty fetched the ponies...'
Vezian shook his head, as if it helped any to clear the delusional mare's rhyming. That mare he met every time he ventured to acquire something or other from the two-legger he knew. Name? She had many, for herself and all else around her, but the human Chosovi always called her Alice. Vez snorted, the name chimed off his tongue like a delicate bell, which appearances aside she was not. And why was he devoting time thinking about this Alice? Well, he honestly had nothing better to do.
The Frog King was nearing the end of his trek back to his home, the castle ruins in a secluded bog. It was a humongous construction and was surely awe-striking when it was first built by the humans who came here, but the swamp's unstable environment dealt with the issue pretty quickly. There was a gorgeous courtyard if you traveled through the cracked stone halls far enough. There the castle had a glorious, albeit rusted and aged, arch that opened to a wonderful meadow. It was a pretty sheltered area, with a point where the crystal clear water from the creek uphill flowed together with the swamp's muck off to the side. This, the King called his 'bedroom'. All equines rested in the open air, after all. The other almost-rooms of the castle? Simply possession. Land meant power and respect, both important aspects of a Kingdom.
He'd just sighted the random points of structure, approaching a 'garden' of cattails, and inhaled a deep breath of the fragrant air when he realized something was off. The frogs were burbling, but from underneath the water, as if something had scared them off. Raising a single brow, Vezian went to the nearest pond to see whatever was wrong..
