The Frog Collector
Chapter Nine

It wasn’t long before Agatha found Lilian. The woman was panting and the moment she saw the princess, she ran to hug her.

“You did it! Emily was transformed? Were you hurt?”, she said anxiously, looking at the frogs in the princess’s hands.

“She was transformed, as the you predicted, but we are fine. The witch believed the fake flowers and gave us time to get out”, said the princess as she handed a frog to Lilian.

“That’s great! Well… let’s put an end to this”, said Lilian more relieved.

They went to a nearby clearing. Lilian carefully placed the frog on the floor of the clearing, then asked for the another frog and placed it too. The princess was almost biting her nails with anticipation. The woman opened the book of spells she brought, took four black flowers from her pocket, took the yellow center from them, ate and said some words in a different language to the frogs.

Suddenly the animals began to squirm, their limbs growing and changing color. Suddenly they were no longer animals on the ground, they were two humans, dressed in the clothes they were in when they were transformed, James in his armor and Emily in her old clothes.

The princess didn’t saw or hear anything else, she just ran to the prince crying with joy, hugged him, kissed him non-stop and didn’t even let him breathe right, saying:

“Yes, yes”.

The young man was stunned.

“I agree to marry you!”, she continued.

He smiled and said:

“At least my disappearance has softened your heart!”.

The princess, crying and smiling at the same time, hugged him tighter than ever.

“Ouch!”, exclaimed James.

“I’m sorry. How bad does it hurt?”, she asked, seeing him with a lot of pain in his body.

“Less than staying away from you, my love”, said the prince.

“How cute…”, said the princess smiling.

“You see… I’m getting good at this”, replied James.

They smiled and kissed.

Beside them, Lilian and Emily stood for a while looking surprised at each other and then ran to hug each other. With many tears Lilian said:

“My child, you are alive! How you have grown!”

Emily was crying too, but she didn’t say anything.

“What happened to you? Did Mirian bewitch your voice too?”

Emily shook her head positively.

“Let’s get it over with!”, said Lilian and undid the spell.

“Mom… I miss you!”, said Emily, being able to speak after a long time. They were crying and hugging for a while.

All four were very happy about the end of it all. The group got to know each other and became friends right there in the clearing and gave many thanks to each other. Emily hugged the princess tightly and thanked her very much for getting her out. The princess told James about magic, the black flowers, how Lilian had plenty of them, about magic having no effect on her or the king, although she could lose this power if she ate the flower, and everything she had learned in those days. Emily talked about how life was in the invisible prison and how Mirian had a strange habit of talking to herself, how she made her mute because she always kept talking about her mother, and also about the bruise on her face caused by Mirian who was angry that she had pointed at the frog when the princess first went to the prison. The prince, in turn, told how he had been transformed:

“Yesterday was the day Agatha was going to give me the answer if she agreed to marry me. So I was looking for different flowers for her. I’d already brought her all kinds of flowers, but the forbidden forest was the only place I hadn’t looked for any flowers. So I went there to see if there was anything different. And then I found Mirian who pointed me to some flowers nearby. They were really beautiful and I had never taken them to Agatha, but Mirian seemed very surprised to see me and didn’t want me to get close to her. Now I know she did it so I wouldn’t know about the invisible wall. I found it very strange for a woman to live in the forbidden forest… The next day, before I met with Agatha, I went to that place again with many questions for the woman. She became angry and transformed me. When I was transformed I saw Agatha in the forest too and tried everything to stop her from contacting Mirian… But fortunately everything turned out well and everyone is safe and sound”.

The group continued to get to know each other. They talked and smiled, but at one point, all of a sudden, Emily stopped smiling.

“What happened?”, her mother asked.

“Did you get the root?”, Emily asked the princess.

“Here it is”, said the princess, handing it to the girl.

Lilian’s eyes widened at the sight of it. Emily clenched her fingers over the root and said in a somber tone:

“I need to tell you something…”