The frog croaked on the side of the tree and stared dumbly up at Arz. Perhaps that was too harsh. A frog couldn’t be blamed for being idiotic, for it was a frog and that’s what they did.

  “Ribbit.”

  “I get it. Shut up.”

  Wildil had specifically mentioned spotted frogs. The argyle pattern was about as far from spots as Arz could imagine. So, were the other types of frogs hostile?

  “Ribbit.”

  Arz rolled his eyes and crawled back across the branch. Getting down from the tree was actually more difficult than it had been to get up. Adrenaline had helped throw him up the tree while he had assumed dozens of spotted frogs were chasing him.

  The argyle frog stayed in the same place, but watched Arz, tracking him with its huge eyes.

  “Good day,” Arz said as he nodded to the frog.

  “Ribbit.”

  “Thanks.”

  The cold water was a little bit of a shock to his system, though his boots and pants hadn’t fully dried out from before his little nap in the tree. He splashed around for a moment, waiting to see if the frog would react. It didn’t even turn far enough to look at him anymore.

  Arz pulled out his notebook, which was wrinkled from being dunked into the swamp. It took a careful, patient hand to open it without ripping any pages. Even if everything else he had written stayed, the paper was too soaked to be used at the moment. Arz decided to lock away the different types of frogs in his memory. He could jot them down later. His tome could have an entire page dedicated to the frogs of Jumtha.

  “Where am I?” Arz asked.

  “Ribbit.”

  “Hm. That is not the answer I was hoping for. You see, I am, perhaps, lost.”

  “Ribbit.”

  “Yes, fine. I understand.”

  There was a tall hill in the distance, rising high enough above the trees that all Arz could think about was how dry it was. It would be an ideal location to spot the Jumthin city. Arz couldn’t remember if he had seen the hills previously, so he couldn’t use them as landmarks. Not yet, at least.

  “Nice meeting you,” Arz said.

  The argyle frog blinked and stayed attached to the tree as Arz walked away. The short respite hadn’t been enough to work the aches out of Arz’s legs from a day of wading through the swamp water. And again, it was painfully difficult. When he had dreamed of being a tough adventurer in his youth, Arz had never once thought about wading in cold, algae-filled water as a training method. Perhaps if he did it for several days, his legs would grow four times the size and he would be a match for the spotted frogs.

  Arz rolled his eyes at his own thoughts. That wasn’t how humans worked. And even if it was, who would want legs that big? He would look like a shovel with how thin his upper body would be.

  “Ribbit.”

  Arz froze. This one was deep, as if it came from something bigger than the argyle frog. He slowly turned and found a massive frog in the distance. It stood in the water between two trees. This one was a little larger than the spotted frog from the day before, but this one had what looked like a forehead hanging forward between its eyes. There was the slightest bit of a swirling pattern on the skin, but Arz wasn’t able to see it all. The frog watched him with blue-gray eyes, and when it croaked again, it felt like a threat.

  Arz kept on his path, which was perpendicular to the frog, and it didn’t move. Its eyes tracked Arz, but that was it. Before long, he had passed through some trees and didn’t hear the creature anymore.

  Still, his heart hammered in his chest. Without Darkfire oil, he had no way to fight. Rainbow salt and a return potion weren’t going to get Arz anywhere in a battle against giant frogs.

  At the base of the hill, a smell not unlike death greeted Arz. He heaved immediately, until a sense of joy overcame him.

  He grabbed two empty vials and ran to the visible swamp gas that lifted from the bubbling water. There was nothing specifically different about the area compared to the rest of the swamp he had walked through, but for whatever reason, this area released gas.

  Capturing gas in a vial was also a little odd. How did he know when it was actually inside? It was much like Celestial Essence, but that fell downward, so Arz would always catch it like one would catch rain.

  He held the vials upside down until it seemed like there was more gas than air inside, then he corked them and flipped them over. An orange-brown gas swirled inside both vials. He could’ve probably filled both more, but it was a success for his first time.

  Now, all he needed was the vine. He didn’t know what to look for. Probably something green, but everything was green. Even the Jumthins were green. Why was everything on a planet green except the gas?

  The hill Arz had seen turned out to be much more of a mountain. He wasn’t sure what the exact difference was. How tall did a hill have to be before it was considered a mountain? Or, how short did a mountain need to be before it was considered a hill? Either way, it was tall, and he would have to climb.

  The storm cloud had moved closer in his time traveling. Down in the swamp, there wasn’t a lot of wind. The trees seemed to block most of it, so Arz couldn’t tell exactly where the storm was headed. He was sure he would find out soon enough. It looked like it would pass right over him.

  A path wound up the mountainside, but it wasn’t the type of path Arz was used to seeing. It was similar to a game trail on Earth, but it was wider and uneven. Walking on the trail would be easier than traveling up the mountainside normally, but it wasn’t smooth and worn as it would be from humans traveling.

  Arz’s only guess was that it had been worn from slimes passing through. They left a goo behind them, which could wear down the stone. Or Arz was entirely wrong and it was a frog trail. At this point, he couldn’t say for certain.

  With the storm looming overhead, a sense of urgency gripped Arz. Well, the storm only increased the anxiety that hadn't left him since he first found himself lost in the swamp. The need for food and water was still a concern that wouldn’t go away anytime soon.

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  His feet splashed in the swamp water, and he considered drinking it for only a second before climbing the first part of the mountain. It would be impossible to tell if the swamp water would be safe for him to drink. It likely wouldn’t be, and shitting himself would only slow him down.

  “I’d rather fight another frog than dysentery,” Arz muttered.

  The path was exactly what he had expected. Parts of it were worn smooth, but there were many divots and bumps that caused Arz to roll his ankle more than once. He stumbled up the mountainside like a lost toddler, still thinking about frogs and how hungry he was. The one difference between Arz and a toddler at the moment was that no matter what happened, Arz wouldn’t cry. Not now, at least. He couldn’t spare the water.

  In a matter of minutes, he was nearing the canopy. He could see a long way into the distance already, but fog or low-hanging clouds obscured his vision a few miles away in all visible directions.

  “Up we go,” he said, continuing the climb.

  Hunger rumbled deep in Arz’s stomach. His mouth was dry and chalky. None of it mattered because he couldn’t do anything about it. Arz always liked to ensure he only focused on the things he could fix.

  He scowled, knowing that was a lie. Could he fix Jaralath’s bad attitude and the fact that the Guild of Wizards didn’t have a single wizard on it? Or that wizards didn’t exist? Nope. He couldn’t fix it, and yet he focused on it so often.

  Arz abruptly stopped when his foot partially sank into the ground. The stone had dipped down on the path where a huge patch of moss appeared. It was like walking on pillows, which was far more difficult than Arz would’ve imagined. Pillows weren’t a great surface after all. This part of the mountain was flatter than the rest, almost like a platform on the side of the mountain, or the tall hill. He still hadn’t decided which it was.

  The side of the rock was worn out like the start of a cave, though it didn’t go very deep. Greenery claimed everything in the area. Little saplings grew from the moss and thick vines wound up the side of the rock face.

  “Could it be?” Arz asked. He pulled on one of the vines until it detached from the rock and fell back into the moss. It was a few dozen feet long. The top that had detached was like a delta of tiny vines spreading out.

  “Well, I haven’t seen any other vines.” Arz sat on the soft moss and picked the vine apart. He stuffed bits of it into a vial until the whole container was full of vine pieces. He also picked apart a pillow of moss and filled another vial.

  He had no more empty containers, and there was a good chance at least a few of the ingredients were contaminated from being forcefully stuffed into vials that he hadn’t had a chance to clean. Not that he had any better options.

  That left Arz with a return potion, Jumthin slime, swamp gas, vines, rainbow salt, algae, and moss. If his goal was to make a terrarium, then he was set.

  Unfortunately, that wasn’t a goal Arz had ever considered.

  He leaned back on the bed of moss and relaxed. His legs were happy for the rest. A good stretch almost made Arz cry, despite his previous conviction to not do so. Wading through a swamp then hiking up a mountain was the most vigorous, awful exercise Arz had ever done. Running from the AZ-32 robots was almost preferable.

  Well, maybe not. At least the frogs didn’t have muskets.

  Rain started falling as soon as Arz started to drift off to sleep. It started as a slight drizzle, almost like mist. He hardly noticed until the first larger drop landed right on the tip of his nose.

  Arz sat up, wincing at the pain in his legs. Within seconds, it was pouring. Arz laughed and opened his mouth as wide as he could manage. Raindrops landed on his tongue and splattered on his face.

  It was magical. He let water pool into his hands so he could drink it. He bathed in the cool downpour. It was the best he had felt in days.

  “Now, I am ready,” he said happily. He took a step off the moss and immediately slipped. Arz caught himself before he smashed anything too hard on the stone, but he still was going to have some bruises on his arms and knees. “Rock is slippery,” he mumbled. “Got it.”

  He took a few careful steps onto the worn path before continuing upward. The little area of greenery was farther up the mountain than he had realized. It didn’t seem like the peak was much further, but Arz hesitated.

  It was truly storming. Lightning flashed in the clouds and in the distance, cracking thunder that shook Arz’s skeleton. If he continued up, he could be risking getting struck himself. Arz felt triumphant in many ways from his most recent journey, but not so much that he would risk getting struck by lightning.

  He pulled out the return potion and spun the vial in his hand. Lightning cracked above him. The thunder felt like it shook the whole mountain. He had all of the ingredients needed for a translation potion. The only reason to return to the Jumthins was to get help from their spears to open a portal.

  As lightning flashed overhead again, Arz grinned. “I could save myself a trip back through the swamp.”

  He wouldn’t get to say goodbye to Wildil, but Arz was certain the scientist had already gone back to Gargaxia. Arz owed nothing to the Jumthins, and they owed nothing to him. Why not save time?

  Arz picked up his pace. At least, as much as he could on the slippery ground. Each flash of the lightning storm gave him enough light to easily maneuver up the mountainside. The storm cloud above was absolutely massive. Arz couldn’t see the end of the cloud from his current elevation. Everything was underneath the dark, flashing cloud.

  “Lightning strikes pointed objects. The higher up, the better,” Arz said to himself. How could he ensure the portal vial was struck? If the lightning went for him instead, he wouldn’t get much time to worry about the portal. He would just be a nice, roasted snack for some frog. Were there mountain frogs?

  The top of the mountain was far more hill-like than Arz expected. He was a little disappointed. The mountains on Earth that he had seen always had snow and pointed peaks. At least more than this one.

  Lightning struck nearby, causing Arz to flinch and slip. He fell onto his back. Aches and pains had already wormed their way through his entire body, so some new bruises on his back were almost unnoticeable.

  He lay in place for a moment, letting the rain land on his face. A nearby lightning strike shook the ground beneath him. Arz rolled over and climbed right back to his feet. Better to die standing than lying on his back. Was that true? He shrugged.

  There were a few loose rocks on the hilltop that Arz scurried around to collect. He picked up the smaller ones and ran them back to the center, where he started a pile. A couple of larger ones needed to be rolled because Arz couldn’t lift them. Maybe if he was fresh he could, but he knew he was only lying to himself. A meal wouldn’t suddenly make him physically strong.

  Before long, Arz had a pile of stones that stood almost as tall as himself. It was officially the highest point on the hill, so Arz placed the potion right in the center. A few rocks held it upright. Lightning didn’t need to strike it perfectly. It only needed to pass into the vial.

  Arz backed away and crouched on the hilltop. Lightning raged all around him. Thunder was almost constant, either from nearby strikes or from those far off. Jumtha rumbled with the terrible storm. It left Arz wondering how the slimes did with thunderstorms. Did they like rain? Did water pass through them or were they hydrophobic? These were important questions that he hadn’t thought of when he had a scientist to ask. It was a shame, but that was how life went.

  Someday, he would return to Gargaxia with a new list of questions for Wildil. Until then, he needed to get back to Earth. He had a lot to do.

  Lightning struck the area a few more times, sending up shards of rocks that sometimes smacked into Arz. They cut his skin and clothes, but none of the injuries were serious. He pressed his hand against his forearm as it bled and watched the clouds.

  “Here we go,” he whispered.

  The cloud flashed as lightning arced through it. A huge flash blinded Arz for a second as the world spun around him. He landed on his back and slid across rough stones, but a grin already spread across his face as he heard the portal rip through the air and whirl to life. He ignored the pain as he jumped to his feet and sprinted forward. His vision only started returning from the flash. He took a step onto one of the loose stones and slipped.

  He tripped through the portal and fell face-first onto the wooden floor of his study. Blood and water pooled on the ground below him, but Arz made no effort to move. It was eerily quiet inside, especially compared to the storm he had just escaped. The portal closed a short time later, but Arz still stayed where he landed.

  He could see his lectern nearby, and that was enough. It would take a moment before he worked up the willpower to move. He was home. He had survived.