Chapter 24: 24: Toadally Invisible

Danika listened carefully, but couldn't hear anything like snoring from inside the sturdy house. She activated her wings and flew cautiously to the window and peeked out. She saw no trace of the three other players, so she darted out and zipped quickly around the house. There was a covered wishing style well in the garden behind the house.

Danika hovered near it, but still couldn't hear anything resembling snoring. There was however a sort of soft rhythmic creaking coming from the well. She peered into the darkness warily. She was fairly certain that frogs and toads would eat butterflies.

Danika cast her light cantrip, which had advanced to 4 seconds with 4 particles and sent them into the well in a spinning spiral formation that lit all sides of the well at once as it descended. The soft rhythmic creaking didn't change even when the particles of light descended into the clear dark water at the bottom of the well at the last second. Shadowy figures darted away from the lights, which didn't reach a bottom before they timed out.

The walls of the well were lined in knobbly cobble stones, with plenty of small damp ledges and nooks, but Danika hadn't spotted any toads on the first try. After a moment of thought, she realized that the toad that was supposed to teach her invisibility might very well actually be invisible. Although for his spell to last while he slept, he would have to have a very high level, if its duration worked like the spells Danika knew about so far.

Danika recalled the fire elemental that Justin had summoned to warm her egg, it had appeared to last for days instead of seconds. She stared into the dark well and wished that she could return to his tower and ask if she could borrow a lasting light. A mix of irritation, pride and embarrassment prevented her, so instead she sent her cantrip into the darkness again and followed it down.

She tried to pinpoint the source of the creaking, but inside the well it seemed to echo quietly from all sides at once. When her light vanished, she increased her own dazzle hopefully, and discovered that while much softer, it was bright enough to reflect off the damp stones and her eyes were able to adjust to see all but the darkest nooks.

Her dazzle was more of a continuous effect, that did drain energy slowly while activated, but not nearly as quickly as the brighter light of her spell, so Danika took her time and looked and listened carefully for any hint of the toad's location. Sometimes the creaking seemed louder than others, but she couldn't pinpoint it. Occasionally she found a dryer spot on the walls, but when she zipped close and poked those spots, she always touched cool stone.

After awhile she tried simply shouting, "Wake up Arthur!" Birds in the trees overhead fluttered away, but nothing inside the well changed. Danika scrunched up her face and thought about the kind of things that might wake her up aside from light and noise. Smells, she decided after a bit of thought, especially smells of food.

She zipped out of the well, and looked around the walled garden more carefully. There were insects working busily among the many plants. It was actually a very busy place, once she stopped to watch carefully. She spotted a hedgehog in one corner, there were birds and squirrels in the trees, and little frogs with long tongues hunting beneath large leafy vegetable plants. A garden snake startled her by snapping up one of the frogs and swallowing it.

Danika retreated to the roof of the small house before pulling her pouch out. She sorted quickly through her foods and decided that the crumbly cheese was the most fragrant. She quickly broke off a piece small enough to fly with, and put everything away, before zipping back into the well.

"Breakfast?" Danika called out hopefully. A crumb dropped into the water and something snapped it up. The creaking noise stopped, giving her a second's warning before a large figure separated from the wall and jumped toward her. Danika dropped the cheese and evaded it by zipping straight into the sky.

The cheese didn't have time to fall, it was snapped up instantly by the large toad that landed against the far side and then glared up at Danika and commented darkly, "Not bad, but you look positively delicious little butterfly lizard."

Danika gulped, and said quickly, "If you're Arthur, the witch said I had to wake you up, and that you'll teach me your invisibility spell."

"Oh," Arthur said glumly. "Unfortunately, that is my name." He heaved a sigh and jumped up to sit on the edge of the well. Even in the light he still blended well with the colors of the stone.

Curiosity compelled Danika to bring up the lens from her menus and look at the toad again. It said, "Arthur the Witch's Toad." She tapped to see his description, half expecting it to say that he was formerly a prince. Instead it read:

Accumulated Level: 45

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This ancient toad is an accomplished ambush predator. Toads typically have shorter tongues than frogs, but are said to never miss their prey.

Arthur grumbled, "I hate teaching novices."

Danika asked curiously, "Have you taught many?"

Arthur replied, "None." Danika blinked at him, and had just opened her mouth when he added sharply, "Most people have the courtesy to have chosen their path and learned all of the the basic cantrips before coming here to bother me."

After a moment Danika asked worriedly, "Do I need to know all of the basic cantrips before learning invisibility? How many are there?"

"Choose your magical path properly, and you'll find out," the toad answered grumpily. Danika shook her head in quick refusal, and after a moment he relented and said, "Technically you only need to learn one more cantrip before you can learn invisibility." He eyed her and Danika would have called his expression a smirk as he added, "But the witch didn't say I had to teach you that."

Danika frowned at the toad and then said a little slyly, "But since she said you'll teach me invisibility, can you really refuse?" She added sweetly, "She also said that you're really good at it."

Arthur sniffed and grumbled, "Good at it? I'm the best."

Danika opened her eyes very wide and said hopefully, "Then surely I can't ask to learn from a better teacher."

"Certainly not!" Arthur declared. He sniffed again and then grumbled, "Well, get down here then and prove that you can learn to look like mud in a reasonable amount of time."

Danika landed in front of the large toad very cautiously. His description as an ambush predator made her nervous. It took Danika several long, muddy hours to learn to look like mud. The cantrip 'color' seemed quite simple, but like 'light' it was tricky.

It was easy enough to turn something grass green, but if you really looked at grass, it usually wasn't just green. She had to level it up until she could produce more than one shade, and choose shades that blended well before Arthur grudgingly allowed that she looked somewhat like mud. Still, the chickens had been worse.

Once her three second impression of mud finally satisfied the toad, he taught her invisibility. Danika loved it. With just a simple flick of a spell ZipZing could vanish instantly, even in mid flight.

Arthur warned her grouchily before retreating into the well again, "There's nothing to be so happy about. If you don't practice hard and extend the time a lot, you won't even get past the first frog."

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