Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Twelve is three times four, which is bad. But four starts with ‘F’ like the word ‘Frog’.

It turns out that, in the spirit of offering a productive hand, Obscura had tried to cook ‘human’ food by following a recipe she had read about in one of the many cookbooks from the library. Apparently, in all of her owlish wisdom, she had correctly chosen a cookbook for beginners that had suggested simple pancakes as a starter recipe.

 

Mixing the batter went well enough, as evidenced by the cracked eggs and the overturned bowl of some washed out, goopy mixture. However, the problem arose during a misunderstanding of the next line in the book.

 

‘Step six: Oil your pan,” reads Hineni, looking at the soggy book that Obscura had apologetically given to him, after fetching it down from the rafters that the wave had thrown it up over. He blinks, turning his head around back towards her. “You aren’t supposed to oil the entire pan,” he says, realizing. She must have dunked the pans, handle and all, into a vat of oil. “Just the inside,” he says, picking up a pan and pointing at the flat surface in the middle of it.

 

The room is as returned to its original state as is possible, considering the circumstances. There is a mountain of soggy towels in the large, industrial basins and there is for sure water that needs to be cleaned out from behind the cabinets, but all in all, the damage is as mitigated as can be. Hineni looks down at the floorboards, pressing his foot against them. It looks like Obscura’s magic did a number on getting rid of most of the dampness. The house might not be ruined after all.

 

He sighs, rubbing his forehead. Life with other people is really a stressful thing in comparison with just being on his own all the time. Aren’t gods supposed to be wise? Especially an owl god?

 

Anyway, even if now the mess has been cleaned up, the kitchen is still in an unusable state. It just needs time to air out properly, so that the waterlogged burning wood can dry out again and so that all of the residual dew can wick away from the walls and stoves.

 

“Sorry. We’ll have to find something else for dinner,” says Hineni, looking at the pans. “Thanks for trying,” he adds on, realizing that he should say something nice, so that he doesn't come across as callous. It was an accident, after all.

 

“Frogs?” asks Obscura, sitting on the back door to the kitchen in the form of the small owl she was in, when they had met each other. “Hineni wants frogs?” she asks again, tilting her head sideways at an odd, nigh-unnatural angle.

 

“I do not not want a frog and I definitely don’t want more than one.”

 

“FROGS!” counters Obscura, flapping her wings indignantly as she makes a very convincing arguement.

 

Hineni sighs. “You know, for a god, you aren’t very…” He considers what word he’s looking for. Wise? Diligent? Responsible? No… godlike? Sort of. “- goddy,” he finishes, saying a fake word that he didn’t mean to say.

 

“WHO~!” protests Obscura. “Bully Hineni! Mean Hineni! Bad! Bad!”

 

He frowns, realizing he made the situation worse. “So you want frogs?” he asks, looking around. He doesn’t exactly have any frogs in storage here. “You want to go to the forest and find some?” he asks, shrugging. “I don’t want any. But we can find a few together.”

 

Obscura observes him for a while but then nods and he nods back. That’s about the sum of their interaction. Hineni stands there, staring at the owl, not sure what to do now and the owl continues to stare at him. It’s a little awkward, really.

 

“Uh, okay,” says Hineni, not knowing what else to do to keep the ball of social interaction rolling fluidly. “Let’s go then,” he says, heading back out and looking at the broken window that that wizard kid had shattered. He can’t just leave it like this. Looking around, Hineni finds no better solution than to hoist the table beneath the window onto its side, so that it at least blocks the shattered glass in part.

 

He nods, satisfied. “That’ll do.”

 

After that, he gets dressed again to go outside and the two of them make their way through the city. Hineni takes his axe. He could use some new wood now that all of his cooking fuel had been soaked through.

 

The man walks along the darkened street, watching the owl soar far over his head, rising up high into the night-sky as he makes his way to the forest. He supposes that she plans to meet him there.

 

As he arrives into the clearing, he stares up at the tree and sees Obscura sitting there, still in the form of a small owl.

 

“Hope you didn’t have to wait long,” he jokes. Actually, he had secretly hoped that they could walk together to the forest. Is that odd? He isn’t sure.

 

Obscura shakes her head. “Obscura is patient,” explains the owl.

 

“Ah, is that so?” he asks, looking around the familiar forest clearing.

 

“It is,” replies the owl, not catching his sarcasm.

 

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Hineni smiles beneath his yellow scarf. “Come on, there’s a pond this way.” The owl-goddess flies down from the branch, landing on the startled man’s shoulder, squishing itself down beneath the brim of his wizard’s hat. “Uh…”

 

“Hineni is shy!” hoots Obscura. “Many eyes, shy Hineni!” says the owl, leaning forward. “Here they can walk together. The city is bright, but the forest is dark. Dark!” Hineni blinks, looking at the owl on his shoulder with his head pulled back. Even if he knows that Obscura isn’t just some random animal, it’s still very intimidating to have talons like that right next to your face.

 

She wedges herself up, pressing herself a little more space by lifting his hat up higher on one side. “This isn’t exactly walking together,” he explains, still happy about it though.

 

“Hineni walks, mighty Obscura is here. They are together,” explains Obscura. “Lazy Hineni!”

 

He turns his eyes, to look at her, not sure if he can turn his head now or not because of his hat. He doesn’t want to throw her off. “How am I the lazy one here?!”

 

The owl ruffles its feathers, looking away indignantly. “Hineni must catch many frogs. MANY! To make amends to Obscura.”

 

“Huh?!”

 

Troublingly enough, he has never tried to catch a frog before. So in all honesty, he isn’t sure how hard it’s going to be. This is of course, the problem, as the closer they get to the pond, the faster he feels his heart race, the more sweat he feels pearl on his skin. What if he looks stupid? What if he does something embarrassing? What if he can’t catch any frogs? Is Obscura not going to like him? And why does he even care about that? What even is this train of thought and how did he end up in a place like this in his life?

 

This is all, of course, very confusing.

 

The two of them breach the edge of the clearing, looking out over the very large pond. It’s nested here, hidden away by the forest. Hineni doesn’t even need his lantern to illuminate it right now, because the vivid starlight of the hauntingly bright night reflects down off of the calm surface of the body of water and fills the entire, secluded area with a night-tide glow.

 

*Ribbit*

 

“FROGS!” yells Obscura, shooting off of his shoulder in a second, causing him to jump back in surprise as he watches the creature swoop down over one very unfortunate frog.

 

Hineni laughs, though he isn’t sure why. Maybe just out of morbid humor as he watches the frog croak one last time as it vanishes into the night, carried away by a set of razor sharp talons. Setting the lantern down, he lets out a deep breath, one he feels that he has been holding in for far too long and rolls up his sleeves.

 

It’s time to catch some frogs.

 

Honestly, all things considered, he does pretty well, as far as he feels at least. At first, he has a very hard and frustrating time trying to get any of the slippery little things. But he realizes, after watching Obscura swoop down at them with lightning speed, that he needs a different tactic, since he can’t move as fast.

 

The first few, he catches by moving absurdly slow, actually. Literally leaning in towards a single frog over the course of a few minutes. They don’t seem to react for whatever reason when he does that and by the time they do, he is already close enough to snatch them.

 

Hineni holds up his first frog with pride up into the air. It looks down at him from his hands.

 

*Ribbit* says the frog.

 

“WHO!” Obscura swoops in, tearing its head off. Hineni yells, jumping back in shock and dropping it. “Frog lies! Lies! Bad frog!” says Obscura, dancing around the dead frog with open wings. “Don’t listen to frog-lies, Hineni!”

 

“Uh… okay?” says the man, looking at the fresh frog blood on his hands.

 

The rest of the frogs after that he catches using a much more simple method, one that he hadn’t expected himself to be using. But somehow, being out here away from everyone, being near water, being near someone he can talk to, makes him consider the possibility and then try it out.

 

He points his finger at a frog that stares back at him from the distance with wide, yellow eyes. “Nothing personal.”

 

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