The frog exploded out of the ground and sprinted up the hilltop as fast as possible. It dodged roughly between the small groups that had conquered what had been its and its friends' haven, ignoring everything in its rush to check whether there was still a chance. Even if the dark one itself had appeared right now and barred its path, the frog would have simply vaulted over it.

  In no time, it made it back to hill… and slowed to a walk, taking the next few steps before it would be able to look very slowly.

  If it was already too late, what would it do then? It reached the rock formation it had hidden behind earlier, and ended up having to force itself and drag its body against the rocks, pointy edges scraping its flesh.

  If its one chance was gone, it would be stuck in truth. So close to an objective... but incapable of reaching it, and too late to try for anything else.

  Caught in a place it disdained, with no true way out, until whatever was going to happen happened.

  Some fear and trepidation were to be expected.

  Still, the frog was determined. It overcame the small bout anxiety pretty soon, and finally took a peek over the edge... The surge of relief and joy was such that it was left almost petrified.

  The bison was still exactly where it had landed, completely undisturbed by the throngs passing by. And the gem was still inside! The strength radiating off of it was almost physical, brushing against the frog's skin.

  A prime example of how deeply enthralled every creature down there was.

  Back before the true humming, a gem this strong just laying around would cause utter madness. A frenzy just as wild as this one rushing in to fight over it wouldn't have been out of place. And now, they were all just walking by, completely oblivious.

  How could they be so single-minded? Why didn’t they resist? Couldn’t they understand that if they succeeded in transforming with the bison’s filaments, they would gain the strength they needed to contend with the knight? They would still lose, of course. But they'd at least put up a fight!

  Though really, their failings were none of its concern, especially when they were what let it have a chance.

  Now actually grasping that chance...

  Just getting close was going to be very difficult: the bison might have rolled almost all the way down the hill, but had still got snagged quite high up - only reachable after long stretches of narrow trails, brimming with violent, maddened creatures. Angering the wrong one would be very easy, and would quickly precipitate the situation into a death trap.

  Underground was simply impossible, as all tunnels and such leading to the collateral stopped at the base of the hill, somehow.

  It could try sneaking, maybe? No creature around would be able to see through what had deceived even the owl – one of the smartest creatures the frog had met. But the situation was different here: without convenient crevices to hide in, it would be exposed to the frenzy. What use was there in being hidden, if it couldn't even move freely?

  A small bump might be enough to break off the stealth, and that would happen within moments in that chaos. Then, with how bad things tended to go for the frog here, it would get surrounded by a group of predators and torn to pieces.

  And then there was the actual problem: the transformation itself.

  Because the frog needed the filaments, not just the gem. And taking those would have it stuck in place, practically unable to defend itself. All it would take was for the wrong creature to attack at that vulnerable time and it would all be for nothing. The frog would be lucky to escape with nothing gained.

  And the guards were worse.

  Up the hill, they had fully reclaimed the area where the knight and the bison had fought, and there were attempts at pushing the swarm back, with small groups slipping ahead of the line and trying to form independent fortified points to extend it. Fortunately these were having very little success right now, and while there was no doubt in the frog's mind that they'd eventually recover all the ground they'd lost, down to the hill's feet, that would take a very, very long time.

  Especially when a huge chunk of their numbers was focused on other things.

  Some of them worrisome, like planting spikes on the ground for creatures to skewer themselves, or piling big boulders to narrow the trail, so that the others could establish their lines more easily.

  Luckily, others were quite pointless. In fact, the vast majority of guards seemed to be digging – of all things – all around the castle! Some anxious part of the frog's mind insisted there must be something deviously smart behind their actions, but it really struggled to see how a huge divot up there should be any of its concern.

  Even better, the knight was nowhere to be seen. And unlike the dark one, the frog didn’t think it would just leave its haven to wander around: it must be hiding inside the castle.

  All together – except for the throwers on their outcroppings – the guards were mostly stuck close to the summit, very unlikely to be a problem for the frog in claiming the bison's spoils. But only at first glance.

  There was already a small band moving against the throng, slowly trying to make its way downward. They were still pretty far up and into the stretch that was a merge of all the side trails, so they could be headed for everywhere. But the frog couldn't get it out of its mind that they wanted the bison's body.

  Because of course they would: they always tried to carry the stronger ones back to the castle, and the bison was definitely the strongest by far.

  It was infuriating. The one and only chance for the frog, and they were trying to take it away! Just as they taken the entirety of… Couldn't they be content with all the bodies they'd gotten until now?

  Fortunately, this lone group would be annihilated pretty soon, far from even getting close to the bison. The guards were strong and coordinated, but there was only so much they could do when completely surrounded, without support. And even if they somehow got there, how could they move such a big body through all that? They were more likely to jolt the swarm out of their stupor and have something else steal the frog's prize from them.

  No, they would need to regain the ground lost back from the swarm - painstakingly forming lines upon lines - until they were almost back to the beginning. Only then could they truly secure the bison.

  So, this shouldn't concretely change much for the frog's plans, besides moving the deadline closer.

  But how would the guards react, if they realized the bison's gem and filaments were about to be taken away?

  What if they had yet another trick that they could pull once the frog put itself in that vulnerable position? If it managed to beat them to the bison, would it just fall into their trap instead?

  It was looking increasingly like an impossible challenge.

  Which changed nothing, of course: the bison was its one and only chance to get unstuck and become incredibly strong in the process. Nevermind the badger, it might get stronger than the owl!

  More.

  Stronger than even the bison, because it would be much smarter! Nothing would make it give that up!

  And there might just be a way to do this... Something that had been in its mind ever since it had been forced to leave those bodies to the owl. The situation was pretty similar, in a way. This time, it wouldn't give up and run.

  It just had to find a test subject.

  Finding a body strong enough to try this hadn’t been that hard, despite the guards' best intentions.

  There was no denying that, since becoming so comfortable with its body, the frog had started considering itself somewhat... above. It had started to dismiss most creatures, because they all clearly weren’t with theirs.

  The way they all moved, attacked, defended… the way they did anything at all was so clumsy that they were much, much lesser than they could be. The frog felt confident that it could handle itself well against most of its supposed peers, as long as they didn't get too lucky.

  But actual fighting prowess wasn't what mattered here. It was how creatures felt. And in that, the frog found itself pretty average.

  Even this one that it had found lodged in a nook - even if it lay dead, while the frog was still sort of standing - felt stronger. Just a tiny bit, but enough. And there were bound to be many, many more around.

  Despite its confidence, it was hard not to feel disquieted by that. Perhaps the frog wasn't as special as it liked to believe. What if it was really just deluding itself, and its own body ended up like this?

  ...

  Well, more fallbacks in case things went awry with this one!

  It focused deeply, trying to get back to a similar state as when the transformation through the snake's filaments had gone bad. In that situation, it had managed to break off of the stupor it always fell in and run away. So, it was possible to get the filaments separated from their origin.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  If something similar could be done with the bison’s, then there really was a chance. Getting there would still be hard, but it was the minor issue by far - when the time came, it would come up with some idea involving its stealth or something else, surely - as long as it succeeded here.

  Of course, the incident with the snake had the unfortunate detail that the transformation had failed, in the end.

  It had gotten interrupted, and the frog had barely managed to stop the rampaging filaments from disfiguring its body. That had been scary like few things, and was the reason it was only trying this now that there were no alternatives.

  But then, there was what had happened with the lizard's gem, when the owl had come rushing at the worst time: the frog had managed to grab the floating thing and hide it in a way that didn’t break its stealth.

  That shouldn't have been possible: once anything like that started, a creature shouldn't even be able to touch the gem they were feeding on, or transforming through. Much less force them to hide.

  Still, the frog had done it. And from then on, it had always done it like that. It had changed the way it fed on gems, by... wanting it hard enough, basically.

  It could do that again, just a bit differently. Maybe it could learn to transform sneakily... but it was probably be better to go a step further for such a risky endeavor.

  And more safely. The last time had been with death looming in the form of the owl. Better not repeat that part. After all, the frog was courageous, but also reasonable.

  So, it dug a hand deep inside the creature’s chest, and easily grasped the disgusting thing inside.

  Once again, after so long, the frog's grip onto the gem became unbreakable. This alone was enough to shake its confidence.

  But it had been expected.

  There was nothing to worry about.

  Now, it only had to start the transformation while commanding the filaments to only curl around the gem and not burrow into its body. … But was hesitating.

  After all, in case this failed, it would become an actual transformation, which could be catastrophic.

  It was true that, since this creature was about its strength and shape, in the worst case the frog should be able to guide the process along towards a form similar enough to its current one.

  But if it failed, if it got tempted into something else and strayed too far... it might lose a great part of its abilities. It might have to learn to move in its new body from the beginning.

  And if it lost its sneakiness, that would be a really painful blow, as it was currently its best chance at taking the spoils without the guards noticing, once it got to the bison.

  But then, was there any alternative?

  Immediately, the gem started to shift, bulging and blistering obscenely. It tried to float out of the body and slip out of its grip, but the frog managed to keep it in place. It had a lot of experience handling these things, and this wasn’t that different from what it had achieved back with the lizard’s.

  What was much harder to handle were the filaments, unraveling from the creature's body and curling all around the now settling gem.

  But there was no reason to worry, yet. That was what they always did: they curled around the disgusting thing and, through that, into the frog.

  And amazingly, it was succeeding in stopping the process at this first part! It had never truly managed to control the filaments, not even a little bit. Whatever had changed for this to happen, it was already a wondrous success!

  However, it was taking all it had to maintain the balance. The frog was already at its limit. And this was just the beginning.

  More and more filaments were joining, testing its control. For the moment, it was forcing them to curl back and away from its flesh one by one. But how long would that last?

  The frog strained whatever was the part of itself was that had power over them... but it just wasn’t enough. Not even remotely.

  The filaments were escaping its control, more and more, crawling their way around its hand and up its arm... Any time now they would dig into its flesh!

  No... they were already past that! Already, one was burrowing into its hand!

  Panic creeped up its chest, trying to drag it down: there was nothing more it could do.

  But that didn't mean it would stop trying!

  Frantically, with no real thought or instinct or anything reasonable, the frog reached out with all it had, even trying to snatch the filaments away with another hand - which only served to cause a strange, painful feedback as it passed through material that wasn't truly real.

  But already, even while keeping up the fight, a small part of its mind had started making peace with this failure and appreciating the benefits: if it completed the transformation, then it could test things leisurely as many times as it wanted.

  It would lose a lot yes, but that meant less to lose.

  It could try again later, if it just gave up now. Any time it wanted. So that part of its mind insisted.

  But the greatest part was not to be undone! That was a losing strategy, that would only see it lessened more and more with each failure. And most importantly, the frog just didn’t want to!

  It wouldn't give in to the lure, no matter what!

  It reached out to fight with anything it had, trying anything with any piece of itself that could do something.

  Anything at all!

  And suddenly something did... something else?

  It was all pretty confusing. Slippery and faint. The whisper of a whisper of a whisper.

  It was marvelous.

  The frog felt at the precipice of change. It didn’t care for how minuscule it was: it lunged desperately. Much, much, much more eager for this thing than for the outcome of the whole experiment...

  but there was no use. This wasn't like the filaments back then, that had just resisted its efforts to an absurd amount. Here there was nothing to command. No barrier to break. It just... It wasn’t meant to be.

  And so, the frog tried what it had learned while traveling here, a little technique particularly useful with the one supposed friend that couldn't be reasoned with.

  It tried... coaxing. Rather than giving direct commands or making clear demands, entice the sensation along the path it wanted.

  It had no idea whatsoever what it was doing, and in what way this differed from what it had tried before.

  Yet... Somehow, someway, something clicked in its mind. Before it could even realize what was happening, the whisper of a whisper of a whisper - and so on- had already moved, forming a barrier against the offending filaments.

  There was no physical manifestation of the event, but that was to be expected. What mattered was that whatever had happened and whatever was happening right now... the filaments were receding!

  They un-burrowed from its flesh and let go of its arm. The frog tried desperately to observe the process, see whatever this was in action, understand what it was doing. To retain even a tiny fragment.

  But there was nothing to be felt. And pretty soon, it was gone. Along with that mysterious part of the frog that had allowed for perceiving it in the first place.

  It was an incredibly sad outcome: the frog had achieved the impossible... but the impossible had slipped away. And wouldn't be coming back.

  But at least, it had left something useful behind.