Chapter 2 Hop Little Froggies

Freya

After breakfast, Marge and I begin the daily challenge of getting twelve children into hats and shoes long enough to actually make it outside. Which sounds simple until Lottie decides her hat belongs several feet above Marge’s head and Piper removes the shoe I just spent thirty seconds wrestling onto her foot.

“Lottie, hat down please.”

It slowly lowers into Marge’s waiting hand, only to shoot straight back up the second she tries to put it on her head.

“Charlotte.”

A little giggle comes from across the room as the hat reluctantly floats back down, and I turn my attention to Piper, tightening the strap on her shoe before she can get it off again.

“How did you even do that?”

She grins at me, her little grey ears poking through the holes in her sunhat while I reach for her other foot, only for Theo to wander past wearing one shoe, no hat and Jasper’s hat clenched firmly between his teeth.

“Theodore, give me Jasper’s hat.”

He keeps on walking.

“Theo.”

He stops and looks back at me, his jaw tightening around the fabric as though I might somehow forget I just watched him steal it.

“Hand it over if you want to play outside.”

He considers his options before eventually pulling it from his mouth and dropping the soggy thing into my palm.

“Thank you.”

I wrinkle my nose and run a little cleaning magic through the fabric before handing it to Marge, who takes it without comment because this is hardly the strangest thing either of us has touched.

“Whose shoe are we missing?”

“Feris.”

I glance over at Feris, sitting beside her brother with both shoes firmly on her feet.

“She has both.”

Marge looks down at the little pile beside her. “Then whose is this?”

Matias lifts his foot, and I grab the shoe, completing another tiny fae-footed mission.

When his shoe is back where it belongs, Lottie has accepted her hat, Piper has somehow loosened one of her straps again, and Ember is sitting beautifully by the door with both shoes on and her hat perfectly positioned over her curls.

I narrow my eyes at her too-innocent smile. Right on cue, a thin trail of smoke curls from one shoelace.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Her gaze drops to her foot before coming back to mine.

Eventually, through a combination of negotiation, magic and more physical effort than anyone should reasonably need before morning tea, we get twelve magical children dressed and open the doors to a beautiful day in Eveah.

Both suns are shining high in a clear blue sky, spilling warmth across the playground while a light breeze moves through the enormous shade trees along the fence. The clouds have stayed away, the grass is warm beneath my shoes, and the little garden running along the far side of the yard has opened beneath the sunlight, which immediately catches Matias’s attention.

His entire face lights up as he starts drifting toward it.

“Garden later, Matias. We’re dancing first.”

Marge carries the speaker onto the grass while I gather everyone beneath the shade sail. However, gathering might be a generous description when Piper is already bouncing on the balls of her feet, Lottie is spinning in circles, and Theo has somehow managed to lose a shoe during the eleven seconds we’ve been outside.

I stare at his bare foot before looking back toward the door.

His shoe is sitting beside it.

I draw it across the grass with a small pull of magic and catch it against my palm, crouching to push it back onto his foot while he watches me with a solemn little expression.

“Can we keep this one on?”

He nods, but I don't believe him. Not that it matters.

The opening notes of Hop Little Froggies spill from the speaker, and every little body around me seems to recognise it at once. Piper squeals and drops into a crouch, Feris grabs Matias’s hands while he starts bouncing beside her, and even Ember forgets whatever she was about to set fire to as I move into the middle of them.

“Are my little froggies ready?”

A chorus of excited noises answers me as I crouch with my hands on my knees, Piper’s whole bottom wiggling beside me while Lottie bends so low her hat falls over her eyes.

Then the song tells us to hop, and we all jump together, although Lottie uses enough magic to send herself several feet higher than the rest of us and comes floating back down in a fit of giggles while Piper abandons hopping entirely and bounds across the grass on all fours.

“Piper, frogs, not wolves.”

She growls happily and keeps going.

Beside me, Feris’s skin suddenly turns bright green, and Matias squeals when he notices before his skin changes to match hers. Theo throws himself into another jump, which shakes the ground when he lands, while Ember bounces beside him with sparks flicking from her curls every time her feet leave the grass.

“Gentle hops, Theo,” I call, moving closer to pat a spark from the back of his shirt. “And keep your fire to yourself, Ember.”

She laughs and jumps again, and another spark lands on Theo.

Marge is laughing beside the speaker while I chase them through another round of hopping, barely managing to keep Lottie on the ground and Ember’s sparks away from everyone until the song finally tells all the little froggies to sleep.

They collapse across the grass around me. Piper goes face-first.

“The grass isn't a pillow, sweetheart.”

She rolls onto her back instead, and I lower myself amongst them while little bodies wriggle and giggle around me, one arm resting over my eyes as I listen to the music.

For three glorious seconds, every child is where they should be. Then the froggies wake up.

Piper howls beside my ear, Lottie shoots into the air, Theo kicks his shoe clean across the playground, and Ember erupts into a shower of harmless sparks as everyone scrambles back to their feet.

I’m still laughing when my hands suddenly turn green, and I stop to stare at them.

Marge makes a strangled noise, and when I turn, she’s standing beside the speaker with green skin too.

Every child around us is green, and it only takes me two seconds to pinpoint the culprit. Narrowing my eyes on Feris, I open my mouth to tell her to change us back. But a tiny giggle disappears into the crowd as twelve little green froggies bounce across the grass beneath the two shining suns, and whatever hope I had of regaining control disappears with them.

Playtime has officially begun.

“Freya,” Stella calls from the door, and I look up to see her usually cheerful expression pale.

Behind her stands a mountain of a… well, a dragon. Specifically, the Dragon King, tall and broad enough to fill most of the doorway, with dark hair swept back around two black horns and a scowl that could probably burn cities without the help of dragon fire.

And in his arms is the most adorable little hatchling I have ever seen.