Essence

Essence


Essence was a frog at first, a simple frog that was part of a young boy's collection, truly owned by his father due to their poisonous colors. He had no fear of his son handling them because he was a scientist, and thus removed their toxic abilities. So they were simply pretty frogs. One day the father took the frogs back to his lab so he could integrate a new one. However things didn't go as planned. A thief broke in that night, and ransacked the place. In the commotion of escape and being chased, the tank was trashed, frogs doused with greenish chemicals, and then recollected in plastic tubs. The thief made it as far as outside before he threw off his coat, tore off his mask, and tossed his stolen goods aside. Then, right before the police's eyes, he transformed into a hideous creature; a hybrid of dog, rat and frog. They were the animals he had last touched. His humanity was soon gone, and he became a savage beast. As the fight went on, the rats and frogs were fleeing their confines. Two frogs died from their dousing. One turned into a green human creature that tongue-shot anything that moved, including the police that then shot it. Three however, hopped off. Among those three, was a tiny black frog with purple markings, a new kind of frog belonging to the species genus Atelopus. Night became day and away from the crime scene in a park, a group of children came across her. Each one just had to handle her, picking her up. The only reason she wasn't afraid, was because she could understand them...

She had gained a power, an ability to copy and keep traits from any living individual she touched, but only once per individual. The thief had touched her first, and thus, she knew English. The kids were only curious and wished her no harm, so she allowed herself to be handled. Then through each child, she gained something. Knowledge. Memories. Skills. Language. Reasoning. Humanity.

One of the parents saw what her kids had, and freaked out because of the colors. Colors meant toxic. The frog was taken to a zoo for testing, since she seemed rare. In this time, she was tested, deemed non-toxic, and even proven to have lost her fluorescence. From being handled without their green gloves eventually, she gained more knowledge, more memories.. and great intelligence, even her vocabulary. It took a few days, but during this time she also grew. Then over night, she had grown large enough to push open the lid of her tank, and escape.

She escaped through the vents, and made it to the outside world. She lived in the parks, among the trees and woods. There she came across animals of course, including a young bird that had fallen from its nest. Her heart ached for it, and the frog picked up the bird, carrying it up its tree and placing it back in its nest. Over the next few days, she grew weak and lost weight; but really she had developed hollow bones and her form was adjusting. As she gained more traits, her memory began growing jumbled, mixed with those she had gained, and losing large parts of her own and of others.

One day she woke in her tree to the screaming and crying of a young girl. The human was stuck in a tree, snagged by her jacket. The frog hopped along to help her, and climbed up. But it frightened the girl. As the frog tried to free her, the flailing girl slipped. She fell, and the frog was able to grasp her hand at the wrist. As she did so, the girl's bracelets slipped one by one, each a different inspirational word for a poem. The girl fell, slipping from the frog's grip with her screaming, those bright green eyes watching her. She hit the rocky ground hard, and went silent. When the frog climbed down, she found the girl had broken her arm but worse.. smashed her head on the rocks. She was dead. Frightened, the frog screamed a human scream, and hopped off in haste.

Later, she found that two of the bracelets had attached to her sticky fingers. One had lost its word charm. The other said Essence. She could read.. and she spoke, sounding out the word, and found she had a human voice. Then she was compelled into the city, as the park became flooded with people more and more. Especially with sightings of the giant frog! There, she eventually began to walk upright, and developed a need to survive through stealing edibles and protective covering, and bags to hold things. Essence, as she thought to call herself, developed an adult vocabulary but retained her childlike mind and enthusiasm, with hints of advanced knowledge and reasoning. Though she would look at pictures and rarely read, Essence preferred to climb her way up walls to peer into windows, and watch TV; mainly children's cartoons.

Essence found herself torn between worlds; the human and the natural. The human world gave her reasoning, language, knowledge and civilization. Though being from the natural world, she retained her instinct to survive and scavenge, her need to hide and her fears. Though she did grow out of eating bugs mostly, an adjustment made from a squeamish little girl. Yet she does get distracted by fast moving objects that could be edible. And while she doesn't fear all things green, she has learned to associate the color green with some horrible memories: The chemical, the gloves, the dead girl's eyes, and huge hungry lizards and snakes.