Vivian scooped up her mother, the frog with her hands, and placed her on the table in her room. “Here mother. You can rest here for a while.”
“My bed would be so much softer,” said Benevois, the frog.
“Yes, of course,” Vivian said, moving her frog mother over to the soft mattress. “It just seems silly to put a frog on a bed. I mean, you can’t really lie down the way we humans do. I’m not even sure how frogs sleep. I imagine they sleep sitting up.”
“I suppose they must,” said Benevois.
“And what if someone were to lie down on the mattress and not see you? You’d be crushed.”
“No one would dare lie down on this mattress,” said Benevois. “This is the King and Queen’s bed.”
There were a couple seconds of silence while both Benevois and Vivian thought about what she had just said. Then they said in the same breath, “Catherine!”
“It would be just like her to claim the royal bed for herself,” said Vivian. “I could move you to my room to be safe.”
“Why not,” said Benevois. “I suppose at this point, there’s no use in trying to pretend I have any pride.”
“I promise you, Mother, I won’t rest until we get that spell reversed,” said Vivian, “And get you changed back into a normal human. And find Father, of course.”
“They say your father disappeared down a mouse tunnel with Midor,” said Benevois.
“It has been an interesting day,” said Vivian.
“You know, I never had anything against Midor. It was always your father who disliked him.”
“Father needed me here,” said Vivian. “I understand. I sometimes allowed myself to think that once the crisis was over, I would be able to go back to Midor, but… But there’s always a new crisis. Now Catherine is back again. And after Catherine, it will be something else. It’s always one thing after another.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Benevois said. “You didn’t leave Midor. He left you. He was offered a post at the castle on your father’s court. But he chose to go and live in the forest like one of the animals instead.”
“That was his life,” said Vivian sadly. “He could no more leave it for me than I could leave my life for him.”
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