The Story of Froethi and Anoomp

Cassandra, (Cassie) is a froethi. Froethi are a strange species that appear to be large bullfrogs. However, they have retractable wings on their back, and have gills. They love to fly and swim, and the live in underwater caverns. Cassie has just moved into her own little cavern, and is having a good time flying and swimming with the other young froethi who live around her. Her best friend is Henry. Lately Cassie has been having strange dreams about a "Tyilka" and is thinking about trying to find one.

Late one night Cassandra Froethi came back from a swim and a hunt with her friends. She looked around the cozy little home she had recently moved into, and then lay down on her grass bed with a sigh of content. Soon Cassie was asleep, and she began to dream. She dreamt she was walking along shore, in a strange place she had never been before. She was walking along a small lakeshore, where she knew not. Then suddenly, a strange creature jumped out of the lake, right in front of her! He stared at her a moment then in a high, squeaky voice he said, "Anoomp". He repeated it, saying "Anoop". Then, as suddenly as he had come, he dove into the water and vanished. Cassie awoke, her heart beating wildly. She was not afraid of the strange creature she had dreamed of, rather she was curious to know who -or what- he was. She also wanted to know what Anoomp meant, as she turned the creature's appearance over in her mind. He had looked like he was part cat, and part shark. Cassie thought for a moment, then decided the creature was a figment of her imagination, surely there was really no such thing as what she had seen!Nevertheless, Cassie kept having her strange dream. After awhile she told her friend Henry about it, and decided it was real too…. Maybe. The dream kept bothering them, and finally one day they decided to leave their home for a while and try to find this strange Anoomp Creature.

All of Cassie's and Henry's friends thought they were insane to undertake such a journey, but they persisted, and one day they were ready to go. Kissing their friends goodbye and taking a last look at their pond, they went on their way. They had no idea what they thought to find, but figured whether they discovered the "Anoomp" or not, it would be a grand adventure. They set out, traveling north along the shore. They went like that for three, days sleeping wherever they could. In the afternoon of the third day, they suddenly came upon a small pond that seemed to be below it's water level, and subsiding. Suddenly the creature Cassie had seen in her dream emerged and stood on the shore!

"Hello!" it said, not waiting for them to reply. "You came to help us, didn't you?"

Cassie and Henry stared at him with surprise they're mouths hanging open. Finally Henry ventured to ask, "Uh, will you please explain yourself?"

"Sure," the talkative boy said. "I'm an Anoomp, one of the last. My name's Rick. I've got six other families of Anoomps in there-" he said shaking his head toward the pond.

"-Besides mine, that is. Anyway, as you can see, the pond's going down, it'll dry up soon. We can't live for more than a week without getting to more water. You're Froethi, aren't you? Well, we need you to show us the way to the ocean." As you can imagine, they were quite bewildered at this statement, but Rick's father just then came up out of the water and apologized for his son's gibbering. He invited them into his cave in the pond, which they accepted and went with them. Rick's father kindly explained what Rick had said, and in the end they decided to bring the Anoomps back with them.

They lived happily ever after, their two colonies of Froethi and Anoomp prospering together happily.