Emerald, Graceful And Common

 Let us now move things along a bit.

The pumpkin soup has been made and then eaten.

No one has complained.

Letitia has picked them up in the university Toyota.

Gaius and Katherine sit in the front with Letitia.

Wittgenstein, Terence, Roo-kai and the frogs in the back.

Also several bamboo pipes, a drill, a few nails and a hammer.

They drive for an hour, speaking mainly of frogs.

It is still raining, but not heavily.

Letitia stops. 

Here we are, says Letitia. 

Finally! says Terence. Where's the enemy?

The Slender Bleaters are not the enemy, says Gaius.

The opposition, says Quiet-Tartus.

We may not find any Slender Bleating tree frogs tonight, says Letitia. We'll soon see.

She turns on her torch.

They follow her to a tree nailed to which is a bamboo pipe frog trap.

Oh look! says Letitia, an Emerald Spotted!

The Emerald Spotted tree frog is perched at the top of the pipe trap, keeping a lookout.

It ducks down inside.

Froggy scramblings are heard.

There's more than one in there, says Letitia.

May I see? asks Gaius.

Letitia gives him the torch.

Unhook it, says Letitia. 

Gaius unhooks the tree pipe and upends it.

Careful! says Letitia.

Three frogs fall out, in a shower of water.

They are not all the same.

One is a Common Green tree frog, one is the Emerald Spotted, and the third is a Graceful.

Unusual to see them together, says Gaius.

What dear little creatures, says Katherine. 

They remind me of a book mark I was once given, says Wittgenstein. One of those 3D ones. But now I think about it, that one had orange eye rings.

That would have been an Orange-eyed tree frog, says Letitia.

I'm not surprised to hear it, says Wittgenstein.

Quiet-Tartus and Shorty-Tartus hop towards the three exposed tree frogs.

Gurk! Gurk! 

Do not be alarmed, says Quiet-Tartus. We are fellow tree frogs.

Pull the other one, says Emerald Spotted. You've got feathers.

We can take them off, says Quiet-Tartus. We almost did, before we came out, but in the end we decided to keep them on in case we met with Slender Bleaters.

Is that why you're here? asks Graceful.

Yes, says Shorty-Tartus. I don't suppose you've seen any.

O heaps, says Graceful.

Corker! says Letitia. 

Why do you want to meet them? asks Common Green.

Competition, says Quiet-Tartus. We were thought to be the same species, until recently, but now we are thought not to be, so it's important.

That doesn't make sense, says Graceful. We three aren't the same species, and we've never had a competition.

Well, that's not quite true, says Common.

Not a formal competition, says Emerald.

That's what we want, says Quiet-Tartus.

What FUN! says Graceful. How about we start in five minutes? We'll round up a few Slender Bleaters, and meet you back here.

Yay! says Terence. It's happening!

This is a sudden development.

Letitia can hardly believe it