I am Azon

Azon was blinded by the sunlight when he opened his eyes. He closed his eyes again. He had this feeling, like he had been flying, or rather floating, ceaselessly for a long time, he supposed. He really could not recall. The last thing he remembered was a world too unstable to hold still. It had kept revolving around him faster and faster and he had been tracking it until he thought his eyes where looking back into his head. Unable to bear any more, Azon had closed his eyes, just for a minute; or so he thought. Now, seeing the sunlight, Azon assumed the world had finally stopped spinning. He began gathering his senses. He again opened his eyes, the sunlight hit him again. It was while attempting to shield his eyes that Azon made a horrible discovery.1

Hovering above his eyes, where his hand was supposed to be, were four bony, ugly and sticky things, which Azon realized were his fingers. Immediately, he jumped with a start, which was a mistake. In a moment, he was thrown high up in the air. Though struck with terror, he took the opportunity to survey his surroundings, and the first thought he had was that the whole world had suffered a massive flood in his absence. He had been floating in an omnipresent body of water! It was a pity, he thought, not having enjoyed many of the earthly pleasures. He had wasted his whole life in magic and research.2

However, his belief that the world had been destroyed was itself destroyed as he saw a faint outline of very thickly populated trees to both his right and left, very far away from where he was. This meant that he had been floating in a large and deep river, which was bad, for Azon was never good at swimming. As soon as he made this disturbing discovery, he began his descent. To his horror, as he looked down, all that was between him and the deep waters was a flimsy leaf! Azon screamed in terror, "CRROAKKK!!!".3

Unable to defy gravity, Azon braced himself for the contact with the hungry water, which seemed impatient with his slow motion descent. It did not come. Miraculously, the leaf held. Water poured into the leaf from all directions as it submerged into the river. It looked as though the leaf was made of wax so that water was just skating around, unable to hold still, and eventually, most of what came in, went out. Cute spherical crystals of water rolled here and there on the leaf. When one such sphere finally stopped, Azon took a look into the sphere, wanting to see his reflection but expecting to see what he feared. What he saw was definitely what he dreaded, and absolutely not what he wanted. Staring at him was a handsome, ugly frog; handsome because it was him and ugly because it was a frog. Then everything came back to him.4

Azon was, or rather had been, an exceptionally brilliant student in Sastra University of Magic and Technology. He had been working on his ARSE (Artificial Resurrection for Simple Existence, his final year project). Azon had developed a theory to resurrect dead animals, involving the use of honey dew, mosquito excreta... never mind. The problem was that he had to provide a working demonstration in order to graduate. The hunt for animals began. After some very trying experiences, Azon had come home to the frogs. A frog had seemed to be the ideal animal for his project due to three reasons. They were5

1. Easy to spot
2. Easy to catch
3. Easy to kill6

Catching a frog is as simple as holding your hand out to it and staying still. Eventually the frog would sit on it. Then all that remained was casting a Grim Reaper spell on it. If only there was an Almighty spell! Well, no use worrying now. However, the only precaution to be taken was to never go near a colourful frog if you want to live any longer. 7

So, Azon had been in search of the dumbest looking frog and had finally found it on a tree near the Amazon River. After killing it, he had checked his checklist.8

One dead, dumb frog - Check
One vial of resurrecting potion - Check
One protective set of goggles - Check
One Azon to perform resurrection - Check9

When everything had been ready, Azon had held the frog in one hand and the potion in the other. Praying to all the Gods to make the project a success, he had poured the potion over the frog and had eagerly awaited the result when it had happened. The world had started spinning and at the same time his feet had felt as though suddenly the earth had cracked open, lava seeped out and he had been standing on it. That was when he had passed out.10

Now that Azon the tree frog mulled over the events of some recent past, one thing became crystal clear; his experiment had gone wrong. Utterly and dangerously wrong. If he was in the frog now, then who was in his body? No-one, Azon realized. It was dangerous, leaving a body in a forest unattended. He had to hurry up and enter his body in someway or other before it became a part of the forest. First, he had to find a way out of the river. 11

Almost surreally, a tree floated in the river, with one end attached to the shore. ‘Must have fallen in the recent rains’, Azon assumed. Azon figured out what he had to do. Though he never put himself in a frog's shoes before, Azon realised he had to use its legs to take him to the tree. Even if he missed, he would fall in the river, which was fine now since he was a frog and even if he could not swim, he could climb on the leaf again. This gave him the courage needed for the jump. Azon stood poised and when the tree came close enough (he had to judge the distance approximately from his first jump), he transferred all his strength to his hind legs and launched himself into the air. He had misjudged the distance. Even as he reached the tree, he knew that he was going to jump past the tree and again into the water. He misjudged again. He landed on a thin branch of the tree hovering just above the water surface and immediately gave a loud croak of joy and success.12

On reaching the shore, a sudden panic gripped Azon. What if he were on the wrong shore? Well, he had to take that risk. A shore was certainly better than the river. Even if he was on the wrong shore, he would somehow think of a way to cross the river. So, Azon started hopping upstream. After a thousand hops, still nothing familiar, Azon was on the verge of giving up when something glinted in the sunlight. Hopes resurrected, Azon hopped eagerly to the shiny object and was awarded for his decision. There lying on earth, dirty but not broken, with some of its contents still in it, was the vial of resurrection! Now all he needed was his body. If the vial was here, the body had to be somewhere nearby. Azon started searching and came to a standstill when he saw what made his hopes crumble into dust.13

Near the tree where he had first found the frog, lay a mound of small but ferocious creatures which he horrifically identified as bullet ants. However, the mound seemed too large to consist only of bullet ants. So he looked closer and recoiled in horror. Lying among the ants, was Azon's body, or what was left of it. So that was where the burning sensation of his legs came from, just before he had passed out. In his zeal for his work, he had stood on the bullet ants' nest and hadn't even noticed.14

Now Azon had two choices. Either stand on the body and pour the contents of the vial on the body so that he was resurrected, or gracefully accept his life as a frog and forget everything about graduation, love, marriage and a successful profession. Azon might have looked dumb in his new frog outfit, but he was still as smart as he had been in human form. He had heard and read about bullet ant stings and knew he should never be on the receiving end. Entering his body, swarmed by at least a million bullet ants? No thanks; he knew better ways to die. 15

Azon took the second choice. His thousands of hops all day had made him ravenously hungry. He saw a fly close by, waiting for the ants to leave the remains of their latest food. He wondered how to flick his tongue at the fly.16

Author notes

For contests:
The name is Kirin
Kirin has one question: "if willy gets the willies does nelly get the nillies?"

In a list

A contest entry

please point out grammar mistakes...

    : , Your review:

    Comment Suggestion: What is your your first impression?
    : Cost: 0 free left 0 points, You have 0. (?) (Line numbers)
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Comments

1 - 27 of 27

  • Noisome.
    December 9, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    I'll give this a read at another time, however, I can't accept it as an entry in this contest. The first line in the contest description says that I am no longer accepting entries and it is only open for those finishing a prompted piece. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Hit me up with a message and I'll give it a read.


  • ninju
    November 1, 2008

    Edit | Reply

    Hmmm

    Interesting attempt ... The story has a good flow to it, it doesn slump anywhere. The magic part of the story made me think twice about the story when I came to it, but i enjoyed the read.

    beginning: 3, language: 3, plot: 1, ending: 1, dialog: 5, characters: 4.


    • Kirin
      November 1, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Thanks for reading, commenting and the applause... Thank you for liking the story, or atleast trying to like it Well, I haven't written much on fantasy... Hey, come to think of it, I haven't written much on anything... hmmm... Well, guess the magic thing startled even me when I found the inspiration. And I go by the saying "Something's better than nothing" (Now don't get started off with the 'Nothing is..." quote...) Glad you enjoyed the read


  • Robin Omallia
    October 27, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    This was wonderful. I really enjoyed it.
    Thanks for entering my contest.


  • DemApples
    October 22, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    TITLE = 2/2PTS
    STRUCTURE = 22/30PTS
    FLOW = 13/15PTS
    CHARACTERS = 18/20PTS
    IMAGERY = 17/18PTS
    DESCRIPTION = 5/5PTS
    SETTING = 9/10PTS

    total =- 86


    • Kirin
      October 23, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Wow! 86?! *takes a bow* Thank you verymuch Have fun judging the contest!!


  • Forgotten Anomaly
    October 9, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    I like this story. Very creative indeed. I'm glad you entered my contest because your a finalist. I'd point out grammar mistakes but my grammar is horrid so I won't do that... Thank you for entering.


    • Kirin
      October 10, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Thank you, O Royal Phoenix! Glad you liked it May your contest is full of great entries!!


  • Kirin
    September 22, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    Irish Ducttape


  • tonialoise
    September 20, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    That was quite different and interesting. I didn't find it overly funny but amusing. Good work, quite an imagination you have!


    Now because I'm a technical person I noticed a few things that maybe could be fixed;
    The first paragraph is a little awkward with the repeating of "his eyes"

    p5 Azon had been... remove the "was"
    p8 there's a lot of passive verb use, for example the last sentence, if you removed "had" it would read a little better.
    p10 Though he never put...
    p11 started repeated

    • Kirin
      September 20, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Glad you liked it. I'm always open for technical suggestions to my stories.
      p5:Actually I used strike through 'was' when I had gold membership. Wen I edited it after the membership ended, the strikethrough just, disappeared!

      p8: Since the narrative is in past tense, any flashback in it should've been in past perfect, or so I thought.
      p10,11: Thank you.

      May you have tough time judging the contest


  • LittleMissChrissie
    September 19, 2008

    Edit | Reply

    Outstandingly original


    It's not every day you read a story like this, and it really made me laugh. I can honestly say I've actually never read anything like it and I really enjoyed reading it!!

    The very best of luck in the contest!

    Chrissie


    • Kirin
      September 19, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      I'm flattered! Thank you very much! Good luck for judging!


  • Iris Doyle
    September 5, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    wow.
    that was EXTREMELY original. wow. crazy! very different than anything ive ever read! haha. that would suck if that really happened. lol. nice. amazing work. good luck!


    • Kirin
      September 5, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Thank you... I'm glad you liked it.


  • Hellcat Metal
    September 2, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    I must say, that was amusing. It seemed random and I liked. Good work and thanks for entering the contest!


    • Kirin
      September 3, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Thank you for reading my story. I'm glad you liked it. All the best for getting great entries in the contest!


  • Valkyrie silver member
    September 1, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Oh yes! So cool! Reminds me very much of Terry Pratchett. I loved this story. You wrote it so well! I liked the way you described the water flooding onto the leaf, and Azon's complete lack of experience being a frog, so he kept doing everything wrong.
    The end, dude, I was eating breakfast while I read this. Eew. Very nice on the gross-out! I so hate swarming ants! *shudders*
    Seriously the most awesome frog story ever. Do you have a sequel? Maybe Azon will be kissed by someone interesting and get his body back?

    • Kirin
      September 2, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Thank you very much for reading my story, the comment and the applause. I really appreciate it. I'm really glad you liked it. Do I have a sequel? A person as lazy as me should never think of writing a sequel, and yet, after all these appreciations I'm thinking of writing a sequel.


  • quicksilver moon
    August 31, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Wow, unbelievable and creepy towards the end. The story flowed smoothly. I enjoyed reading it till the end. Thanks for entering this story in the contest

    • Kirin
      August 31, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Hi!! Thank you for reading and commenting on my story. I'm glad you liked it. Thank you for considering my story as a preliminary finalist. All the best for judging the contest.


  • kitigrl-sparkloholic
    August 27, 2008

    Edit | Reply

    its good

    its mystical
    its... not really scary enough. sorry! remember, you can enter as many times as you want!

    kitigrl

  • Kartz
    August 26, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    I present the following observations on a hilarious and well structured story;

    "It was a pity, he thought; him not having enjoyed many of the earthly pleasures."- it will suffice if you put it as, "It was a pity, he thought; not having enjoyed many of the earthly pleasures."

    easily spottable- easy to spot
    easily catchable- easy to catch
    easily killable- easy to kill

    "Praying all Gods"- Praying to all the Gods...

    Dude, I would suggest if you avoid the past perfect tense. Eg. "When everything had been ready, Azon had held the frog in one hand and the potion in the other." - "With everything ready, Azon held the frog..." If you can notice, the use of too many 'had been's can make it look dreary.

    "on the shore", not in
    "honey dew", not due

    Otherwise, it's very very good. Congratulations on the first prize! Your imagination is most admirable!

    Note- I was in splits; SASTRA Univ of Magic and Tech. Knowing abt the place, I feel you can come up with a witty expansion for SASTRA (in case you plan to include it in other stories) Cheers


  • Mephitic ID Synergy
    May 21, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    Good work. This was quite amusing. The backstory you worked in was pretty clever. Thanks for coming up with something for this contest. I hope you enjoyed the challenge.

    Very funny: handsome because it was him and ugly because it was a frog

    honey dew, not due

    I think it sounds more natural to say "on the shore" than "in the shore".

    Mik


  • Peachy
    April 15, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    This was actually pretty good. I never thought a story about a frog floating down the Amazon River could be so interesting and well written. Cleverly done, the last few sentences were very good and made me smile/chuckle.
    Good Write!


  • tallblondie gold member
    April 3, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    Poor Azon. It brought to mind the 'man dreaming he is a (frog), or a (frog) dreaming he is a man' conundrum. (I hope you appreciate the reference). An almost existential piece - and nicely done too!

    Well done and keep writing!
    Welcome to Storywrite!

    • Kirin
      April 3, 2008
      Edit | Reply

      Hi blondie....

      There is more to it... i found i was out of time yesterday. I'm intending to finish the story today... Of course i appreciate your reference. It even has given me an inspiration. But the voice in me has something else in its mind... Tell me if it is good..

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