The Other Tale

There once was a small yet clever young frog who thought well of himself. Then one day he wandered away from his friends, for he felt a fit of dismay in their thoughtless trends. He became a de facto prince who refused to mince words, and to that end he incurred a lonely reprimand. 

His adventures soon demanded he be landed in a mountainous space, face to face with a monstrous, dangerous, Amazonian centipede, infamous for eating those who chose to impede his path. "You were lost in the fog; do the math, lonely frog! Do you realize that now your demise is mine to savor?"

About to be devoured, the frog, far from cowardly, proposed a wager. "If you're so smart, why don't you start your first course with my riddle? If you answer it, of course, your middle and final dinner courses may conclude with undue dethroning and deboning of me and my two legs. However, should I peg you a fool and show you something new to know, you will let me go on my way."

Not one to avoid a sure thing, the centipede thought the sting of claws around the frog would taste sweeter if he dined on both the frog's body and the frog's mind. In such pleasured treasures he knew he would surely soon bask. "Yes, I'm up to your task," avidly agreed the snaking centipede. "What riddle will you ask?"

Doubting the centipede will truly ever set him free, the frog pondered quietly aloud, "You should be proud of the limbs you house on each side of your body, almost twenty-fold, but how do you dole out orders to each limb so that they won't topple one over another on a whim?"

The centipede stood paused, perplexed quite a bit. "Honestly, I've never thought about it. They all just seem to work. It's one of the greatest perks, indeed, of being a mighty centipede! I pointlessly concede your gamble." The frog slowly ambled backwards at half speed, and thus, spake the centipede, "You've bested my mind, but my body, you'll find, is still quite hungry!"

Stumbling forward mad, his clumsy legs now had their own thoughts, entangling twisted segments into knots. The frog liberated his mind and body, and the snide centipede winded wobbly down the mountainside.

The last in line had heard his plea in time to safely flee, but that's another tale entirely...

But bound by hands, his decree could not exceed his need to breathe.

"We're each a weakness if no one will lead."

"We can't move like this, like a centipede."

She gutted his chords as he spoke his last words.

One was eventually enlightened.

One always arrived near the night's end.

One tended to blend into the scenery.

One was bright but spotty with greenery.

One acted far too fearlessly.

One took life way too seriously.

One appeared to be too content.

One lived out of his element.

One felt ambitious.

One was too bashful.

There once was a girl in search of a prince.

A Tale of Frogs

In the upcoming days I'll be posting a series from yesteryear called "A Tale of Frogs". Each piece has a title which doubles as a sentence continuing the story. It was intended as the first chapter in a long running series. My professor Keith Mayerson guided me to Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" and Roland Barthes' "The Third Meaning" as points of inspiration. I intended to test the boundaries of sequential art. Perhaps if I continue with the project I'll try to get it published.