The Frog

Once upon a time there was a frog who thought he should not have to swim. "Swimming's hard, we don't need it" thought the frog, "and anyway, just because everyone else likes to breathe all the time, why does that mean I should?"

And so the frog stopped swimming. The frog's friends didn't understand why he would not swim, and came nearby to stop him from sinking. But no frog can support another who will not swim, and so the frog slipped to where his friends could barely even touch him with a flipper.

The other frogs asked themselves, "What can we do, when he will not swim?" But none of the other frogs had any answers, so they decided that they would hang out nearby in case an opportunity to help came by.

And the frog sank a little more, and was lonely. But swim it would not. "You shouldn't have to swim! Enough of this 'you must swim' regime! Not everything is right for everyone after all!" And the frog floated around, just a little deeper than before.

Just about the time the frog was going nuts wondering why his froggy friends wouldn't join him, he met two new friends, Fish and Eel. The frog really liked Fish and Eel, who both maintained that though they were under the water, that they swam just fine. "Breathing?" said Eel, "You mean ingest air on purpose! Why should anyone want to do that?" Fish agreed, shuddering her fins at the thought.

The frog became fast friends with Fish and Eel, and, though he wouldn't follow them through all their caves, had long debates over the nature of Pond. But all the while, the frog was slowly sinking deeper.

Eventually, the frog hit bottom, and rested there after all the turmoil. "Come, let's play in caves", invited Fish, but the frog knew that playing was really just another form of swimming and breathing, only for the below-air folk, and wasn't interested.

Eventually, the frog started running out of oxygen; his vision swam for him, and everything started getting darker. Looking up at the frog-shaped silhouettes, he thought his final thought:

"I wonder how they climb so very high?"