"Where did the frogs come from? How long were they there? Do you have any crawlspaces in the rock large enough for these frogs?"

I poke my head up from the last few steps of the staircase. "Uh, hello?"

Cypress looks at me as I scramble up the steps and in to the hallway. Thankfully, Dad introduces me. "This is Scarlet, my oldest daughter. She's the one with the room where the frogs were found."

"Ah, okay."

Dad looks at me. "Scarlet, if there's anything important in that room that you don't want checked or something, I suggest you get it now. Don't worry, we'll replace your bedding after this."

I nod and head into my room, grab a random basket I have lying around, and dump all of my trinkets in there. Then I head back out with a half-filled basket. Dad looks over at it and nods. "You can just pop that in to the reading room."

As I'm about to head back down the stairs, another dragon walks in through the front archway. And she is definitely a sight. Her color of green is a bit brighter than Cypress's, but it still has olive hints mixed in. As she folds her wings, I see that they're draped with a lacy black material. She's wearing forearm and foreleg bracers, and from here I can see that she has a jewel stud in one ear and three golden hoops in the other. She's even adorned the webbed frills on the sides of her head that all Swamp Dragons have. From each skin-covered top bone strut dangles a pearl, jade, and gold wire jewelry piece. 

The gold wires gently swing as she makes her way inside. "Did a territory check. No burping frog spots in their swamp, at ALL. All of the frogs there are just puny or experiencing a Great Depression, not sure which. Either way, none of these frogs came from their swamp." 

Cypress watches her. "Alright, thank you. Could you take a closer look at these frogs?"

She snorts. "You want me to swab them for bog liquid sample comparison? I thought this was going to be a "routine extemination job," not my junior year science project.

Cypress mutters something under his breath. "No, I just want you to see if there's any small details we didn't notice before that might give us hints about where they came from. By the way, Bonfire, this is my daughter, Willow."

Willow walkes up the stairs, crowding me against the wall, and takes the jar of burping frogs from Dad's hands. "You got a quiet space somewhere that I can use to look at these guys?"

Dad nods. "We've got our reading room. Scarlet was about to head there, so she can lead the way."

"Okay."

I walk to our reading room with Willow trailing behind me, muttering things. When we get there, she plops the jar of frogs on a table and sighs loudly. "Sweet swampgrasses, I thought we would never get away from him."

I look at her. I don't like talking to dragons I don't know that aren't around my age, but I have to verify. "Are you talking about... my dad?"

She rolls her eyes. "No way! I'm talking about MY dad."

"Err, what's wrong with him?"

"He's expecting me to be his little helper and I barely get paid anything. Now that I have a flipping (okay, she might have used a different word) little brother, apparently Mom can't leave his side for anything. Even if the side is an eggshell! What's the worst he's going to do? Roll away? He's inside a swamp!"

A thought suddenly pops into my head. "Oh, that reminds me! I wonder where Flicker and Blaze are."

"Flicker... and Blaze...?"

"They're my siblings. I'm suprised they weren't around to annoy everyone. I think they might have a playdate with Squall and Frost today." By now I'm mostly just thinking aloud. 

"Frost Dragons?"

"Yeah. They're Flicker and Blaze's friends, but they're way across town and up into the mountains."

Willow sighs and plays with one of her jewelry pieces. "I guess if they're out of your way, that's a good thing."

I fidget with one of my trinkets, a little twisty thing. "Yeah. They're pretty annoying."

Willow pulls out a frog and looks at it. We both sit in silence for a while. Suddenly, she speaks up again. "Huh. These frogs... they have a little bit of an ashy scent, probably from your house. But I'd recognize this bog musk from anywhere. I grew up in it, after all."

"Umm... what are you saying? Dragonish, please."

Willow laughs. "I'm saying that these frogs came from my swamp. Must be migration season or something. Oh well. I'll tell my dad to call off the search."

"Okay. Wait, Willow." 

She pauses at the doorway. "Yeah?"

"Do burping frogs... randomly turn into ash?"

"Girl, you need to work on your comedy skills. That was not a punchline."

"I'm serious."

"I don't think they should. Maybe something about your fire-dragon-ness. I don't know."

"Huh, okay. Thanks, I guess."

Willow whisks out the door, and her and Cypress leave a little bit later. Flicker and Blaze come back, and everything's calm again in the house. Except for that one little nagging question... what does my fire think its doing?