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Could be! Nate replied, face lit up like a kind of sun itself when Cecil joined in the theorizing. You know, it tried to eat the moon when I first woke up here, too. He skimmed over the worst day of his life with euphemism, unwilling to surrender to brooding when there were, potentially, giant frogs running amok to be found.

That bit of trivia was the main reason for Walosi's name. His first impression of Mythris — overambitious amphibians. When he'd told Chakliux that would be the name of the village, Nate still hadn't really given serious consideration to a village ever forming. He'd offered it as half a joke. And now — Now they were the Frog Tribe.

Eduda would have laughed.

A lubber landed on his nose, bright red. He went cross-eyed admiring it. Right, so uh, no eating the giant tadpoles then. Giant tadpoles, now there was something else to look out for!

Catholics got a Flood story, too. No horny toad mentioned specifically, but God was mad at all the evil in the world and sent water to wash it clean. Had Noah, only good man left alive, make a great big boat to save a few of every animal, and remake the world after. Nate's lip twisted. He shook the lubber loose, off into the grass.

Where he landed between the lessons Pa and Eduda had taught him was hard to place, most days. He avoided thinking on it too hard the way he avoided anything that required blatant vulnerability regarding his old life.

Here in Walosi, everyone seemed to think something different. Nate wanted all the stories. Maybe none of them were true. Maybe all of them were. He was pretty sure he was the last wolf alive with any right to be deciding what the One Truth was regarding Divinity.

So, I dunno. Maybe God is also a giant frog. And He was living in their lake.