Oh yeah, he was a big fat womper, yeah. I'll tell you all about him, Madlie.

Me and Elay were foraging mutala in the farwoods when we found him. Elay seemed all very scared of him, no doubt. Can't be too careful about what's coming up toward ya when you're out there. But yeah he was a big fat womper. He was looking at us from a tiny pond in the middle of our chop. So I set my axe down and went up to him. Had warts, pearly eyes, crocodile-looking skin slimy all over. 

I said it was some wild magick beast but Elay said to me, look, just a big big ugly frog. He wanted to set him in this little case he had with him to collect sweetroots and mutala in. When he set the case on the ground and opened the top of it Bigfrog just went right on in, wow.

We brought him back to the shed outside my house and Elay was trying to get a good look at that womper. We set him on the table and I was grabbing a stick and poking at Bigfrog. So he said to me, hey, what are you trying to do? So I said 'course I needed to find out if there was any magick in the frog 'cause if there was any magick in the frog we had to get rid of him very very fast. Elay was saying that was stupid silly and that never was there any magicking to be worrying about. He was grabbing at Bigfrog and I was pulling the old womper away to check him out. A little croak coming up from the cage and all.

Elay said to me, put that knife up and take a good look at this here frog, take a look and tell me what you see. So I said, it's a big big frog and it's even way too big. He said, ain't that the dumbest thing he ever heard, what does bigness have to do with wrongness? I said to him, I don't know. He said to me, use your head for once and don't hurt some poor big big frog just 'cause of crazy things in your head. He said to me, clearly Bigfrog's so big because was sitting in a swarming insecty swamp. I took a couple steps back then and really looked at the thing and then Bigfrog let out a happy little croak and wow, that settled it.

I thought it was very very nice to have a pet for a while, Madlie. That little swamp we have by the woods was even bigger then and it was full of gnatses and cicadadids and beetleses. All the gnatses were always swarming all around and around and zoomzing zoomzing zoomzing all 'round our ears. So I was all good to be having Bigfrog dropping into that swamp. That's what Elay picked him up for anyway, he was saying. What I did Madlie, was after the foraging when the afterdark was making its way in, I was always going and sitting at the edge of the swamp and watching Bigfrog. He was really great. His great big eyes sometimes popping out of the water and his great tongue shlooping out to grab all those gnatses. There weren't hardly so many gnatses swarming 'round our house a few months later. 

Boy but you have no idea what it was like then! See these cabinets and all the food there! Wow. That's new stuff, I tell ya. Your Mom and I used to go out into the farwoods like just about every day just to get enough food to not die. And some people did die anyway. We went in the spans before dark and right after dark. When I wanted to sleep! Not really was I mad or anything, no. No, I always tell everybody that will listen that I was mostly always happy and then I met Mom and now I am always always happy.

Yeah. The village is very small and I think maybe that's the only way I got to be with your Mom. I am very lucky. That's what I always say. 

A while after I found Bigfrog, I was sent out collecting with your Mom in the farwood. Some people, they go in different directions and cover more ground. Others, they take the day side by side and cover the same ground very careful. That way you can talk and look all day instead of just looking all day. Well of course I wanted to go side by side but I said nothing when she was out there. So pretty. With little starflowers pinned in her hair! This was before we were married or pledged or anything! If you can imagine.

So. We went out there and she said, let's go side by side all day. Wow! That felt very good and we did go on talking all the day. Mom and me found so much food that day. Of course I call her Aurolyn. Haha. Your Mom. We were out there and she said to me, I really like foraging with you. So I said to her, I really like it too. And that's a very good word. Foraging. We talked out there a very long time. All the way to the span of dark! Aurolyn told me out there about all of her family and all of their love. She was very happy to talk. She said, I love everybody everywhere but some people are just pointed the wrong way.

I said to her, I am a very simple man but I always think that's the most important thing in the world. That I am pointed the right way. She said to me, yes, I notice that about you.

In my head I was like, not out loud haha, I was like, wow! Someone noticed. Back in town Elay asked me about it. He asked what I thought about her. I said to him, boy if she wants to be married to me I will marry her so fast.

So. The next day I was back out in the farwoods. I was looking right near the swamp we found Bigfrog at. I kept looking at the water and thinking, maybe another womper is here! I even heard this noise. But no bigfrogs. Then a man with all these animal hides wrapped around his face was there! A knapsack of pretty leather. I thought then, wow, what kind of money does this man have. And what a crazy swamp place! Bigfrog and foraging with Aurolyn and then this stranger.

I did a little bow. I said to him, welcome to our humble little village, we would very much like to know you. He said to me, I am a nayab-kahhi, hunter of the evils and I am here to rid the world of the evil of the devastation that has come to us, it is my job to kill dead all the weakness that is in the world, I will save you from devastation.

Wow. So I bowed again. I very much liked the look of him and I wanted to see what was in his knapsack.

I brought him to the village. I thought it was more important to show kindness to a stranger than to keep after food. He asked to me, have you seen magick lately? I said no. He asked to me, have you seen anything at all strange-like lately? I said no. 'Course Bigfrog then started popping into my head and I thought, that's okay, Elay said there was nothing magick-like about bigness.

All the way to the village he said to me this big big speech. Big words and everything like that but he said something like this:

The world is very much breaking. All the meanest and evilest people in the world made a devastation in this great big city a long time ago and the world is dying. The whole entire world, killed dead by the evilest people. What they did was they came to this great big city together and magicked and magicked bad bad scary things out of the land. That's why we are suffering.

That's what the nayab-kahhi said to me. Very scary. The world is a big place with all kinds of crazy things like this that I hear and, wow, thankfully never any of them that scary here. Except for this one time I'm telling you about right now with the nayab-kahhi and Bigfrog.

Right when we got to our village the nayab-kahhi stopped all sudden-like and looked out and asked what happened to all the people that used to live here. Oh boy. I looked over at the empty cabins and dusty bins and crates and barrels outside homes. Emikira and Kloja and Aranie and Meluna and everyone ever just gone forever and ever. Wow. I mean it's hard to think of and how maybe I could have shared a little more to keep them alive but if I shared a little more probably I was not going to be alive either, and wow, of course I had nothing to share. I said to the nayab-kahhi, there is never any food and when there is no food we all die.

He said to me, the no-food is from a dark dark magick.

Wow.

We were walking into town when Aurolyn came up and said, who is this? So I told her about the nayab-kahhi and they did bows. Your Mom, she is always so proper and so determined, haha. 

He said to us, there is dark dark magick here and I am finding it right away before it tries to get away from me. It is somewhere here in your town. I can feel it. Do you know anything?

We said to him, no, we know nothing. Then I dropped the nayab-kahhi off at Kevem's.

I was running straight to Elay's after the nayab-kahhi was inside and I was breathing so so hard when I got to find Elay. I told him what was happening and that I was maybe worried that Bigfrog was a strangeness after all. He said to me, do not ever be trusting a nayab-kahhi and do not do not do not tell him about the big big frog in your swamp!

So I asked him why in the world not tell him? He said to me, sometimes a nayab-kahhi has great evil in his mind and that when someone has great evil in his mind they just need an excuse to use it, and sometimes it's just a little thing that can give them an excuse, and Bigfrog is a little thing. Even with his being big haha.

I was walking back to my home then and of course with all kinds of things fighting in my head. The old womper was not the bad magick at all, I was wishing, and at the same time I needed to be keeping all the village people safe. After all of the dying with the no-food, and that scariness still close by, I was super trying to keep everyone safe. I was trusting Elay but I was also trusting the nayab-kahhi. So I was thinking and thinking and then thought of a sad sad but best plan. I had to get goodbye to Bigfrog. That way if it was a dark magick then it would be gone without me having to go against what my good good friend was saying for me not to do.

I was walking to the little swamp and seeing the good old womper there. Big big eyes looking over me, wow. I took out my knife. So I waded into the swamp where Bigfrog was and he was not moving an inch. I put the knife right up against the warts on top of Bigfrog's head. The fat womper was just looking at me. I said to him, you have to go go go, you have to go soon because I don't want to kill you. 

But no. He was not going to be moving. I was good for my word too that I would kill him and I was putting that knife up so I could be chopping him dead. 

Right then I had this feeling. It was such a crazy weird feeling I thought maybe some bugs were crawling up all over me. But no. It was just a feeling and with that feeling I put the knife away. The feeling said to me, keep Bigfrog alive because you are going to be needing him later. Yes. I trusted those feelings and I was putting the knife away and walking out of the swamp, with Bigfrog doing all kinds of croakings behind me.

Later Aurolyn came up to my house all worried-like. I was thinking, what could someone like this be doing at my house when things are scary outside? I said to her, come inside. So she did and we sat in my house and there was much talking about the nayab-kahhi. Your Mom, she is very smart in her soul. That is very different from being very smart in your head, and it is much better to be very smart in your soul, I promise you.

She said to me, the nayab-kahhi is sensing some great evil in this town and I am thinking the great evil is maybe the same great evil that is making the droughts. Of course, I was liking the sound of that. It made very much sense when she said it. She said to me, the nayab-kahhi could be our very big hope for things going back to normal. 

There was a very long time of talking about the no-food and how the nayab-kahhi maybe can help. So we got a bright idea to ourselves there. I said to her, why don't we just go right to the nayab-kahhi and be very bold to tell him all that we know? Wow, she was smiling at me saying that. Big butterflies going in my stomach! Your Mom is so pretty!

A lot of walking found to us the nayab-kahhi going between the rest of the village houses. I said to him all about the no-food and the dying. He was asking to us the very specific details and peoples of the dying. We told to him all that was there in our heads about the no-food and the dying and I told to him everything I knew about everything that could be important, like even Bigfrog. He said to us very much thanks and sent us away back home.

On the road was Elay! He was taking us into his home and sitting us around the table with his wife Amenda. 

He said to me all of this long speech: the nayab-kahhi is looking for a person of evil and we can be doing nothing of the not-normal here! This is all very serious, can't you be understanding how serious this is?

Wow. I was feeling bad about telling the nayab-kahhi about Bigfrog right then. But also with many thoughts jumping around confused in my head. Why was Elay so much scared by the nayab-kahhi? The one hope of what could maybe be saving us in the long-go? Maybe that is when I should have been realizing the truth. Whenever you have a confusion in your head, Madlie, that is when you should be stopping and thinking about what is true and what is not true. 

All sudden-like there was this bang bang loudness around the town and we all got outside and went to the loudness. It was right in the town center. We went with the crowd and there was the nayab-kahhi up on top of a building, waving us all toward him. It made me feel so safe to see him there and us all under his safety. What he was saying there was taking hours but all of us listened, not moving. He was saying something like this:

I was coming through the farwoods and the places way way past the farwoods and I am seeing all the great evils of all the world. What I am finding is that where there is suffering there is always a great evil in the place and when you can be getting the great evil away from a place you can be safe again. I am hearing there are droughts here. People dying all over. The no-food just going and going and going. I am of the nayab-kahhi, the hunters of evils and the savings of the people to all the devastation that has come to us. Here I am to kill dead the weakness and the evil in all places. I am not living the life I want to be living. No. I am living a life going and going to new places to help all of the places I can be helping. Back in the way back time there was the devastation and now there is the nayab-kahhi to kill dead all the things that are being from the devastation.

The nayab-kahhi was long-speaking about all of this. At the end he said to us, let us find the evil here and kill it dead! There were only about one hundred of us left in the village then but we made a loud cheer at that and some people were shaking-scared. Oh boy. It was giving the shivers to us all. That we never were knowing how some great evil was around us. I was saying to myself, who could it be? 

When the speaking was done, Aurolyn and I ran to the swamp behind my house and away from all the people. I was still feeling the shake-shivers of the speaking and I was thinking to myself, does Aurolyn feel like I feel about the nayab-kahhi and does she feel the confusion in her head about Elay too?

I made myself bold to ask her as she got to the swamp water. She got a look at the big old womper's eyes peeping out of the water and she said to me, I want to be trusting the nayab-kahhi, maybe Elay just doesn't understand how the hunter of evils means to help us. I said to her, yes, I think you are exactly right.

That was when me and your Mom were first being happy together. I was feeling much that I could trust her and agree with everything she said. I was giving a little pat to Bigfrog's head and then me and Aurolyn talked a long time about how excited we were that maybe all the droughts would be ending but then we were speaking very sad about Elay's confusion.

And there he was! Coming right up toward us and asking if we were okay and why were we standing so close to the big big weird frog?

Wow. That was making my feelings be confused with his no-trust of the hunter of evils. So long was I knowing Elay, since we were little kids and I was thinking to myself, no, that's okay, sometimes people get confused about big important things and you just have to let it go.

Elay said to me and Aurolyn to listen very carefully and he was bringing us very close together away from where anyone could be seeing us. He said to us, the nayab-kahhi is evil and fake and he is here to take the foodstuffs that we do have for himself and he really is not seeing any of the evil at all, there is no evil here just a long drought.

When I was hearing this, I was believing some of it and thinking to not believe the nayab-kahhi. I was knowing Elay to be very smart and very right but then I had that feeling too and I was thinking again and again, like I had been thinking all day, do I believe in the feeling and the nayab-kahhi or am I believing in Elay? I want to be saying that I was knowing right then what I was believing. But no. No doubt I was not sleeping a long long time that night and I was just jumping around in my head. It was not until the late late morning that I slept.

What I heard, Madlie, was that all the early morning when I was still sleeping Bigfrog was making these great very loud croakings and all the night and morning the nayab-kahhi was going all no-sleep, walking around the village trying to hunt the evils. When he heard Bigfrog, he was waking me up by bang banging on my door. The nayab-kahhi asked me what was going on with the noise and I took him to the swamp and showed to him Bigfrog. He said to me, this is the frog you told me about? I said to him, yes, this is that old womper. 

There was a very nice look in the nayab-kahhi's eyes. I was knowing he was not mad at me or at the old womper, but that he was knowing something important. So he asked me more about where I got the frog and I was telling him all about it, how I was finding him with Elay right in the swampy farwoods where I first was meeting the nayab-kahhi himself!

He said to me, go to the town center in one hour. So. I made bold to go get Aurolyn and me and her went to the town center as all the people all came together and we waited. Your Mom and I could tell something big was coming up. She said to me, I am thinking he has found the great evil. 

He did find the great evil. Elay! It was Elay, Madlie! I was not believing it right there. The nayab-kahhi went up to the roof of the building again to speak to us and he was with four of the very strong villagers all holding Elay tightly. All these ropes around him! I was thinking to myself, no, no, my good good friend cannot be any great evil, there is no way. But there he was.

The nayab-kahhi said to us: I am hunter of evils and here is the evil I am finding here. He has been caught in his home with his wife Amenda! With magicking candles, hands over the flames making great evil shadows! Attacking one of you and a swampybeast. There will be no naming of the person because they are not of the evil. Do not be of fear! Do not be! We are ridding you now of this great evil and the food will be back and the happiness will be back. 

This was all very scary, Madlie. My good good friend Elay. Knowing him since we were kids! And the nayab-kahhi wanting to kill him dead to get rid of the bad no-food. The whole village was shaking-silent at first. The big strong men holding Elay looked very confused too. A bunch of people looked over at me and I was thinking to myself, if I speak very loudly and say that no, that is not true at all, then maybe the village would say goodbye to the nayab-kahhi and have Elay be alive.

I said nothing. I was very sad looking up at Elay but I was still saying nothing, what could I say to help him? And I was feeling a very stinging needle hurting too. About how Elay was using magicking candles to try to trap me and Bigfrog into the dark dark magick. I would never do the dark dark magick and anyone who would make me try to be in that bad magick should maybe die. I was thinking then, maybe the nayab-kahhi is right about magick. That it is all bad. Maybe all of my happy thoughts about magick were the dark candles trapping me!

They killed Elay and Amenda dead. It was all very sad. The nayab-kahhi said to me that Bigfrog was no longer of the dark dark magick so I was going to the swamp and seeing him again. When the nayab-kahhi was goodbye, we all had a very big funeral even. I said at the funeral, not everyone is good all the time and Elay was once very very good, let us remember the good Elay. I am very happy with my words on that day.

One day I was going to the swamp and found nothing there. Wow. Goodbye to the old womper just like that and I never was seeing him again. I am wishing you could have seen him, Madlie. That great big womper.

I am never feeling bad about Elay and Amenda. Just like the nayab-kahhi said, after a few years with the dark magick being gone, the foodstuffs and the happiness all came back to our village. Our shelves and bellies full! Wow. So many people saved, I am sure. The nayab-kahhi saved us. Of course I was marrying your Mom soon after it all! She was so very smart and helpful during the big scary time of the nayab-kahhi and she was very much proud of me for being so strong and letting Elay go for the good of our whole village. 

With all of the no-food finally gone the village is all so very happy now. And we are lucky! I am very lucky and very happy, Madlie. That's what I always say.