Soft grass, warm breeze, blue skies. Not a sound to be heard but the chirps of birds, the croaks of frogs, and every now and again the splash of something landing in the water. It was a beautiful day, and Auros was ready to race... or his toad was, rather. It sat on his forehead as he lay on the grass, the rapid pulsing of its throat taking up the center of his vision. The others hadn't yet found their own toads, so all he could do was dangle his feet in the stream and stare up through the gaps in the treetops while he waited. At least the clouds made interesting shapes.
A soft voice broke the tranquil harmony just as a shadow encroached on Auros' sunlight. "I've never seen anyone wear a frog like a hat before." He didn't recognize this voice. It sounded breathless, almost nervous. His toad backed up onto his hair as he sat up and turned to see both voice and shadow belonged to a girl rocking back and forth on her heels, irises shining like bright grey rings, smiling at him as if she'd told a funny joke and expected him to find it funny too. Auros didn't say anything; he was too busy trying to decide if her hair was black or just a very dark brown. "I'm Hairandis. Pleased to meet you." Her curtsy was nervous too, like she wasn't much used to curtsying; or maybe it was that Auros had become unused to seeing a curtsy. More than that, this girl had managed to get within a couple of feet without his notice. No one snuck up on Auros. At least, no one had.
As Auros stood up and bowed, the girl seemed to find it amusing how he'd kept his head tilted so his toad didn't fall off. "My name is Auros. The pleasure is mine."
Hairandis rocked to her tiptoes then flat on her feet and stayed there. "It is? I worried you might not like someone interrupting your meditation." She didn't sound so nervous anymore.
"Meditation?" If she meant him watching the clouds, he couldn't remember the last time he'd heard anyone describe that as meditation. In fact, he might never have.
"You were staring up into the sky with an intense scowl."
"I was not." Auros was indignant and he had a right to be. He would know if he was scowling. Of course now he was scowling because she'd accused him of scowling. Although, perhaps she was right about the meditation. He'd been thinking pretty hard about how long it would take the others to find their own toads, especially Aldawë.
"Do you lay around with frogs on your head often?"
What kind of a question... Who was she? Auros' chin raised an inch and his shoulders squared. "It's a toad, not a frog." He refused to let his brow furrow. He wasn't going to be accused of scowling again. He was going to be cordial, and dignified, and everything he was supposed to be.
Until that moment, Hairandis seemed to have found it difficult to keep a straight face. Auros' reproach changed that. She pursed her lips while staring at the toad sitting atop his head. "What's the difference?"
What's the difference?? Where was she from? How can she not know the difference between a frog and a toad? There was no cordial way to say any of that. She asked like it was a reasonable question. Incredulous was how he should be acting. No, that wouldn't be knightly conduct. Auros took a deep breath and put his hand up for his toad to crawl onto. "Put out your hand." Hairandis put out her hand, and as he held it steady with his, her cheeks tinged pink. "This is a toad." He set the toad in her hand and it stayed put as she ran her finger over its back.
"It's bumpy."
Now that she knew what a toad was, Auros stooped down and peered into the stream. He didn't have to hunt for long. With all the care it deserved, he dipped his hand into the water and drew out a frog. Standing up, he took his toad back and placed it on his head. "This is a frog." He put the frog in her hand.
"Ew, it's slimy!" Despite her protest, despite her frown, she kept petting it. Auros was offended for the frog. "Auros, I'm sorry."
"For what?" He couldn't imagine why she'd apologize to him. The frog maybe, but not him.
"I wasn't really curious about the toad. I mean, I was curious why it was on your head, but really, after you helped Beldadir deal with those bullies, I wanted to meet you, and when I came over here I couldn't think of anything else to say."
That incident with Beldadir wasn't more than a few weeks ago, and Auros didn't remember seeing her at the horse fields. Certainly he would've noticed someone as unusual as her. What made her unusual enough that he should've noticed, though, he couldn't quite figure out. Something was different about Hairandis, and Auros was pretty sure it wasn't just that, unlike Dinmir, she questioned him putting a toad on his head. That, however, was the least of the questions on Auros' mind. Of everything so far that had caught him off guard, the latest was the one he wanted an answer to first.
"Why would you want to meet me?"
Far down the stream, a shout went out from a small group of children. Hairandis waved to them, then turned back to Auros with a big grin. "Sorry, I have to go." The curtsy she performed this time was much smoother. "Pleased to meet you, Auros!"
Not quite sure what just happened, Auros could do naught but bow and gawk as Hairandis ran off towards the other children, pausing only long enough to release the frog back into the water. She'd snuck up on him, pet a frog while calling it slimy, apologized for something he still wasn't sure warranted an apology, and wouldn't even tell him why she wanted to meet him. Unusual indeed.
Clutching a toad at last, Dinmir came to Auros' side just as Hairandis left him speechless. "What was that about?" She looked at him, then followed his gaze. "Who was that?" Farothel and Aldawë caught up just in time to see the confusion on his face.
"I don't know." There were too many questions and too few answers. Auros would be sifting through them for a while.
Aldawë's toad squirmed in his hand. "Isn't she from the village across the stream?"
"She said her name was Hairandis. She said she didn't know the difference between a frog and a toad."
Dinmir frowned at the toad in her hands, almost twice the size of anyone else's. "How can anyone not know the difference between a frog and a toad?"
"She said she just wanted to meet me." Auros wasn't sure if he was answering their questions or just working things out aloud.
"Why would anyone want to meet you?" The next sound from Aldawë was a grunt as Dinmir's elbow met his side, and his toad seized that opportunity to leap for the grass. Any slower at grasping after it and he would've had to scour for a new one.
"That's what I asked, but she said she had to go, then ran off." That meeting couldn't be the last. Surely not. All that just to never meet again would make no sense.
"Hmph. That's her loss then. Let's race!" Dinmir tugged Auros' sleeve as she turned away, and he turned with her.
"Yes. Let's."