Chapter 4: The Escape and the Pros of Being a Frog
'First, I should get somewhere safe!'
Quickly looking around him for a place to escape from his chaser, Aiden noticed that the shore of the lake was only a few meters away from him. Quickly making a final decision, Aiden, without hesitation, again started to hop toward the safety of the clear blue water.
*Clack-clack!*
Noticing the intention of his lunch, the stork angrily clacked with its beaks and picked up its speed, getting more and more determined to catch its prey.
'Faster, faster!'
Noticing the black and white bird speeding towards him, Aiden repeated it inside, trying to motivate himself. He used all his remaining strength, and he was getting tired, but as he got used to his new body and its optimal movements, his jumps still got faster and longer.
He was even able to jump more than one and a half meters!
Witch, compared to the length of his body, that barely reached five centimeters, was an exceptionally good achievement.
'Fuhhh, that was cool!'
And before he even noticed, Aiden had already arrived beside the water. But he didn't have much time to celebrate, as he noticed that the stork would also arrive in just a few moments.
*Splash!*
And with one last long jump, he jumped into the water and landed with a big splash a meter away from the shore, just escaping from the claws of the hungry bird.
"Kwark, kwark, kwark!"
Also, before he fully dove underwater, he didn't forget to turn back, look at the unlucky stork, and give out some mocking sounds similar to human laughter. And the stork could only helplessly watch as his prey's whole body went underwater without being able to do anything but watch from afar.
Under the surface of the water, Aiden didn't yet stop to relax but started to swim far away from the shore until he felt like the stork couldn't reach him anymore.
'I think I'm safe now.'
Looking back up at the shiny water surface above, more than two meters away from him, Aiden finally stopped and took a relieved 'breath'. Finally, now that he was able to calm down a little, he noticed that even underwater, his vision was perfectly fine, and he felt like he still had an ample amount of oxygen, enough for dozens of minutes, if not hours.
'Guess there is an upside to being a frog!'
Feeling a little happy, Aiden slowly sank to the muddy bottom of the lake, where he was still able to see perfectly thanks to the strong rays of the sun reaching deep underwater.
Looking around, he noticed that besides a few green seaweeds waving in the flow of the clear water, he didn't find anything living, probably because he was still in a shallow part of the lake.
'I should find a shelter first!'
Knowing that even though he could stay underwater for hours, at some point he would have to go up for some fresh air. And he didn't really want to risk open waters, not to mention that in his past life, he lived beside a lake and knew how birds would duck underwater to hunt for food.
So, deciding that it was a better idea to move than stay in the same place for a long time, Aiden started to swim again after he couldn't find anything interesting.
'I'm so fucking fast!'
Aiden didn't notice before because of the urgency, but his new swimming speed was at least two or three times faster than before. Which, with a small body like a frog's, felt like he was at least as fast as a car.
'I should be faster than the fastest human on earth!'
Happily swimming alongside the shore, Aiden used the frog swimming technique he learned in his past life to reach speeds of 10 kilometers per hour, which, after a quick head calculation, was about 2,8 meters per second.
Which was objectively fast as f*ck!
Thanks to this, it only took a few minutes to find the thing he was looking for. In the distance, a couple of hundred meters ahead, a dense forest of thin, high rods appeared. Breaking the boring, repetitive sight of sand, sand, seaweed, and sand again.
Getting closer, it became clear that the things in front of Aiden were countless green reed stems growing out of the mud, breaking through the surface of the water, then disappearing in the canopy of green leaves, providing homes for countless animals hiding between.
'Wow.'
Amazed by the sight, Aiden slowed down, carefully dodging the reeds in his path.
As he got deeper and deeper, the reed bed got denser and denser, making it increasingly harder to maneuver around. Aiden slowly swam a little bit more, avoiding the stems, and when he felt like the reed bed was dense enough, he slowly swam up to the surface.
Staying vigilant, he only lifted the top of his head above the surface, carefully looking around with his two big, bulging eyes.
'I should find a good place to rest first.'
After he made sure there wasn't any danger around, Aiden spotted a big, strong leaf just above the water, perfect for a tired frog like him.
Finding it good enough, he slowly swam towards the leaf, then again made sure there wasn't any danger around. And finally, when he was 100% sure he was safe, he jumped out of the water and landed perfectly on the leaf.
'That was a hell of a morning!'
Aiden sighed heavily and flopped down on the 'floor,' exhausted by the deathly morning exercise. He relaxed his tensed muscles and peacefully bathed in the sun like frogs usually do.
"Man, I really understand frogs now!"
Feeling the just-perfect-temperature rays of the morning sun gently caressing his back, slowly his pounding heart calmed down, and as the adrenaline drained from his body, he started to feel sleepy and unbelievably tired. He had a thousand things to do, but he just couldn't care less about them now; he just wanted to rest a little.
And before Aiden could realize it, his eyes were already closed, and he was fast asleep.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone