What Does It Mean to Be Frog? And Other Absurdist Stories

By Kino Ren

Ribbitious looked down upon his reflection seeing his bumpy green skin, webbed frog feet, and googly eyes. He ponders then his life; his time as a tadpole growing up in a violent neighborhood, the flies he catches with his tongue, and how at any point, a predator can come and end his very existence. He looks within himself to ask the important questions. What is the frog condition? What is the froggian dream? What does it mean to be frog? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kino Ren
• Release date: Jan 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215153277

Kino Ren

Kino Ren was born in Florida, grew up in Illinois, and spends most of his time procrastinating from doing work. He enjoys playing chess, watching anime, reading webnovels, drinking beer, traveling, and doing nothing of significant importance as he wanders aimlessly through life though he does always tell himself otherwise. He has a degree in Mathematics at the University of Illinois that he has used exactly 0 times and a minor in English which he has used exactly one time. He is currently located in Tokyo, Japan and works as a English teacher. Oh… and I suppose he enjoys this so called writing thing too.

Book preview

What Does It Mean to be Frog?

Ribbitious looked down at his reflection on a clear blue lake. He noticed his bumpy green skin, his webbed frog feet, and his large googly eyes while his mind began to race.

The day had started just like any other day for Ribbitious. Just 2 hours prior he had been out and about at the tall grass parts of the lake catching flies with his frog partner Lily while hopping around from lily pad to lily pad without a care in the world.

It was autumn now. Ribbitious and Lily's tadpoles that season had already all left leaving just the old frog couple alone with each other and free from any paternal responsibilities for rest of the year.

I wish we could stay like this forever, Lily said to Ribbitious as they huddled on the same lily pad. A fly flew within their vicinity and Lily quickly lashed out her tongue to catch it.

How many years has it been now, 4?

5 by my count, Ribbitious replied lashing his own tongue out to catch a fly himself.

"5 years huh?

It was a lifetime for the amphibian creatures. Truly at that moment, Ribbitious was happy.

But like the green leaves turned orange falling gently onto the water before him, nature, the lake, and everything else within Ribbitious's life constantly changed.

**Caw Caw**

Ribbitious froze as a terrifying sound came from above. A sound that had given him many nightmares, a sound that always came before many of his relatives and friends were taken away from him. 

He looked up and there it was, the sharp gold claws, the wide brown wings, and the petrifying predator eyes of a hawk staring directly at him.

Without warning, the hawk turned its body towards the two frogs swooping down directly at them.

"Is... is this the end?" Ribbitious thought. At that moment his entire life flashed before him. He thought about his time as a wee tadpole swimming with his school of tadpole brothers and sisters going in whatever way the current of the lake took them.

It was tough for young Ribbitious back then. He had grown up in a violent neighborhood with scores of anchovies, koi fish, and all sorts of other predators roaming near his tadpole school.

He learned very early that he had to be ruthless to survive in the cold world. In more than one instance, he nudged his own sibling in the direction of a fish so that they were the one to become the fish's meal and not himself.

So as the hawk drew closer and closer to Ribbitious, Ribbitious just stared straight into the hawk’s eyes and thought to himself, "Not today."

At the last possible moment, as if moving on pure instinct, Ribbitious jumped nearly horizontally at an acute angle calculating preciously the projectile motion in which he needed to move to just avoid the hawk's clutches.

**Splash**

After dropping about an inch underwater, Ribbtious resurfaced utilizing his webbed feet to stay afloat.

As he looked up into the air, he saw no sign of the hawk going for a second attack.

"Phew, he thought to himself, Not even close,"

Lily! he shouted, Did you see...

A cold sweat ran down Ribbitious's skin when he turned to the lily pad he was just on.

Lily?

He searched left and right for any signs of his partner including under the water surface to see if perhaps she was still hiding. As he looked back up into the air at the hawk flying away from him, however...

No... he whispered to himself softly. There Lily was, in the hawk’s clutches, the last image Ribbitious would ever see of her.

2 hours later now, Ribbitious sighed as he continued to look down at his reflection on the water's surface still thinking about the incident. A small school of tadpoles swam into his vision.

"Oh to be young again," he thought to himself. He longed to go