FicWad

Quen was wandering in the rain. The start of the wet season meant plenty of things, best of all being the frogs due to awaken from their year-long sleep cycle. Most of the other children we're asleep too, burned and sun-drunk from the seemingly endless summer. She was no exception and constantly itched her shoulders as she flitted among the mossy glades looking for the quickest route to the tiny Xaen desert. The thirsty trees were playing games of strategy with one another, their subtle changes in position frustrating the most obvious pathways. Quen knew this, and hurried to find a forest edge before it began a full scale dance.
A tangle of old-growth yusque roots tripped her up squealing, getting the attention of the songbird spirit that lived in the tree. The lovely bird tossed water droplets off its big white wings to the ground below and addressed her brightly.
"Tawplacen child! Are you looking to meet the new sandfrogs?"
Quen sighed that she hadn't asked for help before from the resident monsters.
"I am! How can I get there in time?"
"The straightest way to the desert is past that berry patch and far into the grasses. But I can take you instead, faster indeed. Besides, the waking is extra special this year." The spirit lept off its branch just as the exited tree dragged its roots to another part of the forest.
The little girl thanked her profusely as she climbed on, then paused. "When you said new frogs did you mean...baby ones?"
The bird laughed rich coppery laugh and they shot upward through the rainforest canopy, Quen clutching handfuls of smooth feathers and ducking all the swaying branches. Planning for cold she had worn her thickest woven sarong, but soon flung it off in the perfect soaking air. Banished homeward by the little girls will, the bright violet cloth swam away in the matching sky.