Amelia hummed a cheerful song as she tipped the little orange watering can over the flowers, showering them with water. They were her favorite flowers, pale blue phlox. Her mother planted them just for her.

She stopped humming a moment as her watering can got a little heavier. As she bent down to see what was going on, her face got splashed with water, and she dropped the can, shrieking. She rubbed the water out of her eyes to see what happened.

There, sitting next to her flower bed, was a little frog.

"Oh, how cute!" she said. "How did you get into my watering can, you silly little frog?" She was about to reach down to pick the frog up, but it started hopping away, towards the back of the yard where the forest started. She chased it, laughing and asking the frog to please stay a while.

Before long, she was deep inside the forest. The frog was still hopping on ahead of her, just on the edge of her sight. It was beginning to get a little cold.

A man stepped out from behind a tree, right in front of Amelia. She didn't see him in time, and ran straight into him. "I'm so sorry, mister," she said, "I was trying to catch a frog. Did you see where it went?" She tried looking around for it, but it must have gotten too far away.

The man smiled at her, his strange, dark eyes seeming to pierce into her soul. "You won't find any frogs here, but perhaps you could help me with something." He grabbed her arm, dragging her through the hidden portal behind the tree, where his master waited for his tribute.