Overview
The Bog-Hop Froglok is the toad-leap of the black bog, a short-tempered, sticky, and absolutely cornerable-not creature of the warm water who keeps its oaths loud and sharp and very short. It is not a clever thing and it does not try to be, and its whole way of life is written in two things, the leap and the loud, and it has been leaping and being loud in The Bog Hollows for a very long time.
Habitat
The froglok keeps to the deep heart of The Bog Hollows, a hollow of black bog and warm water where the frogloks keep their leaps and their short, sharp, and very loud oaths. It is a strange and warm place, a hollow of black water and warm mud and the soft, sweet smell of a bog that is always just about to rot and never quite does, and the froglok lives in it as the water lives in it, a wet, olive-green presence that is at home in the warm and the wet and the loud.
Appearance
A Bog-Hop Froglok stands about 1.1 m at the hip, squat and broad, with warty olive-green skin that is wet to the touch and warm to the hand and a little bit sticky to everything. Its belly is a dull cream, soft and rounded, and its throat-pouch is a rust-red that swells when it oaths, which is often, and the color of it is the color of a warm bog in the late light. Its eyes are wet amber, the color of the bog's own water at the surface, and they are wide and quick and absolutely certain, and they are the first thing you notice and the last thing you want to meet.
Behaviour
The Bog-Hop Froglok is short-tempered, loud, and absolutely not to be cornered, a creature that acts on the speed of a thought and means every loud word it says, which is the most dangerous combination in the warm water. It is not unkind, but it is not patient, and it is not calm, and the three of those things together are the whole of its way of life. It will leap before it thinks, and it will oath before it leaps, and the oath will be very loud and very short, and it will keep it, not because it is clever but because it is a froglok, and the keeping is the leap.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
The froglok's first weapon is the leap, a single great leap of 12 m across the bog that lands soft as a lily pad, and it is the most surprising and the most effective weapon in the warm water, for a froglok that can leap 12 m is a froglok that is not where you think it is. Its second weapon is the bite, a short, thick, and very sticky bite that does not let go, and a froglok who has bitten you is a froglok that is not finished with you, and the not finishing is the keeping.
Magic Alignment
The froglok has no magic, and it does not want any, and the not wanting is the whole of its way of dealing with the world, for a froglok that has a leap and an oath and a warm water does not need a spell. It is not attuned to any art, and it is not bound by any word that is not its own, and the not being bound is the whole of its way of being free. Its one signature thing is the leap, which is not a magic but is a thing that the frogs of the deep bogs have leaped for a very long time, and the leaping is the keeping, and the keeping is the whole of its power.
Society
The Bog-Hop Frogloks live in small, loud, and sticky households of perhaps four or five, bound by the oaths they keep together rather than by blood or by place. There is no elder and no ruler, for a froglok that has leaped the most and oathed the loudest is simply the one the others listen to, and the listening is a keeping and the keeping is the whole of their society. Decisions are made in a leap, by a company of wet, amber-eyed leapers that has already decided and is only agreeing, and once made they are kept, for a froglok that breaks an oath is a froglok that has broken the whole of what it is.
Culture & Lore
The culture of the Bog-Hop Froglok is a culture of the loud oath, a whole way of life organized around the idea that a word that is short and sharp and very loud is the only honest word in the warm water. They keep no records, for a froglok that has kept an oath does not need a record, the keeping is the record, and the keeping is loud and wet and does not fade. Their stories are short and loud, told in the warm pools at the dusk, and they are stories of leaps kept and oaths broken and the short, sharp difference between them, told in a voice that is loud and means every word.
Home
The Bog Hollows are the froglok's home and its keeping, a hollow of black bog and warm water where the frogloks keep their leaps and their short, sharp, and very loud oaths. It is a strange and warm place, a hollow of black water and warm mud and the soft, sweet smell of a bog that is always just about to rot and never quite does, and the froglok lives in it as the water lives in it, a wet, olive-green presence that is at home in the warm and the wet and the loud.
Relations
The Bog-Hop Froglok keeps a long, careful truce with the other creatures of The Bog Hollows, a truce of kept oaths that has held for a long time and is the oldest and most fragile thing in the bog. To the Mire-Bear of the hollows the froglok is a loud, sticky, and absolutely certain presence, a wet, amber-eyed leaper that is at home in the warm water and the warm mud, and the bear has learned to stand still and let the leaping pass, for a froglok that has leaped past you has decided you are a keeping and not a lesson.
In the Story
In the story of the bog, the Bog-Hop Froglok is the loud, sticky edge of the tale, the place where the warm pools cross and an oath is made and a leap is kept. It is the figure that leaps into the warm water in the dusk and oaths very loud and very short, and the figure that, when the truce with the Mire-Bear grows thin, is the one that remembers what the truce cost and keeps the old oath loud and sharp and absolutely certain.