Melanie was relieved to find herself back at the start of the game, wearing her usual floral tunic and beginner’s sword. She doesn't know what got into her last playthrough but whatever it was it wasn’t good. At least she felt some satisfaction of turning Rebecca into a cow followed by a wooden figure of a cow. Transforming the bandits was fun as well, so she could see the appeal to it. She just never thought she’d get carried away and turn evil.

She then went through the same tutorial as before only there was something different this time round. When she was a frog and had eaten her required amount of flies and slain her enemy rat, she still couldn’t use the fountain to change back.



“Excellent, now that you’ve learnt the basics of being a frog, I have a task for you…” Gwaine didn’t seem malicious towards her and very few NPCs recalled previous attempts. Still something told Melanie this was payback for turning him into a pig. A cute little pink pig.



“I was in the woods the other day, meditating when something startled me and I dropped a key ingredient for my potions into a pond, can you go retrieve it?” He may have been asking for a favour but it was actually an instruction. “Be careful along the way, who knows what predators await.”



Last time she was a frog for this long, someone else seemed to be controlling her actions, but this time she had to do this quest all on her own. As she made it to the pond though, she heard a noise.



“I’m not surprised, not everything lasts, I’ve broken my heart so many times,” a male voice sang.



Making it into the clearing with the pond, she saw another frog and they just so happened to be the source of the music.



“Excuse me, how do you know that song?” Melanie asked, jumping out from the brush.



“Ah!” The frog jumped into the water before resurfacing. “You startled me, I wasn’t expecting to see another frog here and one who can speak English no less. These other ladies just ribbit and croak at me.”



“That’s because I’m not a frog,” Melanie retorted. “Well I am now, and have been a bunch of other times, but I’m not supposed to be.”



“You’ve been cursed too?” The frog swam over to Melanie. “I am Frederick, I am, no was a prince. Until Lady Rebecca cursed me to this meager existence.”



“I’m Melanie,” Melanie introduced herself. Her name seemed to catch him by surprise and seemed to excite him for some reason.



“You’re Melanie, you’re the player character. Oh thank the stars, you can save me,” Frederick practically grovelled at Melanie’s feet, before kissing her webbed hand. “But time is short as I have a secondary curse,  I will turn to stone come sundown and remain that way permanently.” He explained.



Melanie glanced up at the sky. “But that’s real soon, there’s no way to save you in time.”



“No there is not, at least not during this playthrough, but I remember them all, return to me and I’ll be able to teach you more details on how you can save me. Now go return to Gwaine,” Frederick retrieved the item Gwaine was looking for. “Sorry I stole this to try and get your attention, luckily for me, I had practice and managed to get it this time round.”



Melanie returned back to Gwaine, and finished the tutorial. Still something about Frederick intrigued her, like how did he know that song, why he called her the player character and how he knew about the game resets.



Wanting to know more, Melanie pulled the first petal to summon Sparkflower. “You want to reset the game already? That’s strange but okay” the fairy brought Melanie back to the start.



This time Melanie ran back to the pond straight away, sure enough Frederick was there but she couldn’t understand a word he said. Still there was something about this frog, so she pocketed him and took him to Gwaine.



“You say this frog is cursed?” Gwaine asked as he examined Frederick. “They just seem like an ordinary frog to me.” He shrugged.



Melanie looked disappointed, she was sure she grabbed the correct frog but Gwaine claimed he wasn’t cursed. But maybe she grabbed the wrong frog.



“Where did this rock come from?” Gwaine asked, looking at the stone form of the frog.



“That was Frederick the frog, you were just examining him, you said he was a normal frog,” Melanie claimed.



“This rock looks nothing like a frog,” Gwaine commented as he discarded it.



Melanie looked at Frederick’s stone form, he was clearly frog shaped and she couldn’t understand why Gwaine couldn’t see that. So she pulled the second petal from the flower.



“It’s just a normal rock,” Sparkflower confirmed. “But I can reset the game if you want.”



Melanie was sure she was right, she went to the same pond as last time, grabbed the frog and now that frog was a stone, so it had to be real. “I’m sure,” Melanie replied and found herself back where she was a few hours prior.



This time round things were back to normal as Gwaine didn’t send her to the pond, but Melanie went there anyway. Sure enough Fredrik was on the lily pad waiting for her.



“Ah my sweet, Elven goddess has returned to me in a form that matches my own,” Frederick jumped into the water and swam over to her. “It is a shame about yesterday, but it seems like you can only hear me when you’re a frog.”



“The others said there’s nothing wrong with you and claimed you were a normal rock after you had turned to stone,” Melanie explained.



“Ah so my curse is worse than I thought, that Becky… she’s a crafty one…” Frederick shook his head.



“Becky? You know Becky?” Melanie was shocked.



“She’s the one who put me into this world as an NPC Prince turned frog by her in-game counterpart, Rebecca.” He explained as he held her froggy hands. “Only you are aware of my existence and only you can save me.” His voice was desperate. “This world was made for you, so you can bring me everything I require, but know this, it will take many attempts and plenty of resets before you can save me. I’m afraid it might even use up your petals.”



“I’ll do it,” Melanie said without hesitation. If there was someone else trapped inside this game with her, then she had to save them, no matter the cost. “So about that song you were singing the other day…”



“I knew I had to catch your attention with a song from the real world and I thought the song to be appropriate for my situation,” Frederick explained before giving Melanie the first step in her quest to free him. After she got all the details, she decided to stay with Frederick until he turned to stone.



The two people turned frogs, discussed all sorts of things from the real world, from their jobs to their hobbies. Melanie found out Frederick did modelling for art students and they had a lot in common. She enjoyed the time they spent with each other, even if she was a frog for all of it.



Once the sun went down and Frederick turned to stone, Melanie finally returned to her elven form. She went back to the pond and went to pocket him, but he was nowhere to be found. “I’ll come back for you,” she promised as she set off on one of her biggest adventures yet.



Despite only knowing him for a short time, Melanie felt a connection to Frederick. It seemed to go beyond being the only two real people in this world. He seemed sweet and funny and they had a lot in common. She was already starting to feel like she had a crush and she had met the man as a frog.



The quest to free Frederick was no small feat, it took her to faraway lands, had her brave the most dangerous dungeons and she even slayed a dragon. She also managed to avoid being transformed for the majority of these quests, and only did so when grinding up xp for a new level up.



Occasionally Melanie did have to reset her progress to take what she learnt back to Frederick. Fortunately because she was using the fairy flower she could ask to keep some of the items for the next reset. Now he no longer turned to stone at sundown and she could talk to him while she was in Elf form. She carried him with her everywhere she went and got to know him a lot better.



“If only this was a traditional, frog tale, where all I need to do is kiss you,” Melanie joked.



“It will, at least I hope so?” Frederick replied, the small frog shifted nervously in her hands.



“Why didn’t you say so before, do you know how many attempts it took me to slay that dragon for the chronostone?” Melanie was shocked that this information was left out.



“First, I didn’t want it to be a cliche, like if some random frog asked you to kiss it, would you?” Frederick explained nervously. “Second, the kiss needs to be an act of love.”



“A true love’s kiss?” Melanie blushed, thinking of the time they spent with each other. Would she call that true love?



“Well not true love, just a kiss from someone who loves you. So it wasn’t something I could ask for…” Frederick shifted nervously. “I’m not sure I could ask it even now…”



Melanie could, as she picked up the frog and brought it to her lips. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see this next part as she kissed Frederick on the lips. As soon as she did she felt herself falling and landing on the ground below.



“Thank you Melanie, you’ve been ever so helpful,” she heard her own voice taunt. Melanie opened her eyes and saw that she was looking up at herself and she was now Frederick. “I didn’t think I would find an adventurer stupid enough to fall for my trick. And what a strong body you have, all that questing has left you extremely powerful.”



“I.. I don’t understand…” Melanie cried in a deeper voice. “You said you were from the real world…”



“I just said what Lady Rebecca paid me to say, my objectives were simple, remove you as a threat and get you to use up all your fairy petals.” Frederick began to undress Melanie. “This body was my own reward.”



“Hey stop that!” Melanie cried. Even though it wasn’t her original body, it had been her since she got to this world so it still hurt to see someone violate it in such a way.



“Don’t worry, my little froggy friend, I’m sure you can find a way to being human again, though you might want to find a gender changing potion as well,” Frederick taunted, now topless. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think it’s time we go back to the beginning once more.” Frederick pulled out the flower and plucked the last petal. Sparkflower eyed them off suspiciously and down at Melanie, before agreeing to the request.



Melanie found herself back at the pond where she first met Frederick. Somehow their body-swap remained through resets. Now she was a frog, and he was her. At least she managed to cure him of the stone curse, otherwise she’d be in a lot more trouble than she already was…