PIPPI WISHED SHE HAD A STINGER of her own. Platypuses were the only furry creatures with poison stingers, but only platypus boys had them, which hardly seemed fair. Still, she had a little nonpoisonous spur on her leg, and she was so scared that she swiped at the scorps with it.
They laughed and swatted away her leg. Then one of them whipped its evil-looking stinger toward her belly.
"Eep!" Pippi yelped.
At that moment, a pod whizzed through the air and splattered against the scorpion's side.
Just inches from Pippi, the stinging tail swerved away. Purple juice oozed down the scorpion's segmented leg, and the scorpion spun toward whoever had thrown the pod.
Panting with terror, Pippi peeked past the scorps and saw a pretty frog with copper skin standing on a boulder, holding a slingshot.
"I made that goop from pepperbush," the frog explained to the scorpions. "It's spicy enough to burn right through your carapace."
The scorpions took a frightened step backward; then the one dripping with pepperbush goop stopped suddenly. His pincers snapped a few times, and he almost seemed to smile. "Sorry to disappoint you, frog girl," he said. "It doesn't burn at all."
"Not even a little?" the other scorpion asked.
"Yeah?" the frog asked. "Not even a little?"
"It's warm and prickly. And… " The first scorpion touched the goop with his pincer, then tasted the pepperbush juice. "And tasty."
"So we'll finally eat some frog legs," the second scorpion said, skittering toward the pretty frog. "In a nice pepper sauce."
"Oh, kookaburra!" the frog swore, looking more peeved than scared. "It's still not strong enough."
As the two scorpions swarmed up the boulder toward Pippi, a brown blur shot down at them from a tree branch. A brawny frog with yellow eyes swung his staff into the first scorpion's head, then leaped over the other scorpion's snapping pincer and lashed out with his powerful legs. The second scorpion went flying, bounced off the boulder, hurtled to the ground near Pippi, and lay there moaning.
The first scorpion shook his head and circled the brawny frog, his tail swaying, ready to strike.
"So you ran from Marmoo's army after he fell?" the frog asked. "We've been watching for stragglers like you."
The scorpion narrowed his side eyes. "What are frogs doing outside the Veil?"
"Get used to it," the frog said. "We're not scared anymore."
"You should be," the scorpion said, snapping with his pincer.
The brawny frog dodged, and the pretty frog with the slingshot hopped closer to Pippi. She seemed gentle, but Pippi was so nervous that she curled into a defensive ball anyway.
"You're pathetic," the brawny frog told the scorpion. "I've seen polliwogs with scarier tails. I've seen tadpoles with-"
The scorpion lunged at the frog…and a bunch of long pink tongues shot from the branches overhead and caught the scorpion in a sort of web. The scorpion struggled to free himself, but before he could, the brawny frog whacked him on the head and knocked him unconscious.
The frog grinned as a handful of white-lipped frogs hopped down from the trees, making faces like they'd tasted something gross.
"Oh!" Pippi eyed the pretty frog nervously. "Th-th-thanks?"
"You're safe now," the frog told her, kneeling beside her. "We're not going to hurt you."
Hopping closer, the brawny frog grinned. "We don't even know what you are."
"Of course I know what she is," the girl frog said. "She's-"
"Don't tell me, Coorah!" the boy frog interrupted. "Let me guess. She looks like a cross between a possum and a pelican. Is she a possican? A pelicum?"
"I'm a platypus!" Pippi said, uncurling herself.
"Are you sure?" the frog said. "I still think you're a pelicossum."
"Of course I'm sure. I-" Pippi caught the mischievous expression on the frog's face. "Hey! You knew I was a platypus all along."
"Well…maybe," he admitted with a smile.
She smiled, too. He was just teasing her so she wouldn't be afraid.
"Though I thought you were called platypups when you were young," he continued.
"Sure," she said. "Like you're frogpoles."
"Or pollifrogs," he said.
She giggled as the pretty frog named Coorah pulled something from her pouch.
"Here," Coorah said. "Let me put some salve on your cuts."
She rubbed a soothing cream on Pippi's tail. Her chilly froggy toe pads felt weird but also kind of nice.
"Thanks," Pippi said. "My name is Okipippi, but everyone calls me Pippi."
"I'm Coorah," the girl frog told her. "Did one of them bite you?" she asked, examining the wound. "This doesn't look like a scorpion mark."
Pippi would've answered, but a sudden realization almost took her breath away. "Oh! You must be Darel!" she told the brawny frog. "I've heard so much about you. We need your help. We're in trouble. The Stargazer said-"
"I'm not Darel," the boy frog said. "I'm Gurnugan. Everyone calls me Gee."
"Oh!" Pippi said, curling her bill in embarrassment. "Of course. I've heard of you, too. You're Darel's sidekick."
Coorah gave a croak of frog laughter as she bandaged Pippi's wound with a clay wattle leaf. "His sidekick!"
A tree frog with white lips, who was watching from a branch above, called out, "Darel's the warrior, and Gee's the wart!"
"I'm sorry," Pippi told Gee. "I didn't mean anything." She knew what it felt like to be teased.
"Don't worry about them," he said, lifting his chin. "They're just jealous. Now, what were you saying about being in trouble? Are the scorps and spiders bothering you?"
Pippi wrinkled her bill. "Not them. The ghost bats. That's what bit me."
Gee looked at Coorah, but she shook her head and said, "I haven't heard about them."
"You'd better come to the village," Gee told Pippi. "Talk to Chief Olba. She'll know what to do."
"The village in the Amphibilands?" Pippi asked, suddenly excited.
"Of course!" Coorah told her, smiling.
"Are we close?"
"It's a hundred leaps away. Those scorps have been blundering up against the Veil for days."
Pippi peered into the distance, but didn't see anything. "Will Darel be there? The Stargazer says we need Darel."
"He's gone," Gee told her.
"Oh," she said. "Where is he?"
Gee's throat bulged thoughtfully. "I wish I knew."
