A facile light smell of mint was hovering over the breeze of the wind.
The sun, though bright and seeable through clouds, was not emitting any warmth - that was one of these cold, summer days people find oh so calming.
A mouse, a toad and a sparrow.
He was sitting on one of the park benches, book over the face and an expression of deep concentration was almost too harsh, he was trying his best to immerse in the vast expanse of text right before his eyes.
Croaa-k.
Small amphibian jumped up on the bench. Jan didn't notice, he only twitched with the sound it emitted with its vocal cords, but never even looked to the side.
He was muttering under his breath, a few phrases were repeated multiple times - once annoyed with the fact that he forgot to understand what he read, he would read it again in a slightly more rough tone, still whispering but as if scolding himself with tone for not concentrating enough attention.
CROOAAAK.
"HUH...!"
His whole body twitched with such sudden sound, it completely interrupted his thoughts. Would be a lie to say he wasn't startled.
Jan met eyes with the toad.
That thing had them big and staring.
A simple toad, maybe a little bit more fat than would be a usual one. He seemed to forget about the book for a moment, stunned to see such creature nearby, calm and unmoving. Gently putting a book aside he reached out to touch it. Touching it or picking it up, whatever he could do, he was just simply interested to see how it will react. Just how much it would let him to do.
To think, a toad..! He used to run after these in the days of childhood. That one time, little Jan returned all head to toe in mud after all of his unsuccessful attempts to capture one, such slippery creatures they were, too much for a kid to handle...
Being picked up it didn't move at all, Jan, now holding a toad observed it closer, really carefully...
For some reason, at that particular moment the eyes of the toad seemed to gain an unnatural reddish hue. It was then, when the wind as if stopped, when everything, as if froze in place, similar to a silence one could hear before a loud thunder.
But it was not raining today, it wasn't even in the forecast, it was meant to be a boring, calm summer day, the one you wouldn't expect you would need a jacket for.
Yet here it was, such weird and weiry silence that only lasted at that one very special, short moment.
Then there it was, suddenly a loud scream.
It came from the hospital building that had windows facing the park. Patients from that hospital would go for a walk in park, each morning one or two of them would be seen from afar walking down the alleys, wandering around in slow pace, enjoying the time they had here.
Yet a scream was still heard from that building.
Looking around, in commotion Jan let the toad go, he was trying to understand where the scream came from. He noticed there were not many people around, yet the scream, so piercing and desperate, desperate but in pain, a scream a person could do only facing the very end, a very torturous and awful end, that scream was still there.
Jan sat very quietly, trying to grasp the situation.
There was a moment of silence after which a few more horrible screams followed up, some were not so long, some were more loud, others were not as so. But now there were as if a group of people all screaming in pain, the group of voices were getting more variety, some were screaming: "NOOOO!", others could do an: "AGHHHH!!!!", some were more descriptive, indeed, there surely was a voice of a young girl screaming: "IT HURTS!!ITHURTS!!", but that voice, as many others before, soon stopped emitting any sound, indicating something horrible.
Jan, terrified, tried to reach out for his phone, only he accidentally blindly groped that same toad.
The toad seemed weirdly hot to touch.
Turning around to face it, Jan noticed how the toad bulged and deformed, he immediately moved his hand away, but, being not fast enough, the toad bloated to a horrifying extend... It's skin got turned reddish, the toad could not even croak but only bulged more before completely and fully... bursting out.
Then, someone's hand pulled him away in a sharp motion.
It happened before the blood and insides of the toad could reach him.
Jan had his eyes widely open, his breathing was quick as he stared at the bench covered in mix of fluids.
He shifted his gaze behind himself. He and the other person were half laying on the ground, having hard time gathering their breaths. An arm was holding his chest.
For a moment they locked their eyes. Jan, staring at the person with terror out of all that happened, and, with the other one being in a slight moment of shock for, perhaps a different reason.
Somehow, Jan knew that person was not scared of the toad, it was seen in their eyes.
That person, a male dressed in the same uniform as Jan was, if that person could be an object, that object would be oh so filled of life, as a tree. An object being not an object but a tree, a tree is not an object, is it?
Yes, that object would break the rules set by being an object and would become a tree.
Such a sturdy bark Jan was now leaning on, it emitted a thick aroma of pines and basked him with it's warmness.
He gulped looking away.
"What.. have just happened?" Jan muttered to himself but he only could move his lips, and there was not much of a sound coming out of them.
The other male seemed to understand what he wanted to ask and was about to answer if Jan did not start talking himself.
"The frog... exploded?..."
They once again locked eyes. Jan found in them a tingle of dreadfulness, some sort of pity and gentleness that fed his worry, confused state of mind.
The other guy looked like he wanted to say something but was thinking if he really should, a few complicated thoughts passed through the other male's mind as he finally replied with an awkward cough.
"...I think it was a toad."
***
June 2nd, 20xx
"First glance at the catastrophy."