Frog Prince closed

He heard a sound coming from farther out of the forest. Towards the grounds, but maybe just barely in the treeline? It was a happy tune, and if there was a way to lure in Kaegen, it was with music. Not instruments, he didn't much care for them. It was sung songs, hummed tunes that fascinated the boy. When he ran away from grandfather he always came creeping back to listen to the old man sing. He would get punished time and time again, but he always came back. He didn't even think about it, it was like a moth flying into the flame of a candle. He had been chewing on a stick of dried meat, planning on spending the rest of the day in solitude, hiding in the forest.
With derailed plans and a cautious step, he kept moving until he saw her. A girl's voice was humming, but there was none of the usual open, starry eyes he would see everywhere. He saw guarded eyes peeking above a blue scarf, that peeked above a large grey coat. It was like she was defending herself, shutting out him and everything else. He could respect that, it was a good thing. Maybe she would just let him sit and listen. He moved out of the forest smoothly, without a sound. His scarf caught the wind and played about. His eyes darted about, looking at random things for a instant them looking at something else, trying to take in as much as they could. He slipped across the little stream and sat down next to the girl without saying anything, pulling out a little bag and passing to her, taking one for himself. It was dried and powdered meat, with seasonings. It was pretty good to snack on, and if he was going to listen to her little tune, he felt more or less obliged to provide something in exchange.

As she went about admiring her surroundings, unconcerned and with her guard down for a second, Sigi suddenly sprung from his place in the brook and frantically hopped up her shoe to scramble his way up her coat. It took her a moment to notice the moisture on her knee that traveled up her hip, but once she realized it as only her frog she relaxed again, assuming he was simply tired and ready to be carried once more. This was normal, so she let him shimmy up to his spot in her coat, staying still so he wouldn't get knocked off if she moved. She didn't stop humming her little happy tune though, unaware of the attention it was attracting.

Suddenly from more in the forest, she heard a very faint rustling, almost unnoticeable with the noises of the outdoors drowning it out. Krez was quick to stop humming and turn to the source, but not quick enough, as a boy seemed to suddenly materialize next to her. He was just casually offering her a strange bag, sitting next to her as if this was a routine thing to do. Krez stepped back at first due to his silent entrance but...it clicked with her that she knew this kid. Kaegen last she recalled. It'd been a good while since she'd seen him! But she was glad to see he was okay (or as okay as he can be).
She finally came closer to sit next to him, accepting the bag of pleasant smelling mystery so she could peek inside. It was....meat. Meat she didn't recognize but only partly questioned. Weird. He was definitely weird, but hey, snacks are snacks. She plucked one from the back and handed it back, looking her selection over with slight concern. "..Danke."

Kaegen noticed a couple things. The girl had a pet frog, which was amazing. She stopped humming, which was disappointing. And she couldn't speak, which was worrying. What kind of a word was Danke anyway? He pushed the bag back towards her and let it sit on her lap. As far as he was concerned it belonged to her now. Grandfather was pretty good at seasoning meat, and Kaegen had added his own after it was completed. He wasn't entirely sure what kind of tastebuds she had, but it would probably be decent. Pushing aside thoughts on seasonings and what kind were the best, he tried to figure out how to respond to "Danke" was it just a really mangled pronunciation? Was she trying to say "dunk you" or "DANK-uh" was it a question or a statement? He was missing something important and really didn't want to come across as a complete idiot. In the end he decided to just make some kind of remark and pretend he didn't hear her randomly mentioning the word dank.
"I liked your humming."
Well, that was all he had in him. He wasn't sure how to approach anyone, much less someone like this. She seemed kind of weird. But weird wasn't bad, it was just fine. It just takes some time to understand how to approach it. He had just accepted her odd love of the word dank when he suddenly remembered the wise words of grandfather. 'there are other languages besides english.'

She had already begun to nibble the meat, satisfied to find it didn't taste like trash or poison, not that she knew what poison tasted like. Nonetheless, it was good, and she didn't mind much when he scooted the bag back towards her. Well preserved and seasoned nicely, to her liking in fact. She wondered a little where he may have gotten it? Certainly, he didn't make it himself. Though, children at this school came from many walks of life, so she wouldn't be surprised if one of them somehow learned to butcher at some point in their short lives.

When he mentioned her humming, she gave him a slight head tilt with an eyebrow raised. It was only humming, after all, and her voice wasn't all too great, so it was better than actually singing in her case. But, she wasn't going to make fun of him for it. He was a weird kid, so no use in trying to figure it out.
"Vhy?"
Well, maybe she was a little bit curious. She doubted it had any real significance behind it, so she didn't really think her question would yield an entertaining response. Besides that, it was a way to get to know him a little more. He was a bit like her in that sense. He didn't seem to go around telling everyone and their mother his life story unprovoked, and she could appreciate that. Sometimes its nice to share, but most times its better to keep things to oneself

The girl started to eat the meat, and she hadn't leaped up to smite him down with a divine sword or wrath, so he assumed that it had tasted alright. He was alright with seasonings, and could sort of butcher a squirrel when it came down to it, but the result was pretty messy. In theory he should be able to butcher bigger, but he wasn't even strong enough to hang anything too much bigger than a rabbit. 'Why' could mean just about anything. But it probably just meant that she was wondering why he liked her humming.
"It sounded nice, and I won't ever hear another exactly like it."
The boy trailed off. He had struggled through his explanation, not really used to speaking that much. He didn't really like to talk that much either, but he didn't want to give a bad answer to his favorite question. So many people dismissed 'why' as annoying, or as something you only asked when you didn't know what else to ask. His answer had been pretty lame, all things considered. Why couldn't he do a better job of explaining it? A song was a treasure that vanished, it was beautiful and rare and brilliant. Like a star that only shone for a few seconds and then was gone. He wondered if she was going to start humming again, but decided probably not. And he wasn't about to ask anything after all the words he just had to spout out.

"Oh." She didn't understand initially what he meant by that, but she figured he meant because it wasn't a specific song. And, well, when she thought about it more she kind of didn't remember what her little tune was anymore. Shame.
Krez would have thanked him for the compliment, but by now it felt kind of awkward to do so. The humming wasn't necessarily what she wanted to talk with him about, but she thought perhaps it was a better idea than bringing up the corridor incident again. He didn't seem okay then and she honestly couldn't tell how alright he was now. He was difficult to read as far as she was concerned, but maybe it was for the best.

When it seemed like there wasn't a scuffle of some sort going on, Sigi peeped out from where he had crawled up to in Krez's scarf to see who she was talking to. He never really paid much attention to who Krez interacted with outside of the Big One and a few others, but that was only because as a frog he had no real attention span. He was a little interested in this boy however, as he seemed...different than the other human boys. Not necessarily in a good way, just in a way. Also, he had a scarf, which was an automatic plus to Sigi. He may or may not have a preference.
He crawled out a little more, sure that this strange kid wouldn't hurt him, and watched him curiously.

Kaegen was out of things to say, he didn't really feel the need to ask this girl any more questions. So instead he just looked at the little frog that was peeking at him. It was a cute little frog, and seemed curious enough. Kaegen reached out a hand smoothly, slowly. And started his own little hum for the frog. The hum didn't really have a good melody, it didn't have a proper tune or rythm. It was, in general, a pretty bad hum. But there was still something about it that made it seem calm, or relaxing. It was quiet, like an irregular little breeze that warmed you on a cold day. He moved closer to the girl and her frog. He didn't have any flies on him, but he did have other various bugs. Reaching into various odd containers strapped to him he produced 2 grubs, 7 ants a beetle and a worm. He hadn't really kept up with his collecting and it showed. He wasn't entirely sure what kind of bug this frog liked, and he hadn't done the best job of giving it an assortment but perhaps he hit the jackpot with one of them. He moved closer still, hoping the frog had gotten used to his presence and his odd music. He all but ignored the girl that the frog was on, his mind racing as he thought about all the different things frogs might like to eat. He didn't want to pick up the frog because it was obviously hers. They shared a bond, and the last thing he wanted to do was get in between something like that. Although he wasn't sure if he could, should he try.
He took a break from the hum and darted his eyes to the creek, the edge of the forest, anywhere where someone or something might approach from before asking the frog a question.
"What's your name? You can call me Kae."
He didn't really expect it to answer but it seemed like the polite thing to do. And he didn't really stand on formalities when it came to animals. Besides, Kae was easy for a frog to pronounce. At least it was if you had enough imagination.