Here's Robin everyone! Sorry I've been gone, I know I say that a lot, but I am sorry. Forgive meh!!!
Robin Oneshot:
Robin was small, even by amphibian standards. His parents were convinced it had something to do with having hatched later than his siblings and believed he was just another late bloomer. However, the now six year old wondered if maybe there was something wrong with him and was worried as to what this would mean when he become a mature swamp frog.
“Mom, do you think I need to see a doctor?” Said Robin, he and his mother were currently on the swamp banks watching his father and 3,000 siblings splash and swim. His mother peered at him with a mixture of amusement and concern.
“Why, is something the matter, dear? You don't have a sore throat do you?” She felt his forehead before shaking her head.
“You certainly don't have a fever.” She muttered almost to herself.
“Uh-uh, I meant physically. How come I'm so small?” Robin asked, swatting his mother's fretting hands away.
“Well, you're probably just a little slow, you'll be having growth spurts before you can say firefly!” She chirped encouragingly.
“Honey! A little help please!” Robin's father called frantically, he was being swarmed by the fledgling frogs. Immediately his mother dove into the water, creating miner waves in her wake.
“Firefly.” Robin said glumly, kicking his legs into the slime covered murk.
Later that night Robin sat on his grandmother's knee while the others of the frog family settled in for the night.
“Granny, why am I different?” Robin asked suddenly, shocking the elder slightly. The old frog settled back down and gently nudged the younger with a bony finger.
“How'd you mean, Snapper?” She asked in her gravelly yet soothing voice.
“I mean, why am I so small compared to everyone else?” Answered Robin, twiddling his thumbs and unable to look his grandmother in the eyes.
“Humph, ya should be grateful for not looking like these ninny's!” Granny snorted. Robin giggled and hid his smile behind his fingers.
“Granny, be nice!” He laughed.
“Hmm, come with me, Snapper.” She said, gently prodding Robin off her lap.
“Martha, I'm stealing your son!” Granny yelled, Robin's mother's head snapped up at the announcement.
“Well don't keep him out too late, mama. He needs to sleep!” She called in return giving her mother a stern look.
“Yeah, and we don't need the alligators eating him up!” One of Robin's sisters piped up, sending the group into a mess of giggles.
“It's not like there'd be much to eat!” Another teased. The children erupted into more laughter as Robin hid behind his grandmother in shame.
“There'd be plenty to eat once I fed y'all to the gators!” Granny snarled, silencing the young in fright. Humphing once more Granny led the still humiliated Robin away from the swamp clearing and into the darkened forest.
“Um, Granny you're not really gonna feed me to gators, a-are you?” Robin asked shakily.
“Ah heck no, those gators are nothin' but scale and horse hockey, 'sides, they don't like the taste of us. 'Spose we're too mucus covered for their likin'.” She said with a grin.
They continued on in silence on for a while and every step Robin took made him sleepier and sleepier.
“Well there we are, Robin I'd like to introduce ya to an old friend of mine.” Robin blinked his eyes open and looked with wonder and shock at the massive pine tree in front of him.
“Well I'll be darned.” He exclaimed. It rose at least ten stories high by human measurements and thirteen feet across.
“Would you believe me if I told you that this magistrate of a pine grew from something no smaller than your own eye?” Granny said, her own eyes never leaving the pine.
“B-but it's so huge! How could it?” Exclaimed Robin.
“Everything starts out small and sometimes weak, but they always grow. Sometimes that isn't physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. You shouldn't rely on people's judgment of you physically to judge who you are as person in whole. Don't wish to grow up too fast because the years will slip by too fast for your liking and before you know it you're old and senile. Be proud of who you are and don't strive to be different, or else you've already lost life's hardest battle.” She trailed off.
“What is life's greatest battle, Granny?” Robin asked shyly.
“Self acceptance. That and constant back pain when you reach my age.” She added wryly at the end. Robin smiled and wrapped his arms around Granny's middle.
“I love you, Granny.” Granny patted the younger on the head and smiled softly.
“I love you too, Snapper. I love you too.”