Petey walked up to the stairs and stared for a second at the ledge he was supposed to jump onto. Understandably, he was a little nervous about jumping this time, and briefly considered going away.

Leula tapped him on the head and fiercely whispered, IT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT.

Shaking the thoughts away, Petey bent down, screwed his eyes shut, and gently hopped up onto the veranda. With his eyes closed, he misjudged the distance slightly, tripped on the top step, and slammed onto the ledge, cracking his jaw painfully. Since he was the one to do it to himself, it did in fact hurt this time, and he took a second or two to lick the inside of his mouth.

Blinking hard, he padded after the anuran waiting for him and nodded. Opening the doors, the anuran bowed neatly and stepped aside. Petey, somewhat nervously, walked in. He wasn't worried about the frog-people inside not being friends - he was sure they were perfectly friendly. No, what he was worried about was the likelihood that they wouldn't like him because of what he did. His tail started drooping, and his ears slowly flopped downward.

Leula whacked him again, and he shook his fur off decisively. No! He would not be sad! Because he was a Good Boy, and it had been an accident!

He promised himself that he would give Leula a good lick later on. Good friends deserved licks, but Leula was his Best Friend and so she deserved all of the licks.

As the anuran he'd been walking with led him through another pair of doors, Petey looked around in curious excitement. There were five really fancily dressed anuran watching him, a slight amount of skepticality in their giant eyes. The one on the left looked at the anuran Petey had been following and croaked irritably, "This is it? You requested a meeting just for this, this - dog?"

Nodding, the anuran replied, "Yes, I did. This dog bears power like I've never seen. I can only assume he's been to places I've never been." Petey gave him a quick lick, and he gave him a quick pat on the head with a smile.

Shaking his head, the center fancy frogman wearily asked Petey, "Very well. I will entertain your tale for a moment. Dog, what is your name?"

Poking her head up over Petey's fur, Leula quietly said, This is Petey. My name is Leula. I can translate for him.

Raising a giant forehead, the assembled anuran briefly muttered to each other, and then returned their attention to Petey. "Very well, Petey. What are you doing here?"

Petey turned to look at following-anuran and happily barked, "I'm looking for a chew toy!"

Leula blinked all eight of her eyes and slowly turned back to the dressy frog-people. Erm. Apparently, he's looking for a chew toy.

The frogman standing next to Petey snorted loudly, clearly trying not to laugh for some reason. Petey couldn't think of a reason why anyone would ever want to not laugh. It was the hands-down, uncontested, best thing in the whole wide world! Along with balls, and hoomans, and playing, and grass, and poops, and-

Somewhat perturbed, one of the fancies asked, "So, aside from this chew toy you speak of, what business do you have with Tarron?"

Petey cocked his head. "Who?"

Leula translated it for him, and the anurans looked at each other in confusion. Tentatively, Second Right asked him, "Tarron. The anuran who led you here?"

Nodding understandingly, Petey replied with a grin, "Ohhh, that's what his name is! He never told me and I didn't know when to ask."

Once Leula told everyone present, all eyes went to Tarron, who shrank somewhat. "You never introduced yourself?"

Pulling the collar of his dress shirt to one side, Tarron croaked, "My sincerest apologies, O Council mine. It is most difficult for my name to find a rhyme."

Putting a fingered hand to his forehead, Far Left huffed, "This is what comes of your endless rhyming, Tarron. You simply must get rid of that habit."

Petey wagged his tail, promptly asking, "So, who are you?"

They all froze, realizing that they'd fallen to the same mistake. Center coughed loudly. "Ahem. Perhaps the simplest mistakes are the easiest to forgive on some occasions."

Leula agreed mentally, hastily informing them that it was her opinion and not Petey's. One after another, they all introduced themselves. From left to right, they were Pirpahl, Llarm, Forle, Areid, and Finnea. After they all told him their names, Petey happily woofed, "And I'm Petey!"

Finnea chuckled slightly. Her voice was a lot clearer than the others. "Yes, so you've said. It's good to meet you, Petey."

Llarm humphed loudly. "Introductions are all well and good, but I'd like to know just why Tarron deemed this albeit intelligent dog so important that he would call ahead to request a meeting."

Rubbing Petey's head, Tarron explained, "This is far from an ordinary dog, my friends. We ran into a cluster of Pihrupa plants, where we should have met our ends. Instead, Petey walked into their midst and made amends. Mere moments ago and just outside, Petey jumped too far to sight. I've no idea where or when he landed, but even without that he's made humans banded."

Petey was amazed at the impressive string of rhymes and woofed to show it. The Council appraised Petey a bit differently. "Is this true?" Llarm asked doubtfully.

Standing, Petey barked, "I also made a hole! And threw the chew toy over a mountain! And knocked a wall down, but that was an accident, and found a really big cat and kinked its neck on also accident and brought a dog with too many legs back to Dave!"

Leula struggled to keep up with the nearly incoherent mess of statements, but finally managed to repeat the whole thing. The Council talked quietly to each other, letting Petey wait. He could smell Tarron pretty clearly with his sniffer, especially since he was so close. The anuran smelled like worry.

Finally, they all turned to Petey, and Pirpahl quietly asked in her melodious voice, "Do you have any plans for our village?"

Petey repeatedly nodded his head, and the tension in the air cranked up a notch. "Yesyesyes! I want to play with the tiny anuran and swim in water and roll in mud and have fun with my hoomans!"

Leula was barely able to keep from laughing as she gave the Council Petey's message, and they relaxed with a smile. Areid spoke for the first time, saying amusedly, "I see. So your intelligence and your power are not quite related, are they?"

Petey shook his head. "Nope! Although I think I got super smart one time, but I don't remember it 'cos I made myself forget the remembering so I would forget remembering to make me forget."

Leula barely managed to translate it, but once she did, a solid ten seconds passed as everyone tried to decipher the nonsense he'd just said. Finally, Pirpahl said, "I believe it is time to leave. Do any of the Council object to Petey's temporary stay at Rosspool?"

They all agreed, except for Llarm. Curious and a little annoyed, Leula asked him, Why do you not like Petey? Is there something about him you do not prefer?

Llarm shook his froggy head, leaning back in his chair. "It is not that I dislike Petey, madam spider. I simply do not trust him."