Heketi looked over her shoulder again, and again and again. Each time she did, she had to slow down the pushing of her legs as she moved over the lake. Getting from one end to the other was easy if one was in no hurry, but they had to race against the undead, the churning silt at the base of the lake disguised the truth of their numbers, while the water impeded the motion of the already heavy undead former knights. However, ‘I saw, we all saw… if this many reach our unguarded homes…’ The shudder that ran through the Queen had nothing to do with the temperature of the water that surrounded her body as she moved through the deep.

She slowed down again, her people simply could not keep up with her, ‘Too weak… too weak… when I have the Lake I will have to change that…’ She added that to the list of things she had to do. The endless swim was normally a peaceful thing for her, a time of reflection when she could think about all she’d done and all she would yet do.

Now as she ran through her memories, she was desperately searching for an idea that would ensure that they could triumph, and perhaps find a clue in her memories’ deepest recesses for what caused the dead of the Empire to rise and come for her people.

Bringing the chiefs of all the frogmen together under her reign took up the bulk of her memories. Snatching up the many eggs, the small skirmishes that disguised the great operation of capturing egg clutches… so many daring raids… Thanks to her clever stratagem of mixing all the many tribes’ eggs together so that nobody knew whose eggs were whose, and so all had to be valued equally… and all under her watch… she knew the whispers of her people.

‘They whisper of my genius, of the power I brought to them all, and it made me proud… perhaps too proud? Could I have foreseen this?’ Heketi asked as she pushed ahead and slowed down again to let her army catch up.

She’d asked herself that many times, but each time she failed to see how. ‘No. There was no way I could have foreseen this… I made no enemy that I know of who could raise so many undead… finally free of the threat of the Empire and what do we get… an amphibious army of Empire soldiers controlled by someone else instead! How?!’

Still no answers came as darkness descended over the lake and she was only kept company by the noise of her legs kicking against the surface of the water whenever she broke through to look desperately ahead.

It was nearly dawn by the time she reached the outskirts of her patrols. Her powerful deep voice broke the morning stillness, her patrols spun to look in her direction as their Queen shouted to them all. “Raise the alarm! Bring everybody to the crest! Be ready to fight! Everyone who can bear a club or a hammer!”

Pride swelled in her throat as they did not even stop to ask questions, their feet splashing loud through the low waters as they jumped back toward the interior of the great village that held most of her population’s members.

“Send word to the outskirts, call in all the reserves from the other villages! The undead! Thousands of undead!” Heketi cried and stood as soon as the water level was low enough that she had to in order to continue forward.

The frogmen’s deep cries ribbited in alarm as word spread and the heavy warriors put away their spears, going for heavy clubs, militia and warriors were the next to fall in after her elites, followed by the younger males and the much older ones as well.

The frogmen darted their eyes around with fear, looking over the placid lake as their Queen jumped in front of their ranks. “We have only a few hours, the water slows them, the rest of the army follows me! Now hurry and prepare, get the youngest clear, everyone who can fight, must fight!”

The frogmen settlement was far more than a village now, despite them thinking of it as such, and to better aid the watery settlement’s security and establish clear boundaries, many trees had thick, oil hardened vines bound to one another. These vines were packed tight between the bases of trees and one after another ran higher as far as the trees would allow. Where trees had been removed or were inadequate, large stone posts or wooden stakes had been embedded deep into the soft lake bottom to allow the vine fences to continue.

To add to this security in times of danger, the residents began to drop stones and stray wood or other debris on either side of the vine fencing to make it difficult to climb or cut at the support, and these were in turn secured by more poles that would hold the front into place. If these security posts were breached it would create a collapse of the fronts of the walls that would briefly break the momentum of an enemy charge, identify a point of danger, and allow others time to respond, while the stack behind the vines allowed extra space for the frogmen to stand and fight with the high ground to help them.

In addition, some trees held platforms which had caches of rocks or heavy wood that could be thrown as crude missiles against those attacking the walls.

There was no single ‘gate’ as every frogman could simply jump over the lowest part of the wall and anything they wanted to haul could be taken up slowly. ‘Vastly better defenses than those pathetic lizardmen.’ Heketi reassured herself with pride as her warriors jumped to the tops of the walls.

The first and fastest of her army arrived not long after the ones left behind had assembled and taken positions along the walls, and more began to arrive after that, their bulbous faces and throats emerging from the waters, followed by their powerful broad bodies and strong, thick legs.

They came in ones, twos, dozens, then hundreds. Many were worn out, exhausted from the desperate swim home, but they outdid the undead which were slowed by both armor and having to run on the sinking silt bottom of the lake.

“New arrivals rest, everybody else keep watch!” Heketi bellowed the order and took her position at the center.

The villagers from the smaller surrounding communities began to stream in after that, coming from farther away, some took more than an hour, some took three, but with their great hopping bounds, they came on in a steady and desperate stream. Heketi watched from her place at the top of the wall as they formed up in small units of their own and various chiefs put them into position.

‘My people are brave, we will defeat the undead, we will defeat the lizardmen, we will secure the Lake and claim our future…’ Heketi repeated the promise to herself, and then when she looked off into the distance of the placid lake she saw the darkening come into view.

The darkening, she knew, was the churned up silt of thousands of undead.

Her heartbeat picked up its desperate pace and she felt many large eyes focused upon her and her alone, seeking guidance, reassurance, and strength.

What to say? It was an eternal question, something, anything to buck up their spirits in the decisive hour. Finally she hit upon something, her own words to reassure herself. She held her great long spear overhead in both thick green webbed hands and shouted to them all, “We will defeat the undead! We will defeat the lizardmen! We will secure our future in this world! Nothing, not alive, not dead, not undead will bar our way through! This lake is ours! Let no one take it from us!”

Great ribbiting roars met hers as clubs were briefly held aloft and shouts of defiance hurled toward the darkening waters. Some who carried wooden shields smacked their clubs in place for extra noise, but Heketi cared nothing for noise, she was focused on the darkness in the once blue waters.

The first undead heads began to rise up, their twisted faces, some bearing little flesh, and others fleshless, just naked white bone, stared through empty eyes at the living frogmen.

They were slowed still by the silt, the sound of splashing water picked up till the noise of droplets falling from their bodies were so numerous that it sounded like a roaring rain to the waiting frogmen defenders.

The undead knights spied the defenders in a great mass, howled their rage and hatred for the living, and then with their swords raised aloft as if they still remembered their warrior lives, they charged.

“Here they come! Hold your place, or lose everything!” Heketi shouted the final order and raised her spear to swing it down and begin the fight in earnest.