Dragonfly Hunter

A/N: Don't ask me what brought this along. I'll say it was a desperate need to write a Finn-fic. He's become the current love of my life! xD

Anyway, I hope you like it!

The pond stinks. It smells like stale water, dying moss, fish carcass, rotting lilies and wet mud. The foliage bends over the murky depths of the waterhole, lush and green. It looks rain-swept and alive. The reflection of the sky isn't clear as tiny insects and dragonflies cause ripples in the gentle wet surface of pool, but you can still tell that it's sunny. The grass is growing well, and it's a nice afternoon to spend at the park.

Stork would beg to differ, of course, but then again, he's rather selective about his pastimes. He goes on warning his friends about leeches and snakes and mosquitoes and all manner of murderous aquatic life, but the others aren't really listening. Aerrow just laughs it off saying that everything will be fine. So the merb just 'Hrrummps!' moodily. Junko wants to pet some puppies he saw in the distance, and Piper decides she wants to come along. Stork tells them about rabies, but they ignore him. Finn makes a face and declares that he isn't going to go half way across the world to touch some smelly mongrels anyway—A sentence that makes his wallop friend glare at him. Radarr, too, looks like he agrees with Finn, but chooses to soothe Junko by tagging along too.

It's a serene, picture-book day. The birds are whistling to all those who are willing to listen. Finn's not one of them. He's bored. "C'mon, Aerrow! We could have gone to Terra Neon if we had free time. Why're we here at some fairy-princess park, huh?" He casts a dark look at the pond they're standing near. "And that puddle there reeks."

Aerrow smirks. "Let it be, Finn. Junko and Radarr wanted to go to the park, and hey, it's better than the terra of giant bananas." There's a silence as Stork and the sharpshooter take that in.

"I really want to go back to the Condor," the merb moans.

"Don't you wanna just relax in the fresh air?" Aerrow prods. But it's pointless, because Stork gives his friend an odd, disgusted look before stalking off.

"I think I'll just follow Stork, then," Finn mutters. And he's about to live by his words, too. Then something moves in the corner of his eyes.

It's weird because the movement is sudden and startling, and Aerrow hasn't noticed. Aerrow always notices. Finn sees a disturbance in the water. It's a small ripple. But there's something seated on a lily pad bobbing at the pond's surface.

The sniper frowns in confusion. From where he's standing, it just looks like a dark green blob. Flash! It happens right in front of his curious blue eyes. Something long and pink shoots out—

It's a frog. It's a frog on the hunt.

Finn's never seen a frog hunting. He knows how the creature does it, of course. He's seen it on TV. But not in real life. Do they really have tongues that long? It strikes Finn that there's very little he actually knows about this animal. They're ambhibians. No. Wait. That's amphibians. Means they can breathe under water and over it. Through…their skin. Oh yeah. That science show Piper was watching actually did rub off on him!

"Finn?" Aerrow asks. His voice sounds far away now. The blonde boy's following his legs into the undergrowth. "Finn, be careful…Where are you going?"

"Check this out," Finn replies, in an attempt to shut Aerrow up. He doesn't know if frogs can hear. They don't seem to have ears, but he doesn't want to take the chance. But his leader's shouting might scare it off, and Finn wants to see it hunt again.

Aerrow's taking quick steps towards Finn. The frog's not too far from the shore, and Finn can reach out and touch it. If he has the guts. At the moment, the sniper's contended with simply kneeling down by the side of the waterhole, watching the frog. His redhead friend comes up from behind him and asks, "What are we looking at?"

Silent, Finn points to the lily pad. The frog's doing that weird thing it does with its throat that looks like it's constantly swallowing something. The sharpshooter badly wants a picture, but between Aerrow and himself, they didn't have a camera.

The amphibian's beautifully camouflaged. The only thing that gave it away was the movement it created by hunting. If Finn wasn't looking for it now, he'd have never even seen it. Aerrow's having the same problem. "What?" he asks Finn, his eyes staring beyond the frog. "Cyclonians?"

Aerrow's so obsessed with Cyclonians. Would it kill him to shut up and look at frogs, for once?

Then Finn sees a large dragonfly coming closer and closer to the frog's striking range. It's a scary thing, murky brown, with bulging eyes. Come on, Finn's pleading, Eat it!

The tiny green frog decides to agree. Apparently, it's hungry. And Finn sees what happens next as clearly as he can breathe.

The frog opens its mouth and sets out a really, really, really long pink tongue. It's over in a quarter of a second. It happens so fast that Finn's sure he hears a soft 'Faf!' noise as the air moves with the speed.

But it's over. The dragonfly's so large that a part of it hangs out of the frog's mouth. The amphibian chews its prey and sucks it inside its oral cavity.

It's amazing. How could a creature that size even make that shot? The frog must have better aim than Finn did—And that's saying something. Wow. Wow. Awesome. That's cool stuff.

Aerrow still hasn't cottoned on. "What are you looking at?" he asked again, peering around as though expecting to see some kind of large, furry monster. Finn just rolls his eyes. Jeez. He's the guy leading Atmos against a deranged, insane witch? Oh great.

"The frog," the sniper answers tiredly. He's now actually in awe of the animal. It needs aim not to fight wars, but to survive. Nothing's humbled Finn more than the fact that there's a whole other world there that has harsher rules than his. A human being isn't left to starve simply because they can't pluck a dragonfly out of the air. Frogs have no such luck. There's no sympathy. No pity. And yet here it was, shooting insects out of the sky. And here was Finn, watching, learning.

"What frog?" Aerrow asks a little loudly, taking a large step towards the water.

"No!" Finn cries because he can tell what's going to happen before it actually does.

The commotion scares the creature. There's a horrid moment of decision. And then a leap. A loud splash. And Finn wipes a drop of pond water from his cheek. The frog's gone. Gone into the depths of the pond, and Finn probably won't ever see it again.

"Aerrrrrrrrooooooowwwww!" Finn moans, annoyed.

"What!" the boy cries in defence.

"You scared the frog."

"I didn't even see the frog."

Finn rolls his eyes. "Whatever."

There's a lesson to be remembered here, he reflects. That whatever anyone said about them, frogs were really, very cool.

A/N: Well? :D Thanks for reading. Please review!