Tʜᴇ Fʟᴀʀᴇ ꕥ Lɪᴢᴢɪᴇ Jᴏʜɴsᴏɴ

sᴇʀɪᴇs ᴛᴡᴏ ꕥ 5

Bang. The doors of Dustin's trap opened and Mike, Will, Lucas and Max leaned in closer to see Dart there, whimpering softly.

They were in the AV Room, the place dark except for a single light that was trained on the table.

"His name is D'Artagnan," Dustin smiled as he said it.

Lizzie lifted Dart out the box, smiling. "Cute, right?"

"D'Artagnan?" Mike frowned.

"Dart for short," Lizzie said, grinning.

"Where did you find him?" Max asked.

"In the trash," Dustin answered.

"So that's it, he was just like, sitting there, not doing anything, or..." Max raised her eyebrows.

"No, he's not a circus performer, he was just foraging for food," Lizzie sighed. Then smirked. "You wanna hold him?"

"No. No! No I don't want to-" Max said, but a giggling Lizzie passed Dart to her anyway.

"Ew! He's slimy!" Max shouted as she passed him on to Lucas.

"Urgh! He's like a living booger!" The boy compained, passing him to Will.

"Urgh! Oh- oh, God!" He quickly passed it to Mike.

Mike didn't really care about his consistency like the others, and held him up to his face to get a proper look. "What is he?"

"My question exactly," Dustin nodded.

As Mike placed Dart into the little enclosure that was the circle the wires of the trap had made, Dustin and Lizzie got their bags on the table and took out their reptile books they had stolen earlier.

"At first, I thought he was some sort of pollywog," Dustin explained, starting off with what he had told Lizzie earlier that day.

"Pollywog?" Max frowned.

"It's another name for a tadpole," Lizzie put in. "A tadpole is a larval stage of a toad-"

"Yeah, I know what a tadpole is," Max rolled her eyes.

"Well then you know that most tadpoles are aquatic, right?" Dustin said, coming to Lizzie's aid. "Well, Dart, he isn't. He doesn't need water."

"Yeah, but aren't there non-aquatic pollywogs?" Lucas asked.

"Terrestrial pollywogs? Yep, two to be exact," Dustin looked to the book. "Indiana Semipalmata and and the Adenomera Andreae. One's from India, one's from South America. So how did one end up in my trash?"

"Maybe some scientists brought it here and it escaped?" Max suggested.

"D'you guys see that?" Mike asked, drawing them all to attention. "Looks like something's... moving inside of him."

And sure enough, when Lizzie looked closer, it looked like a little pulsing object was inside of the creature.

Mike got ahold of the light and turned it before Lizzie could warn him. "No- don't-"

"Aaaarrrggh!" Dart made a sort of strangled scream and leapt out of the entangled wires. Nearly made it off the table, too, when Dustin caught him. "It's okay, I got you, little guy," he cooed to the creature. "I know you don't like that, it's okay..."

"There's another thing," Lizzie spoke over him as she was looking in the book. "Reptiles, they're cold blood, ectothermic, right? They love heat, the sun, well, Dart doesn't, it hurts him."

"So, if he's not a pollywog or a reptile..." Lucas tried to comprehend it.

"Then we've discovered a new species," Dustin smiled at Lizzie as he said it. She smiled back.