The only places I've seen tide pools are super rocky so this reads weird. Is it an autocorrect error of some kind? Google Images doesn't give you a result for this description that looks like leaves draping over tide pools but hey, that's the Earth right?

Maybe tide pool wasn't exactly the right term, but I don't find it that hard to imagine that somewhere in the rainforest-y areas of the islands there would be random little pools of water covered by the trees with some leaves or whatever hanging over them.

Oh, I agree with your image entirely. There are pools in rainforests no doubt. They are not affected by the tide. A tide pool is an oceanic thingy, and rainforests do not occur in oceans. Therefore, this bit of geography is exotic.

There's only one amphibian on Earth that can survive salt water and it most certainly doesn't spend months immersed in salt water so much as it goes out on hunting expeditions. Since amphibians presumably evolved in the sea and because Magic and because salmon, Xotl can be the weirdos that never really left and are anadromous or catadromous or because they have survived extinction attempts, both. Mangrove trees (which is where that particular frog happens to live) are as close as we get to coastal plants that can take the battering the ocean gives out on Earth and they are on top of some ferocious rootage and some very shallow slopes. The leaves are way high up and "drape" isn't a word I'd use I am imagining that's quite a terrifying fall for those poor little baby Xotl.

My brain assumed tide pool was something more like a cenote? Which are magical and somehow are freshwater despite typically being born from saltwater (my only experience with them was in Mexico, which are fed from saltwater). Or maybe they meant tide like our challenger? Maybe tides form from tide pools in the subeta world?

It's an island, so I assumed there were multiple tide pools similar to this

Tide pools connect directly to an ocean and are more out in open, shallow waters and rocky terrain along shorelines. I feel like the article should just say ponds instead since the Xotl lives in rain forests?

From Wiki:

Also, most references about pools that frogs breed are temporary pools, with one mentioning "after rains."

I think the original intention was just simply rain pools near the coast?

So maybe tide pool isn't the right word for it? or they could just add 'temporary' (tide pool) to the description

What has shown us looks like a lagoon or barrier spit to me. I wouldn't call that a tide pool.

"Rain pools near the coast" is an interesting idea if the Xotl survived in the deepest rainforest There'd have to be some kind of migration and folks would notice.

I like 's idea, just capitalize the T in tide and it's a different kind of pool. Cenotes are pretty interesting and have a lot of lore to them. I think of cenotes being continental but maybe an island could have them?