2. seeking comfort

Anne took a deep breath as she continued to walk the forest. Anne couldn't recall how and when she ended up traveling through here all alone. Anne knew the Plantars must be worried sick for her.

"Well well look who came crawling back," Anne heard.

Anne turned around and to her shock and horror saw Sasha giving her a glare.

"Sasha?"

"Came to apologize for taking the side of those worthless frogs? Came to make up for your actions?" Sasha spat out.

"Sasha I..."

"This is all your fault! If you had simply not defend those frogs, things would have gone better."

Anne managed to glare right back, "That's not true! Even if it is there is no way I am letting anything happen to my new friends."

"What happened to you? You were never like this back home."

"I made friends that never take advantage of me and helped me learn to stand up for myself."

"I was only helping you out! It was for your own good. Are you going to ignore everything I did for you?" Sasha asked offended.

"Of course not, but that doesn't mean I am going to continue to let you or anyone else walk all over me."

"How do you think Marcy will feel?"

"How dare you try to guilt trip me by bringing her up! She was never as bad as you and I recall you treating her the same way. I am not going to comment on how she would feel. She can do that when we find her, but I hope she takes my side."

"Unbelievable. We could have been great together as soldiers in Grime's army. We would have been set until we find Marcy and a way home."

"I just couldn't agree with that!"

"This isn't over. Grime and I are planning vengeance," Sasha spat out before she disappeared.

Anne screamed in horror before breathing heavily. Anne took a deep breath as she watched the Plantars entered the basement.

"Anne are you ok?" Hop Pop asked concerned.

"I'm fin.." Anne took a deep breath after receiving looks of disbelief from all three Plantars, "Ok I had a nightmare where I encountered Sasha and we got into an argument."

Hop Pop walked right up to Anne and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Want to talk about it?"

Anne took a deep breath and shook her head.

"We won't force you if you don't want to?"

"Can I stay up. I don't want to go back to sleep right now," Anne asked.

Hop Pop smiled, "You may. It's dawn anyway."

Anne blinked, "Wow, I usually never get up this early."

Hop Pop chuckled, "What do you say we all have breakfast earlier than usual?"

Anne smiled, "I'd like that."

Hop Pop gave Anne another smile before leaving. Truth be told He had come to consider Anne as an honorary granddaughter. Despite the fact they tend to clash, He has come to care about the human girl. Hop Pop mentally chuckled as he pondered if Polly would be the same way when she gets older.

Anne sighed and got out of bed. She pulled out the picture of her and her friends and pondered if the next meeting between her and Sasha will go like it did in the dream. She then focused her thoughts on Marcy. Has she arrived too? If so where could she be? Is she still alive? Anne closed her eyes and felt tears form. No, she must have hope that they all will be reunited and that they will find a way home. Anne also hopes to find a way to be able to travel freely between the two worlds.

"Anne are you alright?" Sprig asked.

Anne opened her eyes and wiped her tears, "Not exactly, but I hope I am getting there."

"What do you say we play until breakfast is ready?" Sprig asked.

Anne managed to give Sprig a small smile, "Sure."

Sasha woke up in her private quarters, which has been mostly left unaffected by the explosion. Sasha was a little surprised she managed to get any more sleep from both the guilt and the fact she was passed out for hours afterwards. Sasha got up and decided to get ready for the rest of the day. Suddenly, to Sasha's slight surprised a few soldiers entered with trays in their hands.

"Oh good. You are awake," One of them said.

"What's this? I didn't call any of you."

"We figured after everything we would get you some breakfast without you having to ask."

Sasha didn't respond and decided to just accept it.

"May I ask how you are holding up?"

Sasha sighed and looked at the floor nervously.

"You don't have to talk, but I figure you might want to talk it out."

"I just wish things were more simple," Sasha admitted.

"In what way?"

"Things seemed to be going well. I was hoping for Anne and I to join Grime and wipe out the rebellion. With his help we would be able to find Marcy and get home, but she was completely against it, making things much more complicated."

"You really think Grime would keep his end of the deal?"

Sasha's mouth dropped, "Are you saying he wouldn't have?"

"I don't know for sure, but it does sound like something he would do. Never ever underestimate him. He will do anything to complete his goals. I mean you saw him went back on his promise when you friend beat you."

"Yeah, he did. So, he is using me to help him and when I fulfill my purpose, he will toss me aside like garbage?"

"It is likely. Now he seems to have his sights on your friend."

"Over my dead body!" Sasha shouted in anger before sighing, "What can I do? I don't want to fight against her, but I also don't want to be held prisoner again."

"You could try to beat him to it."

"What do you mean?" Sasha asked.

"Pretend to help him and when he least expects it double cross him. With him out of the way you can hopefully make up for everything and find a way back to your world."

"Why are you helping me?"

"You have made things better around here. Before you showed up working for Grime was a complete hell. This is the least we can do to pay you back for all the changes you have made."

Sasha smiled, "No problem."

"Now enjoy your breakfast. If you need anything don't hesitate to call."

Anne, Sprig, and Polly were both chuckling while playing go fish.

"Who would have thought a human card game would be so fun. Strange name for it though," Sprig commented.

"Yeah, thinking about it it kinda is," Anne admitted with a chuckle.

Polly looked at all of her cards, which were all independently held up in a wooden card holder. Polly pondered which cards are likely to be in the others' hands. Polly shrugged and decided to just go with luck.

"Kids. Breakfast is ready," Hop Pop announced.

Polly groaned in frustration.

"No worries Polly. We can finish after breakfast," Anne assured her.

"Right."

The kids entered the kitchen and took a seat. Anne mentally cringed when she realized she would be going back to eating food with insects again. She may have gotten used to it, but after eating real food it was beginning to become a complete nightmare again. Speaking of real food, why does Grime and his army have access to it. Do the toads keep that kind of food to themselves. Then again tomatoes are dangerous to come by. Perhaps, an army is required to get certain things to make certain dishes. Anne snapped out of her thoughts and decided to just get breakfast over with.

"Are you kids surprised, I managed to kick start a rebellion?" Hop Pop asked.

"No offense but, yes we are," Sprig answered.

"None taken. Who would of thought this would happen. A shame a certain toad wants me dead."

"To be honest after all our life threatening experiences, this doesn't really faze me," Polly admitted.

"Me neither," Sprig added.

"Yeah. That is likely a good thing. It might help us get through this alive," Hop Pop responded before looking at Anne who was looking off in the distance while slowly eating her breakfast, "Are you ok Anne? You are being quiet."

"I... Just..." Anne took a deep breath, "Remember my nightmare?"

Hop Pop simply nodded.

"In it Sasha told me things would be better if I would have simply let you died, then after wiping the resistance, Grime would help us get back home. I denied the truth of it and... Then she tried to quilt trip me by bringing up all the times she helped me, and Marcy, our other friend. When that didn't work she said they were planning vengeance." Anne admitted before sobbing.

Hop Pop left his seat and gave Anne a comforting pat on the shoulder, "There there."

"Did I make the right choice?" Anne asked in between sobs.

"Hell yeah!" Polly shouted.

"Polly!" Hop Pop responded.

"What? It's true," Polly defended.

"I have to agree with Polly Hop Pop," Sprig said.

Hop Pop shook his head, "I was talking about the language," He looked directly at Anne's face, "Look Anne. Life is going to be full of tough decisions you are going have to make. You can't make everyone happy all of the time and you can't completely avoid conflict. Sometimes, you just can't help but wonder what could have been had you chosen differently, but you shouldn't dwell on the past. You should focus on the present day and hopefully make a much brighter future. You aren't alone. We will help you as best we can."

Anne smiled before hugging Hop Pop, "Thank you for confirming I did make the right choice."

Hop Pop hugged her back, "No problem."

The teenage boy woke up and rubbed his eyes. He looked around and was pleased that no insect has crawled on top of him this time. He carefully put the towels in his backpack and took out his medium-sized axe. During scouts he was trusted to help get the firewood and was rather fond of the axe, so he decided to keep it. During his time he had noticed that the life here seemed more primitive? Is that the right word? Anyway, He had learned to keep his guard up in case of danger. The boy took off his jacket and put it away. He then put on his backpack before he started moving.

"I hope today is the day I find a town. I also hope I stop this habit of talking to myself," The boy mumbled before sighing, "Who would have thought about a week without anyone to talk to would do this to me?"

Sasha was standing in her room with her armor on. Sasha didn't know what Grime is going to do, but she likely wasn't going to like it. Sasha sighed as she remembers considering helping Grime to be fun. It's no longer fun. Now she will do whatever it takes to get out of this.

"Good. You are ready," Grime told her with a smile.

"Yeah. So, what are we going to do?"

"I understand your excitement, but we need to take this slow."

Sasha managed to resist the urge to scoff.

"We are going have to play it smart. If we try to attack head on it will be messy. As much as I would like things to get messy, I prefer not to risk failing."

Sasha nodded, "So we carefully take out each of the different rebellion groups in the valley one by one?"

"Bingo. It will take time, but trust me it will be worth it."

The boy held the axe tightly as he watched a strange giant chicken like creature, from a tree, he was hiding behind. The boy was planning on waiting for the creature to leave before continuing, but if he gets noticed he will try to give the creature a fight. The creature suddenly rushed off and the boy sighed in relief. Before he could continue on his way, he heard a scream nearby. The boy sighed and pondered if he should check it out. After ultimately deciding it was the right thing to do, he took off in direction of the voice.

The boy was stunned to find the same creature chasing after a frog that was walking on two legs. The boy blinked several times and to his surprise he was still viewing the same thing. These strange creatures were one thing but frogs with seemingly human like qualities are another. The boy managed to get over it for the moment and rushed towards the creature.

"Get away from him," He shouted.

The creature and frog looked towards him as he closed the gap and swung his axe as hard as he could. The creature groaned in pain, as the axe pierce the skin of his neck. The creature deciding not to take any chances quickly ran off. The boy took heavy breaths before looking at the frog.

"Are you ok?" The boy asked.

"Yes, thank you. I have to say it's strange to see another animal like Anne" The frog responded.

"Anne?" The boy asked.

"She is one of you. Originally believed to be a one of a kind."

"You mean a human?" The boy asked.

"If that is what you like to call yourselves."

"Can you take me to her or at least to a town?"

"It's the least I can do. Do you have a name?"

"It's Johnny."

I will be responding to certain reviews, mainly the guests, as you can''t directly respond to them for some stupid reason.

Thaddeus Thawne- Yes, happy to learn it? I wanted to respond and answer you sooner, but as I said before you can't directly respond to guest reviews.

Dinodude- Mainly freak out and help out the main characters.

AD17- I thought I made it clear he hasn't been in Amphibia long. I guess I didn't. Oh well. At least now you know. No worries I will be showing how he got a calamity box of his own later on. What makes you think there would only be one of those? Who knows how many are out there?

Hope you managed to enjoy this. I will be trying to update this regularly.