12. Chapter 12

Anne laid down on the expensive, fancy hotel bed for the night. After everything she’d done throughout the day, she was just plain exhausted! Despite dealing with those barbariants, the most stressful part ended up being when she told King Andrias everything. At the very least, he seemed to be quite understanding about the whole situation. The only time he seemed even remotely upset was when she revealed that the person who found her (her mom) had passed away years ago.

Anyone would be upset to hear something like that, though. Once Anne mentioned Sasha’s existence, Andrias perked up even more. As it turned out, they’d already sent a specially trained general after Grime and the best part was that it was someone who already knew about Marcy! So the chance of her actually doing any permanent damage to Sasha was minimal. If all went well, they might be able to capture her and Grime and then they could maybe reform Sasha.

Anne knew that that was mostly just wishful thinking, though. What was more likely to happen was Sasha fighting back and this ‘General Yunan’ severely injuring her in self defense. But if that happened, then that was her problem! Anne refused to forgive her for nearly murdering her entire family in cold blood. Marcy was rightfully horrified when she heard about that part and she vowed to pull some strings with the people in charge of the towers in order to prevent any more toad captains from acting like that again!

One thing did distract them from her going to do that right away, though. And that was the existence of those magic canceling berries that Anne was keeping with her. When they found out about that, they actually freaked out a little bit! Apparently they were a species thought to be extinct because a bunch of vengeful curse users tried to eradicate them a long time ago due to how easily they could just destroy their work. Meaning that the berries in that satchel could very well be the last of their kind!

When Hop Pop told them that he planted one on the farm back home, both of the royals plus Lady Olivia were all ecstatic! A seemingly extinct plant species coming back out of practically nowhere?! It was an amazing discovery and if the king didn’t have respect for farmers before, then he certainly did after learning about that! Of course, he demanded a couple of them to grow in the capitol because of conservation efforts and the Plantars were more than happy to oblige!

There were still at least five berries left in the satchel afterwards, so King Andrias had asked Anne to eat one so that he could see her true form. He tried promising them a safe way out until they could get more medicine, but Sprig and Hop Pop already had her covered with the doses they kept on themselves. Still, Anne did as his Majesty requested and showed off her true form for a bit. He was rightfully amazed, but before he was able to start asking questions, Hop Pop reminded everyone of his research thus far.

Of course this resulted in them leaving what research they had with the two royals to study. Given the fact that this technically made Hop Pop not only the leading researcher on an as-of-yet-undocumented species, but also an essential conservationist for a critically endangered plant species, he suddenly commanded a LOT of respect from everyone in the room! As a result, the King arranged for the family to stay at the most luxurious hotel imaginable and granted them a thing that he called ‘the royal credit card’, which effectively gave them unlimited funds while in Newtopia!

If they played their cards right, then they’d be able to live the rest of their lives in luxury! All they had to do was continue the research on Anne’s true form (she had faith that Marcy would prevent any tests from getting too invasive or harmful) and make sure that that berry they’d planted on the farm before they left actually grew to maturity. Ultimately, it looked like everything was finally coming together for the little frog family! Of course, she was still restricted to her frog form unless she was in a private area with someone who already knew about it, but under the circumstances, things were about as perfect as they were going to get. And with that thought, the blue frog drifted off into a pleasant sleep.

At least until the family was awoken in the middle of the night by a bellhop who insisted that their ‘benefactors’ needed Anne to read a very specific letter right at that exact time. Groggily, Anne got up and took a look at it to see that the front was addressed to her and in the return address spot, there was just a little drawing of a crown… just like what Marcy signed her name with! Thankfully the letter was really short, as it just explained that Anne would need to take a dose of medicine right at the moment she got it so that they could properly time her transformations without relying on her very limited number of berries.

The blue frog gave a shrug and did as the letter said before going back to bed. That meant she’d have all of the next day to just explore Newtopia and enjoy herself before going in for study. Knowing that, she fell back asleep rather easily and didn’t wake up again until Hop Pop was shaking her. Apparently it was almost noon? Anne didn’t care, the bed was just so comfy!

Still, Hop Pop insisted that if Anne was going to be in her frog form all day, then they might as well see the sights before she had to go in for experiments the next day. She didn’t like the sound of being experimented on, but she knew to trust Marcy to not hurt her, so she forced it into the back of her mind. Once she had her breakfast and they were out of the hotel, Hop Pop had them all loaded onto a tour bus.

As they went, all three of the kids became very interested in the stuff around them. They tried multiple times to get Hop Pop to let them off, but he was wise to their tricks and actually ended up handcuffing all of them to himself.

“What the heck, Hop Pop?!”

“Why would you do this?!”

“THIS WON’T HOLD ME!!” Anne, Sprig, and Polly all yelled simultaneously.

“Sorry, kids, but after the ‘Ruins of Despair’ incident, you’ve left me no choice.” As much as he had a point, Anne tried arguing with him.

“But Hop Pop, I’m not gonna be able to go anywhere tomorrow ‘cause of… ‘what I have scheduled’!” she said through her teeth, knowing that they were still in public “it’s unfair to keep us locked up in this tour bus and then take Sprig and Polly out while I’m stuck in one place all day tomorrow!”

“Don’t worry, Anne. We’re just gonna do a little shoppin’ fer other people an then we’ll be goin’ to the Newtopian Scholar Library. If yer researchin’ things about… ‘you know’, then it’s only fair fer us to try researchin’ a bunch a stuff too!” Before Anne could respond, the driver of the tour bus walked up to them and tried to give them some advice.

“Oh no, you don’t want to go to that library. Granted, it was a few years ago, but an extremely horrifying beast was spotted there once! No one ever saw it leave, so many people still think that the ‘Newtopian Book Beast’ is in there and just waiting for an opportunity to strike. It’s best to stay away, if you value your safety!” The Plantars had to try their absolute best to hold in their laughter as they attempted to calm him down.

“Y-you know? That’s actually half of the reason why we even came to Newtopia in the first place. To investigate that old story! I’m pretty sure the place is clear now, but we still wanna… see if we can prove a few things. The other half of the reason is because I have some… medical issues that I need a professional’s opinion on.” Anne explained to the overly cautious newt.

“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He finished up before turning back to the rest of the tour bus. The kids were still upset about literally being handcuffed to Hop Pop, but at least they got a bit of a laugh out of the whole situation. In the end, the most exciting thing that happened that day was seeing a cheese museum. As Anne let her mind wander during that experience, she began to wonder exactly what kinds of experiments Marcy wanted to do on her.

Surely the princess wouldn’t do anything bad to her, right? Despite helping out with the military, she was clearly harmless. At least Anne kept telling herself that, anyways. She did her best to put it into the back of her mind, but it still came back every now and then. At least she managed to get a decent amount of sleep before the event! She made sure to keep at least two doses of medicine on her just in case Marcy wanted to examine it next to hers in order to see the differences.

Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the castle with her family and waiting for Marcy to meet up with them like she said she would. There were guards around them, but apparently Marcy had informed them about their arrival, so none of them really paid the family any mind. Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long before the princess showed up.

“Hey guys, thanks for coming in so early!” She shouted towards them.

“Oh, it was no problem, your highness!” Hop Pop stepped foreward and took charge of the situation. Marcy turned to him and held up the notes that he’d given her earlier, speaking in a hushed voice so that none of the guards could hear her. The family as a whole listened in, though.

“Okay, I read through all of your research notes and you’ve made a LOT of really great observations. Especially with her physical capabilities, given that you had her performing out in the field! I have a few theories, myself, but what we’re mostly going to be doing today involves more subtle things. I originally had a couple days’ worth of stuff planned, but the amount of in-field study you’ve done has cut down on that so much that if it all goes well, it should be done sometime this afternoon.”

“Well that’s perfect, then! Would you like us ta just leave Anne here and meet up with ya later? We do got a couple a more borin’ errands ta run.”

“Oh, that works great, then! So long as Anne knows where to meet up with you, I’ll just go with her to make sure she gets back to you safely.”

“That sounds good ta me. What do you think, Anne?”

“That’s… better than I expected, to be honest.” She turned to Marcy “Alright, let’s go then!” She said with as much gusto as she could. She was still nervous, but knowing that most of the things Marcy originally had planned were already taken care of made her feel a bit less so. After a quick moment of parting and confirming that Anne had a bottle on her, she turned to walk with the princess while her family went back to the fwagon to get their errands done.

The pair walked in silence for the most part, not wanting any eavesdroppers to overhear Anne’s reason for being at the palace. She didn’t know the layout of this place at all, so she had to rely on Marcy to lead her. Eventually they came into an extremely well lit room that had a very large examination table in the center, a large couch on one end, and a pair of big chairs with a table between them on the other end. All of it looked like it’d fit Anne’s true form and while the examination table kind of scared her, the fact that there was a much more comfortable couch helped.

As she looked around, she also saw a study desk on the other side of the examination table. The desk had several blank papers and an inkwell with a quill on it. Obviously it was where Marcy was going to write down the things she noticed. It almost took Anne a while to see the array of empty test tubes set into a holder. She began to wonder exactly what was going to go into those test tubes, but ultimately decided to put it out of her mind when Marcy spoke up.

“Okay, so I’m going to be the only person examining you today. We kinda don’t want anyone else seeing you in your… true form. Also my dad is busy because we started trying to cross reference some stuff and found a hidden library wing that not even he knew about. So yeah, he’s decided to leaf through that while we’re doing this today! It’s still gonna be a little bit before you transform, though, so please just take a seat on that couch and I’m gonna ask you a few questions. Please answer as truthfully as possible and don’t worry, I’m not going to share your answers with anyone.”

“Okay then.” Anne responded, not wanting to waste any time. Why she wanted stuff out of her while she was still in her frog form was beyond her, but she figured that cooperating would be the best thing to do. As she sat down, the newt sat next to her with a clipboard and her quill filled with ink.

“Okay, first question: How are you feeling in general right now?”

“Uhh… kinda nervous, I guess? I mean, I don’t know what you have planned for me today, so I don’t really know what to expect.”

“Hmm… okay, well I’m gonna let you know right now that you get to keep all of your clothes on for the entire time and your skin will only be broken once by a small needle so that I can get a blood sample later on, okay?”

“Oh. Okay, that sounds alright then.” Anne tried to relax herself. A small part of her had been scared that she might get vivisected or something, but another part of her knew that Marcy wouldn’t do something like that!... At least she hoped, anyways! Regardless, Marcy continued.

“Second question: how do you feel, overall, about your true form?”

“Uhh… well, I kinda like it. Part of it just feels… right , ya know? Don’t get me wrong, being a frog is nice and all, but there’s a certain amount of… I don’t know, relaxation? That I feel when I’m in my true form. It’s kinda like… OH! Kinda like if you’ve gotta wear a corset. It makes you look really nice and it helps with posture and support, but you’re always sorta itching to just take it off already! And when you do, it feels like such a relief.”

“Hmm… interesting. I like that analogy! Certainly not what I felt that one time, but interesting to hear from someone who’s more used to it. Third question: how do you feel about your family?”

“I love my family. I always knew I was adopted, but my family is my family! Hop Pop and I went through kind of a rough patch regarding my willingness to explore my true form, but we came to a compromise. Over time he’s learned to listen to us and not restrict us too much while still putting his foot down. He knows that you can’t just demand respect and give none back!

“Meanwhile, Sprig has always been supportive. I mean, he’s the one that kept those berries safe back when I refused to use them while also keeping a bottle of potion for me at all times! Yeah, sometimes we get on each other’s nerves and he was pretty scared of that form at first, but I can tell that he tries really hard for me! We’re also in life or death situations frequently enough that we’re typically just grateful that we’ve made it this far, so that’s why we don’t argue as much as some other siblings might.

“And then there’s Polly. She loved the idea of my true form right as soon as she realized that I wasn’t going to hurt anybody. Heck, the first time I started transforming, she was actually the one who forced me to take the potion that made it stop! She’s the kind of kid that loves violence and the more horrifying things, so I really should have seen her reaction to knowing I was a literal monster coming. I honestly think she might be the main reason why I was actually able to get over it as quickly as I did, now that I think about it.

“All in all, I couldn’t ask for a better family because of how understanding and supportive they all are. Especially seeing as I’m adopted, after all.” Anne finished her speech. Maybe she went into a bit too much detail, but she really wanted to make herself clear. Marcy continued to write down her answers for a few awkward minutes as the two sat in a bit of silence. Still, Anne had said a lot, so she just gave Marcy the time she needed. Thankfully it didn’t take her too long to finish up, with her standing up and giving Anne a smile.

“Thanks for going so in-depth. Now there’s just two samples I wanna take before you transform. A couple of hairs and some of your slime coat!”

“Uhh… okay?” Anne didn’t know why she’d want samples from her frog form, seeing as it was functionally the same as any other frog, but she followed Marcy to the desk near the middle of the room anyways. The newt put on a pair of gloves and grabbed two test tubes. She held them both in the same hand while she reached out to Anne and ran the other through her tangled hair. She caught a few knots, which made Anne flinch a little bit, but at the very least she got the couple of hairs that she needed.

She put them into one test tube and then put a stopper on top of it. Then she grabbed the other and instructed Anne on how to get a decent amount of her slime coat inside the tube. After all was said and done, Marcy finally explained why she had asked that of Anne.

“Okay, so I’ve got this theory about why your clothes stretch with your transformation. I’m thinking that maybe some of your slime coat gets into your clothes and because it only exists thanks to the potion, it causes the change to happen. I’ll have to study what happens to this stuff after you transform in order to get a proper conclusion, though.”

“Oh, that makes sense… What about the hair, though?”

“Oh that’s because hair is the most easily accessible thing that I know for sure both of your forms has. I wanna study the differences between them!”

“Okay… so what now?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, now that you’ve taken both of those samples, what do we do now?”

“Oh, we just wait for the transformation to happen ‘cause everything else I have planned is for after that. Feel free to just relax on that couch until then.” Marcy gestured towards the couch that they’d been sitting on only moments prior while she continued to write some things down. Anne did as she was told and laid down to wait. Thankfully she didn’t have to wait long, as once she felt her feet reach the edge of the couch, she knew what had happened. She stood up and called out to Marcy.

“Hey, it’s done!” The newt swiveled around to look at her, wide eyed. She almost looked scared for a moment before getting up, herself.

“Alright, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get you back to your family, so let’s get right to it. Please lay down on the examination table.” Anne did as she was told, trying to trust that Marcy wouldn’t do anything too invasive. As she did that, the newt put on a new pair of gloves and when the two were ready, she continued to tell Anne what they were going to do as she took the second hair sample.

“Okay, so first I’m going to take a small blood sample with this suuuuuper tiny needle,” she held up a medical needle where the tip was so small that Anne could barely make it out “then I’m going to take a saliva sample because you actually asked for that the other day when we first met. After that, I wanna take a look at your teeth ‘cause we amphibians shed our teeth frequently and while Hop Pop drew a diagram of your true form’s teeth, I wanna see if your dental pattern has changed due to shed teeth.

“After that, we’re gonna take your temperature ‘cause you’re warm blooded. To do that, we’re just gonna use this thing that we can just put under your tongue and you can close your mouth around.” she brought out a thermometer with a metal tip “We don’t have to use the… less savoury method because you’re intelligent enough to understand what it’s for.” Having worked on a farm, Anne had to do the occasional health checkup on a cowapillar enough times that she knew exactly what Marcy meant. She thanked frog that she didn’t have to go through that!

“Afterwards, we’re gonna go to the table over there” she gestured to the table that had a pair of chairs surrounding it “and I’m gonna blindfold you, then get you to smell and taste test a bunch of foods in order to see if you can figure them out. Next I’ll get you to go into the washroom over there so that you can… prep a urine sample. Once you’re done with that, I’ll get you to give a sample of your new slime coat that Hop Pop said only appears when you overheat or do a lot of physical activity. There’s a furnace on the other side of that wall, so I’ll just move a chair over there for you to sit until it appears.

Finally, we’ll go back over to the couch for some more questions. Does that all sound okay to you?” Marcy finished. As much as Anne wouldn’t want some of those things, she knew that they would be necessary if she wanted the study on her to really advance a significant amount. She gave a sigh and agreed to let all of those tests happen. At least the only painful one would be the first. And even then, it wouldn’t actually be all that painful, given how tiny the needle was.

In the end, Anne barely even felt the blood sample being taken and the saliva sample came easily… at least it would have if she hadn’t have coughed up some mucus from the inside of her throat. Marcy took the opportunity to take some of that as a bonus sample, though, so she got even more than she originally asked for! The dental check was a tad awkward, with Marcy sticking a gloved finger into Anne’s mouth.

“You know, Polly once stuck her nub into my mouth and the taste of the slime coat made me feel sick, so I really appreciate you using gloves, there.” Anne commented.

“Oh, yeah I read about that in Hop Pop’s report, so I made extra sure to wear gloves for both our sakes! I don't want you to get sick, I don’t want to absorb whatever’s in your saliva, and it’s just a matter of trying to keep everything clean!” Anne gave her a smile and they continued on with their tests. Taking Anne’s temperature was far less awkward than it’d be if she were more mindless and thankfully Marcy was able to assure her that that specific thermometer had never been used on anything or anyone else before her.

Once it was done and Marcy had finished writing down the results, they moved over to the table with chairs and Marcy pulled out what looked like a dessert cart that had a white cloth draped over it. Anne wondered why she didn’t notice it when she was looking the room over before, but she just figured that she must have missed it. Before Marcy pulled the cloth off, though, she pulled out a much smaller cloth and held it up to Anne’s head.

Anne simply took the cloth herself and tied it around her eyes. Her face bump pushed the bottom part of it out and still allowed her to see if she looked down, but she knew how to be a good sport about it. She closed her eyes and proceeded with the smell and taste tests. Even though it was just very small amounts of various fruits, some with salt sprinkled on some of them and some not, she still ended up eating so much that she was full by the end. However she was still able to identify almost all of them by taste. Marcy had even stuck in a few rotted samples for the smell test in order to see if she could pick up on that.

As it turned out, she was able to pick up on whether they were rotted or not, but she still couldn’t determine their location based on scent. She figured that her species was more reliant on sight when it came to actually figuring out where something was. Once Marcy gave her the go ahead to remove the blindfold, she did so only to be blinded by the sudden bright light!

“Augh!”

“Anne?! Are you okay?!”

“Ugh, I don’t get why, but for some reason the bright light is hurting my eyes after that!”

“Oh no! Maybe you were allergic to something I just had you taste?”

“No, I’ve had all of those things before, so if I were allergic to them, then I’d have known ahead of time!”

“M-maybe it’s just a temporary effect of using a blindfold? Let me see your eyes!” The newt jumped across the table and stuck her face right up in front of Anne’s. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes and even though it hurt, she did her best to keep them open. After a bit of this, Anne couldn’t take it anymore and shut her eyes again. Although it was hurting a bit less by this point.

“Hmm… the little black centers of your eyes, what I assume are your pupils, were bigger than usual. I know Hop Pop’s notes said that you don’t have any night vision at ALL, but it looks like your eyes were trying to compensate for a low light condition by expanding your pupils so that you could take in more light. At least, that’s what I assume anyways. If I’m right, then your eyes should readjust on their own.”

“Well it is hurting less now. If that’s true, then just give me a minute.”

“Oh yeah, no problem. I’ll just go write this down in the meantime.” Marcy finished. It didn’t take long for Anne’s vision to return after that little scare, so once she was ready to keep on going, she approached Marcy. The newt turned to her with a sheepish look and silently handed Anne a small cup, then pointed her towards the washroom. The creature sighed and did as requested of her.

After that nasty business was done, Anne noticed that Marcy had moved one of the chairs over to the opposite wall and she remembered what was next. She sat down in the uncomfortable warm area and waited for her weird new slime coat to appear.

“You know, when I’m a frog and I’ve got my slime coat, it feels good. But this stuff… honestly just feels kinda gross. I don’t know why I feel that difference, but I do.”

“Well, it might be because it’s not even a slime coat at all. But we don’t really know for sure yet. That’s why we need the sample!” Anne figured that that was fair, so she just sat there in discomfort until Marcy was able to collect the sample she needed. Upon seeing her discomfort, Marcy actually grabbed a cloth from underneath the examination table and took it to the washroom in order to dip it in water. She then proceeded to wipe Anne off to the best of her ability, even letting Anne take over soon after she started.

After that, all that was left were a few more questions and then they’d be done. The two of them sat down together on the couch like how they’d started, but with one of them much bigger than before. Marcy, of course, started off.

“Okay, so first question here: After all of that, how are you feeling?”

“Honestly, a little tired, but satisfied that all of that is finally over. It’ll be nice to just get back to my family.”

“Uh huh, so second question: How do you feel, overall, about your frog form?”

“Uhh… it’s convenient to have when I need it and there are pros and cons to each form, so it’s just a matter of being in the right form. While I do ultimately prefer this one, I’m more used to my frog form because that’s how I spent most of my life. I completely understand why I was raised as a frog and I’m even kinda grateful for it, given the differences in nutritional needs and how I probably would have been treated by those around me if I hadn’t been. Heh, at least I can still imitate a frog croak in this form.”

“Really? I thought it wasn’t possible without a vocal sac and I can clearly see that you don’t have one.”

“Oh yeah, it took a while to get it right and it’ll never sound perfect, but I eventually did manage it.” Anne did her imitation of a frog croak in order to prove what she said. While she could tell that it wasn’t perfect, Marcy couldn’t seem to hear the difference.

“Huh. Sounded about perfect to me.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t raised as a frog. Different croaks are basically like slang for different things. The one I just tried to imitate is the ‘hello’ croak, but it sounded just plain… off, to the point of being creepy. Heck, one time I tried to pull that off when a couple of Wartwood townsfolk walked by and the stares I got were like if they’d just seen a ghost!”

“Oh wow. I knew frogs and toads used croaks for shorthand and slang, but I didn’t realize it was so nuanced.”

“Yeah, there’s a croak for ‘hello’ or ‘I’m here’, there’s one for ‘alert’ or ‘help’, and then there’s one for ‘I’m mad’ or ‘I’m feeling threatened’, just to name a few. Which one it is all depends on the context.”

“And your hearing in this form is still good enough for you to pick up on the subtle differences?”

“Uhh… not ALL of them, but just enough that I can still figure it out based on what’s still left over. I think that might be why my imitation just sounds so… ‘off’, ya know?”

“That’s a good thing to note! I mean, at least if you use the ‘alert’ or ‘help’ one, then the people familiar with you will know exactly who it is that’s calling that!” Marcy giggled a little bit with that. Anne joined her.

“Heh, I guess that’s true!” After the girls had a bit of a laugh, Marcy continued with her original set of questions.

“Okay, so here’s the third and final question: how do you think your family sees you, given how different you are from them?”

“Hmm… well, I know they all still love me unconditionally and I love all of them too. I know that I irritate Hop Pop sometimes, but he’s always stood up for me when it counts and I can tell that all of his actions are made to benefit the family as a whole! I’m not the only one that he has to look after, so when I fully transformed for the first time and we didn’t have any potion left, he ended up locking me in the basement and profusely apologizing to me in the process. I don’t blame him, though, ‘cause he did what he genuinely thought was best.

“As far as Sprig goes, I know that he looks out for me just as much as I look out for him. When we were much younger, we had a LOT of fights because I was the adopted sibling, but still the older one. Our… our parents always told us to just talk to each other and work it out. After they… after they passed away, we both realized that we have to cherish what we have before it disappears. So we finally aired our grievances and we’ve kept our communications open ever since. So I know for a fact that he supports me no matter what. If he didn’t, then he’d tell me and we’d work to fix it.

“Polly was too young to go through any of that, but she has grown so far watching Sprig and me, so she ended up copying that right from the start. I’m really happy about that too, you know. She may be a lot more violent than any other member of the family, but it’s never directed towards any of us. Most of the time, it’s in defense of us! Yes, she’s the baby, but we learned a few months ago that treating her like she’s helpless is the last thing we should be doing. That was the night that she saved the rest of us from cannibals! So yeah, she’s a family defender and I really am a part of the family.

“Now that I’m actually talking about it, I’ve come to realize just how lucky I am that I have a family I can love and trust so much!” Anne was starting to tear up, but when she looked over at Marcy, she could see that the newt already had tears streaming down her face while she was writing her notes!

“Uhh… Marcy, you okay over there?” The newt looked up from her writing.

“Oh. Yeah, yeah. I just… I’ve never had somebody be that open about things like that. I’m REALLY glad you were, though! That helps with the psych evaluation a LOT!” Right, she was still technically being tested. Anne wiped her eyes and waited until Marcy finished writing up her notes. When she was done, she got up and went back over to her desk.

“Alright, so that’s the last of the tests and experiments I wanted to perform today. So, speaking of your family, let’s get you back to them! Just drink your potion and I’ll escort you to wherever they are, myself!”

“Okay. Thank you, Marcy!” Anne said before pulling her dose of potion out of her pocket and downing it. Before long, everything in the room appeared a lot bigger than before, with the green newt that she was with towering over her instead of it being the other way around. Marcy then put away all of her supplies and walked out of the door with Anne, leaving the samples and everything behind for Marcy to pick up and study properly later.

“So exactly where did your family say they’d be?”

“Uhh… well, what time is it?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s around three in the afternoon?”

“Oh, then they’d be at the Newtopian Scholar Library.” Anne said casually. Marcy, however, froze.

“A-are you sure?” She asked. Anne looked back at her and noticed how fearful she looked. That was when it hit her. The Newtopian Scholar Library was where the ‘book beast’ incident happened! Seeing how the tip of Marcy’s tail kept on curling up, Anne could tell that she was scared of going back.

“Y-yeah. Tell you what, just point me in the right direction and I’ll see if I can get there on my own.” She offered. She wasn’t sure she could do it, but she wasn’t about to try to force Marcy to go somewhere that had clearly traumatized her! Still, the newt looked at the frog and took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then exhaled.

“No, I-I’ll still escort you. I promised I would, after all.”

“You don’t have to, you know. You’re the prin-”

“Anne! I said I would! I mean, I don’t have to go inside the place, I can just escort you there and then leave, right?”

“Well okay, I guess that makes sense. Thanks, Marcy.”

“Oh yeah, no problem!” Her casual tone almost made Anne forget that she was the literal princess until she saw the guards moving out of her way. At one point, though, she told Anne to stay in a specific spot and wait for her because she needed to grab something. She didn’t take long, but when she came back, she was wearing a completely different outfit that had absolutely no regal flair to it whatsoever. In fact, it just looked like a commoner’s regular clothing.

“This is what I like to wear when I’m trying to go unnoticed around the city. I kinda don’t wanna get cornered by people who recognize me and just start trying to get on my good side for no reason other than my social status, you know?”

“Hmm… I can’t relate, but I can understand! So you’re ready to go?”

“Yep!” She sighed “Let’s get going to… uh, you know.” Anne noticed how she was uncomfortable with the idea of going there, but she’d insisted, so she just flashed Marcy an empathetic look and left with the newt in tow. It didn’t take them long to find the library, given that Marcy had apparently made many trips there before the incident. Anne noticed her staring at the building, as if she’d forgotten that the frog was even there.

“W-well, I can see our snail parked right over there, so I know they’re inside. I appreciate you coming with me to make sure I got here safely, Marcy. You don’t have to come inside if you don’t want to, so if you want to just leave me here, I’ll be-”

“I-I wanna try.” Was all the newt said, giving a thousand yard stare towards the library itself. She didn’t move, though. Anne thought about it for a bit before she realized that Marcy clearly wanted to try to deal with whatever kind of trauma happened the last time she was there. It was obvious that she’d been denying and avoiding it since then, but with Anne being there, she’d had to come face to face with the idea again. Maybe she just needed a little help? Anne reached up with her blue, frog hand to hold Marcy’s green newt hand.

“Then maybe… I could help?” She asked. Marcy looked down towards Anne before taking a deep breath and looking back at the library. Then, she finally started to take a few steps forewards. It was pretty slow going, but Anne was patient enough to let Marcy take those steps without being pulled. As she got to the door, she hesitated again. Anne gave her hand a light squeeze to let her know that she was still there. But just as Marcy was about to take her first step inside in years, an orange newt that appeared to be about the same age as the girls shouted at Marcy in a smug voice.

“Heh. What, are you scared of the Newtopian Book Beast?” The girls both looked at him, Marcy with shame, but Anne with a nearly seething anger! Marcy backed away a little bit, but Anne didn’t let go of her hand. Instead, she went with the newt.

“Hey, you know that guy’s just being a jerk, right?”

“Y-yeah, but there are plenty like him and I don’t…”

“I get it. Believe me, I of all people completely understand. But you know now that that’s not gonna happen again, right? I assume you took your dose this morning?”

“Y-yeah.”

“And you have a spare on you, right?”

“That’s true…”

“Plus you’re in disguise! There’s no way anything like that is going to happen again!” Anne encouraged Marcy, wanting to help her overcome this. It was clear to see that she desperately wanted to, but just couldn’t seem to do it! However, Anne’s little pep talk seemed to help the young newt steal her resolve just enough to start walking back inside. This time, Marcy actually got past the door! Anne looked around, trying to find her family and noticed the same orange newt from earlier talking to three others. She glared daggers at him for a moment before looking around again.

She couldn’t see them anywhere, but there were multiple floors to the building, so they must’ve just been on a different floor. As the two of them started to walk around, Anne led Marcy up to the second floor and almost immediately saw the three frogs she was looking for!

“Hey guys!” Anne half-shouted to them while waving, still being mindful that she was in a library. They all looked up at her.

“Heya!”

“Hey kiddos.”

“Wow, you brought Marcy!” Polly, Hop Pop, and Sprig all respectively responded. The girls approached the table with the frog family and sat down with them. Marcy had to kind of slump over in order to not absolutely tower over the family! Still, she looked nervous regardless.

“You know, Marcy, I didn’t think you’d actually want to come in here, given the whole ‘Newtopian Book Beast’ incident. I mean, if I were you, I’d never even wanna look at this place again!” Sprig said without thinking. Anne glared at him as Marcy looked away. Once again, he failed to pick up on the sensitivity of what he was talking about. He simply looked back at the book in his hands.

Marcy, for her part, looked even more uncomfortable and almost like she was about to leave. She stayed where she was, though, when she noticed Anne looking back at her with just the most sympathetic expression. Marcy tried her best to calm down and just sit with the family she’d befriended. As they got into a conversation about what each of them was reading, Marcy began to try letting her mind wander.

Even though she was back in the place she feared, she felt safe at that moment. Another of whatever-she-was was with her and surrounded by others who knew. Maybe she could actually do this! She began to recall where her old reading nook was and realized that they were on the right floor for her to go back to it if she wanted to. The problem was that she knew she was only thinking like that because she couldn’t actually see it.

She’d thought about maybe going back to pick up a few things in the past, but every time she got close, something in her made her stop. It got to the point where she couldn’t even enter the library anymore. Not without a certain blue frog holding her hand, she guessed. Her thoughts were interrupted by something she heard behind her.

“If you actually go inside, then I’ll straight-up give you a hundred coppers!”

“No way, dude! Why don’t you go in there, if you want someone to go so badly!”

“HA! I’ll take you up on that offer! Get your wallet ready!”

“You’re not actually gonna do it, are you?”

“The Newtopian Book Beast hasn’t been seen in years! It’s obviously gone!”

“But there’s gotta be a reason why none of the staff ever cleaned out its den!” Marcy tried to get herself to stop listening, but she did end up turning around to see the orange newt from earlier talking with a couple of his friends. They seemed to ignore her, but she couldn’t help herself. At that point, she just felt like she needed to leave.

“H-hey guys? I think I’m gonna go.” She said to the frogs. Anne was quick to call her out, though.

“Marcy, don’t think I didn’t notice you were listening to those guys just now. Don’t worry about what they say. But I am curious about what they meant when they said ‘its den’?” As much as she didn’t want to talk about it, the newt knew that it’d probably be best to tell the frog about her old reading nook. Maybe Anne could at least get back her old journal that she’d left behind in the chaos of that day? That way she’d be able to avoid having to go that far! If it really was still there, at least…

As she described it and told Anne about what she wanted, the frog immediately agreed to help! Even the other Plantar kids agreed to go with them! Hop Pop elected to simply stay where he was, having found a book about cultivating plants with special needs. The only problem was that Marcy was the only one who knew where it actually was, so she’d at least have to show them the way.

They didn’t have to go very far, but every step Marcy took felt like a whole new challenge. By the time they got there, she was shaking and refusing to look at it. That was until she heard the mocking laughter of the newts from earlier.

“Dude, you couldn’t even spend five seconds in there!”

“So what?! I still went in! Give me that money!”

“No way, man. You just popped in and then immediately jumped right back out again!”

“Hey, you won’t even go in there in the first place! So that means I got farther than you! Cough it up!”

“Nah, man. At least we’re able to stand here, unlike that shaking coward over there!” The orange newt that was talking gestured at Marcy and the other two started laughing alongside him. She couldn’t take it anymore! She may be a newt nowadays, but she was once something else that people STILL fear! She dipped her head and curled the tip of her tail into an almost perfect circle before turning and running off.

Anne reached out to Marcy as she left and ended up chasing after her! She could vaguely hear Sprig and Polly trying to scold the newts for being such jerks as she went. At one point, she kind of wished she were in her true form again ‘cause it gave her longer legs to keep up with and even outspeed Marcy. But it seemed that Anne’s sporadic hops left just enough room in between them for her to lose sight of Marcy! At the very least, she hadn’t seen the newt go in a direction that suggested she was leaving the building.

Anne proceeded to check the surrounding area, even asking a couple of people if they’d seen a green newt girl running by. With their directions, she was able to narrow Marcy’s location down to a specific area. One that was devoid of anyone else, as far as Anne could smell. She was about to call out for her when she heard something instead. It was a sob! Anne tracked down Marcy’s location by listening for her and eventually found her crying while wedged between a bookshelf and the wall!

“Hey Marcy, you know those guys were just being idio-”

“I know! I just! I can’t!...” Marcy sputtered while curling up into a ball and burying her face in her lap. Anne realized that she could barely talk and she’d gotten tired of hearing the same thing about those guys over and over again. So she tried a new angle.

“You know, the first time I transformed in public, it was under some pretty dire circumstances…” Marcy stopped sobbing so violently and lifted her head just enough to look at Anne. The blue frog took this as a signal to sit down and keep going. She told Marcy the whole story of her first transformation and how she learned to come to terms with herself being different while also going over how her family slowly came to terms with it.

“... And that’s not even mentioning how the townsfolk looked at me afterwards! Hop Pop tried to get them to stop by keeping me in frog form at all times, but that didn’t work at all. The only thing that actually made them stop was them seeing me in that form and me proving to them that I’m still me regardless of what I look like. One step at a time… what I’m saying is that both forms are a part of me and the sooner I and everyone else around me accepted that, the better off everyone was.

“I understand that this environment is waaaaay more dangerous for that than Wartwood is, but that was the only way I was able to get people to get over it and I don’t regret a second of it! It was terrifying at first, but now it kinda feels nice to be able to be comfortable in both forms. I’m not saying you need to try it, just that it’s not impossible to be okay. All you have to do is get used to it.” Marcy had stopped crying by this point, completely enraptured by Anne’s story.

“So… for all intents and purposes… you mostly used exposure therapy?” Marcy asked, connecting the dots.

“Uhh… I guess so. If nothing else, it worked better than anything else I could have done!”

“Hmm…” Marcy went silent for a bit, obviously thinking something over. Anne, knowing that Marcy was in a vulnerable place at the moment, waited for her to come back with her conclusion. Marcy took a deep breath and looked Anne in the eyes.

“Okay, I’m going to try this exposure therapy! If it works, then it works! And I’m going to do my absolute best to give it a try!” The newt stood up with what looked like renewed determination! Anne joined her and gave a triumphant

“YEAH!!” Before remembering that they were still in a library. She slapped a hand over her mouth and looked around sheepishly before remembering that no one was around them. Marcy giggled a little at Anne’s antics before following her out of there and back into the open. Almost immediately they were stopped by Anne’s younger siblings.

“There you guys are!”

“We’ve been looking everywhere !” Sprig and Polly respectively half shouted. Anne responded for the two of them.

“Sorry, I had to give Marcy a bit of a pep talk.”

“Okay, well we scolded those super rude newts and they challenged us, saying that if Marcy can go into ‘the beast’s den’, then they’ll take back what they said AND give us a hundred coppers!” Sprig explained. Marcy looked pretty surprised while Anne looked back up at her.

“Well Marcy, are you ready for that ‘exposure therapy’ stuff?”

“I-I don’t know. M-maybe it’s a bit too much too soon?”

“Well, we won’t know unless we try, right?”

“I-I guess…” Marcy finished before Anne took her hand and gently led her towards her old reading nook. The newt took to staring at the back of Anne’s head along the way, deciding to distract herself by thinking about how amusing it was for someone who was so much smaller than her to be supporting her like this. And before she knew it, she was right there in front of it. It was exactly like she’d left it, too!

“You think she’s actually gonna do it?”

“No way, did you see how she was shaking earlier?! She’s way too scared!”

“She’s not even gonna be able to approach it!” The three newts from before walked up to them and started taunting Marcy. All of the Plantar kids glared at them while the newt seemed like she wanted to run away again! Polly was the one to stand up for her this time, though.

“Hey! You guys can’t even spend ten seconds in there! Meanwhile I could spend HOURS in there!”

“Oh yeah? Prove it, tadpole!”

“GLADLY!!” To which Polly immediately started hopping over to the ‘den’, as they were calling it, and jumped right inside. After a solid fifteen seconds, she poked her face out.

“Wussies!” She called out to them before letting herself just fall back inside. The three newts all looked genuinely disturbed as Anne had to suppress a laugh. They all knew the truth about the ‘beast’ and knew that there really was nothing to be scared of. Meanwhile the newts had no idea that the being they were so scared of was standing only a couple of meters away from them and shaking slightly.

Upon seeing their baffled expressions, though, Marcy seemed to calm down. Apparently she saw the irony as well and was also amused! Sprig then approached the old reading nook as casually as possible.

“Hey Polly, is there anything cool in there?” He asked as he actually climbed inside, making the newt jerks get even more weirded out!

“What the heck?!”

“Where are you guys even from?!” They asked. Anne was quick to respond to their question, playing up the casualness of the whole situation.

“Wartwood, Frog Valley. We’ve got something pretty similar over there, but we call her ‘The Wartwood Creature’. She’s definitely a different member of the same species as ‘The Newtopian Book Beast’, which is why we came here in the first place. To figure out more about them!” By this point, the newts were sputtering.

“Y-you mean… there are more of them?!”

“And you actually deal with them on a regular basis?”

“Uhuh, saw her rip a mantis scythe clean off with her teeth once. But you don’t mess with them and they won’t mess with you.” Sprig answered casually, smiling like he wasn’t currently messing with a said creature’s territory.

“What the heck is wrong with you?!” One of the newts followed up. But Anne kept up the casual act.

“Meh, you get used to it after a while.” She said with a shrug before turning towards a smiling Marcy “So do you think you’re ready to give this a shot?” The green newt looked at the blue frog for a few moments before looking back at her old reading nook. She then took a few deep breaths and started slowly walking forwards.

One step at a time. One step after another. One more step left. She stopped right at the entrance. It was smaller than she’d remembered! Or maybe she’d just grown since then. She knelt down to look inside and saw Sprig and Polly both sitting there, as if they were expecting her. She took a few more breaths and did her best to push through her fear as she slowly forced herself to crawl inside to meet them!

Next thing she knew, she was inside her old reading nook. She genuinely thought that she’d never be back there. Not after what happened! She grabbed her iron reinforced flask that was still on her belt and brought out her potion to stare at it for a few moments, reminding herself that history would NOT repeat itself! As she readjusted herself, she found her old favourite spot and practically melted into it with nostalgia!

It was still more comfortable than any chair she’d ever sat in at the palace, even if it did feel just a little bit smaller to her now. The last time she’d sat there was… when it all started. Marcy’s breathing hitched and she looked around with wide eyes as three pairs of frog eyes stared back at her. Anne immediately took her hand, telling her that it was going to be okay.

Marcy leaned into her support, feeling her cold, slimy hand in her own. The coldness of it helped remind her that she was there in the moment, and not dealing with the same overwhelming heat as the last time. She could do this! It was exposure therapy! It worked for Anne and literally all of Wartwood, so it should work for her, right? She made sure to not focus on the area around her and instead focus on the people instead.

Still, she couldn’t stop herself from taking a look at her surroundings every now and then. That was, at least, until she spotted it. Her old journal! It was still there! The moment her eyes landed on it, she went to grab it. As she opened it, she saw her old writings and notes, reminding her of a simpler time. A time of innocent study for the sake of her own curiosity and not to meet anyone else’s standards. She started to cry again.

This time, though, she had three people around her who knew all about her and were willing to be there for her. As she hugged her old journal close to her and felt the hands around her, she was finally able to see that nothing was the same except the location. It’d be a hard road ahead of her, but when she looked at the frogs around her, she could tell that maybe a recovery would be possible…

They stayed like that until Marcy stopped crying again and was ready to show her face to the public once more. At that point, she stood up to the best of her ability in her old, little reading nook and proceeded to crawl out with her journal in hand. The frogs who helped her all followed behind her, like her own personal entourage! As she passed by the three newts from before, she noticed that they were all at a loss for words. She contemplated saying something to them, but decided against it when Anne took her hand yet again and led her away. Sprig and Polly seemed to stay behind to collect the coppers that they were promised, though!

Meanwhile Anne couldn’t be prouder of Marcy for finally dealing with what had been ailing her. She remembered how she left out the parts of her story involving any sort of mocking and the one incident with the mob that her godfather had summoned on her! She knew that that would only scare the already frightened newt. All in all, their trip to the library ended up being far more eventful than they’d originally planned. She led Marcy back to Hop Pop (who was still engrossed in his book) and simply waited there for Sprig and Polly to catch up!

After the two younger kids showed up with a small bag filled with coppers, Anne finally got Hop Pop’s attention and asked if they could go sightseeing around the city a bit more. Seeing as everything the kids wanted to do was done, he agreed and checked out the book he’d been reading so that he could read more of it later. Once they were out of the library, Marcy gave a heavy sigh and nearly seemed to collapse!

In the end, they gave the newt a ride back to the palace using the fwagon and turned to leave. She told them that she’d summon them back when either she or the king found something out about the samples she’d taken from Anne. So all that was left to do after that was kill some time by simply allowing themselves to be the tourists with infinite money that they were!

It only took a couple of days for the Plantars to receive the summons in question! Getting into the palace and meeting up with Marcy was honestly the easy part, if Anne were honest. At this point, enough of the guards recognized her from the other two times she’d been there, that she was basically able to just waltz on in and announce that she and her family were there. When the princess showed up, Anne noticed that the newt looked like she hadn’t slept since the last time they’d seen each other.

“Hey Marcy, are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, why do you ask?”

“‘Cause you look like you’re gonna drop from exhaustion any second now. When was the last time you slept?” The newt looked guilty for a bit before changing the subject.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay. So, you might be wondering why we called you guys in like we did.”

“Uhh…”

“Well, it’s got everything to do with the results from Anne’s tests. My dad and I discussed it together and we’d like to talk to you about it all!” Despite her obvious tiredness, she was practically bouncing around, even balancing on her tail for a bit, like it was a third leg! Whatever the results she found, she seemed pretty happy about them! She quickly led them to the throne room, where they noticed that no guards were present and King Andrias matched Marcy in looking like he hadn’t slept, but clearly being full of energy.

“Wonderful to see you all again!” He joyfully greeted them. Everyone greeted him back, all saying different things. It was okay, though. He balanced on one leg, bouncing with what appeared to be excitement.

“So! Ask me if we found out anything about Anne’s and Marcy’s original species.”

“Did you-”

“BINGO!!” He leaned in forewards, knocking everyone except his daughter down in surprise. He laughed as he reeled back and pulled out a large sheet of paper. Anne tried to read through it as she got back up, but all of it looked like a whole bunch of medical jargon to her. There were too many big words that she didn’t know on there. The other Plantars didn’t seem to understand what was written on there either, so they all just looked to the two royals for an explanation. Marcy was the first one to do so, going at such a rapid pace that none of the frogs were able to get a word in until she was done.

“Okay, so to start, the psych evaluation revealed that that’s no real differences between Anne’s forms except that she seems to be just a tad more open about her feelings when in her true form. But that could be an individual factor and not a species thing. We’d need a larger sample size in order to test for that and we really just don’t have the resources for that right now. But the most interesting parts come in the physical evaluation!

“So to start, I took a sample of her hair in either form and there were some surprising differences. Amphibian hair is really just super long cilia protrusions, but her other sample appeared to be dead, hardened keratin despite looking exactly the same at first glance. The blood sample didn’t reveal anything really unexpected, given the whole ‘mammal’ thing, but I think… our… true forms don’t shed teeth like amphibians do ‘cause her teeth looked exactly the same as Hop Pop’s description despite multiple sheds in her frog form!

“Now, her internal body temperature was actually inconsistent with mammals of her size. It was actually way hotter than what we expected! But this might actually fall in line with Hop Pop’s idea that the species is designed for a colder average climate! Although the urine sample didn’t really reveal anything odd. But there was something interesting in her other form’s slime coat.

“Actually, I don’t think it’s quite accurate to call it that. While it looked to mostly be made of water, it only comes out when she’s overheating. I theorize that it’s a built in cooling method that pairs well with the higher internal body temperature I just mentioned! But on top of that, when there’s an overabundance like that there was actually a fair amount of SALT in that stuff! I don’t know WHY she was secreting salt, but she was! It’s a good thing it’s easy to wipe off, am I right? There's not enough of it to really hurt anyone when she touches them, though, so she's still safe to touch!

“Oh and something that we discovered by accident is that while she doesn’t have night vision, her eyes will still try to adjust to match the light levels of her surroundings! I’d love to study that in more detail! OH, OH!! And I saved the best for last! I got a few answers about what’s up with her saliva!

“As it turns out, it’s not a poison, venom, or even a neurotoxin of any sort. I haven’t figured it out exactly, but I did find a digestive chemical that’s meant specifically for sugars. This, of course, further supports the idea that… our species… is supposed to be more herbivore leaning! But the ultimate conclusion that I came to is that her saliva is pretty much harmless despite its numbing side effect!”

Marcy finished her long speech with the crazed yelling of someone who clearly hadn’t slept until they found the answers that they’d been looking for! She was smiling, but the Plantars all had to wonder if she was actually okay or not. Before they could ask, King Andrias followed up his daughter’s ramblings.

“Because of how much we were able to discover and how much there’s still left to know, we would like for Anne to stay here for a couple of extra weeks.” This startled the family. Hop Pop looked particularly nervous as he explained the main flaw in that idea.

“Few weeks, huh? Well, I hate ta say it, but we really need ta get back ta Wartwood. The harvest is comin’ up an we can’t miss it. Not ta mention gettin’ back ta those berries.” The royals weren’t expecting them to reject their offer, but they had a good point. Even if they reimbursed them the money they would otherwise get for their crops, that was still good food that would be going to waste when it would otherwise go towards feeding the general population.

“Well, maybe Anne could stay here for a while and we’ll send her back once we have more answers.” Marcy suggested. Anne argued her case.

“I don’t know… I’ve never been away from my family before and things are pretty dangerous out there. Plus how am I gonna get back to them once we’re done? And what about… my potions? Yeah, they’re automatically delivered to our place back in Wartwood.”

“As for the potions, we can just get them delivered to the castle here, instead. I mean, we get mine delivered here, right? And as for you getting back home when everything’s said and done, I’ll take you on a trained bird that can get you back there quickly and safely. We’re just so close to cracking so many mysteries about you!”

“Yeah, but…” She looked over towards her family. They were only able to get to Newtopia in the first place because of Anne’s monster strength! Who knew if they actually could get back safely without her? And what if they found more weird stuff about her? Would they make her stay even longer? Marcy knelt down to her level and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Anne, right now you have to follow your head. Not your heart. It won’t be forever, you know. Just until the proper research is done!”

“And exactly how long will that take?”

“Oh, a couple of weeks at least . But I’m not gonna lie to you. If we find out more weird stuff, then we might ask you to stay for a little longer.” Anne looked at her family. They couldn’t exactly refuse a direct request from the king and the princess, of all people! They all knew that! Anne was about to try one last time before Marcy unknowingly cut her off.

“Say, why don’t you guys… take the day to say ‘good-bye’? It might help.” That broke them. They couldn’t say ‘no’ because not only did this request come from the royal family, themselves, but also because it made the most logical sense. Upon seeing their crushed expressions, the royals seemed to recoil a bit, seeming to realize how much this hurt the frog family. Ultimately King Andrias ended up giving them a giant tissue and letting them go for the day.

The family didn’t know how to process their sadness properly. Hop Pop suggested having a day of fun together to take their minds off of it, but not even a trip to the aquarium helped them out. In fact, it only seemed to make things worse, given how many things in there reminded the family of experiences they’d had. Plus they’d gotten kicked out for disturbing the peace in there.

When it was time for them to leave the city that evening, Anne still helped them pack. They’d left all of the medicine bottles (except for the ones in their pockets) with Marcy as they were dropping Anne off at the castle to be with the princess. She’d seemingly slept while they were having their miserable day, so she was a lot calmer at this point. Once they were done and Anne stood back, the newt broke the silence.

“Have a safe trip back, Plantars. We’ll take excellent care of Anne here. We even have her own suite prepped for her! Just give her potion provider the new delivery address and we’ll handle the rest.”

“Thank ya kindly, Marcy.” Hop Pop responded, the sadness evident in his voice. Upon hearing that, she backed up and let Anne get one last hug in. She felt bad for separating them, realizing that she said what she did earlier that day without considering Anne’s thoughts and feelings on the matter. She figured that if she were in Anne’s position, then she’d probably have had the same reaction. They were thirteen years old, for olm’s sake! She should have considered the fact that she was literally separating a child who was the same age as herself from her family!

“No more tears, y’all. We’ll see each other again soon enough.” Hop Pop spoke into the hug. Anne followed up.

“Really? When?”

“I don’t know, but we’re family. And family always finds each other.” The hug broke off, but Sprig stayed behind. Remembering Anne’s words about how she and her little brother were open enough with each other to actually have a good relationship, she realized just how much it’d affect Anne. Then the two of them spoke in unison.

“Spranne against the world!” And with that, Marcy was internally broken. She couldn’t do this! Anne would only end up depressed from being seperated from her family like that. In reality, she’d wanted Anne to stick around because of how much help the young frog had been for her own emotional wellbeing. But she’d only be sending her down her own spiral if she continued to try to make Anne stay. Still, as the blood-Plantars started to drive away, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything other than an apology.

“I’m sorry, Anne. This just… made the most sense.”

“I know, I know… logical thing to do.” Hearing the pain in her voice as she watched her family leave made Marcy finally snap on the outside a little. There was no way she’d be able to live with herself if she did this to the only other member of her… base species. And with that, she started making up excuses.

“You know, the more I think about it, maybe it’d be best to study your true form in your most natural habitat. One that you’re more comfortable in and familiar with.” Anne looked back at her with disbelief, but also a touch of hope. With that, Marcy became aware that she really was doing the right thing.

“I’ll just prepare some things in order to make it easier and meet up with you after you get back-” Anne rushed in to hug her, wrapping her tiny blue frog arms and legs around Marcy’s upper body “... home.”

“Thanks, Marcy!” She returned the hug for a few moments, but let go pretty quickly.

“Now go. Follow your heart.” To which the frog immediately let go and sped off, hopping as fast as she possibly could in order to catch up with her family.

“Okay, later, bye!” Anne called back to Marcy as quickly as she could. She didn’t even know if the princess could hear her, but she wasn’t about to stop and possibly lose her family, so she just kept on going! She hopped down the streets that she knew her family was taking and even managed a few shortcuts across the tops of buildings using her tongue! Next thing she knew, she was at the gate leading in and out of the city and she could see the fwagon just a little ways outside!

She was getting tired, but she forced herself to keep going just like when she was in her true form. While it didn’t work anywhere near as well, it gave her just the boost she needed to get close enough to call out to her family so that they would hear her!

“GUYS!!” Hop Pop heard Anne’s voice ring out. He stopped and looked around, thinking that maybe he’d imagined it. But when he noticed that Sprig and Polly were reacting as well, he knew something was up. He stopped Bessie, which apparently was exactly what Anne needed in order to catch up with them!

“I’m coming home to Wartwood with you guys!” She then started climbing up the side of the fwagon with her cling pads and nestled herself in with the rest of her family while they all cheered.

“Yeah!... Thank frog, I really didn’t know how I was gonna make it without you!”

“Glad ta have ya back, Anne.”

“Hop on up here, sister!” Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly all yelled in unison. Finally back where she belonged with the main purpose of their journey satisfied, Anne smiled.

“Now let’s go home…” she finished. It wasn’t until later that she realized she left all of her spare doses of medicine that weren’t in her’s, Sprig’s, and Hop Pop’s pockets with Marcy. She’d have to ration the remaining three doses pretty well on the way back and wait for Marcy to bring the rest of it back to her. Thank goodness the cupboards at home always had a whole lot of spares nowadays!

Meanwhile Marcy watched as the one person who was more like her than anyone else she’d ever met left her. It was bittersweet, knowing that she’d done the right thing for Anne, but also losing something so important to her. She felt her dad’s footsteps behind her as he approached. She feared that he might be mad at her, but if he was, then he didn’t show it, given how his voice was so calm.

“Always sad to see someone go, isn’t it?” She looked up at him. He’d lived for over a thousand years, which was far longer than anyone else in Amphibia! He’d lived through the lifespans of countless newts within the royal circle. Heck, he probably personally knew at least a few of the minds that were in the Core! If anyone knew about the feeling of loss, it was him.

“I know you’re planning on going after her to study her, but if you’re going that far, then I have a… secondary assignment for you. But this one’s just as important, if not moreso, than your main reason for leaving. It’s one that I could only entrust to you, given how important it is. You see, while looking through some of the books in the hidden wing, I found some information that got me thinking. And if my theory is correct, you girls might find this proposition very interesting.” Marcy tilted her head in confusion before following her dad back inside. It was originally his idea to keep Anne and she’d messed that up, so she needed to earn back his trust somehow.

Whatever this was about, she knew she couldn’t let him down…