11. Chapter 11

“H-hi there. M-my name’s Marcy.” The bright green newt introduced herself, seemingly more towards Anne than any of the rest of the family. The girl could completely understand why she was so nervous, but she was ultimately very grateful that this newt hadn’t freaked out as hard as she’d been expecting her to.

“Oh, uh, I’m Anne. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Y-yeah. Wow. I’ve… never seen anything like you before, but you’re intelligent, right?” Marcy averted her eyes a little bit, but Anne had gotten used to people avoiding eye contact with her. She did have a pretty scary face, after all.

“Well, I’d like to think so.” Anne giggled a little at her own joke in the hopes that it would make Marcy a bit less nervous. It seemed to work a tad, as she looked back at Anne and took a deep breath. Marcy appeared to be doing a pretty good job at making it seem like she wasn’t scared, which Anne was thankful for. Then came one of the statements that she’d gotten so used to, coming from the braver type of folk.

“I have… so many questions.” And with that, Anne silently thanked frog once again that Hop Pop had been writing that research paper on her!

“Well before you start asking, I’ll just let you know that Hop Pop here…” she gestured to the elderly frog “... is actually in the process of writing a research paper on me and most of the basic questions can be answered through all the stuff that he’s got so far.” Marcy looked over at Hop Pop and approached him.

“Wow, frogs don’t usually write research papers! I’ll have to give it a read soon. What do you do as a career?” She asked him.

“Oh, I’m just a farmer. Me and my family took in Anne, here, when she was just a baby, so we don’t know where she really came from. But she’s still family!” Marcy’s eyes widened slightly as a smile spread across her face. She then put a hand over her chest and backed up a step.

“Oh my gosh, that’s so precious! Ugh, I love the found family trope!” She then refocused onto Hop Pop and leaned in to look a little closer at him. “Hmm… hang on, let me see if I can figure this out.”

“Figure what out?” Anne asked, but Marcy ignored her question in favour of bringing out a tape measure and wrapping it around Hop Pop’s head.

“Uh huh, uh huh, as I thought: sixty-two centimeters.” While he was a little weirded out by Marcy’s actions, Hop Pop decided to just play it off.

“Yep! All brain.” Marcy let go of the tape measure and put it away, but not before wiping a finger over the top of his head, collecting some of the dirt that was sitting on top.

“Hmm… judging from the size of your cranium and flecks of sediment, you’re from Frog Valley, right?” Hop Pop gave an impressed gasp.

“You can tell all that from my head?!” He hadn’t realized just how smart a newt (that didn’t look down on him) could be. Said newt continued.

“Oh man, this is so cool! I don’t know anything about how to farm, but I do know that farm culture is super underappreciated. They’re the backbone of society and do NOT get enough credit for it!” Hop Pop was at a loss for words. An extremely smart newt that WASN’T a snob about it and actually respected farmers?! The old frog genuinely thought that that combination was impossible! Regardless of the fact that Marcy was clearly somewhere in her early teens, she’d already gained his respect

“Thank you. Thank you !” Was all he could say before Marcy noticed Polly right behind him.

“Hey, a polliwog!” Polly greeted the newt, but she just picked the tadpole up and held her up against the sunlight. Marcy then pulled out a magnifying glass and started focusing on the little one.

“Hmm… I’d say those legs should be coming in in abouuut… two months, give or take.” Polly gasped at hearing that!

“Can I get that in writing?!”

“Oh yeah, absolutely!” She then opened up a journal and tore out the last page, writing her diagnosis on it and handing it to her. Anne noticed how Marcy signed it with a small drawing of a crown next to her name. She figured that the newt must take some pride in having the same name as the princess, but she didn’t think anything else of it. As Polly was thanking her, she ran up to Sprig and extended a hand for him to shake.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a frog your colour before. Do you know if you’re poisonous or not?”

“I literally… actually don’t know.” Knowing the answer would have required him to have been eaten and at least bled while inside the predator’s stomach. Seeing as that was something he tended to avoid, he’d never actually found out.

“Huh. I’ll get you set up with a test that’ll figure that out for you later.” Upon hearing that, Anne got a little curious.

“Hey, if you’ve got a safe way to test for poison in bodily fluids, could I get a test done for my saliva? It tends to make people’s skin go numb, but it doesn’t seem to get any worse than that, so I’ve kinda been wondering.” Marcy turned to look back at Anne.

“Oh my gosh, of course! I can make sure we get you a good amount of tests without them being too invasive. I definitely wanna see the results, though!”

“Well, just be sure to read Hop Pop’s research before actually doing any tests, okay?”

“Sounds great!”

“In the meantime, Marcy, do you think you could get us into the city? We tried the gate, but they won’t let us in.”

“Unfortunately, those gates will stay closed until the barbariants are defeated. Luckily, we’ve got a plan! Would you like to help out?”

“I’d be happy to, if Hop Pop says it’s okay.” She turned to her grandpa, silently asking for permission. After all, what were they going to do? Just sit there and wait when they could be out there, helping? Yes, this was the Newtopian military, but maybe if she helped them out, then they’d all realize she was friendly. That or she’d have to reveal the whole medicine thing to Marcy, which she wasn’t too sure about whether that’d be a good idea or not. Thankfully, Hop Pop seemed to understand.

“Not unless I come with ya. I’m not about ta let my oldest granddaughter go off fightin’ without help!”

“I’ll help too!”

“Count me in!” Spring and Polly respectively chimed in. While Hop Pop kinda wanted to tell them to stay behind, he figured it’d be better overall if they were with him instead of being left where one of those ants could get to them! Ultimately the entire family ended up simply following Marcy around the perimeter of the city until they came up to a red tent set onto a raised piece of land with a Newtopian flag jutting out of the top.

What Anne noticed right away, though, were the two guards that were standing just outside of the tent with their spears at the ready. The monster girl didn’t know what to do, given that her usual solution would be to just drink a bottle of medicine. She couldn’t do that, though, with Marcy around unless she wanted to reveal that part of her and she didn’t trust the newt enough yet to go through with that. Instead, she just chose to hang back and let Marcy take care of her little meeting.

“Uhh yeah, I don’t think those guards are gonna react well to seeing… this.” She gestured to herself “So I’m just gonna hang back here with Bessie and the fwagon. Just let me know when we’re gonna get going.” She explained. Marcy looked like she was about to try to comfort her and drag her along anyways, but then she stopped to look over Anne a little closer.

“Hmm… even though I’d trust you to not hurt anyone, I get that others might be a liiiittle… less understanding. If the rest of you guys wanna hang back while I meet with the analysts, then go ahead. I’ll just grab you guys on the way out if you really want to help with this.”

“Okay.”

“Sounds good ta me.”

“Alright, then.”

“Thanks, Marcy.” Sprig, Hop Pop, Polly, and Anne all said respectively. As the newt took off towards the tent, the family turned back around and went inside the fwagon. Anne was the first to speak up.

“WOW!! OKAY!! SO!! That’s literally the first amphibian I’ve seen that didn’t know about my existence beforehand, but didn’t freak out at the sight of me in this form! Do you think that all the people in Newtopia are like that?” She smiled, clearly excited about the idea. Though Hop Pop was quick to slow her down a bit.

“Anne, remember how the story a the Newtopian Book Beast travelled as a horror story? Obviously Marcy’s the exception, not the rule.”

“Oh. Right.” The girl deflated, sitting on the floor so that she was eye level with the rest of her family. She then reached over to the nearby crate that held some of her medicine bottles and plucked one out to look at. Sprig was quick to point out the obvious, though.

“Anne, if you take that now, then you might as well reveal yourself to Marcy as soon as she gets back.”

“Yeah, but unless I want to spend the whole time we’re in Newtopia inside the fwagon, I’d better tell her eventually.” The girl mused. Polly then added to the conversation.

“Maybe do that after we deal with these ants? We’ll probably need Anne’s monster strength to do it, so we can just tell Marcy on the way back.” The family had to admit that that was fair, so the other three all grabbed a bottle just in case. They didn’t know how many times they’d need to alternate with a berry, so they just wanted to be safe.

Almost immediately after they finished up pocketing them, a knock came at the fwagon door. Of course, it was Marcy waiting for them to join her. Ultimately the family all piled out of the fwagon and started to follow the newt to the barbariant nest while she explained their go-to strategy.

“Okay, plan is we’re gonna sneak behind enemy lines and drive the ant queen away. With her gone, the rest should retreat.”

“Oh yeah? And how are we doing that?” Sprig interjected.

“Check it out!” Marcy held up a sash that had a bunch of small, yellow-orange mushrooms attached to it. Polly gasped, immediately making a connection.

“Boom shrooms?!”

“Not quite. These are stink shrooms!”

“Oh. Carry on.”

“They’re designed to release pheromones that should drive the queen away instantly. But we will have to fight our way through a bloodthirsty horde of ants.”

“My interest has been restored!”

“We’ll have to be extra careful, if one thing goes wrong, we might not make it back.” Marcy finished as she pulled out the journal from earlier and kept on walking as she was writing. As ominous as her statement was, the Plantars were confident that they’d be able to pull this off with ease! Marcy did have a crossbow, after all.

Before any of them could speak up in order to state that, though, they all realized that Marcy had led them to a raised patch of land within view of the main Newtopia gate. On this raised bit of land, there was a massive hill with large holes all over it. The newt started talking while continuing to both walk and write simultaneously.

“Okay, we should be arriving there shortlyyyyy!” She tripped over the mouth of one of the holes and fell inside! Out of pure reflex, Anne jumped in after her in order to make sure she was okay with the rest of her family following suit. The moment that they all stopped falling/sliding, Marcy immediately stood up like nothing happened and continued.

“Alright, let’s go!” Having seen her stumble once, Anne wasn’t exactly having perfect confidence in Marcy’s ability to lead them effectively.

“Hold up! Stay behind me.” she grabbed Marcy and gently pushed ahead of her “I’m bigger and stronger, if anything happens, I can be the first to handle it.” Marcy, for her part, was unamused. She noticed that there weren’t any ants in the immediate area and rushed ahead of the monster girl.

“This is gonna be a cinch, guys. Trust me, I know these tunnels better than anyONE!” For the second time within the span of only ten minutes, she fell down another hole. Thankfully Anne was close by enough this time to catch her by her cloak and pull her back up again. The newt looked a little bit embarrassed, but simply thanked Anne and continued on. The creature was losing confidence in Marcy by the minute, so she reiterated her suggestion.

“Seriously, you just tell me where to go and I’ll handle this. You’ll be much safer behind me.” As if to emphasize her point, Sprig piped up.

“I gotta say, I do feel pretty safe back here.” But almost as though he’d jinxed it, a barbariant came running right up to him and grabbed him by the head. It then regurgitated some foul smelling green goop overtop of him and started dragging him away!

“Why me? Why always me?!” He yelled as he was being dragged off. The rest of his family started trying to go after him, but were blocked off by more barbariants! Marcy backed away and just barely managed to dodge being surrounded with them. It seemed they were more interested in Anne as the larger prey. Meanwhile Sprig managed to find an opening just as the barbariant tried to bite down on him, wherein he was able to flip himself over and kick it right in the face!

He scrambled up while it was trying to get its bearings again and weaved in between the other ants so that he could join his family! After a quick comment, telling them what he did, they proceeded to start fighting! In the end, it mostly boiled down to the frogs hopping on top of the barbariants’ heads and grabbing onto their coral-like horns in an attempt to steer them into colliding with each other. Meanwhile the Wartwood Creature just weaved around them and punched each one in the head as she went, disorienting them.

One person who was missing during the battle was Marcy, who Anne noticed was focusing on some sort of plant and mixing chemicals. A small part of her got a little annoyed until the newt called for everyone’s attention.

“GUYS!! THIS WAY!!” She then threw whatever chemical concoction she had in her hands at the wall behind her, causing it to explode violently! The family didn’t need any more explanation than that as they followed Marcy through the hole she’d made. Once they were all through, the newt threw a bag down at the ground in front of the hole. Next thing they knew, a whole bunch of purple vines were covering the entrance.

“Insta-vines. Bred ‘em myself!” Marcy pointed, looking very proud of herself.

“Uh, guys? A little help here?” Came Polly’s voice. They all looked at the source to find that she was stuck behind the vines that Marcy had made!

“Oopsies” Marcy quietly said with a horrified look. Meanwhile all the rest of the Plantars reacted much more violently.

“NOT THE BABY!!” All of them immediately crouched down to rip the vines away. Anne was able to do the most work, given her extra strength and fingers while Sprig was able to actually grab Polly and get her out of there. This, of course, allowed the ants to start poking their heads through. It was only by sheer luck that they were dumb enough to not go single file and the two that attempted at the same time got each other stuck.

Once she was back on her feet, Marcy threw another pouch of insta-vines in order to push the ants back the way they came. Due to how the vines started curling around their mandibles in a way that clearly annoyed them, they actually did retreat! Once they were able to breathe for a moment, Anne turned to Marcy and was about ready to scold her for letting that happen. But then she noticed the newt fussing over the tadpole.

“Oh olms, I’m so sorry! Are you okay? They didn’t nick you or anything, did they?”

“No, no I’m fine. It was an honest mistake.” Polly responded, calming everyone down. At the very least, Marcy wasn’t doing anything maliciously! Still, Anne felt the need to talk to her, so she grabbed Marcy by the shoulder and did her best to not look intimidating as she turned the newt away from the others.

“Look, Marcy. I get that you’re a trained professional, but you’re also obviously super klutzy and I noticed that you were being really oblivious as well! Please, I’m begging you, try to stick with us and keep your head up. All the times that something happened, you were paying attention to something else. I mean absolutely no offense at all, but the baby almost just got hurt and I don’t want to see my family getting hurt!” While Anne had been talking, her overall tone changed from frustrated to pleading.

She’d noticed how Marcy flinched at being confronted like that, so she made sure to lighten her tone in order to seem even less intimidating. One of the last things she wanted was the very first amphibian that didn’t panic at the sight of her to suddenly be scared of her! The only thing that was higher on her priority list was making sure her family was safe. When those two things collided, though, she knew which side she needed to pick. Marcy avoided eye contact with Anne, (which the creature was fully expecting) but responded anyways in a surprisingly calm tone.

“I’m sorry about that, Anne. I’m just so used to working alone, but you’ve been a great help so far. I wouldn’t have had the time or room to make that explosive concoction back there if it weren’t for you and your family holding those ants off! I promise to be more observant in the future!” She looked back up at Anne, seemingly no fear in her expression anymore. The Wartwood Creature sighed and let go of the newt so that she could keep leading them through the caverns of the ant hill.

Thankfully this time, she simply held her journal close to her and when she opened it to check her directions, she actually stopped walking. Each time she did, she flashed a glance at Anne almost as if she were trying to get the creature to notice her efforts. Of course Anne saw how hard Marcy was trying, so she couldn’t stay upset for long. The rest of the walk was relatively uneventful right up until they came across something massive!

“Shh! Get down!” Marcy whispered to the Plantars “It’s the queen!” Looking at it, the thing was an absolute behemoth, but still checked out, given what they all knew ant queens looked like. Unlike most ants, this thing had a skylight illuminating the area that allowed everyone to see the queen lay some eggs and then cover them in some sort of green goop that she’d regurgitated. As she seemed to take extra care so that all the eggs were covered, Marcy went over what to do.

“Okay, here’s the plan. We’re going to have to plant these around the room. That way she gets overwhelmed. They’re set to go off in five minutes, so move quickly. Also the queen is nearly blind, but hears really well. So be very, very quiet.” She handed the majority of the stink shrooms to Anne, who divided them up between the frogs. Meanwhile she simply followed Marcy in order to prevent her clumsiness from messing anything up.

It wasn’t long before something happened. This time, it wasn’t actually caused by Marcy, though. Instead, it was just the circumstance of a stalactite breaking off right above her and falling. The newt looked up in time to see it, but Anne had reacted faster by grabbing her and pulling her out of the way! She immediately hid the two of them behind the fallen spike as the sound attracted the queen’s attention. They listened for her to stop gurgling in their direction before Marcy looked at Anne, seemingly slightly annoyed.

“Anne! What are you doing?!” She whispered.

“Um, saving you from a giant rock that was about to crush you.”

“I appreciate it, but you didn’t have to. I saw it and was about to move out of the way, myself.”

“No you weren’t. Yes, you’re really smart and I have full faith that this plan will work, but like I said earlier. You’re obviously klutzy and kinda oblivious. On top of that, I’m used to protecting people, so of course I’d jump in to help you like that.”

“I get it, but please try to trust me here.” Marcy finished. It honestly made Anne feel a little bad for not doing so, but she couldn’t help herself! She opened her mouth to try to defend her point, but was cut off by the sound of Sprig’s shout! She looked over to see that an ant larvae had latched onto him and was trying to attack him!

The queen immediately launched what looked like a barbed tongue at him, with the tip flaring out to grab him so that it could eat him! After swallowing the young frog whole, the queen roared, attracting a horde of her workers to attack the rest of the party! Marcy was quick to reassure the family, though.

“He’s still alive! Barbariants take a while to start digesting their food. Look!” She pointed at the queen, whose translucent hide allowed them to see Sprig’s silhouette inside “I can still save him!” She announced. Anne wasn’t having it, though, and grabbed Marcy’s shoulder.

“No! I’ll do it! You just stay here.” She announced, but this time it was Marcy’s turn to place a hand on Anne’s shoulder. Yes, she had to reach upwards, but she wasn’t going to back down from this one.

“Anne, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one here who’s studied barbariant biology! It has to be me!”

“No it doesn’t, my skin is tougher! Heck, I’m immune to salt for frog’s sake!” Marcy looked a little bit startled at first, but quickly shook it off.

“Ugh, why won’t you just let me go?!”

“Because you’re the only amphibian that never acted even a little bit scared of me from the moment that you saw me! Even my family was scared of me at first, so I don’t want someone as accepting as you to get hurt!” Marcy stared at Anne’s face, possibly noticing how desperate the monster girl was looking at this point. Anne didn’t know what was going through her head, but she at least looked contemplative. Then she sighed and looked directly into Anne’s eyes, which was something that even the bravest of Amphibians still had trouble with sometimes.

“I won’t get hurt, I promise. And as for why I’m not afraid of you? Well, I’ll tell you once we’re out of here, okay? Just so long as you let me do what I do best.” The Wartwood Creature stopped to consider this for a moment. There was a specific reason for Marcy not being afraid of her? As she wracked her brain for what that reason might be, she eventually figured that this newt just might know the Newtopian Book Beast. And if that were the case, then Anne needed to do what she said in order to get that information.

“... Okay. Go. You got this!” She let go of Marcy and pulled her arms back. As the newt ran towards the closest ant, she looked back at Anne to give her a smile and a nod. Oh, she HAD to know the Newtopian Book Beast in some sort of way! When she turned back to the ants, she jumped on top of one of them, getting about as much height as a frog would! Newts couldn’t jump that high, so that must have meant that the ant she’d jumped on was bouncier than Anne thought!

Marcy kept herself focused on her path, continuing to jump on ant after ant and gaining more height with each one! Eventually, she’d gained enough height to be level with the queen’s face, so she redirected herself right in front of her. Of course she ended up taking the bait and lunging to eat Marcy! The newt curled herself up into a ball, tucking her tail in between her legs and pulling her head down between her arms. As the queen’s jaws closed around her, Anne could only hope that she’d made the right choice.

She watched as Marcy’s silhouette snaked its way down the length of the queen’s innards and towards Sprig! Suddenly Anne was starting to appreciate that Marcy had gone because she’d forgotten how good of swimmers newts were! Once the two silhouettes met up, there was a moment where Anne couldn’t exactly tell what was going on, but they quickly started to move again as one bigger, black blob of a silhouette!

The blob in question rushed over to a specific part of the queen’s innards, making the gigantic ant cry out in pain. The workers all turned to face her, seemingly having forgotten about the two remaining frogs and the creature they’d been staring down! The blob of silhouettes kept moving around and smacking into what appeared to be the more sensitive areas inside of it. The queen continued to thrash around before finally rearing her head back, which appeared to force the silhouette blob up towards her head.

She then whipped her head forewards and opened her mouth to spit out a frankly copious amount of green goop with the two amphibians caught up in the mess! Anne noticed that Sprig had used his cling pads to grab onto Marcy’s chestplate and was continuing to hold on for dear life, clearly disoriented. Marcy seemed to be far more on the ball, though, as she got her bearings enough to fire an arrow from her crossbow at another stalactite. Said arrow had a rope attached to it, though, so it allowed the two of them to swing away from the queen and her goop with the remaining Plantars cheering for them!

That was until the queen snapped the rope with her claw and sent Marcy and Sprig into a freefall! Anne immediately sprung into action to catch the two of them, with Hop Pop following close behind. He may have been smaller than Anne at that moment, but he still did his best to help! Thankfully they managed to break their fall with ease. That didn’t stop the ants from surrounding them at the queen’s roar, though! The lot of them all bunched up together, with Polly shouting in a bit of panic atop Hop Pop’s head.

“Uh, not looking foreward to being torn apart right now!” As the ants closed in, Anne couldn’t come up with an idea on what to do, so she turned to the smartest person in the room.

“Marcy, any ideas?” The newt stayed silent, but had a smile on her face. Anne was about to ask what was going on, but then she heard a small explosion! It was immediately followed up by more explosions until Anne caught sight of them and realized that it was the stink shrooms going off with little clouds of pale orange dust! Had Marcy been counting down the whole time while she was helping them? Or did she just have an innate sense of time in order to make up for her inherent clumsiness?

Either way, each explosion seemed to make at least some ants recoil, with the queen clearly being caught up in the confusion. As the scent reached her, she started writhing around in pain and eventually got so fed up with it all that she burrowed into the wall beside her and fled! Anne, for her part, found that the scent was quite pleasant, but her body still demanded that she start coughing. Thankfully it seemed her family along with Marcy were all in the same boat, so to speak.

“Huh, you know what? It actually smells kinda nice.” Sprig noted once they all stopped coughing. Marcy, however, kept a hand over her muzzle and quickly countered his statement.

“Yeah. I mean, it’ll liquify your lungs if you breathe too much of it, so…” Ah, so that was why they all felt the need to cough!

“WELP, time to go!” Anne shouted as she and Marcy both broke into a sprint while her family got right to hopping alongside them. When Anne noticed that Marcy was starting to lag behind, she remembered that newts in general still ran slower than frogs hopped because they sacrificed land speed for water mobility. Anne slowed down just enough until she was right next to Marcy and then picked her up.

“Wha-?!” The newt shouted before realizing that she was moving much faster all of a sudden. Anne noticed that she tucked her tail in between her legs again in order to not drag it around, so she took that as permission to keep going! They backtracked along the path they took to get there ‘cause it was the quickest way they knew to get out. Once they were out and in the fresh air, Anne set Marcy down onto the ground and gave her a little bit of space. She immediately threw her hands up into the air and yelled.

“Mission success!” She looked so proud of herself! The Plantars celebrated with her, but something still weighed on Anne’s mind. She figured this would be the best time to ask, if any.

“So Marcy, you said that there was a specific reason for why you’re not scared of me and that you’d tell me when all that was over. I was wondering if you could…” Marcy’s face fell and she immediately shrank down into a much more nervous state before responding.

“Oh. Yeah. You remembered that. Umm… okay, so the amount I’m going to need to explain will completely rely on how much you already might know. And I just have one question in relation to that, so… what brought you guys all the way here to Newtopia?” Anne was a little surprised to be asked a question instead. She began to wonder if Marcy was trying to dodge the topic, but she decided to play along just in case it’d come back.

“Well, I was raised in Wartwood without ever seeing any other member of my species. Then I met a newt who told me this story about a creature like me that was seen elsewhere and I decided that I needed to see for myself if I could maybe find them.”

“O-oh. And what do you plan on doing should you find them?” Even though that was more than one question, the nervousness in her voice definitely betrayed the fact that she knew something. Anne continued to play along and answer her question.

“I mostly just want to see what kind of person they are. I actually… recently met another of my kind and she turned out to be a horrible person, so I wanna take a closer look at the one that was spotted near here in order to figure out what kind of temperament is closer to the default for my species. I know who I am and nothing’s going to change that, but… I just can’t live with not knowing more about what I WOULD act like if I weren’t raised by frogs.”

Her speech seemed to both horrify and fascinate Marcy. She considered dropping the title that she’d been tossing around, but then Marcy started asking more questions.

“Okay, I know I said I’d only ask one question, but I absolutely NEED to know. First, what do you mean when you say that the other one was a ‘horrible person’? Second, what kind of story did you hear about the… other one sighted near here? And third, how have I not heard of you before?” Anne figured that since she was actually staying on topic, she’d eventually spill, so she kept her patience and decided to answer more of Marcy’s questions.

“Ooookay. First, her name is ‘Sasha’ and she was raised by toads. I found her at the Southern Toad Tower and she was about as merciless and mean as the former ‘Captain’ Grime was. Like, those two got along REALLY well for all the worst reasons. And before you ask, the last time I saw her, she was unconscious and being carried away by Grime. I assume they’re still together, so if you find Grime, then you’ll probably find Sasha.

“Second, the story I heard was from a newt who heard it during a blue moon shut-in, so the version I heard was either second or third hand. Either way, it told about this monster that appeared from underneath a pile of books in a Newtopian library and was crying for help. The description given was surprisingly similar to me, but with a different shade of brown on its skin and black hair instead of my brunette. The newt who told me about it said that it was called ‘The Newtopian Book Beast’. I don’t really know anything else about it, though. Heck, I don’t even know its gender!

“And third, I was in disguise for most of my life. I was given a… potion that turned me into a frog.” She pulled out the bottle that was in her pocket and handed it to Marcy, who looked at it with wide eyes “I lived like that until just a few months ago when it ran out for the first time and I turned into… THIS!” Anne gestured to herself as Marcy looked back at her with wide eyes.

“So yeah, up until recently, I was just another unremarkable frog. Heck, would you believe me if I told you that Sasha had pretty much the exact same thing going on, but she was turned into a toad?! Her potion was a slightly darker shade than mine, though.” There was silence as Marcy looked back and forth between Anne and her medicine. The Wartwood Creature wanted to say something to break the silence, but decided to let Marcy finish processing what she’d heard first. After all, it looked like someone had just told her an absolute horror story! In the end, Marcy was the one that gave a quick chuckle and spoke.

“I’ll never live that incident down, will I?” Anne was about to ask what she meant, but then she reached down to her belt with her free hand and popped open the top of an iron reinforced canteen she’d been keeping on her belt. Instead of a liquid pouring out, though, she pulled out a little glass bottle of glowing yellow liquid and held it up next to Anne’s medicine. They were nearly identical, but Marcy’s was a slightly lighter shade. As Anne’s brain finally made the connection, her heart sank slightly as she could barely get out a sentence.

“Y-you… you’re th-the?” Marcy looked up to meet Anne’s gaze and nodded as she handed Anne her medicine back.

“I guess… great minds think alike, right?” The two of them stared at each other while it was Anne’s turn to process information. This entire time? Marcy was the Newtopian Book Beast? Anne looked the newt over. Sure, she had the same hair colour as the supposed beast, just like how Anne’s and even Sasha’s hair stayed the same in between forms, but… the story did say that early on her skin had been a splotchy mess between brown and green. Just like how Anne’s and Sasha’s were when they changed forms.

On top of all of that, now there were three of them that used disguising potions! If it were only two of them, then Anne could have excused it as coincidence. But with a third, the girl was starting to become suspicious that there might be something bigger going on here. She’d suspected that ‘The Newtopian Book Beast’ was another like her, but actually having it confirmed was a whole other matter. It seemed Marcy was thinking the same thing as well, but she didn’t voice it. Seeing as there was no real way to figure out whether it really was coincidence or not, Anne decided to put it in the back of her mind in favour of dealing with what was right in front of her.

She looked Marcy in the eyes and extended a hand. Unlike when she found out about Sasha, the hand that took hers was cold, slimy, and only had four fingers. Anne was at a loss for words, but Marcy seemed to be able to find her voice.

“You’re very brave, Anne. For taking this form, that is. I promised myself years ago that I’d never do that again, though. Not after what happened in that library...” A haunted look glossed over Marcy’s features and Anne suddenly felt so much worse for her.

“Y-you know, I’ve let it run out a few times. It gets easier every time.”

“Nope, not gonna happen. I have an image to uphold and I can’t let anyone know. Heck, on that day, I got extremely lucky that the military that went after me was a solo general that I know very well. Otherwise, I would have gotten speared! Please, for the sake of your own safety, drink your potion before you enter the city. Then I’ll take you to see my dad, okay? He knew about me right from the start and still loves me despite that.” Marcy said very quickly, as if the very idea of taking that form again was terrifying for her and she wanted to change the subject!

Anne had been planning on taking her medicine before entering the city regardless because she knew how violently people could react when they were scared. But the fact that Marcy was willing to take Anne to see her dad meant that maybe she’d be able to glean some information on what she was like before her first dose of medicine. While she had seen Sasha’s dad before, she hadn’t been allowed to talk to him.

All in all, it seemed like Marcy was squaring up to be the polar opposite of Sasha in all the best possible ways! Anne had to wonder, though, how much of that was borrowed from her newt form and how much of it was natural to her? Still, the fact that she’d found The Newtopian Book Beast before she even entered Newtopia was a far better outcome than she could have ever asked for and she wasn’t about to take it for granted! She looked back at her family with a smile on her face to ask Hop Pop for permission to go with Marcy, but he actually voiced it first.

“Marcy, we’d love ta meet yer dad. It’d be great ta talk ta him about ya, seein’ as yer obviously uncomfortable with transformin’. But hey, look on the bright side. Even though that library incident was scary fer ya, the story speadin’ around attracted us and now you’ve got another of yer kind who wants ta be friends with ya!” Marcy perked up at this, looking between Hop Pop and Anne, with the latter nodding along. A smile spread across the newt’s face and she started bouncing a little bit with glee! She then let go of Anne’s hand and excitedly spoke up.

“Well no time like the present, right?” She turned to Anne “So just drink that potion and I’ll take you right there!” The creature didn’t need to be told twice, so she uncorked the bottle, downed it, and closed her eyes to let herself shrink down into her frog form! When she opened them again, she looked up to see Marcy towering over her like any newt would. Said newt looked exceedingly giddy to the point where she couldn’t seem to help herself, though. She picked Anne right up and hugged her close as if she were some sort of small creature to be protected. Then Marcy stopped, flinched a bit, and let her go.

“Ah, sorry! I was just so excited to finally make more friends. It can be… kinda hard for me sometimes, ya know? Especially with my… social standing…” She almost looked kind of embarrassed, but Anne figured it’d be best to just let it go. She’d find out more soon enough.

“Alright! Come on Plantar family, let’s enter Newtopia!”

“YEAH!!” They all cheered. Hop Pop then hopped over to the fwagon and directed Bessie back over to the big gate leading into the city. Once they were there, Marcy called up to the newt that was manning the gate.

“HEY MATTHEW!!” The window near the top opened up and the same newt from before poked his head out.

“I told yo- OH! Lady Marcy!”

“The barbariants are gone! Open the gate!”

“Y-yes, my lady! Just hold tight, please!” Anne was a tad suspicious at hearing the newt call Marcy ‘lady’ when she was clearly the same age as the blue frog, but she figured it had something to do with her ‘social standing’ that she mentioned earlier. Still, if any time was the right time to ask, it’d be then.

“So what’s this with your ‘social standing’ and him calling you ‘lady’?”

“Oh, uhh… well, I’m actually the chief ranger of the Newtopian Night Guard, so I tend to get a lot of respect here!” Ah, that made sense. If the general people found out about one of their high ranking military officials actually being The Newtopian Book Beast, then she was sure there’d be an angry mob. She just hoped they’d be able to see her dad soon enough.

Suddenly they heard some large bells ringing atop the gate and only moments afterwards, said gate opened! They allowed Marcy to lead the way inside and followed her while admiring all of the gorgeous scenery around them! There was everything from gorgeous statues to arching walkways and the younger kids wanted to touch everything! Hop Pop and Anne decided to stick a little bit closer to the newt, though.

Before long, a whole bunch of newtopian guards surrounded the group. Had they done something wrong? Did they know about Anne? She looked over at Marcy, but saw that the newt wasn’t bothered at all by the guards surrounding them. Instead, she looked kinda happy to see them. Almost as soon as they were fully surrounded, a few of them parted to make way for a much more regal looking newt!

“Well met, Olivia.” Marcy said to the new newt. Olivia responded in turn.

“Your father sends his greetings, Lady Marcy. He trusts you have succeeded?”

“Yes I have! We won’t ever be seeing any of those barbariants again. You have my word!”

“Excellent work, as expected of the great Princess Marcy Leviathan.” The plantars all did a double take. Sure, they already knew that the princess of Amphibia was a newt named Marcy, but they’d figured that the one they’d met was a completely different individual! If this Marcy was the princess, then why was she doing military work?!

Anne’s thoughts, though, came to a screeching halt as her mind tried to combine that information with what she’d learned just a little bit ago. Marcy was the princess. Marcy was also one of her kind in disguise. Marcy’s dad possibly knew more about their kind ‘cause he knew Marcy before she took her first dose of medicine. At the same time, Marcy’s dad was… the King! Her mind was interrupted by Olivia continuing.

“I see you have… company.”

“Oh yeah, these are the Plantars! They were stuck outside the city during the attack, so I effectively took them into protective custody until they told me that they had a lot of experience dealing with threats like this. I didn’t want them to get involved, but they insisted and were actually a really great help! So now I’m taking them to see my dad so that they can be rewarded for their trouble.” Marcy explained with pride. The frogs looked in between the two newts for a while before Anne finally snapped back to her senses and gave a bow.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my lady.” 

“Quite.” Lady Olivia addressed Anne before turning back to Marcy “Are you certain you would like to take them to see him, Lady Marcy? I know you grow attached to good people easily, but his majesty is very busy, as you know.” The green newt simply smiled and with full confidence, said

“Absolutely! Believe me when I say that these guys have a VERY good reason to see him and I will take full responsibility for them. But we should get that done as soon as possible!”

“Very well then, Lady Marcy. In that case, your report of what happened with the barbariants can wait. I will escort you back to the palace, seeing as I was headed there myself anyways.” She turned back to the frogs “Come along now, frogs. And make sure you’re really ready to meet the king! I will not begrudge you if you need to get some… more presentable clothing first.”

The most that Hop Pop could do was grab his silk ascot from the fwagon while the kids ended up looking a little guilty because they each only had one outfit. Marcy caught on to this, though, and stood up for them.

“Nah, they’ll be fine! I’m not gonna change before meeting with him, so why should they bother with that? Getting to him quickly is a little more important right now!” Anne silently thanked Marcy for saying that by giving her a smile.

“Very well then, Lady Marcy. Let us go.” Lady Olivia said with a bit of skepticism in her voice, but she didn’t directly say anything bad, per se. And with that, they were all off to the castle! The trip there was relatively uneventful, albeit beautiful as the frogs admired the scenery around them. Once they got into the castle grounds, they made sure to keep close to Marcy because of how the guards were looking at them. After a quick pit stop to park Bessie and the fwagon, they actually entered the castle proper.

It didn’t take long for them to come up on what they assumed to be the throne room. Lady Olivia turned back around again to give them one last warning about making sure to be presentable and respectful before they continued. Anne was pretty nervous and when she looked at the rest of her family, she could see that they were as well. Looking towards Marcy, however, showed just how casual she was about the whole situation.

Anne figured she was allowed to be casual because she was the princess, though. The frogs, on the other hand, weren’t even close to her level! Heck, when they approached the throne itself and laid their eyes on King Andrias Leviathan for the first time, an innate sense of fear ran through Anne’s body. She figured that it came from seeing something so much larger than herself, so she calmed herself down by remembering how benevolent the King had always been depicted according to everything she’d been told. Olivia gave a very short and practiced speech on who he was before moving aside to allow Marcy to take the spotlight.

“Hey dad, I know you’re wondering why I brought these frogs here, but I have a very good reason.” Marcy seemed about to explain, but then Andrias’ great and booming voice echoed through the halls with all the jovial excitement of a child who’s just gotten a new toy.

“Oh, I looked out the window and saw you approaching with them, so I’d assumed you simply made some new friends!”

“Ah, yeah, these are the Plantars. They helped me out with the barbariants, seeing as they were stuck outside of the city during the event. They really were a great help and I can definitely see us becoming friends!” The king smiled, seeing his daughter present them to him. He immediately got to his feet and approached the frogs.

“Aw, bring it in, you guys. Bring it in!”

“Quick, kids. Bow!” Hop Pop whispered to them. They all did as Hop Pop instructed, but that didn’t seem to matter as his majesty picked all four of them up and hugged them all close. Ah, it seemed that ‘being a hugger’ was something that Marcy had picked up from him.

“It’s so good to know my daughter has made some more friends!” He exclaimed while gently nuzzling them close. He seemed to be making sure that none of them got suffocated by his beard, for which the Plantars were grateful, but the sudden affection was still very surprising. He didn’t hold them for too long, though! He just set them down gently, leaving all four of them to just basically sit on the floor with wide eyes as they all got their bearings.

“I LIKE THIS GUY!!” Polly shouted as she was the first one to right herself. While the rest of them got their bearings back, Andrias let out a hearty laugh. Lady Olivia then walked up to him and actually seemed to scold him!

“Dear King Andrias, just once, it would be nice if you followed proper castle etiquette.” He brushed her off, though. He was the king, after all! Perhaps that was what people meant when they said he was very friendly! Before he could ask anything, though, Marcy spoke up.

“Now, I would normally go and write a report first, but I decided to bring them here first instead because there’s something very special going on with them that I think you should know about. You might notice that one of them is not like the others…” At this, King Andrias turned to look at the little frog family in front of him.

“Well, each one appears to have something unique compared to the others. The one adult, the one tadpole, the blue one, and the young boy. Which one are you referring to, Marcy?” The green newt simply walked over to Anne and picked her up for him to see before continuing. Ah yes, she must have gotten that habit from watching her dad as well.

“This is Anne. Obviously, she’s the adopted one, but there’s something even better about her. Though may I request that that factor be addressed in private? It’s regarding her parents…” Anne looked up at Marcy, just a little bit confused. She’d never mentioned her parents to her before! Just as she was about to question it, though, his majesty stood up straight and announced an order to all of the guards.

“All guards, please leave us! This is a private matter that we will be discussing.” Anne was surprised to see them all file out without complaint. She figured that Marcy mentioned her parents just so that they’d have an excuse to get everyone out of there. At the very least, it worked! Even Lady Olivia was starting to leave. Marcy, however, called her back.

“Oh, Olivia, you don’t have to go. You’re pretty good with stuff like this, so I’d appreciate it if you stayed.” The good lady looked a little confused, but did exactly as her princess told her to. Once the guards were all gone, (the royals checked around and behind the various pillars of the room just to make sure) his majesty turned back to Anne and asked the essential question with a worried expression.

“Now what was this about your parents that I apparently need to hear in private?”

“W-well, uhh…” Anne had trouble formulating words now that the most powerful amphibian in all of Amphibia was staring right at her. Thankfully Marcy was quick to jump in for her.

“Okay, so I kinda had to fib there. You’re about to see why, though. It’s not about her parents, it’s about her! You see, she’s not actually, well, a frog!” King Andrias tilted his head a little bit at that, seemingly confused. Marcy took it as an invitation to continue.

“Now, this might sound a liiittle familiar to you. She takes a magic potion every day in order to remain as a frog, but that’s not her true form. In reality, her true form is something a lot more horrifying in appearance.” The King’s eyes went wide as it suddenly clicked for him!

“OH!! Well, now the things that you said and the fact that you brought them here makes a LOT more sense!” He turned to the Plantars, including Anne “Please tell me everything! I can promise that all of your secrets will be safe with me.” Figuring that since he raised Marcy while knowing the truth about her, he had to be okay with it.

Anne and her family decided to trust King Andrias as they proceeded to tell him everything…