20. Chapter 20(2)

“B-but… I…” The princess started to feel helpless. Both sides here were scolding her and as bad as it felt to be scolded by her dad, Anne’s anger somehow felt even worse. The king continued off of that, making her even more distraught.

“See Marcy, even your little farmer friend can understand something as simple as that. She could be an asset to you. But first, you need to make sure she’s loyal to you.  Make her bow to you and only then can you be sure she will not use you.” The princess shook her head in disbelief while Anne took a step back in fear. Surely Marcy wouldn't actually do anything, right? It seemed the brunette's assumption about the princess was correct, because she actually protested the king’s words!

“But I learned all of that back in Wartood! I don’t need them to bow to me and I never wanted an invasion ! I was never told about that part! Just that I was the chosen one. Ch-chosen to play a specific role in all of this because of that other prophecy about someone who would appear in a specific place th-that I appeared in. It was where you first found me when I was a baby! You know the one!” She shouted at him. Confusion ran through the others like wildfire! But this didn't seem to stop the king from rebutting.

“You actually still think that all that was true?” An expression of pure dread overtook her features as she whipped around to stare at him. Her breath caught in her throat and she was only able to choke out a single word.

“Wh-what?” Taking his opportunity to finally reveal the truth, Andrias did exactly that!

“My dear, didn’t you think it was suspicious that there’s more than one of your kind in this world in the first place? I wasn’t lying about the box flickering back to life one day at pure random, you know. But you being the only one that arrived as a result? HA, as if! I looked for the reason behind why the box suddenly had a bit of power and I saw that it was trying to connect to something. After enough investigation, I saw that it opened three small portals, one each in front of one of three random alien infants.

"I knew the box wouldn’t charge without these infants that it was trying to connect to, so I reached through the portals and grabbed each one. It was a simple extraction, seeing as they were all asleep at the time. Next thing I knew, the portals closed and the box returned to its powered down state. I resolved to run some tests on the infants, but not even a full week passed before someone invaded the cell I was keeping them in. They made off with two of them before I could do anything about it! I saw them just as they were escaping, struggling to hold onto the two, so I knew they’d come back for the third before long.

"But that’s when I devised a solution! Turn the remaining infant into an amphibian and present her to the kingdom as the princess so that I could have guards on her at all times. As for the other two… well, I thought Anne and Sasha were dead right up until Marcy brought Anne right here to me and she told me where Sasha had been seen last.” As Andrias spoke, a deathly silence took hold of the room. Nobody could believe what they'd just heard.

On top of wanting to invade other world and cause genocide, this giant salamander was completely fine with kidnapping babies ?! Not only that, but HE was the reason why the three girls were displaced to begin with?! If it weren't for him, then the three of them could have lived perfectly normal, healthy lives as their true species! But instead, they were ripped away from ever having any semblance of normalcy. Even if they did all somehow get back to whatever world they came from, none of them really knew how to be a normal… whatever-they-were, so their lives in that respect were completely ruined!

It was all so much to process! It was a good thing that Anne and Sasha were taken away from him, but that was hardly enough to fix the problem! And who the heck would even be able to do something like that?! It was a missing link in their story that would need to be solved another day, though. For now, they had a corrupt king to deal with as Anne snapped at him!

“You… how DARE you! You are by and far the most evil person I’ve ever seen or heard of!”

“Oh, here we go…” Andrias drawled on like he was expecting this. So he clearly knew that he did something bad, but he didn't want to hear about it. Too bad for him, though, because Anne continued like he hadn't said anything in the first place.

“No matter what you intended to do with us when you first kidnapped us, doing so was your biggest mistake because now we’re here and now we’re going to stop you!” She drew her sword and called out to her fellow creature “Sasha!” And as much as the blonde preferred being the one in control, she let it slide this once because there was a much bigger threat. Instead of demanding control, she simply held up her hands so that the rope around them could be cut! As that was being done, she spoke to the brunette.

“For as long as he's your enemy, I’ve got your back.”

“And I’ve got yours.” Grime affirmed for Sasha. Given the circumstances, he figured that letting Sasha follow Anne this one time would be okay. He ripped the rope off, showing that he could have done so at any moment. He just knew that doing it would result in Sasha getting hurt, so he refrained from that. Once the two of them were free from their bindings, Frobo tossed their weapons over to them and the whole group got ready to fight!

“We’re all with you, Anne. ‘Til the end!” Sprig said to his big sister, giving her the vote of confidence that she needed before the big fight! Seeing this small resistance, Andrias was almost taken aback.

“You guys are serious. Okay!” He pulled a sword hilt out from behind his back and pressed a button. Suddenly it flared to life and turned itself into a massive blade, appropriately sized for the giant salamander. The blade was made of a bright, yellow flame that held the appropriate shape of a sword, but licked the air regardless. Andrias' tone went from astonished to menacing when he spoke again.

“Let’s have some fun!” At the invitation, Anne and Sasha ran at him, only for some of his metal constructs to get in their way! Anne slashed at the first one that got too close, but another circled behind her. From there, Sasha actually turned around and proved that she had the brunette's back by defending it with a strike to the chest of the second construct! Anne turned back to finish that one off while Sasha turned in Anne's direction to take care of the newly approaching one! Knowing which one of the alphas was in charge at this point, Sasha willingly ducked underneath Anne so that they wouldn't collide with each other. The two delivered stabs at the things in front of them, then pressed their backs together and nodded towards each other.

Regardless of how little Anne would normally trust Sasha, she knew that their goal aligned too much for the blonde to betray her now! Both of them were fueled by hatred and rage that aligned towards the one who'd ripped them away from a normal life before they could even live it. No matter how one looked at it, neither of them had any reason whatsoever to not work together! They ran off into battle with each other, confident in the other's skills and motives.

On the other end of the room, Hop Pop sucker punched one of Andrias' Frobo look-alikes with all the fury of a parent whose child was wronged! Sure, if he'd have never kidnapped Anne, then the old frog probably would have never met the girl, but that hardly mattered! His granddaughter never would have had to live a lie for her whole childhood. She would have been in her most natural state and she wouldn't have had the same crushing insecurities that being an alien gave her!

Unfortunately, he ended up punching the metal construct so hard that his fist began to throb. Sure, he knocked it down, but he'd be useless if his hand hurt too much to fight after only one punch. It was a good thing that Grime came in to help by smashing the thing’s head in with his hammer! Seeing how effective their teamwork was, the two of them repeated their actions with the next one. Hop Pop disorienting them and Grime going in for the kill worked far better than either of the amphibians would have expected. And at the very least, Hop Pop didn’t have to punch as hard as the first time.

Finally, a robot tried to attack Olivia and Marcy only to be sliced down by Yunan! They had no reason to attack the other newts, seeing as they were relatively helpless. Even though they clearly stood against King Andrias here, Oliva had no real means of fighting and Marcy wasn’t the most accurate with her crossbow. Not to mention the fact that the person who she’d trusted the most throughout her entire life was an evil tyrant was weighing on her! But she had to make a decision when Anne’s voice rang out over the battle!

“Marcy! Catch!” Looking upwards, the princess saw a berry flying through the air at her. She caught it out of pure reflex and stared at it for a moment. Eating it would be the last straw of defiance against her dad. She’d no doubt face some pretty severe consequences if she did, but… when she looked at her friends fighting for their lives and for the lives of who knew how many others, the answer was obvious. Locking eyes with her dad- no, with her kidnapper, she threw the berry into her mouth and bit down! And as gruesome as the transformation was, for the very first time, it didn’t hurt at all!

In her true form, her forward facing eyes made it much easier to aim her crossbow and fight back! She could tell that the king was angry with her for doing it, but she couldn’t care less about his feelings by this point! All she cared about was doing the right thing. She looked at the only other parental figure she’d ever had in her life and when Olivia saw Marcy in the state she was in, the lady was shocked for a moment. But with one shake of her head and a simple nod, the princess knew that she still had at least some support in her life!

Armed with this information, Marcy rushed forewards and fought back against the metal constructs using her crossbow! Polly and Frobo joined her with the latter firing extremely hot beams of light at his own kind and burning right through their chests! Another one was about to fire its own beam of light at them before it was hit in the back of its head by a small rock. It paused for a moment before turning around and seeing Sprig standing there with his slingshot!

It tried to fire at him, but he managed to hop out of the way of each beam just in time! This continued on for a while before he jumped up a little higher and fired some mud balls at the parts used to shoot them! Everyone’s collective experience with Frobo had taught them that mud could be very dangerous for these constructs and sure enough, the parts being all clogged up caused them to explode! In the end, everyone was standing together with a ton of broken, twisted, and melted pieces of metal all around them! They were almost victorious until Andrias lost his patience.

“ENOUGH!!” He yelled as he stabbed the ground. The fire from his sword shot out a shockwave that forced everyone to scatter. Only the smallest two members of the group landed closer to the king while everyone else landed a little further away. Those who did began to recollect themselves and form together again while Sprig landed off to Andrais’ side and was surrounded by constructs as soon as he landed. This made it too dangerous for him to get up, but that wasn’t the issue.

Instead, the youngest and smallest person there, the pollywog, landed right at Andrias’ giant feet! From there, the mad king lifted up one of said feet and reared back to crush the baby! They’d just come to terms with the fact that he was willing to kidnap literal infants, but seeing him actually prepare to murder a child so young made everyone stop. Anne screamed out for her little sister!

“POLLY!! NO!!” But before Andrias could crush the tadpole, he felt something wrap around him and hold him back. 

“Polly, I will save you.” Frobo spoke. Usually the big, metal baby was silent and he only communicated through gestures. However, there was the rare occasion where he did actually speak, but only to Polly as she was the one who originally found him and convinced Hop Pop to let him stay. In fact, up until that point, Polly and Marcy were the only ones who’d actually heard his voice! So hearing him speak in front of other people was something to truly marvel at. Although Andrias didn’t really seem to think so.

“Oh, look at that, one of my robots. Must be defective.” Was that what they were called? ‘Robot’s? Either way, the king leaned back and casually smashed Frobo into tiny pieces using his fist right in front of everyone! The metal baby’s severed head went skidding off towards the rest of the group as they were beginning to collect together again. Hop Pop grabbed it and looked back and forth between the head and his youngest grandchild, fearing that Andrias was about to do to Polly what he just did to Frobo. The pollywog seemed to be more concerned about her friend than the danger she was in, though.

“FROBO!! You… YOU MONSTER!!” She screamed at him, obviously losing her mind over the murder of her best friend! Andrias, however, was completely unfazed.

“Don’t worry, you’re up next.” Instead of a foot this time, he tried to kill Polly with a fist! The impact sent up a cloud of dust and rubble into the air around them and everyone gasped. Silence once again overtook the group as their minds worked in denial at the idea that they’d just watched a tadpole die! But as the dust cleared and settled, Andrias lifted up his fist to reveal a crater with absolutely no splotches of red in it. Polly wasn’t there! Hope welled up in the chests of every sane person in the room while the king simply made a confused noise.

“Wha?”

“OVER HERE, YA BIG BOZO!!” Polly’s voice came from off to the side, confirming that she was overall completely fine. But then, as the rest of the dust finally settled, they all noticed that she was better than fine!

“Guess who just got her le-WOAH!!” She taunted, showing off the fact that her legs had just suddenly grown in! She just lost her balance a little bit near the end of her taunt, hence the shout, but she regained her balance without an issue and Hop Pop shouted in celebration!

“MY LITTLE BABY’S GOT LEGS!!”

“This is weird!” Her older brother stated. Not only was ‘Polly with legs’ a completely brand new concept for everybody, but Sprig remembered when his own legs grew in. They were gradual and took a couple of weeks! Maybe Polly’s case was different because she was in a life threatening situation when it happened? It was hard to tell because the boy had never heard of this kind of thing happening before. Then again, he was only ten years old, so maybe it was more common than he thought?

Either way, everyone took note of the fact that Polly with legs was able to outspeed Andrias. And on top of that, she was still such a small target that it would be nearly impossible for the giant salamander to even hit her! The first one to make these mental connections and see the potential use for this child was Sasha, so she immediately let out a command, hoping the kid would listen to her despite the obvious.

“Polly! Get the box, get the box!”

“On it!” She responded before running off with her new legs! Sasha silently thanked frog that the little one was sensible enough to listen to her in this situation.

“Stop that little brat!” The king commanded his robots so that they would attack the kid, but she managed to dodge out of the way every single time! How was a child who wasn't used to having legs so good at actually using them?! Most frogs took a few days of adjusting, but Polly just fit right into it! She sidestepped multiple times, losing her balance again only once, but hopping on one leg in order to get it back. After all that running, the only thing that stood in between the kid and the box was two more hostile robots!

She slid underneath one of them and then hopped up onto the chest of the other. From there, the robot that she slid under fired at her and only ended up hitting its fellow robot! As it was, Polly dodged it and even pulled off a backflip and landed on the firing robot’s head. The one that had a huge hole in its chest then fired again and blasted the first one’s head clean off before it collapsed on its own. At that point, she was clear to hop over to the music box and remove it from its pedestal!

“Ha, got it! WOAH!!” Everyone jerked as they could feel the castle sinking. It apparently had enough safety protocols to land slowly after the box was removed, so they weren’t all suddenly falling. As a result, everyone except Andrias cheered for her. The king, for his part, cut the celebration short!

“Not so fast! You’ve all got spunk, real chutzpah, but this ends now.” He lifted up his hand to show off the fact that he had Sprig gripped firmly in his fist! Seeing that another child was in danger, the group’s collective hearts all sank.

“Guys, don’t listen to this bully, I’ll be fine!” Sprig tried to reassure them, but then Andrias responded while moving him so that he was being held out the window!

“We’ll see. Now put back the box or this twerp learns how to fly.”

“No, don’t!” His protests were cut off by the giant salamander squeezing him harder and forcing some choking noises from the boy.

“SPRIG!!” Anne called out for him before turning to her little sister “Polly, do what he says.” The youngest followed her big sister’s instructions without argument or issue. Once the box was back into place, the castle’s flight resumed and a robot picked her up to take her back to the rest of the group. Once she was there, she grabbed Frobo’s severed head and nearly began to cry for him. Hop Pop put a hand on her back to try comforting her while he let his oldest grandchild handle the rest of the negotiations.

“Okay, you have what you want. Now please, just put him down. He’s my little brother, regardless of blood.” There was a slight pause before Andrias narrowed his eyes at the boy in his hand and said one last thing.

“That’s the thing about those you hold close, isn’t it? The more you love ‘em, the more it hurts when they go. Allow me to demonstrate.” And with all the casualness of someone willing to kidnap and murder babies and children, he dropped the young frog. Anne blinked in disbelief as her little brother went falling out of her view. He was gone! She didn’t even know when she fell to the floor, but she did at one point as all she could do was blink and try to support herself.

She was on all-fours as thoughts flooded her brain. Andrias had just dropped Sprig out of the window to his death! As her mind grappled with what had just happened, everything around her faded. She didn’t hear her family’s screams or the gasps that came from the others. All she could hear was the memories that were flooding her mind. Particularly one that stood out from when she was only seven years old. 

Anne slammed the door behind her with a frustrated yell as she entered the house. She could hear Hop Pop’s stern ‘No slamming doors!’ echo from his study. She didn’t care. She just stomped her way to the kitchen, leaping up to cling to one of the cabinet doors. It swung open with her weight, allowing her to crawl around so she could reach inside. Her rummaging quickly grew frantic, though. It was the sound of something breaking that eventually drew both Hop Pop and Sprig into the kitchen.

“Girl, what in the hay are ya doin’ in here?!” He could hear the tail end of her angry muttering before she whipped her head around, face so red she actually looked like she could be a Plantar by blood and yelled so loud it could be heard outside.

“WHO TOOK MY BEETLE JERKY?!”

“Wait, that was yours?” Anne snapped her head to her four-year-old brother, glaring at the traces of her treat clinging around his mouth. For a moment, the pollywog was convinced he was going to die that day.

“WHY THE HECK WOULD YOU DO THAT?! Those were MINE! I was saving those!” Sprig was startled by his sister’s sudden anger. How could he have known? Was she really getting that angry over some food? It wasn’t like he had purposefully ripped up her favorite stuffed toy or anything! She was being unreasonable and it was riling him up too!

“Well, I sure didn’t see your name on them!”

“OH I’ll teach you, you greedy little brat!” Sprig actually screamed as the older child made a leap for him. Hop Pop was faster though, snatching the girl from the air and holding her as she struggled to get loose.

“Anne! Don’tcha call yer brother that!”

“I can call that fat little thief whatever I want! Twerp! Runt! Stinkbug! Dipspit! Swampgass mother clucker! Son of a slug!” Hop Pop actually gasped at that as some tears started beading in Sprig’s eyes. Where did she even hear those kinds of words?

“That’s it, young lady! Go to your room right now! And you can forget joinin’ us fer-!”

“Dad!” Movement in the room seized as eyes were drawn to the front door, where two adult frogs stood, covered in dirt from having previously been working in the garden. They looked momentarily panicked at the state their family was in until their eyes met and they gave each other a look, like they had been preparing for this.

“You take Anne?” The woman asked the larger male.

“And you take care of Sprig.” He confirmed with a nod. Their mom did just that, walking to scoop the tadpole up off the floor and calmly making her way up to his room.

“S-She called me a-”

“Yes, I heard honey.”

“She can’t just-!”

“No, indeed she shouldn’t.”

“So she should be punished, right?!” She hesitated a little bit longer with her next answer, thinking over her words.

“Well… first, we are all going to calm down for a bit. Then we can figure out what to do next.” Meanwhile downstairs, their dad made his way over to his father-in-law, holding out his hands to calm him.

“Let us just take care of this, Hopediah. How about you sit down on the couch and calm down for a bit?” The oldest frog just looked at him for a moment. In his opinion, the other man wasn’t being stern enough right now, especially when his daughter called her little brother such hurtful names. But they were adults and their parents, so he needed to respect their methods. He put his granddaughter down.

The blue frog almost immediately tried to make a dash up the stairs, but her father was quicker, grabbing her by the back of her little dress.

“Ah ah ah, none of that now. We are going to sit in Hop Pop’s study.”

“B-b-but he-! That little-!"

“I know and you can tell me aaaaall about it. But for now, we’re just gonna go and collect our thoughts so we can actually put them into words, okay sweetie?” And so that’s exactly how it went, with the two kids gently nudged into opposite rooms and one parent with each so they couldn’t yell at each other through the walls. It took a while for them to calm down, but they knew they were ready when Sprig quietly started playing with his blocks and Anne started softly sobbing.

After a quick message to Hop Pop that he relayed to his daughter, they brought both children back to the living room. As Sprig was carried down the stairs, he still felt a sense of righteous anger, but also just a hint of smug satisfaction. At the moment he felt ready to see his sister get scolded for bullying him like that and get an apology from her. But his ire fizzled out as soon as he saw the big tears that were dripping down her face. Did dad scold her that badly?

Both parents moved over to the couch at the same time, sitting the kids down while placing themselves on either side of them. That way they could talk and the adults could coach and support them through it. Dad placed his gentle hand on his daughter's back.

"Now, Anne, how about you tell us what happened today? Start at the beginning." The little girl looked up at the older frog, rubbing her eyes as she took a deep breath.

“W-well, first I didn't sleep that well last night. So when you called me down for breakfast this morning, I was a bit dizzy and I bumped my foot." Anne wiggled said foot lightly. The lighter purple-ish bruising she sometimes got would be harder to see against her blue skin, but now that Sprig was paying attention, he could see one of her toes turned slightly darker near the tip. She continued on.

"Taking my medicine is always nasty, but today there wasn't even any cranberry juice left to wash it down. And then when I was asked to help dry dishes, it felt like even more of a chore than usual." Anne's face suddenly scrunched up. Her lips trembled for a bit, more tears streaming freely down her flustered face, before she felt ready to continue.

"Mom then asked me to go get some things from the store. There was cranberry juice on the list, so I thought today might stop being so bad. B-but then I bumped into Brull."

"Wait, Rhanny's kid?" Mom asked. Anne nodded, wringing her skirt with her hands as she started sobbing again.

"H-he said… that with Sprig there and almost old enough to help, y-you w-w-wouldn't need me anymore. H-h-he said I was a replacement u-until you could get a kid of your own! And now you c-could t-t-t-throw away that that t-that-" Anne choked on her words for a moment, sobbing louder. Mother and brother both sat stunned for a bit, too shocked to react until she finally spat it out.

"That 'dumb, sick orphan girl'!" Mom suddenly lunged for her daughter, taking her into her arms. Their father reacted in kind, though slightly calmer since he had already heard this just a few minutes prior. He sat his son into his lap so the baby wouldn't be crushed before joining his wife in comforting their eldest. Sprig, for his part, could only stare. Who would say something like that? How dare Brull talk like that about his sister?!

"Oh sweetie, you know that isn't true, right?"

"I knOW!" Anne didn't mean to yell, but her emotions were messing up her voice.

"I mean I know it's only in my head! But it scared me and it HURTS!"

Their mother gently brushed the giant curls out of her teary face, making her turn to bury her sobs into her chest instead. Making use of her taking a moment to cry herself out, the two turned to face each other. Their father looked furious.

"That boy is almost seventeen now. He should know better!" He hissed to his wife in a hushed voice. He calmed down again as she lightly touched his shoulder.

"I'll make sure to have a little chat with his mother about this." Sprig shuddered slightly at his mom's words. Her voice was calm, and yet the way she said those words made him feel like someone was in big trouble. After a few more seconds, Anne finally looked up and continued.

"I… I was so upset, I ran home after that. It was when I came inside that I realized I didn't actually do my errand and I thought you might be disappointed. But it was too late to go back. I had been saving some beetle jerky for a bad day and I thought taking my anger out on chewing it up would help. But then Sprig h-had taken i-it and-." Said boy's heart sank as he heard that, and for a moment he was scared mom and dad might get mad at him now. But instead his sister's eyes turned to him.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry Sprig! M-my day has been awful, and when you took my only way I could think of to calm down, it was suddenly too much." Mom placed her hand on Anne's shoulder, briefly pausing her to turn to the young boy.

"Which you shouldn't have done either. You shouldn't take treats and candy from the pantry without asking. Do you understand?" He nodded mutely, which made her turn back to his sister and cue her to continue.

"B-but I shouldn't have yelled at you. I shouldn't have called you all those horrible names. I was a horrible big sister to you. I'm just as bad as Brull." Those words finally shook Sprig from his stupor. Tears now streaming from his own eyes, he jumped up and clung to her face until his father lifted his hands up to support him.

"NO! You're not bad like Brull! He's a bully! You're gentle, brave, and kind. You just… he just managed to make you so sad-mad that you exploded! Kaboom!" She gave a wet little chuckle at that, which he considered a little success.

"But you wouldn't make someone feel bad without them hurting you first. So you're like, a banjo-illion times better than him." He felt a smaller pair of hands take over holding him as his sister pulled him close.

"But… I-I made you feel bad."

"After I hurt you. I took your comfort snack and talked back and made your day even more worse. and I'm sorry I did that."

"B-but you couldn't have known."

"But I should have asked, just like mom said. So we both did a dumb."

"... We both did a dumb." She agreed softly. They hugged just a little bit longer, before he used all the strength in his teeny tiny flippers to give her a last squeeze and pull back to look her in the eyes.

"And if mom and dad ever make you leave, then I'll run away with you. And they'll only get me back if they take us both back!" He reassured her resolutely. She was his older sister and he wouldn't let anyone take her away from him! Both parents immediately shuffled in closer to their kids again, each taking up a side so both kids were cuddled in between them.

"Oh you don't need to worry your little heads about that, kiddos."

"We're family, so we need to be there for each other. Anne, we love you and we could never wish for a better oldest daughter. If we were to abandon you just because Sprig is here now too, we wouldn't be good parents, now would we?" Anne smiled at her mother's words, nuzzling closer against her.

"No, instead you're the best!" Her younger brother joined in with even double the energy.

"You guys are even better than the best! You're the, uhm… most BESTEST!" They laughed at both their children, holding them closer until they had all calmed down. It took some time, but eventually when both tears and hard feelings had dried up, they decided to go on to their next step in their carefully crafted 'reconciliation protocol'. Mom spoke up first.

"Now, some bad things happened and we can't change the past anymore. But maybe we can think of things to do in the future. Do you guys have any ideas?" Sprig and Anne gave each other a look, surprised their parents were going to let them think of a solution. But they quickly settled to thinking of their own plans.

"Maybe…" Anne pondered, taking her finger from her mouth. "I can start by not saying things like that to Sprig again?" She got a nod from her father for the suggestion.

"That is indeed a very nice thing to work on. But sometimes when we get angry, tensions can run high and hurtful things can be said before we can even stop it. When that happens, it's indeed very important to stop and apologize. So, can we maybe think of other things we can do too?" Sprig perked up, waving one little flipper through the air.

"Oh, oh! Different snack corners! Like, Anne puts her favorite snacks in the left corner, and I put mine in the right. That way, if we want a snack from the other corner, we know to extra ask each other if we can have some. And then we'll know when our comfort snack is almost gone and we need to get a new one!" Anne's eyes lit up at the suggestion.

"And maybe, when we see each other take a snack from our own corner while looking upset, we can ask each other if we want to talk about it!" Both mom and dad positively beamed at their proposals, mom even clapping her hands in encouragement.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea you two! How about this: We'll go to the store together to get the groceries and while we're there, we can get both of you a collection of 'comfort snacks'. How does that sound?" They cheered and the family set out to do just that. Judging by that and the squealing and laughter all the way there, they liked it. They didn't end up seeing Brull or his parents on the way, but they were thankful for that at the moment. The last thing the kids needed was having their mood soured again (or them getting into a fight as Sprig tried to defend his sister).

Both of them might have gotten a little more sugar than they should, but their parents were proud of the solution they came up with all on their own. Plus both had had an emotional day, so they deserved something to make it better. And as a little extra surprise, dad prepared each of them a big jar with a piece of blue and pink paper stuck to it, each having a sad froggy face drawn on. That way they had their very own 'sad snack' jar to keep their treats.

It wasn't their last fight though, far from it. But over time they became familiar with the protocol of 'chill, explain, solve', and they learned to talk it out. Even after mom and dad were taken, they continued to follow the steps and applied them to the youngest sister once she started getting into her own fights.

Brother and sister were supposed to be a front together. They had learned to stand together even if the whole world seemed to turn upside down. Spranne against the world, right? But now, there was no more Spranne. Because of HIM! He tօօӄ ֆքʀɨɢ ǟաǟʏ ʄʀօʍ ɦɛʀ!

Outside of the girl’s mind, the blue gem on the box began to flicker a little bit. It then sparked a couple of times before a blue wisp of energy snaked out and reached over to Anne. When it got to her, it surrounded her in a circle on the floor. The moment that said circle connected, it formed a bubble over her for just a moment then shone MUCH brighter! Andrias looked over and his cocky expression was replaced with one of worry.

“No, it can’t be…” He muttered to himself as the blue energy radiated off of Anne like a flame! In the shock of it all, Marcy managed to shake herself back to her senses and make a break for the window. One of the robots tried firing at her, but it missed and didn’t bother chasing after her when she jumped. On her way down, she put her fingers to her mouth in order to call Joe Sparrow so that she could save Sprig. Meanwhile the king was too focused on the glowing alien creature to notice his daughter literally jumping out of a window.

“She’s still connected to the stone! But that’s impossible.” He continued to mutter. Nobody knew what the heck he was talking about, so Hop Pop decided to just ask. He knew that Andrias wouldn’t answer, though, so he turned to the other person who had the most experience with the girls’ true forms: Grime.

“What’s goin’ on?!”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s something to do with their species?” Ignoring the older amphibians completely, Anne’s transformation of sorts continued. Branches and twigs grew from her head and flowed through her hair, growing leaves. Some of the leaves fell off immediately and landed back down into her hair. With each one that landed, they rippled into her and turned it a bright blue! As she stood up, the aura radiating off of her went from looking like a flame to looking more like a blooming flower. Everyone was stunned as the girl’s eyes changed to match her hair and her voice echoed throughout the room, in their minds, and even seemed to shake the very walls.

“Give him back. GIVE! HIM! BACK!!” From there, she reared back and then slammed her hands down onto the ground. This gave her enough lift to jump up with an explosion of power that obliterated the robots around her! But no one could see her after that because she moved so fast!

“Where’d she gOOOH!!” Andrias started asking only to be slammed in the face by her speed! She’d hit him with both of her fists at once, so it hit with double the strength! It was enough to send him stumbling back and send his crown flying so that it wedged itself into the wall behind him! All the amphibians on her side plus Sasha all gasped at her display of raw power!

Whatever this was, Sasha was so unfamiliar with it that she almost doubted it really had something to do with their species. But also, maybe this was some sort of feral beast mode? She remembered back on the top of the tower, when she tried to activate something, any thing in order to beat Anne back then. But when she found nothing, a small part of her began to doubt that they even had something like that to begin with. However, seeing this display from Anne in this moment, she was beginning to rethink that.

Anne didn’t seem to be thinking about what she was doing, though, because she backflipped off of Andrias’ face and landed on the ground in front of him. She was in a crouching position, so the giant salamander brought both of his fists forewards, locking his fingers together in order to crush her underneath. All he succeeded in doing, though, was making another crater and catching a couple of leaves!

There was a faint trail of said leaves that led the king to look up at the ceiling and see that the girl was crouched up there almost like she still had her cling pads despite being in her true form! She charged up some of her power before jumping down at him. Seeing another bout of pain incoming, Andrias did the only thing he could think of in that moment: tell his robots to fire!

The command was relatively ineffective, as Anne easily dodged every single one of them at a rate so fast that the others could only see a blue blur of light! They heard her voice, though, as she screamed at Andrias and crashed down on him with enough force to to destroy the robots that were near him and knock all of her allies down onto their butts! Somehow, the king managed to block her blow with a shield that no one knew where he got it from!

The two pushed against each other, with each one of them putting their all into it! But it didn’t take long for Andrias to be brought to his knees and his shield to crack! Bolts of lightning shot off of them, almost seeming to come from the shield moreso than anything else and it even damaged some of the nearby columns that decorated the room! The king roared once more in frustration, but Anne wasn’t fazed at all as she found the strength to put even more power into her attack and completely shatter the shield!

The force of it all sent Andrias tumbling back and into the wall. The king shook his head as he watched her do a small backflip and land elegantly in front of him. Despite the size difference, he was still clearly intimidated by her. But then she started talking again.

“Give him back. Give him… back…” She muttered before her power suddenly faded and all of her colours returned to normal while she collapsed. The leaves and a single twig remained in her hair, but it was clear that whatever just happened was overwith. Everyone stared at her for a moment before Andrias stood up, holding his shoulder. He let out a small laugh.

“Looks like she can’t… control it.” He mumbled as he pulled out his sword again and started walking towards her. Seeing the roughed up shape he was in, it took him a while to reach her. In the meantime, Hop Pop and Polly came rushing over to her side!

Hop Pop didn't know if elevating her head would help or not. It usually worked for amphibians, but he had no idea whether it'd be good for her species. Thankfully she seemed to respond to it as she groaned slightly. If that really was some sort of feral beast state, then she clearly wasn't used to it enough to properly utilize it! Either way, Hop Pop started encouraging his oldest grandchild.

“Come on, get up Anne!” He said in as soft a tone as his panicked voice could muster, trying desperately to get her moving, but to make sure she didn't renter whatever state she was just in. She seemed to get the motivation she needed from hearing another voice, though.

“Anne! Anne!” The girl heard Sprig's voice cut through her grogginess as he ran over to her, seeking out a hug of comfort from his big sister! He really needed that after his near-death experience. It seemed that Anne also needed that hug just as much as he did, given what she said next.

“Sprig?! You’re alive! Oh, thank goodness.” He felt her warm arms wrap around him and then the other two members of his family joined in on it as well. It didn't last long because he knew that they were still in danger, but he felt the need to explain how he got back regardless.

“Marcy caught me just in time! Can you walk?” He asked her the question as they let go of each other. Anne seemed to ignore what he asked, though, in favor of focusing on a different part.

“Marcy?” She was wondering how the princess was able to save her little brother like that. Maybe she managed to activate some sort of feral state like Anne had? She certainly felt like she could fly while she was like that. The more the girl thought about it, though, the more she rationaled that it probably had something to do with Joe Sparrow instead. She didn't get any further into those thoughts, though, because Andrias' shadow suddenly loomed over the family.

“I have to admit, even I’m surprised. Somehow you’ve still got the gift, kid. Which means… I can’t let you live.” He pulled back his sword, clearly ready to strike the girl. The only thing that stopped him was the sudden jerk and falling feeling associated with the box being removed from its pedestal! He looked back at where the box should be, uttering a simple

“What?” When he saw that it wasn't there, he nearly lost his mind! Someone had snatched it right out from under him! He looked around to see if he could spot the thief only to see his own daughter with the box in her hands and a portal forming in front of her.

“Please work, please work, please work.” She could be heard muttering to herself.

“NO!! MARCY, PUT THAT DOWN RIGHT NOW, YOUNG LADY!!” Andrias commanded his daughter. She ignored him, which only served to make him angry! He started rushing over to her in order to stop her when two figures stood in his way. Grime was on the offensive while Sasha stood in front of him, but turned to Anne.

“Me and Grime will hold him, just go!” She yelled. The brunette struggled a little bit to stand up, but once she got going, she moved pretty quickly! Polly grabbed the head of the defective robot and dragged it along towards Marcy’s little portal. There was no way they’d know where it would take them, but they seemed to have so much trust in Marcy that they just did as she said.

“Quick! Into the portal, everyone. Hurry!” Andrias slashed at Sasha, who dodged by rolling onto the ground. From there, Grime nailed him in the ankle almost like at the beginning of their little coup. This time, though, he didn’t hit the sweet spot and so the king wasn’t incapacitated by the attack! All he had to do to get rid of the toad was smack him away with the back of his hand. From there, he spun around so that his tail would have enough force to knock Sasha away and into a nearby wall. He could deal with them later, as he had more important things to attend to!

“THE BOX!!” He was panicking! A thousand years of waiting, working, hoping, and even at times praying. And he was about to lose it all! Everything he’d done in the name of redeeming himself to the core! All the sacrifices he’d made and the atrocities he’d committed. How he had to hide everything from everyone for so long ! He couldn’t bear to lose all of that! He barely heard Anne’s call to action.

“Marcy! Hurry!” No. No no nonononono! He had to stop them. He had to do SOMEthing to make them halt!

“I just need to-” Marcy’s words were cut off by a sickening slice and her body went stiff. Andrias stopped, realizing what he’d just done. He’d just impaled his own daughter! He nearly shook for a moment before forcing a calm face and level tone. He’d had plenty of practice pushing down his feelings in the name of this plan, after all. He narrowed his eyes.

“Now look what you’ve made me do.” He scolded, shifting the blame onto the children. Marcy didn’t move, but she did manage to choke out some last words.

“D-dad?… Anne… I-I’m sorry… for everything…” She then collapsed, sliding off of the sword and dropping the box.

“MARCY!!” Anne screamed before there was a flash of light and she felt like she was falling. Eventually the light faded and she found herself laying on the ground outside somewhere. There was foliage all around them, but she could feel Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly all lying in her arms. Sitting up, she was able to look around and saw that there was some random trash here and there, but they were still surrounded by a few trees and some bushes, albeit sparse.

In the distance, she could hear some kind of distorted horns and a high-pitched whirring sound. She looked for the source, but couldn’t seem to find it. All she saw was a stone pathway in the distance and in the sky there was a small, dark shape leaving a pair of straight, white clouds in its path. Her family started asking questions before she was able to even form a sentence.

“What the-?”

“Oh my frog…”

“What is this place?” Polly, Sprig, and Hop Pop all respectively muttered. Anne, for her part, had no idea where they were, but then her eyes locked onto something in the distance that made her heart jump with curiosity, hope, and an innate sense of fear. It was a small group of people walking along the pathway in the distance, but not just any people.

Brown-ish skin, tall frames with long, spindly limbs, large heads on thin necks with flat faces, a weird bump in the middle, flat shell ears, and forward facing predatory eyes. Creatures she had only ever seen three of, one of those being in the mirror. Her true species. Seeing this, she could only come to one conclusion.

“I… I think this might be the world I was born in.”