4. Chapter 4

Ever since the big incident, the frogs of Wartwood kept giving Anne odd looks. Some of them were willing to try and forget the obvious, but others… not so much. It was understandable, really. Anne herself had been just as scared, if not worse when she first found out. But that night that she’d been forced into that form for the whole time had also forced her to come to better terms with it.

In fact, it became very clear to her that the real thing that the rest of the frogs were afraid of was just how little anybody (even she) knew about it. Upon feeling those scared looks bore into her a few too many times, Anne decided to do something about it! She’d been easily able to keep herself in check around them the last time she fully transformed, so she knew it’d be safe to go again. She just needed some practice with that form first.

Her chance came one morning when the rest of her family was distracted by making breakfast while she grabbed a vial of her medicine. This time she pocketed it instead of wasting it. She knew better now! She made the rest of her family think that she drank it so that they didn’t worry. All she had to do was get some alone time outside, slip out to the woods, and let herself transform.

When she went out, though, Sprig and Polly followed. Hop Pop was reading something in his study, so he wanted all three of them to go out and play. The farm wasn’t in need of tending that day because they’d just harvested everything the day before and didn’t have any replacement seeds quite yet. So all she had to do was get Sprig and Polly focused on something else and she’d be able to go!

It wasn’t too hard, seeing as they seemed to be okay with playing a miniature game of bugball. She told them that because three is an odd number, she’d just let them play without her. Once they were engrossed in their game, Anne slipped away and ran into the nearby forest. Looking up at the sun’s position, she still had a couple of hours to spare, so she decided to find a nice clearing that was guaranteed to be free from any predators.

It took her a while to find the perfect place, though. It had to be deep enough for no one to hear her transform, but close enough to the edge of the forest for no predators to want to come close. When she finally found the best spot, she could tell her medicine was already starting to wear off! All she had to do was suppress the urge to scream this time. She already knew what to expect, so it shouldn’t be too hard, right?

When the pain started, it came crashing in like a wave of heat, just like last time. She fell to her knees and clenched her jaw, not wanting to make a sound if she could help it. Still, a few occasional shouts and whimpers slipped out regardless. It helped that the transformation seemed to hurt a little less this time, so maybe transforming often enough would eventually make the pain more bearable? Anne could only hope!

It seemed to take less time to transform, but Anne knew that that was probably just because it hurt less this time. After the transformation was finished, she let out a groan that had been building up as she got to her feet. She looked around, her new eyes readjusting to her surroundings until they locked onto something small and pink off in the bushes to her side.

“Ah HA! I knew something was up when you left me and Polly playing!” Sprig yelled in an accusatory tone as he jumped out of said bushes, Polly at his side.

“Uhh… th-this isn’t what it looks like!” Anne reached into her pocket and pulled out the vial “I actually have today’s dose right here just in case! I-I just wanted to know more about this form ‘cause I figured that if I do, then I can tell the other frogs in Wartwood how I’m not a threat! I mean, have you seen the looks I’ve been getting lately?!” She did her best to explain herself, realizing how dumb it sounded the moment she actually said it out loud.

“Anne, listen. I don’t think this is a good ide-OOF!!” Polly violently pushed past Sprig.

“I’ve been wanting to see what kind of horrifying awesomeness you’re capable of since you stopped those toads! I’m all for this!” Polly exclaimed before jumping at Anne. The monster girl held out her hands for Polly to jump into and smiled! The tadpole then jumped further up, landing in Anne’s hair and nestling in while Anne laughed.

“NOW ONWARD, MY TRUSTY STEED!!” Polly yelled while pointing deeper into the forest. Anne burst out laughing and while Sprig liked that the girls were having fun, he was still a little nervous about some things. Namely, as Anne laughed, her mouth was wide open and her sharp teeth were easily visible. Sprig just hoped she wouldn’t bite anyone, even by accident. Anne looked up at where Polly was sitting in her hair before looking back at Sprig.

“I’m gonna run around a bit like this. Ya know, test my strength and speed, just to make sure I know what I’m capable of. Just PLEASE don’t tell Hop Pop!” Anne arched her back to tower over Sprig almost menacingly, but her hands were clasped together and her face had a somewhat pathetic expression. She was literally begging him.

“Well okay, but I’m coming with you! I don’t want anything bad to happen, okay?” He said, leaving out the thought ‘to you or because of you’. He was certain that Anne would never intentionally hurt anyone, but the last time she transformed was a bit more sequenced. She got some violence out and then mellowed out for the rest of the day ‘cause she was locked in the basement. But this time she was just… there in front of them.

Anne agreed without complaint, though, so Sprig followed as she ran off with Polly clinging to the top of her head. She only got a little way before she tripped over a fallen tree branch and faceplanted on the ground, Polly falling off. Sprig rushed over to his sisters and instinctively checked Polly first to see if she was okay. She was the baby, after all. Upon realizing that she was fine, he turned to Anne who was already sitting up and rubbing at her face.

“Wait… why is there this huge bump on my face? Has this always been there?” Anne asked.

“Yeah, that’s been there since you transformed. It was there last time, too!” Sprig informed her. Her hand slid down the length of it and pinched the bottom, finding that it was easy to close without hurting herself. She couldn’t breathe when she did that, though, unless she used her mouth, so she let go of it and let her hand rest underneath the bump and on her upper lip. Then she smelt something.

It wasn’t a bad smell, just the smell of mud and something else she couldn’t quite identify. Something in her told her that the scent came from her own hand, though. She experimented a little where she pulled her hand away and found that the scent left with it. She put her hand back and the scent returned, so when she pulled her hand away again, she said

“That bump is where I smell from, apparently… weird.” She observed as she looked back at her little siblings. Polly was the one who responded to that first.

“You can only smell from that bump and not the rest of your skin?”

“Yeah and everything smells a little different. Like, I noticed pretty early on that I can’t smell pheromones anymore when I’m like this, but there are other things that I just… haven’t really pinned down yet.” Anne explained, looking a little sheepish. Sprig was the first to ask the inevitable question.

“So… you didn't figure this stuff out that one night you were trapped like this?”

“No, I kinda started to get a little scared of myself and it was really overwhelming. I didn’t choose to be in this form that time, so I just tried to distract myself. But this time, I chose to do it, so it’s okay!” Anne explained like it was the most simple thing in the world.

“Okay, then.” Sprig nervously responded. Truth be told, he wanted to know more about her too. But at the same time, he wanted to make sure BOTH of his sisters were safe and this… didn’t seem all too safe. As cool as it was to have a monster for a big sister, she was still some sort of monster. He knew she wouldn’t hurt them, but that didn’t stop his mind from coming up with worst case scenarios!

“Hey, how strong even are you, Anne?” Polly cut in.

“Hmm… I don’t know. Let’s SEE!” Anne shouted as she immediately turned and punched a nearby tree. Everything was silent for a moment as Anne squinted her eyes shut. It was a good thing the tree in question had smooth bark or else it might’ve taken off some of her skin! As it was, Anne grabbed her fist with her other hand and held it close to her chest, curling around it a little. She started to groan, indicating she’d just hurt herself. So there were indeed limits to her strength, seeing as the tree hadn’t even shaken in response.

“Are you okay?!” Sprig asked, concerned but a little bit relieved.

“Yeah… yeah, I’ll be okay.” She said as she started to shake her injured hand back and forth. She gritted her teeth and drew in a sharp inhale, bearing said teeth.

“Hey, bend down here for a moment.” Polly requested. Anne tilted her head in confusion for a moment before doing as the tadpole asked. Polly immediately stuck one of her nub hands into Anne’s mouth and felt around at the teeth. Anne made a sound of confusion, but otherwise froze. Polly didn’t stick her hand in very far, but Anne still made this weird motion at one point.

The motion started at her midsection with the area being sucked in and the muscles in there tense. It seemed to travel up her chest and to her shoulders. The wave from it made her move her head forward for a split second before she pulled it away, out of Polly’s reach! Anne then pivoted to the side and spat on the ground.

“Ugh, Polly, why did you do that?! And what the heck was that motion?! I couldn’t control that, what if I had bitten your hand off by accident?!” Anne yelled, obviously panicking. Polly looked a little shocked before recovering quickly.

“I’m sorry Anne. I just wanted to see how many of your teeth are actually sharp. I didn’t know I’d cause something like that to happen! Are you okay? That motion looked painful.”

“Yeah, I just… ugh, there’s this awful taste in my mouth. Like, genuinely one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever tasted! Ugh!” She spat again, trying to get rid of it, whatever it was. It was some sort of slick, but thick liquid that coated everywhere Polly had touched. Anne spat a few more times before Sprig handed her some water from a small canteen he’d apparently been carrying.

Anne took it and tried to drink some only to have the… whatever-it-was mix with the water. That seemed to wash it off of the inside of her mouth enough that her next spit got rid of it, though. She panted a couple of times before trying to figure it out. When she told her siblings about the experience, they started to think.

“Hmm… maybe it was a bit of Polly’s slime coat? I noticed that you don’t have a slime coat in this form, so maybe whatever you are is a species that doesn’t naturally like slime?” Sprig suggested. Anne considered this for a bit.

“If that’s true… then that means I’m even less of a danger to you guys than we originally thought! That means that even if I did go nuts, I’d hate the taste of frog too much to eat anyone!” She mused to herself with a smile. She felt far more secure in herself, having come to this conclusion. She smiled at her siblings, who smiled back.

Polly jumped back into Anne’s hair, holding on a bit tighter this time. Anne stood back up and started to move, being much more careful about her surroundings. Sprig followed her as she ducked and weaved around the foliage with uncertain motions until they found another clearing. They stepped into the middle of it and looked around before Polly spoke up.

“Anne! How about you throw me straight up? Don’t worry, I can handle it!”

“Uhh… you sure about that, Polly?

“Yeah! Throw me!”

“Well, okay then.” Anne was nervous about this, but she did what she was asked anyway. She gently threw Polly up into the air. It was only a couple of inches, seeing as Anne wasn’t confident enough in her ability to catch the tadpole. Polly asked to be thrown again, though, so Anne obliged. She kept throwing her higher and higher, catching her each time as she gained more confidence in her ability to do so, with Polly laughing the entire time!

At one point, though, she threw the tadpole a little too high and she ended up flying in an arc that Anne wasn’t prepared for. Anne panicked, trying to catch Polly, but tripped and fell again. Thankfully Sprig was right there to catch his little sister instead.

“Oh my frog, I’m SO sorry! Are you okay, Polly?”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine! Thanks for catching me, Sprig.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve just gotta ask, Anne, why didn’t you use your tongue to try to help catch her?”

“Oh, this form’s tongue is waaaay smaller than a frog’s! See?” Anne stuck out her tongue, which only stretched about an inch and a half out of her mouth. If she stretched it any further, then it’d start to hurt. Sprig looked contemplative for a moment before he shrugged and put Polly down.

As he watched his sisters play around a bit with Anne’s new form, he realized something. Anne was giving Polly more attention at the moment because Polly wasn’t acting even the slightest bit scared of her. Sprig was unnerved by her predatory eyes, sharp teeth, and too-long limbs, but she was still his sister and she was clearly just looking for someone to not be scared of her.

Sprig forced himself to approach Anne. Sure, he was a little scared, but he knew he shouldn’t be. And right now, the thing Anne needed the most was someone who wasn’t scared, so he swallowed his fear and jumped up onto her shoulder! It was a smaller space than he expected, so he had to use the cling pads on his toes to cling to the back of her shirt. Anne stumbled a bit at the sudden extra weight.

“Woah! Warn me next time, dude!” Anne said as she turned her head to look at him.

“Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to get a better view of everything. You’re so tall, after all!” Anne giggled at this, obviously happy that Sprig wasn’t acting scared anymore. She then picked up Polly and walked off with her two younger siblings, being careful of where she went as she got more and more used to her new body.

They made it back home as the sun was setting, with Anne drinking her medicine right before leaving the tree line so that no other frogs would know what she was doing. Hop Pop didn’t seem to suspect a thing, as they were all on the same page of just pretending that they were playing a game of bugball that went a little… off court. They knew that Anne would be a frog for the entire next day regardless of whether she took her medicine or not, so they agreed to just do extra farm work so that they’d have the entire following day off.

Hop Pop was a little suspicious that the kids were actually willing to do the farm work for once, but he didn’t complain. Maybe they finally saw the value in a hard day’s work? When he found out that they just wanted the following day off, though, he just sighed. He asked them if there was anything special going on on that day, but they just brushed it off. Apparently, they just all agreed that they wanted to spend some time together.

Seeing how the other frogs of Wartwood looked at Anne these days, he figured it’d be okay to let them go. Anne probably really needed some time with the people that would always accept her no matter what. And if the promise of that motivated them to actually do their chores, then that was just a nice bonus! It was good to see the kids looking after each other, too.

When the next day came, it was even easier for Anne to skip her daily dose of medicine because Sprig and Polly were in on it this time and distracted Hop Pop for long enough that it was like child’s play. Before they knew it, the kids were back in the forest and waiting for Anne to transform again.

“So what should we do today, Anne?” Sprig asked.

“Well I was thinking that since I don’t seem to have any webbing on my hands or feet in my other form, it might not be that great of a swimmer. But it’d still be good to make sure I’d be able to prevent myself from drowning if I ever fell into the water while in that form. Think of it like a safety precaution, ya know?”

“So we’re going to the lake?” Polly cut in “Wasn’t there a big snake living there?”

“Oh, I heard that it was there for so long that it ate all the fish and started to starve. So it left on its own a while ago. The lake’s safe now, as far as I know!” Anne explained. Frankly, it checked out. It had been there for a while and with how frequently predators came and went from there, there weren’t a lot of fish in the lake to begin with. As they came up on the lake, they noticed the old sign that warned people not to swim had a big, blue X painted through it as if to confirm that it was safe to swim again!

“WOOO!!” All three kids yelled in unison as they ran towards the water! Sprig and Polly dove right in, but Anne stopped when she was about knee deep. Sprig gave her an odd look.

“Anne, come on! The water’s great!”

“I know, but I’m gonna transform soon and I don’t wanna be in the water when it happens ‘cause I don’t know whether I can swim in that form or not AND it’s painful, so I don’t wanna be going through that pain in an environment where I can’t breathe.” Sprig admitted that that was fair and stepped out of the water to be next to his big sister, with Polly following suit.

It didn’t take too long before Anne’s breathing hitched and the transformation started. She fell to her knees, but she didn’t scream or shout at all this time, only letting out the occasional groan with a single whimper mixed in. Sprig saw her skin change colour in the splotchy way it always did, with her limbs lengthening in a sickening way.

If anything, her appearance mid transformation was the most horrifying thing. At least her beast form looked like a whole being all to itself. The combination of that form and her frog form, though, was just disgusting! Sprig figured she would think so too if she could see it, so he didn’t feel guilty thinking it to himself. This transformation took about as long as it had before, but it seemed to hurt less. Heck, she didn’t even thrash around like she did the first couple of times!

“You doing okay, Anne?” Sprig asked once it was finished. The girl in question looked at him before giving a bit of a huff as she stood up.

“Yeah. It hurt less that time. It seems that every time it happens, it hurts a little less than before. Maybe if I do this enough it’ll stop hurting altogether!”

“That’d be good! Then you’d be able to transform any time to mess something up!” Polly added.

“It’d have to be planned in advance ‘cause I can’t just force myself to transform, you know! I have to wait out the medicine.”

“I know, but still. It’d be good to not see you collapse in pain whenever you decide to do it!” Anne knew Polly cared just as much as Sprig did. She just had different ways of showing it. Either way, she looked out over the lake and knew she was only delaying the inevitable. She turned to her little siblings, towering over them now.

“Alright guys, let’s go for a swim!”

“YEAH!!” The two frogs shouted before running into the water with Anne trailing right behind them. After going out a decent amount, Sprig and Polly were swimming on the surface and Anne didn’t appear to be moving despite her head being above the water. Sprig looked down to see that her feet were still touching the bottom.

“So Anne, you gonna start trying to swim or?...”

“Honestly, I’m kinda nervous. I know how to easily swim when I’m a frog, but the overall balance and frame of this form is a little off for me to really be confident.”

“Hmm… oh, I have an idea!” Sprig exclaimed. He swam around behind Anne and grabbed onto her shoulders from behind, one hand on each shoulder.

“Okay, lean back. If this doesn’t work, then you can still stand at this depth. I just wanna see if I can move you in the water when you’re not anchored. If so, then I’ll be able to keep you afloat in deeper water, okay?”

“Alright…” Anne said nervously. She did as Sprig asked and took in a deep breath before she leaned back, allowing her legs to come out from underneath herself. Oddly enough, she floated on the surface without much issue. Sprig started pulling her around on the surface, showing that he could indeed move her while she was in the water.

Anne realized at one point that Sprig had pushed her into deeper water. Water that was just a little too deep for her to touch the bottom. She started to get a little scared.

“Sprig…”

“Shh! It’s okay, Anne. I’ve got you! And at least you know how to stay afloat in this form now.” Sprig was right. She could stay afloat, so that was something. And being effectively forced to swim by bringing her out to deeper water might help her figure it out. And if not, then he was right there to help her.

She found it kind of funny, actually. Up until that point, she was the one consoling her little siblings and trying to get them to calm down. Oh how the tables had turned! She knew she could trust Sprig with her life just as much as he could trust her with his, so she spread out her arms and legs and started trying to swim like a frog.

It had a slight modicum of success, but her legs in this form weren’t springy enough and her toes weren’t webbed enough for it to really work as expected. She also found out that she couldn’t hold her breath for nearly as long as any amphibian really, and she began to struggle while sinking. Her chest hurt, but Sprig was right there as soon as he realized what was going on and he was able to get her back to the surface without issue.

“Okay, so you’ve gotta figure out a different way of swimming. That’s okay! That’s why we’re here today, right?” Sprig asked.

“Yeah. If only I could figure this out more quickly! Thanks for the help, though. It seems I can’t hold my breath for very long in this form, so I’m gonna need you to be on top of making sure I don’t drown!”

“Of course!” Sprig confirmed. Polly swam up to her two big siblings with an idea, though.

“Hey, why don’t you try swimming more like a tadpole? If swimming like a frog with actual legs didn’t work, then why not try pressing your legs together and treating them like a tail?” Anne looked down into the water at her legs and thought about it. It seemed like a good enough idea, so she did as her sister told her to do. She then took a deep breath and Sprig let go of her.

She sank a little bit and realized that the left-to-right motions weren't quite working before she started thrashing about a little. She eventually found some purchase in a front-to-back motion, but she was already running out of air by then. Sprig brought her back up and she explained what happened. So they tried it again, but this time armed with the knowledge that she should be moving front-to-back instead.

She was actually able to get somewhere with this, but not quite back up to the surface. So she tried to incorporate her arms in what was clearly a confusing mess that actually seemed to be starting to work a little bit. She still needed Sprig’s help in the end, though. But at least they were starting to make some progress! They eventually decided to take a break on a nearby lily pad.

“So Anne, any other ideas of methods you wanna try? That last one looked really awkward, even if it did work.” Sprig suggested.

“Yeah, but I’m not sure what to do.” she raised one of her hands up to look at it and sighed.

“There’s gotta be some way for you to swim! I could tell you could do it, you just don’t know how yet!” Polly added. The conversation didn’t go too far from there, but all three of them kept trying to come up with ideas until they had a few solid ones they wanted to try. In the end, only a couple of them actually worked and Anne still needed practice with those ones!

It took them the entire day in order to make any progress whatsoever and before they knew it, it was about time for them to start heading back home. Anne took her medicine before leaving the lake area and the trio promised to come back to it in a couple of days. All they had to do was get around Hop Pop.

Thankfully it seemed he had come to his own conclusion about what was going on and he was wrong… well mostly, that is. He was right about them wanting to cheer Anne up because of all the weird looks she got nowadays, but he had no idea how they were actually doing it. They all just kept quiet and tried to avoid actually lying to him.

The kids settled into a routine where they’d go out every second day to try to give Anne some swimming lessons. It was almost a week before she was able to reliably swim without Sprig’s help. They concluded that she’d never swim as well as a frog, but Anne wasn’t too torn up about that. She was just happy that she wouldn’t drown!

Her little siblings even got to a point where they’d completely overridden any fear they had of her, be it instinctual or not… at least as far as Anne knew, anyways! She noticed how they didn’t flinch anymore when she whipped her head in their direction to look at them. She also noticed how they weren’t seeming to watch her as carefully anymore, meaning they felt more safe around her!

Eventually, once she felt she could swim well enough, Anne suggested they go back to the forest to try to figure out some other things. Namely, she wanted to see which was faster! Her big, wide stride as she ran in her true form or Sprig’s long frog leaps! They set up a race course that with Polly’s assistance ended up becoming a bit of an obstacle course instead.

Hop Pop had given them the previous day off, so they spent the whole time building the course in question out in the woods, intending to return to it the next day. At one point Anne needed to remind her siblings that her true form didn’t have cling pads, so any climbing sections needed to have proper footholds and grabable spots in order to be fair. It extended a bit further out into the woods than they’d usually go, but they just wanted to make this race definitive!

Finally the day came where they’d go through it. They had each given every section a slower test run just to see if it’d be possible, so they knew exactly how they’d get everything done and how to do it all. All three of them were excited! Polly had a special, shorter course that involved a bunch of boards strewn across tree branches so that she could watch everything and be the referee, calling out who won in the end.

After Anne transformed, this time with no shouts, whimpers, or even heavy breathing because she’d gotten used to it, they were ready. From the tree tops, Polly shouted out the countdown.

“THREE… TWO… ONE… GOOO!!” At first there was a long running section where Anne’s stride matched Sprig’s leaps. The way Anne found was the best to run in her true form was by making low but long jumps on one foot at a time, catching herself on the other foot, and let the momentum carry. As she ran, she looked to her side to see Sprig keeping pace with her, the two travelling at the same speed! Soon they came up to the first obstacle.

A balance bridge made from a log, held in relative place by a few wooden stakes with enough room to roll just a little bit. It was placed overtop of a very large mud puddle and Sprig wasn’t allowed to just jump over it. Still, his smaller body meant less weight to manage overall and he actually took a sizable lead.

Next was a bunch of bushes that Polly had cut the lower parts out of so that her siblings could crawl underneath, giving a bit more room to Anne’s portion. Both had to get on their bellies and crawl. While Anne had the longer limbs necessary to make bigger strides underneath the bushes, her own bush of hair started to get caught in the small branches above her, picking up some of the leaves and twigs along the way. This made them about evenly matched, with Sprig keeping his lead.

Following that was a section where they had to climb up a tree and swing from branch to branch. Anne was surprisingly good at climbing trees, even though none of the kids could quite figure out why. Either way, Sprig used his tongue to swing, allowing himself a lot more airtime than Anne got. Meanwhile Anne used her long arms and overall body momentum (a heavier body is harder to stop) to swing from branch to branch!

Her momentum made sure she kept moving forward as opposed to Sprig, who dropped a little bit every time he had to retract his tongue. He had to make up for the height loss with each swing, making him have to ultimately cover more distance. And with two contact points instead of Sprig’s one, Anne caught up and started to take a considerable lead!

After jumping back down to the ground, there was another section of just running, but this time the path was littered with rocks and branches, so they had to be careful where they stepped. Anne appeared to be able to carefully plan where to put her feet while Sprig just had to focus on his landings, allowing him to close some distance between him and Anne!

Finally there was the rock climbing section. The kids had found a very small cliffside and had decided to add it to the course. Due to the testing phase the previous day, Anne already knew exactly where to put her hands and feet and she jumped right into position, grabbing at the rock wall. Meanwhile Sprig simply used his cling pads, needing to be careful about the sharper parts of the rock. Sprig was clearly faster in this section and managed to catch up to Anne with just a little bit of room to spare!

Lastly, there was another running section. Except that this time, it was mostly through some shallow mud. Anne’s increased body weight made her sink a bit more, so she needed more force to pull herself out of it. But she had five toes per foot instead of a frog’s two and the blunt claws on the tips of her toes could be used to keep her traction. As for Sprig, he had less power to pull himself out of the mud, but he was ever so slightly faster than Anne at this point!

The two of them ended up getting out of the mud at the same time with a short stretch of solid ground in front of them to end it all off! Both competitors were able to see Polly at the end, waiting for them beside the finish line. They continued to run, both of them relatively out of breath, but trying to push just that little bit farther! It felt as though they both crossed the finish line at the same time, falling over onto their backs immediately afterwards and panting like crazy while Polly announced the winner.

“ANNE WINS!!” Anne’s arms shot up in victory before falling back to her sides.

“Aw… come on!... I thought I… had that!” Sprig complained in between pants.

“Anne was ahead by just the tiniest bit. Anyone less observant would have called a tie, Sprig. So it was really close, but Anne still won!” Polly explained with a grin.

“YaaAaaAAAaay…” Anne celebrated, too exhausted to say much of anything else. She eventually managed to sit up, though. Polly was the only one not too tired to do anything, so she was the one to speak up.

“Sooo… what now?”

“I… guess we… can just… chill for now… and go… home later?” Sprig suggested.

“Yeah… that sounds good.” Anne responded. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. That was until she heard some rustling coming from the bushes just behind her. She whipped her head around to see a green mantis that had been watching the kids for a little while. Anne made eye contact with it, her eyes widened and her breath hitched. They were in trouble!

When the mantis realized it had been found out, it screeched! It wasn't normally the kind of creature that waited until it was discovered, but it seemed it was startled just enough by Anne’s existence to give it the pause the girl needed to realize it was there. The mantis lunged forward, the three kids jumping out of the way of its scythe hands! Each of them ran around it in their panic, running off into the direction that it came from!

While Sprig was able to get out of the way, he was running out of steam fast. He hadn’t gotten enough time to rest to be able to keep going on! Add onto that the fact that Polly didn’t have her legs yet meant she was far slower than her siblings and Anne started panicking even more! She immediately scooped up Polly and put the baby into her hair then grabbed Sprig by his sides and ran off with them!

Her lungs burned, but she kept moving, forcing herself to keep going no matter what! She could hear the mantis trailing behind them as she ducked and weaved around the foliage. Her little siblings were giving her strange looks the entire time, but they still held on for dear life with Sprig wrapping his arms and legs around Anne’s upper torso so that her hands were free. She just kept on running, not giving herself a second to feel tired, until she came up on another small cliff face that was surrounded by huge rocks!

This one was different then the one from before, so Anne didn’t know where to grab on in order to climb up it. It wasn’t like she’d have time to do that, though, as the mantis ran up to them, cornering them. The kids thought they were all done for until Anne grabbed Sprig and put him down behind her, Polly jumping off to be with her brother. The oldest of the three kids stood protectively between the panting predator and her little siblings!

Anne launched herself at the mantis, grabbing onto the scythe it tried to use to stab her! She bit at it, trying to put her sharp teeth to good use. The monster screeched then tried to stab her with its other scythe, only to miss completely as Anne swiveled without losing her grip on the first scythe. The mantis’ movements were slow because of its exhaustion from having had to chase down its prey and this gave Anne the ability to basically do whatever she wanted with it, provided she kept up her current pace!

She didn’t know why she was still able to run and fight even though she’d been exhausted before, but she didn't complain! Instead, she twisted the scythe in her hands around, forcing the monster to either fold to her movements or lose its scythe! It seemed to figure that it could avoid both by just lifting it up and out of Anne’s grip. As it turned out, her grip was strong enough that her whole body lifted up with it!

The mantis swung its scythe through the air in an attempt to shake the girl off, but she wasn’t budging as she used the gangly nature of her legs to her advantage and wrapped them around the appendage she was grabbing on to! After locking her legs together by the ankles, she knew that she was perfectly secure and not going anywhere! The mantis tried to stab her with its other scythe again, but this time she was able to unlock one of her legs for a moment to kick it away!

She then pulled herself up the length of it and found the spot where its exoskeleton was weak: its joint! She then bit down on top of it, grinding her teeth into it as it screeched in pain! Once she was secure in her grip, she twisted the rest of her body and was met with a sickening CRUNCH! The mantis’ scythe was torn right off, making Anne fall to the ground with it! She didn’t stop there, though!

She screamed at the monster, taking a few intimidating steps forward as it backed away. She’d never seen a mantis so afraid of anything before it turned and ran away into the forest! Once Anne realized that she, Sprig, and Polly were all safe, she collapsed down to her knees and her tiredness came back with a vengeance!

Sprig ran over to his big sister and checked on her to find her panting harder than ever before. He got even more concerned when she started coughing!

“Anne! Are you okay?! How did you do that?!” Anne couldn’t seem to answer because she was too focused on trying to breathe properly again. It seemed that pushing her body that far was taking its toll! She felt something in her throat, like it was choking her and she kept on coughing until it came up into her mouth. She spat out what looked like a glob of slime and started to wonder if that came from the mantis or if it was actually made by her own body. Just as soon as she started thinking about it, though, she flopped over again and started to wheeze.

Sprig and Polly were both really concerned about their sister, but they didn’t know enough about what was going on with her to do anything other than sit beside her and tell her that she was going to be okay. Thankfully that seemed to help as her frantic breathing calmed down and turned back into regular, raspy pants. Sprig offered her some water from his canteen and she actually took and drank it, not even getting up from where she was lying on the ground. Upon seeing that she really would be okay, Polly couldn’t keep her feelings bottled up any longer.

“THAT! WAS! SO! COOL!! You were awesome, Anne! The way you just ripped that mantis’ scythe right off of its body with your super beast strength and shouted at it to make it run away! Even I got a little scared for a second, but then you just came right back down from that! I’m not even surprised that you collapsed afterwards ‘cause you did all of that while still being exhausted!

“How did you even do that?! You just kept going and going without stopping, like you could run forever! I know you were tired, but it sure didn’t LOOK that way! Especially when your eyes flashed blue for a second while the mantis had you up in the air like that! How’d you get THAT to happen?!” Polly noticed that Anne had been smiling throughout her entire rant right up until she mentioned the eyes.

“I… I didn’t know… my eyes… did that…” Anne spoke while panting, much like Sprig had done earlier.

“I… didn’t feel… that… happen… I’m… just as… confused… as you… are… I just… knew that… I… needed to… keep going… so I… forced myself… to.” Anne squinted her eyes shut after explaining because it became painful to talk. Her little siblings seemed to recognize this pretty quickly, though, so they just sat next to her and waited for her breathing to even itself out. Eventually she got to the point where she was able to sit up again.

She looked at her hands for a moment before letting them fall into her lap. She felt like there might be something even more powerful hidden deeper inside of her, but she wasn’t completely sure yet. What she did know was that she really was capable of some great feats of strength, even though they took a toll on her body! At one point, she tried to stand up, but found that she was too shaky to stay up for long.

“Woah, Anne! Calm down and rest for a bit! I know we need to get going, but we don’t want you hurting yourself in the process!” Sprig shouted at her, keeping a hand on her leg. She looked at him and saw his expression. There was no fear in him at all, only concern. She allowed herself to sit back down on the ground and regain her senses until she was sure she’d rested long enough. This time when she stood back up, she was still a little shaky but able to shrug it off pretty quickly.

“Alright, we need to get outta here before another one of those things shows up.” Anne said as she turned to walk away. Sprig picked up the mantis’ dismembered scythe and followed after her, making sure Polly was right there with them! It took the kids a while to recognize where they were, but they knew that so long as they just kept moving, they’d eventually come across at least something familiar!

Once Anne noticed a pathway, she ran out to it and looked both ways before determining from a couple of landmarks in the distance that they’d just need to turn left and follow it to get back to Wartwood! All she needed to do was take her medicine and no one would know what they’d been doing. She reached into her pocket, but found it empty. She started patting herself down and looking at the ground around her in renewed panic.

“Guys… you… you didn’t happen to see where my medicine vial went, did you?” Sprig’s and Polly’s faces fell. They had no idea that Anne had lost her medicine and they didn't know where to even start looking for it! They could only guess where and when she lost it and if she didn’t lose it on the racetrack, then that meant she lost it while running from the mantis. If that happened, then there’d be no possible way to find it because of how much of a mad dash that had been!

Still, though, she could have dropped it during the race, so they figured that they should at least check over there. They just needed to find their way back to the racetrack! The kids knew how to get there from Wartwood, so they just followed the path from a distance in order to keep Anne hidden. Along the way, Anne found she was starting to feel a bit less tired, so she decided to carry her siblings for comfort. They didn’t want to split up after what had just happened!

Polly was nestled in Anne’s hair as per usual and Sprig was sitting on one of her arms with his back pressed against her chest. Anne noticed that there was a small twig sticking out from underneath his hat and she found that it kind of bothered her, so she used her free hand to pluck it out. Sprig looked up at her with a confused look.

“While I appreciate it, I still don’t understand why you felt the need to do that.”

“I don’t know either!” Anne responded, confusing herself in the process. But it still felt good to help her little brother like that. She looked at him again and saw a small leaf sticking out too. She sighed.

“Sprig, take off your hat for a minute.”

“Oookay?” Sprig did as instructed and the next thing he knew, Anne’s fingers were running through his hair and picking out bits of leaves and twigs that were stuck in there. He began to wonder how she had the patience for something like that and why she seemed so inclined to do it, but then he decided to just shrug it off as some sort of beast instinct. Maybe her species naturally groomed each other via this method? Either way, it didn’t hurt, so Sprig just let it happen.

Before they knew it, they were back at the racetrack and ready to start looking over the place. Unfortunately, they couldn’t seem to find the vial no matter how hard they looked! They also couldn’t remember what path Anne had taken when running away from the mantis, so the vial was well and truly gone! Upon seeing Anne’s panic when that sank in, Sprig tried to comfort her.

“Don’t worry, Anne. It’s not the end of the world!”

“But the only other vials are back home with Hop Pop! He’ll find out about all this!”

“Not if I can sneak past him and get one. Polly, do you think you could make a distraction?”

“Way ahead of you!” The youngest child exclaimed, jumping into a mud puddle and getting herself as filthy as possible.

“If Hop Pop is trying to give me a bath, then there’s no way he’ll notice you crawling on the ceiling to the cabinet where Anne’s medicine is!” Polly explained.

“Great idea, Polly!” Anne praised her. “Now all we need to do is figure out what to do about… me.” Sprig seemed to have an idea, though.

“Well we can just sneak you over to the farm using the scenic route! It’ll take a little longer, but at least you won’t be seen! Then you can hang out around the back while Polly and I work to get you your medicine! Sound good?” Anne had to admit that it sounded pretty foolproof, so she agreed and the kids set off for home!

Because they’d decided to take the scenic route, the sun ended up setting before they got home. It wouldn’t normally be a problem until it got far darker than it ever had before. Anne even had trouble keeping an eye on Sprig and Polly because it was getting too dark! This had never happened before because the light of the moon was usually enough to see by.

She looked up to see that the moon was out in its full glory like usual, even with all the stars she’d become familiar with. But when she looked back at the path in front of her, she froze because she couldn’t see anything at all. She could still hear the sounds of the forest around her, but that only served to heighten her fear.

“Guys… I can’t see.” There was nothing but silence for a moment. Yet that moment was all it took for her breathing to quicken and some sort of primal fear to set in. Sprig’s voice eventually cut through it all, though.

“What do you mean? Did something happen?”

“Yeah, it got way darker than usual! Why is it so dark?!” Anne asked in a panic. Neither of her siblings seemed to have a proper answer, but Polly did speak up.

“Uhh… Anne, it’s no darker than it usually is. Sprig and I can see just fine.”

“Well I can’t! To me, it looks like I’m surrounded by an… endless void of black nothingness!” Hearing the fear in her voice had Sprig concerned. When he looked at her face, he noticed that she was looking in his and Polly’s general direction, but her eyes hadn’t locked on to either of them. He saw that her eyes were wider than usual, as if she were trying to catch a glimpse of anything at all.

Sprig then silently moved to the side and her face didn’t follow him at all. Anne’s true form must be solely meant for the daytime because in just the regular darkness of the night, she was completely blind! One other thing he noticed was that her being unable to see seemed to paralyze her with fear. Did she naturally rely on her vision above all other senses? If so, then they were in trouble!

“It’s okay, Anne. Calm down. Clearly you don’t have night vision like a frog does. But that’s okay! All you have to do is follow us and we’ll lead you back home!” Anne’s head whipped over to his direction

“B-but I can’t even SEE you guys! And if you’re constantly talking so that I can follow the sound of your voice, then it could attract a predator!” The young frog had to admit she had a point. He thought about it for a moment before he had an idea! He moved to be right beside her, making sure his footsteps could be heard so that he wouldn’t scare her.

“Okay, hear me out. Polly can ride in your hair and let you know if you’re about to trip on something and I’ll lead you along the way by the hand, okay?”

“Okay… that sounds good!” It took a bit of doing, but eventually they had a method set up that allowed them to actually get home before it got too late. When they got close enough, Anne’s head perked up. She could see the light coming from the window of the house! All they needed to do was drop her off at the agreed upon location and head inside. Anne sat down on the ground as soon as Sprig let go of her hand and the two frogs headed inside to be greeted by Hop Pop.

“Hey kids, how was your da- POLLY!! You really need a bath!”

“What?! NO!! I’LL ONLY GET DIRTY AGAIN!!” Polly shouted and with that, they were off. Sprig would be able to get Anne her medicine without issue! He immediately ran off to the kitchen and grabbed a vial. He didn’t want to seem suspicious, though, so he gently put the vial sideways in his mouth and crawled up the walls and across the ceiling.

Unfortunately for Sprig, Hop Pop knew the sounds of cling pads being used and it triggered him to look up, right at Sprig. He was caught!

“Sprig, why do you have one of Anne’s vials of medicine? And speaking of, where is Anne?” Knowing he was caught, he dropped to the ground and tried to explain himself.

“Anne decided she wanted to watch the stars for a bit, so she’s just outside. As for why I’ve got one of her vials, umm… I just got kinda curious and wanted to take a closer look at the actual liquid?”

“If that’s the case, then why aren’t you lookin’ at it in the kitchen? Why’d ya need ta bring it out here? And why were you on the ceiling?”

“Umm… because I didn’t want the house-wide scuffle between you and Polly to hit me and make me drop the vial?” Sprig tried to make things up as he went, hoping that Hop Pop would buy it.

“Hmm… well alright, then. That’s fair, go on ahead.” Hop Pop said in a dismissive tone. Sprig was relieved that he’d let it go so easily and sighed as Polly led Hop Pop away to another room. From there, he was free to just walk right out the door, around the house, and over to where Anne was waiting! When she saw him via the light pouring out the window, her face lit up and she cheered.

“Woo! Way to go, Sprig!”

“It was a close one! Hop Pop actually caught me on the way out and I had to tell him that I just wanted a closer look at it while you had decided to stay outside and watch the stars.”

“Okay, I guess I’ll stay outside for a bit, then. Thanks for covering for me!”

“No problem! Now drink up before something else goes wro-”

“AH HA!! I knew somethin’ was up!” Hop Pop’s voice rang out, startling both of the kids. Anne almost dropped the vial before catching it again mid fall!

“ANNE!! What’re you doin’ lookin’ like that?! I thought you drank your medicine this morning!”

“I… uhh… may have set it down at one point and accidently forgot?”

“NO!! Enough playin’ games! I know when you kids are lyin’ and you definitely are right now! Ya’ll are gonna tell me what’s really goin’ on!”

“Uhh… mind if we go inside first?” Sprig asked, hoping to buy his sister some time and maybe use Polly as another distraction to get out of trouble.

“Only if Anne drinks her medicine right away! I wanna avoid some sorta monster nonsense!” Anne was a little offended, but drank it anyways. It wasn’t like he was there during their recent experiments like how Sprig and Polly were, after all. After she was done turning back into a frog, Hop Pop seemed to calm down a bit. He was still furious, but at least he wasn’t panicking at seeing Anne’s true form.

After the family settled down and Polly realized they’d been found out, the kids started coming clean to Hop Pop and telling him everything. Sprig even ran out to grab the mantis scythe as proof and gave it to Hop Pop. Despite the gift, he was clearly disappointed in the three of them.

“Kids, I know yer curious, but you gotta learn to leave well enough alone. None of ya are gonna be doin’ this again. If you refuse to drink your medicine, Anne, then you’re goin’ back to the basement until you do! I’m not playin’ around here! You lot could get in some serious danger! If not from Anne possibly losing her mind, then from a repeat of what happened today with that mantis!

“I know she saved ya this time, but that’s only ‘cause she apparently went feral on that mantis! What if this happens again and she’s less exhausted that time?! She’ll have enough energy to turn around and hurt you too! What’ll you do then?!” The kids knew it was pointless to argue with Hop Pop when he was like this. He was really only looking out for them, after all. Anne knew he was only scared ‘cause he didn’t know more, though. Thankfully, she had another idea.

“Hop Pop, how about this. I’ll take my medicine every day without fail if you promise that we can do some research on what I might be! I’ve gotta know more, but if I can’t go out to experiment on myself anymore, then I’m gonna need to do some proper research!”

“Yer never interested in research, Anne!”

“Maybe it’s because nothing you’ve asked me to research in the past has been this relevant to me! I’ve got this big, looming fact about me hovering over my head and I know so little about it that it stresses me out! PLEASE, Hop Pop! At least let me TRY to learn more! This is waaaay more important to me than anything else I’ve ever wanted to know!” Anne begged. Hop Pop had to admit that she had a point, though. He sighed.

“Alright, if you behave yourself and keep taking your medicine every single day, then we can take a trip to the archives to see what we can cross reference. Deal?”

“Deal!” They shook hands on it and while neither one was fully satisfied with the outcome, at least they were able to come to a compromise!

“Now as punishment for goin’ behind my back like you did, you get to give Polly her bath!”

“Wait, what?!”

“I don’t wanna hear any complainin’! Ya did something ya weren’t supposed ta do and these are the consequences!”

“Ugh, yes Hop Pop.” Anne finally backed down to do what he told her to do. Once Polly realized she was still going to be getting her bath, she got difficult again. The whole ordeal lasted the entire evening as Hop Pop silently wondered if he was doing the right thing. He’d already scoured the archives for answers about her in the past with no results, but if that was what finally got her to stop tempting fate, then he needed to let it happen.

Hop Pop just hoped he wouldn’t regret this later…