5. Chapter 5

When Hop Pop told Anne that he’d plan a trip to the archives, he hadn’t expected her to hound him about it constantly until he finally told her when. It only took a couple of days for him to give in, but he’d be darned if it’d be right away! The farm still needed work, after all! He told them one morning that they’d be able to go once the new seeds had been planted. The process usually took roughly one week, but somehow the kids managed to get it done in only three days!

So of course, Hop Pop told them that they’d need to do a grocery run the next day and THEN they could go on the day after. During said grocery run, Hop Pop watched as the kids picked up the various things they wanted. Anne kept her head down for the most part, though. It broke his heart to see her so nervous about being in public, but the more often she went out, the more people would come to terms with it.

He still got the occasional person asking him questions about her. Most of the time, it was about things like her true form’s diet, weaknesses, and what to be afraid of. Every time, he told them the same thing.

“She’s not turnin’ back inta that thing ever again, so we’ll never know. Don’t worry, we’ve got this under control.” Knowing about her little excursions a few days prior made him retroactively a liar, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’d lied to other people in order to protect her. Technically, he’d been doing that since the beginning!

Whenever he saw someone greet her like nothing was wrong, he started to hope that things might go back to normal. Really, though, the only people who didn’t seem to bat an eye at her were the Sundew’s, the Flour’s, and Loggle. He couldn’t figure out why the Sundew’s were so accepting beyond Ivy being close to Sprig, but he could reason out the other two.

The Flour’s were likely fine with it because they had a young curse user in the family. Maddie probably examined Anne at one point and figured out just how strong the medicine was in the first place. There might’ve even been the chance that she knew the truth sooner than any of the other townsfolk, but just kept quiet about it. There was really no telling with that girl.

Meanwhile Loggle was probably fine with it because he knew what it was like to be an outcast. After all, he was the only axolotl in a town of frogs, so it had taken the town a while to accept and respect him back when he first moved in. For the most part, though, it seemed the town motto held true even for a kid who’d been there her whole life.

Perhaps because of that, Loggle had a bit of an idea of what Anne was going through. At least that was Hop Pop’s assumption anyways. The old frog was snapped out of his thoughts when he turned the corner into another aisle and saw said blue axolotl. The two made eye contact.

“Hello Hopediah!”

“Afternoon, Loggle.”

“I don’t see the kids around. Are they back at home?”

“Oh, no no. They’re just grabbin’ their stuff and they’ll be joinin’ back up with me soon.” Hop Pop explained. Loggle seemed to want to say something, like he’d been wanting to say it for some time now but hadn’t had the opportunity. It seemed he finally cracked and decided to just go ahead.

“I seeeee. You know, there’s something I’ve been wanting to confirm.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, back when Anne… you know… I noticed something on her that was kind of interesting and I really just wanted to know if I imagined it or not.”

“Ah, Loggle, we don’t really like talkin’ ‘bout that.”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I know she’s still the kind kid we’ve always known and I’m personally fine with her being different so long as she doesn’t hurt anybody. I just swear I saw something that has me reeeeeally curious.” Hop Pop could tell Loggle was trying to be polite about the whole thing, so he sighed and let the woodcarver continue.

“So… was I imagining things, or did she have some weirdly shaped claws?”

“Well… yes, she did. I don’t know if they were sharp or not, but somethin’ was definitely there.”

“Right, okay, were they shaped like this?” Loggle pulled a woodcarving tool out of his tool belt. While the handle was made of varnished wood, the rest of it was a long metal scoop of some sort that was indeed shaped a lot like the claws in question.

“Why yes, maybe a little bit flatter, but that’s pretty close.”

“Interesting… do you know what this is, Hopediah?”

“I’m afraid I don’t, Loggle.”

“This is a semicircle chisel. They’re used to scoop off long strips of wood. Like sooooo!” Loggle then pulled a small wooden block out of a different area of his tool belt and pressed the chisel to one end. He moved the chisel up the length of the board and a large strip of wood came off in one smooth motion, the strip curling up as it separated from the rest of the wood and leaving a long dip in its wake. Loggle continued.

“Now imagine what a creature with four of these on each hand could do to something that it’s fighting against! I think that Anne’s got nothing to worry about if she’s got claws like those!” Hop Pop was frozen, horrified at the thought of what she could do to someone if she did indeed go feral. He didn’t even correct Loggle to tell him that Anne’s monster form had an extra finger! He had to respond somehow, though.

“Y-yeah, I guess. But we’re n-not gonna let that happen again!”

“Hmm… okay, I just thought it was interesting ‘cause I never expected a real creature to have something so similar to one of my favourite tools!” Loggle actually seemed somewhat excited, but all that Hop Pop could think about was how easily Anne would be able to gouge a strip or five out of a frog if she wanted to. He was infinitely glad that he’d finally convinced her to keep up with her medicine! His thoughts were cut off when the girl in question came running up to him with a small bag in her hands.

“Hey, Hop Pop! I got that beetle jerky I wanted. Oh, hey Loggle.”

“Hello, Anne.” Loggle said in a friendly tone. As much as Hop Pop appreciated that Loggle was being nice to her, he knew that if they stuck around him, then he’d start asking Anne about her claws. He really didn’t want her thinking about that stuff more than she already was, so he made an excuse to politely leave.

“Alright, if you’ve got that, then I think it’s time we found Sprig and Polly and headed home.” Hop Pop concluded. Anne seemed to agree, at least.

“Okay, Hop Pop. See ya, Loggle!” The axolotl just nodded and waved goodbye before the two parties went their separate ways. Finding the other two kids was actually fairly easy and once Hop Pop had the three of them together, he went up to the cash register to pay for everything. He noticed that as the cashier was ringing up the price, they were shooting a bunch of nervous looks at Anne.

Everyone in town knew the truth and a few even accepted her right away ‘cause they knew her well enough. But most of the town was still wary of her to the point where a lot of them refused to even interact with her! Hop Pop felt really bad about it, but he knew that the only way to get them all to accept her again was through time. Time and a LOT of medicine!

After the old frog paid for the groceries and the kids grabbed their fair share of the bags, the family headed out. Anne seemed to keep her head down for the most part, not wanting the negative attention. Thankfully no one felt the need or want to approach them and they were able to get out of there without incident.

Dinner was relatively uneventful, with the kids (especially Anne) actually being well behaved for once. Hop Pop figured it was because of the promise to visit the archives the next day, though. They’d really been looking forward to this and while he’d normally be all for them actually wanting to do research, this was one topic that he’d wanted to bury a long time ago. He just wished things could go back to the way they were before Anne found out the truth.

Still, if this was what stopped them from putting themselves in danger, then he’d have to compromise. He’d learned to listen to them a long time ago back when they actually thought they could run the farm because he wasn’t listening to them. They’d failed horribly, of course, but at least it taught every single one of them some valuable lessons.

The night passed all too quickly for Hop Pop as he woke up to the sun rising and figured he’d better start making breakfast for the kids. After the family finished eating, he started making and packing lunches for everyone to eat later and before he knew it, it was time to head out to the archives! Hop Pop took a deep breath, wanting desperately for all this to be over. He’d already done this many times before and found nothing about her species or even anything close, so he could only hope that Anne would eventually drop the issue and just leave well enough alone.

He knew that was only wishful thinking, but he had to keep some sort of good thought alive in his mind. He knew Anne was a very sweet and kind young lady on the inside, but he didn’t know enough about her true species to even be remotely confident with having her around when she was in that form. Sure, she might be from an intelligent species, but she might also be a naturally amphibivorous monster who’d lose control one day!

Even if she’d regret it afterwards, there’d be no taking back a tragedy like that. Even a necromancer needed the entire body in order to revive someone! And what then? Hop Pop shuddered to think about it. He’d tried to put those thoughts into the back of his mind, but they just kept creeping up no matter how hard he tried! These thoughts kept swirling in his mind right up until they arrived at the archives.

For the entire trip, he could feel Anne looking at him with a worried expression. He knew that she knew about his nervous thoughts, but he still chose not to share them because it’d make her feel even more like a monster! He still loved her, after all! He just wished she’d let all this go and let everything return to normal.

Still, the family arrived at the archives soon enough and went down the stairs. Sprig seemed a little less than impressed about having to read through a bunch of books, though.

“Ugh, the archives. Where all you do is read other people’s cool adventures!”

“Sprig, this is really important to me!” Anne responded to him.

“I know, I just wish we could go back to experimenting out in the woods.”

“So do I, but I promised Hop Pop we wouldn’t anymore.” Anne said with disdain in her voice. She clearly hated her new restrictions, but at least she’d kept to them thus far. Hop Pop knew he needed to rein this in before it got more out of hand. Weighing his options, he decided on the inevitable lesser of two evils.

“Alright kids, let’s go. The longer we wait, the less time we’ll have to look around before the sun sets.” That seemed to get them in gear without much complaint, so Hop Pop finally led everyone down into the archives. The kids already knew about the sunlight timer on the door, so he didn’t need to explain it. Instead, they all just looked around before noticing a plaque set next to a fireplace. Anne was the first to approach it and read it out loud.

“Hmm… ‘Microft Newtback, Archives Founder. This structure, originally Newtback’s home, was turned into the public archives after he died violently attempting to travel beyond the valley.’” There was a bit of silence for a moment before all four of the Plantars split up. They all tried not to think about the possibly implied connection between the facts that Anne’s true species was clearly not native to the valley and this guy was killed by something from outside the valley.

“I’m gonna go hit those books.”

“Uhh, it’s reading time.”

“Looks like we’d better get to it.”

“We’d better get our hands on those books.” Anne, Polly, Sprig, and Hop Pop all respectfully said at the same time while heading off into different directions. Hop Pop eventually came across a section he (truthfully) hadn’t looked at before. With the kids all taking different areas, he was at least able to take a closer look at some of areas he’d glossed over before. Eventually he spotted one that might have some clues.

“‘Only Nature Facts’ fair…” he looked to the neighboring books “...well now hold on. ‘Older Than the Old Ways’? Now THIS I gotta read!” He took all of the books on the shelf including and between the ones he named so that he could study them. He knew why they were there, but when an interesting title catches one’s eye, it’s hard to just let it go.

Polly bounced past a bookshelf that didn’t seem to be relevant to what they were looking for. That was until she realized what was on said bookshelf. The plaque above it read ‘History of Weapons, A-X’.

“HOT MAMA!!” Polly yelled out before making for the shelf. She just HAD to read up on some of that stuff! The others probably wouldn’t be mad at her for looking into it. After all, she hadn’t seen anything about living creatures yet, so it made sense for her to grab something that interested her.

Meanwhile Anne had found the section on broad creature categories. One book was dedicated to amphibians, one to birds, one to fish, one to mammals, one to reptiles, and one to insects. There just HAD to be something in there. Anne giggled to herself at the idea that her true form just might be an insect. If that were the case, then it’d make more sense for her to be afraid of the frogs rather than the other way around.

She doubted that that was what she was, but she still grabbed the book anyways just in case. She put the fish one at the bottom of the stack ‘cause she knew that fish only breathed water and she breathed air. After that was the bird book ‘cause she didn’t have feathers, then the mammal one ‘cause she didn’t have fur all over her body. Following that was the insect book ‘cause she only had four limbs (not six) and the reptile book ‘cause she knew that some reptiles didn’t have scales, but she still wasn’t sure.

The one that she actually chose to leaf through was the amphibian book ‘cause if she was still intelligent enough to speak in that form, then it might mean that she was just some sort of super rare amphibian from really far away. That hope was slowly dashed as she read through it and found nothing like her true form inside. Of course she hadn’t read every page, but it was enough to put those hopes behind her and make her start on the next book in the pile.

Sprig, for his part, wasn’t having any luck no matter how hard he searched. Granted, he hadn’t searched all that much ‘cause he’d gotten too bored too easily, but even Hop Pop said he wasn’t able to find anything throughout all the time he tried to research it! He looked over at Polly, who was just reading about weapons instead of living creatures and went to sit beside her. He was about to open his mouth to talk to her when Anne's voice rang across the building.

“Hop Pop! Do you know if I hatched from an egg or not?” It seemed the old frog heard her ‘cause he responded immediately.

“Why do you need to know?!”

“It says here that some reptiles, like some chameleons, have ‘live births’, which means there’s no egg. The baby just comes right out of the mom!”

“I didn’t know about that, but you were found after you were born, so there’s no real way ta know.”

“...Okay…” Sprig didn’t like that they were shouting, but he hadn’t heard any malicious intent behind either one. Hop Pop sounded a little irritated, but it was clear that they were only shouting so they could hear each other from opposite ends of the place. He heard a book being thrown from Anne’s direction and figured that checking up on her would be a better idea than disturbing Polly.

By the time he got there, he noticed that she had a pile of books next to her with one of them haphazardly sitting on the floor. It was a general book about reptiles, which made sense given what she’d asked. He looked back at her to see that she had a book about insects in her hands. Climbing up onto the armrest of the chair to look at her face, he noticed that she was wearing a disgruntled expression.

“Hi Anne, whatcha doin?” She looked at him with a deadpan expression and shooed him away with a flick of her wrist.

“Get outta here, man.”

“Oh come on!” Sprig complained. Anne looked at him and sighed. She then closed the book in her hands and pushed it into his.

“Here, see if you can find anything that applies to my true form!” Sprig just groaned before sliding off of the chair. He saw Anne pick up the next book in her pile, one about mammals. Then he noticed something odd. There was a small bulge in Anne’s skirt pocket that was weirdly shaped like one of her vials of medicine. He started to wonder why she had it with her if she’d taken one just that morning.

“Uhh… Anne, why do you have a vial on you?” The girl flinched and looked away before turning back to Sprig with a guilty expression.

“I… I didn’t take a dose this morning. I figured it’d be easier to find some sort of reference if we could just look directly at me in that form, so I’m kinda planning on transforming in here without Hop Pop knowing and then taking my medicine without telling him what I did. He said we could cross reference stuff here, after all! Just don’t tell him!” Anne explained.

“Okay! In fact, call me over when it’s about to start and I’ll help hide you!”

“Great! But for now, let’s try to find a lead that’ll give us a head start.” She said before gesturing to the book in Sprig’s hands and then returning to her own. He walked away with the book about insects, but he knew that if Anne didn’t find anything, then he wouldn’t either. He wanted to skip to the fun part, not just reading! Instead, he made his way over to Hop Pop’s direction, muttering to himself.

“Stupid books, stupid learning. Maybe if I can convince Hop Pop to just LET Anne transform, he can get in on it and we’ll all be able to leave sooner!” It took him a little while to find Hop Pop, but when he got there he noticed that he wasn’t reading about living creatures at all! Sprig stared at him in disbelief for a moment before speaking up.

“Hop Pop, why are you reading about old traditions instead of living creatures? The sooner we find some clues about Anne’s true form, the sooner we can get outta here!” Hop Pop turned to look at Sprig.

“Listen, Sprig, I’ve already combed through this place several times and found nothin’. I’m just waitin’ for Anne to realize it too.”

“But that’s exactly why we were experimenting out in the woods like we were! All of these books were written by people who did the necessary research and wrote it down! Because there’s no info about her kind, we were doing the first bunch of research ourselves!” Hop Pop turned to him.

“Alright, then, where’d you write it all down?” Hop Pop asked. Sprig had to admit that Hop Pop had him there. They hadn’t written anything down at all, just choosing to commit it to memory. He stuttered a bit before Hop Pop cut him off.

“That’s what I thought! You kids weren’t doin’ research, you were goofin’ off in the most dangerous way possible!” Hop Pop clearly wanted to go on, but he was cut off by the sound of approaching footsteps. Anne was running straight for them with the book about mammals in her hands!

“Guys! Guys! I think I found something!” She shouted at them with a big grin on her face. Hop Pop was definitely a little startled, but he kept his overall composure. Anne continued while opening the book.

“It says here that not all mammals have fur covering their bodies! Some are hairless! And on top of that, mammals are ‘warm blooded’, which means they make their own heat inside their bodies! If I’m originally a mammal, then suddenly that searing wave of heat I felt whenever I transformed makes a lot more sense!” Sprig could see she was excited to finally have a lead, but he felt the need to point something out.

“Umm… Anne, I don’t know how you missed this, but you did actually have a very thin layer of fur on your arms and legs.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah! It was about as thin as peach fuzz, but it was still there. I didn’t realize you had no idea.”

“Oh, okay then… Either way, that’s another piece of evidence that says I’m probably originally a mammal! Hop Pop, was I already eating solid food when I was found? It says here that mammals are born without the ability to digest solid food and have to drink milk straight from the mother’s body until they can!” Hop Pop looked very uncomfortable, but he answered her question anyways.

“You couldn’t bite things, but you were able to eat mashed up bugs and veggies.”

“Huh, then I must’ve been past that stage already. If that’s the case, then that means I must’ve been cared for by my birth parents for at least a little while. I wonder what landed me in Frog Valley then?” Anne began to speculate before sitting down next to Hop Pop and reading a bit more through her book. Sprig was about to walk away, but then Anne noticed what Hop Pop was reading and she did a double take.

“Wait, why are you reading about old stuff? I thought we were here to figure out more about me?”

“Because I’ve already looked at all the books I thought were relevant and found nothin’, Anne!”

“Well you clearly didn’t look hard enough! I mean, this is my first time here and I’ve already found a clue!” Anne was starting to look angry.

“Dangit, girl, I looked as hard as I could with what little info I had ta go on at the time!”

“Well we’ve got more info now thanks to me actually going out and finding things out about myself! It just feels like you don’t even WANT to know more about whatever I am!”

“Well now we do know more! Yer a mammal! We all know that many mammals are violent predators, so that’s an even bigger reason ta keep ya in THIS form!” Hop Pop gestured to Anne and her froggy body. Anne looked like she was about to tear up, but she was still livid. The two of them continued to argue like this, going back and forth with Sprig just watching and not knowing what to do. Even Polly approached (with a book about daggers in her hand) to see what was going on. The tadpole watched in silence before Sprig leaned over and started whispering to her.

“Okay, this is getting out of hand.”

“They’ve just gotta get it outta their systems. It’s not a big deal.”

“‘Not a big deal’?! Do you remember the Henderson’s who lived next door to us? They used to argue all the time! And have you seen the state of their place nowadays?! If we don’t do something now, it won’t be long before this argument tears our family apart!”

“I still think we should just give them time. Not like we have a lot of options, you can’t force people to get along.” Polly explained. Despite her insistence, what she said actually gave Sprig an idea that hit him like a train!

“Of course not, Polly.” He started backing away. “Of course not.” He rounded a corner then stuck his head back around to look at her.

“Of cour-”

“JUST GO ALREADY!!” Polly yelled at him. Both Anne and Hop Pop stopped arguing to look at her.

“Sprig was being annoying.” She simply said before bouncing away and leaving the other two to do whatever. Oddly enough, they actually stopped arguing as Anne stormed off in a huff and Hop Pop turned back to his book with a shake of his head. At least they stopped so she could go back to her book!

Meanwhile the argument left a bad taste in Anne’s mouth. She hated that she had to be so forceful about this to Hop Pop, but he just wasn’t seeing the bigger picture. She knew he was scared of what could potentially go wrong, but she had been too. That night she’d been locked in the basement made her come to terms with it, though. Why couldn’t he see that?!

She wouldn’t hurt anyone ‘cause she had full control over herself no matter what form she was in! She knew that! Sprig and Polly knew that! She was just hoping that Hop Pop, of all people, wouldn’t treat her like some sort of monster! She felt tears welling up in her eyes as she walked away from him. She couldn’t continue reading for the time being ‘cause she just needed a minute. Before she knew it, a minute had turned into two hours and Hop Pop called out to her, Sprig and Polly.

“Alright, kids. Time for a lunch break!” Polly and Anne came to him with opposite looks on their faces. Polly seemed excited by whatever she was reading while Anne looked absolutely miserable, like she’d been crying. Maybe she saw something that proved him right… or maybe he’d been a little too hard on her. He’d have to try and see if he could fix this over lunch. Figuring Sprig would catch up soon, he led the girls to the entrance only to find that it was closed.

“The door’s shut. That’s not right.” He tried to pull on the door. Maybe it got stuck or accidentally slid? It was older than Hop Pop himself, after all. He looked up at the sunlight timer mechanism and noticed something with a gasp!

“The lens is missing!”

“What?! Who would trap us in here?!” Anne shouted. She was clearly at the end of her rope. Then they all heard Sprig clear his throat behind them.

“Maybe somebody is trying to get those of us who aren’t getting along to patch things up. By forcing them to work together for something… Me, I did it.” He approached the rest of the family. Anne apparently wasn’t having it.

“Dude, have you lost your frog marbles?! Put. That. Piece. Back!”

“Guys! Reading these moldy old books made Anne and Hop Pop so upset with each other that they’re BOTH gonna tear this family apart if they keep going like this! What we need is for you two to talk it out and make up!” Sprig explained. But Hop Pop wasn’t having it.

“What we need is you puttin’ that piece back.”

“Yeah, hand it over!” Polly joined.

“Ugh, fine. Party poopers.” He walked towards the door while fishing in his pockets for the lens. As he passed by Anne, he stumbled back a bit, seeming to have difficulty finding it.

“Uhh… hmm… I know I have it… somewhere…” Suddenly, he saw his opportunity and stuck his other hand right into Anne’s pocket, grabbing her vial of medicine and hopping away with it!

“SPRIG!!” Anne yelled, giving chase.

“What the…?” Hop Pop questioned. Meanwhile Polly just rolled her eyes, knowing that this would go absolutely nowhere. Still, she was trapped in there with them.

“Sprig, you can’t manipulate people like this!” She yelled after him. She heard his voice yelling back.

“I can and I did! And it’s going to save this family!” Sprig’s voice faded as he ran away from Anne. As Hop Pop watched the three kids, he had to agree with Polly. What Sprig was doing was completely uncalled for! It wouldn’t even solve anything! But the suspicious thing was the fact that Anne had been carrying a vial of medicine on her. Why would she be doing that if she’d taken her dose just that morning?

“Ugh, Sprig, where ARE you?!” Anne’s voice rang out. So she’d lost him… great. He saw Anne on one of the upper balconies, looking around for him and clearly furious. Polly, for her part, bounced back to the weapons books she’d been reading.

“Let’s see if I can find a way to make a makeshift weapon that’ll help us catch him.” She muttered under her breath. Hop Pop heard Anne give a heavy sigh before jumping over the railing and landing on the ground near him. She walked up to him and asked for his help.

“Hop Pop, did you see which way he went? I lost track of him after I followed him around a corner and he seemed to disappear.”

“No, I didn’t. But did he just pickpocket a vial of yer medicine offa ya?”

“Uhh… I uhh… I was afraid of us accidentally getting locked in here for the night, so I brought a spare just in case.”

“It’d wear off long enough after sunrise fer us ta get home before it did, ya know.”

“Y-yeah, but I think that carrying a vial on me at all times no matter what is a good thing. I mean, you want me to keep being a frog, right? I-it’s like when you go for a trip and pack extra underwear ‘just in case’, right?” Hop Pop had to admit that she made a fair point and she had a good argument, but her stutters betrayed her lies. He already had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Still, he wanted her to admit it on her own.

“Anne… be honest. Did ya take yer medicine this mornin’?”

“Uhh…”

“Anne…”

“Ugh, okay! I skipped it this morning so that I could take a closer look and do some cross referencing. Maybe there were some things about my true form that I hadn’t noticed before! You said it yourself, that we could cross reference some stuff while we were here! I was planning on taking it before you saw me, but then Sprig found out and now he’s using it against me!

“Look, you can scold me all you want. You can assign me all the extra chores that you want! I don’t care, just PLEASE do it later and help me catch Sprig right now so that we can get both the medicine and the door lens back!” As angry as he was, he ultimately had to agree that Sprig needed to be caught. At least this would give him the time he needed to figure out exactly what to say.

Another hour went by and there were no results. It was almost as if he’d disappeared into thin air! They checked between all the bookshelves, under all the furniture, up the chimney, in the washroom, and even all the walls and ceilings! To top it off, Polly apparently disappeared as well. Although she actually answered them when they called her, so they knew she was fine.

Anne and Hop Pop met up in the main area to try to come up with some sort of strategy. They couldn’t seem to figure out anything that they hadn’t already thought of, though. Anne groaned in frustration.

“Ugh, we need to find him NOW! My medicine is going to wear off any minute!”

“Well isn’t that what you wanted? So you can ‘take a closer look’ and ‘cross reference’?” Hop Pop asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, but at least I’d have the vial on me in order to take it as soon as I was done! Now I don’t have it!”

“Well maybe ya shoulda thought of that before ya skipped a dose! The only reason I wasn’t watchin’ ya this mornin’ was ‘cause ya promised to take it every day! What happened ta that?!”

“Well I never said WHEN in the day!”

“Whu-? That’s trickery!”

“And you hiding what I actually am from me WASN’T?!”

“I only did that ta protect everyone, includin’ you!” Upon hearing that, Anne became absolutely enraged! She stepped closer and closer to Hop Pop while ranting at him!

“Protect me?! You thought that hiding what I really am was protecting me?! If anything, it's crippled me! I don't know anything about my species! I know that I'm not going to hurt anyone, but if I wouldn't have done all those experiments, then that'd be ALL I'd know!

“How would YOU like it if you found out you were secretly some sort of monster and you weren't allowed to know anything else?! Do you have any idea how much that was scaring me before I went out into the woods with Sprig and Polly?! Have you seen how everybody in town is scared of me?! Do you have any idea how hard it is to deal with all of that?!

“I’m willing to bet that even the ones that ARE being friendly to me are only doing it ‘cause they’re scared that I’ll snap if they don’t! And on top of that, there’s the fact that YOU are so scared of me that you won’t even help me figure this all out! You’d rather just bury anything you think might be dangerous, even if it's not. And you’re scared of everything! I get why, believe me. I was there when the herons attacked! But you have to understand that I’m not dangerous!

“I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t even want to scare anyone! I just wanna be accepted for who I am, regardless of what form I’m in! But everyone’s always so scared of me nowadays. I just…” She took a deep breath and realized with a start that she’d kept walking towards him and he actually backed away until he was literally cornered. She then noticed that she was towering over Hop Pop, who was shaking. She’d transformed during her rant, so she deflated a bit and spoke more softly, tears welling up in her eyes again.

“Hop Pop?” He flinched at that. Anne felt a twinge in her chest as she tried her best not to cry.

“Are you… scared of me right now?” She had to admit that anyone would be scared of someone who towered over them while yelling. But couple that with the person in question literally transforming into some sort of monster in the middle of it all and it’d make sense for them to be cowering. Frog, she’d been so angry that she hadn’t even noticed she was transforming this time! Still, all she could do was wait for Hop Pop to respond.

“I… I am scared, Anne.” The girl started crying while he continued. “I’m scared you might eventually lose yer mind at some point. Maybe not soon, but eventually. I’m scared you’ll start doin’ what ya did as a baby and try ta taste test frogs again. I’m scared you’ll start to think frogs are beneath ya ‘cause yer bigger and stronger. But the thing I’m the most scared of is that I’ll lose my sweet, kind granddaughter!” Anne sat down on the ground in front of him, tears streaming down her face. He continued, taking a nervous step towards her.

“When you first found out, you said you didn’t wanna lose yer family. Well we don’t wanna lose you either! That’s why I wanted you ta stay as a frog at all times! I do see the looks you get from the townsfolk and yer right, even the ones that act friendly aren’t treatin’ ya the same anymore. Loggle proved that only yesterday! I just figured that you stayin’ a frog would help people forget about it and maybe some day everythin’ would go back ta normal!

“I know that’s a lot ta ask for, but I just don’t wanna lose you, Anne! None of us do! We love you, Anne! And that’s why I’m scared.” Hop Pop couldn’t seem to bring himself to keep going, seeing how upset Anne was. He’d really messed it up this time. He knew she probably wouldn’t forgive him after all of this, but he’d try to make it up to her regardless.

He was about to try to say something comforting when suddenly two large, clawed hands at the ends of long, gangly arms grabbed him around his midsection and lifted him up. He was startled enough to panic a little bit, but he tried to remind himself that this was still Anne. She started pulling him closer to her and his earlier conversation with Loggle about her claws started running through his head again. Still, he forced himself to remain calm for Anne’s sake ‘cause the last thing she needed was him panicking in her grip!

Next thing he knew, he was being lightly pressed against her chest. The bottom of her chin rested against the top of his head and her arms wrapped all the way around him. Her feet were pressed together under his own, but the legs themselves were folded up on either side of him. She was curling her entire body around him in a big hug! She continued to cry, but as she held him, her breathing evened out and she spoke up again.

“Hop Pop… I understand. If it makes you feel any better, at one point during our experiments, Polly stuck her hand in my mouth while I was in this form. It was honestly the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted! My whole body even did this weird motion that felt like it was trying to get the taste out! She was apparently trying to feel my teeth, but just her hand alone nearly made me sick.

“I think that, maybe, if no one knows what I am, then that means my species’ natural environment doesn’t overlap with any amphibians. So that means that I probably wouldn’t ever be able to eat a frog, even if I wanted to! But that’s just the thing; I don’t want to! You’re my family and I never wanna let you guys go!” Her grip on Hop Pop tightened.

“I know it’s scary to think about those sorts of things, but what’s even scarier is not knowing anything about it. That’s why I did what I did and I’m sorry for scaring you, but I was scared too… I’m sorry.” Hop Pop couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. He hugged her back, putting his hands underneath her arms and practically melting into her embrace.

“I’m sorry too, Anne.” It was all he could say before he choked up and both of them fell silent. He felt a comforting warmth radiating off of her and if he listened, he’d even be able to hear her heartbeat and breathing. It was obvious from that that she was still crying alongside him. Neither one of them could muster up any words for a solid fifteen minutes until Anne finally let her folded legs fall as she loosened her grip.

“Hop Pop? I think we should go and see if we can try to catch Sprig.” Anne’s voice was hoarse and Hop Pop could see that the parts of her predatory eyes that were normally white had turned an uneven combination of red and pink. It’d be way more intimidating if it weren’t for the fact that she appeared to still be crying a bit. He just hoped that that was a normal thing for her species when they cried and it didn’t mean anything. Either way, he responded.

“Yeah, let’s go catch him, get you yer medicine, get the door workin’ again, and then go home.” Anne put Hop Pop back down onto the ground and was about to stand up, but then Polly’s voice cut in.

“Already did it!” The two looked over to see that Polly had a dazed Sprig tied up with a rope. Anne silently wondered where the tadpole had found rope in the archives, of all places, but she ultimately decided not to question it. Thankfully she also had Anne’s medicine and the lens for the door in either hand. The tadpole handed each one to Anne and Hop Pop respectively then started dragging Sprig towards the door by the rope.

Anne looked at the vial of medicine in her hands, hesitating. She could take it now, but would that mean she wouldn’t be allowed to take this form ever again? Hop Pop may have finally started to understand, but that didn’t mean he’d let her just stay in her true form! Then again, maybe it’d have to be a gradual thing. These sorts of thoughts swam in the girl’s mind until Hop Pop broke her out of her stupor by placing a hand on top of the medicine.

“You know, maybe it is a good thing for you ta get ta know yerself. Maybe we’ll need yer kinda monster strength some day. It’s scary fer both of us, but if you can promise me that what you said about finding the taste of frog disgusting was true, then… then I have a deal for you.” Hop Pop spoke slowly, as if it was difficult for him to say these things. In reality, it was, but he needed to compromise for Anne’s sake!

“You’ll be allowed to turn back inta this form so long as you get my permission first. I’m gonna ask that you keep bein’ a frog while yer in public, but if there’s another day where ya just wanna go out inta the woods and be… yerself, then… just ask me first. I’ll see about comin’ with ya this time, okay?” In other words, he wanted to supervise how she acted with Sprig and Polly when she was in that form.

“Okay, Hop Pop! Thank you!” Anne exclaimed with a big grin on her face and her eyes threatening to let loose more tears. She hugged Hop Pop again, this time without picking him up, thus making it more like a normal hug if it weren’t for the fact that Anne was still sitting on the floor. After she let go, she looked at her vial again and uncorked it. Upon leaving the archives, they’d reach a public area pretty quickly, after all.

Hop Pop left her to it while he carefully put the lens back in its socket. They were all about to leave when Hop Pop turned back around and looked at Anne. She wore a melancholy expression and he realized something. She’d already taken her medicine, but he knew that she’d ask him to be allowed to skip a dose pretty soon. That was unless he allowed her to do some more safe research.

“Anne, before we go, why don’t ya go and get that book about mammals. I’m sure no one would mind if ya borrowed it for a couple of weeks. After all, according to the logs, the last time someone visited here was three years ago!” Her face lit up and she immediately hopped off to grab it. He just hoped that something in that book helped give her some piece of mind.

It didn’t take her long to come back with the book in her hands, so Hop Pop picked up the still tied up Sprig and asked his oldest grandchild to carry his youngest. Before they knew it, they were already on the road home! Anne was happily reading her book for the entire trip while Sprig and Polly just talked about the fact that Anne and Hop Pop were getting along again.

“Wow, Sprig. I… owe you an apology. Your dumb old plan actually kinda… worked.”

“Thanks, Polly… can you untie me now?”

“Ah, sure, why not?” The tadpole did as she was asked. She watched her brother stretch and rub at the areas where the rope was particularly tight. As she looked over at her sister, she noticed a worried look on her face while she was staring at her book.

“What’s wrong, Anne?” The blue frog jumped a little at her sister’s sudden question, startled out of her trance.

“Oh, it’s nothing really. Just some of the creatures described in here are… less friendly looking than others.”

“Really? I wanna see!” The tadpole jumped onto her sister’s head. There wasn’t as much space to cling on to when she was a frog, but she still found a spot regardless. Even Sprig scooted over to take a look. Pretty soon it was less about researching general mammal facts and more about looking at the more monstrous creatures in the book. Anne had expected to see those sorts of monsters, but it was still unsettling to think that her true form was kind of related to them.

She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, though. Just because she had a few things in common with them didn’t mean she was the same as them! After all, if some insects were food, some were pets, some were trainable as service animals, and some were monsters, then there could be plenty of different types of mammals! Saying she was the same as one of these beasts would be like saying Mrs. Croaker’s pet spider was the same as that mantis from the other day!

With that idea firmly planted in her mind, she enjoyed the rest of the trip home while showing her siblings all the different (and horrible) creatures she was somehow distantly related to. After they returned, Hop Pop had Anne do chores until dinner was ready as punishment for going behind his back like she had. She figured it was fair, given how he actually came to a compromise in the end.

Dinner went by quickly and before she knew it, she was sitting on the couch with her face buried in the book. She didn’t even notice that a few hours had passed until Hop Pop came up to her, holding something behind his back.

“Anne? You uhh… learn anythin’ new from that book?”

“Oh yeah! Remember how you said that when I was a baby, I started gnawing on things, including people’s hands, and that’s why you thought I was taste testing frogs?”

“Yeah…”

“Well it turns out that most mammals are born without teeth and in order to get them to grow in properly, the mammal baby has to gnaw on things in order to weaken the gums so that the teeth have an easier time coming in! You even said that after that, I had a tooth that wasn’t there before, right? I think that that’s what I was doing! I was just ‘teething’, as it’s apparently called.”

“So yer sayin’ that our fears that caused us ta get you yer medicine in the first place were completely unfounded?” Hop Pop didn’t look very impressed. Moreso a bit irritated because of all the trouble he’d gone through to make sure she stayed in her frog form.

“Uhh… yeah, I guess… sorry for scaring you. I can’t remember those days, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t mean to scare anyone!” Anne said sheepishly. Hop Pop just breathed a heavy sigh in annoyance. It wasn’t like he could do anything about it at this point. Besides, he still had something that he needed to give to her. He sat down beside her and started pretending to read over her shoulder until she turned back to the book.

Anne figured Hop Pop was trying his best to learn more about her, so she adjusted her sitting position to include him. However, she’d just gotten back to the book when she felt something slightly warm and impossibly soft drape over her shoulders. She looked to see a small, cyan blanket placed there by Hop Pop. She looked between him and the blanket a few times before he explained.

“When… when yer mother first found ya in those woods, you were wrapped up in this blanket. We all figured that it looked newt-made, so maybe you were taken from your birth parents by a newt and that newt dumped ya for some dumb reason? I’d always assumed it was some beast hunter who thought they were takin’ some sorta trophy by takin’ the baby.

“That’s one a the reasons why I was scared for ya. But now… I’m havin’ my doubts. It’s impossible to know the exact truth about what happened, but maybe… maybe that blanket was made for ya by yer birth parents. I mean, it’s where we got yer name from!” Hop Pop lifted a corner of the blanket to show a small part that was embroidered with the name ‘Anne’ as he continued.

“I really don’t know, Anne. For all we know, it could be some combination of all that. Or we could be completely off track! But the point is that I figured it was time ta give it back ta ya.” Anne looked back at the blanket. It had a smell that indicated it had been stored in something wooden for a long time, but if she tried really hard, then there was some sort of underlying smell that she couldn’t identify.

Next thing she knew, Hop Pop had gently taken the book out of her hands and put it on the coffee table. It was okay, she was too distracted to read at that point anyways. Then she felt Hop Pop’s hands grab her midsection from the other side of the blanket and lift her up and onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her in a way that reminded her of what happened earlier that day.

He didn’t say anything, but Anne got the message regardless. He wanted her to feel safe, regardless of her form. She may be able to fit in better in her frog form, but she didn’t need to be in that form unless she wanted to be. She leaned against Hop Pop and started to cry a little as he hugged her even tighter. They stayed like this until both of them had calmed down and Anne let out a yawn.

“It’s been quite a day fer both of us, hasn’t it? Why don’t ya get some shut-eye, kiddo? The book ’ll still be there tomorrow.” Hop Pop gently urged her to head to bed. Anne didn’t complain, though. She just nodded and got up, taking her old blanket with her. As she made her way to her room, she wrapped it around herself even more.

If she was really about as big as a ten year old frog when she was first found, then it made sense that this blanket would fit her current form. She didn’t have to drag it or anything, but she knew that she’d be able to fit her entire frog body underneath it if she just curled up a little bit. It didn’t take long for her to make it to her room and crawl into bed. After she’d adjusted herself to her preferred position, she was out like a light! Crying multiple times in a single day kind of did that to a person.

As she slept, her dreams were filled with the usual nonsense that anyone’s dreams were. That was until she saw something. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she knew that it was big and she was overwhelmed by a feeling that she hadn’t felt since before the heron attack roughly five years ago. A feeling reminiscent of her mother’s love, although it wasn’t exactly the same. She woke with a start, panting as she tried to make sense of it all. Ultimately, it only left her with one thought.

‘I wonder if my birth parents ever missed me’...