9. Chapter 9

Things were pretty slow going after the collapse of Toad Tower. Anne still tried to act like her old self, but everyone could tell she was secretly hurting inside. Seeing another one of her kind acting so cruelly had affected her pretty badly. She was almost never seen in her true form anymore, seeming to hide away from the idea of being like Sasha. She typically wore a smile through all of it, but it was blatantly clear that she was forcing it. Fake it ‘till you make it, though, right? At least the rest of the townsfolk were willing to not ask her any tough questions.

However, Hop Pop did ask her if she still wanted to see if they could try to find the Newtopian Book Beast, given what happened the last time she got close to another of her kind. She got quiet after that, which he was about to take as a ‘no’ until she looked him right in the eyes. There was a pain in there that he couldn’t quite place, but also a defiance that he’d only seen in her a couple of times.

“Hop Pop, I NEED to know more about what I really am. I want to believe that… she… was just a fluke. I just… I need to meet another in order to really understand. Please, I… I need this more than ever now!” Anne’s explanation ran through Hop Pop’s mind over and over again, breaking his heart every time. It didn’t matter how long it’d take, even if they needed to try again next year, he was now more determined than ever to find the Newtopian Book Beast for Anne!

Thankfully, Monthy had set him up with a very high quality family sized wagon and even paid half the price for him as thanks for Anne saving his kids! When he went with Polly to pick it up, he could tell almost immediately that it was absolutely perfect! Now all he had to do was show it to the older two kids and watch their amazement. The ride home got Bessie used enough to it that she had no problems with it either! As he pulled up to the house, he saw Sprig and Anne laying on top of the roof and called out to them.

“Yooou hooo!” The two kids jumped down from the roof and approached, both wide eyed.

“Woah, Hop Pop, what is this thing?”

“Impressive, huh? This here’s an all-terrain, custom model family wagon. Callin’ it the Fwagon.” Sprig was amazed, but Anne was clearly caught off guard by the name. Still, all he had to do was tell them that they were going to head out the next day and all three kids were cheering! He sent them all off to pack up and let them know that the key to the house was just inside the fwagon for whoever saw Chuck first.

With Chuck being so willing and easily able to help out during the cleanup of the salt floods, everyone had gained a lot more trust and respect for him. So much so that Hop Pop was easily able to hire him to protect the Plantar house while they were gone. Everything would be taken care of under his watch, so the old frog simply headed inside to start packing his own stuff! He knew that Chuck would arrive soon, so he hoped that someone would be outside to give him the key when the time came.

Meanwhile Anne had been anticipating all of this for a while, so most of her stuff was already packed! All she had to do was finish it up and bring it out to the fwagon. Sure enough, once she had all of her stuff loaded up, Chuck came riding in on a taxi snail!

“Hey Chuck!”

“I grow tulips.”

“And you’re gonna be protecting the house, right?” The green frog nodded and leisurely spat onto a dirt mound that was poking out of the ground. Suddenly a large bug that Anne couldn’t exactly identify burst out of the ground and lunged at Chuck! He managed to get it off of him and run away from it only to smack into a tree that had more of them in its branches.

Anne sprang into action in order to help him, jumping at the bugs and smacking them away with a few quick whips of her tongue. Once they were all gone, she extended a hand to help Chuck get back up and flashed him a sympathetic look.

“Chuck, buddy, I know you’re better than that, but… what do you say I do some extra disaster proofing before me and my family hit the road?”

“T-tulips.” He gave a thumbs up before falling backwards. He wasn’t unconscious, just resting a little bit. Anne started wracking her brain for how to properly go about disaster proofing the house. Eventually she found herself going all over to various shops in town to pick up a whole bunch of different supplies. The only thing she couldn’t find was something to protect the crops and the only place she hadn’t visited yet was Loggle’s. He greeted her with the utmost friendliness as soon as she stepped in.

“Oh, hiya Anne. Let me guess, disaster proofing your house?”

“Oh yeah! I got everything I need for the house, just need something for the crops: the very heart and soul of a farm! You got anything for that?”

“As a matter of fact, I do!” There was a pause. Usually Loggle’s vocal tick would activate, but it seemed this was one of his better days.

“Huh. That was weird.”

“Yeah, didn’t feel right.” Either way, Loggle led the girl to an area that was blocked off by a curtain. When he pulled it back and revealed a barrel with green ooze all over it, Anne gasped. Loggle then set to explaining it!

“Behold, my latest concoction! This gunk won’t just protect your crops, it’ll awaken a power within them. A power, some would say, that’s better left-” Anne didn’t need to hear any more.

“I’ll take it!”

“Wait, really? Don’t you wanna hear the rest of my cryptic warning?”

“Hmm… NOPE!!”

“Works for me!” Frankly, Anne figured that so long as it helped the crops, she didn’t need to worry. After all, they were just vegetables! Thankfully she was able to push the barrel over onto its side in order to roll it back to the farm. It looked like her family was all still packing and Chuck was nowhere to be seen, so Anne got to work!

She applied barbed wire stakes around the perimeter (diving underwater for a few minutes to get the ones in the back), buried a cache of weapons for Chuck to use if he needed to, and outfitted the roof with a whole bunch of metal spikes! After that, she set a bunch of traps in front of the crops, tore the lid off of the barrel of Loggle’s glop, and poured it all out over the field. Only a couple of minutes after that, the rest of the family came out of the house with their suitcases in tow. Hop Pop and Polly seemed completely fine, but Sprig looked unusually stressed for some reason.

“Woah, Sprig. Are you okay?”

“Yes, great. How are you?” He obviously wasn’t okay, but Anne let it slide because he clearly didn’t want to talk about it. Instead, Hop Pop looked around at Anne’s handiwork and seemed genuinely impressed!

“Wow! Chuck really outdid himself! Ain’t nothin’ happenin’ ta this place while we’re gone!” Anne giggled to herself and debated telling them about her involvement when suddenly the ground started to shake. Everyone got extremely confused, looking around until they noticed that the crops were actually moving! Next thing they knew, the crops were uprooting themselves and splitting apart to look like monsters!

The frog family all backed up towards the house, Anne realizing that she probably should have listened to Loggle’s warning! Sprig tried defending them with one of his fancier slingshots, but it broke before he was even able to fire the first shot. Polly started uncontrollably laughing at him, but she was cut off almost immediately by one of the plants grabbing her!

“POLLY!!” Anne shouted. She didn’t know what to do until Sprig got up and shoved something in front of her. She looked down at it and her eyes went wide! It was the small satchel of magic canceling berries she’d stolen from Sasha! Anne looked back and forth between Polly and the berries. She really didn’t want to take her true form, but that level of strength was exactly what she’d need if she wanted to save her little sister!

She also didn’t have the time to debate with herself on this, so she closed her eyes, plunged her hand into the bag, grabbed a berry, and ate it. It was sweet, like a combination of a cherry and a strawberry with the texture of a grape. Not bad, in all honesty. A moment after swallowing it, she opened her eyes to find that her eye level was higher up than before. She didn’t have to be like this for long, just enough to fix her mistake!

Anne grabbed one of the swords that she’d left around the place for Chuck and got to work slicing and dicing those veggies! Hop Pop and Sprig joined her without question, making short work of them! Hop Pop and Anne made an opening for Sprig to hop over to Polly and snatch her right out of the vine’s grasp. It was all over only moments after it began, but they all knew that it would have been much harder if Anne stayed as a frog.

Just as they started celebrating, though, the ground began to shake again. When the family turned to look, they saw the vegetable monster parts all merging together into something extremely large and bipedal! It gave off a roar and punched the Plantar frogs, knocking them all down. Anne just barely managed to dodge, but didn’t know what to do about it approaching until it stepped on one of the traps she’d set out in front of the crops!

The thing screeched and stumbled until it went careening into the house! Anne called out for it to stop, but it was too late! Hop Pop and Polly screamed while Sprig yelled.

“Our home!” He could only watch as it absolutely destroyed the house. Anne had extended a hand in its direction, only to drop it in what appeared to be defeat. She looked down and Sprig could swear he heard her mumble to herself.

“Everything I’ve worked so hard to protect.” He could see tears start to stream down her face. Meanwhile the vegetable monster got up, lifted a foot, and tried to stomp on Anne. Without even looking up, she sidestepped out of the way. Sprig began to wonder how she knew about it, but figured he could ask later. For now, there were more pressing matters.

“Oh, you just made a big mistake, buddy.” Sprig heard his sister say to the monster, raising her head just enough that he could see her eyes glow blue for a split second. Knowing what happened the last time he saw that, Sprig got ready to witness another beatdown!

The monster tried punching Anne like it had the frogs, but the girl managed to use her limited jumping ability to get some height over it’s fist. She grabbed said fist and used her momentum to flip her whole lanky body overtop of it! She landed on its wrist and gave out a yell before running up the length of its arm. She even used her sword to keep herself anchored when it tried to throw her off! When she got up to its face, she plunged the sword deep into one of its eyes and pulled her arm back for what looked like a punch!

Except that instead of a closed fist, her fingers were stretched out flat and pressed together. Her claws may not be useful for much, but they were just thin enough to pierce the monster’s other eye and let Anne’s whole hand slide inside! This gave Anne the anchor she needed to not fall off as it went crashing down and broke apart on impact. When the dust finally cleared, she was standing there and panting with her hand covered in some sort of green sludge. Seeing that they were all safe, Sprig jumped right into his big sister’s arms!

“ANNE!! That was amazing!” She caught him without fail, wrapping her long lanky arms around him in a protective stance.

“You saved our tails!” Polly added. Anne seemed a little more worried about what was behind them.

“Yeah, but the house…” Hop Pop was quick to comfort her, though.

“Important thing is we’re all okay. It’s not your fault a mysterious green energy turned the crops evil.”

“Actually… it is.”

“SAY WHAAAAT?!”

“But why? How?” Hop Pop and Sprig responded respectively. Anne immediately got to explaining.

“So… I finished packing early, so I decided to help Chuck out by fortifying the house and maaaaybeeee fedthecropssomeevilcusemagicLogglemade.”

“YOU WHAT?!” The frogs all stared up at Anne’s predatory face, which looked more like a kicked baby flea than anything else. Still, she sighed.

“I just… wanted the house to be safe while we were taking this big trip. There are so many risks, not just here, but also out there. And I just wanted to not have to worry about the former.” The frogs all looked at each other and realized how guilty she clearly felt. They didn’t even know if the Newtopian Book Beast was going to be friendly or not, but they were still holding out, all for Anne. Hop Pop went straight into comfort mode.

“Anne, it’ll be okay. While there are risks, just remember. We’re taking this trip as a family! And family always looks after each other, no matter what.” Anne smiled

“Thanks guys. We can hold off on Newtopia; I’ll fix the house first. Just let me grab a dose of medicine.” Thankfully Hop Pop and Sprig had both gotten into the habit of carrying a dose on them ever since the latter had started carrying the berries around. While it would be best for Anne to carry them, the young frog knew that she really wasn’t ready to carry something from Sasha with her so soon… or at least Hop Pop and Polly had managed to convince him of that. Either way, Hop Pop pulled a bottle out of his pocket and handed it to Anne while speaking to her.

“Well here’s a dose, but there’s no need fer ya to try ta fix the house.” Anne looked confused until Hop Pop brought out a horn with a yellow rose shaped spiral on the end and blew into it. Before Anne could even take her dose, a dust cloud appeared on the horizon and engulfed the remains of the house for a few moments. In those moments, Anne shook her head and backed up to just take her medicine already. By the time her transformation was done, she looked up to see that everything was perfectly repaired and reset back to how it was before.

“I grow tulips.” Anne knew Chuck was reliable, but she hadn’t realized he was THAT reliable! During the salt flood cleanup, he was always in a different place than her, so she didn’t get to see any of his skills in action. She felt so much more safe knowing he really could handle it on his own! After a quick exchange between the two adults, Hop Pop jumped over to Sprig and held out his hand.

“Alright, give me one a them berries from… you know.” The kids were a little confused, but Sprig brought out the berry satchel and handed one to Hop Pop anyways. Once it was in his hands, he hopped over to the now empty crop field and buried roughly an inch below the ground.

“I told Chuck I’d plant that so there’ll be a bush, vine, or whatever it grows as by the time we get back. ‘Till then, all we’ve got is what’s in that satchel, so we’ve gotta use ‘em wisely. Understand?” Anne was a little embarrassed. She didn’t really want to be using them, but the veggie monsters proved that emergencies happened and it was better to be safe than sorry. Before she could dwell on it too much, though, Hop Pop jumped over to the fwagon and opened the door for the kids.

“Alright kids, it’s a two-way journey to Newtopia, so we’d better get goin’.” The three younger frogs cheered as they all piled into the fwagon and took a closer look at the inside. On one end, there were two beds with one suspended on the wall above the other. The one below was short enough for a frog, but wide enough that the whole family could probably fit on it. Meanwhile the one above wasn’t quite as wide, but was definitely longer than the average newt might need.

Anne knew that that was meant for her true form, if she ever decided to sleep like that. The only time she’d ever done so was when she didn’t have a choice, (not counting the couple of times she woke up like that ‘cause she originally went to bed as a frog) so she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be using it in that form. Still, she had to admit that it was nice to have the option. Also more than one frog would be able to fit on there if they just slept at different ends, which meant they didn’t all have to crowd onto the same bed all the time.

On the far wall of the fwagon was a rather plush looking couch that seemed to have a more reasonable length, what with it clearly being sized for the average newt. There was even a very small bookshelf next to it! Finally, opposite to the beds was a table setup with booth seats on all but one side. The only thing the fwagon didn’t have was a washroom, but Anne figured it’d be fine so long as they could stop every now and then.

The fwagon jerked suddenly, but not violently enough to throw anyone off balance or anything. It just meant that they were finally on the move! Once they got used to the motions, the kids started crawling all over the place. Anne even used her cling pads to stick to the ceiling and look at everything from above. One of the many things she preferred about her frog form was just how mobile she was. Sure, her true form was still fast, but the lack of cling pads meant she wasn’t able to climb on ceilings like she could as a frog!

As she moved around, she realized that there was a trap door on the ceiling, so she pushed on it and found out that it led outside and onto the roof! Once this was revealed, her siblings both joined her with Polly getting the boost she needed thanks to Sprig’s tongue. When they looked foreward, they saw the back of Hop Pop’s head and then Bessie a little beyond that. Anne moved towards him and noticed that there was actually enough room for all of them to sit beside him, so she settled right on down next to him.

Sprig and Polly both followed their big sister’s lead and soon the whole family was just sitting together and chatting about what would await them outside the valley! It made the trip to the mountain pass go a lot quicker, seeing as it felt like only a few minutes passed before they reached it! The pass itself wasn’t very big, but once they got past it, the three kids all looked out at the landscape in front of them and their jaws dropped as Hop Pop stopped Bessie.

None of them had ever seen such a large expanse of land before! Sure, the Valley was big, but no one was ever able to see THAT far due to all the foliage blocking the horizon. This, though? It was such a big, wide, open expanse of land that they were all in shock. Anne was the first one to collect her thoughts and speak.

“It’s amazing! It’s majestic! It’s… hurting my eyes.” As she lifted her hands up to rub them, Sprig continued.

“It’s even better than I could’ve dreamed!” He jumped onto Bessie’s shell “Full speed ahead, Hop Pop! Keep driving and never look back!”

“Hold on, Sprig. Look back here fer a second. Now that we’re outta the Valley, things can get dangerous fast. Soooo…” Hop Pop said, jumping back into the fwagon through the open trap door that the kids left. He motioned for the kids to follow him on his way in, so after flashing each other worried looks, they did. When they got inside, he turned to them.

“Sit down, kids.” He motioned to the table with its booth seats. The kids sat down, none of them liking where this was going. Hop Pop then slapped a massive book down on the table in front of them.

“From now on we’re gonna follow ‘Hop Pop’s rules of the road’! By me, Hop Pop!” The kids all groaned in unison with Anne speaking up first.

“Another huge book? Seriously?”

“You kids got a problem with books? Why, without books-” All three of the kids had heard him say this so many times that they were able to cut him off and finish his sentence in sync.

“Our civilization would crumble to nothingness.” Hop Pop chose to ignore the sass coming from them in favour of just making sure they understood.

“Now, the only way we’ll get to Newtopia in one piece is if we follow these rules.” He hopped up to the trap door and exited through it, turning back to finish “Alright, kids! Let’s stick to the rules and we should have a safe and completely uneventful trip.” As much as the kids hated it, they knew that there wasn’t much they could do about it. All they could do was try to have fun with what limited freedom they still had! Easier said than done though, ‘cause every time they tried to do something, Hop Pop would whip out another rule to ruin the fun.

Thank goodness none of that lasted too long. After an incident in ‘The Ruins of Despair’, the whole book had gotten shredded into pieces and Hop Pop simply had to admit that he was being far too restrictive! It took him a little while to readjust, but the kids were unbelievably grateful for it. Hop Pop even apologized to them by getting them ice cream!

The family later had a bit of a misadventure in a very small town. One so small that its citizens were less than half the height of the visiting family! At one point while they were there, a thought hit Anne and she almost couldn’t stop herself from laughing. When Sprig asked her what was so funny, she leaned over to her little brother and whispered.

“With the size difference here, it almost kinda feels like how it does when I’m in my true form around you guys. I mean, it’s not quite THIS big of a difference, but I still got reminded of it anyways!” Sprig looked back and forth between her and the bitties a couple of times before letting out a bit of a chuckle.

“Heh, in your true form, you could lift these guys with one hand!”

“Dude, I can lift YOU with one hand already!”

“Yeah, but I’m at least an armful compared to these guys, right?”

“Well, you’re not wrong.” It was good that Anne was talking about her true form again. The whole point of this trip was to find out more about her species, so her being uncomfortable with it would kinda be counterproductive. At the very least, it meant she might be okay with it again soon enough. Still, she kept taking her medicine regularly enough that the only way she’d be in her true form again would be if she ate one of those berries.

It seemed like that might have to happen, though, when they ran out of the food they brought! Hop Pop had pulled them over in order to make some food, but all he ended up serving was a stick. He apologized to the kids, but they all knew it was fine ‘cause they could just go hunting for some bugs! They all knew how to do so, but Hop Pop was a little nervous about it all.

“Hmm… At the very least, Polly’s gonna stay behind ‘cause she doesn’t have legs yet. But I want you two ta stick together and be careful. We’re not in the Valley anymore. Who knows what dangerous predators could be lurkin’ about? They could be poisonous or they could be psychic! They could be poisonous AND psychic; you don’t know!”

“Woah, woah, Hop Pop. It’s fine. If we get into trouble, we’ve got these as a last resort!” Sprig retaliated and pulled out the satchel of berries. Anne looked a little nervous at them, but she had to admit that it was still a valid backup plan. Sprig held out the satchel to Anne for her to take one, but the girl hesitated. Eventually, she pushed it away.

“Not right now, Sprig. I… I don’t know how to properly hunt in that form and I don’t think we really have the leeway right now for me to just figure it out. I’ll take it if I really need to, but… not right now, okay?” The blue frog explained. In reality, she was still nervous about whether she’d slip into any Sasha-like tendencies or not, so she’d prefer to only use that form if she absolutely had to.

“Huh, I guess you make a fair point. Still, if you think you’d like to try it out, then just let me know, okay? Forward facing eyes are meant for hunting, after all.” Sprig tried to convince her, but he knew that pushing her any further regarding this was not the best idea. At least according to Hop Pop and Polly, anyways. Honestly he just wanted her to take her true form again so that she’d be able to get over it. After all, Sasha and her were as different as night and day and Sprig had no idea how she was so oblivious to that!

As the two of them got to work in their hunting, Sprig thought about what caused Anne to want to be in her true form more often in the first place. He remembered the tax collectors and how Anne was forced into her true form for a while as a result. But that had made her get over the initial scare, so… Sprig got an idea. What if he hid her medicine and then slipped a berry into her food? Maybe cut it up a little bit?

He figured that would work, knowing how things actually worked out decently well the last time he forced something like this. Hop Pop hadn’t really forgiven him for locking them in the archives, but it had a good outcome anyways, so was it really that bad? Sprig decided that no, it wasn’t. It made Hop Pop actually accept Anne’s true form and if he hadn’t, then they wouldn’t be on this trip now.

Regardless of any of that, though, the boy had to focus on the area around him so that he could try to track down some food. With him and Anne working together, they were able to track down some grubbles in no time! The classic Plantar method of track, trap, and dance worked wonders to get them all lined up. Once they were ready to go, Anne piped up.

“This was pretty easy, to be honest. Why don’t you take these ones back to Hop Pop and Polly while I look for a few more? I coulda sworn I got some traces of more just a little ways over there.” She pointed in a different direction. Sprig looked concerned, but he had to admit that the area at least seemed somewhat safe.

“Well, alright. But just one thing. I know you probably don’t want to even look at this thing, but I think we’d all feel a lot safer if you kept it with you.” He pulled out the satchel of berries, but didn’t open it. He just held the whole thing out for her to take.

“Uhh… I don’t know.” She looked away from it “I just… I don’t think there are any predators around here. It’ll be fine.”

“Anne-”

“I said it’ll be fine, okay?! Just… keep it. I kinda wish you would’ve left it at home, if I’m to be honest. So no, I’m not going to take it!”

“Okay… fine… I guess I’ll just take these grubbles back.”

“Please do. I’ll go get some extras!” Anne stomped off, clearly upset. It wasn’t long before she found the extra grubbles, though. She was about to grab them when she heard the sound of her family screaming for help! Forget the grubbles, she needed to get to them immediately! When she finally hopped back to camp, she was panting and she couldn’t see her family anywhere. She called out to them!

“Sprig? Hop Pop? Polly?” She saw Bessie panicking and ran over to her “Hey, hey, hey girl. Shh, Bessie, where’s the family?” Just as she was finishing, she heard a growl come from behind her and turned to see a scorpileo staring right at her holding her family by its tail!

“It came outta nowhere!”

“Careful Anne, it might still be psychic!”

“I’m too cute to die!” Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly all respectively yelled. Anne jumped over to them, but the scorpileo dodged out of the way and for some unknown reason, just ran off with the rest of her family! Maybe it’s never seen a blue frog before and it thinks she’s diseased? There was really no way to tell, but it didn’t matter. It was long gone with her family and she’d have to track it down! She noticed something fall out of Polly’s bowtie and picked it up to find a cookie.

“Dang it, Polly. Food hoarder…” but then she actually thought about it for a moment.

“Maybe I can track them via the crumbs left behind!” She looked up to see that it had left a pretty obvious trail “oooor that works too!” Though she still had to resort to the cookie crumb strategy in the end. Thankfully she still got reaffirmation that she was on the thing’s trail whenever she came across some tracks, a broken branch, the berry satchel, a trampled bush…

Wait, the berry satchel?! Anne did a double take. Sprig must have dropped it while trying to struggle free! She picked it up and looked at it, contemplating it. If she wanted to, she could just drop it here and get rid of her last reminder of Sasha. But then again, they were still practically useful enough that she couldn’t just give up something like that! Yes, it reminded her of something bad, but she just might actually need it and it would really be a waste to leave it behind.

She tried to tie the string to her waist, but with its weight swinging around freely, it threw her off balance. The satchel was meant for a toad sized body, after all. In the end, she left it tied, but stuffed it into her pocket and kept going. She was close to the scorpileo now; she could tell ‘cause the trail was relatively fresh!

When she came across the discarded bones of various frogs, she realized that she’d tracked the thing all the way to its nest! It had to be around there somewhere, so she started trying to set a trap for it! She began to dig a large pit, but her little frog hands were barely able to get a good grip on the ground. Maybe the claws she had in her true form would help? No, she could do this without having to rely on the same strength SHE used! They weren’t the same! Suddenly she heard the thumps of extremely large paws behind her.

When she looked, she saw the scorpileo carrying her family in its mouth, their upper halves hanging out. From what she could tell, it hadn’t actually tried to eat or even bite them yet. Maybe it liked to marinade its prey in fear like a love dove? It dropped them onto the ground in front of it and pinned them with both of its paws. So it liked to play with its prey.

Anne looked back and forth between her family and the pathetic excuse of a hole she’d dug so far. She’d never be able to dig it out in time! Unless… she grabbed the berry satchel and cringed. Hearing her family scream, though, made Anne finally force herself to grab one of the berries and eat it! She had no time to waste, so she started digging again while the transformation happened. She watched her hands and arms change colour as her claws came out and she grew her extra fingers.

Surprisingly enough, it was the extra fingers and larger hand size that made the difference in getting the hole dug faster rather than her claws. Once it was done, she grabbed a huge pile of very large leaves that happened to be nearby (she didn’t bother wondering why they were there in the first place) and used it to hide the hole! After that was just the dance in order to get its attention. She wasn’t sure she’d still be coordinated enough to pull it off in this form, but she’d at least have to try!

“HEY FURBALL!!” She yelled out at it just in time to save Polly from getting either poisoned or skewered by the spike on the tip of its tail. Her family all looked at her, seeing the big, lanky creature they all loved!

“ANNE!!” They all shouted in unison, ridiculously happy to see her! Sprig was aware that he’d dropped the satchel and while it wasn’t on purpose, he was suddenly so grateful that he had! The scorpileo’s tail was so close to them that any wrong movement from Anne would end up with them dead. But then she started to do the traditional Plantar hunting dance and the thing actually started paying more attention to her.

Sprig suddenly remembered someone telling him that the scorpileo could readjust its eyes to see in heat signatures. Anne’s true form was warm blooded, so it must be seeing something even more hypnotizing than the dance usually was! Either way, it dropped them and slowly stalked up to Anne, watching her every movement. That was until one little slip of her foot kicked some dirt into its face and it went to lunge in retaliation!

Thankfully the girl managed to duck just in time for the scorpileo to miss her and go tumbling straight into the hole she’d dug for it! She heard its yelp as it hit the bottom, clearly having gotten at least a little hurt in the process. It was quick to start climbing out, though, so Anne took this opportunity to run up to her family, scoop up Polly, grab Sprig’s hand, and start running with Hop Pop right behind her! She couldn’t jump up the steeper part of the ridge ‘cause she wasn’t a frog anymore, but Sprig pulling on her was enough to help get her up without her having to let go of Polly.

In the end, they were able to get back to the fwagon safely. Bessie greeted them all happily with a couple of chirps while Sprig started gushing over the fact that she was in her true form again.

“It’s so good to see you finally got over it! I was getting worried you might want to bail or something at the last minute ‘cause you couldn’t handle looking like that.”

“Oh come on, I wouldn’t do that. Even if I am still a liiiittle uncomfortable with this, the whole point of this trip is to find out more about my species if we can!” Anne explained. She knew she had to think logically about all this, but she was still a little reserved. Hop Pop caught on, though, and tried to reassure her.

“Look Anne, I know what this is about. Yer scared that you might be too much like Sasha.” Anne flinched at the mention of the other creature “BUT yer obviously total opposites. What you did back there with that scorpileo proved that! Not ta mention she acted way more like a toad than her own person. So I want you ta stop thinkin’ like that.

“Here’s the thing. There are plenty a awful people regardless of species. Some frogs are horrible people, plenty of toads are horrible people, and even a good amount of newts are horrible people! Every species with even a decent amount intelligence has at least some that are the worst! Sasha was quite clearly one a those!

“Imagine, if you will, someone who’s never met a frog before. Then they come across a certain bed and breakfast inn that’s run by cannibal bullfrogs! If they escape, then they’ll think that all frogs are like that. We know it’s not true, but how would they? Who’s ta say Sasha wasn’t an outlier? We. Don’t. Know. So I want you ta stop comparin’ yerself ta her right now and focus on who YOU are! Yer a kind, brave, and smart young lady who’s not gonna end up like that ‘cause yer a fundamentally different person on the inside! Got that?!”

“... Yes, Hop Pop.” Anne said with a shaky smile. It’d take a while for her to get rid of those feelings, but she’d at least have to try. As it was, they knew they shouldn’t stick around the area much longer in case the scorpileo came back, so they proceeded to pack up and get going. When Anne got into the fwagon, she found that she was actually able to stand up straight inside of it, although she was still able to reach the ceiling when she stretched her arms up.

Hop Pop grabbed a wooden stepladder that honestly had some really big steps and placed it underneath the trap door on the ceiling. It locked into place because of a couple of notches on the floor that Anne hadn’t noticed before, but she probably wouldn’t have thought much of them even if she had noticed. Regardless, Hop Pop jumped up and through the trap door, then stuck his head back in.

“Anne, do me a favor and climb up that stepladder without turnin’ back inta a frog. I just wanna see if my measurements were right.” Anne flashed a glance at her siblings before doing as Hop Pop instructed. When she stood up on top of it, she found that she was at just the right height for the upper half of her body to stick out of the trap door. She could rest her arms on the roof of the fwagon while her legs were still inside. Hop Pop looked at her like that and smiled.

“Okay, good. I wanted ta make sure you could get up here more easily while in that form. Yer not as good a jumper when yer like that, so I figured I’d give ya somethin’ ta climb in order ta get up here. Yer free ta do whatever ya want, now.” Hop Pop turned away and hopped over to Bessie’s reigns so that they could get going. Anne, for her part, silently ducked back into the fwagon and closed the trap door behind her.

It was nice to know that Hop Pop took so many extra steps to accommodate her true form, but she still took a dose of medicine right away after all of that. Maybe she’d be more comfortable later. For that moment, though, she kinda just wanted to sleep and sleeping was most comfortable in the form she’d spent nearly her entire life in. Sprig and Polly were at least understanding enough to not bother her, but both of them had to try really hard to keep in their excitement about the monster part of their big sister finally coming back!

Things returned to normal after all of that. After a terrifying incident where Polly got frustrated enough to plant a decoy of herself so they accidently left her behind, the family slowed down a bit to make sure everyone was doing better. Eventually they came across a travelling caravan of actors. Hop Pop was pretty excited, thinking he might finally be able to realize his dream of being an actor, so he asked the leader if they could trail behind them.

She seemed fine with it, so long as they didn’t cause any trouble. Hop Pop actually managed to score a leading role in their upcoming production while the kids tried to make friends with the children of the caravan. Polly fit in right away, but the theater kids didn’t take to Sprig or Anne all too quickly. Still, they both tried their best. After the first play they put on was a success with Hop Pop in the lead role, some of the actors started asking him about his other endeavors.

It didn’t take long after that for one of the other actors to go snooping find his notes about Anne, though. They went through a bunch of questions before Anne finally stepped up and spilled the beans herself. Thankfully she didn’t need to transform in front of them for them to know what she was supposed to look like. As it turned out, Hop Pop was a pretty good artist and had already drawn enough diagrams of her to get the point across.

This resulted in a new prototype play being written about a friendly monster that was shunned from society for being a monster until a child befriended them. The monster was supposed to save the kid and prove themselves friendly that way. And of course, they wanted Anne to play the monster. It took a little bit, but in knowing that she’d be cast in a benevolent light, she eventually agreed. However, it only took one rehearsal for everything to go sideways.

They asked Anne to show up in her true form, which she did, but suddenly almost none of the other actors wanted to go near her. The ones that did kept having to tell themselves that she was supposedly friendly and that they didn’t need to be scared of her. At least the parts of the script where they were supposed to act scared of her had more genuine feeling behind it, but there was one part where she was supposed to stand up quickly and dash across the stage… and she tripped. She tripped and fell, knocking over a prop that was tall enough to hit someone on the way down.

This wasn’t just any random person, though. It was the guy who was holding the lanterns to make sure the lighting was good. When he fell, so too did the lanterns, which set the more flammable parts of the stage on fire! Anne’s longer legs made her fast enough to fetch some water to put it out before it got too bad, but still. The script was ultimately thrown out because they couldn’t afford that type of damage again and frankly, Anne couldn’t actually act all that well.

After turning back into a frog, she helped with the cleanup, but just retired to the fwagon for the rest of the time they spent following the acting troupe. None of the other actors were going to let her accident go and she really just didn’t want to deal with that. Wartwood was one thing, seeing as it was her hometown and she already knew everybody there. This, though, was just a bunch of strangers who treated her even worse after all of that. The only thing that was saving her was her connection to Hop Pop, seeing as he was still playing the main character in their upcoming performance.

Eventually the old frog realized that they were planning on using their play as a distraction to rob a bank in the next town. So of course he reported them right away and got the leader arrested. If Anne were to be completely honest, she couldn’t be happier to be away from those actors who saw her fumble so badly. Hopefully there’d be no blue moon shut in stories about her and how badly she messed up.

Thinking about that made her mind go back to the Newtopian Book Beast and how they must be so embarrassed about what happened that day. Monthy had said that they were underneath a pile of books when they were first seen, so said books must’ve fallen on them. What an awful thing to be remembered by! At the very least the story told about Anne would end with her cleaning up after herself and confirming her benevolence… hopefully.

In the end, that just made her even more determined to try and find them, so they were on the road again! Anne had learned about how to drive Bessie some time ago, so she was on top of the fwagon with Hop Pop. Meanwhile Sprig and Polly were stuck inside and happened to get into a fight over something dumb. The two drivers would have thought nothing of it if it weren’t for the fact that they kept getting into more and more fights. It got to a point where Hop Pop just decided to drop them off and make them walk for a distance.

This turned out to be exactly what they needed in order to stop arguing ‘cause when they picked them up again later, they were just happy to be back! It was almost like they learned a nice, big lesson all without any input from the other two Plantars. It was actually kind of impressive, if Anne had to be honest. She was kind of concerned about their mention of some sort of creature they encountered along the way that tried to eat them. Some sort of pair of conjoined twin olms?

Anne figured it didn’t matter at first, seeing as her siblings were seemingly fine and they were moving past that anyways. It became clear that night that the encounter had at least given the younger kids a nightmare or two, though. At one point, Anne even contemplated taking her true form so that she could comfort them with warmth. Whatever happened there definitely left them shaken, but it wasn’t even an emergency or anything. She debated with herself on whether it'd be a good idea or not before she sighed and gave in.

After hearing her idea, both of her siblings were all for it and so she popped a berry just so that she could comfort them better. And for the first time since the toad tax incident, she actually fell asleep in her true form. This time, though, her siblings were with her and even taking away the excess heat that would have caused her to overheat, making all three of them more comfortable.

Still, she made sure to take her medicine the next morning. She didn’t know if Hop Pop knew about what they did, but if he did know, then he didn’t show it. It was a good thing they didn’t need the same thing for more than one night ‘cause Anne wasn’t completely sure if she’d be okay with that a second time. Then again, nothing bad had happened and the rest of her family really seemed to want her to go back to using her true form again, so she knew to at least keep trying for them.

Still, she continued to spend most of her time as a frog regardless. One day that she and Sprig were just relaxing inside the fwagon, though, they hit a particularly nasty bump that knocked both of them onto the floor!

“What the heck is going on out there?” Anne asked before she and Sprig climbed out through the trap door and onto the roof. As it turned out, they were going up a particularly steep hill. Not too big of an issue most times, but once they got to the top, Bessie’s reins snapped!

“Aww dangit!” Hop Pop shouted while the reins went slack. Bessie, upon not feeling the weight of them on her front anymore, seemed to think that she was free to do whatever she wanted. Which, at the time, seemed to be snuggling up to one of the fly-sheep she noticed on the side of the road and taking the entire fwagon with her!

“Agh, we gotta get these reins fixed or we can’t control Bessie!”

“Don’t worry, Hop Pop! There’s a town right down the road!” Sprig brought out a map and pointed “See? ‘Ribbitvale’.”

“Ribbitvale?! The most expensive town in all Amphibia?! No way!” Bessie suddenly stopped, finally having caught the fly-sheep she had been chasing.

“Looks like we don’t have a choice, Hop Pop.” Anne argued. The old frog sighed in response.

“You’re right. But when we get there, don’t get sucked in by the fancy!” They could all at least agree to that, so they all got off of the fwagon and started leading Bessie by hand to said town! Hop Pop even got an old rope to tie around her so that it’d be easier to do so. Polly was the only one unable to help with it, but it was completely understandable, seeing as she didn’t even have legs. But that was exactly why she was the first one to speak up when they finally got into the town.

“Guys, look!... So shiny, so sparkly.” Pretty much everything in the town was adorned with gold trim and shined to an immaculate degree! Sprig even joined in, pointing out various things.

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before! A ten tier fountain! a solid gold snail carriage? There’s even a One-Eyed Wally- wait what?” They couldn’t believe it! Sure, he was wearing one of the fanciest get-ups they’d ever seen, but it was still clearly him!

“ONE-EYED WALLY?!” All the Plantars yelled as they ran up to him. He looked a little nervous when he saw them, but Anne continued.

“You didn’t tell us you were leaving the Valley!”

“Oh, umm-” Wally started, but got cut off by the older frog next to him.

“Wallium, you know these pungent common folk, do you?”

“Uhh… yes, father. I met them on my business travels.”

“These must be your servants from Wartwood, then.”

“Servants?!” Hop Pop cut off their conversation, clearly offended. However, Wally quickly walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Yes, that’s right father. These are my servants.” He went to pat Polly on the head, but she just grabbed his wrist and nearly crushed it in her grip. Wally’s dad didn’t seem to notice, though. Instead he just introduced himself to the Plantars.

“I am Wigbert Ribbiton”

“RIBBITON?! As in Ribbiton’s ribbons? The finest web crusty floss in all of Amphibia?!” Hop Pop responded in shock.

“That’s us! And when I retire, Wallium here will be head of the Ribbiton family empire, right Wallium?”

“Right, father! Can’t wait for that.” Wally gave a heavy sigh at the end. Anne could tell he was clearly lying, but she couldn’t really figure out why he wouldn’t want that! Back in Wartwood, he was basically a bum! Something just didn’t add up here. Before she could ask though, Wigbert walked up to Bessie and noticed right away that the reins weren’t even there anymore.

“Hello, looks like someone needs repairs. My mechanics will make her right as rain in no time.” He snapped his fingers and a large group of small frogs came running in and carried Bessie and the fwagon away. The family almost freaked out a little out of reflex alone, but stopped themselves at the reminder that this frog really was just trying to help.

“Oh, mighty kind a ya!” Hop Pop thanked him. He then invited them to come back to their mansion with them. Wally seemed apprehensive, but the Plantars drowned him out with their acceptance. If he was going to claim that they were his servants, then he would at least have to treat them to this! Along the way, though, Hop Pop leaned over and whispered to Anne.

“By the way, have I ever told you that Wally’s actually yer godfather?” This surprised Anne. Sure, she’d heard a couple of people mention something like that when she was younger, but she always thought they were joking. And sure, he did occasionally give her something pretty nice on some of her birthdays… ooooh, maybe that's why he always kept 'finding' nice stuff. But no one in Wartwood would think to ask Wally, of all people, to be their kid’s godfather.

“Wait, for real? I thought anyone who said that was just joking.”

“Well, given how it happened, it was actually kinda embarrassin’. I’ll tell ya the story later, though. Fer now, let’s just get ta that mansion.”

“Okay, Hop Pop. Jeez, I’ve got so many questions now!” She was willing to wait to hear the story of how and why Wally ended up being her godfather ‘cause Hop Pop was right. They had other things to deal with first. But as soon as she was able to, she’d have to start questioning Wally.

When they got to the mansion they saw that it was stupidly gigantic, with a massive golden fence around the entire property and even some pet birds in the front yard! Wigbert led the group inside and through the halls to a room that he designated as theirs for the night and left them to their devices. Now, he may have said it was one of their smaller rooms, but it was huge! It had a bed that was big enough to fit at least THREE of Anne’s species all at once, a big plush chair in the corner, and a massive ornate chandelier hanging above everything!

“This place is magnificent!” Hop Pop exclaimed before jumping onto the bed and just laying there for a minute. Anne was quick to call him out, though.

“What happened to ‘look away from the fancy’?”

“It don’t count if you don’t have to pay for it.” Hop Pop made a fair argument. Before he got too comfy, though, Sprig suggested that they go exploring about the mansion. Hop Pop seemed to be perfectly fine with it, but Anne opted to stay behind in order to finally get some answers out of Wally.

“Sooo, ‘Wallium’, what’s going on here? I thought you were a fun loving tramp, not some little rich boy. And why was I only JUST told that you’re apparently my godfather?” Anne needed to get to the bottom of this. Thankfully Wally wasn’t trying to hide anything anymore.

“The truth is I live like a bum in Wartwood because, well, it’s what I love! Your parents would never have asked me to be your godfather if it weren’t for the desperate circumstances they were under. I mean, who just trusts the new guy in town like that when he acts the way I do? This life may look nice, but there’s so many rules. And if my family knew the real me, well they’d disown me for sure!”

“What? No way! Family always sticks by family, no matter what. I know that better than anyone!”

“That’s ‘cause you’ve actually got a healthy family! My family isn’t so great. The problem is that it’s just too risky, Anne.” He lifted up the edge of a floorboard and pulled a concertina out “I have to hide these around the house or I’d lose my mind!”

“I still think you should be honest with them. Worst case scenario, they tell you to leave and go back to Wartwood, which you just admitted is where you’re leading a life you love. I mean, what do you have to lose?”

“Well come with me and I’ll show you.” He lead her away from the room and in a different direction than what the rest of her family went. She figured they’d be fine so long as they didn’t split up and if they really did trust Wally, then they wouldn’t worry about her. Ultimately they came across a set of stables that contained a large assortment of (assumedly) well trained creatures.

“So much of my past is here. It would break my heart to leave it all behind.” He opened a stable door to reveal a blue ladybug with a pink bow on its head “meet Fiddleleaf. I’ve been riding her since I was a wee tadpole.” Anne could understand that, but try as she might, she just couldn’t find a solution.

“Well if you’re not gonna tell them, then what are you gonna do?”

“Maybe if they could see how happy I was living in Wartwood, they’d understand and accept me for who I am! Oh, who am I kidding?” He sat down next to Fiddleleaf with a glum expression. Anne had to admit that she was stumped here. It wasn’t like she had some sort of magical solution that would just show off a bunch of memories! All she could do was sit beside him and try to cheer him up a bit. The problem was that she still had a few questions.

“So if you’re my godfather, then why did you call that angry mob on me when you saw me in my true form that one time?”

“Well, I didn’t know how sentient you were in that form. I shouldn’t have assumed the worst like I did, but with how everyone was talking about you at the time… well… I figured the only way to get you back home without anyone getting hurt would be if we overpowered you with numbers and restrained you. I know now that that was completely unnecessary, but I didn’t know at the time. I’m sorry about that incident.” Anne sighed at his explanation.

“Oh don’t worry about it. I probably would have done the same thing in that situation and frankly, it must have been such a disappointment when you found out that you had a monster for a godchild.” Wally snapped his head in her direction at this. Anne looked up to meet his gaze, noticing how shocked he looked.

“Wait, what was that? Why?”

“Well it’s just… In that form I’m ugly, I’m scary, I do weird things, and no one even knows what I am or how I’m naturally supposed to act! I thought the ‘monster’ part should have explained tha-” Wally cut Anne off by shooting to his feet and putting on the most overexaggerated faux snobbish tone he could muster.

“I beg your pardon?! My goddaughter is very bright and has the biggest heart you’ll ever see! She is kind, hard working, and would never abandon someone in need. Sure, she might pose as a frog most of the time, but she does that so she doesn’t make other people uncomfortable.” He put on a playful grin and poked Anne in the side “Who do you think you are that you think you can just insult her like that?!”

Anne stood up and giggled. The fact that Wally said that really touched her. She knew her family loved her unconditionally. Heck, she could probably tear everyone in Wartwood to shreds and they’d still love her! But Wally wasn’t family and most people didn’t even know, let alone believe, that he was her godfather. If he wanted to, he could cut contact, wash his hands on the matter, pretend it was never so, and ignore her. But instead he chose to keep his role! And on top of that, he saw Sasha just as much as the rest of the frogs and he still chose to believe in her!

“Well I’d better go get ready for dinner. It’s in thirty minutes, so that’s plenty of time for you and your family to get ready too.” Wally finished and turned to leave.

“Okay, see you then. And thank you for saying those things! It means a lot.” He turned back around and flashed her a smile before walking out of the stables. She was about to follow when her own family walked in, all of them wearing a thousand yard stare. Apparently they saw some things that Anne knew better than to ask about, so she just herded them all off back to their room and before long, a servant knocked on their door to lead them to the dining hall.

Dinner went smoothly for the most part right up until one of the servants came running up to Wigbert and whispered something in his ear. He pulled a disgusted face, but then the servant handed him something that he held underneath the table. He looked straight at Wally before taking a deep breath and gritting his teeth as he slowly asked his son something.

“Wallium, this servant here just told me something interesting. Apparently he overheard your conversation with one of these common folk… Is it true that you act as a vagabond outside of Ribbitvale? And that these common folk have you as the eldest child’s godfather?” The Plantars, especially Anne, all stopped and turned their heads to look at them. None of them had told him anything, but it seemed like that didn’t matter.

“N-no, father. I would never act like that and perhaps the second half of that rumour was started simply because I decided to be kind to her when she was a tadpole? I-I mean, who wouldn’t be kind to a younger tadpole?”

“Hmm… then what is this?” He pulled the thing he’d been holding under the table up for everyone to see. It was the most damning piece of evidence that he could have presented: one of Wally’s concertinas! Wally tried his best to come up with some sort of excuse on the spot, but nothing came to him!

“I-I uh- wha- b-but I…”

“Wallium, this is unacceptable! You have brought shame onto the house of Ribbiton. Worse, you’ve been lying to us!”

“I-I only lied because I didn’t think you’d accept the real me.”

“Well you weren’t wrong. We do not accept this! You are henceforth forbidden to leave this town.” Wally gasped at his father’s irrational decision.

“Then you leave me no choice!” He stood up, pulled the ribbon bowtie off of his neck, grabbed a butter knife, and tied the ribbon around it. He then pulled off one of the flashiest dances that Anne had ever seen that resulted in him launching the knife at a small gong on the other side of the room. Wally had just issued a family challenge and was about to give his ultimatum!

“If my family won’t accept me for who I truly am, then I don’t want to BE a Ribbiton anymore! I challenge you to a winner-takes-all duel!”

“Very well. One-on-one beast polo! You win, you can leave Ribbitvale and live however you like. You lose, you take over the family business and stay in Ribbitvale forever!”

“I accept!” Wally then stormed out of the room and, feeling far less welcome than before, The Plantars all followed him. None of them did anything wrong, nor were any of them the blabbermouths. It was all that eavesdropping servant’s fault! Seeing as Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly didn’t see anyone on their way into the stables, Anne assumed that the servant had only heard the first part of their conversation. That at least meant that her secret was still intact, but now Wally had to deal with the repercussions of his own secret getting out.

All she could do was offer him support as he got ready for this life defining game! It didn’t take long for everything to be set up, but once it was time for the two of them to pick their beasts, Wigbert chose a gigantic beetle and then mockingly alerted Wally to the fact that, since he no longer wished to be a Ribbiton, he couldn’t use Fiddleleaf or any of their other beasts! Most of the Plantars considered letting him borrow Bessie, but the eldest child had had enough of all this nonsense!

“I’ll be your beast!” Was she actually using logic? No. Was she letting her emotions get the better of her? Yes. No doubt about it! But that didn’t stop Anne from recognizing that all of this was so unbelievably unfair to Wally. If Wigbert was going to set him up with a dirty trick like this, then Anne could pull a trick too!

“Anne? You don’t have to-” Wally started, but got cut off by his father.

“What? You? You are hardly a beast at all! What do you expect to do, child?” Flashing him an angry look, Anne simply reached down to the satchel of berries in her pocket and grabbed one.

“DANG IT, GIRL!!” Hop Pop yelled! He knew where this was going and Anne didn’t seem to understand how badly this could go! Given some of the things he and the younger two kids saw while Anne and Wally were having their conversations, he was scared of what might happen to Anne if she were found out. Worst case scenario, they’d kill her and taxidermy her body! And that was something that Hop Pop wanted to avoid at all costs! Anne didn’t seem to be stopping, though.

“I would like to formally apologize for what you’re about to see!” She said, looking Wigbert right in the eyes before biting into one of her berries. Wally knew what that berry was, seeing as Sprig told pretty much everyone in Wartwood about it some time before they left, but Wigbert… well he looked about ready to pass out from shock upon seeing the gruesome transformation! The crowd gasped and when she was finished, she even let out a short growl at him before straightening up and opening her mouth.

“That berry cancels magical effects like spells and curses. This is my true form, so I actually am enough of a beast to help my godfather in this situation! You got a problem with that?!” Anne crossed her arms, tilted her head, widened her eyes, and looked straight at Wigbert, challenging him to argue. It took the frog a little bit before he was able to speak again.

“... Good heavens. Alright, then. I’ll just… give you a moment to get ready…” He turned and walked to the other side of the field with a thousand yard stare, his beetle following him. Wally turned to Anne and sighed. There was no backing out of this now, so all he could do was get her to wear the required saddle and bridle… okay, she refused the bridle ‘cause she didn’t want anything inside her mouth, but that was okay ‘cause she was smart enough to not need it and if worse came to worst, he could probably just give her hair a light tug.

Once Wally confirmed with Anne that she would be okay with that, she could feel his hands in her hair. He explained he was trying to see how far down her hair went so that he wouldn’t pull too close to her head. After a little bit of fiddling about with that while Anne fastened the saddle (she chose to ignore how degrading it was to actually be wearing a saddle) to her chest and back, they were ready to go!

Wally mostly sat on Anne’s shoulders while she just held onto his legs to keep him in place. Saddles didn’t exactly work on bipeds, after all. Looking at the beetle that Wigbert was using, she saw that while it was bigger than her and could probably outspeed her, she’d no doubt be able to turn more easily than it. And so the game began, with both sides pretty evenly matched. Everyone was astonished by Anne’s endurance, seeing as she hadn’t slowed down in the slightest despite the game going on for longer than expected.

Eventually the score was tied with the final point hanging in balance as the one to decide the game! Right at the end, the two were racing towards the ball with Wigbert in the lead. He was just too fast! That was until Wally pulled a spare concertina out of Anne’s hair and used the springy nature of it to launch the ball into the opposing goal! Apparently he’d hidden it in there just before the game started and Anne genuinely didn’t know how to feel about that, but it won them the game so she couldn’t be too mad about it.

After all was said and done, Wally and Wigbert had a conversation and even reconciled by finding a compromise with their bet! Wally didn’t really want to leave the family, but Wigbert needed to accept him for who he really was and the father was finally willing to do that if it meant Wally wouldn’t leave for good! As Anne watched the two of them come to an understanding, she smiled. She knew family would always be there for each other! Even if it took quite a lot to get him to listen, he at least came around in the end.

After they were done, Wigbert directed his attention towards Anne and started to ask a few questions. Maybe it was just because he knew he’d have to accept her as his godgranddaughter? Either way, Hop Pop simply pulled him aside to go over his notes. By the time they were finished, Wigbert promised him that when the notes were finished, he’d hire an editor to help compile it all and formally publish it with multiple copies! Hop Pop wasn’t sure about using his granddaughter’s… uniqueness to make money, but he’d consider it if Anne was alright with it.

After he’d gotten over the initial shock of seeing her, he appeared to have a relatively open mind about it. Or at least it seemed that way, anyways. Regardless, Anne decided to stay in her true form for a little while longer. Nobody was treating her like a monster and even Wally was comfortable with her like this! So she spent the rest of the evening, night, and even morning in that form! By the time it was time to head out, she had gotten a lot more confident with it and even left while still looking like that!

Barring an odd incident where Anne got seen while in her true form and accidentally scared a tadpole only to end up entertaining them and getting some money for it, they were all well on their way to Newtopia! Everyone was so excited to finally be able to possibly dig up some news about the Newtopian Book Beast. All they had to do was make sure to keep a low profile by keeping Anne in her frog form until they actually met them!

The next time they stopped, they were right on top of a cliff that they could actually see the city from! It was a beautiful sight, what with it shining in the distance and surrounded by knee-deep water. All they had to do was approach! The family quickly rode the fwagon down and into said water, excitement permeating the whole group! However, once they got to the actual city gates to request entry, they were met with a rather rude newt poking his head out the window.

“You can’t come in here. Newtopia’s closed.”

“SERIOUSLY?!” All of the Plantars yelled in unison. The newt didn’t help much with his explanation.

“The city is closed to all outsiders.”

“What the heck?! Why? ‘Till when?” Sprig asked him.

“Until the barbariants are gone, of course. Good luck out there!” He promptly closed the window on them, leaving them with no idea of what they were going to do. None of them were amused, but Sprig was the one that actually spoke up.

“Pssh! They closed the whole city because of a few little ants? WOAH!!” Just as he finished his sentence, a massive ant appeared behind him and heabutted him! This thing was just a little bit bigger than Anne’s true form and it pinned Sprig so quickly that none of the other Plantars had any time to react! Thankfully the boy was able to hold it back just long enough for his family to set into action!

Without even thinking about it, Anne popped a berry and before the transformation was even halfway done, Hop Pop and Polly were able to throw her into the air and, when combined with the last bit of froggy jumping power that was leaving her, she got a decent amount of air! Given that her body was getting bigger and heavier by the moment, the amount of weight that hit the ant was enough to get it to let Sprig go! Anne rolled off of it and into the water so that by the time she stood up again, she was completely transformed!

Polly jumped ahead and bought the rest of them some time by latching onto the barbariant’s leg and gnawing on it. Meanwhile Anne and Sprig both grabbed Hop Pop and threw him right at the ant, with the old frog inflating his vocal sac so that it would act as a cushion when he collided with it! Polly let go just in time for the ant to go flying and run away as soon as it got back to its feet.

The family cheered for their victory! Heck, Anne even shook the excess water out of her hair, unknowingly splashing Hop Pop and Polly in the process. They didn’t have long to celebrate, though, because the ground started shaking around them and more barbariants appeared! There were so many of them that the family knew they had no way of fighting them all off.

As the ants approached and caused them all to back up towards the fwagon, everyone tried to come up with some sort of idea. Suddenly, all thinking was cut short by something hitting the water in between them and the ants! Whatever it was, it left a black ooze sitting on top of the water where it landed. But it didn’t just stop there! More of whatever it was hit the water until there was a circle of black ooze all around them.

Next thing they knew, all the ooze spontaneously lit on fire! The water around the family protected them from it, but it was enough to scare away all the barbariants. As the fire quickly died down, everyone voiced their confusion at whatever the heck just happened and looked around. Polly was the one that noticed a cloaked figure standing on top of the Newtopian city walls, though. The figure fired an arrow with a rope attached from an arm mounted crossbow, the arrow lodging itself in one of the fwagon’s wheels!

Then they used a hook to grab onto it and start sliding down, even doing a flip along the way. Once the family saw the big, green tail poking out from under the cloak, they realized they were looking at one cool newt! Said newt finally looked at them, but once they saw Anne, they seemed to freak out a little bit and ended up snapping their rope. This resulted in them faceplanting right into the water!

“Oof.”

“Been there.”

“Didn’t really stick the landing.”

“I hope they’re alright.” Hop Pop, Sprig, Polly, and Anne all said respectively. At the very least, the newt in question got up rather quickly and sorted themselves out before pulling their hood back to reveal a head of short, black hair with a green seashell clip holding part of it back. With green skin all over their body and being dressed in Newtopian armour, they actually looked quite fashionable!

Still, they looked straight at Anne, staring at her for a moment. The Wartwood Creature started to get ready for the usual scream of fear and/or bombardment of fearful questions, but neither came. Instead, all the newt did was introduce themselves with a tone that carried mostly nervousness, but also a fair amount of excitement.

“H-hi there. M-my name’s Marcy.”