13. The Witch of the Wilds

Uodeela starred at Luz, then she pulled an object from her hair, the object looked like a magnifying glass of some kind and used it to look Luz over. It extended an extra set of lenses and came very close to Luz. After a few minutes of scanning Luz through the device she finally stopped.

"I must say in all my years of wandering the Amphibian wilds I've never see such a creature," she said, "here I thought I had seen and heard it all."

"She said she was called a human," said Lilly.

"Human," said Uodeela pensively, "Now that is bringing something back, yes I haven't seen a human in the flesh before, but I have seen a picture of one a long time ago."

"You have!" said Luz excitedly, this was the first good news she'd heard in a while, maybe this witch could help her.

"The picture did not really look like you though," said Uodeela, "you look a bit small and skinny compared to the picture I saw. That's why I wasn't sure if that's what you were."

"When did you see a picture of a human?" asked Amara intrigued.

"The Royal Library of Newtopia has many resources that you may not be aware of child," replied Uodeela.

"So you know what I am that's great to hear!" said Luz, "I know I just got here and I'm sorry to impose but do you think you can get me back to the human world?"

"Did you say you came here from another world?" asked Uodeela eyeing Luz.

"Yes see the thing is, in the world I'm from me and humans are everywhere. I have a life in my world I have a family and I have friends…" Luz trailed off and stopped talking as she had once again reminded herself of what happened before arriving here. Did she still have friends back home?

"If you came from another world then how did you get here?" asked Uodeela.

"I….I don't know," said Luz, in her head she knew that there was a strong chance that she had gotten here because of Anne opening that box, even so it just felt so crazy to say it. Not only that but she didn't even have the box with her so talking about an object she didn't even have didn't seem like the right move.

"How could you not know how you got here?" asked Amara a bit aggressively, "doesn't that sound a bit suspicious master," she said to Uodeela.

"If she knew how she got here don't you think she would have told us?" said Lilly.

"Why are you so quick to trust her?" accused Amara, "she's a member of an unknown species that just randomly showed up here in Amphibia, who apparently doesn't know how she got here. We know literally nothing about her and you want to trust her for no reason. I'm starting to see why frogs are so plebeian."

"Hey take that back!" yelled Lilly defensively.

"If you stopped acting so stupid, then maybe I wouldn't say things like that," responded Amara.

"Enough! Both of you," said Uodeela raising her voice, "neither of you are experts on magic just yet. I'm the only one in this room who is. Now it might be possible that this human was zapped with a spell that transported her here. It could also be possible that someone cursed her in order to bring her here. While I haven't heard of such a thing it could even be that she drank something that somehow transported her. The only other thing I could think of would be….." Uodeela trailed off before turning back to Luz.

"So uh Luz was it?" began Uodeela.

"Yes that's my name," said Luz.

"Did you come here by yourself or did you come with other people?" asked Uodeela.

Oh no! thought Luz, she's on to me! But I have no way of knowing if Sasha, Anne and Marcy were transported here with me.

"Well there were some other people with me right before I arrived here. The last thing I remember was the four of us were gathered together and…"

"Four of you," said Uodeela seriously, "Luz please try and remember, and think carefully before you respond. Are you sure there were four of you?"

"Yes it was me, Anne, Sasha and Marcy," said Luz, with that she began digging in her backpack before pulling out the picture they had taken on the first day of school and showing it to Uodeela.

"Those are my friends," she said indicating the people in the picture. Amara, Lily, and Gustav all moved closer to see the picture as well, amazed by the sight of more humans.

"Wow are those other humans," asked Gustav intrigued, "Hey they come in different colors just like frogs."

"They look so gangly," observed Amara, "how does you species survive when it looks so weak?"

"That one next to you, I like her hair it's so big and poofy," said Lilly.

"That's Anne she…." Luz again trailed off unable to finish, as once again she remembered what Anne had said to her, "actually I'm not sure if Anne and I are friends anymore. Something happened right before I came here that…. Let's talk about something else."

"Yes let's," said Uodeela, "well I had a theory about how you may have gotten here but I'm not sure if it fits. In any case I know a lot about magic so you're lucky that you arrived with me. If it was magic that brought you here then I am likely your best bet for getting home."

"So you'll help me?" asked Luz hopefully.

"Yes," said Uodeela, "although I'll need your help with something first."

"Oh well sure, If you help me then it's only fair that I help you. What do you need?" asked Luz.

"I need you to go on an errand with me, actually Lilly you come too," ordered Uodeela, "the rest of you stay here and watch over the house. You can read your book on Amphibian plants to finish up our earlier lesson."

"But master I assure you I am already up to speed on my plant knowledge. I've read that book more than once," protested Amara.

"Well reading it one more time won't kill you, and hey learning and retaining the fundamentals will save you a lot of trouble in the future," replied Uodeela.

Later as Uodeela, Lilly, and Luz were walking away from the house deep into the forest Uodeela explained where they were going.

"There should be a toad outpost to the south of here. I've been keeping an eye on them ever since they set up shop here. It's not far from the town of Tadpole Pond, I'll bet they're here to get their "taxes" from that town.

"Whoa time out," said Luz, "I'm still new here so what exactly are you talking about?"

"Right I suppose one of us should explain, Lilly do you want to do it or would you like me to?" asked Uodeela.

"You go ahead Master," said Lilly, "I still don't like to talk about it." Luz noticed that Lilly's face fell as she said that last part, she suddenly looked very sad.

"Well Luz if you're gonna survive in Amphibia in addition to knowing about all the things that could eat you. You also have to know about politics as well. Honestly that might get you killed faster than the predators," said Uodeela laughing at her own joke.

"In any case as you might have surmised from the name Amphibia is home to all sorts of amphibians, though there are roughly three main groups. You have the Newts who mostly live in Newtopia, the frogs who inhabit a variety of villages, and the Toads who are mostly concentrated in Toad Tower far to the north of here. There are other smaller kinds of amphibians here like me I'm a salamander.

"Is there a place where salamanders live?" asked Luz.

"Not one specific place," answered Uodeela, "there are a few in Newtopia and some in the various other cities, but salamanders as a whole are unfortuantly rare. There's a reason for that, but I don't want to talk about it now. The main point is that there are three main races: Newts, toads, and frogs. Now newts are generally thought to be upper class. It's why the capital city is names Newtopia, a lot of them think they're better than others."

"Like Amara," said Lilly bitterly.

"Yeah like her," agreed Uodeela, "I could tell when I first met her that her parents had done a number on her. She definitely grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth. I hope that I can maybe help her drop that attitude and see things differently, but I've had newt students before that didn't want to change so we'll see. Moving on next there are frogs. Frogs come in all shapes and sizes and they live scattered cause they're good at living just about anywhere. A lot of frogs are farmers, they have a good connection to the earth. But like I said they tend to be good at everything. Heck the last student I had was a frog who was a baker. She and her father were the local bakers for a town called Wartwood."

"Wartwood that's so far away from here," said Lilly, "What was she like?"

"Oh she was great," said Uodeela, "she had the perfect mindset for learning magic. I loved her personality! But getting back on topic lastly we have the toads. Toads are mostly all brawn and no brain. A long time ago they used to serve as the royal guard for the king, but nowadays they're little more than thugs who run an extortion racket against other towns. Their main base is Toad Tower deep in the center of Amphibia."

"What do you mean they run an extortion racket?" asked Luz.

"They collect "taxes" from various towns both in and outside of the valley. But they don't use that money to help improve the towns in any way. It's basically payment from the towns so that the Toad Army doesn't invade them. Hence the whole protection racket," explained Uodeela.

"That doesn't sound right at all," said Luz.

"It isn't, but that's where I come in," boasted Uodeela, "Ever since I started living out in the wilds I've made it my mission to harass the toads and steal back the taxes so I can redistribute it to the people."

"We're going to steal from the toads?" asked Lilly a bit apprehensively, "isn't that dangerous?"

"The toads aren't much of a threat to me, because I know magic. But I thought with Luz here it might be even easier, as she's a never before seen species," said Uodeela, "like I said Toads have almost no brain so all Luz here has to do is pretend to be a savage monster and we should be able to easily get their money."

"Wait a minute," said Luz, "you want me to pretend to be a monster to scare some toads?"

"I believe that's what I said, yes," said Uodeela, "trust me this will be a piece of cake."

The trio continued walking for awhile. Eventually Uodeela saw a flag with the toad symbol on it flying in the distance and stopped short, making sure to stay hidden from view. The group quietly moved forward to see two toads at a makeshift camp with a wagon full of bags of coins.

"Good haul this year," said one of them a burly light green one.

"Yeah Grime 'll be happy when he sees this," said the other a dark blue one, "he was worried about some of the towns maybe getting uppity but looks like that ain't happening."

"So I'm guessing those are toads," whispered Luz to the others.

"Yep sure are, and it looks like they just got done collecting the taxes. All we have to do is get the money from them and redistribute it back to the citizens," said Uodeela, "so listen up you two, here's the plan." With that she began outlining the plan to Luz and Lilly.

The toads had built a small fire and were cooking some bugs over it when suddenly they heard a scream. They grabbed their weapons and looked around to find the source of the scream. After a moment a young frog burst through the bushes running towards them.

"Oh thank goodness I've found you," she said, "there's a monster in the woods. It's like nothing I've ever seen before!"

"A monster you say," said the green toad, "good I've been looking for a fight!"

"Don't you worry girlie," said the blue toad, "we'll handle this monster."

The toads turned to the bushes where the young frog had emerged from, they heard a strange sound emanating from there. The bushes rustled a bit then a figure emerged from them. The figure was tall and gangly, it had weird brown skin and a smile on its face. It was making a horrible noise as it approached them.

"Raahhhaaa," growled Luz.

"What is that?!" said both toads in disbelief. They began shaking at the sight of the creature.

"It's so unnatural," said the blue toad as it began to run away.

"Hey don't leave me," called the other as it ran towards his companion. Within moments the two toads were gone leaving behind a wagon filled with coins.

"Nice work you two," said Uodeela as she came out of the bushes and up to where the wagon was, "now all we have to do is get this wagon out of here."

"Wow that was way too easy," said Lilly, "I almost feel sorry for the toads, almost."

"Yeah we better get moving before they show back up, who knows if they had any friends," said Uodeela lifting up a bag of coins in her hand. Right as she finished talking though a knife flashed through the air and came down on her hand. Uodeela let out a gasp of pain as her hand became separated from her body and fell to the floor.

"Nice try you witch!" said a new red toad, he was much larger than the other, "I've heard about you Uodeela the Salamander. You've been giving Grime trouble for too long. You idiots!" he called to the toads who had run off, "It was a ruse! Get back over here!"

He turned back to Uodeela, "Your days of stealing from us toads are over. Grime will give me a promotion when I bring back your head!" With that he grabbed Uodeela by the collar and raised her up off the ground ready to separate her head from her body.

"Now hold on a second ugly," taunted Uodeela, "do you really think Grime will believe that you defeated me?"

"Of course he will!" replied the toad, "I'm about to bring him your head."

"And how will Grime know that it's really my head," said Uodeela, "for all he knows you just killed a salamander who happens to look like me and brought him that head."

"I…well…when he sees that you're no longer interfering in his plans he'll know I've succeeded where others have failed," said the toad.

While all this was going on, Luz collected herself and did the only thing she could think of, she grabbed Uodeela's staff and snuck up behind the toad and managed to hit him on the head with her staff knocking him out.

"Great job kid, I appreciate this assist," said Uodeela, "now grab what you can and lets get out of here." Luz, Lilly, and Uodeela grabbed some of the coins out of the cart and raced back the way they had came.

"We won't be able to get all of it," declared Lilly a little disheartened.

"It's ok, this is a war of attrition," said Uodeela, "a little here and a bit there as long as we stay alive to fight another day we've won. No matter how small that victory seems." Lilly perked up on hearing this and grabbed a few bags of coins.

"Uodeela your hand!" said Luz clearly terrified and looking at the spot where her hand had been severed from her body.

"Yeah that smarts isn't it," said Uodeela casually raising her stump looking at it annoyed, "should've payed more attention."

"YOUR HAND WAS CUT OFF!" screamed Luz, "and you're treating it like a minor injury."

"Oh right I guess you don't have salamanders in your world," began Uodeela, "trust me I'll be fine, right now lets keep going, if we can get back to the house we'll be safe."

"There they are!" exclaimed the red toad. He was chasing the group along with the two other toads who had joined him.

"Ah farts, listen you two," said Uodeela handing Luz and Lilly her bags and turning to face the threat, "keep going and don't stop. I'll handle these ruffians. They may have got the drop on me before, but this time I'll be fine."

"But-" protested Luz.

"No buts, run!" she yelled, Luz and Lilly ran leaving Uodeela to face the toads alone, before she was out of sight Luz looked back one more time at Uodeela and saw her close her eyes and get into a battle ready position. She transferred her staff from her tail to her still attached hand.

When Uodeela opened her eyes back up they were glowing a bright red. She was focused and determined as she stared down her enemies. With a wave of her hand she launched an ice spell that connected with the blue toad freezing him instantly in a block of ice. The green toad saw this and continued charging at Uodeela, he pulled out a large club and tried to hit her with it. Uodeela dodged the attack and several others that he tried to unleash on her. After his next swing Uodeela blocked the club with her staff, at that moment the red glow transferred from her eyes to the rest of her body. In a display of strength she was able to knock the club out of his hand and in a quick series of punches hit the toad in four different pressure points on his body causing him to fall over in a crumpled heap. That just left the red toad, the leader of the bunch.

"So you really are as strong as they say," he observed brandishing his knife, the one he had used to cut off her hand, "but it doesn't matter, I'll show you what I'm made of!"

The red toad charged at Uodeela with his knife, he swung around wildly trying to connect her with it. Uodeela managed to dance around and avoid his swings easily. She moved her staff to her tail and used it to help her block hits from the knife. Finally she summoned a ball of fire to her hand, but instead of aiming at the toad she aimed at his knife. She tossed the fireball at his knife where it connected and caused the knife to heat up and forced the toad to drop it. As he staggered back from the pain of the hot knife Uodeela, in one swift motion used her tail to sweep at his feet tripping him. With him prone on the ground Uodeela reached into her hair grabbing a small bag of some kind and threw it straight at the toad. The bag exploded in a puff of smoke and when the smoke cleared the toad had been transformed into a grasshopper.

"Ahh what have you done!" exclaimed the transformed toad, "I'll be eaten for sure if I stay like this. Hey get back here you witch and change me back!"

Uodeela had taken this opportunity to run away. She continued in the direction that she had sent Lilly and Luz. A short while later she found them. Uodeela sat down to rest, the fight having taken a lot out of her. She finally pulled out some ointment and rags from her hair and handed them to Lilly so she could patch up her wound.

"I can't believe that guy got the drop on me. Maybe age is finally catching up with me," mused Uodeela, "still in any event once you get that patched up I'll be good to go and we can…."

"WHY ARE YOU NOT REACTING AT ALL TO YOUR HAND BEING CUT OFF?!" screamed Luz, still in disbelief at how casual Uodeela had treated the situation.

"Ok kid, since it seems you aren't going to stop screaming until I talk to you," she said dryly to Luz, "firstly stop yelling, It's annoying and it doesn't solve anything. Secondly seeing as you must not have salamanders in you world let me explain. I can regenerate limbs."

"Well actually we do have salamanders in my world," clarified Luz.

"Then why the heck were you screaming?" asked Uodeela annoyed, "I've lost a limb or two in the past. Just give me about two weeks and I'll fully regrow a new hand. One of the perks of being a salamander."

"Can you regrow anything?" asked Luz curiously.

"It's mostly restricted to limbs and tails," said Uodeela, "If I suffered a mortal injury then I don't think there's any coming back from that, although…"

"What is it?" asked Luz.

"There was a legend of some special elixir," began Uodeela, "it's just a legend though cause I don't think anyone's ever tried brewing it. It was an elixir that if a Salamander drank it and then died, as in died completely. The elixir would allow them to regenerate an entirely new body."

"Whoa really!" said Luz mesmerized by what Uodeela had said.

"No one's ever found out if it was real or not. I've tried to piece together the recipe for making that elixir, but if I can't do it, then I doubt anyone else can," boasted Uodeela.

"Still that sounds like it would be sweet!" said Lilly who was listening to the conversation, "wish frogs could regrow limbs."

"It's not all its cracked up to be," said Uodeela, "plus as you can see I've developed a rather cavalier attitude to having my limbs severed. I'd probably be a lot more careful if I knew I couldn't just regrow a hand."

"Well I'm done," said Lilly as she finished dressing the wound. Uodeela looked at her now bandaged stump and moved it around a bit, before shrugging her shoulders.

"We aren't far from the house," said Uodeela, "lets keep moving until we get there."

The trio continued walking, before long they had arrived back at Uodeela's house. Uodeela directed them to a basement on the back of her house, they opened the doors and stored the money they had taken inside. The basement had a variety of other things in it, though it was full of objects its wasn't so full you couldn't move around in it. There was in fact a lot of space in the middle.

"Thank you Master," said Lilly, "I still can't believe we did it Although we didn't get all the money."

"Like I said kid war of attrition." said Uodeela.

"Hey I just thought of something," said Luz, "if the toads are so bad, why do you have one as a student?"

"Gustav is an exception," began Uodeela, "kid is actually pretty smart, might have to do with him being a runt. Well the other toads might make fun of him for that, but honestly I think it allowed his brain to develop more. He got teased and made fun of a lot, so his father sent him to me to try and make something of him. Not all the toads are on board with Grime one hundred percent some just pay lip service to him and then send their kid to be taught by his enemy. Funny world we live in right?"

"I guess so," agreed Luz, "but have you told him about what the toads are doing?"

"No I haven't and I'd appreciate if you two didn't either, at least not yet," said Uodeela, "he's still young and naïve. Plus his father works directly with Grime so I don't want him to get in any trouble. While we're on the subject don't mention this to Amara either."

"Would she even care?" asked Lilly.

"Hard to say, maybe not right now, but I'm trying to get the girl to see the world outside her own bubble," said Uodeela, "at some point I'll tell her, but I hope that by that point she will actually care. We'll see, in any case thanks for the assist back there Luz, really helped me out of a jam."

"Yeah no problem," said Luz, "so can you help me get home?"

Uodeela looked back at Luz and starred for a bit before saying, "Honestly I don't know, but being as I am an expert in Amphibian magic I give you my word I'll do what I can to help you. For starters you can stay with me until we figure out a way to get you back. All my rooms are taken, but I have some space here in the basement where you can stay. Let me get you some blankets and we'll make a space for you here."

"You know despite the danger of today I honestly had fun," said Luz, "truth is I've been in a bit of funk because of something that happened between me and Anne before I left this world. This was the most fun I've had in awhile." Luz paused before continuing, "so you teach magic, right?"

"Was that not clear already?" asked Uodeela.

"It's just well, I've had a bit of an obsession with fantasy, and this world may not be the PG fantasy world I've read about in books or watched In movies, but the fact that magic is real here is amazing! Do….do you think I could learn to do magic?" asked Luz somewhat hesitantly.

"So there really is no magic in the world you come from?" asked Lilly.

"Not like here there isn't," said Luz, "It only exits in fiction, in books like this one," Luz pulled out her Azura book to show to Lilly and Uodeela, "I've always wanted to try and learn magic and now I actually have a chance to do that! So I have to at least ask if you'd teach me."

"Hmmm," mused Uodeela, "well most of the magic that exists out here is either brewing potions or performing curses. In theory anyone could do that if they have the patience and aptitude for it, so I don't see why you couldn't learn to do that."

"But what about what you were doing?" asked Luz, "I saw your eyes glowing red and you were able to cast spells out of your hand."

"I thought you were supposed to be running away while I was fighting those toads," scolded Uodeela.

Luz turned away sheepishly.

"Well in any case that kind of magic is different, and unfortunately not just anyone can do that, here let me show you something," with that Uodeela brought her staff over so Luz and Lilly could look more closely at it. That's when they noticed the bright red gem that was embedded in the top of the staff. The gem glowed brightly with a faint glow, as Luz starred at the gem she could have sworn she'd seen one like that before, but couldn't remember where.

"This is a special kind of gem," explained Uodeela, "they are very rare and they won't work for just anyone. First you would have to find one, then you'd have to keep it with you and hope that the gem would grant you its power. Oh yes the gem is sentient in its own way. I've formed a bond with this gem and it allows me to draw power from it in order to cast magic, but I have to be careful. It takes a lot out of you to use this kind of power and it required years of training to learn to do it properly. But like I said, it's hard to find gems like these, all the magic I use is self taught because of how rare these gems are. That being said, I can teach you about potions, elixirs, and curses just like I'm doing for Lilly, Gustav, and Amara. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to do that kind of magic, a lot of it is just mixing ingredients together in the right order and quantities."

"Oh I see, well in that case then yes! I'd still be interested in learning about that!" said Luz excitedly.

"Very well," said Uodeela, "you will stay here and be my apprentice, I'll teach you what I can about Amphibian Magic and do my best to help find a way to get you home, in return if I need your help with something then I expect you to help. I hope that those are agreeable terms?" said Uodeela reaching out her hand. Luz responded by stepping forward and enveloping Uodeela in a hug.

"I suppose that works too," said Uodeela who was surprised by the gesture, but accepted it nonetheless.

Much later Luz was alone in the basement, having changed into some pajamas and was lying on her makeshift bed when the door leading to the house opened and Lilly walked in.

"Hey Luz," she greeted.

"Hey," replied Luz.

"I was just checking on you and wanted to see how you were settling into your new room," she said.

"Oh I'm fine," said Luz, "Honestly I'm glad to be sleeping on the floor in a house. When I first got here I had to sleep in the mud and dirt outside. That and I couldn't really sleep because of how worried I was I'd end up being dinner."

"Wow that sounds rough," said Lilly, "I'm sorry to hear about that, but it's good to see you doing better. If you don't mind my asking you mentioned that you got into a fight with one of your friends before coming here. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Honestly not really," said Luz, "but I appreciate you asking."

"Oh well if you ever want to talk about anything then I'm happy to listen," said Lilly, "I know you miss your friends so I was thinking that maybe until you get back to your world I could be your friend while you're here."

"Ha, really? You'd do that for me?" said Luz a little surprised.

"Truth is I've been a bit lonely since coming out here, Gustav is nice, but Amara's been mean to me so I thought I'd ask you if you wanted to be friends," said Lilly.

"I think I'd like that," said Luz, "thanks for checking up on me I appreciate it, new friend." With that Lilly smiled and went back up the stairs. Luz smiled to herself and laid back down on her bed, glad to be able to finally get some restful sleep for the first time in awhile.

Upstairs in her room Uodeela was pacing around nervously and talking to herself.

"She said there were four of them when she suddenly arrived here. I didn't want to press her further because right now it's just a theory, but it's a theory that has a 90% chance of being correct," she said to herself, with that she grabbed a book from a shelf and began flipping through it until she stopped on a page that had a picture of an ornate box with four jewels in it, jewels that were similar to the one in Uodeela's staff. The description of the box named it, "The Calamity Box."

"Can it really be that the Calamity Box has returned to Amphibia?" mused Uodeela, "I don't think Luz has it or she would have shown it to me, but if it was the box that brought her here then it means that not only are her friends here as well, but one of them has the box. And if one of them has the box, then there's no telling where it could be right now."

Uodeela closed the book and sat down on her bed trying to calm herself down.

"It's the only explanation that makes sense," she said out loud, "While I suppose there's a faint possibility that Luz got here through some other means, it's looking very likely that it was the Calamity Box that brought her and her friends here. I'd hoped to never have to deal with that infernal box again! At the very least I need to keep a close eye on Luz until I can learn more."

Sighing Uodeela crawled into bed and starred at her ceiling, "What am I going to do?"

1000 Years Ago

Far from the palace of Newtopia outside the city walls in a clearing of the forest a red frog and a purple salamander were engaged in a fight. The red frog holding onto a box with four gems in it.

The red frog gripped the box tighter and quickly dodged a fireball thrown from the salamander.

"Sheresade please listen to me!" exclaimed the red frog

"Listen to you? After what you've done Leif?" countered the purple salamander, "you stole the box and put Andrias's reign in jeopardy. You betrayed us all on a whim for something you claim you saw."

"I thought you of all people would believe me," said the frog, "you know all about magic."

"This vision you claimed to have is nothing like any sort of prophecy I've ever heard about," answered the salamander, "for all I know you're making it up.

"I wouldn't do this if I wasn't sure that we were in some kind of danger," said Leif the frog. Leif continued to dodge Sheresade's blasts, but eventually got caught when Sheresade launched a stream of water at her. The box was knocked away, Leif reached for the box but Sheresade summoned up some vines to trap Leif, leaving her unable to move.

"Enough of this foolishness Leif!" yelled Sheresade as she moved towards the box, "for the sake of our friendship I will spare your life. Go back to that town your mother grew up in or go wherever you will, but do not return to the palace. I will be going back with the box. I'll say I lost you or something. I don't care I'll come up with some excuse, but do not test my patience any further Leif!"

With that Sheresade bent down to pick up the box, and as she did she had a vision, the same one Leif had had. Sheresade quickly dropped the box and fell down in terror as she tried to process what it was she saw.

"You saw it didn't you?" called Leif from her still trapped position.

"I-I-I don't know what I saw," said Sheresade confused.

"You saw the moon come down and crash into Amphibia," yelled Leif, thinking she might actually get through to her now, "admit it! That's what you saw!"

"No….I….how can this be?" asked Sheresade out-loud, "I'm the foremost expert on all things magic in Amphibia and yet I've never heard of this sort of prophecy."

"But now you know!" yelled Leif, "please let me go, let's talk about this."

Sheresade complied and released Leif from her trap, surprisingly the frog came over and gave the salamander a hug.

"It's alright, I was so worried when no one believed me about that vision, but now that you saw it too, I know that at least you believe me now right?" asked Leif as she continued to hug Sheresade.

Sheresade didn't answer right away but eventually she did say, "yes I believe you now."

"What can we do to stop it?" asked Leif.

"I…I don't know," answered the Salamander, "my people have studied magic for centuries and yet have never heard of anything like this. I don't know if the salamanders would have the answer to this."

"What about the Olms?" asked Leif, "they've been around since the beginning of Amphibia, surely they might know more."

"I suppose it's worth a shot, though lets hope they actually let us in, the olms can be very speciest, even in this day and age," said Sheresade.

"I'm glad the other races aren't like that" said Leif, "it's good to know that frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders can all get along despite being different."

"The thing is…." began Sheresade, "most amphibians don't know this, but before the box we were divided."

"Wait really?" asked Leif.

"Yes we were," answered Sheresade, "before the box we were a much more primitive society. We tended to group among only other amphibians of the same species. In fact there were frequent wars fought over resources, but when the newts discovered how to travel to other worlds we realized that we didn't have to fight for resources anymore. We could simply take them from other planets"

"Oh I see…." said Leif slowly as she realized what Sheresade was saying, "in the back of my mind I sometimes wondered if what we did…harvesting those other worlds, if that was the right thing. The king and other nobles told us….that it was crucial for the survival of our species."

"It was…." said Sheresade with some hesitation in her voice, "at least it was in order for us to maintain the status quo. Once other worlds were open to us, there was no need for frogs, newts, and toads to fight amongst ourselves. The newts told us that now there were limitless worlds available to us, they told the races that we had a new purpose, they said that if we united together we could accomplish great things!"

Leif sat down and continued to listen to Sheresade speak

"To show that he was sincere Aldrich's father began inviting frogs and toads to be members of his court. Then he opened up the capital to all the other species, he said there should be no more barriers between us. So we listened, and we united. We came together as a whole species and began conquering other worlds. The resources we harvested from them allowed our civilization to prosper. Now there was enough for everyone and we no longer needed to fight each other over precious resources. Eventually after many generations the old prejudices of the past faded away, and we did become one whole species."

As Sheresade finished, she glanced over at Leif, still processing all that the salamander had told her. Eventually she spoke again

"We have to go and see the Olms, they might be able to tell us more about the vision we saw," said Leif.

"Very well," agreed Sheresade, "let's get going."

After their visit to the Olms the frog and the salamander had made a trip to Earth to leave the box there. Using it one more time they both returned back to Amphibia far away from the palace on the outskirts of a small town. Much time had passed since they left, and Sheresade had managed to regrow her hand, she flexed it a few times as they walked testing it out.

"So this is Wartwood?" asked Sheresade looking over the cliff at the town.

"Yes this is where my mother grew up, I should be safe here," answered Leif, "it's far enough away from the palace that no one would think to look for me here. I can live a quiet life and go back to growing vegetables."

"If you're certain that's what you want, then I suppose that's fine," said Sheresade.

"What about you?" asked Leif, "you know you could go back to the palace, say that you lost me or something."

"I couldn't do that," said Sheresade, "no, before I left to chase after you I made a vow to Andrias." Leif looked up at her friend concerned.

"I told him I would return with the box or else I would not return at all," said Sheresade hanging her head.

"Sheri, why didn't you tell me?" asked Leif in a serious tone.

"What's done is done," said Sheresade flatly, "When we made the decision to leave the box on Earth I knew what it would mean for me, and I did it anyway. I feel I can make that sacrifice for our species to survive. I hope it was not in vain."

"So what will you do?" asked Leif.

"I will return to my own village, I think I will spend the rest of my life researching magic and trying to pass down that knowledge, well some of it anyways. Also there's something else I must take care of," said Sheresade as she moved towards a shallow pond.

"Oh I remember this spot," said Leif, "you had us stop here before we left you said you had something to do. What was it?"

"Take a swim in the water Leif," said Sheresade, "look near the rock."

Leif dove into the water and approached the rock Sheresade had pointed out. She quickly swam back to the surface.

"Sheresade, there's an egg attached to that rock!" said Leif excitedly.

Sheresade smiled, as she did her cheeks began to blush, she explained, "yes, before all that stuff with the box happened, Andrias and I….well….you know." She smiled as she recalled that memory. Leif understood her meaning and didn't press the matter further, though she did hang her head.

"I'm sorry," began Leif, "I was really looking forward to the wedding. It never was formally announced was it?"

"No Aldrich was going to wait until Andrias returned from conquering Earth," reminisced Sheresade, "there was going to be a grand annoucment throughout the city. The wedding would have been lavish and extravagant. You…you would have been my maid of honor."

"Oh Sheri, I'm so sorry," said Leif her face falling.

"Andrias was going to ask Barrel to be his best man," continued Sheresade, "Aldrich was certain that a union between me and Andrias would have produced a strong heir. Well now that I am on my own I suppose I shall do my best to raise the child."

"Does Andrias know?" asked Leif.

"No he doesn't, and though I doubt you would ever see him again, please if by some chance you do don't bring it up," said Sheresade strictly.

"Oh course, I give you my word," answered Leif.

"There is one more thing, here take this," said Sheresade handing Leif an old worn book.

"Isn't this your old journal?" asked Leif.

"Yes it is," replied Sheresade, "it was the journal I used to take notes whenever I explored a new world. I figured you should have it as I have no need of it anymore,"

"But why? Surely you would at least want to keep it?" asked Leif.

"I…I lied in that journal," admitted Sheresade, "take a look read a random entry and you'll see."

Leif opened the book and flipped to random page she began to silently read, after a bit she stopped and looked at the salamander.

"You pretended to be an explorer?" she said in low voice.

"Yes….," said Sheresade after some hesitation, "but it was a lie, I knew why I was really there. The King wanted me to scout out the worlds and make sure they were suitable for us to conquer. That was my job, and even though I knew what I was really doing I pretended I was an explorer, learning about these worlds instead of seeing if the local population had anything of use for us to plunder!" she said that last part with bitterness in her voice.

For awhile silence passed between the two before Leif spoke again.

"Sheresade…were we wrong to conquer those other worlds?" asked Leif slowly.

"If you asked me that a year ago I would have said no," answered the salamander, "but recently I've begun to question things myself. I thought nothing of harvesting Earth, especially after meeting with that vile human. I laughed in his face and told him that we were going to conquer his planet and he would never exist! Yet when we went to Earth just now I saw humans who were kind, humans who cared for their planet, humans who weren't like him. I guess they aren't all bad."

"I thought those Moss-men were all primitive beings," began Leif, "beings who could be easily swayed, and now after spending some time with the one I freed, I see how gentle they truly are. They didn't deserve to be harvested by us."

"With the box gone Aldrich won't be able to conquer other worlds, but I wonder," began Sheresade, "I wonder if the amphibians will still be able to get along? Or will they go back to their old ways?"

Leif and Sheresade looked at each other neither of them sure of the answer to that question, but they both remained hopeful that the Amphibians would stay united. After a moment the two said their goodbyes and