Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hello humans! Today we're gonna have a look at how frogs move. Not just walking, but also ⭐️hopping!⭐️” A title card of “hopping” would be edited later to appear as Anne said this. “My buds Sprig, Polly, and Enna are gonna show us how to hop like a frog.”

The 3 frogs standing next to her introduced themselves in that order.

“Hi everyone!”

“BOW BEFORE ME, HUMANS!!!”

“Hey Boonchuys!”

The last frog, Enna Plantar, was sky-blue, slightly taller than Sprig, and had bushy brown hair much like Anne's. She wore a teal skirt, and a white shirt with a collar that matched the skirt.

“Take it away, guys!”

Sprig obliged. “Alright, everyone. Let's start with the basics: we're gonna do a classic lily pad leap. Crouch nice and low—”

“Work that hiney!”

“—aaand leap straight up!” All of the frogs managed to jump several feet in the air. Anne, though…

“Nyehh.” A couple inches, maybe. Polly laughed at her.

Sprig went on. “Uhh, oookay. Let's try this next one! The froggy toe twist. This one's a little tricky ‘cause it starts on one foot. And-a one, and-a two, aand leap!”

Another weak “Nyeh” from Anne. “Ehh? Little better that time?”

“How do humans get anywhere?!” Polly yelled.

Sprig thought for a second. “Mm… when did your legs grow in?”

“Humans are born with legs!” This answer from Anne got a look of disgust from all 3 of the Plantars, with an “ew” coming from Polly.

Sprig continued. “Well, hopping works best under pressure, so let's try some… thing… you okay there Enna?”

The blue frog in question looked like she could throw up if she were physically capable of it right now. Her mind had clearly gone to uncomfortable places.

“Yeah, it's just… I was born with legs?! That can't be right, I remember being a tadpole! Where did the legs go when I started my meds? Are these the same legs, or new ones?”

Anne shrugged and hummed an I-Don't-Know. “I dunno how those potions of yours work, Enna. I’ve got baby photos on my phone though if you need proof.”

A thought crossed her mind. “But, while we're on the subject of your potions… if hopping is so easy for frogs …” Sprig stopped her before she could finish.

“Anne, are you sure that's a good idea?”

“Oh come on, we're identical twins! If they work on Enna, they'll work on me!”

“Welp, can't argue with that!”

Anne hit the button on her phone to stop recording. When she started the next clip, she was holding a vial of glowing yellow liquid.

“Alright, to assist in our learning, I've got one of Enna’s potions here that should turn me into a frog for a bit.”

“Uh, you know it's gonna be super painful when you turn back, right?” Asked Enna, trying to get her to back down. Anne raised one finger in front of her, before responding.

“That, will be a problem for future Anne.” She took a sip of the potion…

…only to practically throw up seconds later, the sip she took winding up on the floor.

“Gakk, bitter…” she said in a raspy voice, “Enna, how do you manage a whole vial of this stuff every day?” She coughed a bit more.

“Heh, it might be a biiit of an acquired taste there.”

Sprig chimed in with his own idea. “Well, I do know she used to wash it down with cranberry juice. Maybe that would help?”

Another cut later and Anne was holding a cup of red liquid as well as a fresh potion.

“Alright, let's try this again, shall we?” She poured the potion into her mouth, then chugged the cranberry juice before her gag reflex could kick in. Her face nonetheless made several disgusted expressions.

“Well, at least now it's better than Hop Po-wwwoah!” She stumbled a bit as she abruptly shrank down. She looked around a bit.

Everything looked different now—looked weird now. Everything was bigger. Her field of vision was way wider; she could practically see backwards! Her eyes had also lost their focus slightly, which worried her, until her heightened senses of smell and hearing hit her, making the whole experience even more strange.

She was taken out of her shock by Enna, who seemed surprised at something else. “Oh man, now I know what it was like for you when you first saw me as a human.” She tilted her head to the side, then back. “It feels so… weird that there's no mirror here.”

Sprig walked up to Anne and started to ask questions. “Sooo, how's it feel to be a frog? Better right? I bet it's so nice to finally be rid of that ugly face bump!”

“Hmmm… well, the air definitely feels nicer. I guess something that's native to this climate would be more used to it.”

At that moment, a dragonfly buzzed past the group. Enna was about to grab it, but she had a better idea. “Hey Anne, you wanna see if you can…?” as she pointed.

Anne nodded and fixed her eyes on the insect. She tracked it for a few seconds, then tried launching her newly-elongated tongue at it. She hadn't learned the proper stance for this though, so instead she fell over backwards from the recoil.

At least her shot connected though—she drew her tongue back into her mouth to find her target tasty and juicy! Before this, she'd been just barely starting to find bugs palatable so this was yet another surprise in the chain.

“Seems like that takes practice…” Anne said, getting back up, “but that's enough messing around! We're here to hop! ”

But before they could hop, their Hop Pop called over from the trail. “Anne, could you come to the house real quick? I could use some human strength!” Anne's face went pale.

“Uhh… sliiiight problem there H.P.” she called back, before addressing her twin. “Agh, Enna, we should… probably just show him, shouldn't we?”

Enna nodded and turned to follow Anne back. “Yeah, I dunno how you planned to keep this from Hop Pop.”

Hopediah was mildly surprised to see not one but two blue frogs walking towards him, that both looked exactly like Enna. It didn't take long to figure out what had happened, especially since he'd already noticed the jar of cranberry juice that had been left open on the table along with 2 of Enna’s doses going missing.

“Well, it's certainly a welcome change. I'm just a bit confused, is all.”

One of the blue frogs started talking. “Well, so… Anne wanted to–”

The other one looked confused. “Wait, but you're —”

“Shh! Don't give it away!” The first one interrupted.

Hop Pop chuckled, “Anne, I could already tell it was you. For frog’s sake, you're still wearin’ that school uniform of yours!”

“Huh, yeah, I suppose that would give it away,” she replied, looking at her shirt.

“You know, it's fine if you want to do this Anne, just, tell me first? I don't pick up enough meds each month for the botha ya to be frogs all the time, but if you wanted…”

“Nah don't worry H.P, this was a one-time thing. Polly was making fun of how I can't jump all that high.

“So, what were you even doing that needs human strength anyway?”

“Ah, nothin’ urgent. Spilled some pencils and a buncha them rolled under the couch.”

“Oh. Yeah, I'll help you with that once this wears off.”

An awkward silence hung until Anne said, “Umm… I'm gonna go back to Sprig and Polly now, I think I left my phone recording.”

As she and Enna walked back, her thoughts went back to the offer Hop Pop made. She definitely liked her original form better, but being a frog wasn't anywhere near as gross as she'd imagined. Plus, the climate really was nicer like this. Wartwood had a lot of hot, humid days, and she couldn't exactly hide in air conditioned buildings the way she could back home.

Maybe she'd try this again at some point.

Chapter Text

Entry 16

Sprig left the lights on -again-. That, on TOP of blowing up the cauldron earlier today, and running a cowapillar through the wall before that.

I KNOW he never means to cause harm, but sometimes Sprig’s antics are so exhausting.

Entry 17

FIVE. MINUTES.

Hop Pop and I left the cart for 5 minutes, to do some quick shopping and that’s ALL that it took for Sprig to run off looking for whatever “beast” Wally was raving about.

Turns out, Wally wasn't making it up this time—Sprig actually managed to track it down. But here's the fascinating bit: IT CAN TALK. And it was apparently just lost. And it needs somewhere to stay until the pass clears up. So I guess we have a giant, gangly, talking monster named Anne living in our basement now? Oh frog, I hope it doesn't eat us all…

I was gonna object to letting her stay, but she might have actually saved Sprig’s life when we got jumped by that mantis… I could have sworn I was the one who did it, but everyone else insists it was Anne. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I don't have the strength to prop up a mantis scythe like that, so their version is probably right.

Entry 18

Sprig was spending a really long time in the basement with Anne today. It was making me really worried, so I went in to check on them. Thankfully, Sprig was just fine—the 2 of them were playing board games.

Anne had all day to eat him, and didn’t, so at this point I don’t think she’s going to. Looks like she's becoming friends with Sprig, too, which is awesome! I can't wait for Hop Pop to let them out so they can have fun in town.

Entry 19

This morning was a mess. Anne was goofing off and broke Hop Pop's cane, so we all had to scramble to get a replacement before he noticed. We didn't even succeed either, since Loggle took the one that we found.

And yet, when Hop Pop found out about what happened, he didn't kick out Anne. I guess that means she's here to stay, at least until we can get her home.

I hope we can find some food she actually likes.

Entry 20

I finally got around to hanging out with Anne today! I told her about the medicine I take for my slime coat, how I was found abandoned in the woods, the millipede incident that destroyed the school last year, a whole bunch of stuff.

I learned a lot of interesting stuff about her, too! Apparently she's from another world called Earth, where humans are everywhere! And she's got 2 human friends who might also be stuck in Amphibia.

Anne had her 13th birthday about a week ago, so that makes her around 6 months younger than me. Wow, if she's that young, then adult humans must be HUGE.

But the most interesting thing I learned is that she has a twin sister with my name! According to her, Enna Boonchuy disappeared when she was too young to remember, so Anne was basically raised as an only child. Oh man, what if her twin sister is here in Amphibia? It'd certainly explain why they never found her, but it wouldn't bode well for getting Anne home…

Entry 21

Earth has tomatoes that don't eat you?!

We gotta get some of those on the farm…

Entry 22

Anne and Hop Pop kept BICKERING today over every little thing. And of course Sprig had to “steal” some corn and force them into a stakeout so they would get along.

I mean, I get that it worked, I just don't understand his logic sometimes.

Entry 23

Does anyone else think that “Domino 2” is a bit uncreative? No? Whatever, I probably would have just gone for “Charlie 2” myself.

What's important is we're all okay after that kill-a-pillar pupated inside the basement! That was a heart attack and a half, although honestly it was worth it for the quality time we got beforehand.

Entry 24

Oh my frog I love Suspicion Island!! Maybe not as much as Hop Pop, who drained Anne's phone watching it last night.

We did eventually find some zapapedes to recharge it though, so… all's well that ends well?

Entry 25

Went for a joyride on Bessie this morning with Anne and Sprig, which went south pretty quickly. We went off-roading for a bit and then Bessie hid in her shell, and we couldn’t figure out how to get her out again, so we sent Sprig back to see if Hop Pop could help.

We got bored pretty fast waiting for them, though. After a bit, we started taking turns reading Bessie’s manual, and eventually we just found out how to get her to come out ourselves.

That manual is actually a lot less dense of a read than the first few pages would suggest. Anne is currently in the middle of reading through the rest, and once she’s done I’m excited to finish it myself! It’ll be nice to finally get Hop Pop off my back about this, he’s been trying to get me to read that thing almost since… you know…

Entry 26

Sprig did another Plantar Family Challenge a few days ago, and to everyone's shock, he actually WON this time. I'd have written about that earlier, but I was too busy busting my chops keeping the plants alive! He really didn't know what he was doing, and eventually it got bad enough that we had to put Hop Pop back in charge.

Entry 27

You know, for terrifying alien monsters from another dimension, humans sure are grossed out by a lot of really normal things. Slime coats, eating bugs, and apparently even spitting! She looked like she was even trying to get Polly to stop, but fortunately she backed down.

Entry 28

Sprig is crushing on Ivy. SPRIG IS CRUSHING ON IVY!!! Ohmyfrog I ship it. And so does Anne, evidently! We gotta start hatching a plan to get them hooked up. I can't wait!

Entry 29

We weren't planning to bring Anne along on our camping trip this year, we thought there was no way she'd like it.

She insisted on coming along anyway, and as it turns out we were right, she hated it. But even then, she insisted on hiding it and dragging everyone to something “more extreme”. We got attacked by cannibal frogs! Why did she have to do that?!

Oh yeah, she also showed us some weird music box with 3 little black gems on top. She says it's how she got here. It looks eerily familiar, have I seen it before? What the heck is going on?

Entry 30

I've been thinking about my medicine a lot recently. It's supposed to help my slime coat, but I've been taking it for so long that I can't remember a time before. What if I don't need it anymore? Maybe whatever was wrong with my slime is fixed after taking it for so long. Maybe I could stop taking these bitter meds every day…

I'll ask Sprig what he thinks tomorrow.

Entry 31

My plans to talk to Sprig about my meds were slightly delayed today when he… okay, it's a long story, I might write it down later but the point is he got sick and I couldn't talk to him because of that. I did talk to Anne about it though, and she said that my slime coat is just as gross as any other frog's.

I mean, it's a helpful comment but… really, Anne?

Entry 32

Okay. So. We found this huge underground basement in our house and there were all sorts of puzzles and traps and ANNE IS MY SISTER NOW THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!

The Plantar family history is so cool! I for one am proud to be a part of it, even if I'm adopted. It's not like that stopped Emma the Newt, after all.

But you know, with all this adventure and chaos going on, I haven't had any time to talk with Sprig, so I think I’m gonna bite the bullet.

I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna skip my meds tomorrow. We'll see what happens…

Entry 33

AAAAAA WHAT THE FROG AM I NONONONONO I DON’T LIKE THIS AT ALL WHAT THE HECK WHY WAS I

Okay. Okay. Deep breaths. Calm down. Right now I'm still a frog, and so long as I KEEP taking my medicine every morning, THAT WON’T CHANGE.

Alright, let me write down everything that I learned today.

As it turns out, my slime coat is perfectly fine. In fact, that medicine was NEVER about my slime coat. In reality, it's actually a transformation potion, and I wouldn't even be a frog if I didn't drink some every day!

Apparently when mom and dad found me in the woods, I was some sort of creepy predatory monster that they couldn't recognize, and after I started biting at them they… cursed me into a frog. WHAT THE HECK MOM AND DAD?! Why did you never tell me that?

And if I'm some wild animal without those meds, then am I only intelligent because of them? Would I lose who I am if I went all the way to my true form?

I don't think I want to find out… I'm really glad Anne was able to get me another dose before I turned all the way.

Entry 34

Anne was doing something over at Stumpy’s today… I think she was trying to impress Duckweed or something, but I couldn't pay any attention because I was thinking too much about how I'M A MONSTER THAT GOT TURNED INTO A FROG. Why does it feel like nobody else cares?

What exactly am I? Hop Pop said it was something nobody in the family recognized, so I'm definitely not something from the valley. Unless I was one of Great Uncle Skip's creations, and then I escaped? Maybe that's something to look into.

Wait, what if I'm from another world, like Anne? What if I'm specifically from Anne's world? That'd be cool. Could be why her music box thing looked so familiar. Now that I think about it, we thought that Anne was a frog-eating monster when she got here, so it's actually possible that I'm hu

Wait a minute. Oh frog… I'm Enna Boonchuy, aren't I?

It would all make sense, my name came from the blanket I was found in. I'm about the same age as Anne. We even have pretty similar hair, although I'm not sure how much the medicine affects that.

I know I said I was never going to do it again, but if I’m actually human… then my intelligence doesn't come from the medicine. So skipping another dose is a lot less of a risk than I thought it was.

That was the last entry; Enna was getting bored waiting for her transformation. She was starting to feel the same dull cramps from last time creeping in though, so she knew it would at least be soon. Not that this made her any less bored, especially since she'd just run out of diary entries to pass the time.

Enna had gone to great lengths today to make sure her family wouldn't worry about what she was doing. She'd gotten up before anyone else, dug out an empty vial, and put it next to the sink. That way, when they asked her about her medicine, she could plausibly lie that she took her dose before they got up. After that, it was just a matter of asking for some alone time by the lake around dinner time. It was foolproof!

Or so she thought, until Anne came running up the trail from town, a look of fear on her face and a vial in her hands.

“Enna, what the heck are you doing skipping another dose of your medicine?! Did you forget what happened last time?” She called out as she arrived.

“Wha- No, I didn't, I just…”

“Enna, please don't do this. What happens if you lose your mind and run off into the woods?”

“You've got the solution to that in your hands!”

“And you were just gonna do this without that backup?!”

“Anne, I…” she couldn't say anything to that, she just hung her head and looked away. She really hadn't thought of that, what was she thinking not bringing a dose with her? Even if she had a strong theory for what her true form was, she still didn't know for sure!

She flopped to the ground, and pinched her eyes for a moment. Her head was getting foggy, it would be any moment now. Anne’s anger seemed to turn into concern as she held out the vial for Enna to take, which was just enough of a break from her scolding to get in, “Anne, I think I’m your sister.”

Anne sat down next to her and responded, “C’mon, Enna, we already knew tha— WAIT. You mean, my twin sister? Human Enna?”

Frog Enna weakly nodded.

“Is… that why you skipped your meds this morning?”

Another nod.

“Okay… I won't make you take this, then.” She put the vial in her pocket. “But I'm keeping it on me, just in case. Frog, I hope you're right about this…”

A few seconds later Enna let out a groan as every part of her started flaring up! The heat was boiling her alive, her bones felt like they were liquid as they shifted around, and each and every muscle was getting stretched or pulled in the most uncomfortable way! Her breathing became fast and erratic as she desperately tried to hold back a scream!

That effort proved to be futile when her slime coat dried up and it felt like a salt burn over her entire body, causing her to let out a blood-curdling cry with everything she had! She wanted to stop now, she wanted to go back to her nice, comfy frog form, but did she even have a choice anymore? She was in too much pain to motion for the vial from Anne. And unless her new form clearly wasn't human, Anne wouldn't give her the dose without being asked like before!

Still, it seemed Anne was now trying to hold her steady to help her through this, so maybe it'd be okay? She slowly felt her bones settle into place, and the stretching of her muscles calmed down. The searing heat in her chest became a cozy warmth, and the dryness in her skin was now barely noticeable. Was it over now?

…

“How are you feeling?” Anne asked her.

Oh, if only she could give a simple answer to that. She felt completely different from how she'd felt as a frog! Her field of vision was focused and much narrower. She couldn't smell Anne's presence beside her—actually, could she even smell at all? She felt around her face and she definitely had that face bump that Anne said humans smell out of, was it really that underpowered?

“A- Am I… h-human, then?” was all she could say.

“You were spot-on, Enna! C’mere!” Anne enthusiastically responded, pulling her into a much-welcome hug. Enna had still been feeling kinda nervous about this whole “true form” issue, and this embrace was exactly what she needed to relax, to know that she was safe like this. She wasn't a monster, she didn't have to worry about going insane and trying to eat her family!

Anne thought hugs from humans and frogs were equally nice, but human hugs had a distinct quality of being warm and soft that she hadn't felt in a hug in over a month. It instantly brought up memories of her parents, her friends, home . If she closed her eyes, it was almost like she never left, like maybe she was at Marcy's place and it really had all been a dream. She was starting to cry a little; she wanted to never let go of her twin sister.

There was a moment of pause between them as they savored the moment. Finally Enna pulled out slightly to ask a question.

“You're… trying to get back home, right? Once you figure out how to do that… can I go with you for maybe a week? I would love to meet my birth parents…”

Anne wiped her eyes dry and answered, “Of course, dude. I think that would make their entire year. Seriously, they cared way more about finding you than I ever did. I mean, have you seen Mom’s ‘workout room’?”

Enna looked around for a moment before asking,

“What's she like?”

Anne looked up at her.

“Our mom? Uhm, kind… in her own way. But strict, too. She wanted me to study more. Thought I goofed off too much. We didn't… always see eye to eye.

“She annoyed me sometimes, too. Like, in the kitchen, she'd always sing these goofy Thai love songs, and man was her singing bad. Woof, that woman was beyond tone deaf.

“You know, the funny thing is… right now, I would give anything just to hear her singing.” Anne noticed she was crying again. “Woah! Sorry. Sorry, I just, uh, need a moment.”

After a slight pause, Enna added, “It’s… nice that she's still alive, though. I thought my whole life that my birth parents just got eaten in the forest. I don't even remember what they looked like, let alone sounded like.

“You know, I've always wondered… can you miss someone you never actually knew? I mean, of co—” she was cut off as Anne pulled her back into the tightest hug she possibly could!

Two twin sisters, reunited at last, cried for their mother who was a dimension away.

Chapter Text

Her savior brought her through some bushes and squealed, smelling like joy! And… something else. Affection? It smelled like what her mother smelled like before she died…

Oh, it looked like there might be prey! This savior of hers had food for her on hand! She would be a nice new mother. So she sniffed them a little… the small one, the pink one, that one smelled nice! Oh it was definitely prey!

The blue one though. It took some effort for her to pick out its scent, but she was glad she checked… it smelled of poison! Was this something that New Mommy could eat but not her? She made sure to express that through scent to New Mommy.

She was grateful for the pink food though… she was so hungry she couldn't stop herself from just biting into it right now!!! New Mommy quickly pulled her off, though—New Mommy smelled like she had something else to eat! Maybe the pink one was meant as New Mommy's dinner for tonight? As New Mommy carried her out somewhere she started smelling more and more even yummier food!

Over her time staying in New Mommy's den, she'd learned a little about the small prey that had been near New Mommy when she'd been found. For some reason New Mommy hadn't eaten it! Was New Mommy saving the pink prey for a rainy day? After all, the pink prey never seemed terribly eager to leave New Mommy's den.

She'd also learned a bit about the bigger, blue prey that she couldn't eat. After paying a little more attention she discovered the reason she'd had trouble getting a read on its scent! It wasn't actually that it masked its scent at all. She was confused one night when she smelled New Mommy coming down but couldn't find New Mommy. It was only the blue prey! It smelled like a poisonous version of her New Mommy! Was it mimicking the scent? Oh no, was New Mommy in danger???? She had to warn her! With everything she had she called out for New Mommy to tell her to be careful but she wouldn't come!

Instead, something even more confusing happened… the blue prey started smelling like the same affection that New Mommy always had for her! Did the blue prey want to be her mommy too? Oh well, New Mommy hadn't eaten the blue prey either (even though she was pretty sure she could) so maybe having an Other Mommy wouldn't be too bad. So she nuzzled up to Other Mommy to accept!

Chapter Text

Well, a panicked frog telling them about a saltwater flood in town was certainly one way for Anne and the Plantars to start their day. Apparently theirs was one of the only homes near Wartwood that had been spared! Hop Pop assured him that their farm was open to anyone who needed a place to stay, and was in the process of getting the rest of his family ready to help with the rescue efforts.

Obviously, Enna was going to help too, but she happened to wake up in human form. With matters this serious, she really didn't want to accidentally mess something up, and the odds of that were far lower with her in the form she was raised in. As much as she was really starting to feel proficient with her human form, her coordination was still just better as a frog.

Right as she was about to take a dose of her medicine, though, she heard a voice behind her saying, “WAIT! Don't drink that!”

She turned around to see Anne, who for some reason had changed into her swimsuit? Enna still didn't quite understand why humans needed those (or why she, by contrast, didn't), but even still, this really wasn't the kind of water you wanted to go swimming in anyway!

“Seriously, you don't wanna be a frog today. There's so much more we can do to help as humans!”

That was a bit confusing to Enna. “I um… hold on, I know humans are stronger and all but does it really make that much of a difference here? I feel like being able to cling to ceilings would be useful in a lot more situations.”

“Wait, but it's actually about– oh, that's right, you weren't there for the soy sauce incident last month at Stumpy's, were you?”

She'd heard of that incident. Mostly from Anne arguing with Hop Pop about whether it was her fault for almost a week after it happened. But she had little idea what had actually happened, since her mental health at the time was… in bad shape. Apparently Anne had learned something important from it though, because she grabbed her hand and dragged her away somewhere!

“Alright, time to learn about a human thing! Seriously, this is gonna blow your mind, Enna.”

A few minutes later, they'd made their way to the outskirts of Wartwood. There were a number of frogs hurrying about, many carrying various supplies to help the frogs trapped in their homes along with a few with clipboards who seemed to be coordinating things.

They found a mid-sized pool of floodwater, which they confirmed with a nearby frog to be very contaminated, and Anne finally stopped. “Okay, here we are. So you might be wondering why I'm wearing–” She suddenly got flush. “Oh, shoot! I forgot– okay, wait here real quick, I gotta go get something.”

Anne then ran off, leaving Enna on her own. With… not a lot to do until Anne got back. Truth be told, she'd never actually helped out in a crisis like this, at least not one this bad. She couldn't quite remember the salt safety instructions she'd learned in school either—Hop Pop was probably going to give a refresher but Anne had pulled her away before that could happen—so she was a bit worried about helping out in the meantime in the off chance she forgot something and got herself killed.

She got bored pretty quickly though, so one thing she decided to do to pass the time was to figure out some way to distinguish saltwater. All of the pools around town could probably be assumed to be contaminated, but it would still be nice to have a way to identify the stuff for future reference, and the way she was used to doing it relied on a human's worst sense. Judging by the lack of a horrendous, suffocating odor completely surrounding her, she could already tell that it wasn't going to work.

As she was closely examining the pool in front of her for anything she could see that could set it apart from freshwater, she heard Anne trying to contain a laugh behind her. “Come on now, you're making it too easy!” Uh… what did she mean by that…?

“You're– hehe– you're just– heh– I'm sorry, I have to do it. Heehee!” Uummm… WHAT…? Suddenly Enna felt pressure on her back, and before she even had time to react she'd lost her balance and was falling forward!

…oh no. oh no no nononoSPLOOSH!!!

Well, that was the end, she supposed. What even just… oh frog did Anne do that?! Why?! Did she get possessed by a demon or something?! Who in their right mind would… okay okay, focus. She wasn't dead yet, maybe there was still a chance. Anne had taught her to at least kind of swim in this form, so she tried to remember that. It wasn't too long before she surfaced with a loud gasp and pulled herself onto dry land.

“ANNE! What in frog's name has gotten into you?! I gotta go find someone and get this washed off, maybe I can—” Anne grabbed her arm again, still a bag of giggles.

“Wait, you'll– heh– you'll be fine, I promise. It's just– hee– I got back and you were staring so intently at the water, and– and completely convinced that it would kill you! I mean, the look on your face right now, pffffahahahahaha!”

Enna didn't quite… understand… “You mean, saltwater… won't kill me…? But…”

“Dude, to us, it's actually safer than freshwater! Well, slightly. There's some dumb physics thing with it that I've never understood. And uh, it sucks to get it in your mouth I guess, but yeah. Basically don't drown and you'll be fine.”

Enna just stood in shock from that, trying to find the words. Finally, she barely managed to ask “HOW?! And… and did you have to tell me in the worst possible way?!?”

Anne seemed to have calmed down by now and stopped with her giggles. “Sorry, I just… okay, I was planning to just cannonball in myself, but when I saw you leaning over the water like that I couldn't resist.”

“Then you should have just done your original plan! Or, maybe, told me before we left the house! Why did you have to drag me all the way here and make me panic about dying when you could have just told me ‘we're immune to salt’?”

“…would you have believed me if I just told you that? Given the way the other Plantars took it, I don't think so.”

“I– well, I mean, I guess not, but that still leaves your original plan! You still could've… ugh, forget it, let's just find someone in charge of this and ask for directions.”

As they set off, Anne had one last comment. “Still might wanna get rinsed off though, I'm not sure how safe it is to touch frogs like this.”

Eventually, they managed to find the spot that most of the rescue operations were being coordinated from. Toadie was in charge, and Enna would be lying to say that his absolute shock at humans' immunity to salt wasn't at least a little bit funny. But since an intelligent creature having such an immunity was unprecedented in Amphibian society, he didn't actually didn't have any thoughts on what they should do beyond the obvious.

Once they started helping out though, the best ways to do so became clear fairly quickly. They started by carrying trapped frogs over the water, but not long into that an older frog asked them if they could fish up some family heirlooms that were under several feet of water. Enna managed to get one of them up to the surface using some awkward movements with her feet, but in the time it took her to do that Anne had somehow managed to grab all of the rest! When asked about it, apparently she'd actually done something similar a lot for fun back at home! So, they both agreed that if anyone else asked them to dive for lost stuff, it would be entirely Anne's job.

More frogs turned out to have lost items too—considerably more than needed to be rescued! It was starting to keep Anne pretty busy, so to save the trouble of cleaning the salt off of her arms and hair before going to the next place they were needed, she decided to leave the rescues to Enna and focus just on diving for people's things. Since they were now doing entirely separate jobs, they decided to split up so they wouldn't be waiting on each other to finish before moving on. A while later, Anne was handing off someone's friendship bracelet to be cleaned when several different voices shouted from behind her.

“That's her!”

“Get her!”

“Murderer!”

She looked back at them and– yep, they were definitely after her. Welp, probably time to start running.

She took off in the opposite direction with the angry mob in hot pursuit! Knowing human endurance, she could probably just keep going until they exhausted themselves, but where should she actually head towards? Finding one of the Plantars was probably best. But where actually were they? They were probably somewhere in town right? She remembered seeing Enna heading in the direction of the mills with Wally some time ago, maybe that would be where to–

Wait. There were safe spots all around her, weren't there?

All she had to do was… go in the water. Now these frogs wouldn't be able to touch her, at least not if they valued their lives. She could finally turn and talk to them.

“Okay, what's up with this random angry mob all of a sudden?! I thought you frogs were past—”

“We did it!”

“She ran into the saltwater! She's good as dead!”

Wow, what? Did these guys miss the memo or something?

“Hah, yeah, you wish. I could stay here all day. Now, as I was saying, why are you—”

Her sister's voice cut her off to her left. “Aaaaannnnnnnnnnneeee!!!!” Frog dang it, could she talk please?!

“Anne, do you (pant) do you know a way to neutralize the venom in our spit?! (pant) There was this eft I saved, but his arm was burned so I spit on it like mom taught me to, and (pant) now he says he can't feel that arm! What do I do about it? ………hold on, why is there an angry mob after you?”

“She killed an innocent girl!”

“Yeah! In broad daylight!”

Enna raised an eyebrow at that. “What? Anne wouldn't do that. Right, Anne?”

“No, of course… not…” She hung her head as she realized. “But… I did… push you into the water earlier. Someone must have seen me do that and… gotten the wrong idea.

“Look, she didn't die, okay? And that was never the point. Humans aren't affected by saltwater the way amphibians are. Enna is just a bit new to the whole being-human thing, so I needed to show her! And… given the way that I knew frogs were about it, I really should've known better than to show her in the way I did.”

There were a few murmurs in the crowd, and eventually someone walked away from it, saying “Man, what's even the point of an angry mob if we're chasing someone innocent?”

Once that happened it didn't take long for the mob to disperse completely, leaving just the twins. Anne then got out of the water and addressed her sister in an apologetic tone.

“Hey, I'm… really sorry about this morning. It was… mean of me. How can I make it up to you?”

Enna grabbed her arm this time and dragged her off. “You can make it up to me by helping me with the venom thing! What do I do to neutralize our venom?”

Seems Enna still had a lot to learn about this form…

Chapter Text

After weeks of traveling, Anne and the Plantars had adjusted to life in the fwagon. It was a long journey, but they were excited to almost be at Newtopia! They would be able to visit local attractions, investigate the “Newtopian Book Beast” incident—they were pretty sure it was Marcy’s twin sister Maria—and most importantly, look for a way to get Anne home.

Rib…BIT…?

This was Anne’s fifth (or was it sixth?) time using her twin sister’s potions in order to turn herself into a frog. After her attempt to share a room with Sprig and her prank during the Frog of the Year party, she was starting to get used to occasionally being slimy and squishy, to an almost frightening degree.

Rib…ribbit?

The potions were still absolutely disgusting of course, and Anne still couldn’t easily drink one without drowning it in sweetener, but even after they’d found those magic-canceling berries (which were considerably more palatable) she could hardly be bothered to eat one if she didn’t need to be human. Whatever the case, Sprig and Enna weren’t letting her “frog time” go to waste, and were teaching her how the frogs’ “croak language”. Enna got right to her feedback.

“You know, I think you’re pronouncing it right, actually. But, again, you have to keep your mouth completely closed when you croak. Otherwise you’re just talking normally, remember?”

“Ahhh, I thought I might have messed that up. How am I supposed to focus on that and making the right croak?”

Sprig chimed in with some encouragement. “Hey, don’t worry Anne! You’ll figure it out! Remember last week when you were struggling to control your vocal sac at all?”

Suddenly Polly opened the hatch and shouted down, “Guys! Come– it’s–” she seemed barely able to contain her excitement! “Just get up here!”

They hopped out of the fwagon and saw, in the distance, exactly what they had been looking for. A shining city, in the middle of an enormous lake, with a set of grand doors to welcome travelers and a skyline topped by the royal palace: Newtopia! If there was a way to get Anne home, it was in that city.

They all waded through the lake to the city’s gates—between the mud she’d been constantly stepping through, the stretching and shrinking whenever she transformed, and now this, it was a miracle how intact Anne’s right sock was—only to be told off by a guard.

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

Well, heck if Anne was gonna turn back here. “Closed? Like, closed-closed, or closed for lunch?”

“The city is closed-closed, to all outsiders.”

“What the hey-hey? Why?! Till when?!” Sprig asked.

“Until the barbariants are gone, of course. Good luck out there!”

What exactly was a barbariant, then? None of the Plantars really knew, on account of their absence from the valley. But then, that question was answered rather quickly when one such ant ambushed Sprig: they were gigantic! They all quickly scrambled to help him out and get it away from him! It took a lot of effort, but eventually after they threw Hop Pop at it, the ant retreated.

“Yeah-yuhhh! In your face, ant!” Anne cheered.

Suddenly they heard rumbling. “Uhh… you guys feel that?” Sprig asked.

About a dozen more barbariants erupted from underneath the lake! They’d been instantly surrounded! The ants were backing them closer and closer to the fwagon!

But then, a bag landed between them and the ants, and bursted into a black, sticky liquid! A few more bags of the same substance followed it, and finally something else lit it all on fire! They looked in the direction that it had come from to see the silhouette of one very cool newt standing on the city wall, who then fired a rope into the wheel of the fwagon and rode it down like a zipline!

The rope snapped halfway down and they fell into the water, but still… pretty cool. The bright green newt in front of them sat up and clutched their left leg in pain.

“Gahh, right when that leg was starting to feel better!” she complained, pulling herself onto her feet. She limped over to where her rescuees were standing.

“Hey travelers! That was a lot of ants on you just now, are you alright?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Anne answered. “Thanks for saving us there, that got really hairy!” You know, this newt sounded kinda like Marcy.

“No problem! Those ants were no match for Marcy Wu, former Chief Ranger and honorary princess of Amphibia.”

…WHAT.

Marcy found potions of her own? Had she gotten them from Maria? Seems the rumor they’d heard from Monthy was true. And what was up with that “honorary princess” business?!

“Pleasure to meet you, Marcy.” Enna greeted, while Anne was still trying to process this. “This here is Jane Ribbits, renowned psychic!” She gestured to Anne.

Marcy lit up. “Wow! A real-life psychic! This is so cool!”

“Uhh, wait, but I'm–” Anne tried to say something before Enna elbowed her and started whispering.

“Come on, this is your friend, right? She doesn't recognize you just yet! Now's your chance to mess with her!”

Anne hesitated for a moment, before deciding to commit to it. “Uh, yup, Jane Ribbits, that’s me! I can read your mind and stuff!”

“Oh my gosh, you can?! What number am I thinking of right now???”

Normally, Anne would have been had right there, but Marcy always picked the same number for these guessing games. She closed her eyes and took a meditative pose and said, “You're thinking of pi.”

“Woah! That's so cool!!! What else do you know?”

“You came here from another world called Earth, in a city called Los Angeles. You have two friends from Los Angeles, named Anne and Sasha. This isn't your natural form.”

“Maybe don't tell people about that last part, but wow, amazing!”

“You're here because you pressured your friend into theft, but you didn't expect that choice to lead you here.”

“I– that's not quite the whole story…”

“One time, when you were eight years old, you peed your pants at a sleepover, and you tried to change clothes and pretend it didn't happen, but your friends still noticed the smell.”

“Uhhh that's getting a bit specific and perso– hey, I know that voice! Anne?! Wait, you're literally wearing your school uniform, how did I not notice that?”

Anne broke character and burst out laughing. “Mar-Mar! It’s so good to see you again!”

“You too! What an adventure, right? I’ve really grown out here, Anne. Come into my own, leveled up! Isn’t it amazing? Oh man look at us, it’s like we’re really part of this place! I was so worried about you seeing me like this, and here you are doing exactly the same thing! And how’d you get your school uniform to shrink down to frog size?”

“Uh, I don’t know what I did, it’s just always been doing that. What, did yours not?”

Marcy had already turned her attention to the rest of the Plantars, though. “And who are these cuties, then? gasp Are they your surrogate frog family? Did they find you and take you in? Aaa, I love the found, family, trope! Gosh, this is just like the hero of my favorite game, Vagabondia Chronicles! The greatest JRPG of all time. Have you played it do you wanna play it do you wanna borrow it, just say the word and I’ll lend you my copy. Man, it’ll change your lives!”

Sprig was clearly uncomfortable with how close and personal Marcy was getting, but Anne didn’t do anything to stop it, even sort of encouraging her. “Yup! The Plantars here took me in. The one you’ve got there is Enna, my twin sister!” Without missing a beat Marcy went on this new tangent.

“Oh my gosh, I knew it!” She pulled out a test tube and scooped some of Enna’s slime into it. She then dropped some sort of powder into it and it started fizzling. “So, should I call you Enna Plantar or Enna Boonchuy?”

“Oh. Uh… I go by Plantar, usually.”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh…” as Marcy wrote that down in her journal, the test tube made a popping noise and stopped fizzling, the slime in it having turned into a brownish-beige sludge. “Interesting, 14.2 seconds. So, going by my personal baseline of .3, you’ve been in this form for a total of… 12 years, 173 days, 2 hours, 53 minutes, aaaand 5 seconds!”

“I’ll, um… take your word for it…?” was all Enna could manage. She didn’t like thinking about how quickly the Plantars put her on those meds. Fortunately Marcy didn’t stay on the topic for long, instead moving on to the rest of the Plantars and going on new tangents for each of them.

Once she’d run out of Plantars to greet, Anne took the chance to ask her about her time here: while Marcy had visited places all over Amphibia, she had mainly been staying here in Newtopia! In part because it was where she arrived, but mostly because it was where Maria had been living.

The bad news was that Marcy couldn’t actually get them into the city—with a full-scale barbariant invasion coming any day now, opening the gates at all would be too much of a risk, so anyone coming in had to stay outside until that was resolved. Fortunately, it turned out that Maria was on a solo mission at that moment to stop the invasion before it started! So they would probably be free to enter the city in the evening. Until then… Anne made an offer.

“Well, it sounds like we’ve got time to hang out! Have you learned to croak yet? Enna’s been teaching me how to do it! Ooh, we could have a—”

“Oh oh oh!” Marcy suddenly interrupted, “If we want to hang out, we should head back to the camp I’ve set up! Trust me, we’ll be safer there. Just follow me!”

The Plantars all got back on the fwagon and rode some ways along Newtopia’s outer wall until they came to a tent inside of a small alcove. Marcy walked in and greeted someone, “‘Sup, Triple B?”

Inside the tent were 3 newts who were clearly from the military, along with a table with a map on it. There was also a pair of newts in the corner—one bright orange with long brown hair, and the other dark purple with shorter black hair—who looked like civilians. The military newts greeted back. “Ah, Princess Marcy. Oh, and… I see you found another group who was being attacked?”

“Yup, and not just anyone, either. I found an old friend of– ow!” Anne had poked her in the chest.

“Sorry, just… still can’t believe you’re here.” She wanted to pat her friend affectionately on the head, but the relative size of their amphibian forms was making that difficult. So instead she decided to just catch up a bit.

“So, Marbles… when the heck did you become an actual princess?! I didn’t even know this place had those.”

“Oh, right!!! So turns out, after 10-month-old Maria disappeared, she turned up here in Newtopia! And then the king found her and adopted her, so she’s sorta the heir to the throne now.

“Fast-forward 12½ years and, uh… I miiight have revolutionized Newtopian math by introducing them to imaginary numbers, and there was this thing with a bridge, and I guess they were both so impressed that they decided that I might as well be a princess too!

“Oh, but it’s an honorary title, so I’m not actually in the line of succession.” Under her breath, Marcy muttered “even though I’m 11 minutes older”.

“Anyway. Anne, Plantars, meet Bransen, Bartley, and Blair, they’re analysts who were helping with the barbariants. And also Lana and Grant Applebug! They got here a couple hours before you. Luckily they were in deeper water, where the ants won’t go.

“Lana, Grant, Triple B, this is Anne, one of my best friends from back home, and these are the Plantars, the adorable frog family that she’s been staying with!”

The two civilians looked toward the frogs in front of them and the orange one (probably Lana) snickered. “My goodness, another set of identical twins? Do you not have scientific ethics in your homeland?”

Anne was confused. “What would… that have to do with identical twins?” She asked, only to set off Marcy yet again.

“It's so fascinating, Anne! Here in Amphibia, natural identical twins are super rare—but there was this newt named, uh uh, Hans Spefrogg!! He cut a frog egg in half at just the right time and the halves grew into identical twins! So here, it's associated with, like, mad science and stuff!”

“Oh, huh!” Anne replied. While all that was happening, she'd noticed that Grant was furiously pacing with a worried look. Out of curiosity, she asked what the problem was.

“Well, it’s like the princess said,” he answered, “the barbariants couldn’t get to us in the deeper water. But they got close enough that we panicked, and now the instruments we were bringing in from Croakopolis for the Newtopian Royal Orchestra are scattered on the seafloor!

“A-and I’m getting really worried about it all because by the time we can get into the city and hire a salvage crew for it, i-it might be too late! The winds and the strings should be fine, so long as they get thoroughly cleaned, but the brass instruments are gonna get corroded if they’re down there for much longer! They’d be a total loss, I’d have to go back and get new ones, the next concert might even be… delayed!” Grant fainted at the thought of that.

Looking at him unconscious on the floor, Anne found it hard not to feel bad for the poor guy.

“So… we can, like, help him out here, right? He had to be close to water that the ants could go in, so it couldn’t have been that deep. We could, in theory, take a small boat out to where they capsized, and fish out all the instruments before they get too corroded…right?”

Marcy got concerned at that offer. “Anne, I don’t think that will be possible. I actually tried to help them myself when I got to them, but these two came from Croakopolis”—she pointed to it on a map—“and that’s on the seaward side of Newtopia. Since it’s closer to the ocean, it’s got lethal concentrations of salt at the bottom. I’m sorry, it’s probably a lost cause.”

“Uhh, mar-mar, are you forgetting that we’re–mmmph!” Anne suddenly found Marcy’s tail covering her mouth oh my freaking frog don’t think about the fact that Marcy has a tail now it’s too weird.

“Umm, can I talk to you outside for a moment?” The two left the tent and Marcy started talking in a hushed, but panicked tone.

“Yes, Anne, I am well aware that we could just dive for those instruments as humans. But right now, we aren’t humans, so we can’t. And by the time your potions wear off, they’ll have found a salvage crew inside the city anyway!”

“Not a problem,” Anne replied, pulling out a pouch of berries, “Maddie back in Wartwood helped us find these neat berries that cancel out the transformation early!”

“What the– you mean those things aren’t extinct?! Oh my gosh, Anne, you have no idea how much I’ve wanted to have those!

“No, no, wait. Anne, even if the time until the potions run out isn’t an issue, we can’t just run around as humans here. If people see us like that and connect it to the ‘Newtopian Book Beast’ incidents, or even worse Princess Maria, the scandal and public outcry would be enormous. So no human forms around Newtopia; we keep it to ourselves. Got it?”

“Wha– why can’t we just-” Anne’s reply was cut off by Enna, poking her head out of the tent.

“Hey, uh, I solved the issue you two have. I think. Why not come back inside?”

They complied, and when they entered they saw that Grant had woken up now. Anne asked what Enna had done.

“Well,” answered Lana, “your sister here was just telling me about your prototype saltwater-proof bodysuit—what a marvelous concept! I can see why you would hesitate to talk about it while it’s still unproven technology.” As Lana explained this, Enna winked at Anne and Marcy.

Anne took a moment to think about how best to sell that, then replied, “Yes, uh, that’s right, Marcy and I were… we were arguing about whether it was, uh, safe to test it out at this stage!”

Marcy let out a pronounced sigh before saying, “Fine, Anne, you can save these people’s musical instruments. But Lana and Grant are staying here.” Her eyes shifted to the side, then back. “Uh, because the suit is also a trade secret.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you!” Grant said.

“Alright then, Anne, I’ll come with you to shoo away any barbariants we see along the way. Plantars, you okay with staying here? You won’t be much help, and this place is pretty out of the way, so the ants probably won’t notice it.”

“Fine by me,” replied Hop Pop.

“Eh, I don’t mind,” answered Sprig.

“My thirst for ant blood will have to wait,” said Polly.

“Wait, what about me?” asked Enna.

“Right, of course, yeah, you can come along, Enna.” Marcy responded.

After confirming on their map where the capsizing happened, the three humans-turned-amphibians thus set off to do their impulsive good deed.

Chapter Text

Around half an hour later, Marcy came back to the tent covered in some weird green goop.

“Hey everyone! Is Marcy in here?”

Oh, nevermind, evidently Princess Maria wore the same clothes as Marcy. Anne and Enna wore distinct clothes and preferred different forms, but this? How was anybody meant to distinguish them?

“She left with Anne and Enna to go fish up some trumpets and stuff for these guys,” Sprig answered, gesturing to Lana and Grant.

“Oh my gosh, did you say Anne and Enna? They’re here?” She started pacing. “I– we were just about to start looking for them, and they– I have so much that I need to get ready for them, I need to…”

The princess trailed off before taking a few deep breaths.

“Okay, okay. First, let’s all go into the city. The threat of invasion is over, so it’s safe to enter now.” She left the tent and beckoned the others to follow. “Marcy should know where to meet with us inside, so we can hang out there until she gets back!”

As they approached the city gates, Maria gave the guard on the wall a thumbs-up, after which the massive gates of Newtopia came open.

They went inside and they were shortly surrounded by a group of newt soldiers in fancy attire. Given Princess Maria’s apparent casualness to it, presumably this was a greeting party. This guess was proven right when the ones in front of them parted to make way for a regal-looking newt.

“Well met, Olivia.”

“Your father sends his greetings, Lady Maria. He trusts you have succeeded?”

“Yes I have! We won’t ever be seeing any of those barbariants again. You have my word!”

“Excellent work, as expected… is Marcy with you?”

“She isn’t, actually, she’ll be a little longer. But, oh my gosh Olivia, the Boonchuy twins finally showed up, and they’re with Marcy right now! Turns out they got transported to Frog Valley— both of them! What are the odds?”

“Wonderful news! Shall I inform the king?”

“Oh! Don’t bother, I’ll tell him myself! I need to ask him about the garden anyway. And then I– oh oh oh, I need to pick out what to wear, and–”

Olivia grabbed her shoulder firmly. “Focus, princess. One thing at a time, maybe? Go inform King Andrias first, and decide what to do after once you’ve done it. Okay?”

Maria took a deep breath, calming down. “Thanks, Olivia. I’ll go do that.” She then ran off in the direction of the castle.

Olivia turned her attention to the frogs. “Well, then. Welcome to Newtopia, Plantars. This is an old city, but one rich in history and splendor. …Please don’t touch anything that looks important.”

Sprig, meanwhile, was already climbing on something. “Hey, look what I did!” he said, before the arm of the statue he was standing on collapsed. “I’m okay! Statue’s broken.”

Olivia twitched. “Do enjoy your stay.”

Once Anne, Enna, and Marcy got close, they were quickly able to locate a large, submerged pile of trumpets, trombones, triangles, and a whole host of other kinds of instruments. Marcy stopped her rambling about the interesting flora native to Amphibia and got down to business.

“Alright, we’re here. You two wanna eat those berries of yours?”

“Yep, sure thing,” answered Enna, as she got her pouch of them out of her pocket, “Alright, here’s one for Anne, one for me, and one for you.”

“For me…? Oh, right… so, I need to keep a pretty constant lookout for more visitors that might show up, since I’d need to direct them towards the camp that I set up. That’s something that works best if I’m an important looking amphibian rather than an important looking predator.”

“Well… okay, I guess that makes sense…” Anne said, downing the berry she’d been given. As she turned human, she noticed Marcy giving her a jealous look.

“Wha– Anne, how are you completely calm right now?! Last time I went back to human form, it was pure agony!”

“Huh? I mean, it sorta stops hurting after the first few times…”

“Huh, interesting. It must be the body's natural reaction to a transformation like this to develop pathways for the magic to–” Marcy said excitedly, before noticing that Anne and Enna had already gotten to work. “Oh. Uh. Okay. I’ll keep on… keeping watch, then.

After the saltwater floods in Wartwood, Enna had been practicing her human swimming with the “diving for rings” activity that Anne had talked about, so the two of them were both able to decently help with the operation. They made quick work of the smaller instruments, but the bigger ones were physically tied to the deck of Lana and Grant’s boat and needed some fiddling to get up to the dinghy they'd brought.

Near the end of the operation, while Anne and Enna were off untying some of the ropes, Marcy spotted an incoming wagon and flagged it down.

“Hello, traveler! The city is closed right now, but I can escort you to a safe haven just outside the walls,” she said, approaching the wagon. The newt riding it addressed her in a panic.

“Princess! Oh, thank goodness I found you!” he said, “I had a terrible realization! Your sister isn’t who she says she is!”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Have you heard the stories of the Newtopian Book Beast? Well, I’ve got it all figured out, see!” the newt said.

Well, that was concerning.

“Your so-called ‘sister’ is a shapeshifter! She saw you in the library that day, 3 years ago, and is copying your form! Why else would she look so precisely like you?!”

…which princess did he think he was talking to, again? “Um, because we’re–”

“Yeah, I’ve heard her ‘identical twins’ story, and I don’t believe it for a minute. I know darn well that’s not how twins work. She’s a shapeshifter, I tell ya, and she’s mimicking your form so that you let your guard down! You have to get rid of her!”

Now is probably not the time to inform him of his mistake, Marcy thought. “Could a shapeshifting monster have come up with imaginary numbers?”

“Why do you think she was first spotted at a library? She didn’t come up with that stuff, she got it from the poor librarian that she murdered!”

Marcy was no longer listening, just checking the city gates. “You know what, it looks like the city opened up while we were talking! So, uh, I guess I can go back to what I was doing! Bye haveanicetime!!!”

Once Marcy was sure she was out of earshot, she burst out laughing. Anne and Enna, who had just finished their work, walked up and started a conversation.

“Whatcha laughin’ about Marbles?” asked Anne.

“Well, it’s just– he was all ‘Marcy is a shapeshifter! Kill her!’ and the whole time he had no idea who he was actually talking to!”

Enna started laughing as well. “Oh my frog. Don’t tell me. Did he accuse you of being the Newtopian Book Beast?”

“He did! He– apparently he also thought there was a murder that happened in the library? I have no idea where he got that from! It’s like he heard some super-exaggerated edgy version of the story!”

Anne, the only one not in fits of laughter, finally spoke up. “Why not just… show him the truth?”

Marcy looked at her, confused. “Anne… you know I can’t. My sister would be devastated if people knew the truth about her.”

“Well, I just can’t understand what the point of all this secrecy is! Why can’t I be a human in Newtopia? I don’t want to have to drink those awful potions every day! I don’t…” Anne faltered. “I don’t want to think about how comfortable we’re both getting as nonhumans. And… whether we’re all going to still be okay being humans or good at being humans by the time we get home.”

This finally gave Marcy pause. This wasn’t about the secrecy, that much was clear. She put a comforting hand onto Anne’s shoulder. “You know what, Anne? I spent a little bit of time as a human last week, and… I realized I really missed being human. I’m staying like this because Maria wants to keep the truth about her under wraps, to a degree that it took me a while to fully understand.

“If it means that much to you… I could get King Andrias to clear out the castle at some point, and we could have a sleepover as humans together! We can make it just like back home! How’s that sound, Anne?”

Anne teared up and hugged her friend. “That sounds awesome! Let’s do it!”

After a moment, they let go. “So, are you two done yet? The gates are open now,” Marcy said.

“Yep! The last of the instruments are on the raft now,” Enna answered.

“Alright. We should bring it to the docks then, and then head over to the main gates to meet up with the others. Oh, and you two should probably take your potions now.”

Enna immediately took the potion she brought. Anne, on the other hand, hesitated, staring at the bottle for hers while the jug of cranberry juice was in her other hand.

“It’s just for while we’re in Newtopia, okay? Once we leave, you can go right back,” Marcy reassured.

Anne stared at the bottle for a little longer, then sighed. “Well, if… Maria wants it that much… maybe it’s for the best,” she said. She downed the vial with a grimace, followed by a big sip from the cranberry juice.

Anne felt that familiar shift in her sensations again that came with turning into a frog. She hoped that this wouldn’t end badly.

When the trio arrived at the Newtopian marina, they found the Applebugs anxiously waiting right on the docks.

“Well, welcome back, you three!” Lana greeted. Grant followed up.

“Oh goodness, you did it! Amazing! How will we ever repay you?!”

“Calm down, hun, I’ll handle that,” Lana chided, “why don’t you focus on getting all this stuff unloaded and over for repairs?”

“Right, of course. They’re still wet, so we need to get them somewhere they can dry as soon as possible!” He jumped onto the boat, picked up an armful of french horns, then jumped back and scurried to the other end of the dock. Meanwhile, Lana turned her attention to Anne, Enna, and Marcy.

“Now, I’m not sure how many coppers of our budget we can spare for compensation, especially with what we’ll need to scrounge up to cover the cleaning and inspections of this stuff, but you’ve certainly earned yourself backstage passes for the concert next week.”

“Cool!” Anne exclaimed, “Enna, you wanna go?”

“Of course! Oh man, I’ve seen concerts in Wartwood before, but these are supposed to be the best musicians in all of Amphibia!”

Marcy did a polite bow. “We’d be honored.”

“Fantastic,” Lana said, “I’ll have those delivered to the palace as soon as I’m able to. Now, I should go help my husband with the unloading. Princess Maria and the Plantars wanted me to tell you that they’re waiting for you at the beetle burger restaurant near the Axolotl Inn.”

“Oh, I know that place! C’mon, girls, follow me!”

The city of Newtopia was built very compact, so it was a short walk to the burger place. As soon as they had line-of-sight to Maria, Marcy burst out running to meet her.

“Sis! How was the barbariant nest?” she said, bouncing with enthusiasm.

“Oh my gosh, it was so, much, FUN! There were a bunch of ants chasing me, but then I ran past this super narrow passageway, and BAM! Insta-vines, blocking their way! Oh, also, the insta-vines grew way faster than they usually do. Do you think it was something with that batch or with the ground it was growing in?”

“Wait, I’ve heard of this! Apparently, barbariants put something in the walls of their tunnels that speeds up the growth of certain plants! If the insta-vines are affected, then we might be able to add that to our formula to make them 30% more effective!”

“Hmm, you’re right, you’re right, but it’s also likely that…” The twin princesses continued trading remarks like this for some time.

“Uhh… was Marcy like this in your world, too?” Sprig asked Anne, who had now caught up.

“She… well, she sorta was?” Anne answered, “She used to go on rants like this back home, but… never like this. It’s like someone plugged 2 power strips into each other, and got infinite energy.”

Eventually, one of the princesses turned to the others and said, “Anyway… which one of you is Enna?”

Enna raised her hand.

“Alright. Could you follow me, please? I’d like to talk to you.” She ran off further into the city. Enna hesitated for a moment, then ran after her while she still could.

Sprig, meanwhile, was climbing on Marcy, excitedly asking her questions. “How’d you get so smart? What’s your coat made out of? What’s in this pouch? Where’d you get that wrist thing? What was Anne like back home?”

Hop Pop interrupted this line of questioning, though. “Kids, why not give Anne and Marcy some space? There’s still more stuff to unload from the fwagon.”

“Ugh. Buzzkill,” Polly whined as she and Sprig begrudgingly went off to finish unloading.

Once Anne and Marcy found a fountain that they determined was reasonably private, they started skipping rocks across. Marcy started the conversation.

“So, you haven’t found a way home either, huh?”

“Nerp,” Anne replied, “You know, it’s funny. I’ve been hoping to find you for so long, but now that I actually found you… I have no idea what to do next.”

“Heh, I know what you mean… first things first though. We have to find Sasha and Ellie.”

“Oh! Actually, I did find——wait, Ellie? Who’s that?”

Marcy leaned back and started on her explanation. “Oh, you know Molly Jo, the girl 2 grades below us who always dyes her hair wacky colors? Ellie is… well, was Molly’s older sister, until she vanished on the same night as Enna and Maria!”

“So, there was a third one? Another human that grew up in Amphibia?”

“I wasn’t done, Anne. A couple hours before we disappeared, I was talking to Ally Jo, her mom. She said Ellie was adopted, from the Waybrights! Sasha has a twin sister that she doesn’t even know about!”

Anne could have spat out her drink if she had one. “WHAT?! A– a twin sister who got taken along with ours, too… I– I always thought it was just a coincidence that the two of us happened to become friends, but now…”

“Yeah. I’m not sure what it all means yet, but we have to get to the bottom of this.”

There was a silence as they both processed this, until Anne spoke up again.

“I, um… did find Sasha, though. We, uh… we had a fight.”

“No… was it bad?!”

“Er… there were maybe some swords… minor explosions… anyways, I don’t know where she is now.” Anne sighed.

“Well, even if we find a way home, it’s pointless without at least Sasha.”

“So what now?”

“I dunno. Back home, Sasha always decided the plan.” Anne laughed a bit at that.

“Yeah, maybe it’s time we started making our own decisions, huh?”

This got Marcy excited! “Yeah! I mean, it’s worked out for us so far, right? C’mon, stand up!”

Anne reluctantly complied.

“Come on Anne, lemme see that power pose!”

Anne puffed up her cheek and put her hands on her hips. “This good?”

“Good enough! ahem I’m Marcy Wu!”

“And, uh, I’m Anne Boonchuy!”

They both yelled, “…and together, we’re going to find Sasha and Ellie, and find a way home!”

It then became evident how silly they were being right now, and they broke into laughter for a bit.

“Omygosh, okay, so, I wanna know everything that’s happened to you since you got here. You got any photos?” prodded Marcy.

“Do I?!?! …here’s me and Domino 2. She tried to eat us. Here’s me and Sprig by the lake. There was a snake that tried to eat us. Oh! Oh! Here’s us running from a giant centipede that—”

“Lemme guess: tried to eat you?”

Anne gasped! “How did you know??”

Maria guided Enna quite a ways. They went up the streets of Newtopia, into the castle, and through a maze of corridors into a small greenhouse near the top of the building, filled with a number of exotic plants that Enna had never even heard of before. It was quiet and peaceful, as if there was nothing moving for miles around. Maria motioned to a small bench near the middle and they both sat down.

The princess spoke first, saying, “Hi, uh… Enna, was it?” She stuck her hand out and Enna took it.

“Uh… yeah. That’s me.” She looked around. “So… why did you want to talk to me here? Where are we?”

“We’re in my dad’s private garden! Don’t worry, I got permission for this. Nobody’s allowed to come in here without asking him first, so it’s a really nice place to just… relax and have a private conversation.”

Enna gave an understanding wink and said, “You mean, a conversation about a certain… mammal species?”

“Yeah, exactly! Honestly, I wish you'd met me before Marcy. The look on your face learning that the crown princess of Amphibia was human would've been priceless.”

“Yeah, sorry, I already knew about that. I don’t understand though, why are you talking to me about this? Everything I know about humans, I learned from Anne! Why not just ask her?”

Maria giggled a bit. “Actually, most of my knowledge about humans already comes from Marcy. Like, ooh, did you know human twins are born within minutes of each other? Even the ones that come from different eggs! Isn’t that so cool?”

“Hold on, I thought humans didn’t have—”

“Oh, sorry. Getting sidetracked a bit. Anyway, I just wanted to talk to you ‘cause… I’ve never actually met anyone else with the same situation. Growing up here and… finding out you’re not what you think. You know?”

Oh. Oh! Well, that made so much more sense. Seeing as Princess Maria was clearly looking for a more casual conversation than she thought, Enna relaxed considerably.

“Well, honestly? That’s… a lot of why me and my family came here. We heard a story about a ‘Newtopian Book Beast’ that basically just sounded like a human. …That would have been you, right?”

The princess sighed heavily and looked away. “Yeah, I suppose it was me. But. Pleeease don’t tell anyone who doesn’t already know what I am, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll keep your secret, don’t worry. It had to be completely awful for you, I can see why you don’t like to talk about it. I remember the first time that I, uh… intentionally skipped my meds because I was doubting whether I needed them… and lemme tell you, I am so glad that transforming is painless for me now.” Something in there got Maria’s attention.

“Wow, you actually skipped a dose on purpose? I just kinda… forgot one day. It’s kinda funny we both found out ‘the hard way’ though.” She suddenly started giggling to herself. “Wait omygosh okay, while we’re talking about learning the hard way, have you heard about the whole thing with humans and salt?”

“Yeesh, yeah. Anne and Marcy are so casual about saltwater. Like, it honestly freaks me out.”

“Okay, good. Right, so there’s this human food—‘chips’, I think was what Marcy called them—and a couple weeks after she started taking my meds, she found a bag of these ‘chips’ in her backpack. But see, thing is, they’re actually loaded with salt, ‘cause they’re made for humans, right? So she—”

Enna’s eyes went wide and she nearly gasped. “No way. As a NEWT?!”

Maria burst out laughing and it spread to both of them. “Yep, Marcy just ate literal poison! She– she somehow managed to eat three whole chips too! Like, what, one wasn’t enough for her to realize something was wrong?

“And, oh olms you should have seen the look on her face when Olivia told her it was a salt burn! It was like surprise, regret, and panic all at once!”

The two laughed for a while before calming down somewhat. After a moment, Enna went next.

“Man, how is that so accurate though? I still hear Anne arguing with Hop Pop every now and then over whether the soy sauce incident was her fault. She’s all, ‘how was I supposed to know?’ every single time!

“And of course, we didn’t actually know I was a human until a few days later, so nobody thought to tell me that I was immune to saltwater until the whole town flooded with it almost a month later and Anne… uh… ‘demonstrated’ it to me.” This time Maria’s eyes went wide.

“Oh no, what did she do?!”

“Well, she kinda, sorta… pushed me into a pool of saltwater.”

“Wha– without telling you that you weren’t affected?!?”

“Eh… to her, it was a prank. She didn’t really understand yet how serious saltwater is in Amphibia. Honestly, sometimes I feel like she still doesn’t get it.”

Maria groaned a little. “Yeah… same. I got Marcy to understand the danger at least, but, like, she still sometimes–”

Finally Lady Olivia’s voice sounded through the garden. “Miss Plantar, Princess Maria, you’re wanted in the throne room, please.”

“Sounds like Marcy finished her puzzle-gram. C’mon, don’t want to keep my dad waiting.” Maria started heading for the exit and beckoned Enna to follow.

I guess I’m friends with the princess now? thought Enna as she left.