Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Anne’s hands hesitated over the box, anxious energy bubbling through her as she tapped her foot in the dirt. She was cold. She was late to her own birthday party. She’d just stolen something for the first time in her life. She was, overall, just not having a good time.

But… Sasha and Marcy were here. Sasha had that grin on her face she always did right when things were about to get interesting, and Marcy was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, her eyes glittering with focus as she stared at the box in Anne’s hands. Her friends were here, and they were having fun. By all means, Anne should have been having fun too. Sasha had called her a buzzkill earlier… had she been right?

Well. Better give the people what they wanted. She would just open the box, ooh and ahh over whatever was inside, and then run home as fast as humanly possible. If she was really fast, she might even be on the early side of late, and avoid too harsh a scolding. 

“C’mon Anne, open it!” Marcy said, voice pitching into higher registers in her excitement. Anne didn’t know what was so interesting about this random thrift store box. If she hadn’t taken it directly from the store, she’d have thought that her real present was inside, and the weird frog box was just Marcy’s nerdy wrapping.

“It’s a music box, right? I wonder what kind of music it plays.” Sasha commented, leaning further over Anne’s shoulder.

“I guess we’re gonna find out.” Anne mumbled, not really caring to enunciate. She pushed down her senseless nerves and attempted to flick open the lid with a single thumb. The wood ended up being heavier than she’d expected, so she tried again, placing her whole hand on it before lifting…

Light exploded from inside, made even brighter amid the early evening shadows. Anne found herself blinded, her cries of surprise mixing with that of Marcy’s and Sasha’s before she slammed the box shut, exactly what had Marcy given her??

The light didn’t stop. She’d closed the box but the light hadn’t stopped. She fell off the bench in an attempt to get away from it, dropping it in her hurry. She heard it thump to the ground beside her, giving her no refuge from the luminous onslaught.

She whimpered as she lay on the grass, the intensity of the box’s light burning itself into her retinas even through her eyelids. She was so confused, what in the world was happening?

After what felt like an eternity, yet not long at all, the light faded. Anne was left staring up at a bright blue sky, more saturated with color than she ever remembered seeing it. She blinked. She blinked again. The sky was still there, and still just as blue.

That wasn’t right.

She closed her eyes, not reopening them as fast this time. Something was wrong here. Something was really wrong here. Just moments ago she had been sitting on a bench at six PM on an overcast May evening. Six PM on overcast May evenings did not feature eyestrain-blue skies. Nor did they typically include temperatures like this, because it had to be over eighty degrees. At least.

She took a deep breath, hot, muggy air filling her lungs, the likes of which she hadn’t expected to encounter for another month or so. She opened her eyes again, whining faintly upon seeing that nothing had changed since she’d last looked. It was so wrong . 

She took another deep breath. Then another. She pushed herself into a sitting position and- 

…What?

Her legs were blue.

Her legs were blue . They were short, glistening, and blue . One of her shoes had fallen off, and she could see the outline of her toes through her sock in the sunlight, all two of them. Her breath shook as she sat up further, bringing her hands in front of her face. Just like her toes, she’d been left with only four stubby fingers on each glistening, blue hand.

Anne fought the urge to puke.

Her breathing sped up as she twisted her hands around in her vision, inspecting them as closely as she could, as if there could have possibly been some little detail that could identify these as human hands. Anne knew what human hands looked like, she used to have a pair, this was not it.

She touched one of her arms with her other hand, and watched in horror as a long, ropey string of mucus came away.

She didn’t even try to fight the urge this time.

She stumbled to her feet, away from the puddle of sick. Her vision had still been blotchy from the strange assault of light, but she had a feeling the darkness creeping around the edges of her sight was not that.

She kicked off her remaining shoe, suddenly finding it too small and too big at the same time. Her skirt practically fell off of her too-small form as she scrambled away, she couldn’t be bothered to care about that though; she had bigger problems than her modesty, which was taken care of by her suddenly over-large shirt anyway.

This couldn’t be real .

“Sasha? Marcy?” Anne called, instinctively reaching for the comfort of her friends. Her face felt weird, her mouth felt weird, in all likelihood they had changed the same way her arms and legs had.

No one answered her. Anne backed away from the little clearing she’d woken up in, head whipping back and forth in search of anything remotely familiar. There were strange scraggly trees surrounding her, reaching for her with their wooden fingers, the shadows only further pronounced by the unnatural sky; even the air felt unfamiliar; it was muggy, but the cleanest she’d ever breathed, seemingly untouched by the smog she’d lived in for years.

“SASHA?? MARCY!!” She called again, louder this time. Her legs shook, threatening to give out under her. She clutched at her shirt, chest heaving as she battled for breath, her vision spinning.

Clearly when she’d fallen off the bench, she’d hit her head. She’d like to wake up from this nightmare now.

Moments later, she blacked out.

[break]

Hopediah Planter was a simple frog. He’d given up on any dreams of grandeur years ago, and was now content to run the family farm, and take care of his two troublesome grandkids. Honestly, he would be content to live the remainder of his life that way. Just like that. No unnecessary surprises.

Unfortunately he knew that was a little much to ask for. Even for a simple frog living a simple life, the world could come at you fast sometimes, and it paid to be able to roll with the punches. Everything had been fairly idyllic for a few years now, so truthfully he was expecting something to come along and disrupt the status quo.

The day had started out normal enough. It was an inventory day, taking stock of everything they had and everything they’d need for the coming months. Neither Polly nor Sprig were big fans of inventory day, but that was fine. They weren’t big fans of most farm chores, so he was used to wrangling them into doing it anyway.

“Hop Pop!” Polly called from the kitchen. He’d hidden all the candy, so he’d trusted her to take food inventory this time.

“What?” He called back, stowing away what he’d been counting.

“We’re out of truffles!” She huffed, hopping into the living room.

“We’ve been out of truffles for weeks, Polly.” Sprig said, popping his head out of the basement. “We always run out within the first week after we get them. Plus, it’s been over four months since we last got them.”

“So then we’re going to go get more today, right?” she said, turning on Hop Pop.

“Well, I was thinking that we could go without-”

“We’re going to go get more today, Right? ” She glared at him, and Sprig giggled.

“Ahhh fine. The things I do for you kids.” Hop Pop relented, sighing. “But we have to finish the inventory first!”

“Yes Hop Pop!” They chorused back, returning to their tasks.

Of course, truffles weren’t exactly at the top of the shopping list, even when inventory was complete. He could admit that the endless whining was motivating them towards record time, though. By the time they were finished with everything that needed to be done, there was more than enough daylight left to go truffle hunting. The local shops didn’t carry them, so they had to go out searching in the woods themselves.

The kids bounced incessantly in Bessie’s seat as they started trekking off the beaten path, the snail’s nose leading the way. He hadn’t realized Bessie was a truffle sniffin’ snail when he’d bought her, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.

“Wow! I don’t think we’ve ever been this far out looking for truffles before!” Sprig said, leaning dangerously over the edge of the speeding snail.

“Sprig! Sit your butt back down before you hurt yourself!” Hop Pop said, pulling the froglet back into his seat. He furrowed his brows. They were quite a ways outside of where they usually went for this, but he trusted Bessie. She had a good reason for it.

They gained speed, leaping over rocks and ledges, flying over branches and logs. Sprig and Polly were cheering, but Hop Pop was holding onto the reins for dear life. Really, where was this old girl taking them?

Bessie came to a halt so suddenly that Sprig and Polly tumbled out of her seat and onto the ground, head over heels. The only reason Hop Pop hadn’t was his iron grip.

“Kids! Are you alright? Bessie, what’s gotten into you?” Hop Pop asked, hopping down onto the springy earth himself and running over to check on his grandkids, who were already giggling and sitting up.

“Beep beep!” Bessie chirped. Hop Pop frowned at her. This was not normal behavior. “Beep Beep! ” She repeated, more sternly, and he realized she was pointing with her eye-stalks.

“Hop Pop, what’s wrong with Bessie? Why did she throw us?” Sprig hopped to his feet, running over to pat the snail’s neck.

“I’m… I’m not sure,” Hop Pop mumbled, eyes following the direction Bessie had indicated. There was an odd gap in the foliage, there. Bessie didn’t seem scared , exactly, so there probably wasn’t anything dangerous back there. Still, she obviously wanted him to check it out. What did she want him to find?

For a split second, Hop Pop thought he saw eyes shining from behind those leaves. Intelligent eyes, frog eyes.

“Kids, stay behind me.” He said, stalking toward the thick patch of underbrush. Something behind it squeaked, and he heard the pattering of feet scurrying away. He quickened his pace, pushing through the growth. On the other side he found a cave, spacious enough for frogs, but small enough to prevent mantis from getting in. Clever.

He heard Sprig and Polly enter behind him even as he saw a shadowy figure rounding a corner up ahead. He sprinted after them, rounding that corner, and then another one- and crashed into a wall. 

“Ah! Oh my gosh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean- are you alright?” An unfamiliar, rather panicked voice said.

“Hop Pop! Are you- woah, who are you?” he heard Sprig say.

Hop Pop blinked the stars out of his vision, and picked himself up off the stone ground. He saw Sprig and Polly first. Both of them were staring at something he hadn’t seen yet.

A froglet was standing in the corner of the cave. She had bright, poisonous blue skin, and a mop of fluffy brown hair matted with mud and leaves. She wore a single garment, a large, tattered shirt that looked like it would have been more at home on a newt than a frog. She was curled into herself, as though trying to make herself look smaller. In the relative darkness it was hard to tell, but Hop Pop thought she may have been only a bit older than Sprig.

“Did you hurt Hop Pop?” Polly accused, raising her nubs menacingly. The mysterious froglet’s eyes widened and she tried to back up even more into her corner.

“No, she didn’t. I crashed into this wall all on my own.” Hop Pop said, flinching as he popped his spine.

“Oh.” Polly said, letting her arms fall. She sounded so disappointed.

“Um,” The froglet said “Why are you, I mean, who- what- uh,” She tried, floundering for a bit until Hop Pop sighed. He tried to take a step forward, but stopped when she flinched back.

“Let’s start over. I’m Hopediah Planter, but people call me Hop Pop. Especially these two gremlins, my grandkids.” Hop Pop said, smiling when the froglet started to relax. “This is Sprig, and this is Polly, and I swear they won’t hurt you. Well, Polly might try, but I’ll stop her if she does.”

“You can try .” Polly rolled her eyes. Hop Pop nudged her to be quiet. They didn’t need to scare the froglet off again.

“What’s your name?” He asked her. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Polly, but relaxed a little more when she turned her gaze back to him.

“I’m, uh, I’m Anne. Anne Boonchuy.” She nodded as she said the words, as if confirming them to herself.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Anne.” Hop Pop said cordially, and she nodded back.

“How did you get all the way out here? Why are you so beat up? Are you alone?” Sprig cut in, letting loose a string of rapid-fire questions.

“Sprig!” Hop Pop reprimanded, seeing Anne flinch back at his words.

“They’re gone… they’re really not here…” Anne muttered, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. “I am alone, I really am alone here…” A sob broke her frame. Hop Pop dashed forward, catching her as her knees gave out, and she collapsed.

“Oh…” Sprig said, catching the glare Hop Pop sent him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s alright, sweetheart. You’re not alone, not anymore.” Hop Pop said to her. He tried to set her down again, but she clung to his jacket, sobbing into his shoulder.

They hadn’t found truffles, but he’d wager Bessie had led them to something much more important. Something that would hopefully last longer than a few months.

Chapter Text

Anne had been living in both a cave, and denial for several weeks before the Plantars found her. Those few weeks had been absolute hell on Earth- well, honestly probably not on Earth. Who knows? It may have just been actual hell. She’d never pictured the place as a lush rainforest before, but then again, she hadn’t known lush rainforests could be so miserable either.

The air was uncomfortably hot and muggy, and only seemed to rise day by day. There was no end to the mud, and nothing she did ever seemed to get her all the way clean. The bugs were huge and terrifying , and she was sure, right down to her bones that if any of the big ones saw her they’d gobble her up in a heartbeat.

She slept in a dark, damp cave, with rigid stone floors made only a little better by the moss bed she’d constructed for herself. She was pretty sure spiders crawled all over her while she slept, and she knew the centipedes did, because she’d woken up covered in them once… twice… a few times.

She was hungry, too. She had no idea what plants were edible or not, and to her absolute disgust the things that looked the best to her were the smaller insects. She had refrained on principle, but she was getting hungrier by the day and she knew she’d cave eventually.

She didn’t want to eat bugs. She didn’t want to be sticky and slimy, she didn’t want to be blue and short, she didn’t want to have a tongue long enough to wrap around herself, she didn’t want to hopping around on all fours the more natural way to move, she didn’t want didn’t want didn’t want-

She was ignoring it.

She had woken up in a terrible place that she didn’t recognize, in a body she didn’t recognize, without any people she recognized close to her.

She was ignoring this. Maybe if she ignored it hard enough, it would go away. Maybe if she pretended this was all a dream, she’d eventually wake up. What are you talking about? This is fine , she’s totally not stuck in an alien rainforest, this is temporary. She’ll be back home soon. What? She’s become some sort of anthropomorphic amphibian? You must be mistaken, it’s totally a costume that she could totally take off whenever she wants. Hmmm? She hasn’t seen any of her friends or family since she got here and has no idea where they are or if they’re safe? No no no, they’re just around the corner! They’ve got to be!

They’ve got to be!

They never were.

“ Are you alone? ” The words echoed in her head as she gasped and sobbed. Yes. Yes, she was alone. The answer was as clear as day now that someone had asked it out loud, something Anne had refused to do since day one. No questions, they made her face reality.

She had seen the family of frog people pull into the clearing from the mouth of her cave. She’d never seen anything that looked like this new self of hers, so she’d been fascinated. She hadn’t expected to be noticed.

“ It’s alright sweetheart, you’re not alone, not anymore. ” The old frog had said, and she wanted it to be true, so bad … But Sasha and Marcy still weren’t here. How could she be ‘not alone’ without them?

Still, any company would be nice, at this point.

So she’d clung to this chance with all her might. Her four fingers may have been slippery with mucus, but she held onto the old frog’s jacket with all she had. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed contact , even with something as inhuman as (she was) this old frog was.

“I’m going to take you outside of the cave now, alright?” The old frog, Hop Pop, said. She could barely hear him through the pounding of her own heart, but she nodded anyway. He half carried her, half dragged out of her self imposed prison. She heard a strange chirping beeping sound, something she was pretty sure the frog family’s giant snail had made. It wasn’t the sound she’d expected from a snail.

“Hop Pop, is she okay?” The little frog asked. Anne thought his name might have been Sprig.

“I don’t think so, kiddo. Also, I think she can hear you.” Hop Pop sighed.

“Oh. Are you okay?” He asked her directly. Anne tried to answer, but it just came out in a blubbery keen. “I’m gonna take that as a ‘no’.”

Good assumption.

“I’m going to put you up on our snail Bessie now, alright? I’m going to need you to let go of my jacket for this.” Hop Pop said, and she nodded, feeling strong arms heave her up onto what felt like a cushioned seat. She swiped the tears away from her eyes, trying to get a hold of herself.

This breakdown had been a long time coming, but she just wished that it hadn’t happened literally the first opportunity she’d had to embarrass herself in front of other people. Jeez emotions, can’t you make more sense? Maybe be a bit more considerate?

“Where are we going?” She rasped, voice weak from disuse. They were going somewhere, she could tell. She was pretty sure this snail was some sort of vehicle to them, and it wouldn’t make much sense to just leave her here.

“We live in a town called Wartwood. I was planning on taking you back to our farm to get you cleaned up, and to get you a good meal. It looks like it’s been a while since you had one of those.” Hop Pop nodded. “If that’s alright.”

Oh. food . That sounded good.

“That’s fine.” She nodded back. The frog family hopped up onto the seat she was already on. She could tell they were trying not to squish her, but they weren’t really succeeding. She found she didn’t really mind.

“So, Anne, where’re you from?” Sprig asked, his solemn mood from before having all but vanished.

“Los Angeles.” Anne answered without thinking, before realizing they’d probably have no idea what that was. If the look on Sprig’s face was any indication, she was right. “It’s, um. Far away.”

“Maybe don’t ask her too many questions, Sprig.” Hop Pop sighed.

“But don’t you want to know things? ” Sprig whined, leaning down over his grandfather in the driver's seat.

“You can ask questions when she’s a bit more comfortable.”

Anne looked down at her hands in her lap. She rubbed them over each other, the bright, electric blue color had become a little dulled by mud and other filth over the last week. She thought she might like to feel clean, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to look at what she’d find underneath the grime when she was.

She curled her toes, all four of them. She’d left her shoes back in the clearing she’d first woken up in, though looking at Hop Pop and Sprig’s feet, it seemed these frog people didn’t wear the same sort of shoes that Humans did anyway.

“So, Hop Pop, does this mean we’re not getting any truffles today?”

[break]

The Plantar’s farm house was… certainly something. Anne had never been in a building like it before. It looked cobbled together out of every building material possible, including what looked like a large, repurposed gourd. It wasn’t clean exactly, but it was the same sort of clutter that existed in Anne’s own home, a sign of being lived in and loved in, her dad would say.

Hop Pop took her to a room she assumed was supposed to be the bathroom, with a large tub of clear water in the corner, and a smaller bucket of not clear water in the other corner.

“Clean yourself up in here, if you need any help just holler,” Hop Pop nodded at her with a gentle smile. “I’ll rustle up some of Sprig’s clothes for you to wear when you get out. I’ll leave them just inside the door when I get them, alright?”

“Yeah, alright.” She nodded back. He smiled again, and closed the door. Leaving her alone.

No no, not alone. She wasn’t alone, and she wouldn’t let herself feel alone. There were people here. Sure, they weren’t exactly human , and she didn’t exactly know them, but they’d taken her into their home with nothing but compassion. She wasn’t alone .

She took a shaky breath, and pulled her shirt off. It was something she’d been avoiding doing ever since she got here, but it was to be avoided no longer. It wasn’t like she was surprised by what she saw in the cloudy mirror, just disappointed, and a little disgusted.

She could deny it no longer. She, Anne Boonchuy, was a frog.

She left her filthy, tattered shirt in a pile next to the mirror and slipped into the tub. The water was cool, and honestly a bit of a relief in the heat. Quite a bit of the dirt and muck clinging to her floated away from her in the water, but there was still some stubborn grit that stuck to her as if it was glued there.

Given the mucus coating her skin, it may have been.

Glancing around, she saw something labeled ‘body scrub’ and hoped it was similar to the Earth stuff. She opened the jar, and groaned when she saw a rock inside. Right. Okay. She could work with this. It was better than centipedes.

When she got out of the tub, she was the cleanest she’d been in weeks. It felt good, even if she was studiously avoiding looking in the mirror. True to his word, Hop Pop had left some clothes out for her.

Her new wardrobe consisted of a small grayish yellow shirt, faded blue shorts, and a green jacket. It was fairly reminiscent of what Sprig had been wearing earlier. The kid had a style, she could respect that.

After she was dressed, she poked her head outside the door, finding the hallway empty. She took careful steps, trying not to make the wood underneath her creak as she crept along the length of the hall. She felt her nerves thrumming underneath her skin. She didn’t really feel like she should be here.

“Hey!”

“AHH!” She jumped, literally, tumbling a little bit over her still-unfamiliar limbs.

“Sorry sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you!” Sprig backed up a little. He’d come around the corner so quickly, she hadn’t noticed he was there until he started talking.

“It’s- it’s okay,” She said, catching her breath again.

“Hop Pop sent me to check on you. The food is ready, if you’re hungry.” He shrugged. “Soooo, are you more comfortable now?”

“I guess so,” She blinked.

“Then I can ask you questions?” His eyes sparkled in a way that reminded Anne of Marcy. She smiled.

“Sure, shoot.”

“So, Los Angeles, right? That’s where you said you were from? I don’t recognize the name, what’s it like there?” He was practically hopping with excitement. Anne managed a little laugh.

“It’s pretty cool, I guess. I’ve lived there all my life. It has a lot of tall, shiny buildings, and a lot of people too.” She answered him. She wasn’t quite sure if she wanted to tell him it was in another world just yet, so she tried to stay sparse on the details.

“Wow! That sounds kind of like Newtopia- not that I’ve ever been there either.” Sprig said, placing a finger on his chin in thought. “Do you want to go back?”

“I-” She paused, pushing down the lump that she found in her throat. “Yeah, I want to go back.”

“How did you even get here in the first place? Getting into the valley at this time of year should be impossible.” Sprig tilted his head at her.

She hesitated. Should she tell him that she’s not from this world? Should she tell him that she’s not actually a frog, that she’s supposed to be a human person living in a human city? That she’s only here because of an apparently magic music box?

People don’t like things that are different from them. Anne knew this well. She’d experienced it, she’d watched her friends experience it. The Plantars were being so kind to her, but would they have done the same things if they’d known that she wasn’t like them? Would they throw her out? She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to find out. She didn’t want to be alone again.

“I’m not entirely sure,” She said, shrugging. It was about as vague as she could get, but it also wasn’t really a lie.

“Well. I guess weird things like that happen sometimes.” Sprig shrugged back, accepting it without argument.

“What’s that smell?” Anne said, changing the subject.

“Oh! That’s dinner! We just went into market today, actually,” He said, starting off down the hall and beckoning Anne to follow him. “So we have a bunch of fresh ingredients! Hop Pop is making something great, for sure.”

“If you say so.” She said, It did smell really good.

…it may have smelled good, but it certainly didn’t look good. The sorts of dishes she liked didn’t typically have that many legs .

“I hope it’s to your liking, Anne. you need a good meal, and the pillbug in this is fresh as anything. Great for protein.” Hop Pop grinned at her, and she did her best to grin back. She didn’t want to eat a bug, but at least this one appeared to have been cooked . It probably wouldn’t be so bad. Probably.

Anne was both delighted and deeply disappointed to discover that it was actually really good. It made sense, she had the tongue of a frog, and therefore the taste buds of a frog too.

“So, Anne…” Hop Pop started, and Anne knew she was going to get interrogated again. “How old are you?”

“Um,” Happy birthday, Anne, “Thirteen.” She gulped down another bite of… whatever this was, doing her best not to think of her birthday.

“Wow, I could have sworn you were my age! You’re pretty short for a thirteen year old huh,” Sprig said, enthusiastically. Hop Pop shot him a warning glare.

Anne had already felt short, given that she was pretty sure she’d shrunk several feet when she came here, but it wasn’t very nice to hear someone else say it. It also wasn’t very pleasant to know that she was short amongst frog people in general, and not just compared to her human self; who wasn’t short among people anyway, she might add.

“Wow, thanks.” She rolled her eyes.

“You’re very suspicious.” The littlest one stated. Anne couldn’t remember her name. “I don’t trust you.”

“Now Polly, we’re trying to be nice here.” Hop Pop reprimanded.

“Why?” Polly blinked at him.

“Because… that’s the right thing to do, Polly.”

“Suspicious.”

“ Anyway -” Sprig cut off his family. “Anne, what do you think of the food? Good huh?”

“Um,” She blinked down at the mystery dish. “Yeah it’s good.”

“Where are your parents? Or guardians, at least?” Hop Pop asked, and Anne shut her eyes against the images of her parents that flashed by in her mind. “If you’re only thirteen, you shouldn’t be out in the woods alone like that.”

“My parents are, um,” She thought of their texts, the ones asking where she was, the ones she hadn’t answered. “They’re-” her voice broke.

“Anne?” Sprig tilted his head at her, a strange empathy filling his eyes, and Anne suddenly found herself wondering where his parents were.

“Anne, sweetheart, do you have anyone? Anyone to look for, who can take care of you?” Hop Pop asked, his brows furrowed in concern.

Anne thought about the music box, the fact that it had been in her hands, and that moment she’d found herself all alone.

“No one in this world.”

Chapter Text

Tragedy wasn’t that uncommon, Hop Pop knew firsthand. Mantises, snakes, spiders, herons… there was enough danger in their world that you’d be hard pressed to find someone who hadn’t lost at least one loved one to it all. He himself was of course, no exception.

Anne was scared and alone, she had been dressed in rags and covered in bruises. It wasn’t hard to figure out that she was another victim of tragedy. He didn’t know what her tragedy was, and honestly that was her business. All he had to know was that something happened.

Wartwood had gotten a few wanderers over the years. Pollywogs and froglets, with haunted eyes and no one to call them by name. They didn’t get as many as other towns, what with their valley walls, but it still happened. He didn’t know how Anne had made it inside, but he wasn’t sure it mattered. Perhaps she’d been dropped in by a bird, that had happened before.

Hop Pop was a true citizen of Wartwood, in that he was typically wary of outsiders- with one exception. Those wandering kids. Every time he saw one it reminded him of Sprig and Polly just after they’d lost their parents, and he couldn’t help his favoritism. He’d kept himself from taking them in over the years, they didn’t have the space or the funds, if he took one he knew he’d take them all. It just wasn’t feasible.

Bessie had led him straight to Anne. They’d just had a successful harvest. They had space in the basement room for once. It seemed the stars had aligned to make this possible.

“Well, if you don’t have anyone, you can stay with us, for as long as you need.” Hop Pop said. Sprig grinned, drumming his fingers energetically on the table.

“Hop Pop! We can’t trust her!” Polly whined.

“Polly, quiet. I’ve made my decision.”

“Wow! A new roommate! This is the best day ever!”

“You be quiet too, Sprig.” Hop Pop rubbed his temples.

“Are you… are you sure?” Anne asked, shifting in her seat.

“Yes Anne, I’m sure.” He nodded. He was almost surprised at how sure he was, but he knew he’d regret it for the rest of his life if he threw her out now, just like he’d have regretted it if he hadn’t helped her when they found her.

“I- oh, wow. Thanks,” She bit her lip, as if she was trying to keep herself from smiling.

“Sprig, you’re finished eating?” Hop Pop turned to his grandson.

“Yeah, why?”

“Go set up the basement room, we can have Anne stay there.” He nodded.

“Oh yeaaah I did clean out that room today, didn’t I?'' Sprig hopped to his feet, almost throwing his empty plate into the sink as he made a dash for the trapdoor. “Don’t worry Anne, I’m gonna make this room great for you!”

“Wow. Wow .” Anne breathed.

“You can follow him if you want,” Hop Pop smiled, jerking a thumb in the direction Sprig had disappeared to.

“Yeah. I’m gonna- thanks.” Anne said, setting her plate in the ‘dirty’ pile much more gently, before jogging off after Sprig.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Hop Pop? We don’t know who she is, or where she came from.” Polly said after Anne was out of earshot.

“She’s a frog in need, Polly,” Hop Pop admonished. “She hasn’t done anything to prove herself un -trustworthy.”

“I guess so.”

“If she finds somewhere else to go, she can leave. But until then, we’ll keep her safe.” Hop Pop said, patting his granddaughter on the head. “Guardian knows she needs it.”

[break]

“Sprig, you down here?” Anne called down the trap door, struggling to keep a grip on it with her slippery fingers.

“Oh! Anne! Yeah, I’m here! Come on down!” She heard his voice echo back to her. With a bit too much effort than she would have liked, she heaved the door up and over, and clambered down the ladder.

The basement space was nothing like her room back in California, but it was worlds better than the cave. It had a cozy look to it, with warm light emanating from mushrooms and moss growing in between the stones. Sprig was in the far corner, setting up what she supposed was going to be her bed. Right now it looked like a lumpy pile of pillows and blankets, but Sprig was wrestling it into something more recognizable.

“Uh, do you need any help?” She asked, edging closer.

“No, I’m good! Thanks for checking though!” Sprig jumped on it, and somehow it all flattened out.

“I can’t believe you guys are doing this for me,” She muttered, watching him work. “I don’t even know you.”

“Maybe not yet, but you will, and that’s the best part, isn’t it?” Sprig grinned at her, and she was once again reminded of the besties she’d left behind.

“Yeah, I guess so.” She hoped they were alright…

“Do you have anything else?” He asked, pulling her out of her anxious reverie.

“What?”

“Like, do you own stuff? I noticed you didn’t have any with you.” He nodded at the mostly empty room.

She did have a few things that came with her from Earth. The music box, for one, and also her entire backpack. She hadn’t been thinking, or else she would have taken them with her when she left the cave. Though, she’d have to be careful, she didn’t exactly want to answer any questions if the Plantars saw her pictures of her and her friends from back home.

“Yeah I had a few things, I left it all back in the cave, though.” She frowned, thinking of her abandoned phone. What she wouldn’t give for some wifi right now.

“We can go get it back tomorrow!” Sprig said cheerfully.

“Sure dude, I’d appreciate it.” She smiled, nudging her bed with one of her toes. It was soft, blessedly soft; so far removed from the unforgiving chilled stones of her cave she could cry.

“I’ll leave you down here to get settled then. Holler if you need anything!” He waved, and bounded up out of the room.

Anne plopped down onto her new bed, letting her head fall back against the pillows. She raised her hands up above herself, staring at her eight, shiny blue digits. She flexed them, watching the light reflect off of the mucus coating. She shuddered.

This was so strange. It had been a whole week and it was still strange. She thought she may have been getting used to it, bit by bit, but it was still so alien to her. Really though, she was the alien in this situation. She was the invader in frog land, after all.

Would they have treated her like an alien invader? If she’d still been human when she’d gotten here? She wasn’t sure how she would have reacted if a frog person had wandered into her neighborhood back home.

She supposed, in a weird way, that she was grateful for the transformation. The Plantars saw her as a person in need, not a strange beast they’d never seen before. She didn’t want to think about what might have happened to her if they had ignored her, or worse, attacked her.

She flexed her toes against the fabric. She wasn’t sure she wanted to get used to it, though. Getting used to it would almost feel like becoming complacent. She wasn’t going to do that. She was going to get home, one way or another.

[break]

Sprig hopped in place outside of the basement trapdoor. He’d barely been able to sleep the previous night, thinking of their new housemate. He didn’t get to meet new people often, and Anne was interesting . They were going to go find her bag after breakfast, and he was hoping to use the time to learn as much as he could about her.

“Is she still asleep?” Polly rolled her eyes.

“Give her time, Polly. She might not be used to waking up early.” Hop Pop admonished.

“But I’m hungry ,”She whined. “Can’t we go wake her up or something?”

“Hmmm, That’s not a bad idea actually.” Hop Pop said, scratching his chin.

“Oh oh! I’ll do it!” Sprig volunteered, leaping a bit in his excitement.

“Make it quick then, we don’t want the food to cool off too much.” Hop Pop nodded. “C’mon Polly, we’ll wait at the table.”

“You’d better not take too long, or else .” Polly hissed, sending a shiver down Sprig’s spine. A five year old pollywog had no right to be that scary.

He cracked open the door, slipping down the ladder. He could see a lump under the blankets that he guessed was Anne. She was still alive, the lump rhythmically rising and falling. Well that was good, Sprig had been worried about bed bugs. They couldn’t reach them on the upper floors, but the basement was different. He’d have to ask Hop Pop about defenses.

He walked over to her, thinking about different ways to wake her up, when her eyes flew open all on their own.

“Oh my gosh guys, I had the craziest dream , where-” She was talking almost as soon as she was up, cutting herself off abruptly when she saw Sprig. “Oh. Right.” She hugged her knees to her chest.

“Good morning!” He said, as cheerfully as he could, trying to shake off Anne’s sudden melancholy.

“Good morning,” She sighed.

“I’m guessing I’m not the frog you wanted to see this morning,” He joked, and Anne cracked a smile.

“Yeah, not exactly.”

“Who did you think you were talking to?” Sprig asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him. He really hoped he wasn’t crossing any lines. Anne hesitated, appearing deep in thought.

“... My friends, Sasha and Marcy.” She said, “They were my best friends in the whole world.”

“Were?” Sprig said, before he could stop himself. Anne winced, and he felt a stab of guilt. Darn his inconsiderate tongue!

“Yeah,” She nodded. “I don’t think they’re… well, I don’t know what happened to them. I hope they’re alright, somewhere.”

“ Oh. That’s good.” Sprig breathed in relief. Well, at least they weren’t dead, probably. That made him feel better.

“Yep,” Anne said, popping the P.

“So, um, there’s breakfast upstairs. I think Polly will actually kill me if we take any longer.” He said, remembering his little sister’s threat.

“Oh yeah, that’d be bad,” Anne snorted. “I’ll be up in a second, don’t worry.”

“Alright, I’ll try!” He joked, waving goodbye before hopping up and out of the basement space.

“Is Anne not with you?” Hop Pop asked, sliding him a plate of pillbug pancakes

“She said she’s coming,” He said, beginning to shove the delectable goodness into his mouth. A moment later, the basement door opened again, and Anne emerged. She was still wearing the clothes they’d given her yesterday, including one of Sprig’s jackets. He liked that jacket, but it did look good on her.

“Pancakes?” She blinked at the breakfast Hop Pop offered her.

“Only the best pillbug pancakes in all of wartwood!” Sprig boasted, taking another bite for emphasis. Anne hesitated briefly, before taking an even bigger bite than Sprig had.

“Oh, they’re good.” She said, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Of course they are! They’re an old family recipe,” Hop Pop grinned at the compliment.

“So Anne, we’re going out to get your stuff today, right? Is it in the cave we found you in, or somewhere else?” Sprig asked, finishing his breakfast.

“It should all be in the cave, unless something ran off with it.” She grimaced.

“A very real possibility,” Hop Pop nodded.

“Great.” Anne rolled her eyes.

“Oh I’m sure we’ll find it! C’mon!” Sprig hopped up from the table, dashing outside to start getting Bessie ready. His family and Anne followed behind at a slightly more sedate pace.

Hop Pop hopped up into the driver's seat, and the three of them squished in behind. Anne was a lot more alert during this journey than the one yesterday, and Sprig had fun watching her as she took in the scenery around them. She’d said the place she was from was full of tall, shiny buildings, so dense vibrant woods like these must be pretty new.

Her eyes blew wide and she let out a delighted giggle when they passed a cloud of early morning fireflies, just coming back from a night of mate hunting. The lights weren’t nearly as impressive now as they would have been a few hours ago, but Anne didn’t seem to mind.

“You like the fireflies?” Sprig commented, watching them swirl around.

“I’ve never seen this many before!” She grinned.

“Ugh, they’re just shiny bugs.” Polly complained.

“Quiet kids, we don’t need to draw attention out here. There’s been reports of a red mantis in these parts.” Hop Pop said, and Sprig shuddered. They got green mantis around here a lot, but the red ones were a lot bigger, and more aggressive. He would like to avoid running into it, if they could.

“A red mantis… I think I saw it a few days ago.” Anne mused, still staring at the passing greenery.

“Exactly. We need to be careful.”

“Yes Hop Pop.” Sprig and Polly chorused, making Anne glance at them. Sprig wondered if she had any siblings, and opened his mouth to ask, before realizing he’d probably just be putting his foot in it anyway. If she wasn’t with them, then they probably either didn’t exist, or it was a very sore subject. He mentally patted himself on the back for not saying anything, for about the first time since he’d met her.

They arrived at the cave they’d found Anne in the day before in what felt like no time at all, and Sprig could admit that he was glad to not be thrown this time. It had been fun, but he had a bruise on his back that he’d really not like a repeat of.

“You guys can wait here, I’ll go get what I need,” Anne said, sliding off Bessie.

“Are you sure? We can-” Hop Pop said, brows furrowed in concern.

“I’m sure. It’ll be faster this way.” Anne assured him, dashing into the gap between the bushes. Sprig would have never known there was a cave back there if he hadn’t been through it himself.

He kicked at the dirt a little, sketching out a rough drawing of Bessie with his toes. Polly nestled down in her bucket and took a nap. Hop Pop didn’t really move, staring right at where Anne had vanished into the foliage.

She reappeared a moment later, clutching a bright pink bag to her chest. It wasn’t really like any bag Sprig had seen before, and even as he watched she used its two straps to swing it onto her back. It looked a little big for her, like it would pull her over any moment.

“Right. Got my stuff.” She said, readjusting the bag.

“I’ve never seen a bag like that before,” Sprig said, mourning his ability to keep his mouth shut. “You wear it on your back?”

“Yeah, it’s called a backpack.” She shrugged.

“That makes sense .” Sprig hummed.

“So we can go home now?” Polly whined.

“I see no problem with that. Is there anything else you need while we’re out here, Anne?” Hop Pop said, getting Bessie ready to leave again.

“No, this should be it.” Anne shrugged.

The four of them climbed up onto Bessie, and they set out towards home. Sprig noticed that this time, Anne paid almost no attention to the scenery at all. Instead she had a white knuckle grasp on the straps of her bag, and vacant eyes. He wondered what she was thinking about.

Anne was an odd one, and he couldn’t wait to get to know her better.

Chapter Text

Anne pried her eyes open, blinking away her drowsiness. Morning light was starting to filter through some of the basement’s cracks, heralding the new day.

It had been four days since she’d been taken in by the Plantar family, and a whole eleven since she’d gotten stuck in this world in the first place. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem like it would be changing any time soon.

She reached for her bag, digging under her old clothes for her prize. She withdrew the darn music box, the cause of all her troubles, and held it up to the light. She took her free hand, and lifted the lid.

Nothing happened.

It wasn’t like she was expecting anything. She’d tried the same thing time and time again since waking up here. Nothing ever happened. She bit back a groan, and shoved it back under the rest of the stuff in the bag.

Her fingers brushed against something stiff, and she paused. She glanced at the door, listening for footsteps. When she heard none, she pulled it out. The picture of her and her friends. She, Sasha, and Marcy grinned up at her from the photo, all of them blissfully unaware of what the future held for them.

Anne brushed a finger over the image of her, of human her. Oh, how she envied her past self. She had no idea how good she had it.

“Heya Anne!”

Anne shoved the picture back in her bag on reflex, nearly crushing it against the other contents. She spun around to see Sprig, who had somehow entered the room without her noticing. He was looking at her with an innocent grin, completely oblivious to the heartattack he’d just caused.

“Sprig! You scared me, don’t do that!” Anne said, recovering from the shock and zipping up her bag. There were things in there she did not need Sprig to see.

“Oh, sorry,” He said, sounding genuine. “Breakfast is ready, so I was seeing if you were up or not.”

“Well, I am,” She said, getting to her feet. This was becoming a routine of sorts, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it. “Are we having pancakes again this morning?”

“I can’t tell if you’re excited about that or not,” Sprig teased. “But yeah, we are.”

“Sweet!” Anne pumped a fist. She did genuinely like Hop Pop’s pancakes, despite the bug bits.

“So, what are you thinking about so intensely this morning?” Sprig asked, steering the topic of conversation directly into the space she’d been avoiding.

“Well…”

“You were thinking about your friends again, huh? What did you say their names were… Sasha and Marcy? Right?” He said, voice much more serious than Anne had been expecting.

She blinked at him. She’d told him about her friends on her first morning here, but she hadn’t expected him to remember them. He was sort of a silly kid, she was sorry to say she hadn’t expected much of him at all.

“I- yeah, how did you know?” she worried her fingers along the edge of her shirt. She’d been using her school shirt as pajamas for a few days now, since it was big enough for that.

“You’re always brooding about something in the mornings, and I figured it might be the same thing every time.” He shrugged. Well, he wasn’t wrong.

“Oh.”

“Hey! I had an idea,” He grinned, “Maybe while we’re looking for your friends, I could be your friend instead?”

“You? Really? Wait, what do you mean ‘while we’re looking for your friends?” Anne blinked at him, attempting to process his sentence.

“Well, you’re missing your friends, right? And you’re not like, sure they’re dead,” Sprig said, making her wince.

“Yeah…”

“Well then obviously we’re going to go looking for them. Duh.” He shrugged, as if he hadn’t just emotionally shot her through the heart.

Look for her friends? Could she even do that? She still had no idea if they were even in this crazy world or not, but given the evidence, she was leaning toward no, they were not. The idea of seeing them again sent lightning through her veins though, and she couldn’t help but entertain the thought. Still, the fact that Sprig would even consider doing something like that for her… it was nice.

She looked at the pink, anthropomorphic frog child in front of her. Him, as her friend, huh? She glanced down at her own, glistening blue hands. Eh, she might as well. He’d been really nice so far…

“Wow, that’s- thanks. And I mean, if you’re sure you want to be my friend, then…” She shrugged. “I guess I’m alright with that.”

“YES!” He hopped into the air, higher than a human of the same size would ever be able to. Anne giggled at his enthusiasm, while wondering if she could jump that high now.

“Kids! Are you awake or not?” Hop Pop’s muffled voice carried through the door, still loud enough to make Anne think she might go deaf.

“Well, if I hadn’t been already…” She murmured, making Sprig laugh.

“Pancake time! Pancake time!” He put his fists in the air, sprinting for the door. Anne cracked a smile. He looked like he was having fun. She might as well let herself have some fun, too.

“Pancake time! Pancake time!”

[break]

“So, what do you want to do today?” Sprig asked her. They had just finished breakfast, and had the whole day ahead of them.

“I don’t know, but something outside .” Anne lamented. Sprig supposed that was fair, she’d been cooped up in the house for the last three days getting settled. He could imagine how cooped up she felt.

“Well, what are some things you did with your friends back home?” He said. He was hoping that maybe doing something familiar would make her feel a little less homesick. She might not be able to go home, but maybe Sprig could bring a little of home to her!

“Oh, we did everything together!” She said, lighting up almost immediately. “We’d go to the movies and the arcades, drink boba till we vomited, go to the beach-”

“I have no idea what those other things are, but we have a beach! Kinda! It’s a lake!” He grinned, cutting her off. Sometimes Anne said things that really didn’t make much sense. This Los Angeles place that she told him about must be wild .

“A lake? That sounds perfect! I could use a good swim.” She grinned back, and Sprig congratulated himself on completing his mission of cheering her up.

“Now hold on one moment,” The looming shadow of Hop Pop said, putting a cap on Sprig’s enthusiasm. “I need to go into town to get Anne some more clothes, she can’t keep wearing your old stuff forever.”

“These shorts are pretty tight,” She muttered, tugging at the edges.

“I’m taking Polly with me, but I want to wait a few more days before introducing Anne to the community. You know how they are.” Hop Pop said, making the town motto flash through Sprig’s head.

Slow to accept, even slower to respect.

Yeah, okay. Fair.

“So I’m leaving you and Anne home, and I’d feel a lot better knowing you two are safe, inside .”

“But Hop Pop -” Sprig whined.

“Don’t ‘but’ me! It’s what’s best for everyone, and that’s final. Now, I’ll be heading out. Polly, let’s go.” Hop Pop beckoned, and Polly hopped into his outstretched arms, having been watching their disagreement from the shadows.

“Oh oh, wait, if you’re going to get me new clothes…” Anne said, bouncing on her toes before dashing off toward the basement. She re-emerged moments later with a heap of purplish cloth thrown over one arm. “Is there a tailor in town?” She asked, slightly breathless.

“Well, yes-”

“Can you get them to modify this? Into a skirt I could wear?” She held out the cloth, and Sprig could see a waistband sewn in around one edge. It was a skirt, a huge skirt that he could only see fitting a newt. A really big newt. Where in the world had she gotten something like that?

“I- I’ll see what I can do.” Hop Pop said, taking the offered garment.

“Thanks,” Anne said, tugging at her shorts again.

Hop Pop and Polly left soon after, and Sprig flinched as he heard the lock click.

“Well, I guess that’s it for our outdoor plans. I’m sure there’s still stuff we could do in here, like- oh! Hop Pop isn’t here, we could try some of his pain peppers!” Sprig said, hopping over to the barrel. It was usually off limits, but surely Hop Pop wouldn’t miss a couple…

“No thanks, I’d rather go to the lake!” Anne smirked at him, her eyes sparkling in mischief.

“But, the door-”

“You guys still have windows, right?” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh. Oh . Okay!” Sprig shoved a handful of peppers into his pocket, and sprinted over to where Anne was inspecting their windows. “We’ve just got to be back by the time Hop Pop gets home, or we’ll be in huge trouble.”

“Yeah yeah, now, which one of these would be the best escape window, d’ya think?”

“The one in my room opens!”

“You mean, on the second floor?”

“It’ll be fine!”

[break]

As it turned out, falling over a story worth of height was significantly more sustainable if you were a frog. Who knew.

The swamp floor was springy under her feet as they walked. Her lack of shoes was letting her feel it all, the cool grass and the satisfying squelch of mud. She didn’t hate it.

“Woo! Escape is exhilarating!” Sprig said, bouncing up ahead of her.

“What, this the first time you’ve snuck out, or something?” Anne laughed, kicking a glob of mud at his feet.

“Nah, far from, but it’s the first time I’ve ever done it with a friend!” He grinned back at her.

Every time Anne had snuck out she’d done it with friends, often at the behest of her friends. Really, this time was special because she was doing it with someone who wasn’t Sasha or Marcy.

“Your friends sound boring.” She shrugged.

“Try nonexistent.” He sighed, pace slowing a little.

“You- you don’t have friends?” Anne paused.

“The kids around here… don’t really get me.” He tugged at his hat. “I do have a sparring partner though, and now I have you!” He grinned at her, and she felt her own lips pulling into a smile. This frog was a little silly, but he was plenty likable.

“Aww you sap, c’mere.” She grabbed his arm, pulling him right up close to her. She whipped out her phone and snapped a selfie of the two of them.

“What- what was that?” Sprig asked, blinking the flash out of his eyes. Anne grinned, flipping the phone around to show him her newest masterpiece.

“Woah… an instant portrait! And we look so good too!” He marveled over her phone. She pulled it back before he could touch it. She had to work hard enough to not get her own mucus on it, she really didn’t want to clean it again.

“Yep. Cool, huh?”

“The coolest! Did you get that magic rectangle in Los Angeles?” He bounced in place as he asked.

“Yeah, my parents bought it for me for my twelfth birthday.” She nodded. It had been over a year, now. She wondered what they’d have gotten her for her thirteenth…

“Wow. Los Angeles sounds like an awesome place. Can I come with you, when you go back?” His eyes sparkled as he asked, filled with such wonder and curiosity it was almost blinding.

Sprig going to Los Angeles? Her immediate reaction was that it was laughable, impossible even, but as she thought about it…

“Maybe,” She shrugged. “If I can figure out how to get you there, maybe.”

“Good enough for me!” He grinned, hopping off along the path.

Anne imagined introducing her parents to the Plantars, and had to stifle a laugh. Now that was something she’d love to see.

In almost no time at all, a shimmering body of water came into sight. She could smell the water plants, and feel the humidity increase as they got closer. Their steps sped up, until they were both whooping and running toward the lake.

They caught sight of the sign at the same time.

There was a hastily constructed wooden sign posted on the edge of the lake, with ominous red letters proclaiming ‘Don’t swim’. The last few letters looked particularly rushed, even trailing off the edge at the end.

“...This was not here last week.” Sprig said, hesitantly.

“Well then it can’t be that serious,” Anne rolled her eyes. She looked out over the shimmering lake, which seemed to be calling to her personally. “C’mon, let’s just go in anyway.”

“Anne, something isn’t right here, whoever wrote this wrote it in a hurry, like they didn’t want to be here.” Sprig shifted on his feet, glancing at the sign anxiously.

“Sprig, you want to be my friend, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Then you’ll do this for me, right? This is what friends do. They get the things the other wants for them. Pencil cases, shoes, anything. If you don’t, then… Then they might not want to be your friend anymore.” Anne winced, pushing back the memory of Sasha’s face, telling her to steal the music box.

“Okay. Fine.” Sprig said, and he started to walk away. Anne felt her heart sink right down to her toes, and an ick feeling she did not like took its place in her chest.

Moments later though, Sprig ran past her, yelling in delight as he canonballed into the lake. Anne felt her face split into a grin, and dove in after him, a fluffy nice feeling overwhelming the ick.

The water was lovely . Sure, she’d enjoyed swimming back home, but this was on another level. She felt the cool currents slipping past her, and her every twitch sent her flying through the lake with a speed she knew she’d never be able to replicate without webbed appendages. For once, being a frog didn’t feel like a disadvantage. This was wonderful .

Even more wonderful, she wasn’t alone. Sprig hadn’t left after all, and he was right here enjoying the lake with her, laughing and splashing, and playing her dumb games. She didn’t know how many photos she took, but she knew that they were memories she didn’t want to let slip by.

She propelled herself out of the water, hopping up onto a lilypad and letting the sun warm her skin. Sprig hopped up beside her, and she felt the lilypad wobble under her feet.

“Wow… I don’t think I’ve had this much fun since…” Anne hummed, catching her breath. She tried to remember the last time she’d just enjoyed herself like this. She thought back to her birthday, and frowned. The ick feeling returned. It had been a fun day, but…

“I know, right? Someone should have told me about this ‘friend’ thing sooner!” Sprig laughed, splashing her a little. She chuckled, sending spray back his way.

“Yeah dude! The kids around here are dumb for not giving you a chance sooner,” Anne grinned. She really meant it, too.

A shadow loomed over them. At first, Anne thought it was a cloud that had drifted over the sun, but it moved far too fast for that… Anne and Sprig leaned back in tandem to see what had deprived them of their sunlight.

Anne felt a chill run down her spine, one she was sure wasn’t just from the lack of sun. Rising out of the water behind them was the biggest snake she had ever seen in her life . This thing was as thick around as a car, and longer than a semi-truck. Anne couldn’t even see the end of its tail, hidden under the water as it was. It was a sickly dark purple color, and it had wide, blank eyes that she knew would be haunting her nightmares.

The monster let out a low hiss. Anne screamed. She could hear Sprig screaming too, so at least she wasn’t alone in her abject terror.

She rocketed to her feet, hand instinctively reaching out for Sprig’s. She didn’t have to pull him along though, since he too was already running. They leapt off of the lilypad and into the cool water, but she couldn’t appreciate it this time. She swam for her life, faster than she ever had before, but it wasn’t enough.

Sprig, who was much more experienced in being a frog than her, was trying desperately to pull her up to his speed, but she could tell she was just holding him back. The water churned as the snake sped towards them. They were almost to the shore when Anne saw a dark shape loom out of the water beneath her. She barely had time to register it before the snake’s tail collided with them both, thrusting them out of the water and sending them spinning through the air.

Anne fell back onto the lilypad they’d been on before, the impact knocking the air out of her lungs. She coughed, struggling to get a hold of herself even as her vision went white with pain and fear.

“Anne! Anne are you okay?” Sprig’s voice floated to her as if from far away, and she latched on to it, letting him pull her back to herself.

“Yeah…” She wheezed. When she opened her eyes, all she saw was purple. The snake had coiled around their little lilypad, and was looking down at them from above with something like sick satisfaction in those terrible eyes. It was just playing with them.

“I guess this is what the sign was warning us about…” Sprig crouched down, away from the undulating walls of their little prison.

“Sprig I- I’m so sorry, if I hadn’t insisted we still swim anyway-” Anne felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes as feeling of guilt crushed her, almost as painful as landing on the lilypad had been.

“Hey hey, I’m the one that decided to listen to you, right?” He joked, though his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Besides, I think I have a plan.”

“A plan?” Anne furrowed her brows. How did he plan to get them out of this situation?

“Yeah. When I say go, dive to the side.”

“What? Like, over to the snake!?”

“Yep.”

“Sprig-”

“Just- trust me, okay?” He looked at her with his froggy, inhuman eyes. Still unfamiliar to her, but steely and earnest. She could trust him.

“Okay.” She gulped, and nodded. He’d trusted her , and it had gotten them into this mess. She obviously shouldn’t be the authority here.

There was a tense moment where nothing happened. Sprig was just staring intently at the snake, and it was looking at them. Anne’s heart was beating so hard, it was the only thing she could hear.

“GO!” Sprig yelled, and Anne threw herself to her right as hard and fast as she could. She connected with the cool scales of the snake, and watched as Sprig leapt into the air, the snake swallowing him whole.

“SPRIG!” Anne screamed, pushing herself away from the snake. Red tinged the edges of her vision, and she could almost feel her blood begin to boil. “VENGEANCE!”

She leaped with all her might, soaring higher into the air than she ever had before, and punched that stupid, self satisfied noodle in the eye. It hissed in rage, and tried to shake her off, but she held fast, pummeling it over and over with what little strength she had.

It lurched, harder, more unnaturally than before, and Anne was thrown off; hitting the water with a splash. It took her a moment to surface, but when she did she saw the snake shaking and convulsing, almost like someone about to-

It started breathing fire.

Well. That wasn’t what Anne had expected. A moment later, a little more in line with her expectations, Sprig flew out of the beast’s mouth, landing in the water beside her.

“Sprig! You’re okay! What did you do? ” Anne tackled him in a hug before he’d even resurfaced

“Hehe,” He grinned cheekily, and withdrew a strange looking pepper out of his pocket. “Hop Pop’s pain peppers, so hot you’ll wish you were dead.”

Anne glanced at the snake, which was still literally breathing fire, its eyes bulging out of its head. Yeah, that seemed accurate. She totally wanted to try one.

“We should probably run before it recovers.” Sprig said.

“ Yeah .”

Chapter Text

They climbed back in through the window, and collapsed on the floor of his room. Sprig sighed, some of the tension he’d been holding in his shoulders draining once he was back in his safe place.

“Well,” He laughed breathlessly, “ That was an adventure!”

“Oh yeah,” Anne groaned. “Did you see that thing’s eyes? I’m never going to sleep again.”

“I’m the one that got eaten, how do you think I feel?” Sprig joked lightheartedly, but Anne flinched and looked away.

“I’m uh, I’m really sorry about that. The whole thing was my fault.” She sighed, sitting up and pulling her knees close to her chest.

“I mean, kinda yeah.” Sprig shrugged, “But I’ve forgiven you, so all's well that ends well, right?”

“Wow. You’re… really easy going, huh?” Anne blinked at him, a small smile playing across her lips.

“I guess so. Is that a good thing?”

“In my opinion? It’s great. Thanks man.” She punched him lightly in the shoulder.

“No problem. Is uh, is punching a part of friendship?” he said, rubbing his new bruise. At least she’d taken care to avoid his burns; his escape plan had not been flawless.

“Absolutely,” She grinned.

A warm, safe feeling swelled in his chest. A friend. He had a friend . Sure, maybe she’d gotten him into mortal danger the first time they’d tried to hang out, but he was choosing to see that as a pro, not a con. Friendship was exciting , and wonderful . He couldn’t wait to experience more of it.

They heard the heavy click of the door being unlocked from downstairs, and the telltale thumping of feet entering the house. Anne and Sprig glanced at each other.

“Wow, we got back just in the nick of time didn’t we?” Anne laughed, running a hand through her hair, making a leaf flutter to the floor.

“One of life’s great miracles.” Sprig nodded. “He should have a bunch of stuff for you, let’s go see what he’s got!”

“Give me a minute, I’m a little bit exhausted,” Anne groaned, flopping dramatically to the floor.

“C’mon c’mon c’mon!”

“Alright alright I’m coming,” She hopped to her feet and followed him out the door.

[break]

Anne stretched as they walked down the stairs. She felt like all of her muscles had decided to cramp at the same time. It wasn’t even like she was that out of shape, tennis wasn’t exactly a leisure activity, but at the same time she supposed she’d never had to swim for her very life before.

It kinda sucked.

She didn’t really have any room to complain though, poor Sprig was covered in minor burns, and his jacket was charred. Plus, he’d also had to run for his life, so he had to be way more tired than she was.

Hop Pop and Polly were waiting for them in the living room. Hop Pop’s eyes grew wide as he saw the both of them. Anne wondered how they looked, probably like they’d lost a fight and then got half drowned. He sighed, and pressed two of his fingers to where the bridge of his nose would have been, if he’d had a nose.

“Do I even want to know what you two got up to while we were gone?” He said, throwing them a half hearted glare.

“No.”

“Probably not.”

“Well I wanna know! Sprig, how’d you get all those gnarly burns?” Polly asked, excited for the first time since Anne had met her.

“Heyy didn’t you guys go out shopping for Anne? Don’t we have stuff to do?” Sprig said, and Anne had to stifle a laugh at his redirection attempt.

“Yes, we do. Though we are talking about this later.” Hop Pop said, glaring at Sprig.

“Aw man.”

“Did you get my skirt fixed?” Anne asked. All of the clothes she’d arrived in were too large for her now, but she really wanted at least one piece of it to end up wearable. She wanted something familiar with her, something to make her still feel like herself.

“As a matter of fact we did, actually. You were lucky, Tom didn’t have any other appointments today,” Hop Pop smiled at her, pulling her skirt out of his satchel. It was a heck of a lot smaller, but it was the same color. She took it from his hands, and ran her own fingers along the seams. It was the same fabric, the same garment. Exactly what she’d wanted.

“Lucky my non-existent foot,” Polly rolled her eyes. “This town is tiny , he’s never booked.”

“Thanks Hop Pop! Thank you so much!” Anne grinned at the old frog, clutching the fabric to her chest.

“Awe don’t mention it,” He said, waving a hand. “That’s not all I have for you either,” He handed her the satchel, and she dug through the contents.

Most of it was clothes, shirts and shorts and another skirt that was a similar color to the one she already had, but not quite. The rest of it looked to be toiletries, something she’d been desperately missing, even if she wasn’t looking forward to using the frog version.

“Wow… you got all this for me?” Anne breathed, looking over the sheer volume of it all.

These talking frog people had taken her into their home, given her food, company and clothes. She’d put Sprig’s life in danger, and he’d saved them both, and then forgiven her right after. How was she ever going to be able to pay all this back?

“I don’t know how long you’ve been lost for, but you deserve this much, right?” Hop Pop smiled kindly at her, and Anne had to swipe at her eyes to keep the tears from falling.

“Yeah, I- thanks.”

“Cool, cool, now um, can I get some burn cream? Please?” Sprig asked. Anne glanced over, and yelped to see him swaying on his feet.

“Oh my gosh Sprig! Are you seriously okay?”

“Yeah just- just a little tired.” He nodded. Anne knew the feeling, she too felt about to collapse again.

“C’mere boy, I’ll get you fixed up. While I’m doing that, you can give me a nice long explanation.” Hop Pop fixed him with a stern look, before turning it on Anne. “You too, Anne.”

“Haha…ha… so about all this…”

[break]

Hop Pop had left Sprig and Anne alone for only a few hours, and in that time they’d jumped out a window, ignored a very sensible warning, gotten Sprig eaten by a water snake, and made said river snake breath fire to get him free.

Anne had fully admitted that most of this was her idea (the fire notwithstanding) and had taken responsibility. Well, Hop Pop supposed this was what he got for taking in a wanderer, especially one who was probably from the city. She wasn’t quite aware of all the dangers of the swamp yet, and was a little too confident in her own decisions. He’d met city folk before, and most shared those traits.

Though, she had owned up to it, and she seemed genuinely remorseful, so he saw the potential for change in her. This time, their experience was punishment enough for breaking the rules, but he made sure she knew there would be consequences next time she pulled something like this.

“I told you we can’t trust her! She’s already corrupting Sprig!” Polly whined, glaring at Anne, who was currently passed out.

The pair of them had finished telling their story as Hop Pop had patched them up, and had fallen asleep on each other moments later. They were laying half bent over the table, tangled together. It would have been a nice, heartwarming sight if Sprig hadn’t been covered in bandages, and Polly hadn’t been growling at them.

“Polly…” Hop Pop sighed. “She made a mistake, and she learned from it. We shouldn’t hold that against her.”

“You never know! She could have been trying to kill Sprig, and is just pretending to be remorseful to lessen her punishment!” Polly hissed.

“Polly, we're not kicking her out.”

“Awe come on!”

“No. Just- give her a chance, alright?” Hop Pop patted his granddaughter on her head and got to his feet. These two would freeze if they slept down here, it was starting to get colder, after all. He hefted Anne into his arms, and she curled against him, mumbling in her sleep. He didn’t regret taking her in. It had been hectic since, yes, but everyone deserves a safe place to call home, and people to call family.

Sprig keened, reaching out for where Anne had been. Hop pop smiled to himself. Maybe he shouldn’t separate them quite yet. He carried Anne up to Sprig’s room, pulling out Sprig’s unused mattress from the closet to lay her on. He went and got Sprig too, putting the little froglet in his hammock.

Polly followed him all the while, bouncing around and glaring at Anne. She would come around to her in time, Anne just had to prove herself trustworthy first. Hop Pop had faith that she would.

After he made sure that they were settled (and that Polly was in her own room) he returned to his study. After the day he’d had, he just needed to relax with a book.

He had a feeling things were only going to speed up from here.

Chapter Text

“See? You pull it back like this- no, not like that, a steeper angle, and… release!”

Anne released her hold on the slingshot, and watched as her little stone sailed right past the target tree.

“Eh, not bad for a first try.” Sprig shrugged. Anne hummed, picking up another stone and trying again, only to get the same result.

Sprig had decided that morning that he was going to teach her how to use a slingshot, his weapon of choice. The night before she had mentioned that she didn’t really have a favorite weapon, so that was probably why.

“This is harder than I thought it would be,” Anne said, lining up another shot. “I mean, you just pull back and shoot right? It should be simple.”

“I know, right? That’s what everyone thinks. The slingshot is a noble weapon that deserves more credit.” Sprig huffed, pulling back his own slingshot. His stone flew true, smacking the tree right in the center of the painted target.

“How are you doing that,” Anne said, missing yet another shot. She’d like to hit the tree, at the very least.

“Practice,” Sprig shrugged, hitting another bulls eye.

“Wow, maybe I should teach you tennis next, huh?” She muttered, before pumping a fist in celebration as one of her shots finally glanced off the side of the tree.

“Tennis? What’s that?” Sprig lowered his slingshot, tilting his head at her.

“Oh, it’s uh, it’s a sport.” Anne shrugged. “I only have one racket though, so we’d need to make another one, since I doubt they sell them in town.”

“What’s a racket?” He asked, ever inquisitive. Anne had to be careful what she said, since Sprig was always asking questions. It was fine though, most of them she was happy to answer.

“A tool used to play tennis, I can show you mine once we go back inside.” She shrugged.

“Cool!” He said, hopping once in excitement.

“Ugh, what’s that smell ?” Anne asked, cringing away as a potent odor reached her nose. Sprig sniffed, his face scrunching up hilariously as he smelled it too.

“Oh no,” He sighed. “I know what that is.”

“What, did something crawl under the house and die ?” Anne pulled her jacket up over her face.

“No, it’s worse than that. Hop Pop is cooking .” Sprig said gravely, his eyes gaining a haunted look.

“What do you mean? Hop Pop cooks all the time, and it never smells like this .” Anne said, backing further away from the house.

“No you don’t understand, Hop Pop can cook like, five things well. Everything else sucks , and if he’s experimenting, that can only mean…” Sprig trailed off, before sprinting toward the house. Anne groaned to herself, and followed after him. She almost crashed into him though as he hesitated close to the door.

“Brace yourself.”

“What do you mean- Oh what the- that is AWFUL -” Anne hissed, recoiling from the smell. It was so much worse inside than outside.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, you’ll become nose blind to it soon.” Sprig shrugged, though he didn’t look very happy either.

“Sprig! Save meee!” Polly came hopping towards them once they stepped inside, a look of utter misery on her face. Anne could relate.

“Polly? What’s wrong?” Sprig held out his hands, and his sister hopped up into his palms a moment later.

“Other than the obvious, you mean?” Anne rolled her eyes, and Polly glared at her. Polly had never really warmed up to her, even in the week and half they’d been living in the same house. Anne didn’t really mind, for the most part Polly stayed out of her business and Anne stayed out of hers. Plus, Anne had Sprig to hang out with, so she was fine.

“Hop Pop was having me help! Sprig you’ve gotta stop him, or nothing will change this year!” Polly wailed, throwing herself into her brother’s chest.

“I can try, Polly.” He sighed, walking toward the kitchen, and the source of the horrendous odor.

Whatever Hop Pop was cooking, it was the most disgusting thing Anne had ever seen. It oozed green slime, was smoking, and somehow also screaming. Was it alive? Anne found she really didn’t want to know.

“Hey kids! I thought you were playing outside.” Hop Pop said, waving to them with a wooden spoon covered in viscera. Anne had to back up to avoid getting hit by it, and found herself resisting the urge to vomit.

“Well, we were, ” Sprig cringed. “Is it really potluck time already?”

“It is early winter, Sprig.” Hop Pop rolled his eyes.

Anne blinked. It was winter? It certainly didn’t feel like it, and it hadn’t been winter back on Earth. Man, she wasn’t sure she wanted to see what they considered summer here.

“What’s the plan this year, poison the competition?” Sprig eyed Hop Pop’s concoction suspiciously. Anne was avoiding looking at it at all.

“The plan is to win .” Hop Pop glared at him.

“Alright, I’m lost, what are we talking about?” Anne asked, though she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.

“Wartwood hosts a potluck every year, and the mayor judges the dishes. The family with the best dish gets glory and a cash prize, and the family with the worst dish gets put in the Shame Cage all night.” Sprig sighed. “And our family loses every year .” He glared at Hop Pop.

“Wow, that’s messed up.” Anne said, not really sure what else to say.

“Exactly, so that’s why this year we’re not going to end up in that cage.” Hop Pop said, determined even as he vigorously stirred his abomination, causing it his hiss.

“Not with that you’re not,” Anne gagged. Hop Pop ceased his stirring to glare at her.

“And why not?”

“Because that thing is horrible , why not, I don’t know, just make pillbug pancakes? I like your pillbug pancakes.” She said, whining a little. She felt a little whining was justified, in this situation.

“ Because , tons of families are going to be bringing stuff like that. You’ll never win unless you stand out.” Hop Pop rolled his eyes.

“Okay, yeah, but you’re gonna be standing out in a bad way with this,” Anne gestured to the putrid slop he was making.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” He insisted, “This is a recipe from our family’s heirloom recipe book. It’s been passed down for generations, tried and true.”

“Tried and false ,” Polly gagged.

“Yeah…” Sprig took a step back. “I’ve never seen anything good come from that book.”

“Wha- kids! Do you have no respect for your family history?”

“Alright,” Anne smirked. “Try it then.”

“What?” Hop Pop blinked at her.

“If it’s going to win, it has to be good. Go on, do a taste test.” She nodded at his concoction.

Hop Pop glanced at it, before glaring at Anne. Confidently, he stuck his spoon into the pot, and shoved what he’d fished out into his mouth. He stayed strong for a moment, before gagging, and spitting the spoonful out all over the floor.

“...Alright, you may have a point.” He conceded reluctantly.

“Throw it out, burn it.” Polly hissed.

“So if we’re not doing that, then what are we doing? It’s not like we can just not enter,” Sprig shrugged, backing toward the door. Anne and the rest followed him out into the living room, where the smell was a little more bearable.

“I have an idea, what if we made a dish from my… hometown?” Anne suggested, fishing her phone out of her pocket. She flipped through her camera reel, searching for a picture she knew she had.

Hop Pop considered it for a second, before nodding slowly. Sprig lit up, waving his hands excitedly. Polly rolled her eyes… until Anne flipped her phone around to show them the picture.

“Woah… what is that? ” Polly breathed, stars in her eyes.

“This, my friend, is pizza .” Anne puffed up her chest. She, Marcy, and Sasha had decided to make some homemade pizza at a sleepover once, and she still had the pictures of the final product.

“Woah… colorful! ” Sprig grinned.

“I don’t know what it is but I love it! ” Polly hopped forward to get a better look. Anne withdrew the phone before she could touch it.

“Yep, and I know how to make it! All we need is some dough, some cheese, and some tomato sauce! Maybe some basil too.” Anne said, flicking through to find a picture of their ingredient set up before they’d baked the pizza.

“We should be able to find most of that in town!” Sprig said, hopping up and down.

“The Flour family should have dough,” Polly mused.

“And Mrs. Croaker should have cheese!”

“Hang on one minute kids,” Hop Pop huffed, muffling their excitement. “On a normal day we’d be able to find these things just fine… except for tomatoes, but today is potluck day. People will be very protective of their ingredients.”

Anne watched Sprig and Polly wilt, and furrowed her brow, confused. Would it really be that hard to find the stuff to make some pizza?

“Wait, what did you mean ‘except for tomatoes’?” She asked.

“Oh yeah, I’ve never actually seen one. No one in town sells them,” Sprig said. “I wonder why that is…”

“It’s because they’re dangerous,” Hop Pop sighed. “Nothing I can’t handle, but I worry about you kids.”

“But, theoretically, we should be able to get everything?” Anne asked.

“Theoretically, yes.” Hop Pop nodded, reigniting Sprig and Polly’s spirit.

“We’re gonna eat pizza!” Sprig cheered, leaping into the air.

“Pizza dreams!” Polly screamed, following suit.

“Wait- I didn’t say-” Hop Pop tried, but he was too late to stop the enthusiasm.

“PIZZA DREAMS!” Anne jumped after the others, drowning out Hop Pop’s concern.

She was going to get some pizza, even if it killed her.

[break]

Sprig walked along with more bounce in his step than usual. For once, they had a chance, an actual chance at escaping the shame cage! That stupid thing had overshadowed potluck day every year since Sprig was a pollywog. The family in the shame cage never got to try the other dishes after all, so in the end every potluck day was nothing but misery for them.

Not this time though! Thanks to Anne, they had a fighting chance. Even if they didn’t win, they probably wouldn’t lose, so he’d finally be able to enjoy the holiday like everyone else. Ivy had told him stories of the winning dishes, they sounded so good…

Really though, the dish Sprig was most excited to try was Anne’s pizza. The more she told him about the city she came from, the more he grew enchanted with it. It was so new, so different, and he couldn’t wait to try their cuisine. Pizza… What a strange word. He loved it.

“Alright, the first stop is the Flour household, where we’ll pick up some dough.” Sprig read off the handy list he’d drawn up based off of Anne’s ingredients.

“Hmmm, yes.” Hop Pop said, face scrunched up in displeasure.

“What’s wrong? I thought everyone was on board with this?” Anne stopped, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, it’s not that Anne, it’s the Flour family. They’ve always been, well…” He trailed off. Sprig frowned, trying to figure out what he was talking about. He wasn’t very well acquainted with the family, but he hadn’t heard anything bad about them.

“Whatever. We gotta get our dough.” Anne nodded.

“Pizza dreams!” Polly cheered enthusiastically.

The Flour family bakery came into view in no time, and Sprig strolled inside without hesitation. He paused when he crossed the threshold though, a deep chill running down his spine. What in the world…

“Oof!” Anne grunted, crashing into him in the doorway.

“Oh! Sorry!” He walked forward a little, making room for the rest of the family to enter.

“Hello Mr. Flour, we’re here to order a medium dough lump.” Hop Pop said, walking right up to the counter. A very intimidating blue and purple frog glared down at him, before slamming a piece of dough on the counter, and leaping on top of it to stomp it beyond what Sprig thought was necessary, before throwing it into the oven rather violently. He shivered, if the guy was trying to be scary, he’d succeeded.

“If you want the dough, the boy has to marry my daughter.” The man said, voice deeper than Sprig had thought possible.

What.

Sprig followed where the frog was pointing, to a dark corner in the far end of the shop. A froglet stood there, her skin a shiny, pale blue. She had pastel pink hair that completely covered one of her luminous yellow eyes. She was holding a doll of a suspiciously familiar pink frog, which, as he was watching, she grinned and impaled it with a wooden spike.

Suddenly, he remembered who the Flour family was.

He hadn’t thought about her in a long time, since the school had been destroyed, but he knew that girl. That was Maddie, an old classmate of his, and by far the scariest person he knew. A few years back there had been rumors flying around about the Flour family, about their daughter being a dark witch. Having known her, Sprig would say the rumors were pretty well founded.

Maddie was a social outcast, just like him, so he’d tried to hang out with her once. She’d spent the entire time staring intently into his soul, mumbling really scary stuff under her breath. He wasn’t afraid to admit that he’d straight up run away. Did she hold a grudge? Was she mad at him for ditching her? Oh guardian he was going to die.

Did her dad say he wanted Sprig to marry her?? Like, marriage?!

He caught Anne’s eye, her pleading gaze. Polly too, was putting on her best caterpillar eyes. They… really wanted this. To be honest, Sprig wanted it too. Badly. But the question was, how badly?

“Well, that’s that I suppose, come on kids let’s go home and try something else.” Hop Pop said, putting his hands on Anne and Sprig’s shoulders.

“I’ll do it.”

“What?” Anne blinked at him.

“I said I’ll do it. If I marry Maddie, we get the dough, right?” Sprig asked Mr. Flour.

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll do it. You guys want the pizza, right?” He said, looking at Anne and Polly.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you, brother,” Polly smirked.

“Wow. That’s really cool of you, dude.” Anne grinned at him.

“I mean, maybe it’ll be fine anyway, we could learn to WOAH-” Sprig said. He’d been trying to reassure himself, but before he could finish his thought he caught sight of Maddie… right next to him.

“I’ve seen your death in my mind.” She said, unblinking.

“Oh, uh, I was hoping it’d be a surprise…” he said, shoving down how insanely creeped out he felt.

“It will be.” She said, sending another of those chills down his spine.

“Um.”

“The blue one knows the answer. Leave the ingredients at home.” She nodded at him, before backing away into the shadows again.

“Uhhhh-”

“Congrats on your new son! C’mon, let’s go,” Anne said, waving at Mr. Flour before grabbing the dough and dragging Sprig out the door. As he crossed the threshold he felt that strange chill again.

Weird .

Chapter Text

“Man Hop Pop, you were not kidding when you said it would be hard to get ingredients today,” Anne huffed, letting herself fall to her knees as she passed their hard earned basil to Sprig.

“The people in this town can be shrewd when they want to be,” Hop Pop grumbled, rolling their new cheese wheel in his hands.

“You can say that again!” Polly whined, “I almost got munched by those cowterpillars!”

“It’ll all be worth it for Pizza,” Anne repeated to herself. She’d been saying it all day, and she suspected that some of its truth had worn off.

“For Pizza!” Polly yelled, making Sprig cover his ears. At least she was still so enthusiastic about all this.

“Alright Anne, what’s next?” Sprig sighed, putting the last of their ingredients in a bag.

“Just tomatoes,” Anne nodded, handing him her list.

“Oh cool, I’ve never had one,” Sprig said, seeming to regain some energy.

“Hmmm. Tomatoes.” Hop Pop said, frowning. “There’s a reason for that.”

“Oh yeah, you mentioned something about that earlier, didn’t you?” Anne cocked her head at him.

“Yes. Tomatoes are dangerous vegetables, no common frog wants to risk their life to get them, I did once or twice in my youth. They’re good, but not quite worth it.” Hop Pop shook his head.

“Well, maybe tomatoes alone aren’t worth it, but pizza is worth anything ,” Anne rolled her eyes. It was just tomato plants, how was that considered dangerous? Sasha’s mom had grown a garden a few years back for some sort of grow-your-own-diet fad, and tomatoes had been a part of that. They might have weirdly fuzzy vines, but they weren’t dangerous .

“Hmmmm…” Hop Pop looked away, gaining a pensive look. It was a look Anne had seen a lot on him, though she could never quite tell what he was thinking about. “Alright. I have a cartograph index book back at the house, it should have a map on how to get to the tomatoes,” He sighed, running a hand through what little hair he had.

“YES!” Polly yelled, hopping in her bucket.

“Oh good, I was hoping we were heading back to the house,” Sprig said, getting to his feet and slinging the bag over one of his shoulders.

“Oh?” Anne raised an eyebrow at him.

“Just taking some advice, nothing big.” He shrugged.

“Okay, whatever you say.”

[break]

Hopediah ran his fingers over the spines of his books, muttering under his breath as he searched for the right one. It was a book he’d been gifted years and years ago, full of various maps of the valley for various purposes. He slid the book off the shelf, and carefully flipped to the page he was looking for- a traveler’s guide to life threatening flora.

The tomato plant they were looking for was inked on the page in bright red. He sighed, pulled a spare page of parchment out of his desk, and traced an approximation of the map. The things he’d do for those kids.

He himself had gone after tomatoes only twice in his life, and had regretted it both times. Tomatoes weren’t even that good - even if some frogs would pay ludicrous amounts for them. He just didn’t get it, and if Hop Pop didn’t understand the appeal of a vegetable, he wouldn’t grow it- or search after it.

“Here y’ go kids, I got your map,” Hop Pop said, stepping out into the living room. All three pairs of eyes in the room lit up, and they all bounded over to him to get a look.

“Oooh, fancy!” Sprig said, tracing a finger along the paper. Hop Pop smacked his hand away, rolling up the map and sticking it in his jacket.

“Does everyone have everything they need?” He asked, staring at each of them in turn. They all nodded. “Alright then, we should be ready to head out,”

The journey itself wasn’t actually that bad- though there weren’t many established paths to go on. Hop Pop noticed that Anne was having the most trouble out of any of them though, worse even than Polly. He supposed she must not be used to this sort of rough terrain, being from a big city. Still, she’d need to get a little more hop in her step if she wanted to survive out here.

He was worried about that froglet.

In almost no time at all, the trees let up, and they exited the woods out into a rather significant clearing. In the middle of that clearing was…

“Holy-”

“Tomato.” Anne muttered, staring up at their target with wide eyes.

Even Hop Pop was surprised. Yes, he’d seen this tomato plant before, but that was decades ago. Apparently, plants grew over time. As a farmer, he really should have been expecting this.

The thing was huge , with three bulbous red maws, and sharp calcified teeth sticking out in strange directions. The stems were writhing and mottled, in a sickly dark purple color, and the base was just as bulbous as those terrible mouths. So this was a mature tomato plant. He hadn’t been aware that the one that had nearly taken his arms off years ago had just been a juvenile. It looked like it had been eating well over the past years.

As they watched, a dragonfly tried to fly overhead. The center maw flashed out, swallowing it whole faster than Hop Pop’s old eyes could track.

“Y-y’know, there are a lot of good recipes in my book, all of which are delightfully harmless…” Hop Pop said, backing away a little.

“What happened to ‘I could handle it, but I worry about you kids’?” Sprig quoted, though he too was backing away.

“But- Pizza! ” Polly whined from her place in Hop Pop’s arms.

“We can… we can… ” Anne said, obviously trying to figure out a plan of action. She hadn’t moved. “I can’t give up here! ” She keened, and Hop Pop caught sight of her eyes… and of the emotions filling them.

He paused- for just a moment too long.

He felt something wrap around his ankle, and before he knew it, he was being flung into the air. He gritted his teeth as the world spun, and wind filled his ears. If he didn’t get his bearings yesterday , he was dead meat. He fell- right into the plant’s maw.

He managed to splay all of his limbs out, and stop his own fall half way down its throat. That was, of course, before his three grandkids came crashing down on top of him. They luckily had the same idea though, so they managed to slow to a stop just before plummeting into the pool of rancid acid this thing had for a stomach.

They all took a moment to catch their breaths- made a little harder by the fumes from the acid.

Alright- what now??

“Well- at least the ingredients are safe?” Anne laughed anxiously- just in time for the bag containing the fruits of their labors to slip into the acid. “NO! No no no no! Everything we worked for…”

“Um-” Sprig tried to say, but Anne cut him off.

“I’m- I’m so sorry, guys. If I hadn’t gotten carried away with this whole pizza thing, we wouldn’t be…. Here.” Hop Pop felt her tense and start to shake next to him. He sighed.

“I think we all got carried away, Anne. I should have put my foot down the first time I heard that this recipe included tomatoes, really.” If he could, he would have given her a hug.

“Hey, yeah, why did you agree to this? If you knew tomatoes were like this?” Sprig asked.

“I… Well, Anne just wanted to help us, and I just wanted to help her. Anne, you’ve been homesick lately, haven’t you?” Hop Pop said. Anne stiffened.

“I… guess so, yeah…” She said, softly.

“I thought that making something from home would make you feel better. Goodness knows, the best cure for an aching heart is a good home cooked meal,” He smiled, even though he knew she couldn’t see.

She’d been doing her best to hide her suffering from them, but Hop Pop had been a parent to small children multiple times over. He could tell when a froglet was feeling down.

“I don’t blame you for this Anne, though maybe we should all be a little more cautious in the future.” He said.

“Agreed!” Sprig and Anne chorused back.

“Y’know, if we have a future. Not looking too likely at the moment,” Polly said.

Ah yes, their imminent doom.

“Hey Anne, don’t have any sort of weird city knowledge that could help here? Anything at all?” Sprig said.

“...Actually, I do!” Anne said, voice giddy.

“What?” Hop Pop asked.

“My friend’s mom once grew tomato plants, it was only like, for a single year, but I remember something she said!” Anne shifted, as if she was trying to move closer to the walls of the throat.

“Your friend’s mom grew tomato plants?” Hop Pop raised an eyebrow.

“She said the fruit is what everyone eats, but the stems are technically edible too!” Anne continued, ignoring him.

“We can eat our way out!” Sprig summarized.

“Tomato throat better taste good .” Polly huffed.

[break]

As it turned out, raw tomato stems tasted great in this world. Anne had tried a bit on Earth, and hadn’t really liked it. Here though? This stuff would be great in a salad, really take it to the next level. She wished she could take some home to her mom, she just knew she’d have tons of ideas on how to use it to its fullest potential.

…She really missed her mom. Maybe Hop Pop had a point about her being homesick.

“Know your place, plant!” Polly roared, spitting on the monstrous tomato plant’s remains. Yeah, tomatoes in this place were nothing like they were back home. No wonder the frog’s cuisine was like it was, if all the best veggies attacked them like this. Oh, and all their meat was made of bugs. That too.

Anne stared at the felled giant, the plant that had tried to eat them lay dead in its own delicious fluids. This had been such a weird day.

“I’m sorry guys,” She sighed, finding herself apologizing again. Hop Pop had said that he didn’t blame her, but in the end it really was her fault. Man, first the snake at the lake, and now this . She kept getting this family eaten, huh. “I’m so sorry we went through all that effort for nothing .”

Yeah, that was the real kicker. The tomato’s stomach acid had dissolved their other ingredients. They’d fought giant aphids, and cowterpillars, and tomatoes, and Sprig had even gotten engaged, all with nothing to show for it.

“Oh, Anne. The most important thing is that we’re all alive,” Hop Pop said, patting her on the shoulder. “Maybe we can try to make one of your city’s dishes another day… maybe one that’s more accessible.”

“Yeah…”

“I wanted PIZZA!” Polly yelled, dramatically flopping into the tomato juice.

“Actually…” Sprig said, a grin splitting across his face, “We can still make the pizza, today! No problem!”

Anne blinked at him, confused. She’d seen the ingredients bag fall, watched it sizzle away into nothing. There was no way they could get more basil, cheese, and dough in time. What was he talking about?

“Maddie warned me, back at the bakery, remember? She told me to leave the ingredients at home. I figured there was no harm in doing that, so…”

“SPRIG! Oh my gosh Sprig!” Anne laughed, grabbing Sprig’s hands in hers and jumping in place in excitement. He started laughing too, and they both tripped into the tomato carcass.

“We can have Pizza?!” Polly said, wonder in her voice.

“If we hurry home and make it right now , then, yeah!” Anne said.

“Sprig, did you really take advice from a witch?” Hop Pop sighed.

“Hey! It saved our skins in this case! Plus, she’s also the one who told me to ask Anne for help, and she’s the one who knew how to get out of the tomato plant!” Sprig said. “Also Maddie is kinda my fiance now, so you should be nice to her.” Hop Pop nodded, grumbling.

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go make some PIZZA!” Polly shouted, hopping out of her bucket slightly.

“C’mon!” Anne said, bounding off back into the woods. Sprig ran along ahead of her, guiding the way back to the Plantar farm. She still struggled with the graceful movements that the other frogs were making, but she still thought she was making progress.

The Plantar kitchen was a bit of a mess, but Anne made do. Just as promised, their precious ingredients were all laid out on the table when they got back. Hop Pop added their prize tomatoes to the pile, and Anne got to work.

She fell into the process of cooking like almost never before, delegating tasks and doing her own work. It was so familiar, and so foreign at the same time… but not in a bad way.

Sprig was constantly making jokes, and insisting Anne teach him how to spin the dough. Polly was complaining, but took to mashing the tomatoes for the sauce with fervent passion. Hop Pop hummed as he worked, grating the cheese into easy to work with shreds. It was nothing like cooking with her mom and dad back home, or even cooking with Marcy and Sasha, but it was still wonderful in its own brand new way.

In what felt like no time at all, the delectable smell of melting cheese and baking dough filled the house, chasing away the last odors of Hop Pop’s culinary misadventure. She breathed it in, and sighed in a sort of contentment she hadn’t felt since she’d gotten here.

Sitting here in front of the oven with people she found she really did care about, surrounded by warm smells… she could actually say that she was comfortable. It was so nice, she barely had the words.

“I... think it’s done!” Anne declared, opening the oven and sliding out their prize. A perfect pizza.

“Woah…” Polly breathed.

“The colors in the picture are real!!” Sprig said.

“Just in time, too. The potluck is about to begin!” Hop Pop said firmly, making all three of them sit at attention. Here’s hoping the rest of the town liked their efforts as much as she did…

Anne hadn’t spent much time in town, almost none before that day, really, so seeing the entire town assembled for the potluck was… a little overwhelming. She’d gotten used to seeing the Plantar’s froggy faces, but seeing others, and the diversity amongst them, was so, so odd. Several of them looked absolutely disgusting to Anne’s human sensibilities, but she shoved those feelings down. Do Not let anyone know that you hate their oozing warts. Those feelings might not be normal here.

They got their pizza set up on the far side of the potluck, in an attempt to avoid stares. It didn’t really work. Various frogs kept coming over to razz Hop Pop about his terrible cooking, looking at their dish with suspicious eyes once they realized that it actually smelled good . Anne herself also got several stares. That was fair, she was as new as the pizza was. Didn’t mean she had to like it, though.

A huge, portly toad came around the tables, tasting the dishes one by one. He was the mayor, according to Sprig. Anne held her breath as he got close, but despite her anxiety, she puffed out her chest and stood by her pizza with pride.

“Last but not least is-! The Plantars.” The mayor said when he got to them, visibly deflating in disappointment when he saw who they were. “What sort of filth have you- who’s this?” He said, setting his eyes on Anne. She stood tall, refusing to wither under his hard gaze.

“This is Anne, a wanderer I’ve taken in.” Hop Pop said, and Anne thought she heard a note of anxiety in his voice, too.

“A wanderer? Well, good for you I suppose.” The mayor said, sounding rather disinterested. “Though if you’re serious about taking her in, you’ll need to come down to city hall and register her soon. Tax season is coming up.”

“Ehe… so it is…” Hop Pop rubbed the back of his head.

“Anyway, I suppose I’ve got to taste whatever you’ve raised from the dead this time.” The mayor said, his lip curling in disgust. Anne gulped, stepping forward to cut him a slice. He eyes it suspiciously, before taking a bite.

His eyes went wide. He took another, and another, and in barely a second or two the entire slice was gone . He looked around, as if embarrassed. He cleared his throat, wiping his greasy hand on his pants.

“W-well, I do declare! This is the best dish that the Plantar family has ever brought to a Potluck!” he said, voice loud enough for the whole gathering to hear. Whispers spread through the crowd, and Anne saw many curious glances pointed their way.

“No way, did we do it? Did we actually win??” Sprig said, bouncing in excitement. The mayor’s eye twitched.

“What? Of course not- the winner is, um…” He glanced around wildly, and Anne got the feeling that he just hated the idea of giving them the win. She wasn’t sure she liked him much. “The Flour Family! For their stupendous chocopede delights! Yes, that’s the winner. Ehem, now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go… pick a loser.” He said, before hurrying off.

“Oh my gosh… oh my gosh! We didn’t lose!” Sprig squealed

“We… we really didn’t…” Hop Pop said, sounding as if he was in shock.

“Cool cool, now gimme a slice of pizza! ” Polly said. Anne laughed, cutting her a piece of their hard earned prize.

“That’s the magic of pizza for you!” She grinned.

“It’s… it is magical!” Polly said, looking so very moved by the very act of taking a bite.

“Let me taste!” Sprig reached over, grabbing a slice. Anne grabbed one as well, before passing another to Hop Pop.

There was nothing better than eating food you made with your own hands, in the company of people you love.

Chapter Text

“Family meeting!” Hop Pop’s voice drifted through the thick wooden trapdoor that separated Anne’s basement from the rest of the house. She and Sprig both looked up, accidentally knocking a few pieces of their game over.

Sprig had been showing her a classic Amphibia board game called ‘bog jump’. It was simple, but fun. He’d been a little confused as to how she’d never heard of it before, but then he’d rationalized it to himself anyway, so she hadn’t needed to make up an excuse.

“Family meeting? What do you think he wants?” Sprig asked, raising an eyebrow. Or, well- it looked like he was raising an eyebrow. Frogs didn’t have eyebrows, she’d discovered, despite having hair on their heads.

“Don’t ask me dude, you have been here a lot longer than I have,” Anne shrugged, getting to her feet.

“Fair point,”

Polly had already made it to the living room in the time it took them to clean up their game and climb out of the basement. She looked bored, and Hop Pop looked serious, but not upset. That was a good sign. Though, she wasn’t sure she liked how good she was getting at evaluating the facial expressions of frogs.

“Hey HP, what’s up?”

“Don’t call me HP,” Hop Pop sighed, putting a hand to his temple. “I just need to talk to everyone, that’s all,”

“Okay…” Sprig said, slowly edging onto the couch. Anne stayed where she was. She had the sneaking suspicion that this was about her.

“The other day at the potluck, the mayor reminded me that tax season is coming up,” Hop Pop started.

“So?” Polly groaned. “It’s not like you ever forget anyway,”

“Yeah, you’re… meticulous about your taxes,” Sprig shuddered.

“Well, yes, that’s exactly why we have to have this talk. It’s illegal when, come tax season, you don’t declare any dependents you may have,” Hop Pop said. “Anne, you would be considered a dependant of mine, but you’re not registered as a citizen of wartwood at city hall yet,”

“So then I guess I’ve got to get registered, right?” Anne put her hands in the pockets of her borrowed jacket. It felt like he was leading up to something…

“Yes but- you can’t register a youth without a guardian,” He looked up, meeting her eyes. She bit her lip, and clenched her hands into fists inside her pockets, feeling her heart beat like a drum. “Anne, I know you haven’t lived here very long, and we all know how much you want to go home, but- we do care about you a lot, and-”

“I can’t believe I’m getting adopted for tax reasons ,” Anne laughed, cutting him off.

“NO,” Polly said.

“So then, you're alright with it?” Hop Pop asked, a weight seeming to slip off his shoulders.

“I’m not!!” Polly tried again.

“I mean….” Anne trailed off, ignoring Polly. “I do really like you guys- you’ve done so much for me, the least I could do is give you some tax benefits,”

“Oh my gosh! Anne! You’re gonna be my sister!” Sprig squealed, looking like he was on the brink of launching himself into the ceiling.

“You already have a sister! You don’t need another one!” Polly whined.

“I’ll make you a pizza if you stop complaining,” Anne smirked at her, and she paused.

“I’ll allow it,” She relented.

“Alright… alright. Everyone’s on the same page, right? We’re formally adopting Anne,” Hop Pop said, to clarify.

Anne felt a shiver go up her spine. Never, not in a million years had she thought that she would ever get adopted . A part of her hated it, felt like it was a betrayal to her parents that she definitely still had… somewhere out there. On the other hand, she did really like the Plantars, and it wasn’t like anything would change anyway, it was just a piece of paper in an official building.

A piece of paper that said that she was part of this family.

She was surprised at how warm the thought felt.

“Well, that’s settled then. Anne, we need to go to city hall today to get that all sorted out,” Hop Pop nodded at her, and she nodded back, ignoring Polly as she rolled her eyes.

“Great! Polly and I will watch the farm!” Sprig grinned.

“Absolutely not,” Hop Pop leveled him with a glare. “You do remember the last time I left you without a responsible adult, right?” Purple scales flashed by in Anne’s mind, and she flinched. Still her fault.

“Fair point,” Sprig conceded, his enthusiasm dimming a bit.

“So take Sprig with you and leave me home alone!” Polly tried.

“Nope. I have another idea,”

[break]

“No no no Hop Pop you cannot be serious!” Sprig keened, staring at the foreboding sign coming up down the road.

“What else am I supposed to do? I can’t leave you home, and I know you’d get bored to the point of destruction if I took you with me to town hall!” Hop Pop shot back, though without taking his eyes away from his driving.

“You do get bored easily,” Anne agreed. Well, yeah, Sprig could admit that, but this felt like a bit much.

“If you were gonna leave us with a babysitter, couldn’t you have left us with the Sundews, or something?” Sprig sighed, flopping back into the seat and half squishing Anne behind him.

“Yeah! I like Ivy!” Polly joined in his whining.

“First of all, I know the trouble you and Ivy Sundew can get into. That’s a no-go. Second of all, wasn’t it you that told me to respect the Flour family?” Hop Pop raised an eyebrow at them.

“I told you to be nice to Maddie, not leave us in the clutches of their family! ” Sprig pulled his hat down over his face.

Hop Pop was taking Anne to go get adopted, and was leaving Sprig and Polly with the Flour family for the day. It wasn’t actually as bad as Sprig was making it out to be, but it was bad enough that he knew the day wasn’t going to be enjoyable.

They came to an easy stop outside the Flour Family bakery, Bessie purring in satisfaction with her job well done. Sprig groaned to himself, clutching his hat to his face. This was going to be a nightmare.

“Dude, c’mon, what’s got you so wound up?” Anne asked him as Hop Pop hopped off the saddle to go knock on the door. Sprig sighed, and released the death grip he had on his hat.

“Well it’s just- Maddie and I tried to hang out once, and it… didn’t go to plan. She’s really creepy , Anne,” Sprig bit his lip, glancing at the bakery.

“I’ll… give you that, sure, but you were the one who agreed to marry her, right? You may as well at least try to get to know her before running for the hills,” Anne smirked at him

“You…. have a point,” He conceded, tugging at his hat again.

“Also you have to give me all the details when I get back- and if there are no details, I will be very disappointed!” She grinned, sounding genuinely excited. Sprig figured that she should maybe be more excited about getting adopted than Sprig being babysat by the creepy baker family, but hey, they were her priorities, not his.

“Hiiiiii Spriiiiig!”

Sprig jumped, very nearly falling out of Bessie’s saddle. Below, on the ground next to them, was a very familiar froglet, grinning toothily up at them, her eyes wide and fixed on his own.

“Uh, Hi Maddie,” Sprig did his best to smile back at her, but he knew the moment he tried that it was shaky at best.

“Good luck dude,” Anne grinned, and then shoved him out of the saddle.

He picked himself up in record time, light adrenaline beginning to hum in his veins as he found himself face to face with Maddie; their eyes inches apart. A second passed in silence like that, before she blinked, and slowly backed away, finally breaking eye contact. He blinked back at her, and he could hear Anne’s muffled laughter from above him.

“Well, I’m trusting ya to keep an eye on them!” Sprig looked up, seeing Hop Pop back in the saddle, and waving farewell to Mr. Flour. He glanced over to Anne, and saw her with one hand half covering a big grin, and the other enthusiastically waving at him. He managed to wave back, and then they were gone down the road.

“Alright, inside. I have a lot of baking to do today, so I can’t watch you the whole time. Your Hop Pop says that you’re banned from the kitchen-” Mr. Flour started, eyeing Sprig. “So you’ll have to stay upstairs. We clear?”

“Fine,” Polly grumbled, already edging her bucket closer to the house.

“Uh-” Sprig tried.

“We’re going into the woods for ingredients,” Maddie volunteered suddenly, cutting him off.

“Oh? Alright then, as long as both of you come back in one piece,” Mr. Flour rumbled, exchanging a glance with Maddie. She nodded at him, deadly serious. Sprig gulped. He had no idea what that was about.

“Um-” Sprig tried again, but before he could get a single word out, Maddie grabbed his hand, spinning him around and dragging him off into the woods. His aborted sentence turned into a yell as he scrambled for purchase against the slick mud and grass- but it was no use, Maddie was going too fast.

As much as it felt like an eternity, Sprig knew it couldn’t have been more than a few moments before they stopped. He overbalanced from the change, and face planted in the dirt. He pushed himself onto his palms, spitting out a clod or two. All in all, not the worst mud he’d ever tasted.

“...Sorry about that,” Maddie mumbled, and Sprig sat up on his knees, turning to face her. She avoided his gaze, instead staring intently at some sort of large pot set up in the middle of the little clearing they were in. “Any longer and my sisters would have found us, and wrapped us up in some stupid game,”

“Oh, uh, okay,” Sprig swallowed.

“I wanted to uh, to show you… some stuff,” She mumbled, shuffling across the clearing. The space was tidy, and apparently well used, with what looked like a work station set up at the far end, that odd pot set firmly in the center.

“O-okay,” Sprig replied, hopping to his feet. He didn’t follow her, not yet.

“Um,” Maddie paused, furrowing her brow and avoiding his gaze. “A lot of people think that magic is nothing but… bad news,” She said, talking more to her cauldron than to him. “It’s not, though, I wanted to show you.”

Sprig blinked at her. So, were the rumors true then? She was a witch? He honestly didn’t know much about magic, but… looking at the froglet in front of him, it was honestly hard to imagine her as evil . Right now she looked more awkward and abashed than anything.

Anne’s words came back to him, you might as well try and get to know her before running for the hills . He sighed. She was right. He could give this a chance. He shrugged to himself, before trotting over to join her by the pot. She blinked at him for a second as if surprised, before shaking her head.

“I’ve been working on this for a day or two,” She said, her voice sounding slightly hesitant. “It uh- I think you might like it,” She glanced at him, fixing him with her intense gaze for a second before she refocused back on the pot. She took a ladle from one of her working surfaces, and carefully dipped it into the swirling concoction inside. She withdrew it gently, before spilling the contents in a wide arc all over the clearing.

Sprig ducked, though she hadn’t been aiming at him. Where the liquid hit the ground, the dirt shifted, and a moment later sprouts pushed their way through the topsoil. Sprig’s eyes blew wide as he watched the little plants grow, as if time was moving so much faster for them than it was for the froglets. They reached up and up toward the sky, leaves splitting off their sides, and bulbous buds forming at their tips. In moments, the entire clearing was full of glittering, colorful blossoms.

“This specific blend is just for flowers, but if I could tweak it to help grow edible vegetables, I might just be able to do something really good for wartwood, and all the farmers who’ve been having bad harvests lately,” Maddie said, her voice gaining more strength as she talked. Sprig barely heard her, still transfixed by the shining flower field she’d just summoned into the glade.

“Woah… that’s actually really cool, Maddie,” he breathed, crouching down to snap one of the stems, holding the bright blue blossom up to the sunlight filtering through the trees. It was just the color of Anne’s bright skin, he’d never seen a flower that shade before.

“Th-thanks,” She said, her voice going slightly shaky. “I’ve uh, I’ve been working on it.”

When he looked back at her, she was staring into his soul again, her eyes as wide as the saucers Ivy’s mom used in her shop. He jumped, nearly dropping the blossom. She blinked, before looking down to stare at the ground instead.

“Why do you do that?” Sprig asked, before he could stop himself. His free hand slapped his mouth, and he cursed his filter-less brain.

“My dad… told me it might help,” She mumbled, crouching to pluck a flower of her own, one with pale pink petals, a few shades lighter than Sprig.

“What?” Sprig blinked.

“I’ve, uh, never been good at making friends… I’m sure you’ve noticed,” She sighed, plucking off a petal.

“Maaaybe,” He cringed. Yes, he’d noticed. Everyone had noticed.

“But, well, you never have been either,” She rolled her eyes, plucking off another petal. “So when you asked me to hang out with you a while back, it made me really happy…” She trailed off.

“Oh,” He rubbed his arm, watching as a third petal of her flower fell to the ground. He’d always felt bad about how that hang out had gone but… yeah.

“I was worried it wouldn’t go well, so I asked my dad for advice,” She plucked off a fourth petal. “He told me to make eye contact, and listen to what you had to say,” She shrugged. “It didn’t go well, but I guess that was my fault… Dad looked pretty exasperated afterwards, so I guess I did it wrong.”

“Y’know, a bit,” He winced, remembering how her endless stare had bored into his head, her silence chilling the air between them.

“Still,” A fifth petal was removed. “You were the only kid who ever gave me a chance.”

“I’m… really sorry I ditched you, that day,” Sprig sighed, rubbing the back of his head, the familiar texture of his hat comforting him. “I just… when you look at people that intensely , it’s… really creepy.”

“Yeah,” Maddie sighed, standing up and letting her bare flower fall from her fingertips. “Thanks, for giving me a second chance, when no one else would even give me a first,” She said, avoiding his gaze.

A small smile rose to his lips. She was still creepy, but… maybe that didn’t have to be a bad thing. Maybe he could try harder this time.

“Can you show me more of what you mentioned? The growth stuff?” He prompted, gesturing toward the still swirling pot.

“You actually want to hear about it?” She looked up, their gazes locking. For the first time, eye contact with her didn’t feel bad.

“Uh, yeah, if you want?” He blinked, and a wide, genuine grin split across her face.

“No one’s ever- I mean, yeah!”

[Break]

Anne’s feet dragged on the way back to the snail. It had been too many hours of paperwork. She wasn’t cut out for the paperwork life. She groaned, she felt sticky and gross, as if all the mucus covering her skin had congealed out of boredom. She needed a bath, or a swim, something .

“C’mon Anne, we need to go pick up Sprig and Polly before we go home,” Hop Pop called to her from where he was already sitting in the driver’s seat. She looked up at him, hoping he could see the exhaustion dripping from her bones. The old frog looked tired too, but he had a certain light around him, too.

She smiled a little to herself. He was still riding the high of signing all those papers, the ones that said that she was his granddaughter, legally . She had to admit, for as weird as that felt… It felt kind of nice too.

She still wanted a bath.

She heaved herself into the saddle, and mentally prepared herself for the long, boring ride home. The trees passed by in a blur as they moved, and even the emergence of early fire flies wasn’t enough to break her stupor. They pulled up in front of the same building they had that morning, and she perked up some when she saw Sprig running across the grass to them, holding his sister’s bucket under an arm.

“Anne!” He called, leaping into the saddle in one movement. She blinked at him, he seemed like he was in a good mood. A smirk broke across her face… and he’d been dreading this, too. She didn’t have to wonder what had changed his attitude for the better as she glanced over to see that pale blue froglet, Maddie, waving casually to them as they started to leave.

“I take it things went well?” Anne grinned at him.

“You were right, all I had to do was give her a real chance!” He grinned back, and call her crazy but she could have sworn she saw the hints of blush in his cheeks.

Ahhh, who needed TV when she had this?