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If you told Polly a week earlier that she wouldn’t really be the baby of her family anymore, she’d call you crazy.
But all that changed when Sprig brought a strange small creature into the Plantar House.
Sprig had apparently found her lost in the middle of a forest he was exploring. She was a dark-skinned, dark-brown haired, and warm-blooded creature who appeared to be an infant of her species, whatever it was. She wore a light blue leotard-like outfit with buttons on the spot between the legs before Sprig took it off her when he saw that she was starting to sweat in it.
The outfit had the name “Anne” written on it, which the creature responded to, making it clear it’s her name.
It was revealed that under the blue outfit, Anne was wearing a diaper, which kinda confused Polly since she never wore any even in her earliest days (her bucket kinda served a similar function though) and she thought only people much older than Hop-Pop wore them. However, when Sprig and Polly noticed some wetness in it, Sprig promptly took it off her as well and threw it away.
Which Polly figured was for the best, that diaper looked like it was made of some sort of paper-like substance and obviously wasn’t meant to be used more than once. This left Anne buck naked in Sprig’s arms as the latter brought the former to the bathroom and gave her a quick bath.
Polly was a little surprised with how much attention and effort Sprig was giving Anne in taking care of her, though she kinda gets some of it; Anne was more of a baby than she is and clearly not able to take care of herself in any capacity yet.
It was after Anne’s bath that Hop-Pop had come back from running the stall. When he saw Sprig cradling Anne in his arms while she was wrapped in a towel, Hop-Pop at first chided Sprig for bringing a wild animal into the house, but Sprig countered by stating that Anne’s sentient, something Polly even backed Sprig up on, which further surprised their grandpa. But then one thing happened that no one in the house was prepared for;
“Spwig!”
Anne had cheerfully said Sprig’s name without any sort of prompt, combining that with how she wore clothes, was intelligent enough to recognize her name, and even blushed upon acknowledging her own nudity, and any suspicion she was non sentient was blown out of the water.
Hop-Pop was dumbfoundedly silent upon staring at Anne at first, though when Sprig offered to let him hold her, Hop-Pop quietly accepted the offer and looked straight into the baby creature’s eyes. At that moment, he announced Anne was the newest family member.
Polly had never expected to gain a little sister, much less in such an unusual way, but this Anne emitted a strange aura of charm that seemed to have an effect on people. Polly herself was unsure if she was feeling that effect, but part of her did find the way the naked baby mammal often crawled or rolled around like a dork kinda adorable.
Sprig and Hop-Pop had set up a little playpen for Anne with some fencing to keep her away from anything she shouldn’t be getting into and the floors being covered with layer upon layers of newspaper to catch any BMs she drops. After HP noticed Anne was getting some sort of bottom rash he decided it was best to keep Anne in the buff for now, at least until he and Sprig finished making some new clothes and cloth diapers for her to wear. Frog Valley’s warm climate meant Anne wasn’t in any danger of getting cold and Hop-Pop figured for now that it’s better for her to be clean, comfortable, and rash-free then risk putting her in something dirty for modesty sake.
Polly herself also suddenly had a new responsibility in helping take care of her new mammal sister; as her playmate.
This usually entailed Polly having to allow Anne to pick her up and hug her tightly or wave her around like a plushie, stuff that Polly, to put it mildly, finds rather humiliating.
Anne’s embrace was pleasantly warm though, it left Polly wondering how different those hugs would be once they’re both older and bigger. Though the fact Anne was physically bigger than her despite obviously being younger did put a damper on the odds of Anne and Polly getting their positions reversed with Polly cradling Anne.
The idea that Anne likely will grow taller than Polly felt a little unfair to the tadpole, though she took some solace in how apparently her mammal sister was still far behind her in development in other areas, such as bodily functions and talking.
Polly also found it interesting that Anne, despite having legs, didn’t seem to know how to walk and instead crawled on all fours to get around. Polly wondered if Anne’s species was quadrupedal but only time would tell for certain.
Polly also couldn’t help but feel a little sad for the strange creature, Anne’s a different species far from her birth family with no way of knowing where they are or if they either abandoned or lost her uncontrollably. Yet the brown curly-haired mammal seemed completely oblivious to her own situation. The young tadpole wondered if Hop-Pop and Sprig had the same thoughts when they decided to take Anne in.
Probably, Polly thought.
One thing’s for certain, regardless of her shortcomings, Polly fully intends to do whatever she can to help take care of her newly adopted little sister.
Her warm-blooded, nude, ugly, messy, yet somehow amazingly charming and affectionate little sister.