Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Most days, Sharon loved her job as a helicopter reporter. It was a lot of fun to just sit in one of the choppers as it hovered over everything. But today was no normal day. When there was a bright flash and some flying castle surrounded by robots appeared out of nowhere, it stunned even her!

It didn’t take long for her to shake herself out of her stupor, though. As Kathy got her camera ready, Sharon grabbed her mic in order to report on it right away! But before she could say anything to the camera, a projection of some sort appeared at the front of the castle and began speaking. So all she really had to do was point the mic directly at the source.

As the projection clearly depicted some sort of blue alien confidently declaring war on humanity, the woman’s blood ran cold. He kept her arm steady as she continued to record the audio, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t looking elsewhere. And what she saw made her realize that by the end of this, she may very well be dying in this helicopter! The robots surrounding the castle looked far more advanced than anything on Earth and it was only a matter of time before they’d be deployed.

Before that happened though, two large egg-shaped things were shot out from the castle itself before smacking into the ground below. Kathy pointed the camera down at them on pure instinct while Sharon kept the mic pointed towards the castle. After only a couple of seconds, she was glad that she hadn’t pointed it at the eggs because they burst open to reveal two absolutely gigantic birds that screeched loud enough to make the woman’ ears ring even from there!

Before she truly had a chance to process what was going on, something else caught the corner of her eye. Just barely visible behind the castle, there appeared to be something else hovering around and interacting with a couple of the robots? It wasn’t long before said robots turned their aggression on whatever had caught her eye, so it had to be on their side, right?

Sharon prompted Kathy to turn the camera in the direction of what she was looking at and from there, her coworker got the helicopter pilot to actually go towards what she was looking at. And as they got closer, it became less and less believable. It almost looked like a swarm of bugs attacking the robots, but if she was seeing that level of detail from that far away, then they’d have to be way too big to be real… right?

But as they got closer and closer, that thought just kept on getting reinforced. And eventually, the swarm appeared to break off with a number of robots chasing them down as they went. Except for one, that was. And that one was headed straight for them!

“Brad, MOVE IT!!” Sharon called out to the pilot, but the thing that had been rushing at them got there too quickly and next thing the women knew, there was a massive orange fluffy thing in the chopper with them! They nearly panicked, but knew they’d need to have their deaths recorded and so kept everything up and ready. At least, until they heard an unfamiliar voice.

“Are you two humans okay?” The voice was masculine, but his use of the word ‘human’ indicated that he was also an alien. So the two stayed on their guard until they saw the source. A bright green… salamander? Poking his head out from the orange fluff around him. The clothing indicated his origin being some sort of medieval fantasy, which was so out of place from the robots that it genuinely stunned both of the women.

Normally, the two of them were professional enough to get out of their stupor right away, but then the orange thing started moving on its own and… meowing? As it readjusted and got itself to its feet, they stared in confusion as what looked like a giant moth with a cat head righted itself and stared at them like they were its next meal. The green one seemed to know what they were looking at, because he immediately tried to put their minds at ease.

“Don’t worry about old Sunny here, she’s harmless. And don’t worry, I have no ill will! In fact, I’m on your side!” He announced, startling both of them out of their stupor. And while Kathy got to work making sure this alien’s crash into their helicopter didn’t damage the camera, Sharon got to work questioning him.

“O-okay, who are you then?”

“My name is Tritonio and I am the leader of one of the three factions of The Resistance. You see, despite being from the same world as the rest of us, Andrias has practically destroyed our own world in order to invade yours. Many innocent lives have been taken, so the few of us who remained outside of his slave camps have rebelled. So far, we’ve been able to delay his invasion by a couple of months, but now it seems as though he has pushed through it all regardless!”

“I see. H-hang on just a moment. Kathy, everything good?” She made sure to cut Tritonio off so that he could save his explanation for the camera. And upon receiving a thumbs up from her coworker and seeing the camera being pointed at the green alien in front of them, she readied her mic and also pointed it in his direction.

“Okay, looks like we’re alright on our end. Sorry about being so freaked out, we’re going to get you on air right away here, just a second.” She stalled for the little light on the camera to come on. After a bit of a tense moment, it finally did and she switched into her work mode.

“Coming at you from one of our new helicopters, we’ve encountered someone very unique in all of this.” She turned to Tritonio “So, would you mind repeating what you just said so that everyone can understand?” And from there, the newt just started talking and spilling all of the details. And finally, the woman was able to actually take in what exactly she was looking at.

The moment that she noticed the facial hair on this amphibian though, it was all over for her focus. How in the- amphibians weren’t even supposed to be able to have any hair, right? She could be wrong, as she was no expert on the topic. But she was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be like that. Remembering back to that one blue one that had made the declaration of war, she realized that either he had a beard or her memory was getting faulty in all of this mess.

But as this salamander alien thing kept on talking and her brain kept on trying to rationalize the situation, she just couldn’t stop wondering how in the heck an amphibian could have a dang moustache of all things…

Chapter Text

Despite the fact that Marcy had gone over Dr. Jan’s textbook so many times, she kept on going back in order to make more and more comparisons between the cultures. This time, she was interested in comparing the textiles that either world created for their people. This was especially after hearing Anne’s account of some human clothing being warped when wet.

Obviously, this had a lot to do with the needs of the different societies at the time. Not to mention that there were multiple human cultures with different needs based on their locations. Some lived in hot and arid environments, so they needed something lightweight that would protect them from getting sunburnt. Some lived in climates where snow was a daily occurrence and so they had to prioritize taking advantage of their warm blooded bodies, like Marcy herself had to do when she and Anne travelled to The Second Temple way back when.

Regardless, there was one thing in common between the two worlds. Most of their clothing was made from either plant or animal sources. At first, she thought about incorporating some of the human level clothing into her own wardrobe, but she always came up short on how waterproof said clothing would be. After a thorough talk with Bernardo about the logistics, they actually came up with a solution!

All they really had to do was weave the different textile types together to make hybridized clothing! It was certainly more difficult than it sounded, but if anyone could do it, it’d be Bernardo. And so, Marcy offered him a grant if he could not only create this sort of stuff, but also find a practical application for it. She wasn’t surprised at all when he had returned the very next day with his first set.

When it came to making completely new sets, the newt liked to hire frogs to model for him simply because they were smaller and so there would be less waste if it turned out to not work as well. And so when Marcy saw this little green frog fully covered from head to toe in a thick off-white outfit that only showed their eyes, she got a little confused. Thankfully, Bernardo was quick to explain.

“I based this outfit off of what the book stated humans would wear in the most arid of environments. Originally, it was to protect their skin from UV rays, but this particular blend is actually designed to trap the moisture of an amphibian’s slime coat and prevent one from drying out in a similar environment. And in order to prevent one from boiling alive inside, it's baggy enough that it can catch cooler winds. I’m considering adding pockets in between layers that can hold some cold water or something of that nature.”

“Hmm… I can see how that would work. And if you were to put something like this underneath a metal armour set, it could help soldiers who need to patrol the hotter environments, like The Dry Swamp.”

“Exactly, your majesty! I do think there is room for improvement, but this is after only one day’s worth of work.”

“Of course. Few great things were built in a day, so I’m excited to see what else you’ll come up with.”

“Yes, I’m quite excited to work more with the new fabric formulas. Especially those unique leather binding techniques I read about, as those could make an amphibian smell enough like a predator that said predator might just leave them alone. That’s something I’ve been working on for a while, but I think that combining the two methods will make outfits like that simply last longer…”

Bernardo continued discussing various new methods with Marcy while Dan decided to see how well he could move around in this new outfit. Much like most of Bernardo’s early works, it was annoyingly difficult to move properly and even see with so much of their body covered. Hopefully he’d be able to redesign this one, as the texture of the fabric was surprisingly nice.

Maybe, if nothing else, fabrics like this could be used for children’s toys as a smooth and sleek stuffed toy fabric. That was if this venture failed, which Dan was pretty sure wouldn’t happen, given Bernardo’s persistence. So while they continued talking, he looked a little closer at the fabric itself and saw exactly what gave it that shiny off-white appearance from a distance. There was the usual undyed yellow fabric that came from the plantlife of Amphibia, specializing in water resistance, but it was literally being crossed with something he’d never seen before.

It didn’t take a genius to know that this was the exact human style fabric that her majesty had suggested incorporating in the first place. He remembered Bernardo saying something about it being made from some sort of plant that was usually kept for grain. Odd, but he wasn't against finding use for what was once considered useless!

Ultimately, Dan couldn’t wait to see what kind of impact this would have on the fashion (or even just textiles) industry!

Chapter Text

“This was an absolute disaster! While you were able to handle it in the short term, what of the long term implications of this?! If her loyalty wavers for even a moment due to the species difference, then what were the last eleven years for?”

“I know it may seem bad, but I know for a fact that Marcy is a rational girl and will listen to reason.”

“And how do you expect to explain everything to her without her loyalty faltering.”

“Simple. I won’t explain everything. Half truths are powerful tools when dealing with children. She knows very well that it’s normal for parents to keep some secrets from their children, what with reproductive knowledge being kept until they’re older. She even knows that many adopted children aren’t told about that fact until they’re older. All I have to do is play off of that normalized withholding of information.

“She’s been traumatized enough that she won’t hold anything against us for not telling her. All I have to do is say that I intended to tell her when she was older and she’ll buy it.”

“‘Us’?”

“You don’t honestly think she’d live her entire life without knowing that you exist, right? She had to learn eventually and I think we might be able to take advantage of her current mental state by introducing you as a way out of the pit she’s found herself in.”

“You’re suggesting that we have her mental state relying on us?”

“Just the promise that she may one day join you, whether we intend to keep it or not.”

“...”

“The promise alone will make her completely disregard her birth species because she’ll believe that she’ll become something far greater over time. And it will cement her loyalty by making her believe that we see her no differently for that.”

“Fool, she’s tied to the gem of wit. She will see right through you!”

“Actually, I’ve already set up our advantage when it comes to that.”

“Explain.”

“Throughout her entire life, I’ve had her prioritize her intelligence and thirst for knowledge. Whether that’s a default personality trait of hers or it’s granted by the gem of wit is unclear, but irrelevant. Regardless, upon being offered a level of knowledge on par with you, she will jump at the opportunity and disregard everything else. Especially seeing how much she trusts me. After all, I’ve spent more time actually interacting with her.”

“You think we haven’t been watching her this whole time? Even when you can not see her, we are still watching. Right now, she is crying to herself in her bed.”

“Exactly. Despite her intelligence, she’s still a young girl. Her emotions can supersede any suspicion she might have. You consistently scold me for understanding emotions better than you, but allow me to show you first hand the advantage my position holds.”

“You do not ‘understand emotions better than us’, you are simply more prone to allowing your emotions get the better of you.”

“If I was truly prone to that, then don’t you think I’d have devolved to a similar state as Marcy’s current one more often? With how often you feel anger towards me, you’re hardly one to talk.”

“You dare question us?!”

“All I’m saying is that I know how to manipulate this situation to our advantage, despite you not seeing a way through this. All you need to do is trust me and my plan. I know Marcy. I know what to say to her. And I know exactly what needs to be done from here on. I simply ask that you trust my plan.”

“Are you absolutely certain?”

“Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so adamant in my arguments.”

“You’re standing on thin ice, Andrias.”

“I am well aware. But I know how to navigate a minefield. You may see me as an idiot, but that’s only by comparison to yourself.”

“She beat you at Flipwart.”

“Yes, but I assure you that the ability to beat someone at a game does not equate to having more emotional stability. I still have the advantage here.”

“Very well. We will see how you handle this and where it goes. But there is one thing you must understand.”

“And that is?”

“Should you be wrong and Marcy’s convictions turn against us, she may never see the light of day again.”

“Yes, I expect that to be the response in that event. But I know what I’m doing, so those measures will be unnecessary.”

“For the sake of your own pathetic little emotions, you’d better be right.”

“Trust me, Core. Everything will go according to plan…”

Chapter Text

Figuring out how to slither around without being able to see was only the first of Anne’s problems. After Lysil and Angwin led her through the caves down to Proteus, she met with Parisia and got situated. Both of them had rehearsed this conversation in their own ways, leading to it going relatively smoothly. But talking was always the easiest part.

Stripped of her sight, Anne was left to rely mostly on scent and touch. If she were still human, then it’d be hearing first. But this was obviously one of the many ways that olms were different and she just had to get used to it. She also knew that their writing system used heat, so she’d been mentally preparing herself for that part.

In the meantime though, she slithered into Lysil’s and Angwin’s home that they’d apparently only been granted so that they could host her. It was spacious enough that she’d have her own room, which she was grateful for. And after a good meal of… some sort of meat, (she was guaranteed that despite the twins’ history, this meat was definitely not amphibian) she was led to her temporary room.

Upon entering, she could feel that the centre was empty. To her left was a collection of smooth stones with a trickle of water flowing over them. According to the twins, that was not only for adding humidity to the room, but it was also drinkable. And though they didn’t need to clarify that it wasn’t a private washroom area, Anne appreciated the attention to detail regardless.

On the right side of the room, there was a large flat area of some sort of squishy gel. Upon finding out that that was indeed the bed, she began to remember when her human parents took her shopping to get a mattress and she was introduced to the concept of a water bed. She’d decided against one at the time, but if something similar was the standard in Proteus, then she wasn’t about to argue. Given her new size, it was far more comfortable than she’d originally expected.

Finally, the middle of the back of the room sported not only a relatively small storage cabinet, (she guessed that her human form would be able to fit her whole body inside) but also a permanently open window meant for her to slither out of whenever she wanted. Apparently, they didn’t get any pests down there that would warrant closing said window and instead, it would make sure that any odd scents would actually reach her in the event of an emergency. It wasn’t much, but it would do for the three months she would be spending here. After all, she couldn’t reasonably expect them to give her more, could she?

Just as she finished figuring it all out, a yawn escaped her. She was used to sleeping around this time of day, so it made sense. But she didn’t exactly want to fall asleep the second she arrived in a new place like this! That was until Lysil and Angwin revealed that the lack of sun in Proteus meant she could sleep whenever she wanted and it was even expected of her to at least take a nap at this point. So after slithering up to the squishy bed, she laid herself down and dozed off.

After a dreamless sleep, she awoke and stretched. It took her a moment to remember she was an olm now, but at least she didn’t freak out over the lack of vision like she thought she might. Instead, she lifted her head and tried to catch a scent of something. Big mistake! The amount of different complicated smells that hit the girl all at once made her physically recoil and stumble out of her bed with a thump! Before long, she heard the door opening and Angwin’s voice.

“Anne, are you okay?”

“Ah. Yeah, I’ll be alright. Just got a little startled by all the unfamiliar scents, is all.”

“And you’re not used to this kind of body yet, are you?” Lysil interjected. Turning to face their direction, Anne knew she had to be truthful.

“Exactly. But I’ll get used to it in time, don’t you worry. After all, I was raised as a frog and still handled my human form without issue. Sure there are even more things to get used to and it’s all pretty murky, but I’ll learn!”

“Good to hear. Now, as Parisia discussed with you yesterday, you will be doing some lightweight volunteer work around the city. And I think we found the perfect position for someone like you.” Angwin started, letting Lysil finish for him.

“You have experience dealing with younger folks, given that you have two younger siblings. And there’s still so much for you to learn, like how to read our language for example. So we’ve managed to get you a position at a daycare. We already talked to the people you’ll be reporting to and all you’ll need to do is make sure the kids don’t get into too much trouble.”

“Oh. Well, either this’ll be really easy or really hard. No in between. And it’ll all depend on how well behaved these kids are…” She wasn’t about to make any sweeping statements before she even met the kids in question, but she knew how kids could get. Lysil reminded her of something important, though.

“Hmm… you know, you’re technically younger than all of them because of how slowly we olms age.” Hearing that made Anne pause for a moment before responding in a deadpan tone.

“So basically, I’m also one of the kids to be watched.” The silence that followed told her everything she needed to know. At the very least, Angwin was able to say something that helped.

“Kind of? But also not really because your physical maturity adds brainpower that those kids don’t have yet. And again, you’ve got the experience to deal with the younger kids. So you’ll still be trusted with caretaker duties a lot. Now come on, we need to get you to your ‘station’.”

“Okay, alright. Lead the way, then.” She resigned herself to the position she’d been set up with. It wasn’t like she could really argue and there were certainly worse positions she could be assigned to. And hey, maybe these kids would actually be pretty calm. After all, it seemed that most olms lived pretty relaxed lives. She still prepared herself to be proven wrong just in case, though.

But by some miracle, that preparation was completely unneeded! When she was first introduced to the kids, all they did was ask questions about the outside world. She even spent the first week just retelling her whole big adventure and the story of the war to these kids. And it didn’t take long for her to start recognizing the scents of the adults in charge as they leaned in to listen every so often.

It seemed as though she was so interesting to the kids that none of them got rowdy when she was around. And that ultimately led to her other duties (that she hadn’t been informed of) being dropped in favour of her just doing what she was evidently good at. The revelation of that actually made Anne feel far more relieved, thus leading to her leaning more and more into her new job. She even began to learn the olm’s reading language by engaging with the smaller kids who were still learning it for themselves!

Parisia wasn’t very happy with her telling the kids about the outside world, but she bit her tongue for the most part. After all, she was under direct orders from Mother Olm to start allowing the connection between the cultures to flow, and this whole event would be a good place to start with that. Anne noticed that she appeared to be comforting herself with the fact that this would only be lasting for three months, so she decided to just let the criticisms go. Unless said criticisms came from Mother Olm, she figured she was fine.

And when those three months of a weird combination of babysitting and being babysat were nearly up, she got to go and see the old lady. The conversation wasn’t much to write home about, as Mother Olm was just as friendly and welcoming as she’d always been. She only had praise for Anne on her final day in Proteus! And Parisia seemed to be more pleasant towards her on that day as well, even though Anne knew it was just because she was glad that the girl was finally leaving.

Then she was finally led back up to the surface to find her family waiting for her with a cursebane berry. She snatched it up almost immediately, bracing herself for the transformation back into her human form. The physical pain of it was more than worth it when she was able to open her eyes and see her family again! She eventually looked up at the sky, noticing that it was nighttime, and realized that she’d have to go through another adjustment period.

Maybe she’d come back one day, if the olms truly wanted to integrate with the rest of Amphibia more…

Chapter Text

Her shoulder was being shaken. From the outer edges of sleep, she could hear someone hurriedly whispering her name. She shifted, feeling the wet slimy coating of a frog in her arms. But the woman’s voice calling above her and trying to rouse her wasn’t one of them.

“Anne. Anne, wake up! You have to see this!” Groggily, she did her best to pry her eyes open and look while groaning. Once she registered her mother’s face smiling down at her, she asked the most important question she could think of at that moment.

“M-mom, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, but you’re not going to want to miss this! And you have to hurry!” The excitement in the woman’s voice was palpable “And the frogs too! They’re going to want to see this too!”

She started shaking all of them, just gently enough to wake them up. Of course Polly was the most grumpy out of all of them, but if the woman was this insistent about it being worth it, then she’d hold her tongue for the moment. Once everyone was awake enough to get on their feet, Oum rushed them downstairs and towards the living room window.

Both Bee and Domino were at the window, watching something. But upon seeing the kids (and old man), he made room for them while gesturing at something outside. And when they all looked out there, they were greeted with the sight of something that none of them had ever seen before. Heck, nothing like this even existed at all in Amphibia, as far as any of them knew.

Outside, there were three creatures. All of them were clearly the same species, but with slight differences. Each of them were quadrupeds with hooves at the tips of their feet, meaning they were meant for quick movements. The eyes on the sides of their heads indicated that they were prey animals, alongside their large ears and marked black noses. And finally they all had what looked like a thin layer of brown fur, the two larger ones being a solid light brown and the one smaller one having a more vibrant coat with white spots. Of the two larger ones, one of them had a huge set of antlers sprouting from the top of its head.

“Seeing deer in the middle of a big city like this is practically a once-in-a-lifetime thing. They’re usually only found in forests in the countryside. And even then, they’re so skittish that they run from even the stray scent of a human.” Bee whispered as he explained, not taking his eyes off of them for a moment.

“Wooooaaah…” Sprig awed at them, watching their movements as one of them bent its long neck down to graze on the front lawn. Upon seeing the boy’s interest, the father of the household smiled and started pointing.

“So the one that’s eating right now is an adult female. The word for an adult female deer is ‘doe’. And the one with antlers is an adult male, which is called a ‘buck’. Then the little one is a baby and you can’t tell whether a baby deer is male or female, so it’s just called a ‘fawn’. They lose the white spots as they grow up.”

“Oh, just like how we lose our tails as we get older.”

“Exactly! Now, when a doe sees a human, they usually run away. When a fawn senses danger, they drop to the ground in order to camouflage. But a buck will either run away or attack, depending on if it thinks its family is in danger.”

“That’s so cool!” The boy mused. And despite how tired Anne was, even she had to admit that they were really pretty animals. Polly was wholly unimpressed, though.

“Okay well, this was interesting, but I’m going back to bed now.” The little girl announced before leaving. Meanwhile, Hop Pop decided to speculate.

“Hmm, they’re clearly prey animals. And if they’re so afraid of humans, does that mean…”

“Yes, humans are one of the many things that hunts them.” Oum cut him off with the obvious conclusion “But we’ve never personally gone after them and we’re not personally fans of venison (which is what we call deer meat). In fact, most of the people around here have never done so. And usually, deer know that the humans they see here aren’t actually going after them. They still run just in case, though.”

Just as she was finishing up, the buck turned his head and seemed to make eye contact with some of the family. Everyone stood stock still, waiting for the animal to make the first move. But someone else interrupted first. Anne was the first one to notice that Domino had somehow gotten outside and was actually approaching them.

The doe and fawn looked at the cat and didn’t seem too perturbed. Did they recognize that the cat wasn’t in a hunting stance? Or did they just register the size difference and not see her as a threat? Either way, the fawn was the one to close the distance between itself and the cat, both of them sniffing at each other’s noses before backing up.

“Wow. One of their many predators is a type of big cat, so I’m impressed they seem to be okay with Domino.” Bee mused, watching as the family cat started calmly walking away in order to watch from a distance. Eventually, the deer walked over to the neighbour’s lawn and out of view. And once they were gone Domino left, presumably to come back inside. As the family pulled away from the window, Anne turned to her mom.

“Well… thanks for waking us up in order to show us that.”

“It was really interestin’ ta see one a the things humans will hunt.” Hop Pop followed up “And that the ones who don’t like its meat ’ll just respect it instead…” He said the last part under his breath. Anne then turned to Sprig, curious about her brother’s reaction. He was surprisingly quiet as he muttered.

“I think I just found my favourite Earth animal…”

Chapter Text

Sasha took a look at her face in the mirror. Anne was getting better at makeup, but her little brother was always better at it. Oh well, it wasn’t like she’d get any better if she never practiced! And hey, most people would still say she did an excellent job anyways. She then looked over to where Anne was putting some makeup on Marcy and smiled.

It was so good that they were able to have moments of just the three of them in their human forms. Not only did it make Marcy feel so much better about herself and more generally accepted, but it also allowed Sasha to just relax in her human form without issue. Not to mention Anne’s moment of respite from all of her ambassador work. She’d been doing more and more of that lately, despite the fact that she was only fifteen.

While those two were finishing up, Sasha decided to take a peek at that human history book once again. She’d at least skimmed the whole thing in between all of her own duties, but she still needed to actually sit down with it in order to refresh what she knew. Case in point, she flipped open to a set of pages about ancient human rituals and saw some info that she didn’t remember. And after reading through the passage, she had a great idea!

“Hey guys, I just read something pretty interesting in this book!” Marcy pulled away to listen, revealing the dusty green highlights on her eyelids and half done eyeliner. Meanwhile, Anne paused with her makeup tools still in hand.

“It basically says here that ancient humans used to get small pieces of metal stuck through parts of their bodies as symbols of a bunch of different things. It was called ‘piercing’. Isn’t that awesome?!” Sasha excitedly shouted, but Marcy paled a little bit upon hearing that.

“Actually, that sounds really painful. Why would they do that to themselves?” Before Sasha could try a quote from the book, Anne spoke up.

“Actually, my mom had her earlobes pierced and wore these little yellow fake gem things on them. When I asked her about it one day, she said that that part of the human body has so few nerve endings, that she didn’t even feel it. And when I asked her why she did it, she just shrugged and said that she wanted to look pretty.” Sasha smiled at Anne’s recollection and added onto it.

“And it says here that it used to be used as a symbol of either status or being a part of a group. I’m totally going to get it done! How about you guys? Wanna get it as a symbol of being the only humans in Amphibia?” The other two didn’t seem quite as excited, but upon seeing how widely Sasha was grinning in excitement, Anne spoke up.

“W-well, I’m not sure. But if it doesn’t hurt, then it could be an interesting reminder of my mom as well. What do you think, Marcy?”

“I… I don’t think I want that. You guys are fine to get them done, but I think I’ll sit that one out.”

“Aw, okay. Not gonna try to force you. But it says here that sometimes, only someone particularly trusted would actually do the piercing. If you’re not going to get it done, then would you be willing to actually do mine?” Sasha lied about what the book said there, but that was only because she still wanted to involve Marcy without forcing her to do something she didn’t want to.

“O-oh. I… don’t know about that.”

“Aw, come on. You’ve got such steady hands and I completely trust you! Please?”

“Well… okay, so long as you won’t regret it.”

“Don’t worry, there’s a part here that says it’ll grow back in as if it never even happened if the jewelry is removed for long enough. If I decide I don’t like it in the end, then I can just do that. Sound good?”

“Alright, then. What kind of decoration do you want?” Marcy asked before the three of them devolved into chattering about it for the rest of the night. And two weeks later, Sasha was sat down in front of Marcy and awaiting her new little decoration! After a couple of deep breaths, Sasha felt a little poke on her left ear.

“Oh my gosh, there’s blood. Sasha, are you okay?”

“Honestly, I barely felt that. Keep going, I’m good!” She’d experienced far worse on the battlefield, after all. So next thing she knew, there was another little poke on her right ear and Marcy was pulling away. Sasha gave her an excited smile despite the princess’ nervous look.

“Feels awesome! How do I look?”

“Well… I don’t think it’s perfectly symmetrical, but the colour does look good on you.” Hearing that made her smile and reach for a mirror. And sure enough, the little pink pearls that looked to be attached to her ears gave her whole face a beautiful sheen. She wasn’t the kind of person to admire her reflection, but she had to admit that these looked pretty nice.

“I love them! Thank you, Marcy!” The princess sighed in relief at hearing her friend be so happy with the results. Meanwhile, Sasha began to wonder about what kinds of earrings she could add to her collection. Maybe a pair of gold or gold-looking hoops like she saw in that book? Either way, having a piece of metal sticking out of a part of her body and straight-up decorating it was such a power move! She couldn’t wait to show it off at the next military meeting.

Unfortunately, they fell out the next time she took a potion and when she transformed back, the holes Marcy had made were gone…

Chapter Text

After sharks became Polly’s favourite Earth animal, she’d started looking up more sea life. It wasn’t like she could ever directly interact with these animals because of the salt water, but that just made her think even higher of them. Even when she discovered that a saltwater fish couldn’t live in freshwater otherwise they’d explode, she was still interested.

Every so often, she’d blurt out some random fact about some new saltwater fish she found out about and it’d always be more disturbing than the last. Of course it started with how the goblin shark can dislodge its jaw in order to catch prey, which admittedly wasn’t all that bad. But after a while, it just got more and more unhinged. One of these times, she was talking to Anne about it while her big sister was doing the dishes.

“Wow. I think I just discovered my new favourite.”

“Polly, hasn’t every ocean fish been your favourite when you first discover them?”

“No, my favourite was still great white sharks until now. I was just mentioning other fish because I found out about them and thought one or two things were interesting. But this really takes the cake!”

“I’m not sure if I should be scared or not.”

“Well, it says they’re harmless to humans ‘cause they’re so small and not very smart. But the way they eat is so gnarly! You know how we have to pull our stomachs out in order to get whatever’s in there out of there?” Anne cringed at the thought, remembering a few unsavoury moments here and there.

“Yeah?”

“Well, this fish does that every single time it eats! It pulls its stomach out in order to start digesting its food outside of its body. And then, when it’s dissolved into mush, it swallows its stomach and slurps up the mush.” Hearing that, Anne paled a little bit. But knowing Polly, it made sense why she’d be so interested in that.

“That’s… disturbing…” She saw no reason to lie to her little sister. In fact, she was pretty sure that that was the exact reaction Polly wanted out of that.

“Yeah, that’s what makes it so awesome! They look kinda cute when you don’t know enough about them. Kinda like me! That’s why they’re my new favourite.” The little frog explained. Seeing how her face was lit up in excitement, Anne couldn’t help smiling. She’d have to process all of that info later. But then she realized that there was one bit of information that Polly left out.

“Hey, what’s that fish called anyways?”

“It’s a ‘starfish’. They don’t even look like regular fish ‘cause they’ve got no fins or face or anything like that.” This made Anne stop for a moment in confusion. And after a moment of trying to imagine what the heck Polly might be talking about, the human just sighed and put down the dish she was washing in order to take a look at the laptop screen Polly was staring at.

The laptop had an internet tab open to that famous encyclopedia site with the current page being about these ‘starfish’. And when Anne saw what they actually looked like, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Th-they-hey-hey l-lo-ho-ho-k like a-ha chil-il-dre-ren’s draw-haw-haw-ing!” She was barely able to choke out a sentence in the middle of her laughter while Polly gave her a mild glare.

“You know, if you look closer, some of them have spikes and protruding teeth.”

“I-I saw-haw. B-but the… the o-others look so-ho… so si-hi-lly!” Anne tried to get control of herself this time, only partially succeeding. Meanwhile Polly just rolled her eyes and went back to looking up more animals. A few minutes of quiet laughter passed for Anne before she got back to her chore.

She knew that the animals of Earth were nowhere near as horrifying as the animals back in Amphibia, but she never expected to see something so ridiculous. And the fact that Polly apparently liked them so much was proof that she was still a little kid underneath all of that lust for violence. That part made Anne smile to herself. After all, it didn’t take long for the frogs in her family to relax into this kind of a life.

With Polly acting like this, Sprig calming down and safely exploring when and where he could, and Hop Pop taking it easier than usual, it really seemed like they were all getting softer. Then again, Earth as a whole seemed to be far softer than Amphibia. It was no wonder that humans in general had a gentler culture… at least, from what Anne had seen thus far. And that extra softness had clearly allowed all of the members of her family to start exploring who they really are.

Ending up on Earth like this was probably the best thing to ever happen to them…

Chapter Text

Another day, another struggle to scrounge up enough clean water to drink in this world. Mylo sighed, wondering if anyone back in Amphibia actually cared enough to remember him or if he’d actually be written off as yet another war casualty like he’d intended. After the rest of his family died in the war, he didn’t want to be around anymore. And yet, he still fought.

He didn’t know what had been driving him, but he just kept on going. Once he was made aware that the rebellion was planning on intercepting Andrias before he went to the other world though, Mylo had an insane idea. It was stupid and reckless, but if he could disappear by just going to this other world (via hitching a ride on one of their moths) and letting whatever fate came for him to happen, then… what? Then what? What was he expecting?!

Somehow, Andrias and his invading forces were actually fought off by the military of this world, the rebellion from Amphibia, and some human with special powers. He couldn’t say he actually understood any of it, but he knew that with Andrias defeated, Amphibia would recover. So then, when they were rounding up all of the amphibians in order to get them back home, why did he run? He scoffed at himself, as if he didn’t have the answer.

There was nothing and no one waiting for him back home, so why bother? He’d just be made to rejoin a society that held nothing for him. No. He didn’t want to have to go back to that. So he ran away and into a local forest in the middle of the city that had been attacked. And over the course of the next month, he slowly made his way out without being noticed. It took travelling at night and getting exceedingly lucky with how he disguised himself during the day for him to get out of there.

By this point, he knew that the scary looking creatures who inhabited this world were relatively harmless. But he didn’t want to be found, damn it! And so, once he saw an opportunity to hitch a ride in one of those robot carriages with a sizeable trunk, he took it and only ditched when they were close enough to a forest that he figured he could disappear into. After all, everyone knew that going into a forest was a death sentence, right?

The problem became evident when he saw what was clearly a heron of this world… and he was bigger than it. He even made eye contact with the thing and it fled from him! That was when he knew that nothing in this forest could or would try to hurt him. Had he truly landed in a softer world than Amphibia? He sighed. At least the forest he ended up in was so big that he’d been there for a couple of years without fully mapping it all out in his mind! It… kept him busy.

That was until one day when he heard a rumble in the distance. His long unused instincts activated, telling him that there was a predator nearby. This was… odd. Normally, when he encountered a creature that’d want to kill him (like that horrid smelling furred monster he saw eating fish that one time), this didn’t happen. He always figured it was because none of the predators here were native to Amphibia. So then… why?

He forced himself to freeze, waiting for whatever this was to arrive. It didn’t take long, as when it got closer, he could hear it moving clumsily through the brush. Until, right in front of him, was the first familiar creature he’d seen since the day he was left behind. A coastal kill-a-moth, just like the one he’d hitched a ride on on the way here. A predator from Amphibia, which had probably been left behind just like him.

Despite the solidarity, Mylo knew that this was a predator. But… after all this time, he’d been wondering what could possibly be in it for him to keep going. And now, right in front of him, was a familiar way out. One final taste of his home world to send him beyond. So he dropped to his knees, closed his eyes, and waited for the inevitable…

…

…

…

Fur. Mylo felt fur being pressed up against his face and a slight pressure on his chest, but no sharp pain anywhere. When he opened his eyes, he realized that the kill-a-moth was actually… nuzzling him? Why?! As far as he knew, they only did that with members of their eclipse. So then why was this one suddenly doing it to him?

Maybe it was homesick and lonely, so it was attaching itself to the first thing it saw that was from its own world? Could that be it? Mylo reached out a hand and rested it in the fur, eliciting a purr from the moth. How could this thing be so lonely that when it met its natural prey, it cuddled up to it? It didn’t make sense to Mylo.

Suddenly, a little dark and wet spot appeared on the moth’s fur right beside his hand. Was it starting to rain all of a sudden? One quick look up confirmed that it wasn’t, so then… oh. He had begun to cry. Why? It wasn’t like he was the homesick one. He didn’t miss his world, he had nothing to go back to! And it wasn’t like he could even go back if he wanted to.

He didn’t cry when his family died to the lasers of robots. He didn’t cry when he was locked away in a labour camp. He didn’t cry when, after he was broken out, some pompous newt dragged him away to the main newt camp where he was arguably even more miserable. He didn’t cry when he ran away from that camp due to how poorly they treated him there. He didn’t even cry when he made the decision to let this world take him. So why now?

He felt weak, leaning into the moth’s face and fur as the tears overtook him and a sob escaped him. Meanwhile the moth reached out with one of its paws and pulled him closer, nuzzling him even more. He barely even registered when it repositioned him onto its back and started walking. But by the time he was able to collect himself, he realized that he’d been riding on this thing’s back for a while now.

Mylo didn’t even know where in the forest he was at this point, but he hardly cared. So instead, he just laid back down on the moth’s back and let it take him wherever it was going. That was until he heard a masculine voice.

“There you are, Moffie. Hm? What’ve you got there, baby?” Mylo’s head shot up, his eyes locking with one of the intelligent species of this world: a human. This human was wearing a sleek black suit and matching shoes, with not many other noteworthy features. Up until this point, the frog had managed to escape any human gazes and remain in hiding. But the universe just refused to give him a break.

“Oh. Hey there, I thought all you frogs were sent back to Amphibia when the invasion was repelled three years ago. Did they miss you? And how did you get all the way out here?” The voice was gentle and curious, but more prodding than Mylo was comfortable with. And it had been so long since the frog had spoken to anyone, that it took him a moment to respond.

“I… I didn’t… want to… be found. I… I wanted… to… disappear.” He managed to croak out, shaking as he verbally admitted it. At one point, his voice even cracked as a result of his crying earlier.

“Oh. I see. Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. And there’s no way to get you back to Amphibia anyways, so nobody’s going to try to send you back.”

“Who… are… you?”

“I’m a government agent known as Agent C and my job is to handle ‘cryptid cases’ and keep everyone calm. Moffie, the overly affectionate moth who found you is directly under my charge. But this whole area is their territory, so I often just let them roam about as they like. As for you, I can see you’re not doing very well. Would you be willing to come with me so that we can give you a health checkup?”

“M’fine, I don’t… wanna be… found.”

“I understand, but we should really make sure you don’t have some sort of infection or parasite. Those kinds of things nearly led humans to extinction a couple hundred years ago. The wildlife in this world might not be that bad by your standards, but it’s the diseases that’ll get you if you’re not careful.”

“I…” Mylo couldn’t figure out what to say. His words were catching in his throat and his limbs felt heavy from all of the emotions that had spilled out earlier. He didn’t even realize that Agent C was approaching until the human had already wrapped his arms around the frog and lifted him off of the moth.

“It’s okay, I can tell you’ve been through a lot. Don’t worry, we’ll get you a checkup and then you can decide where to go, okay?”

“... Okay.” Mylo decided, figuring it was better to just let it happen instead of trying to fight back. And before long, the frog found himself seated and strapped into one of those robot carriages (apparently the straps were legally required, even by the humans in there too, so he didn’t argue) as it softly drove away with him. The inside was warm enough to comfort Mylo and remind him of his family’s old carriage from when he was a kid. He nodded off with even more tears in his eyes.

When he awoke, he found himself inside of a dimly lit room with a different human sitting in the corner. Said human looked straight at him once he began to stir and he began to approach.

“Hey, you awake? You were so tired and dehydrated, that you slept through Agent C bringing you in.” Mylo looked at this new human, noticing the purple suit and bald head as the most standout features. Seeing as this human hadn’t tried to hurt him yet, the frog sat up and made it clear that he was awake and aware.

“There you are. Agent C told me you’re having some trouble speaking, presumably because of how dehydrated you were. We gave you some IV fluids, which should help with that. But he’s only allowed to work on cryptids. I’m the one assigned to aliens, so I took over the case for him. I’m Mr. X.”

The human held out a hand, clearly wanting a handshake. Given exactly what he said, Mylo came to the realization that these guys had to be with the government of this world. The one organization that he didn’t want to find him! But, if he was already here, then he might as well avoid causing an issue. So he reached out and returned the gesture.

“Mylo. My name’s Mylo.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mylo. Now, Agent C told me what little you told him. There are a lot of gaps in the story, but you weren’t in very good shape at the time, so it’s completely understandable that you wouldn’t be able to give your full story. Mind telling me now that you’re here and clearly feeling better?” The human was cutting to the chase, which the frog could respect. So he tried.

“When… when the invasion happened, I came here with the others. I’m no fighter, I wasn’t here to fight. I… I was here to… to…” He started to tear up again, despite his best efforts “... disappear. I… thought I’d get caught under a crumbling building or something. Then I’d h-have an… excuse.”

As he explained, his breath hitched and Mr. X’s expression softened. The human was patient with him, even as he had to gloss over a couple of details here or there. But eventually, he was able to give a general explanation of how he ended up where he did.

“... Thank you for trusting me with your story, Mylo. I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that. Tell you what, we’ll get you all better and then we’ll give you a few options on where you want to go. Then you’ll get to pick.”

“That’s what Agent C promised me too.”

“Makes sense, we’re pretty good friends for a reason. So what do you say?” It didn’t take long for the frog to make his decision. If these ‘IV fluids’ Mr. X mentioned earlier were already making him feel this much better, then it was at least worth a try. He nodded

“Okay. I’ll figure out what I want in the meantime.” Mr. X smiled and nodded at that, making Mylo feel like the human had his back. How long had it been since he was actually able to talk to and trust another living being? If he searched his mind, he’d find that the last time, it was when he was with his family.

The weight of that fact hung over him for the next six months that he was in Mr. X’s care. Apparently, the government agent wasn’t just talking about his physical health when he said they’d get him ‘all better’. He’d been in private therapy sessions with a professional this whole time and after a while, his mindset began to change. He hadn’t thought it would be possible after all this time, but whatever the humans were doing, it was working.

The fact of the matter was that he did disappear from Amphibia. But his life wasn’t over, as he could start again here. Granted, he was limited by the fact that he was the only Amphibia frog on Earth and therefore he couldn’t exactly rejoin the regular society, but he was fine with that. In the end, he was given two options. Either go back out to the woods and live with the moth that found him or stay in the government building under Mr. X’s custody.

Mylo was promised that if he chose the latter, then no experiments would be done on him. They had so much respect for the amphibians that fought against the invasion, that the most they’d ever do was an X-ray, MRI, or ultrasound. And those things were done to regular humans as a part of general health checkups anyways, so that didn’t bother the frog. And with not wanting to rough it in a place that reminded him so much of his breaking point, he elected to stay in the place that he’d begun to heal instead.

Sure, this meant he was basically going to be an office assistant for the rest of his life, but at least it was a life that he wasn’t going to waste…

Chapter Text

A huge crash and scream could be heard from the distance, garnering attention from everyone around. Sasha had been helping a soldier out at the new Toad Tower outpost, so she was one of the first ones to arrive on the scene. And what she saw made her blood run cold. A massive stack of blocks, designed for tower construction had fallen over and sticking out from underneath the pile was a dull purple toad arm.

When the fingers started moving, the girl let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. But if this toad really was alive, then someone had to get them out from under there as soon as possible! From Sasha’s perspective, it took her less than a second to get over there and start trying to lift. Even if she couldn’t free this toad on her own, maybe she could lighten the weight and prevent them from getting crushed.

She could tell that a couple of the others around her were joining her. She knew she commanded respect, but she was still surprised about not having to give any orders for them to know what to do. Regardless, the girl put her full strength into lifting! If she could just make a little bit of room, it would be enough.

She began to pant and sweat, emitting that dangerous salty odor she was known for by this point. Focusing on her breathing, she locked her elbows and knees so that she could at least hold the thing up a little bit! She heard yelling around her, but none of it registered in the face of her current task. After a few more seconds, something shifted.

Another part of what kept the weight manageable had collapsed behind the part she was trying to lift. It was getting heavier! No! No no no NO NO NO NOOO!! Sasha let out a guttural scream, refusing to let this person get crushed!

Shaking, sweating, muscles straining, and bones aching, she put everything she had into it and then some. She heard a crack coming from her body at one point, but ignored it. No one was about to die on her watch! She had to focus! Lift! LIFT! LIFT!!

With another scream, she could feel the stone rising a little. Was she getting help? It didn’t matter! She had to keep on lifting! Cracks and snaps sent jolts of pain through her body, but she had to keep going! Eventually, she heard even more yelling barely seeping through her focus. And then, there was a wide hand around her midsection and she was being pulled away!

Recognizing Grime’s hand as he grabbed her, she looked at where the arm had been before and realized that a toad with matching purple skin was sat just a couple of feet away from the wreckage, medics already approaching. She… she did it. The girl let out a breath she’d been holding and tried to get back to her feet.

“At ease, Sasha. Don’t move! MEDIC OVER HERE TOO!!” He shouted, forcing her to stay down.

“I’m fine, Grime. Is that guy okay?”

“You are NOT fine, Sasha. That’s your adrenaline talking! Don’t think I didn’t find out about the ‘hysterical strength’ that humans have. I have no doubt you just harmed yourself too.” Grime explained before the extra medic showed up and started asking him what was wrong.

“She probably injured herself by doing that. Humans have this thing where they can bypass their own limitations in an emergency, but it leaves them injured because they output more strength than their body can handle. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a broken bone after using that much strength.”

“Oh, just like that one who sacrificed herself to save everyone from the moon falling, gotcha.”

“Well, not exactly. That situation had magic involved. This is just a thing that any human can do.”

“Meh, close enough for the explanation to work. Alright, let me see.”

“She’s got too much adrenaline in her to feel any pain right now. But that’ll wear off in a matter of moments.”

“Now that, I know enough about already. Don’t worry, we’ll get some painkillers set up right away. Colonel Sasha, we’re going to move you onto a stretcher. Please don’t try to argue.”

“Okay, okay. I get it.” She huffed, but let them do their thing anyways. Once her hands stopped shaking, she could feel her arms and legs start to throb. Oh no, Grime absolutely called it. By the time she was back at the proper med bay and she had a modified robot scanning for any broken bones, her limbs were practically exploding.

Once the robot was done, the medics set up her painkillers and let them work. While painkillerpiller saliva would just dull the pain in any amphibian, she knew that it affected humans a little differently. This was NOT going to be a fun recovery. Especially considering the fact that she couldn’t use an axolotl potion to speed things up due to several of the pulled muscles being things that only humans really had.

But when she looked over at the life she saved, she couldn’t help but think that it had been worth it…

Chapter Text

Gritts and Thraw stared each other down, weapons at the ready. All they had to do was wait for the bell to ring and they could go all out. They sized each other up, Gritts being slightly larger than his opponent, with extra armour on his shoulders in order to prevent another severing. Thank the axolotl potions he downed back then for his recovery.

As it was, Thraw hadn’t needed one of those potions yet. His slightly smaller frame gave him a bit more agility, just like that one frog child who won against a toad in the middle of the war. Once he started utilizing the hybrid tactics, his skill shot up to a point where he was on par with the rest of the toads! And upon seeing his opponent, he figured this time would be no different.

The call for the fighters to ready their weapons came and while Gritts brought out a standard toad soldier spear, Thraw had a flail! Back when he’d learned about the hybrid tactics, he also heard of a frog tadpole who used a flail as a mobility aid until her legs grew in. The story inspired him to take up a weapon that would normally be a little much for someone his size to control and readapt it in his own style.

Clearly, once Gritts saw the weapon, he figured he’d be in for an easy fight. But as soon as the bell to begin rang, he found himself on the receiving end of a smack to the head! He lunged towards his assailant, spear tip out. But he fumbled as it didn’t make contact with anything and instead, he felt a sudden pressure on his back. He was left wondering how Thraw had gotten behind him.

Meanwhile, the smaller toad used the momentum of his flail to launch himself into the larger one’s back. He heard a crack and his opponent fell to the ground. Thraw could still feel him breathing, but he certainly wasn’t getting up any time soon!

“Another sweeping victory from Thraw and his unique fighting style!” The announcer declared, signaling him to get off of the other’s back. He didn’t miss the opportunity to strike a pose, though. Given that this was his twenty-sixth consecutive win, he’d earned the right to taunt a little bit.

But the gladiator ring needed to set up for the next match, so he couldn’t stick around for very long. As usual, he grabbed his flail and set off to the waiting room. Then it was only a matter of minutes before Gritts was being carried in on a stretcher and the medic grabbed yet another axolotl potion. Thraw shook his head, wondering if he’d ever need one of those. He heard the transformation back was not pleasant, so he’d been trying to avoid it.

His thoughts were interrupted when there was a huge commotion, unlike the fights they usually had. It was so abnormal, that it garnered the attention of everyone in the waiting room and before long, they were all rushing out of there in order to see what was going on.

“Princess Marcy herself signed off on this law, so your hands are tied. You can reopen these fights in a week, but by then, you’d better get your medics the better training described. Otherwise, you might have to shut down even longer! And make sure all of your fighters know about this too!” A young, feminine voice could be heard shouting at the judge.

“This is ridiculous! Don’t you realize that these potions have revolutionized modern medicine?” Thraw squeezed his way to the front upon hearing the judge’s voice in order to see who the heck was making these threats. And when he saw one of those hummuses- no, ‘humans’, he realized that there was no way to fight this. And she wasted no time in tearing the judge’s arguments apart.

“They haven’t ‘revolutionized’ anything! They’re useful as an emergency panic button for when someone’s on death’s door, but you’re using them for so much stuff that they don’t need to be used for that you’re getting complacent. And yes, we will be having multiple enforcers not only in the stands, but also in the waiting room.”

“You’re making a big mistake. If we keep using them, then our fighters can shrug off what would otherwise be permanent injuries and go back to doing what they love! But if we go back to our old ways, then… well, I know of you and I know how close you are with one of our old fighters: Grime. If we would’ve had these potions back then, then he’d still likely have both of his eyes.”

“I know you’re lying because Grime told me how he lost that eye. And it wasn’t here, I’ll say that much.” She deadpanned “As it is, this new set of laws was Princess Marcy’s direct response to hearing about how many deaths have happened because of how lax your rules have gotten about grievous bodily harm.

“If you’d actually take a moment to read it over, you’d realize that it’s telling you to reinstate your restrictions on that part, not on your medical advancement. But to also make sure your medics get retrained in how to conserve their potion stock. Now, you have one week. And yes, I’ve brought an actual army in order to make sure you follow this new law.”

Thraw and all of the other gladiators were stunned. Did… did that actually just happen?! Was this place about to get shut down by order of the Princess? Sure, it’d only be for a week, but what were they all supposed to do in the meantime? And what would it mean for all of them to readjust their fighting styles? The war had taught them to go for the kill, so they’d have to unlearn several months of training.

None of them were happy about this, to say the least. After getting back to the waiting room, everyone mumbled their grievances as they started packing up all of their stuff. When Thraw looked over at the axolotl shaped Gritts, he muttered about him being the lucky last one to get the potion treatment. But then he shook his head. At least he could pride himself on the fact that during the overusage era (or whatever they’d end up calling it), he didn’t resort to it a single time. He still had that much he could brag about.

Still though, this was going to be a very long and irritating week…

Chapter Text

With the final report on humans completed, everyone was itching to know more. After all, if the whole of Amphibia was going to be ruled by one, then everyone would need to understand exactly what kind of creature was in charge. Whether a person actually liked the idea or not, it wasn’t like any of them could fight it. And so, Chris found himself picking up a copy of the document.

Looking at the table of contents, there were four major categories: biology, evolutionary history, ancient culture, and modern culture. In that order. Each one had different sub categories, but Chris didn’t bother looking into those. As it was, his greatest curiosity was in the biology of the species. So when he flipped open the first page of that section and noticed that the cited source was a completely different report, he sighed.

Of course this book would be a basic overview and each category would have their own larger document somewhere. He’d heard that there was a human-written book that had somehow made its way to Amphibia and detailed the middle two categories, but he hadn’t put too much thought into that until now. But if there was a larger document for the biology of a human, then he’d have to take a closer look at it eventually. So he made a mental note to come back and look over the source of it later.

Either way, he got started reading through this basic overview right away. He’d heard rumours here and there about what humans were and weren’t capable of. Chief among the most ridiculous claims were the ability to breathe fire because of their warm blood, the ability to eat and properly digest salt, and the ability to form a telepathic link with animals. Obviously all of them were ridiculous claims!

Chris had even gotten into arguments with other newts about these particular things. He remembered the easiest to debunk being the fire breathing because there were plenty of warm blooded creatures in Amphibia that couldn’t do that. Next was the telepathic link because of how a human supposedly managed to tame an eclipse of kill-a-moths. Even if one had indeed done that, it was no different from what a beast tamer did without a link!

The hardest one for him to debunk was the absurd claim about their salt immunity. There was even a small family with an eft that claimed to have witnessed a human wading through salt water. The youngest member of that family even appeared to have a scar that proved his contact with the substance. But that family was simply a merchant and his two children. Of course their accounts couldn’t be trusted!

Regardless, Chris decided it was best to simply get to reading through this book and see where the conclusions took him. From there, it only took an hour before he was rubbing his head in disbelief. The fact that their hair is technically made from the same material as their claws? Believable. The fact that they’re born with legs, but still aren’t able to use them because they’re always born premature? To be expected.

But, of all things, this book outright proved one of those rumours to be correct! Not only were they immune to salt, but they needed to consume it?! And it was known to fuel their protection against overheating, which was a side effect of being warm blooded? HOW?! Chris sighed. Maybe if he could get into contact with the person who originally published the biology report, he could get to the bottom of this ridiculousness. He flipped back to the original page that had the source cited.

“‘Biology of humans - an otherworldly being, equal to us by Dr. Hopediah Plantar.’ Hmm, I’ve never heard of him. Maybe he’s a field scholar and that explains why I’ve never heard of him and why he was able to start writing about them so much earlier than anyone else.” Chris mused. The next day, the newt took his question to the professors of Newtopia University and got an answer surprisingly quickly.

“Ah yes, an elderly fellow from the town of Wartwood. He was surprised to receive his doctorate, as he originally made the report for a different reason.”

“Really? Did he just love his research that much?”

“More like he loved the human he practically raised and wanted to make sure she wouldn’t be ostracized just for being different, or something like that.” That information made Chris pause. This ‘Dr. Hopediah Plantar’ raised one of the three humans of Amphibia?! Which one?!

Chris himself hadn’t done much research on the individuals, but he knew it couldn’t be the princess! So that just left the two who led the rebellion of the war together… which didn’t separate them very much.

“I… see. Well, I’ll have to go looking for him in order to confirm what I’ve read.”

“It’s all true, if that helps. We have confirmation about all of that, seeing how many people are assuming that he’s lying or just wrong. Personally, I think those people are just feeling a little stung over how much more durable humans are when compared to most amphibians. But those people are seriously overlooking several important things. I’m sure you’ve heard about the transformation potions?”

“Of course, but what does that have to do with humans?”

“Well, all of the humans that exist in Amphibia used those potions to blend in during their childhoods. In fact, the potions were originally created specifically for them. And they all keep using them to this day because there are certain advantages that each form has.”

“Fascinating! I’d love to meet one of them and talk about that. But I also want to talk to Dr. Hopediah Plantar.”

“Luckily for you, one of the humans actually lives with him! So you can kill two bugs with one stone.” The professor happily declared before turning around and leaving. Chris sighed once again, realizing that he really only had one option. And within a week, he was ready to make a trip to this ‘Wartwood’ place. It wouldn’t be cheap, but it would be worth it.

The trip lasted nearly a month before he realized that his destination was within Frog Valley, of all places. But that was okay, as he’d heard of a few newts living out there with little issue. But as he got closer and closer to the town, he realized that the place appeared to be all frogs. He knew that he should be more willing to interact with them, but he was still in the process of unlearning a lot of his upbringing when it came to that sort of stuff.

Eventually though, he actually saw a newt walking around while writing something! At first, Chris figured that it was the doctor he’d been looking for, but a second glance made it clear that this one was too young to be considered ‘elderly’. Then again, if this green newt actually lived here, then he might know where to go to find the people he was looking for.

“Ho there, my good man. I was wondering if you could help me find someone specific.” Chris called out, catching the other newt’s attention. But instead of the warm welcome he’d been expecting from another of his kin, this newt just looked Chris up and down before giving his own sigh.

“The Plantar family lives a little to the west of Wartwood, within walking distance.”

“H-how did you know I was looking for them?”

“You dress like you’re from Newtopia. These days, nearly all visits from there are here to see The Plantars and ask Hopediah about Anne. I’ve told you where to go, so now go.” The other newt brushed him off and left, leaving Chris stunned.

Then again, if this was the type of tourism that the whole town had been receiving as of late, then it made sense for them to be tired of it. He let it go and set off in the direction he’d been given. After roughly an hour of walking, he could see a house built into a massive tree stump in the distance. If that wasn’t it, then he could just ask them for more specific instructions, right?

By the time he got to the place, he saw how small the door was. Clearly meant for a frog, but wide enough to fit a toad and it wouldn’t be too difficult for a newt to duck a little and get inside. They must be used to getting visitors from multiple species! So Chris knocked on the door and waited. And what answered the door was an elderly orange frog who immediately looked him up and down just like the newt in town had and spoke before he had a chance to say anything.

“... If you’re here fer Anne, she’s not here this time a year.”

“Umm, I’m actually looking for a Dr. Hopediah Plantar.”

“That’s me. Let me guess, you couldn’t believe all the stuff I wrote in my report and you’re here ta fact check me. Is that right?” Chris was too stunned to speak. A frog documented a whole new species and got a doctorate? And one that lived in a bumpkin farming town like this?

As Chris gaped at the fact, Dr. Plantar took a deadpan expression. Oh no. He was going to have quite the time convincing this old frog to give him the time of day. Ironic, given his own prejudices he’d been raised to have. He’d have to swallow that and deal with it, though.

“W-well, I guess that’s right. I just wanted to talk directly to someone who was so brave as to go out of their way to raise a species they knew nothing about. And smart enough to not only succeed, but also to document it all!” His experience with other scholars made him default to flattery. The two shared a long look before Dr. Plantar finally caved and invited him inside to talk.

Finally, he was going to get to the bottom of all of these ridiculous rumours…

Chapter Text

Loggle cheered along with the rest of Wartwood as the decision to fight back was made! He had gotten a taste of combat, the excitement, the feeling of being useful, and the pride of victory over those who wanted to harm his friends. It was almost like his very first mob together with the rest of Wartwood’s population. And now he wanted more!

As he looked at himself in the mirror though, he was faced with a little problem. Because of his thin, nimble build, he had only really been able to attack things that were thin and loosely attached, like the robots’ eyes. If he wanted to keep up, he’d have to get stronger. Looking idly around his shop for ideas, he noticed a log. A short thing, think the kind that was ready to be cut into firewood. That could do.

He walked over to it, studying it a bit longer, before squatting down and wiggling his fingers underneath it. Then he lifted. He made sure to keep proper form; it wouldn’t do to blow his back out before he could even have a proper fight. He counted 10 lifts, and then did 7 more as his body felt like he could handle it. Then he looked around the shop again for any other ideas.

…

A week later, the axolotl caught sight of himself in the mirror again. He’d gotten into the habit of getting up before sunrise for some morning exercise (a little routine that had also helped him warn everyone of some early sneak-attacks), a jog around town, some squats, situps, pushups, and a swim in the nearby lake to freshen up, just a bit more each day. And it was starting to bear fruit!

He stared at his shoulder, where his arm was getting a little tight in his shirt sleeve. Further down his arm was gaining more definition and when he lifted his arm, he could actually see the muscle roll. He flexed again, just for the fun of seeing the results of his hard work. Curious, he lifted his shirt just a little, noticing his normally soft and smooth stomach now had some tone as well. He let out an undignified little giggle at the sight.

It was promptly cut off by a knock at the door. Who in Frog’s name was up and knocking on his door this early? He made his way down into his shop, opening the door to see Grime there, several frogs talking excitedly behind him. Oh, something was definitely up.

“Is everything alright? Do you need help with a small mission or something? I know I said I woooooooooooouuuuuuuuld not do any iron smithing anymore, but if you’re desperate-.”

“It’s not that Loggle, though we do have an expedition of sorts we’re drumming up some volunteers for. And considering your recent physical development, I thought you might be a good candidate.” So others were noticing too? He couldn’t help but internally preen a little that they did.

“That soooooooo? Well, what do you think I could do for you?”

“Well, Sasha just discovered that behind the Plantars’ fire place, there’s this-”

“Wait, you found their family tunnels?” The frogs behind Grime all went silent to stare at him, while the toad’s eyes widened. Wait, did none of them know?

“Scratch that, you are definitely coming with us.” The axolotl gulped nervously.

…

Turns out the axolotl had been anxious over nothing! He was no longer helpless and stuck to an old frog’s back. He had help from several people and his strength certainly didn’t hurt matters. He even got to wrestle a giant pumpkin monster back into its cage when a curious Shawn accidentally set it free! Granted, he hadn’t done so alone, but he liked to think he provided the power of at least three frogs.

And that strength only grew as all of Wartwood moved into the place. The first few days they had to live on limited rations, so he couldn’t really do his routine like he used to. But he offered his help whenever and wherever he could. Moving supplies, setting up construction, digging tunnels and chambers (which he was surprisingly good at), anything to give his body some exercise without burning more calories than he could take in.

Once they were able to go foraging on the surface again, and even started getting some supplies from sympathetic sources, he went right back to his morning routine on top of his strongman duties. He even managed to craft some robot shells into sets of weights so he could give his arms something to do as they were on the go. And he was getting huge. Not just his muscles, his bones too adjusted to handle the strain they put on his body as he was growing taller. Taller than he’d ever been, taller than Grime even!

He had gotten so big, that he even had to ditch his old shirt and apron or risk ripping them. He was still shorter than Sasha though, who had made a habit of joining him and showing him more exercises of her own when she didn’t have other responsibilities to attend to. He still enjoyed the peace of his early waking, but it was fun to have a fitness buddy now and then.

…

It was fun to see Anne’s reaction to his new physique. She had gained quite a bit of muscle too, but not nearly as much as he did. He remembered how she could lift a whole household onto her shoulders and carry them to safety back during the saltfloods, but now he was the one picking up things she couldn’t. She was one of the ones to come closest to his strength, right behind Grime. Sasha was still the strongest of them all though, jumping up with leaps and bounds as Anne started feeding her some human dishes with red meats and salts.

She would join the two of them too sometimes, whenever Sasha was there and she managed to get out of bed on time. She also told him there were humans who specifically trained to gain muscle mass, called ‘gym bros’ and ‘bodybuilders’. He liked that second name, he really did feel like he was building up his body for something greater. She didn’t know too much about how they got like that, but she did say something about protein, bananas, and to hydrate to keep from fainting. He had no idea what a banana was, though.

…

Turns out his muscles weren’t just good for punching and lifting things. They also helped convince refugees to join their cause. It was a good thing he loved showing off his hard work and seeing others marvel at the way his body rippled and bulged. He was supposed to be a last resort when solidarity didn’t work, but he had to be called in a concerning number of times.

The mushroom hivemind frogs were a nice surprise, even if they did bruise his ego by overpowering him. Maybe he just needed a bit more training.

…

The day of the last battle was glorious! No more ripping out just eyes; at this point he could tear straight through a robot’s metal armor. Grappling with one only to see its confusion as he lifted and slammed its head into the ground got his heart pumping with excitement. He could see he was one of the few who could handle the medium-sized robots without any weapons. He felt like this Hercules guy, a human hero Anne had briefly told him about once, taking on impossible odds with his bare hands. His confidence was at an all-time high, and he was pouring every single bit of it into the battle.

That was, until the voice sounded from the castle. A dark figure was using robotic tendrils to dangle several figures over their heads, announcing their leaders had been captured. At first, people started to run. Loggle’s heart ached, though. He didn’t want to abandon Anne or Sasha, but he saw no realistic way to actually win against Andrias’ forces.

Their hope was that the majority of the army would be held back for the invasion unless the resistance would prove too troublesome. The infiltration was meant to disconnect their enemy from their main source of power, so the rest of them would stand a chanse against an otherwise overwhelming force. Now that the box stayed in their possession, the chanse that they might actually get that full force sent to them was suddenly very plausible. Until said invasion was on the move and a gigantic portal opened up above their head. That’s when Miss Croaker’s voice rang out over the crowd.

“People of Amphibia, we can not let Earth face this on their own! We know what they are about to face, they do not! They need us! Together, we might stand a better chance! Everyone, don’t give up the fight! And to those bravest of you, grab a moth, anything! We are going to Earth.”

Seeing that the forces that stayed behind looked a bit more manageable, a majority of the army turned back. And in the crowd, several hands reached out for moths, some even yanked at robot cables until their thrusters worked again. Loggle grabbed hold of a moth's legs as himself and several others made the choice to plunge into the unknown.

…

Earth was strange. The air was foul and the landscape one of steel, glass, and concrete. But its inhabitants were soft and scared. Loggle herded a group of human children, the creatures slightly taller yet trusting him completely.

And once more he found himself with a little group of admirers as he shoved one of the broken metal carriages out of their escape route! They clung to him as they all looked up to Anne’s battle on the giant screens. When she won, he lifted several of them onto his arms as they jumped for joy! He was almost sad to leave them, but the kids even more so.

Back in Amphibia, there were no more fights he could fight himself. But he did watch that girl, that tiny froglet he practically saw grow up into a powerful, kind human, take on the very powers of greed and arrogance and win. He cheered for her when she returned. And vowed that from then on, every day, he would do something to work on himself and become his best self.

…

He really shouldn’t have taken that cheat day…

Chapter Text

Charli walked past the monster’s table, noting that she was looking in the other direction. And the top of her drink was left uncovered, which meant that so long as the frog was quick enough, he’d be able to get his mission done! All it took was a quick swipe of his gloved hand and the tablet was in there. With the drink being opaque, it was impossible to detect it before it dissolved.

If anybody had been watching him, then all they’d have seen was him returning to his own table from the washroom and adjusting his sleeve along the way. Given how smooth it all was, he knew that the toad who hired him for this would just have to increase his pay! All he had to do was wait a little bit so that he wouldn’t seem suspicious and then slip out in chaos that was about to ensue. Just like he’d done plenty of times before.

By the time the blonde ‘human’ finally turned her head to look back at the newt sitting across from her, Charli was already back in his own seat and none the wiser. While watching her from across the restaurant, he began to wonder why some horrifying monster like that was even allowed out in public. But even still, why was it dressed up like it was on a date of some sort? He shook his head, but kept an eye on the thing.

Before long, he saw it. The fateful sip. With the tablet dissolved, it should start taking effect almost immediately. He knew it was lethal when ingested and that it was easily detectable, but it worked instantly every time!...

…

… Except… this time? Was the tablet not fully dissolved yet due to the lack of movement? He saw the monster’s eyes flicker towards the glass for a moment before going back to her ‘date’. She then appeared to attempt flirting while swirling her drink around in her hand, though Charli was out of earshot. Still, her moving her drink around would absolutely be her undoing as that would certainly dissolve the tablet!

He continued to watch as both the monster and the newt appeared to laugh together. Good! When the monster keeled over dead, the newt would obviously make enough of a ruckus for Charli to get out of there in all of the chaos. So all he had to do at that point was wait for the opportunity! And before long, he saw the monster tilt her head back and drink the whole thing in one swig!

There was only a slight residue of the drink left in the glass, revealing the success of his mission! But instead of screaming in pain like most people would, she just returned to her conversation. Charli was confused. He knew this monster was no amphibian, but there was no way they were so far removed that they were somehow immune to salt tablets… right? They… they just had to take a little bit longer to take effect, right?!

But as time went on, he started to get more and more nervous. She had to be dying on the inside and just acting. At least, that’s what he thought until he suddenly made eye contact with her! She’d been looking around here and there, so it might’ve been a coincidence. Although the predatory eyes still made him shiver out of pure instinct. He could only hope she was used to that kind of reaction and would brush it off.

After a few more minutes had passed where nothing was happening, Charli knew he had to cut his losses.  Clearly, she had a resistance to the stuff. He’d have to try again via a different method at a different time. And so, he paid his bill and left the restaurant, trying to stay off of her radar.

As he walked down the street outside, he cursed the toad who hired him to do this. He should’ve known that a gladiator who got all of his money from winning fights wouldn’t be smart enough to know what was and wasn’t poisonous to these monsters. He had to get into contact with Thraw and tell him about it. Maybe demand higher compensation for doing the necessary research. While he was thinking about all of this stuff though, he failed to realize that he’d been followed.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” A feminine voice sounded behind him. And when he turned around, he saw the very monster he’d just tried to assassinate. Still, he did his best to play it cool.

“J-just a frog on his way home, miss.” He hoped the slight stutter would convince her that he was just a normal person. But she didn’t seem convinced.

“Uh huh. Look, I’ve seen enough attempts on my life to know what someone looks like when they’ve failed. I know that you spiked my drink with salt. I could tell by the taste right away.”

“Wh-what?! I-I would never! Why would you accuse me of such a horrible thing?” Instead of answering him, the monster just grabbed him and reached into her pocket. Charli flinched, thinking she was about to pull out a weapon when instead, she pulled out a military badge!

“Not buying it. I’m officially arresting you on account of attempted murder. Now come quietly.” She calmly stated, wrenching his hands behind his back and pulling a pair of handcuffs out of a hidden pocket on her dress. Oh NO, he was NOT getting arrested for this!

“What?! No, you can’t do this! I’m innocent, I swear!”

“I highly doubt that. But on the off chance you are telling the truth, you can try to convince the courts of that. Good luck when I’m personally friends with The Queen herself.” Hearing that stunned Charli into silence. She had to be bluffing!

Once they got to the local police station though, the officers regarded the monster with too much respect for a mere commoner. And before long, the frog found himself in a prison cell and awaiting trial. If they found out about his actual career, he was screwed! But then, when he finally got around to talking to his new cellmate (a red newt), he felt even worse.

“Dude, you actually knew she was a human AND the salt thing is public knowledge. I might have made a miscalculation, but you're an idiot!” Apparently, this pompous salamander had tried to murder her in an alleyway a few years ago and got beaten up. And then someone actually wrote a book on it! But at this point, he just took it because he only had himself to blame for this.

If only he’d paid more attention to the world outside of his work, he might've actually gotten her…

Chapter Text

Ah, a rainy day on which there was no farmwork to be done and no places to be. A perfect day for a family project! And that was how Hopediah Plantar had gathered up his kids and sat them down to remake their family shrub.

Last year when he had attempted to do this, all three kids had been less than engaged to help. Not to mention that Anne, who had just found out she wasn’t a frog and didn’t know yet that she would still be herself in her true form, had doubted more than ever if she truly was a Plantar or not. And after finding the tunnels, those same suddenly excited kids had scribbled whatever they remembered around their ancestors’ portraits. Now that project had ended up a mess!

But now, they had been able to gather up little portraits, elegant name tags, and a small box to name some of their family members’ newly discovered accomplishments. And even some newly discovered family members. Both Sprig and Polly sat bent with their faces almost to the paper, carefully writing said feats as small and neatly as possible to fit them all in there.

Polliana: Turnip farmer, warrior of 6 local wars and rebellions, weapons expert and engineer, second coolest and most terrifying Plantar ever.

Great Uncle Skip: Professor in the genetic modification of plants, creator of monster vegetables

Great Aunt Gertrude: Master tiller, designer of the modern rake

Emma the Newt: Honorary Plantar, explorer, collector of artifacts, puzzle master

Second Cousin Alfred: Inventor of the single-tiered irrigation system, sculptor in his free time

Delicately, almost reverently, Hopediah stuck a pair of portraits to the trunk of their shrub. Two individuals who had been entirely unknown until recently and two faces they had carefully copied from a rotting journal in the deepest room of the family tunnels. A journal that was right now being restored and copied at a museum that was being erected in Lillypaddington (because Wartwood had decided it had had enough visitors for a decade, at least).

Herbert: Patriarch to the entire Plantar lineage, one of the 8 founders of Wartwood

Leif ‘Lilly’ Plantar: Matriarch of the Plantar name, thief of the Calamity Box, catalyst of the end of the Conquest Era.

Hop Pop gently ran a folding bone over the new additions, carefully making sure it was stuck on neatly and smoothly. Finally, they knew where their family name officially started. Something most families didn’t even have, with the enormous chunks of history that had been lost or even straight-up erased. There might be more before that, but Andrias had revealed the name did not even exist until his friend left the palace. Not to his knowledge, at least. The old frog frowned as he offhandedly wondered whether the old king and their friend Barrel should also be added in some way. After all, they would be far from the only outsiders who had been warmly welcomed into their family.

His eyes wandered up towards the oldest of his grandkids, currently taking great care of a separate corner of the shrub. Her grandfather’s steady, artistic hands had carefully drawn an addition to the image. A branch, coming from a tree just out of the frame, its twigs tangling with their own branch of the family.

Further up, there were a few names and images, faces Anne had only briefly seen and barely knew. Where the rest of her family tangled with their own though, two oak leaves sat right next to Hopediah’s own children. Two strange beasts, whose faces they had come to love and trust deeply, were looking back at them. Eyes full of love and kindness, while just a hint of that ferocious protectiveness was hidden in the corners of their smiles.

Oum and Bee Boonchuy: Second pair of parents, certified badasses, best Earth humans ever, we miss you

Even Hopediah felt the desire to cry at the sight of them. He missed them so much! But he also understood that they would have been strangers to this world. They would have had to start all the way from almost the bottom. Of course he would have offered them a place, but thinking about it, he wasn’t even sure where he would have had room for them.

Toadstool might have probably offered them a home to get started, but then where would Anne have lived? Would she have even liked having to move, or constantly switching between two places? Would the Boonchuys have been okay living in an extension to the Plantar house? Or even just any Amphibian house, considering a human’s different standards for cleanliness and comfort? He shook his head; he was thinking too much about things that couldn’t be changed anymore. Instead, he looked back at his granddaughter’s work.

At the very end of the branch, a single oak leaf held Anne’s picture, sat right next to Sprig, Polly, and the silhouette of a small ball with no name and the emblem of a frog skull. Anne had insisted on her unhatched sibling being included. Her own picture was split down the middle, the left side her frog face, the other her human one.

Anne Plantar-Boonchuy: Shapeshifter, warhero, possible future god, family human.

Chapter Text

Mistress looked into the ‘leaf-pondering den’ with disappointment. Neither her Mother nor Golden were here. Usually, when she couldn’t find them, here they would sit together, pondering over giant white leaves with black scratches on them. It had been three days since Mother last came to visit them in the Moth den and she missed her. She wiggled her antenna forward to smell if her Mother had been here recently, but instead she found something that was heavily laced with her scent.

Her blue and silver not-wings were hanging on the wall of the den! She instantly padded forward towards it and rubbed her face along the soft not-leaf. The scent was spread along her forehead and she already felt a little bit better and less homesick, so she took the flexible object between her teeth and gently pulled until it came down. Once it was entirely in her possession, she pinned it down with her frontmost paws and started chewing.

Usually Mother would scold her for trying to bite her not-wings. But Mother wasn’t here, so she happily drooled all over it as she savored the familiar scent. Still she did her best not to tear the delicate thing, just clumped it up a little and rolled it between her back molars.

CRACK

Oh? Mistress froze. What was that? It didn’t quite feel like a bug shell. She gently chewed again, trying to figure out what it was. More crunching sounded as she felt something solid poke her gums through the fabric. It felt a little bit closer to… Cold eyes. And there was a strange taste. Something… bitter.

And then the smell of it reached her antenna. Alarmed, she instantly spat the not-wings out! That was Mother Mucan smell! The poisonous one! She started hacking, trying to get it out, but she had already swallowed some that had mixed with her saliva. Desperate, she pawed at her maw. She didn’t want to die. She was sorry, she would never chew Mother’s wing again! She’d be good! She… felt strange.

Her body suddenly felt wrong. Her paws felt weird and slipped off her snout too easily. She… she couldn’t feel her wings and two of her legs. She tried to stand, but as she pushed up, her hind legs shot her rump way up and she ended up rolling forward over her head. And as she moved to roll over, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as it usually was. What?

As she set her legs back under her, she froze. Where were her claws? This couldn’t be right. Where was her fur? Why did her fangs feel almost nonexistent in her mouth? Why were some smells so weak while others were completely gone? Why did she smell them from everywhere? Why were the colours so bright?

Instead of trying to push back up on the only hind legs she had left, she folded them underneath her body. She found the base where they met her body was suddenly a lot stronger, strong enough that she could balance on them to bring her front paws closer to her eyes to inspect them. She turned her head from side to side anxiously, realizing that at some point things right in front of her just disappeared!

There were no claws whatsoever. Flexing her toes wouldn’t even make them pop out. And her toe flexing was so much more complicated. They were a lot longer and could flex independently. And her wrists could move in complete circles; they had never been that flexible before. They almost looked like the front paws of-

“Yeah, I’m fairly sure I saw her go in here.” Mistress flinched at the strange voice coming closer from outside. No! She was sick and vulnerable, she didn’t want to be approached! She scrambled backwards until she couldn’t go any further. Why did everything look so much bigger suddenly? She turned her body to the side and got ready to defend herself with whatever she could muster.

The not-leaf that covered the entrance was pulled aside to show a Mucan and… Golden! Mistress felt a little hope at the sight of a familiar face. Though the look she got in return was one of confusion, suspicion, and something else she couldn’t quite place. And her face was also turning red.

“Wow, okay! Who are you and why are you here?! Why are you naked?” Mistress didn’t like the wariness she was regarded with, Golden was a friend! But at the same time, her presence also made her calmer. And with the calm, came the ability to process things. And with that, came a realization.

Mellows and Mucans seemed to both use primarily sound to communicate. Over time, she had been able to discern some meaning from some series of sounds, usually things that were repeated often with clear movements or gestures, or a reward of some kind. But that didn’t mean she completely understood what it all meant. There was still no meaning to Mistress in what Golden said, but she was now noticing something.

There are some repeated sounds, subtle pauses between them, a strange rhythm and inflections in the sounds. She knew what made the meaning of smells, the tiny differences that made each of them unique and gave them meaning. Were all those little clues the subtle differences that made their sounds have meaning? Why was she only able to pick them up now?

She shook her head. No, something was still wrong. She had to let Golden know who she was. Shuffling a little more upright, she tried to meow at her. A high-pitched reverberating sound came out instead. What the-? That wasn’t even a trill! Another headshake, she tried again, only this time trying to force her strange throat into the right shape instead of relying on instinct to make the right sound. A strange moaning cry came out this time.

At least Golden looked more concerned at the sounds now, carefully shuffling a bit closer. And then there was a voice behind Golden. One that made Mistress' heart leap up in relief.

“Did you find her, Sasha? How is sh-OH MY FROG!” Mother! Mother peeked over Golden’s shoulder, only to turn red and rapidly slap a flat paw over her eyes. Mistress was confused at her reaction, but made her strange-sounding cry again to hope and get her attention. ‘Please mama, I need you!’ She watched Golden lightly paw at Mother’s arm to get her attention.

“Anne, I think I need your help with this one. Something here seems really wrong.” Mother lowered her hand after those words, face still red, but her mouth pulling into that strange, gently-intended slash of her fang tips as she walked forward and knelt down halfway across the room.

“Hey there. Are you okay? Can you tell me your name?” Concern, that was something Mistress could recognize from the way she made her noises. But she didn’t seem to recognize her. Mistress whimpered at that realization.

It sounded strange, but it felt like she was supposed to when whimpering. She sounded more like a scared Mucan than a Moth. She shifted to get back on her four limbs, still trying not to push up too high on her hind legs, and clumsily tried to shuffle forward. Sure, something was wrong and she knew she must look a bit different, but surely Mother would know who she was. She had to!

“Hhhh. Hmmmm.”

“Yeah, okay, something is wrong here. Do you know where she came from?”

“I don’t know! Somebody said they saw your kill-a-moth go in here, but when I got here I found her instead! But nobody saw the moth leave.” Suddenly, Mother went very still before turning back to Mistress slowly. This time, a look of consideration. She looked her over very carefully, eyes searching for something. Please. Please!

Mother moved forward slowly. Mistress sat back down, too upset to try and continue her slow, awkward shuffle. When she looked back up she saw Mother was almost right in front of her now. She was so much taller than before, almost like she was a kitten again. But she looked strange. Blurry. Did she get sand in her eyes? She lifted her strange paws up to her eyes to rub it out, instead finding…water? That was the opposite of sand! Where did it come from?

As she tried to rub more, she felt something gently grab hold of her paws. She was just able to make out her Mother before her vision got cloudy again. Blinking helped a little, so she did it more instead. Mother's hands felt strange, in a way that was even a little unsettling and warmer than usual. Nonetheless, she grabbed hold with all her might, using her agile digits as claws and hanging on with all her might.

Mother pulled gently upwards and Mistress followed. Even when she had to push up on her hind legs to follow. She was surprised by how easily her hips allowed for the movement. She even found she could put force on them and balance, like the Mellows and Mucans. Come to think of it, as she looked down where her legs and body were supposed to be, it kind of looked like a black and white Mucan.

Mother brought her paws back down between them, rubbing her opposable digit along her own in comfort. (Oh wait, she had those too, now? Okay.) She looked at the Moth-Mucan closely, really taking her in, before opening her mouth. It sounded uncertain, yet it made her heart leap.

“Charlie2?” That was her! Her sound name! She had to answer! But how? She thought back feverishly. To little Mucan kittens, the sounds they made. To the sounds she heard as they ran back to their own broodmothers. A sound to with their broodmothers answered.

“Hmmmm. Hmmmma.” She sought the sound in her new throat. It took a moment, but once she found it, it came so easily. Like the sound was meant to come to her easily.

“Mmmaaam. Mam-a. Mama!” Mother’s eyes lit up. Yes! Mistress instantly let herself fall forward, rubbing her cheek against her Mother’s neck just like when she was a kitten. And to her relief, she felt long limbs wrap around her too, lifting her into her Mother’s lap and holding her close in kind. She nuzzled even harder, more water coming from her eyes as she clawed her digits into her not-leaves for dear life. Mother’s paw gently started to rub along her back, but to her dismay, it didn’t feel as good as it was supposed to. Even more water began to drop from her eyes and even her snout.

“Oh my poor precious baby! What happened? Is this because of a potion? How did you even get one of my potions?!” Anne held on to the crying milk frog in her arms. It had been so long since she had been able to hold Charlie2 like this, even if she felt a little bigger now. Sure, some part of her brain registered it was a bit awkward to be holding a naked frog who looked to be in her late twenties, especially since the human knew she was older than her moth, but she was crying, flailing helplessly, and probably so terrified.

She was aware that Sasha was moving around her, but she only really looked up at a rustle and some light clinking. The blonde was examining the blue cloak she had picked off the ground. Anne swore she had hung it up, though. When some glass fell out of the folds, the other human froze, looked a bit closer, and sighed. When she turned it around, the brunette flinched.

The inside pockets of her cloak were ruined! The fabric mostly seemed okay, but the baskets that were supposed to protect her potions were splintered and undone, glass stuck between the weave. All over it, there was a yellow, glowing stain.

“Oh, Charlie2.” Once her cloak was picked free of glass and whicker, Anne wrapped it around her transformed pet and sat her down on her lap at their table. A few curious Amphibians had tried to take a peek inside at the frog-ified animal, but Sasha had sent them all away sternly. Right now she did not need even more stimulation and confusion.

She did seem to like wearing the cloak, all wrapped up and hidden right under the hood. And of course she was happy as a clam to snuggle against Anne’s body, making little noises that sounded like something between croaks and trills. The poor thing looked absolutely ragged after all the crying she did. And now she was studying the pencil Anne was twirling in her hand.

“We gotta decide what to do with her, though.” Sasha mumbled, looking at the strange frog that was handling everything around her with the cluelessness of an animal, yet differently than when she was a moth. Just seeing the effects of a potion on an entirely feral species was fascinating, but she would not experiment on Anne’s ‘baby precious’.

“I mean, the potion will wear off on its own, so it’ll sort itself out.”

“But still, look at her. She’s got anxiety. You told me your body felt wrong the first time you turned back into a human and we and frogs have roughly the same body shape. She’s missing two whole pairs of limbs for Frog’s sake! That can’t be comfortable, right? She can’t stay like that for thirty-two hours.”

“I mean, yeah, probably. But, I don’t want to give her a berry and make her hate me because it hurts!” Anne was momentarily distracted from arguing at a small clack of wood. She looked down to see Charlie2 had found a pencil of her own and was waving it around in an attempt to copy her ‘mama’. She clicked her tongue to get the false frog’s attention, showing her how to hold the pencil correctly. As once more she copied her, she got a little idea.

Pulling over a leaf of paper she set her own pencil onto it and doodled a little heart. Charlie2’s eyes widened at the sight, processing how the objects interacted. Then she set the tip of her own pencil down and pulled it over the paper to draw a line. Soon she was distracted with scribbling, so Anne turned back to their conversation.

“I just don’t want to hurt her, period!” Suddenly being pulled back to their conversation, Sasha shook her head from where she too had been watching the frog-moth (a froth?) turn the paper into a maze without a solution.

“Still, it is gonna hurt when she turns back, regardless of what method you use. I just think it’s best not to let her change back when she doesn’t expect it. And while it could be interesting to see what else the potions do to the behavior of an animal, one: I don’t think you want your pet to be the one that’s being experimented on. And two: Marcy seems like a better human to do that kind of research. And she’d probably know better how to help a changed animal adjust.

Anne balled her hands into fists. She knew Sasha was right, but that didn’t help how she felt at all. The thought of her baby in pain, looking at her with betrayal, it made her skin crawl. She was pulled from those thoughts when a soft, slimy hand gently swatted at her cheek.

Looking down, she met red eyes with horizontal pupils that appeared to have a cross running overtop. Her hand started tapping at the paper, a goofy smile on her lips. Following her prompt Anne noticed that all around the initial scribbles she had copied the heart she made a bunch of times. Even though she would never do it with another frog, she started tickling her cheeks.

“Did you just make that? Oh, good job my little girl! Look how well you did that!” Actually… that did give her an idea. After another few minutes to explain things to Sasha, making sure Charlie2 was completely calm, and getting another potion and some berries, the trio stood in a more open area of the room.

“Are you sure you wanna go with a newt potion? You’ve only trained with that like, two times, including that mishap at the dinner. You could just take a frog potion and pretend it hurts.” Anne shook her head at those words, determined.

“No, I want her to understand what is going to happen, that it will hurt but it will also help. And if she’s going to be in pain, I want to make it fair to her.” Sasha bit back a comment that made no sense, especially when her next words did. “And besides, I have to train for this to become less painful anyway, so that’s another reason why it won’t be for nothing.”

With those words, Anne downed the entire contents of the bottle. Within seconds she was shrinking slightly, her pinky finger retracting into her hand, her skin turning blue, and a long tail slithered out from under her skirt.

Mistress watched the change in fascination. Was that how Mother changed? With day-eye-water in a crystal stick? Wait, day-eye… She pulled at Mother’s not-wing that she had wrapped around her. There was a day-eye colored stain in it. The not-wing she had chewed on and then she had tasted the poison Mother’s mucan forms smelled like. Poison that Mother had just swallowed, and then she turned into one of her Mucan forms.

Mistress looked to a corner of the room, where there was a strange door. One that showed a Mellow that looked like Golden, and two Mucans, of which one looked like Mother. Sometimes there was a Mellow that looked like Mother there too, and almost always a Moth with the same colours as Mistress. But she could never smell any of them.

At first the other Moth had snarled at her when she did, but as Mother would always pull her away and reassure her, she instead tried being nice to the strange Moth. And if she was nice to her, she was nice back too. Whenever she tried to go over to play with the other moth though, she would use her paws or head to stop her from coming through the door. It was so silly.

Now though, there stood a black and white Mucan with red eyes. It had a blue not-wing around their body, just like… she did. She slowly lifted her hand to see the Mucan do the same, at the exact same time, in the exact same way. Just like the other Moth would.

She had drunk the Mucan poison, and now there was a Mucan looking back at her instead of a Moth. Wobbling a little on her hind legs, she saw the Mucan came closer too. Right until they were both close to the ‘door’. She reached out a paw to the Mucan, they did the same again. When she touched her, she felt cold. As she moved her paw, she felt her pads rub something, instead of the constant pressure of touching something that moved along.

Was that a crystal? And was that…her? She moved around a bit more, watching the other Mucan follow her exactly. She even let the not-wing around her fall open so she could compare the stripes and spots on her limbs. They were exactly the same, the other her touching the exact same ones in the same places. How was the crystal showing her to herself?

She saw her other Mother come forward too and stand next to her while the other Golden stayed back and stared with interest. A look behind her revealed the real Golden had indeed the same expression. And then she started poking Mother next to her instead, watching the other Mistress touch those same places on her other Mother. It really was her! Was that how others saw her now?

After a little while, real Mother drew her attention again with a whistle. Once she gave her her full attention, she took out something small. It looked like a small fruit and as she moved closer, it actually smelled a little tasty for once. Before she could reach out to try it though, Mother pulled it back a little. She took a step back, exaggeratedly biting the fruit and swallowing it. And then Mother’s eyes suddenly went wide and she fell to her knees.

Mistress almost tripped as she tried to go to her to help, but then she was changing again. It looked and sounded like she was hurting, cries worse than she had ever heard before echoing through the small den. And then, as they grew softer, Mother was a Mellow again. Golden moved to her and comforted her until Mother felt well enough to get back up. And then, she offered Mistress one of the fruits.

Did she want her to change into a Mellow too? Or would it make her a Moth again? She thought it over for a moment. The pain seemed bad. But she didn’t want to be a Mucan forever. Even just being a slightly stronger Mellow like Mother seemed better. Eventually she took it.

She took a few deep breaths before finally using her front paw to place it in her maw. She made sure to bite down on the small ball (lightly pinching her digits in the process) just like Mother showed her, and swallowed. The pain was just as fast as with Mother, and she cried out! She screeched, falling down.

She hadn’t even noticed changing into a Mucan until after she calmed a little, but now she felt all of it! Her claws tearing through her paws, barbs through her tongue, her skin itching as hair grew through. Her sides hurt and cramped as she found she could move things there again, beating at the air and clawing the ground. At least it was over soon and her body, now feeling familiar again, shook with the aftershock.

After a moment, she realized something was holding her head. Mother’s voice was in her ear and eye-water being rubbed into her fur. Was that her? She felt smaller again. She looked up to see that, yes, she was indeed smaller. She tried to listen to her sounds for comfort, but she noticed that it was starting to turn into continuous tones again instead of the rhythm she had been able to pick up before. But if she really tried, she could just barely make it out. 

Wait, if she was smaller than her now, did that mean Mistress was a Moth again? Looking down she saw six legs, wings, fur, and a large abdomen. She looked back to the crystal ‘door’ to see… a black and white moth with red wings with her head being hugged by other Mother! Oh, thank the sky-eyes! She kept looking at herself a bit more though, and she saw something behind the other her. Something blue and silver. She looked to where the thing lay in relation to the other her and, yes, there were Mother’s not-wings.

She shuddered. She swore to never chew on not-wings, not-leaves, or not-fur ever again…

Chapter Text

Everybody in the Plantar home jumped when their front door was violently kicked open and into the wall!

“ANNE, HOLY F*CK!” Said girl instantly stuck her head out of the kitchen at the alarm in her blonde friend’s voice. Her fellow human zeroed in on her in an instant, taking eight giant steps to stand in front of her, and grabbed her shoulders. The next words out of her mouth sent Anne’s mind reeling.

“Anne, I need you to teach me how to be an older sister! Like, right now!” Something in Anne’s brain crunched, trying to make sense of the implication of those words.

“Wait, wha?”

“Wait! You mean? Percy and Braddock?” Even though it was Hop Pop who spoke the words, Sasha’s eyes did not move to look away from Anne. But her chest puffed up with a deep breath, which was let out all at once in an anxious near-scream.

“YEP!” With that, Anne finally processed the information and a huge smile stretching across her face.

“Wait, you’re getting a little sibling? AAAAAAAAAH, oh my gosh that’s awesome!”

“No it’s not!!!” That reply instantly took the wind out her sails. She looked at Sasha’s face, really looked this time, now noticing the tears sitting in her eyes. Notably the fear, the shake in her arms, and the slump in her shoulders. Okay, clearly she hadn’t been excited like she’d originally thought.

“Sasha, are you okay?” She felt dumb for asking as soon as the words left her mouth. Well, it was one way to start figuring out what was up, but maybe not the best one for the moment or for Sasha. The blonde shook her back and forth in frustration.

“No I’m not okay! I can't be a big sister! Most experience I’ve had with kids is manipulating them, organizing them into a coup against teachers, and rallying the braver of them into an army. And those were all either my age or at least old enough to handle themselves. Heck, I even have more experience trying to kill a kid than taking care of them.” The girl finally let go, only to start pacing back and forth.

“What if they don’t even like me? I mean I’m sixteen, that's such a big age-gap. We won't have anything in common, they're gonna think I’m too adult and boring. Or even worse, they’re gonna think I’m scary! I don't even think I’d want them to become a soldier like me. What could I possibly offer them? There's so many jobs they’re gonna be able to pick from now and I can't give them advice on any of them!”

“Ohoho and we haven't even talked about them being a tadpole first! What if I hurt them? What if I set a bad example? What if I mentally mess them up? What do I do if they start crying or get hurt and mom and dad aren't there? What if I take my eyes off them for just a second and they set the house on fire, or get snatched by a bird, or a tree falls on them, or-”

As she passed her again, Anne caught her friend’s arms and pulled them out of the path she had started to wear into their floor with her boots. So her worry was less her not wanting a sibling, and more being scared of doing things wrong. Good, that was at least something they could work with.

“Hoooo there Sash, that’s a lot of worries over things you don’t even know if they'll be a problem. Come here, breathe.” With those words she let her hands drop to take her fellow human’s own instead, gently pulling her towards the couch. Sensing her intent, Sasha let her pull her towards it, sitting next to her. She took a moment to follow Anne’s advice and calm her breathing. She realized she hadn’t been breathing normally ever since getting the news for the whole flight to Wartwood, as black spots danced in front of her eyes.

Of course Anne would be right. That’s why she came here, after all. She knew she could always lean on her friend. Literally too, she realized with a little huff as Anne steadied her when she swayed a little. A glass of water was gently pressed into her hand a second later, a look down revealing Hop Pop was in fact still in the room. She noticed the rest of the Plantars taking their preferred places to listen in, but this time she welcomed it as each of them might actually have something useful to weigh in with.

“I know the gap between you and Polly isn’t as big, but you were still old enough to remember her being a baby and helping take care of one, right? Just, like, could you give me a checklist of everything I need to do? When can we start bootcamp?” Anne smiled softly at her, an amused little puff leaving through her nose.

“It’s not that easy, Sash. And yet at the same time, it’s also a lot easier than you imagine.”

“... That… makes no sense.”

“Well, handling a kid isn’t like… like learning the perfect technique to do a combat move or something. If anything, it’s like swords.” That actually got Sasha to smile slightly, tilting her head in confusion.

“Are you… seriously trying to use a military metaphor to teach me about tadpoles?”

“Hey, I mean, if you’re confused, I gotta speak your language, right?” Sasha gave her a shove in the shoulder for that, but found herself chuckling along with the brunette all the same. She saw what she was doing now, and it did help a little.

“Alright then, I’ll bite. How are tadpoles like swords?”

“Every sword is made different and so you’ve gotta handle them differently. For a two-handed you need, as the name suggests, to hold on with both hands to be able to lift it. But they can deliver a lot of power. Meanwhile, a scimitar flies fast and needs some improvisation to move smoothly. And even two of the same sword can have a different grip or balance, which you need to adjust to, even if it was made just for you.

“You could wield my sword just fine, though you would find it more cumbersome and too slow; meanwhile I would cut myself if I tried to handle your twin blades. What I’m saying is that you won’t know what sword your sibling is going to be, so there is no one correct way to handle them. And as they get older and you ‘sharpen’ their skills and mind, that way of handling them will change. But it’ll be slow enough that you can adjust just as you would with an actual blade. There are some ‘proper sword techniques’ that I could definitely help you with, but outside of that, it’s a lot of trial and error you’re gonna have to just feel out. It won't exactly be easy, but it’s definitely not as hard as you’re imagining.”

“But… what if I do something wrong?” Sasha wondered, wringing her hands in her lap. The words Hop Pop interjected with left her perplexed.

“Oh ya most certainly will, but ‘n almost all cases, that’s no drama. In those cases, ya just have ta make sure you can admit you’re wrong. It’ll get ya the kid’s respect and make them feel like you respect them as well. And ya gotta remember you aren’t the one takin’ care of the kid alone. Yer parents are supposed to be the primary caregivers and you can help and be there for them when they need you. But in the end both you kids should be relying on them, not your sibling solely on you.”

That thought… actually helped a little. Just the knowledge that she could ask her parents if she was uncertain, and that she could learn from them. They had raised a tadpole before after all and how much harder could this one be than herself? But that left one more worry that, though maybe trivial, meant something to her.

“And, what if they don’t like me? What if we have nothing in common and they think I’m just another nagging adult?”

“Hm, I think those first few years they’re gonna think you’re the coolest thing ever.” Sprig’s words clashed a little with his deadpan voice.

“I mean, as a tadpole I always thought Anne was the coolest just for being older and being able to do ‘older kid stuff’. After that Anne was cool for being a cool creature who could do super cool things. And even if at times you have to tell the kid ‘no’, babies are just dramatic and one day they’re gonna appreciate the skills you taught them, even if at the time they felt like you were ‘cramping their style.”

“Speak for yourself.” Polly mumbled from the side, only for Sprig to gesture towards her.

“Behold, my own childhood attitude.”

“And what about-?”

“Getting along?” Polly butted in once more. “I absolutely hate spa days and getting pretty, and unlike me Anne is horrible with technology made by and for her own species. And on the ‘no’ thing, she stopped me from ‘Mission Imposible’ing the entire cookie jar-”

“You WHAT!?” Polly flinched at her grandfather’s outburst, instant regret crossing her face, before she continued in the hopes of steering the topic away again.

“... And didn’t tell Hop Pop apparently. Still love that girl. LOVE YA ANNE AND THANKS!” Sasha turned to Anne as her face was contorted into sympathetic pain over Polly’s self-report, but still gave her a smile and thumbs up. Her head was snapped around once again as her brother decided he still had something to add.

“And even if the kid is gonna be a bit scared seeing you in human form for the first time, most tadpoles here love Anne. Even the ones that cried when they first saw her! Though I am gonna suggest you show your true form as soon as possible. Newlyhatched kinda pick up on if someone wants to hurt or protect them. Most tadpoles in town actually think Anne is the coolest because she has beaten practically anything they are scared of at least once.”

“Except thunder.”

“Except thunder.” Sasha chuckled slightly at the frog siblings’ exchange. She was still a bit nervous, but at least what they had all said helped her rationalize her situation. Things were still a bit overwhelming, but she was gonna have to figure that out as it came at her. Nice and slow, instead of facing it all at once. Yeah, she faced herons and armies and had to care for an entire village, surely she could figure this out too.

She took another deep breath, focussing on letting her shoulders drop all the way down, feeling the most relaxed she had been since getting the news. Not completely relaxed, but a lot better.

“Thanks you guys, that actually helped.” Anne gave her hand a light squeeze.

“You ready to face this as something good instead of the end of the world?” 

“Yeah… Yeah, I think I can.”

“Good. Now, how far is Braddock along? Do your parents have a registry for the tadpole presenting? Are there any baby names on the table yet?” Sasha was once more taken aback by just how excited Anne seemed over the idea of a tadpole in the future, but this time she felt amused rather than frustrated.

“I’m not sure actually.”

“Huh? How come?”

“They just… kinda told me I was going to be a big sister, so I just came straight to the only good big sister I know to learn how to be one too.”

“Did you at least tell them where you went and why?”

“...No?” At that single word Anne’s face suddenly became extremely serious. Her brows furrowed and the muscles around her eyes gave this strange twitch that suddenly made them look sunken. What was going on here? After a few seconds of just looking at the blonde like that in silence, the brunette finally spoke.

“So you’re telling me, that after they told you they were having a baby, you likely just gave them a blank look, silently turned around, got on Grimm, and flew off?”

“Yeaooooooooh noooooo.” Sasha breathed as she slowly realized the blunder she had just made. She instantly leapt off the couch and back through the door, straight for her loyal kill-a-moth.

“Now, what was that about ‘Mission Impo-” Sasha didn’t stop to listen to the rest of Hop Pop’s lecture, or even smile as she heard Polly’s scream. She grabbed hold of her mount’s collar, dully noting that someone with warm hands grabbed hold of her waist behind her and spurred the moth into flight. All that went through her head on the way home were a coluorful string of curses.

Once the familiar house (in a toad town that was being built between Wartwood and the old tower) came into view, she didn’t even wait for the moth to land before jumping off and making a sprint for the door. Much like earlier that day she threw open the front door. The sight inside made her stomach sink and her heart ache. Her father kneeling in front of her mother with her hands in his own, and her mother in a chair with tears in her eyes. They had both looked up startled at the sudden noise, but he had clearly been in the process of comforting her. The human instantly leapt forward, wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck.

“Oh my Frog, mom, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to, I panicked! I should have told you! Please don’t cry!” She startled slightly when her father wrapped his arms around the both of them, his hold was gentle even if his voice was stern.

“What was that for Sasha?! You scared your mother half to death! We thought you were mad and running away or something!”

“I wasn’t, I swear! When I heard, I just kept on thinking of everything that could go wrong and what I would do wrong. I-I thought if I went to Anne and talked to someone who knew how to be a big sister better, she could give me training on how to do things right.”

“Yep, she just barged through our door, one foot into a panic attack, asking me to put her through a ‘big sibling bootcamp’ or something.” The toad family’s heads all shot up at the sound to see Anne stand at their threshold. Oh yeah, Anne had come with her, hadn’t she? Sasha rubbed her wrists along her eyes to find them wet as she pulled back. Her mother’s arms were instantly around her as well, lightly nuzzling her temple.

“Oh sweetie, are you okay? Is it all a bit too much? Maybe we could talk to that therapist guy that moved here to-”

“No. Well, maybe at some point, just to be sure. But the Plantars already talked me down from most of my worries.” Sasha felt her dad let go of their huddle to stand up and properly greet the other human.

“Thanks a bunch, Anne. I’m just glad Sasha had someone to go to about this. Even if she did give us quite a scare, leaving without a word.” Sasha did feel a slight sting at those words, but granted, she deserved it.

“Hey, no problem Mister Vors. Though I did tell Sasha I’d help instruct her on some basic things and some points she needs to keep in mind as a human. And of course I want to ask all the questions. Do you have any idea when you guys are due?”

“I told you before, you’re welcome enough to be on a first name basis. And the egg is already here, actually.” Sasha shot up a little at that revelation. Surely her scare hadn’t…

“Wait and you only told Sasha today?”

“In our defense, we didn’t actually know I was gravid. My symptoms were so mild we thought I just had a flu and with how large we are and how small our eggs are, it isn’t easy to tell when toads are gravid in the first place.” Braddock interjected gently, then she got up. Everyone watched her walk slowly to a corner where Sasha now noticed a tiny little blanket fort of sorts. One of her hands reached inside to pull out a bucket, and just inside she saw something round and shiny rock back and forth as water swished. Her heart seized for a moment.

Braddock held the bucket securely to her chest as she brought it closer. Sasha almost felt like running again as she realized the fragile thing was being brought closer to her, but instead she forced herself to stay rooted to the ground. Once the bucket was set in front of her, she got a good view of the gel-like ball inside, a tiny, shiny black dot in its center. She didn’t dare move at first, a problem Anne clearly didn’t have.

“Awww, they’re so tiny and cute. Can I hold ‘em?” Braddock hesitated for a moment before smiling.

“I’d really want for Sasha to hold them first, but sure, after her you can have a turn too.” the brunette gasped and… shoved her hands into Braddock’s face. Sasha stared for a moment as the human started rubbing the mucus that stuck to her hands all the way down her arms to her sleeves. Sasha almost wondered if that was normal, until she saw her mom and dad had equally perplexed faces.

“Uhm, Anne?” The addressed girl looked up, noticed the faces that stared back at her, and flinched slightly.

“Oh, right. First lesson Sash: While on Earth I read the frogs there are way more sensitive to the salts and oils and stuff on human skin. And I have noticed a few times with really young tadpoles that they get itchy if I touch them for too long. So I actually like to get another Amphibian’s slime coat into my arms before I hold an egg or newlyhatched in human form, just to be safe.

Sasha instantly wiped her own hands over her father’s face and mimicked her friend’s actions. Her mother seemed to see it as a sign her daughter was ready, making her heart race in anxiety when claws gently lifted the egg up.

“Now, Sweetie, don’t try to ‘press’ the egg in place, it’s so slippery and flexible that it’ll slip out of your hands and shoot away. Just put your arm or hand close to your body and use your other hand to make sure the egg doesn’t roll off. Then let it sit there, alright?” Sasha’s arm was instantly up to her chest and her hand at the ready. Braddock came even closer until she could roll the little ball onto her arm. As soon as she felt the weight settle, her hand was up and hovering just over the slimy surface with the anxiety of ‘launching’ her little sibling.

“Oooooh, hello there little guy. This is your big sis Sash. And I’m your aun- Wait, can I be aunty Anne?” Sasha heard Anne coo even more over the egg in her arms. Her mom answered something too, but it was all starting to sound like cotton in her ears.

Her focus was entirely on the tiny form in her arms. It was so small. So vulnerable. She wondered if it could feel the heat from her skin and the rapid beating of her heart. Was it safe for it to stay out of the water for this long?

Her breath stopped as the shape inside twitched, just the tiniest little wiggle. For now, the shape was formless, hardly anything that resembled a toadlet or even a tadpole. And yet it moved around restlessly. Very, very slowly, to make sure she didn’t put too much pressure, she rested her fingers on the smooth, sticky surface.

“It’s okay,” She heard herself whisper, “I got you.”

The form soon settled again, calmed and content…

Chapter Text

Marcy’s mind blanked for nearly a minute as she tried to process what she was looking at. It had come out of nowhere, completely unsolicited. And on top of that, it was just plain hideous!

In front of her was a giant gold (or at least gold coloured) statue that depicted herself kissing another newt. The more she looked at it, the more issues she noticed and it just kept on getting worse.

“Well, your majesty, what do you think?” The somewhat nasally voice beside her pierced through. The princess turned her head to look, realizing that the other newt depicted in the statue was the very one she was looking at. Oh no.

“Oh. Um. Oh. Uh. It. It’s. Oh. Well. Uh. Hmm. It’s… how do I put this? I… I’m flattered that you went through the trouble.” She was having issues figuring out how to politely reject his advances. Something like this before she even knew the guy was way too much! If only Sasha were here; she’d always been better with people.

“Isn’t it wonderful? I had the greatest artisan in Newtopia craft it from scratch, exactly according to my specifications.”

“It’s very… ornate?”

“But of course! No expense spared for you, your majesty.” He gave a light bow, smiling at Marcy. All the while, the princess was trying to figure out how to get out of this situation without being too rude. And what was she supposed to even do with this thing? Maybe she could toss it in the basement for the shadowfish to play with?

There was no way she could actually display something as ridiculous as this in the palace. Especially when she already knew that she wasn’t interested in this guy! Sminny Greenskin (ironic name, as he was actually blue) was far too self-absorbed for her. Heck, she knew that he only got this made in order to have something that he could live vicariously through. And while that wouldn’t normally be an issue, did it really have to depict another person?

But when Marcy really thought about what kind of person Sminny was, she knew she already had her answer. He wasn’t necessarily evil, just uncaring about anyone besides himself. In fact, she knew for certain that if it weren’t for her status, he’d never have even noticed her. And this certainly wasn’t the first time having to deal with him and his nonsense.

Marcy was too kind to have him arrested for trespassing despite how many times he’d wandered into the castle in an attempt to find and woo her. He’d never put her in danger, after all. But the one time there was an issue (that her guards easily dealt with), he’d fled the scene out of fear instead of staying to see the outcome. He’d never done anything directly malicious, so she wanted to be polite. But there was no way he’d ever actually manage to woo her. While she was trying to come up with a follow-up, he decided to continue.

“Ah, I see you’re so awestruck by the beauty of the idea this presents, that you’re at a loss for words! But you know, it could easily be a reality. Come my dear princess!” He grabbed her hand and dropped to one knee.

“My love for you knows no bounds and it would make me the happiest newt in all of Amphibia if you were to take my hand in marriage.” Hearing that, Marcy began to internally scream. No, no, no, no, NO! Absolutely NOT!! She knew full well that the only thing he was in love with was her position of power. On top of that, grabbing her hand like that disgusted her even more than Aldrich’s action did!

She’d wanted to be gentle, but clearly it’d gone too far! And now that she was panicking, she couldn’t keep a straight face anymore.

“M-my dear sweet princess, whatever is the matter?” So she couldn’t be subtle anymore. She’d tried to be pleasant. She’d tried to be amiable. She’d tried to be considerate. But clearly, none of that stuff got through to him!

As she began to panic even more, a sudden wave of cold collectedness washed over her. And in an instant, she stood stock still. Her face dropped into a deadpan expression and all emotion drained away from her voice.

“You’re being an idiot. You’re so blind to my rejections that you keep on coming back, proving that you don’t actually listen to what I say. I know that you only care about my position, not about me. In fact, I’ve seen you cringe at the very idea of a human. And to go so far as to deface my image with something as putrid as this statue? It’s more of an insult than anything else.

“Heed my order: Leave and never return to this palace. I never want to see your gold-digging tail again!” Sminny was stunned at her command, but before he could say anything, the princess cut him off.

“NOW!!” Her shout alerted the guards, who came running in to detain whoever was upsetting her. And within a matter of moments, the blue newt was being dragged away while shouting confused obscenities. Just as the last guard was about to go with the group, the princess reached out to him in order to grab his attention.

“Break this insulting thing down and distribute the wealth among all of the frog-centric charities I endorse. I want to line the pockets of the historically most oppressed group with the gold of a newt as pompous as him. I also never want to see this thing again.” She coldly commanded. It was unlike her to seem so callous towards a gift, but one look at the thing made everyone aware of exactly why it would distress her so much.

She then left the room, making for her own bedroom. Once inside, she shook her head and gasped! She’d never acted like that before! Where did that come from?! Sure, it was effective, but it was so unlike her! And she hadn’t even felt like she was the one doing it, just watching it happen in stunned silence. Marcy was terrified of what just happened, but a part of her was also relieved at how she won’t be having to deal with Sminny again.

But the question still remained of where the heck that came from…

Chapter Text

Another day, another round of tending to Queen Marcy’s hair. Dewey Sune was ever so grateful for the opportunity to help someone of such a high standing, too! In fact, in being The Queen’s personal hairdresser, he suddenly saw a major uptick in clientele. Everyone wanted his services simply for his standing alone. Although it did help that he was actually pretty good at his job.

Eventually, Anne and Sasha both came by to stay the night and her majesty requested him to tend to them in turn. Anne was more than happy, knowing how long the two of them had known each other. And once Sasha was informed of that, (plus showing off his old salt burn scar) she trusted him in turn. By this point, he had learned how to deal with the harsh hair cleaning chemicals and so he was able to help them with no issues whatsoever!

It was a good thing that he got an advance warning, though. He remembered trying to use Anne’s shampoo and conditioner recipes, only to find out that it didn’t have the best effects on Marcy’s hair. But seeing as they had different textures and her majesty was patient enough, he was eventually able to rework the formula to fit her. With the knowledge that Anne was on her way, he was able to just use the original version.

The challenge came with Sasha’s hair. While hair like hers (long and straight) was familiar enough to him, there was still the problem of trying to make sure he used the right chemicals. He didn’t have too much time to make it, so he had to just trust his gut on what he managed to turn out. Thankfully, it seemed Sasha was willing to undergo an experiment or two with stuff like that. As for the cut, a slight trim was all she actually needed.

“Aaaaaand there you go, Sasha. Now, once your hair dries off, you make sure to take a look in a mirror and let me know if you like it.”

“Well, the cut’s really nice and the others seem to trust you, so I will too!”

“You flatter me! But with that, I’ll be off now.”

“Thanks Dewey!” Marcy shouted after him as he left. If it turned out that he messed up, then he didn’t want to be around for the initial anger. And if he had actually succeeded, then he’d be able to find her later. But seeing as that was the last of his work for the night, he decided to simply turn in.

Roughly three hours later, Anne and Marcy were looking at Sasha in awe. And when the blonde looked into The Queen’s bedroom mirror, she saw why. Her hair was absolutely magnificent! Her blonde locks shone brighter than she ever expected and the volume it held framed her face like a glorious mane.

“Woooow, that kid’s good.” She mused while running her fingers through her freshly dried hair.  It was soft, silky, smooth, and flowing with a slight waviness that she’d never expected to see in her hair. Usually, her hair looked somewhat spiky due to the amount of oil and slime that permeated it. Seeing as it had been that way for her whole life, she didn’t realize that using the right set of chemicals would make it look like this!

Sure, she’d tried Anne’s own formulas, but while those would clean her hair, they never gave her any volume! She figured that was because Anne’s own hair was already so curly that she didn’t need anything like that. So with that hairdresser’s own formula, it turned out different.

“Well Sasha, there’s a reason why I straight-up invited him to live in the castle! I like to try new styles every now and then and he has a particular fondness for human hair.” Marcy told her, with Anne piping up immediately afterwards.

“The first human hair he touched was mine. And that was on the same day he got that big scar on his arm. I’ve told you about the salt flood that happened before we met, where I saved two kids, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, Dewey Sune and his sister were those two kids! They and their father actually lived with The Resistance during the war, so I was a little surprised you didn’t recognize him.”

“WAIT, THAT’S WHO HE WAS?!” She shouted, whipping her head in the brunette’s direction.

“Yeah? Are you okay, Sasha?”

“UGH!! I’m so mad at myself for forgetting about him. And after seeing how amazing my hair turned out, I’ve gotta make it up to him!”

“Shhh, in the morning Sash. He deserves a good night’s sleep, doesn’t he?” Marcy interjected, calming the blonde. The Queen was right. After having figured out how to make her hair look so amazing, that young man deserved all the rest he needed.

Come morning, Sasha found that all she needed was a quick brushing and her hair still looked just as amazing as it had the night before. So immediately following breakfast, she made her way over to the chamber Marcy pointed her towards. And with barely contained excitement, she knocked on his door.

“Dewey Sune? It’s Sasha, I need you to see what you did to my hair.” She called out. And while the words along might’ve sounded intimidating, she made sure that her tone held as much happiness as it could. After hearing a little bit of a rustle coming from inside, she saw the door open.

“Y-yes, Sasha? May I- oh.” He stopped for a moment, taking in the result of his work. Sure, he’d put in a bit more of that concoction that gave Marcy a little extra volume, but he wasn’t expecting it to take such a strong hold of hair as long as Sasha’s! He figured the length alone would be enough to weigh it down. He was about to comment on it, but the blonde beat him to the punch.

“Dewey, you have GOT to do my hair more often! I had all night to think of a good deal for you too! I know that you’ve got a really cushy job here in the castle, but should you ever want an escort to a more remote location like Wartwood, you need only call on me. I may not be as rich as the literal Queen of Amphibia, but I can still pay a pretty copper for your services and-”

“Sasha, it’s okay. I already make occasional trips out to Wartwood to tend to Anne’s hair, even if it’s been getting rarer lately. But I can easily take care of yours whenever you want. Working on human hair is one of my greatest challenges and achievements as a hairdresser and I’d be honoured to be your hairdresser of choice.”

It took Sasha a couple of seconds to process what he had just said, but once she did, a huge grin appeared on her face! Giggles escaped her, despite the fact that she was a grown woman and after a short back-and-forth about the exact details, she headed off. Now, left with the confirmation that that exact cocktail of chemicals worked, he filed the recipe away in a special folder. Not before writing a couple of notes about how it turned out, of course. Finally, all of the humans of Amphibia were his regular clients.

No other hairdresser could top his success at this point…

Chapter Text

The winds swirled all around the arctic plane that Valeriana had made her home. It was exceedingly hostile towards all living things, but that just made it perfect for a ghost like her. No one disturbed her while she worked and the few times that someone did make it far enough, it was either someone worth saving or she could just leave them to be covered up by the snow.

As guilty as she felt about the current state of Amphibia, she knew that not everyone was a good person. Of course, some of those people were shaped by their life circumstances into being bad and that had to be considered. Just like how, back in the era of invasions, plenty of people thought it was completely fine because they were just raised to believe that. But there were still some people who would indeed step all over another person just to get ahead.

She had to remind herself of this as she passed by yet another body bearing the crest of Andrias’ army. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear he was getting closer and closer to finding her. But her occasional appearance in the Bizzare Bazzar kept him off of her trail due to the amount of places it showed up and the few of his cronies who actually arrived in this area to look for her were the rare ones. There was no way he actually managed to detect her all the way out here.

Regardless, the woman couldn’t stand looking at the frozen face anymore. She nearly pushed some snow on top of it, but she stopped herself because she knew that would make it look like someone was here. As it was, it had to look like as natural of a death as possible, seeing as it technically was. She approached it in a way that made it look like her footprints were theirs and then teleported back home.

“Raaaahhh!” Leander squawked out at her, welcoming her home. She smiled at her dear pet, moving her head to make room for him to perch on her shoulder. Now that she was there, the woman took stock of the crates near her door. Three for each of the girls, all of them still undamaged. Not a surprise, but a check she still made out of sheer habit alone.

Another habit she’d taken up was checking in on each of the girls with her telepathy. She’d seen all of the ups and downs of their infancy and now that they were old enough to start performing their own actions, she was ever so invested in what kinds of people they’d end up being. Even if their affinity to the gems of the box was already set in stone, there was always more to a person than just that. So, as per usual, she checked in on the one that she hadn’t been able to free all those years ago.

Marcy was sitting next to her personal caretaker, Olivia. They were going over an intermediate level book, far more advanced than an eft her age would normally be reading. ‘Archibald the Archer’, it was apparently called. At least they were allowing her to have some whimsy in her life by letting her engage with some fiction! If they hadn’t done so, then Valeriana herself might have intervened via manipulating someone into giving her a book just like that.

As it was, it seemed the girl was in good hands with Olivia despite her physical proximity to the great evil. At the very least, the blue newt didn’t seem to know anything about the greater forces at play. That was good. Marcy needed to grow up without the knowledge of stuff like that. Time to check on the next girl!

With a wave, she found herself spying on a classroom full of toad children. Most of them were paying attention to the teacher as she was showing them various letters in preparation for teaching them how to read. All of the kids knew that this was a very important skill that would aid them in the future regardless of what they wanted to do with their lives, so it was one of the few times that this class was actually quiet and engaged! Most of the time, they were following Sasha’s lead.

The chaotic little pink toadlet had just grown in her legs and so was sitting in a different position from most of the rest of the kids. And if the looks she got from her classmates were any indication, she was being admired for it. Valeriana was concerned with how this child would turn out, given the massive ego she was stroking with each and every kid in the classroom. The only things that stopped the newt from intervening were the prophecy’s restrictions and the fact that Sasha hadn’t actually grown cruel towards any of her peers.

And with that, Valeriana waved her staff once again in order to check on the final member of the little trio. Of course, she saw the little blue tadpole bouncing across the house with a small jar of baby food. Ah yes, her little brother was still young enough for that to be appropriate for him. The girl was thanked for her help and then allowed to watch as the boy was fed.

The newt was so happy that she’d made the right decision for Anne regarding what family to leave her with. Although she was a little concerned about how soon they’d teach her to read. Valeriana knew full well that they were going to teach her eventually, but it seemed the introduction of her little brother was taking some priority. At least, that’s what the newt thought until Hopediah walked into the room with a baby book clearly meant for teaching Anne. Thank goodness!

Valeriana stuck around just long enough to hear the confirmation of her suspicion. She didn’t want to waste any of her magic if she didn’t have to, so she cut it off right there. As her vision went back to the inside of her tent, she was made aware of the frigid temperature by the front flap of said tent flying open. It was an easy fix, but still annoying. But if she didn’t fix it, then the potions she prepared would freeze and she didn’t want to risk that destroying the batches. She didn’t have time to remake them this close to their due date.

After all, none of those girls were old enough to know the truth yet…

Chapter Text

A healthy rivalry is always good for any fighter to have. And while Anne only learned how to fight for the sake of self defense, she was still really good at it! Compared to Marcy, who relied on projectiles most of the time regardless of her form, Anne was far better at close quarters combat. Which made her the perfect match for Sasha’s strength.

Of course, the two never fought with ill intent anymore. That was a thing of their tumultuous teenage history. They’d long grown past all of that, both with Sasha having to lead the resistance at such a young age and Anne living on Earth for that little while. Instead of any sort of actual urge to fight, it came down to sparring matches between the two of them in their human forms!

No springy frog legs, none of a toad’s sturdy low center of gravity, no newt tail to aid in balance, no olm size difference, and no axolotl instant regenerative abilities. Just pure human endurance and will! Sasha absolutely loved those days where she could spar with Anne, but she’d never force it. It was a good thing for her that Anne didn’t mind sharpening her own skill!

Ultimately this is what led to the two of them standing across from each other with their main swords drawn. Practicing with any other weapons would train them on different weight expectations, so they had to use the proper ones. By this point though, they’d gotten some special armour specifically designed to make sword sparring sessions like this harmless. It was a little difficult to see out of the mesh helmet, but it was better than losing an eye! At least the extra padding felt like their usual cloaks.

Once both of them were ready, they got to work! Anne started with a stabbing motion to Sasha’s head, which was easily deflected to her left and then again to her right. Most of their spars like this ended up with them not actually making much contact beyond the upper halves of their swords and resetting once they hit something that would’ve ended a battle if they were seriously trying to hurt each other. And so, when Sasha caught Anne’s sword in between both of hers and twisted them in order to put it in an awkward position, the brunette simply let go.

The two of them went back and forth with simple motions like this for nearly an hour. Any amphibian who came to watch was just staying in order to see which one would get tired first! Everyone knew that humans could last a long time though, so several would leave and come back later on. Heck, some even placed bets despite the two women having told them not to after previous spars!

Either way, both Anne and Sasha had gotten into a bit of a rhythm with their consistent jabs, deflects, slashes, stabs, and resets. They’d practiced these moves plenty of times before, so it was all just a game of wondering who would do what first and how the other would react. It was almost like a dance! And when that thought entered Anne’s head, she got an idea.

When Sasha started with a slash, Anne ducked and swiped to catch both of Sasha’s swords on her own. This time though, she remembered the time that the blonde had shown her how to perform the Mordhau and grabbed one of Sasha’s blades instead of her own. It was a good thing she was wearing gloves or else the position would’ve had her hand cut. She’d never done this before, so it absolutely threw the blonde off.

“Wha- what? Anne!” Hearing that made the brunette smirk as she quickly yanked that sword out of her opponent’s grip. Faced with just one blade, Anne was able to use her familiarity with the situation to weave around and get a little closer to Sasha. Instead of performing any sort of move though, she grabbed the other woman’s free hand and started twirling her around as if they were actually dancing!

“ANNE!!” Sasha yelled in embarrassed frustration! They were supposed to be sparring.

“PffHA HA HA!! S-sorry, Sash! I-I just couldn’t h-help it!” She struggled to talk through her laughter. “It, heh, just felt l-like we were g-going through th-the motions a bit much.” She continued to quietly laugh to herself while the blonde went to retrieve her other sword.

“That’s it, that killed the mood. You win this time!” She huffed as she sheathed both of her sword.

“Aww, sorry about that. We can keep going if you want!” Anne offered, but was met with Sasha removing her helmet to reveal a face that was clearly trying to contain her own laugh.

“No, I don’t think I could continue after something like that.” She couldn’t hide her smile anymore, so Anne removed her own helmet and proceeded to laugh some more. Several of the amphibians who were watching didn’t seem to find it funny, but that hardly mattered to the humans. After over an hour of the same monotonous sparring, something that out of left field had both of the tired women cracking up.

And as they started removing their special armour, Sasha reflected on how great it was to have a sparring rival that she could laugh like this with…

Chapter Text

Olivia sighed as she watched the young princess shake around her rattle. It had only been three months since his majesty had adopted her and she already had everyone entranced. While the good lady was in charge of most of the caretaking duties, that hardly bothered her at this point. She understood his majesty’s need for assistance, given the size difference. Not to mention his own duties in running the kingdom.

She, of course, had her own duties to attend to. But when his majesty ordered her to babysit, that duty was added to her list. Thankfully, the list of duties she actually had seemed to be less than usual. She suspected it was purposeful, given the King’s benevolence. Because of that, she was able to watch over little Marcy more.

As she did so, she noticed something interesting. The young princess’ rattle shaking had patterns to it. Sometimes, she would wildly flail it while giggling and other times, she would start shaking it with enough consistency that it sounded like a beat to a song. While she had been exposed to several pieces of infant appropriate music since her adoption, none of them quite had that exact same beat. And, on rare occasions, she would shake it as if to a rhythm that Olivia had never heard before.

When she first brought this up with his majesty, he shrugged it off with the adage that it must’ve been from some niche song she heard prior to her adoption. This was the only thing he ever said about that time. He never even mentioned which orphanage he got her from and none of those in Newtopia had any records of the girl. After a while, Olivia just assumed she was picked up by one of Andrias’ secret field agents.

“Ba! Ba!” The little eft started shouting. By this point, Olivia knew that this meant she wanted her adoptive father. Checking the clock, she could see that he should be free by this point. And so, she scooped the little green ball up and brought her to the throne room. Upon seeing Olivia with the child, King Andrias smiled and took her without a word.

Once Olivia excused herself, Andrias began to rock the little one. She needed to have an emotional attachment to him, so he played the part to her. The Core continuously berated him about forming an attachment for himself, but he assured them that he was only playing a part. That and she did end up turning into far more adorable an eft than any of them had anticipated. But as time went on, he began to wonder how long those excuses would work…

Far away, a dull green toad strummed on his guitar while softly singing a lullaby to his precious daughter. She’d been so full of energy all day and only just now was she finally winding down! At the very least, she could always be swayed by the sound of the guitar. The singing seemed to make her pause in the beginning, but she seemed to have gotten used to it within the last three months of having her.

At one point, Braddock had gotten concerned about her mental and psychological development thanks to not actually being a toad. But there was no one they could really turn to about that while giving the full story. Still, she managed to call in a favour and a friend of a friend (who happened to be a psychologist) stopped by to analyze the girl. The conclusion they came to left a lot of questions, though.

Namely, the guy had said that the way she reacted to loud noises resembled a child that was used to their parents fighting in the home. Now, whatever that could actually mean for Sasha was up for debate. Maybe the reason why she was seemingly abandoned in a hollowed out tree was because her creature parents weren’t the best? After Percy asked Braddock about it though, she pointed out that it was more likely that they were dead.

Maybe if they’d been on the run from a predator for a while, then that would make sense. But at least the poor little girl was safe now! All they had to do was get her used to noise that wasn’t going to hurt her, which was perfect for Percy to practice his music for. Seeing her eyes droop at the sounds of his guitar and his singing made the toad feel like he’d already broken through that barrier.

And with the little pink tadpole finally fast asleep, the man set down his guitar for the night. Maybe one of these nights, she’d actually sleep all the way through instead of waking up screaming at her nightmares. Neither of them blamed her for it, especially seeing as she always calmed right down once she was in their arms. Obviously, she knew they’d protect her from anything and everything and thinking about that almost brought a tear to Percy’s eye.

It was rare for any toad to be allowed to be soft. But with a little traumatized girl to raise, one had to be. By toad standards, he’d always been softer than the others. With Braddock by his side and Sasha in their care though, he had the perfect excuse! He let out a sigh, thinking about just how perfect this little family was…

Closer than one would assume, a little blue frog tadpole sat at a highchair with a bright red frog waving a spoon around in front of her.

“Alright, Anne. Here comes the fly, bzzzzzz.” Three months of transformation potions had done a huge number for the girl’s health. At first, they saw her size and figured she was exceptionally young. But then they changed her species and started giving her a proper diet of what they’d feed to tadpoles.

Even if Anne would grow to hate her circumstances and the fact that she was changed without her consent, she’d have to admit that it was necessary at the time. Especially with how healthy she ended up being after such a short amount of time. In fact, her health improved so much that they came to the conclusion that she had to be around a year old by this point. The only things she was lagging behind on could be chocked up to not originally being a frog.

For example, when Sally waved the spoon around for Anne to use her tongue, the little tadpole just watched it. Maybe there were lingering bits of her predatory instinct from her true form still in there? But that thought was dashed away when she heard the little one start to giggle at the movement. The woman’s heart nearly melted right then and there, leading to her just moving the spoon closer and feeding the baby directly.

It was okay, Anne would learn how to be a frog with enough time. And she hadn’t necessarily done anything wrong, so everyone in the household was willing to be patient with her. In fact, they were having an absolute blast with raising her! Her bright, cheery nature and surprising gentleness for a child so young made her so beloved.

Eventually, when Sally was on the final spoonful of baby food, she held it up once again and waved it around as usual. She fully expected Anne to just watch it, but then the tadpole’s eyes narrowed. This had never happened before, so Sally nearly stopped. That was until she saw the little girl’s mouth open. Hoping she was right, the woman held the spoon still.

And sure enough, a little pink tongue shot out of the tadpole’s mouth and directly hit the spoon! Sally kept a hold of it so that all Anne got was the food instead of accidentally swallowing the utensil itself. When she was done, Sally smiled so widely that it almost felt like her face was splitting. She was so proud of her baby!

The only questions left for these children were what could possibly be going on with their biological parents…

Chapter Text

“Aw, dang it.” Anne muttered to herself, attracting the attention of her mother.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No, just a button fell off of my shirt.”

“Oh! Here, let me show you how to sew it back on.” She grabbed her daughter’s hand before said daughter could say anything and led her upstairs to her ‘work out room’. In the corner was a table with some simple crafting supplies on it and some machine that Anne didn’t recognize. But when she glanced over the other things, she absolutely recognized the sewing needle and thread.

“This sewing machine can’t do buttons, so we’ll have to do it by hand. Here, let me show you how to thread a needle.”

“Oh, I already-” Anne started before seeing the look in her mother’s eyes. Ah, that’s right. The woman who missed out on raising her daughter wanted to teach said daughter something. Even though Anne was thirteen and already knew how to sew a dang button, she decided to just let her mom go through the process with her.

“- see the needle and thread. So go ahead and show me, please.” Once her mother started explaining the stuff she already knew, the girl started to tune her out as she watched her hands. Without the cling pads and slime coat, her mother’s human hands were easily able to let the thread dangle and weave through the needle hole.

But also due to that, the dry thread wasn’t anywhere near stiff enough to actually go through the needle. It seemed humans in general had had that little issue figured out a long time ago, though! A small, flimsy piece of metal with a looped wire (bent in a diamond shape) attached was being used to assist. The wire was easily able to get through the needle hole and made a far bigger hole on the other side. Then the thread fell through it with such ease that it was almost laughable.

Seeing how seamlessly the little wire thing was pulled back, taking the thread with it, Anne smiled. It seemed that wherever humans came up short, they typically managed to find a solution. Now all they needed was a way to scale walls and they’d actually catch up with frogs! Although Anne doubted that would ever actually happen outside of a movie.

The rest of the little lesson she was getting went by without anything else particularly interesting happening. But it was still nice to see her mother happily explaining things to her. It actually reminded her of her frog mom in a way. Just a woman so content to have her kid beside her. Once the explanation was finished, Anne leaned on her mother’s shoulder a little in an imitation of a hug.

“Thanks, mom.” It was all she could really say without revealing that the needle threader was the only part of the lesson that she actually needed. But while the girl only gave an imitation of a hug, the woman brought her arms around and completed it! The warmth of the bigger human enveloped Anne like a comforting blanket, even despite being a human, herself. The two of them stayed like that for several minutes.

When they finally did pull away, Anne saw her mother’s smile and realized just how satisfied she was. Of course she’d feel this way, though. According to what she’d read so far, humans were the only species on Earth that instinctively went out of their way to teach their own young. While other species would watch and learn by example, humans were the only ones who would make sure their kids actually understood. So why stop there?

“So then… what’s that machine in the corner there?”

“Oh, that’s the sewing machine.”

“... Well, I guess I don’t need to ask what it does ‘cause the name makes that obvious. But Amphibia doesn’t have those, as far as I know. Mind teaching me about that one?” At the request, the mother’s eyes lit up and her smile got even wider!

“Of course! Okay, so the first thing you need to know is-” she immediately flew into an explanation, as if she’d been waiting years to be able to do this. Which, in a sense, she had been. And upon seeing just how into it she got, Anne couldn’t help the smile that came across her own face.

The mother and the daughter continued to bond over teaching and learning respectively for the next several hours…

Chapter Text

Ivy lay in the grass by the creek, staring up above her. It was a lovely night; not too cold, clear skies, and stars twinkling in the distance above. But with the number of fireflies that were circling around, they might as well have been in the middle of them. They.

She squeezed the hand that held her own, smiling as she got a squeeze back. Their date had been great so far! Her mom had made them dinner (and kept a professional distance this time) with dessert, they had danced at the Firefly Formal (this time without stuffy costumes or while everyone watched), and still they ended up sneaking off to watch the actual fireflies. But honestly, that had been the best part about last year as well. Last year…

Ivy blushed slightly, both bashful and embarrassed at the memory. Back then she wanted nothing more than for people to just leave her and Sprig alone and treat the two of them as friends. And yet, somewhere between then and the saltwater flood, she did end up falling for him.

“Ya know, it was this time last year I fell in love with you.” Sprig mentioned, startling Ivy at the fact that they’d been thinking about the same thing. She rolled onto her side a little bit more to look at him.

“It is?”

“Yeah, right between how you smiled talking about baby fireflies and us beating up those love-doves together.” She chuckled. Wow, sounds like he fell a lot faster than she did. And he walked around with those feelings a lot longer than she did.

“I actually told Anne as soon as I realized.”

“Wait, and she acted normal about that? After the way she, everyone, had been that night.” Sprig shrugged, very carefully herding a purple firefly between his hands so he could take a better look.

“Well, I mean, you didn’t seem to notice anything. But I did notice she’d watch us like a tarantula hawk and sometimes made noises whenever we hung out where she could see. The rest of my family was way more hands off, even if Hop Pop would sometimes still try to get me to confess how I felt.” Ivy blinked at that a few times. Yeah, that was indeed way more chill than they had been before. But still, that made her wonder.

“Okay, I know my mom was so excited because she hoped to get more help in her shop. And Polly looked pretty indifferent to the whole thing-”

“Oh, she still is. She’s basically just like: ‘As long as you’re happy and you’re not asking me to be maid of honor, it’s not my business.’” He clarified quickly.

“Fair. But what the heck was up with your Hop Pop and Anne?” Sprig grew still, watching as another, yellow firefly nervously started circling his hands. After a moment he released the baby firefly, watching its mother quickly zoom off with it.

“Hop Pop was mostly in it for those proper- Proptrit- a-... Those special exclusive crops your family is rumored to have. Kinda ironic, because after going to Earth we have those too now. But Anne… I think she might have been projecting or trying to ‘live through me’ or something like that.” The yellow frog frowned this time. That didn’t quite sound like Anne.

“Really? Why?” She pushed herself up more, moving into her boyfriend’s field of view. He glanced at the movement, then looked down as he wrung his hands together.

“Of our entire family, Anne has always been the most interested in starting one of her own. Ya know, finding a frog she likes, getting married, having a kid, maybe more, a house, a spider and a yard, all that domestic stuff. But… The firefly formal was only a little over a week after we- She found out she wasn’t really a frog. In her mind everything just kinda fell apart for her at that point. Her place in the family, her sense of self, her ideas for the future. She was wondering if she’d be able to have kids, whether she’d have to keep what she was hidden from her future partner forever or tell them and risk losing them, the potions running out one day and devouring her entire family even.”

“Yikes.”

“I know right?! And you know those people who ruin things for everyone because they can’t have it? Anne is the complete opposite. I think she saw the potential for me to have the future she wanted, and she just ‘put the pedal to the metal’ as humans say.” That… was an extremely confusing metaphor or something. But Ivy assumed it meant something like ‘going into it without thinking too hard’. She felt bad thinking about it though, the thought of wanting something so simple and still being unable to get it. 

“And, how are… What are her views of the future right now?”

“Well, her knowing she's a human and sentient helps a lot already. There might be a chance she could still have kids as a frog, though we’re not sure, but she's completely up to adopt if that's what it takes.” Sprig frowned again as the next point crossed his mind.

“She's really worried about finding a partner, though. She is ugly looking by Amphibian standards in her human form, but I personally think she’d do fine! She's an amazing person with a wonderful personality! And all of her Amphibian forms have been deemed pretty by all respective species. I mean, we all love her, so how can any potential suitor not love her?! But, Hop Pop has said mature romantic love has a few things that are different from friends or family, even if that forms a good basis.”

Ivy nodded at that, turning just slightly orange. She had seen how other frogs in relationships acted. And even if she didn't quite feel like going that way with Sprig yet, she certainly didn't want to constantly hold her mother's hand and kiss her cheek like she did with Sprig. Speaking of, she lightly squeezed his hand again, rubbing her thumb against his.

“So, you’d be okay with Anne marrying another Amphibian species? And maybe not being a frog or human as often?” She watched the boy think about that for a while, even looking conflicted and troubled over it. But then he gave his head a resolute shake.

“I just want her to be happy. She deserves that so, so much! Being a human and a frog is so deep in her identity that I don't think she’d just give that up though, so I’m sure that won't go away. But I think we’ve stuck our snoots into Anne’s business long enough now.” Suddenly, unexpectedly, Sprig lifted his arm on his other side to reveal… a stick? And promptly bonked her on the head with it.

“Uf! What the?”

“SUCCESSFUL AMBUSH!” Did… did he just? Ivy felt a grin stretching across her face, quickly snatching up the nearest stick she could find and getting up to face her treacherous boyfriend. He grinned back, striking a pose with his stick out towards her.

“Haha! I see that you, Master of Sneak-Attacks, are challenging me to a fair fight! I must warn you though, I have trained a lot more with several weapons since the last time we crossed arms in this place! So you better be prepared to- bleh!” Ivy smirked in satisfaction as a good smack against a young oak caused one of the acorns that fell to hit the boy right on the top of his head.

“Less monologuing, more fighting, Sharpshooter!” And with the cackle that followed those words, she launched herself at her boyfriend for another match…

Chapter Text

Matt Boonchuy-Plantar was bored. Sure, he had all this tech, all these toys, all these streaming services to watch, and even loving parents who played with him whenever he wanted! But that didn’t stop things from getting boring at one point or another. He was only six years old, after all. Heck, he was too young to even be getting homework, so he didn’t even have any of that taking up his time!

Most of the time, he didn’t really have a solution for this. But this was one of those rare times where he actually managed to think of something. His dad was busy with some paperwork for the restaurant (probably renewing the patent on the pain peppers or something, Matt didn’t actually know how that worked) and his mom was busy making dinner. It was perfect for sneaking into his parents’ room and seeing what he could find.

By now, he knew full well where that old box of his long lost big sister’s baby things were. The one that was apparently given to his parents by an old frog. He’d seen enough pictures to know exactly what that meant, but it all still felt unreal to him. When he told them this, they decided to let him meet a frog who’d been left behind after ‘the invasion’. If it weren’t for Mr. X being his godfather, Matt would never have met Mylo.

He learned about Amphibia and what happened to his sister all that time ago. She was a true hero and his biggest inspiration, so he liked to look at the memories of her earliest years every now and then and compare them. Granted, he’d been caught a couple of times, but his parents didn’t really seem to mind because he was gentle with the stuff. So he didn’t see much issue with taking another look.

The boy already knew what pile he needed to quickly make in order to reach the box, so before he knew it, it was in his hands. Sure, the portraits had been removed long before Matt was born, but that just left four things inside. A pacifier, the withered tadpole tail (ew), the stuffed toy that Matt usually held whenever he had this box, and the bottles of magic potion. His parents had always told him to never drink the contents because the transformation back into a human when it wore off would always hurt enough to make a grown man scream in agony! Mr. X seemed to know this better than anyone else on Earth, given his reaction whenever it was brought up.

And while Matt had always been one to learn his lessons the easy way and actually listen, he had also always wondered about these potions. If Anne took them, then clearly it was worth it to her. Obviously it was because it helped her keep up the disguise when she was actually in Amphibia, but he remembered being told that she did actually use it a couple of times while still on Earth. So… could it be worth it? There were five bottles, all untouched and probably never going to be used.

Before he knew it, he had one of them in his hand and swirled it around. His parents always taught him to check if something edible had gone bad before eating it. But after seeing no signs of spoilage, he checked the door of the room in order to make sure no one was there. He then uncorked it and gave it a sniff. It didn’t smell like anything rotten, so the boy put the tip of the bottle to his mouth in order to get the tiniest bit of taste.

He immediately stuck his tongue out at the unexpected bitterness of it! It was just like black licorice, but with an extra hint of something he didn’t recognize. It wasn’t necessarily bad though, so once he was ready, he tilted his head back and poured the entire thing down his throat! No going back now!

Suddenly, he felt himself start to change. He was getting smaller and… a bit rounder? Every part of him shrunk so that his clothes were awkwardly draped off of him and his vision shifted. It was almost like he’d gone colourblind in some sort of way! His feet also extended until he’d incidentally kicked off his shoes, letting him see a part of the change in real time.

Before he knew it, the whole transformation was finished and he felt so different! It wasn’t bad, though. And when he looked in the mirror, he saw his reflection looking a lot like that Mylo guy, but his head was rounder and his skin was a dark orange with flecks of dull yellow everywhere that he could see. He was so excited to try out his new abilities when he suddenly heard footsteps approaching. Probably his dad, coming to check… on… him…

OH NO!! He didn’t have permission and his parents would NOT be happy with him! The boy panicked, looking around a bit before frantically scrambling underneath his parents’ bed. The baggy clothes made it hard, but he managed it. Just in time, too.

“Matt, I know you’re in here. Are you looking at that old box again?” He heard his dad call out to him, but the boy didn’t answer. What would he say? He could see his dad walking around the end of the bed, stopping once he noticed the dropped box of stuff.

“Apparently yes. You’re under the bed, aren’t you? Let me just grab this stuff and we can talk.” Ah, so hiding was only delaying his dad finding out. Maybe the boy could sneak out before his dad noticed! He tried his best to move silently, but it was hard with a body he wasn’t familiar with and when he heard his dad stop moving, he suspected the worst.

“Matt… why is one of the potion bottles empty?” The silence was deafening. His dad knew. He had to make it out of there and hide! Maybe get a cursebane berry? The boy remembered hearing that Anne first brought those as an instant transform-back thing. Maybe he could-

“Matt!” He heard his dad’s voice sternly and more clearly than before. Slowly, the boy turned his head to look at where the man’s feet had been. But instead of that, he saw the annoyed human face looking back at him. They locked eyes, despite it being too dark under there to normally see.

Okay, okay. No need to panic. Dad was always the calmer parent. He wasn’t the one who usually dealt out the punishments. He’d listen, right? Matt saw the man’s face disappear as he stood back up. He then saw his feet move to the door. Maybe he’d close it so that they could talk things out in private?

“Honey, I need you here right now!” OH NO!! Matt scrambled out from underneath the bed, looking up at his dad from even closer to the floor. Now that he was in full view, Matt could see the exasperated look on his face.

“Please dad, I’m sorry! I-I was just curious!” He couldn’t come up with any sort of excuse before he heard his mom quickly approaching. But when he tried to duck under the bed again, he felt a large pair of arms wrap around his body and lift him up! While he squirmed, he could feel his dad lean back and out of the door.

“Guess what Matt found and decided to try?”

“WHAT?!” There was far more concern in her voice than anger, oddly enough. But then his dad pulled him out into the hallway and he made eye contact with his mom. The boy shrunk a little, waiting to get yelled at or something. Instead though, she just facepalmed and sighed.

“I had a feeling this would happen some day. Matt, why did you do that? Those are keepsakes, we can’t get any more, there’s no reason for it, certainly no advantage, and transforming back is going to be so painful!”

“I-I know. I knew all that. I was just really curious and I wanted to be like her.” He saw his mom’s expression soften at that. Mentioning Anne and his admiration of her usually worked, although he rarely did it. At the very least, it helped both of his parents be a lot more calm as they talked things though. But in the end, they agreed that he couldn’t stay as a frog for much longer and he ended up eating a single cursebane berry.

It hurt a lot, but at least his parents helped him through it and his respect for Anne grew even more after experiencing the very thing she’d gotten so used to…

Chapter Text

Sasha ignored the struggling spider under her arm as she rushed through the door and pulled it close. Right before pulling it into the lock though, she couldn't resist looking back through the crack and peering into the night sky. Tiny red lights were appearing over the tree line, then more and more, followed by larger blue flares. Robots, a lot of them. And they were not alone.

They were being accompanied by those mini-versions of the castle, the vessels that carried the heavier artillery. Enough to turn parts of the sky where stars were supposed to be red and blue. The girl finally pulled the door completely shut, heart hammering in her chest. She turned back to see the last of the Wartwoodians try not to push their way into the secret passage inside the Plantar farm fireplace.

Evacuation had taken a tiny bit longer than she had hoped. Lights in town had to be systematically turned off or on and several sacrificial livestock had been released, dressed up as civilians. Anything to make Andrias think he had caught them by surprise. Once the last frog ducked inside, she closed the line and grabbed the lantern just behind the door, kicking the hidden rock that closed it.

Once the bricks slid shut, all that was left to light the tunnel were the fireflies inside the glass cylinder and the native dark-orange glowworms they had found deeper inside the complex that had recently moved to the higher levels. They would likely be their only reliable source of light until the bombardment stopped. Sasha followed closely behind the row of frogs as they made their way down. Nobody really spoke, as it was hard to do so when you had to keep moving in a single file line with low light conditions, uneven terrain, and having a vague and horrifying idea of what was to come. It made the entire atmosphere tense and oppressive as they navigated the main corridor.

The first drop came as they were halfway down. It was sudden and jarring, the entire earth shaking around them as a loud boom reverberated through stone! Several frogs grabbed at the wall to prevent getting thrown into it, as most of them had never felt anything like this before. The panic settled in fast, but the creature forced her voice out loud and strong.

“Single file, keep moving! No running, pushing, or kicking! Go go go!” Another jolt and rumble sent the frogs moving again, just a bit faster now. And despite Sasha's effort, there were still panicked screams echoing up the tunnel!

As sand started to fall on the back of her neck, the tall monster fought the urge to look up and see if the ceiling was starting to crack and might fall down. Instead, her crowd-control training kept her eyes glued to the heels of the frog in front of her. Luckily frogs weren't heavy enough to crush each other underfoot during a stampede, but Tom still didn't look too great as she hauled him into his feet and shoved him in front of her back into the line.

Three frogs later, when the explosions rained down faster and faster one after the other, the shaft opened up into the main chamber. Sasha nodded in approval as she saw the rope still stood firm. Looks like Grime, who had led the descent, had prevented anyone from tumbling or being pushed off the edge. Below, the frogs had gathered in the middle of the room, standing in the middle of fourteen tall poles with rolled up banners.

“Oh my Frog, Archie!” The spider under her arm suddenly started struggling again, barking at the voice of his owner. Sasha let go as the elderly, dusty purple frog came into view. She hugged the animal tightly once it jumped safely into her arms.

“Thank you so much Commander! I don’t know how I could ever repay you! Was he-?”

“At the front door of your house, as you trained him to do. Now get to your station, team lead.” Usually Sasha knew better than to be curt with the feisty woman, but they were still conducting their evacuation. And once she made sure they all joined at the bottom, she looked over the crowd until she found Grime.

He stood in the middle with his eyes already on her. Taking her place by walking around the outer circle of the mass, she held up three fingers and counted down.

“Attention evacuees!” Their voices rang out at the same time. “Team leads, make your way to your assigned flag, let it down, and take your list!” She repeated the message as she watched banners come down, each having a black shape hastily stitched on. Eleven for the citizens of Wartwood, three more for some visitors that had fled to the resistance. She counted them, breathing a sigh in relief as she got to fourteen. Looking back to Grime to see he nodded in confirmation, she counted down again.

“Evacuees, make your way to your assigned shape and have the person holding the parchment note you as present! Team leads, if someone is missing even after calling their name three times, raise your yellow mushroom! If your list is complete, raise your blue mushroom!” She continued her instruction.

Sasha's heart drummed in her dry throat as she repeated the message over and over again. Ten frogs each were assigned to every banner, grouped to keep families together as much as possible. There were still explosions raining above and some particularly hard or close ones would make the entire room shake, sending the untrained Amphibians into bouts of panic and freezing. But after about a minute blue mushrooms were starting to be raised.

With each one, Sasha's chest felt just a little bit lighter. Until-

“Mr. Readt! Jonathan Readt, to your mark!”

“Jonathan?!”

“Jonny-hon!?!”

“Papaaaaah!” Something hard seized around Sasha's throat when she heard that and despite her training, her words stuttered to a halt as she looked to Wally who had climbed his pole to try and see the man he was responsible for. She started looking too, eyes drifting over the crowd in the desperate hope that-

“I’m here my loves! I’m coming!” The voice could be heard. Once more, Sasha felt herself breathe in relief. Mr. Readt was limping with his foot at an awkward angle, but he hobbled as quickly as his injury allowed so that he fell into his wife's arms. Even if they were not technically at their post, Wally scratched something off his list and raised the blue mushroom.

Reminded of her own responsibility, Sasha quickly started counting. A fourteenth blue mushroom was raised right as she was finishing up, finally the heavy weight lifting off her back. Now their fate was entirely dependent on if the cavern roof would hold longer enough to withstand the bombardment above. She met Grime’s eye one last time, seeing him nod again as he confirmed what she saw and then she counted down for the last time.

“Evacuation complete! At ease! Team leads, bring your lists to the nerve center! First aid to your post! Quentin and Loggle, ration stand! Make sure everyone gets a three-day meal packet! We are going to wait this out!”

Several frightened protests rang out, quickly silenced again as another tremor shook the ground around them. Many individuals actually fell to their knees or clung to the closest person they could reach.

“Get aid and food for your families first! If you insist on cowering afterwards, please do so in your chosen cave and out of each others’ way! The rest of you, start making this place livable and-!” Grime turned away as his goddaughter continued to direct the frogs into the beginnings of something functioning.

He made his way to the temporary nerve center to receive the lists and try to draw up some future strategies for infrastructure. Right now their base was just bare-bones. They had everything they needed to survive for two weeks, but they needed to get more things in order to make this place livable long-term. Meanwhile the frogs were clearly scared, which was to be expected from civilians. They didn't have the training to master it like Sasha and he had. But all things considered they were doing well.

No bottleneck incidents in the tunnels, no line cutting, no crowd-crush. Looked like, though they had very little time to train them on how to evacuate, it had been sufficient. He did notice a child sitting on the ground though, so he made a quick little detour towards them. They could not have someone so small just sit in the middle of the room! He could get kicked, or form a tripping hazard. He grabbed the small froglet by the back of his shirt, startling him out of his freeze and lifted him to his eye level.

“Are you hurt?”

“Ah…I-I-I don’t t-think so?” The kid responded. The old toad looked him over and saw limbs in proper shape, no scrapes, and a little bruising on his knees but no blood. Good. Now to get him out of the way. Looking around, he lifted the child even higher so he could see over the crowd.

“See the teen and axolotl handing out packets over there? Do you think you could make your way over to them?”

“I-I guess?”

“I want you to make your way over there and help them. Carry packets from the large crates over to them.”

“But-” He turned the young boy to him, looking him in the eye with the seriousness of a leader speaking to his soldier, though in a softer tone.

“Child, people are scared and need help. I need a brave and reliable frog who can do this, and I think you are perfect for the job. Do you think so too?” Grime silently thanked Sasha for the advice she had given him all those months ago as he watched the child’s tremors lessen, his chest puffing up slightly in blooming confidence and pride. Even as another explosion echoed through the room, he only flinched before straightening out again, face set in determination.

“You-you can count on me, Lieutenant!"

“Atta boy, now go forth, little cadet!” As soon as he set the boy down he was off, yelling to drown out his fear and inadvertently clearing a path to get to his destination. He knew better than anyone that in situations like this, people needed something to do. That way they would not focus on their helplessness. And with that he focused back on his own task.

As he ducked behind the curtain that gave him some minimal privacy, he was met with a dark teal newt, sitting on a stool. Sitting was a generous word though, as he was ducked under the table with the stool pulled close like it could shield him.

“L-lieutenant Grime, surely Commander Sasha is mistaken, right? If we stay here and do nothing we will be sealed in! This place will become our tomb!” He rolled his good eye to study the spy, before focusing back on the desk to see the evacuation lists already placed there on a neat pile. He busied his hands needlessly straightening them even more.

“Rest assured, Platin. The commander knows what she is doing. The bombardments are focused on the town while we are on the outer edge. The structure above might take some hits, maybe it might even get focused on as a point of Andrias’ interest. But even if the main tunnel collapses, we have mapped out several points where the tunnels come close to the surface far outside of town. And we can dig new exits from those points.”

“But-!”

“Platin, you are a welcome guest here. You and your brother are invaluable in getting us information from the castle. But you have no military experience. We know what we are doing and you have my personal vow we will keep you safe.”

The next few minutes were quiet after that, so Grime turned back to his paperwork. After a moment another explosion rippled overhead, a bit too close for comfort. Even if he was a seasoned warrior, fear crashed into him like a wave. He was taken back to another time he was trapped in a bunker underground. Herons stomping around overhead, bashing at the door.

Instead of exploding at his subordinates though, he rode that wave. Slowly, breathing in, imagining the air mixing with the terror in his chest, and blowing it all out. His claws relaxed again, using charcoal to mark off the rough direction he heard it come from on a sheet of transparent paper, laid over the subterranean map.

“So, Command Sasha is one of the beasts?” Grime tensed at those words, slowly looking back at the newt.

“Would it change your allegiances?” Platin only hesitated to lick his snoot nervously, his answer coming easily.

“Maybe it might change my brother’s if he ever found out. But I would rather limit the harm that gets done to as many people as I can. And even if you are planning to fight back, I saw the refugees you’ve taken in. And… I have had my suspicions ever since the last time I came to warn you.”

Grime relaxed at those words, slowly nodding in respect. He might dislike newts, but he could appreciate one who was willing to reach out to ‘foot soldiers and farmers’ to keep the death toll to a minimum.

“A warning we cherish deeply. You have spared dozens of lives from the inferno that's currently raging above us.” The newt looked just a little bit smug at the praise before another discharge sent him cowering again.

Grime hid his smile behind his hand as he pretended to study his map closely…

Chapter Text

“We did everything right. Sure, we had to harvest the resources of our own world, but we were going to replace and restore all of them in due time with what we’d take from other worlds. The people just needed to be patient!” An echoey masculine voice came from a relatively small horned helmet that skittered around on mechanical spider legs.

“I see… tell me more.” The being in front of them requested, trying to probe this puzzling thing for information. That was indeed their job as one of the therapists in the thereprism, after all. Whatever this thing, ‘The Core’, really was, it was their job to help them through all of their issues in the afterlife.

“Why did they even care about those creatures that they’d never seen before?! They were such ugly little things and we’d been planning that invasion for the last thousand years! It would’ve been sooner if it weren’t for my/his useless son!” For a moment, the echoes didn’t match the main voice, indicating more than one consciousness in there. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time they got a patient like that.

Ozen didn’t like reading over a patient’s chart before meeting them. That oftentimes created a bias that might be unfair and cause the patient to be more closed off. If he didn’t get enough information on the first visit, then he’d give it a once-over. By this point, his boss knew about his strategy and compensated for it with the reports, so there was no real need to worry about that. As for his patient,

“And what might his name be? Just so that I know who you’re talking about.”

“His name is Andrias. He’s probably still alive right now, but without our life support, he only has a couple of years left. He’s doomed himself and for what?! For his ‘precious daughter’? She was so much smarter than him, that we were actually going to let her join us. We were looking out for her more than he was, so he doomed them both!”

“Can you tell me why you think he did that?” Ozen probed, knowing he’d likely get the most warped version of events possible.

“His stupid emotions got in the way! He couldn’t use logic and see that she was going to be safe. Whether she liked it or not.”

“Please elaborate.”

“We understand that it was a part of the prophecy that she’d be one of the three to defeat us. That’s why we acquired her at such an early age! To either eliminate the threat or to convince her that we were the better option for her. After all, the prophecy emphasized that they’d be able to choose whether they wanted to opt in or not. So why not just convince one of them to opt out?

“It wasn’t the original plan, but it worked with how we were crippled by Andrias’ childhood nonsense. Said nonsense is why we installed the mind control into his crown, although we only needed to use it a handful of times.”

“Did he appreciate being mind controlled?”

“Not in the moment, but he would always admit afterwards that we had been right to do it. Except that final time, where he rebelled and it spelled our deaths. Speaking of, this whole system was designed to make sure it’d be impossible for any of us to die. We achieved immortality! That was until that horrid prophecy came true!”

“Isn’t that just the way it goes? Once a true prophecy is made, it’s nigh impossible to get out of. Sounds like the one you were up against had a way out and it makes sense that you’d try to operate within the binds of it, but it didn’t work. And that was because your granddaughter was a part of it, what was her name?”

“Marcy. She wasn’t truly of our lineage, but after she proved to be smarter than Andrias at such an early age, we couldn’t ignore her! Andrias treated her as his own and obviously, we saw her as such too.”

“Right, but clearly something set her off and made her switch sides. What do you think might’ve done that?”

“Obviously, it was her attachment to her so-called ‘friends’. The other two of the prophecy pulled her away from us and said prophecy had her in its grip! Because we saw what was happening, we tried to integrate her into our system early. For years, she continuously said that that was exactly what she wanted. But she backed out at the last minute just because she saw Andrias fighting back against them and decided to throw her entire life away!

“We had to pull her back to reality and bring her in despite her only being thirteen. She was so young, that it corrupted the rest of us and forced us to act in ways that were inherent to a body like that. When she pushed us out, we simply put her into a timeout, as most parental figures would do to disobedient children. But then another chosen by the prophecy severed our connection by force.

“We learned after that that the people we ruled over had rebelled so hard, that they actually assisted the world we were invading! The only ones on our side by that point were our robots. So we decided to just wipe the slate clean and eliminate all who opposed us! That planet had outlived its usefulness anyways and we could always just find another to start anew. Immortality gave us all the time in the world.”

“What exactly did you do to ‘wipe the slate clean’, then?”

“It was brilliant! All we had to do was activate the machinery we left on the moon and the whole thing would crash straight into the planet, wiping out all of our opposition! The best part was that we would be attached to it and the machinery would pick up the three gems of power along the way, thus giving us a near infinite energy source and a heavy craft that would allow us to find a new world! It was truly the perfect plan.”

“So your plan was to destroy your old world with every citizen still on it, including your son and granddaughter, and you expected them to just sit there and accept death?”

“If it weren’t for the prophecy, they would have no choice.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but I think you should start with trying to understand Marcy’s point of view in all of this. Listen, our session is almost up for today, so why don’t you think about that for tonight and we can pick this up tomorrow?” Ozen suggested, having found an easy way in. He knew it’d take a lot of time to teach or reteach The Core about empathy, but doing so was one of his specialties.

After all, with this being the afterlife, they had all the time in eternity…

Chapter Text

“Hey mom, what’re you making?” Anne approached, mostly curious about the wonderful smell. Looking in the skillet on the stove didn’t give her any real answers, seeing as it looked like a bunch of ground meat (some of it still pink) with some minced garlic mixed in.

“It’s some kai yat sai. You said you liked it last time you had some, so I’m making enough for the whole family.” Hearing that made Anne smile. But as she watched it cooking, she noticed something sitting on the counter.

“Yeah, it was so good! Although…” she didn’t want to sound ungrateful. After all, anything her parents made was always far better than anything Hop Pop could make! But she did remember one thing about it that she didn’t like. Her mother obviously picked up on it, turning to her. So Anne looked at the chopped onions that were waiting to be added.

“I umm… I was wondering if you could maybe… leave the onions out? I know they’re already chopped, but the way they cooked in last time just didn’t leave them with a texture that meshed well. At least in my opinion, anyway.” The girl knew that it was rude to ask that, seeing as it would waste an onion, but she had to try.

“Okay, thanks for letting me know before I added it.” The mother responded, clearly seeing how nervous the girl was in her request. Anne sighed in relief at the flexibility her mother allowed. It wasn’t like her frog mom didn’t allow for that or anything, but she knew that some chefs would be insulted if asked to alter their recipes.

“Seeing as it’s already chopped though, it’d be a waste to just get rid of it. Do you know how to caramelize onions, Anne?”

“No, I’ve never heard of that.”

“Ah, it’s really easy, it just takes a while. If you can do that for me while I finish making this, then we’ll have some caramelized onions for later. You might like them better in that state in a different dish.” Ah, there it was. A compromise that still put the food to use while also getting Anne to do something about it for herself.

“Alright, that’s fair. Umm… how do I start?”

“Just grab another skillet from the cupboard and put some cooking oil in it.” Anne followed her mother’s instructions, making sure not to use the huge one. If she recalled correctly, it was the ‘wok’ that she wanted to avoid. Mainly because it wouldn’t fit on the stove with the pan that her mother was using. In the end, she grabbed what she assumed to be a medium-large sized one.

After that, she looked around and saw the cooking oil that her mom had talked about. ‘Canola oil’ was what the label read. It had a picture of a yellow flower on it, so was that flower a ‘canola’? She decided to ask.

“Yes, they farm it in huge fields ‘cause the flower is so small. It’s the cooking oil with the highest smoking temperature, making it the least likely to start a fire by accident. Do you know how to stop a grease fire?”

“Well, it’s a fire, so you pour water on it, right?”

“NO!! That’ll only make the fire bigger! The same with throwing flour on it, despite what the old myth says. The actual way to stop it is by smothering it with a lid.”

“Good to know! Anyways, how much oil should I add?” The girl asked as she grabbed a matching lid, just in case.

“Just a splash for that amount. When they caramelize, they’ll shrink in size.” Despite not knowing the exact amount a ‘splash’ counted as, the girl decided to put the pan down on the burner diagonal to the one her mom was using (it was the only other larger burner) and simply tip the bottle of oil to pour for a single second. If she had to guess, she’d say it was about a tablespoon or so. She looked at her mom for approval and got a nod.

“Then you turn the heat to medium and wait a bit for the pan to heat up. It won’t take long, so make sure you have the onions ready with a spatula for stirring.” Meanwhile, the mom took her own pan off of the heat and started draining the fat from the meat, pouring it into a used can. Apparently, the meat had finished cooking in the meantime. When the woman got back with her own pan and the rest of the ingredients for her dish, she continued with the instructions.

“Okay, so now you gently add the onions. You don’t want to splash the oil ‘cause it can burn you if you do. The sizzling will be loud. Make sure to spread the onions out in the pan with your spatula.” Anne did as instructed, but did end up splashing a couple of drops. None of them landed anywhere that’d hurt anyone, but she still felt bad about making a mess.

“I’ll clean that up.”

“Nope, your onions are in now. Now you have to watch them and keep stirring for the next half hour. Or else they’ll burn. I’ll take care of it this time.”

“Oh, thank you! So what do I add next?”

“Nothing, you just cook them until they turn a light brown on the edges and clear in the middle.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes. Like I said, it’s really easy. It just takes a while.” Anne could only shrug at that, seeing that her mom was right. In the time it took the onions to finish, her mom also completed the kai yat sai. But just to make sure, she called her mom over in order to check if they were really done right.

“Looks perfect, Anne. Well done! If you want, you can sprinkle a few over the kai yat sai, but you don’t have to. Once they cool a little, you can try some. For now, just put them in a container so they don’t burn in the still hot pan.” She followed the instructions, turning off the stove and setting the pan aside in a safe place before isolating a single one on the spatula and blowing on it a bit to cool it.

As she tried it, the first thing that came to her was the natural sweetness. It was almost like a little candy! But then came the texture. It was pretty much the same (maybe a little softer) as it was when it was in the kai yat sai, but it didn’t have anything to clash with this time. She could already see them being used in something like a sandwich, but just a pinch in that situation. Anne knew she’d have to try it out soon.

Unsurprisingly, her chance came the very next day when she did actually put them on a sandwich and she suddenly found her new favourite way to actually enjoy onions…

Chapter Text

Her head was heavy when she woke up, her body both sore and numb at the same time. The bed below her was just a bit softer than the one at home. Alarm scratching at the edges of her consciousness, Sasha fought to try and open her eyes to figure out where she was. At her first attempt, everything was too bright with her head hurting and her eyelids feeling like somebody had rubbed mud into them and let it dry. Somebody seemed to notice her struggle though, lightly putting pressure on the blanket over her.

“Easy Sasha, I’ll get a nurse. Just try to stay still and rest.” Grime? His voice sounded so raw, like he hadn’t spoken for a while. She heard his footsteps as he seemed to move out of the room. He wouldn’t leave her alone unless he knew for sure she could either defend herself, or if she was safe.

With that knowledge, she gave opening her eyes another try and took her time for this attempt. Everything was blurry, lots of beige and whites, some accents of wood and coral, with a bit of the metal technology they had been adding as more of it was being rediscovered. Definitely a hospital. There was also a strange, metallic thing floating to her right, it was really hard to make out.

A light knock drew her attention back to her left. A blob that seemed to be the right color and height to be Grime stood behind a far longer, dark lavender shape in faded pink. The nurse maybe? Grime did say he was gonna look for one.

“Greetings, Commander Sasha. It is good to see you awake. How do you feel?” She absolutely hated that question. Any question right now, in fact. It felt like too much work to think. Nonetheless, she swallowed to wet her dry throat, anything to get this woman off her back.

“Dunno… Bad?” Why did just those words hurt so much? She tried to clear her throat, only for it to come out as a wheeze. She tried to swallow again, but it left her mouth only drier than before. She saw Grime’s shape walk closer, the sound of moving water and a towel or something being wrung out before it was gently placed against her lips. She opened her mouth as the thing was placed inside, not finding enough moisture to drink, but at least sucking on it brought a little relief.

The other shape walked closer to her bed as well, messing with a… she presumed the thing she was holding was a clipboard?

“Do you remember what happened, Miss Commander?”… Actually, that was a good question. Sasha thought back to find… not much. At first, it felt more like she just went to bed and somehow woke up here. She frowned, trying to think back more.

“Hm… town… lizzards.” Right. Her, Grime, and a small group of other toad volunteers had been hired to take care of an infestation of huge whiptail lizards.They were causing trouble ravaging grasshopper farms, but also weren’t scared to attack the frogs if they saw fit to do so. She remembered getting ready, but…

“It’s alright.” The newt woman, slowly becoming clearer in her eyes, reassured at the sight of her confused face. “It is normal for the brain to block out the events of a traumatic injury. Especially one where you got knocked out instantly. It won’t do you any good to try and remember.”

Wait, traumatic injury?! Sasha tried to move to sit up straighter, only to feel her foot press down on another part of her body and leave her unable to push up higher in her pillow. A tail. Now being aware of the extra appendage, she moved it from under the blankets. Broad shape, a slightly lighter pink than most of her other amphibian forms, but smaller than an olm.

“Axol…”

“Yes, only an axolotl would have been able to survive the extensive damage that was done to your bones and organs. It’s a good thing your godfather had some of the potions on him.” Her heart was speeding up, awareness coming back a lot faster now. She couldn’t feel her ribs, or her right arm. She slowly looked over to the metal thing again.

A brace. Her arm was inside a suspended, giant, metal brace. Several pins were sticking into her- she turned away, not wanting to see more of it.

“The surgeons actually considered amputating and just letting your arm regrow again. But one of them believed they could puzzle your arm together and it would heal faster than regrowth. Some damage to your spine suggests your human ribs would have been shattered as well, but your axolotl form has far shorter ribs, so those have been removed to simply grow back. You are expected to make a full recovery, but you’ll need rest and care. You are currently on Marcy’s human saliva, so you shouldn’t feel anything and we’re also harvesting some of Anne’s, so you should be free of any pain until everything is healed. Let us know if you aren’t.”

Sasha shook her head, still looking the other way. She didn’t want to see it, she didn’t want to know. This was actually worse than the time she had to completely regrow her arm. But she did answer the nurse.

“No pain.” There was a pause.

“If you wish I can get a curtain we can hang between your face and arm so you won’t have to see.”

“I would greatly appreciate that.” That was all it took for the nurse to leave in search of what she offered. At her absence, Grime took her place and gently took Sasha’s good hand into his own. His thumb lightly rubbed her thin skin, claw delicate on the smooth surface. It took her a moment, some debate with herself if she really wanted to know.

“Okay, so, extremely abbreviated version: What happened?” It was quiet for a moment, the old toad swallowing heavily.

“One of them caught you with its tail. Your arm… I actually saw your ribcag-.”

“That’s enough!” Sasha did not want the mental image. Remembering wouldn’t help, nurse’s orders. There was another long silence, only the sounds of both of their breathing.

“I knew the risk was there. I just didn’t think… and human bones are so much denser and less flexible. I-” Now it was Sasha’s turn to squeeze her godfather’s hand.

“I’m alive. The nurse said I’ll recover. And in the future those axolotl potions will keep being a Frogsent. Now, could I get some more water?”

The months after that were hard. It took weeks for the bones to stitch themselves together. She stayed an axolotl for all that time to make sure the bones healed faster and she took her first steps in rehabilitation in that form, so any injuries from that would heal and her muscles would grow back in strength faster. It was frustrating at first, but over time she was delighted that she was capable of her full motion again. And then came the day where she would change back into her human form again. She just wanted to make sure her body was completely fine again and to make sure its range of motion was back to what it used to be.

She was accompanied by two doctors this time, one taking a scan that showed her bones while an intern carefully checked how the bones felt through her skin manually. She didn’t mind, the guy was being gentle and he needed the experience. Plus this was a unique opportunity for him to get to know human bones. The senior doctor nodded at the scan, taking a single berry from a dish on his cart.

“Everything looks right, your hands have grown scar tissue along the fractures, but seem completely stitched together and your ribs have returned. So it should be safe. We will check again after you turn back, though. Ready?” Sasha nodded, laying back on the bed (just in case something was still wrong with her human form despite her axolotl form seeming fine) and taking the offered berry.

The transformation back didn’t hurt anymore at this point. So it was a complete shock as a sharp, piercing ache ran along the left side of her body.

“WHAT THE-!” She bit back her scream, launching herself to sit up again and grabbing her hand in pain. She pressed her elbow into her side, her arm didn’t hurt that much, but her ribs were screaming at her as she curled up in an instinctive attempt to defend herself.

As the shock of the feeling she hadn’t expected ebbed though, she became aware of the other two newts. The intern wasn't doing much, hands nervously hovering nearby in case he was given an order, while the older newt was trying to get her to not put pressure on the painful areas and get her to lie down on her back. After a few seconds, her mind took control again and she did as he asked. Taking deep breaths, the pain wasn’t as overwhelming as before anymore. There was a general pain in the areas, like a serious cramping of growth pains, but judging by her actions just now it hadn’t been as bad as it probably was when she came in.

“Commander Sasha, can you hear me? Can you understand the words I’m speaking?” She nodded, continuing to focus on her breathing. “Could you rate the pain for us please?”

“Uh, it was an eight there for a second. I think it’s going to a six right now.”

“Okay, can you move your arm? Or may I try to touch it to move it away from your body a little?” The intern asked cautiously. Sasha tried to do as he asked. Her arm responded, but she couldn’t even feel that she was moving it and she couldn’t open her fingers all the way. So she nodded to the young newt.

He took her hand, carefully turning her palm to the mattress and, emboldened by her lack of screaming, pressed her fingers to splay them open. To Sasha’s relief the guy’s actions didn’t seem to make the pain any worse. The other doctor pulled over his scan again and positioned it over her arm and ribs, pressing a few buttons until the machine beeped. Once the whir stopped the intern moved in again, unfolding a paper that seemed to hold a sketch of a human skeleton, and carefully started his manual check of her bones again. The newt in front of the screen gave a concerned hum.

“I-I’m sorry miss. I just, I can’t find anything. Visually your bones seem to be fine. And on the soft tissue scan, everything seems to be in order too. Visually, nothing seems to be wrong.” Meanwhile the younger newt hummed in agreement, seeming to be a bit fascinated by the texture of her finger bones, before he started to test the movements.

“Does any of this hurt?”

“Not really. There is a sort of constant ache, somewhere around a four, but touching and moving doesn’t make it worse.” She flexed her fingers to make sure. The feeling of control was back, but as she mentioned she was sore. But only…

“More specifically, it’s my smallest finger and the outer edge of my hand that keep hurting. The rest is already starting to feel better. The front of my ribs, though…” She started to rub at the painful areas for emphasis, the sides, her sternum, even the front of her shoulder. The younger newt watched her actions the whole time, until he straightened up and took both his sketches on human and axolotl bones. He compared both, eyes flickering between the two rapidly, before turning to his mentor.

“Doctor, I have a theory. May I investigate further?”

“...Be extremely careful. And you stop the instant the commander tells you to.” The newt nodded, moving over to the human. Sasha let him. He slowly worked his way through her arm and to her torso, placing his cold fingers on areas and asking her if this or that area hurt.

Pinky phalanxes? Yes. Ring phalanxes? Less. Middle Phalanxes? No. Carpal bones? Only the outer ones. Radius and ulna? No. Humerus? Also no. Clavicle? Yes. Scapula? Strangely no.

Similarly, her spine and the dorsal side of her ribs were fine, but the ache returned as they moved to the front. Once the young man asked to his satisfaction, he turned to his mentor excitedly.

“Sir, I think this might be some strange case of phantom pain.”

“...Continue.” He seemed excited by his superior’s interest, spreading out his medical sketches for both him and the human to see.

“So, phantom pain is caused when a person loses a limb. The nerves still tell the brain that the body part is injured, even though there is no limb to hurt anymore. I think this is a reversed version of that.” He started pointing out several bones on the human illustration before gesturing to their absence in the axolotl one.

“Humans have more bones than any of the Amphibian species. The bones she had as an Axolotl got to heal properly. But those missing human bones, like her extra finger, never did. So I think, as they never got their own time to heal, the body still thinks those bones are broken and the nerves are firing confused pain signals.”

The doctor actually seemed fascinated by the concept, he and his student starting up an excited conversation, trying to figure out if there could be holes poked into that theory and how to safely test it. Meanwhile, Sasha felt some dread at the concept. Surely she wouldn’t walk around with this phantom pain forever, right? Surely her body would realize it was, in fact, completely fine! Hopefully it wouldn’t bother her for too long.

She ended up walking around with that annoying ache for almost half a year…

Chapter Text

The Mother silently crept under the snow, sniffing the cold crisp air to know where she was. Behind her, three sets of feet followed her path, only slightly smaller than herself. Yet they were still clumsy enough to almost collapse her carefully shuffled tunnel. They still had so much to learn, but they would have to keep up with her now. Otherwise, they would end up like poor Hobble. So carefree, so inexperienced, fallen to a maw.

She put her lost baby back out of her mind. These things happened, and she had to focus on what was still here instead of what was no more. She kept walking, leading her young to food. In the winter, when all her usual prey had barricaded themselves in dens or flown off, there was one prey that remained. One that would be easy to drag back, but they would have to wait for it to thaw.

Another memory drifted through her mind again. One of that strange beast that stood tall on its two hind paws at all times. The mammal that didn’t hunker down in a fort against the snow, who treated prey like her own young. The one who should have treated stoat kits as predator young should be treated, but instead just held them until the Mother returned her own brood. Its food, strange tasting and soft, willingly given to non-kin to fill her kits’ bellies.

A light bump into her haunches let her know she had slowed, so she focused on moving on. A part of her felt adverse to returning to the strange creature’s gang after her alien act of mercy. But it was winter and they all had to do what was needed to survive. She had to make sure her legacy would live on and her remaining kits would not suffer.

She carefully dug her way up out of the snow, making sure the entrance stayed open as her kits slipped out. It had to stay open so they could make a quick getaway; only after that could it collapse. She nipped at Nosey in reprimand as he curiously went to scratch at the snow above him, dragging him out and back into his place in the caravan as she led them to their once-yearly hunting ground.

When she ducked under the brush where they came closest to the clearing with the strange rock formation though, she froze. It was here again. Sitting at the edge of the unnatural stone outcrop was the Hindwalker. Its foax-pelt was better put together this time, more sleek and tightly packed, more agile, more of a threat, which was only punctuated by a long, wooden thrusting-claw that was currently passively held in its lap. That alone would have been enough to make her reconsider her approach. But around it sat 3 adult Moths.

The giant black and white one, the obvious matriarch, was absolutely enormous, big enough to overwhelm the Mother in a fight. And yet she comfortably leaned her head against the Hindwalker’s side as it patted her head in an obvious display of affectionate dominance. The other two were slightly smaller, but no less impressive. A dark brown male with a lighter diamond spot on his back, and a blue and teal female with curved ears and curly fur. 

Why were they here? Moths flew off during the snow, those that didn’t lost their wings to the frost. Did they stay for the Hindwalker? Why? How? As her eyes ran over the teal moth while it looked for affection from the strange beast, she noticed part of its back looked strange. A long strip of brown fur ran along its abdomen, where no hair should b-. The Hindwalker, it had that same fur! They were coated in a pelt that was not their own, protecting their wings!

She stayed under the brush, observing the strange gang of different species as they sat in the middle of a whole group of frozen prey, eyes taking turn sweeping over the mass. They were not here to eat, the Hindwalker would not sit with them so calmly if they were. Which meant the moths were here to guard the stoats’ quarry. Together, they could easily kill all her kits, and herself if she didn’t back off after the loss. But they needed to eat. If they could not get a meal they could easily devour as they were weakened from hunger, they would be too weak to hunt afterwards and starve. She couldn’t let her kits starve. What to do, what to-?

The wind turned, a brown antenna twitched, and the accompanying head snapped in the Mother’s direction. Red faceted eyes found her almost instantly and the beast’s lips pulled back into a vicious snarl. The sharp hiss that came from his maw instantly drew the other creatures’ attention, each of the moths rising to their feet with accompanying yowls.

The Mother was frozen, she didn’t dare to set the beasts off. Her babies wouldn’t have the optimal chanse of survival yet without her. If she ran she might lose one of them as well. She didn’t know where they were, either. The brown and the matriarch moths both started to approach her, long legs carefully stepping in between the frozen prey as they approached her. Meanwhile the Hindwalker and teal moth stayed behind, keeping a close eye on her.

That’s when she noticed something that made a painful stab of fear shoot through her chest. Quickstep, her only living daughter, seemed to think her Mother was drawing attention away so she could sneak off with a prey while the threats were distracted. No, they weren’t far enough for that! The teal one!

Almost as if sensing her thought and noticing her line of sight, said moth swung her head around. Seeing the little, inexperienced creature, the larger animal yowled in alarm. Both other moths were momentarily distracted by the sudden sounds, but as the Mother desperately tried to jump to her baby’s aid, the largest moth turned back to her. Her jaw unhinged to show a row of long, yellow teeth and a lashing barbed tongue in threat, stopping the Mother right in her tracks. Thinking she still had a chanse, her halfwit of a kit actually rushed forward and tried to drag off one of the larger targets. No. No No! Please!

The teal moth leapt forward much faster than the baby had expected, causing her to drop her prize in an attempt to unburden herself. But her attacker was quicker, catching her by the back of her neck and digging its claws into the skin around her flanks.

The stoat’s stomach sunk, the familiar feeling of losing one of her own blood sinking into her motherly heart. She was about to see another of her daughters be devoured, torn apart right before her eyes. And once more, there was nothing she could-

A series of sharp sounds pierced the air, unlike anything she had heard before. The brown moth focused again, moving back to stand in as lookout. The matriarch moth did not move her eyes from her own opponent, but the mother only had eyes for the teal one that had her child and the Hindwalker that was approaching them. The curly moth perked up slightly, letting go of her daughter’s throat, but moving overtop to restrain her more. The smaller beast approached quickly, long claw shifted at the ready in both paws. A part of the mother hoped for the tool to be swift and precise, to take her child’s life before she could feel pain, while her heart hoped for another miracle.

And another miracle she got.

WHACK!

‘Whack whack whack!’ The claw branch went, the non-sharp part of the thin weapon harshly but harmlessly coming down on the top of the kit’s forehead. More meant to hurt and startle than to injure. Like a beast… disciplining bad young. What?

Only once her daughter submitted to the smaller beast, rolling her belly toward it and yelling out frightened whines, did it let out another short series of sharp sounds. And at its command, the moth let go. Her daughter instantly put distance between herself and the strange-looking beast, making as straight of a beeline for her mother as she dared with the even bigger moth still there. She tried to bury her now too large body under her mother’s belly, but still she bit the smaller stoat harshly on the ear. Even if she had already been disciplined, she still had to be made to know her mother too was very displeased with her. Regardless, she was relieved her kit was alive.

Cautious black eyes turned back to the other gang before her, the matriarch still standing almost nose to snout with her as the Hindwalker finally came forward to face her directly. It… ’she’ according to her scent, held her gaze without fear, intelligence that made even the adult stoat feel like she was inadequate and calculated her every move shining through. They let her go for just a second to scan their surroundings, before throwing another intense look in her direction.

What did she want? How could they pacify her enough to be allowed to leave? And what was that about her looking around? She followed the beast’s example and looked in the same direction she had. The brown moth was still scanning the brush, while the teal one had her antennae wiggling forward to detect something. But wha-oh. Quickstep came from that direction. The Hindwalker knew she had other young. They were looking for other potential threats.

The Mother met the Hindwalker’s eyes again as she thought. On the one hand, she did not want other predators knowing where her kits were. But on the other, this creature that led them had already shown so much patience and unnatural mercy. And she didn’t want to test just how far it could be stretched.

Lifting her head slightly she chittered for her two sons, causing both of them to cautiously scrawl out from their cover and join behind her. The Hindwalker instantly looked them over, and yet she seemed dissatisfied by their appearance. Using her false claw, she slowly pointed at Quickstep, then Crafty, Nosey, and then at an empty spot of snow before snapping another sharp stare at the Mother. Did… did she remember little Hobble? After all that time? Did she think her absent daughter was still hidden somewhere?

Without her realizing it the Mother’s stance deflated slightly. These things happened, it was nature. But as a first-time mother, as her first loss, it just hurt deeply and left her mind confused. So small and round and helpless… and to her surprise, the creature’s glare subdued slightly too. Almost as if, on some level, the loss affected her too. Such a strange creature, whose heart seemed big enough for more than just her own.

The Hindwalker relaxed her stance, and seeing this the moths did as well. The lanky thing moved her eyes to catch the brown moths attention, two short clicks leaving its small maw as she made a quick jerky movement with her head. He acted without question, both of them moving away from the stoat family. Did this mean it was okay? Were they allowed to leave?

The Mother took a slow step back only for the matriarch to growl a soft warning. Why? They learned their lesson, they’d leave these prey alone! She didn’t know how she was supposed to feed her kits now, but losing most of her kits and possibly her own life wasn’t worth trying to fight these beasts for a small mouth-full.

And then there was shuffling behind the two remaining moths. She moved her head to try and see what it was making the noise, only for the two guards in front of her to part slightly. The Hindwalker and brown moth were dragging something, one of those large hides that instead of hide smelled like dryness and plants instead. And yet, there was another smell.

Once the mass was dragged almost past the other two moths, the tall being threw the opening towards them. The last moth gave it a hard shove from the back, causing some of its contents to come tumbling out. The Mother felt her pupil widen in interest. Limbs. Giant bug limbs! They smelled cold, but not frozen.

Of course Nosey’s switching snout was the first to approach the mass, and when none of the moths made a move to stop him and even seemed to back up slightly, he quickly snatched one of the fleshy appendages and dragged it back. Once safely within range Crafty wiggled his head under his brother’s to try and steal some bites, which prompted the braver kit to abandon the snack for an even juicier looking one from the pile.

Once all her babies were munching on a limb of their choice, the Mother too felt comfortable eating. Somewhere around the time she stuck in her head for the second time, the other gang had moved to their previous positions, content to let only the curly moth watch them as the rest scanned for other threats. Suddenly she felt less urgent to leave. Here there was a creature who was once more giving her food, willingly. And even if her gang might be a threat in their eyes too, they would also warn them if something wanted to make use of her babies' exposure. She licked her lips as her babies played with some of the shell shards, and then, slowly, she laid down.

Watching for threats to the prey is the desired behavior, right? The one that brought safety and food. That's why the moths were here too, right? That's why they looked so content and groomed and well fed. Why they took orders from something far smaller than themselves.

If they tried to eat these particular prey, they might get a small bite this time. But next year there would be no more patience for her, her kits, or any future kits. If she joined this band though, did what they wanted and guard these particular pre-... beings, there might be even more food to be got in the future.

And if she taught her kits that lesson now, who knew how much easier their future winters might get…

Chapter Text

Mr. Wu sighed as he sat down in his living room. It had been three months since his daughter had disappeared without a trace. The police hadn’t found any signs of a break in and had even turned the investigation on them at one point! They hadn’t done anything wrong, though.

In fact, the baby monitor footage actually showed that they had put her to bed properly before cutting out in the middle of a small power outage. And when the power came back on, the baby was gone! Nobody had any way of knowing what the heck happened, but at least it proved the parents’ innocence. 

For the first week, he and his wife had faith in the police to find their little girl. For the second week, they wept for her loss. For the third week, they’d fallen into a depressive state. But after that, they sought therapy and grief counseling. It was only the logical thing to do.

They’d been working through their issues for the past couple of months and they still had a long road ahead of themselves. But by this point, Mr. Wu knew that if they hadn’t found Marcy within a year, then they’d have to move on. The thought pained him and he knew that it made his wife feel even worse. And yet, it was still something that they had to consider.

And what would happen if they just had to move on? Would they have the heart to try again and have another kid? To just… replace their brilliant little girl? He felt something warm run down his cheek, but he didn’t even need to check to know that it was a tear.

The man practiced his breath exercises before standing up and turning on the TV for some background noise. Anything to drown out the thoughts without turning to some sort of addiction. He then went into the kitchen where his wife was. The two stood in amicable silence until the theme song of a popular show began to play.

Suddenly, memories of little Marcy waving her arms in synch with the showtune started to flood their minds. When they first saw it happen, they realized that the girl would grow up to be a genius! But now… both of them began to break down, reaching for each other. As they embraced, they let their emotions out just as their therapist had said to do and reminded themselves of the one thing that kept them going. If nothing else, at least they still had each other…

The same couldn’t be said for the Waybrights. They’d gotten married when they found out that Jessica was pregnant. Heck, they figured that having a baby would actually bring them closer together after they’d started to drift apart! William’s friends insisted that’d work. But once the kid was actually born, they just started arguing even more!

Yes, they loved their daughter with all their hearts. But when she disappeared, the two of them screamed at each other for a solid hour, blaming each other for the disappearance before actually calling the police! They didn’t even look at each other when they cried. Instead, they chose to grieve alone. By this point, the only things keeping them together were their marriage and the lease agreement.

After the first month had passed with no leads on where Sasha could be, the two of them finally sat down and talked. In the end, the conclusion they came to was that if they married just for a kid who wasn’t even around anymore, then maybe they should just move on. The judge who oversaw their divorce appeared to empathize with their reasoning. Heck, at one point, he even told them that they were probably making the right decision!

Going forewards, they had the whole world available to them. They’d remain roommates until the lease was up and then probably never see each other again. But things were still awkward between them, given the gaping hole in their lives. They were supposed to have a little girl! If they were being completely honest with themselves though, then they’d know that this was probably for the best.

With them constantly arguing, what kind of person would she have grown up to be? And what if she couldn’t have actually kept them together? What if they would’ve split up regardless and had to juggle her between homes? When they asked these questions, both of them had conflicted feelings.

Firstly, they both felt shame about rushing into a relationship like this so quickly and expecting a baby of all things to somehow save it. But that level of shame didn’t even begin to hold a candle to what went unsaid. How could anyone be so callous and cruel to think what they were both thinking?! And yet, there it was. Deep down, both of them harboured the same sentiment regarding Sasha’s disappearance. Namely, that it had to have been some sort of sign that they were never meant to be together at all…

The Boonchuys, on the other hand, were absolute wrecks. They couldn’t believe their precious baby girl had been snatched away in the middle of the night! And as the police continued to be useless at finding her, Oum continued to berate them. It almost got to a point where they tried to arrest her, but when she actually assisted them in solving a different missing child case, they knew they couldn’t.

Searching for their lost baby consumed so much of their time, that they didn’t have time for anything else. But after three solid months of nothing but frantic looking, they were too exhausted to keep going. Bee tried to get Oum to rest at least a little bit, citing that the police were doing everything they could. That only got her to cry even more, though.

The police weren’t doing anything at all for them and were even outright hostile at times! It was only because she was able to help with a different case that they didn’t arrest her at this point. And even then, it was just too much! While a part of Oum was happy to see the relieved parent reunite with their child, another part of her could only wonder when she’d be able to experience the same thing. Or if she’d ever be able to experience it.

Upon the thought of Anne potentially being gone forever, she just broke down even more. When Bee told her to rest, all she could do was go to the baby’s room and sit in front of the empty crib. If she disappeared from there without a trace, then there was a small part of Oum that thought she might reappear there. Logically, she knew it wouldn’t work that way. But she could hardly convince herself of that when she’d already exhausted all other options.

While she grieved, her husband somehow managed to find it in him to keep the restaurant up and running. After all, it wouldn’t do for them to not have an income if anyone ever managed to find Anne. But he was only burying his feelings at this point while trying to be strong for his wife. She was always the stronger of the two of them, though.

The only things that kept them going were the people at the Thai Temple and their regular customers who knew what had happened. At least, they knew as much as the couple themselves did. But in their grief, all they could truly fall back on was each other. And even then, that was barely enough. The thought of leaving each other never crossed their minds, though. After all, who else could so completely understand their pain?

Three vacant cribs, three broken families, three children lost with no way of knowing if they were even alive, let alone where they were…

Chapter Text

It had only been a single month since the war ended. Nature had only just started recovering and people were still only just coming out of hiding. As it was, Marcy was in the process of sifting through the lists of lives lost during the war and sending out search parties for anyone who didn’t show up. Within reason, of course. It wasn’t like they’d be able to track down a heron victim from that time.

But it was during that process and seeing the results of the paperwork when something caught the princess’ attention. Specifically, some familiar names. Multiple reports came in of a pair of newts who housed refugees, rotating them around with other refugee houses whenever some of Andrias’ forces came by. And when Marcy saw them in said reports, her heart jumped!

Not only had Javi and Kettle survived, but they were able to help so many others! And now that the war was over, she really wanted to see them. Not only because she missed them, but also because the word hadn’t spread far enough for them to know she was a human. Maybe it had, but there was really only one way to know and she absolutely wanted to come clean! But first, she also had to find Femur.

It had taken her a few more days before she got the reports about a shepherd with a suspiciously familiar name and confirmed that it was really him. Knowing him and his desire for a peaceful retirement, she half expected him to reject the summons. But it seemed that her emphasis on the fact that it was NOT a call to return to military duties helped. In fact, the letter outright stated that they were only being summoned in order to be rewarded and then permitted to go back to their lives.

Once all three of them had sent confirmations that they would be arriving, Marcy prepared for the event. There wasn’t much to prepare for, but it still made her nervous. After all, there was a reason why she was always carrying the cursebane berries nowadays. They were close enough to her once that they needed to know the truth if they hadn’t already heard about it. And if they had, then it’d still be good to catch up regardless.

When the day arrived, she waited for them (in newt form, of course) at the castle gate instead of waiting for a guard to escort them. Olivia had offered to handle everything for that day, as if she wasn’t handling most things regularly. As the time passed by, the princess rehearsed what she was going to say to these old friends of hers. But when she finally saw all three of them approaching from the distance, all of that nearly went out the window!

“GUYS!!” She called out, getting their attention and prompting them to speed up.

“Marcy! I didn’t expect her majesty to be waiting at the gate for us. So we really are just that important.” Javi opened with a smile, allowing his ego to feed off of the attention of someone with a social status like hers. Kettle followed him up.

“We almost didn’t want to come because of what your dad did during the war, but the entire time, I kept on saying ‘Marcy would never approve of this’ and I WAS RIGHT!!” Hearing that little bit about Andrias stung the girl, as the wound was still relatively fresh. But Femur seemed to catch on and gently placed a hand on Marcy’s shoulder for comfort. She smiled up at him to let him know that she was going to be okay before turning back to the other two.

“Yes, you were right, Kettle. It’s… a long story, to say the least. Why don’t you guys come in and we can discuss everything? I’d also like to know some more about how you guys have been doing since our time together.” Upon their agreement, the girl led them to the royal dining room where a beautiful tea set had been set out for the four of them.

During the conversation, Marcy had found out about the exact routes that various refugees had been rotated through. She noted them down so that she could send soldiers to look for anyone who needed a hand getting back on their feet and anyone who may have been lost on said routes. And while Femur hadn’t protected many people, he was able to communicate through gestures and grunts that he’d protected so much livestock, (of several different species) that the neighbouring village actually had a better chance to recover! By the end of it, she decided to make her big announcement.

“You were all so instrumental in helping the innocent people during such a horrible time. Thank you for telling me the details, because that just confirmed that I was right to set up your awards.”

“Awards?” Javi perked up.

“Of course! There’ll be a little ceremony this evening just for that. As it is, I feel like there’s just enough time for me to tell you my side of the story.”

“Wait a second, it’s barely noon!” Kettle interjected, clearly not enthused by the idea of spending the whole day in the castle.

“Well, I did say that it was a long story, right? And in all reality, my side of it starts before we even met. Have any of you heard of the… the ‘Newtopian Book Beast’?” She suppressed a shudder at the mention of that traumatic time.

“Yeah, I remember you mentioning that you decided to do some military service because that incident spooked you so much that you knew you had to be better… or something like that.” Javi recalled the conversation they had one night so long ago. Meanwhile Kettle put her hands on the table and leaned towards the princess.

“And we heard about how you’re not actually a newt. It makes no difference to us, but the few people who know about it keep saying your true form looks like the same species.”

“Ah. Well… they’re… not wrong, I guess? That was actually the day I found out that I’m not actually a newt because…” Marcy trailed off, leaving Femur to gesture towards her in a way that made it obvious he’d figured it out. Upon seeing that, she decided to just say it.

“The ‘Newtopian Book Beast’ was… me. I was only ten years old and I forgot to take the ‘medicine’ that I usually do, which is actually a transformation potion by the way. After that, I felt like I needed to go above and beyond in order to distance myself from the ‘beast’ label.”

“So you joined the military in an attempt to prove yourself.” Javi concluded. Marcy could only nod at that before skipping to what happened after her three friends retired. Several hours passed as she recalled all of the events that led up to where they were. When it came to discussing Andrias, she stalled every now and then. But thankfully, even Kettle was patient with her on this one. Either she’d really cooled down after living the peaceful life or she was far more emotionally mature than people gave her credit for.

Either way, by the time she was finished with her explanations, she had already taken out the cursebane berry. The others were mostly just waiting for her to use it, but she needed to take a few deep breaths first. It was easy to forget that someone as smart as Marcy was still just a kid, after all. One who had just lost most of her family with one of the remaining ones (Olivia was already considered to be her mom by this point) locked up. Even though she was the princess, the wounds were still fresh.

After a while though, she stood and warned them once again that the transformation back to her human form was indeed hideous and it used to be just as painful as it had looked. So with that warning out of the way, she finally took a breath and ate the berry. She didn’t want to see their reactions to the transformation itself, so she kept her eyes closed. Given the silence that followed, she was afraid to open them. That was until Kettle spoke up.

“You got taller from that? That’s not even fair!” The comment was so unexpected, that it brought Marcy out of her mental stupor. But just a moment of consideration for how self conscious Kettle always was of her size made Marcy realize that she shouldn’t have expected anything different. Javi’s own follow up put the girl’s mind at ease even more.

“At least you’re now at eye level with me. It always bothered me that I was in service to an actual child. But you really don’t feel like one anymore to me.” Clearly he was doing his best to comfort Marcy, even though she could see how he was studying her face.

Femur, for his part, maintained his peaceful demeanor and just gave the girl a reassuring smile. He knew by this point that all creatures had their places and none were to be judged for being what they were. As it was, he likened it to him coming to terms with his lack of desire to fight and deciding to become a shepherd way back when. Just like him back then, Marcy was embracing who and what she truly was. His smile carried weight.

“Thank you everyone. I was so afraid that your reactions would be so much worse! I knew better, but I just couldn’t stop myself from thinking that.” She paused, letting Javi interject.

“I won’t lie. If I would’ve seen this back then with no context, I probably would’ve had a worse reaction. But even back then, all it would take was an explanation and then I’d still be on your side, your highness.”

“Yeah, exactly! We can handle differences, we’ve just gotta know what to expect.” Kettle affirmed while Femur gave a thumbs-up.

“That means… a lot. Thank you. Now!” She clapped her hands together “Seeing as I’m in my human form now, I think it’s high time to give you guys those awards I mentioned earlier. To the throne room!” She announced, mimicking how she would announce things back when they worked together.

Anne and Sasha may be her greatest allies nowadays, but she would never forget her first real team…