5. S1: Hop Luck Pot Luck

Chomp!

Chew, chew, chew…

Swallow.

These described the sequence of actions Sasha was currently undertaking. At the moment, she was with Sprig and Polly, and all were sitting outside nearby the homestead. Recently, they had visited the store to buy supplies (and apologize for the mess she made) and while they were there, Sprig and Polly decided to buy a bunch of different snacks for Sasha to try.

Surprising to say, Sasha was on board with it.

"Hmm… Chewy… and sweet…" Sasha said, her mouth full of a half-eaten snack bar. It was similar to the bar she accidentally stole last time but the flavour was somewhat different. This one had a chocolate-like exterior surrounding the chewy caramel-esque middle. All in all, it reminded her of the snack bars at home.

"Ay, this is good too!" Sasha beamed, swallowing. Sprig nodded in agreement. "Right? It's made of—"

"UP PUP PUP!" Sasha cried, interrupting him. "No telling! I don't want to actually know what's in this stuff."

"Oh right, right! Sorry!"

Polly watched as the two older kids interact with one another. Throughout Sasha's stay with the Plantars at their homestead, Polly never did interact that much with the human teenager. Outside of the occasional talks with the family, Sasha usually just hung out with Sprig and they were like two peas in a pod. Polly had to admit, she was a tad jealous about this but she knew that it just wasn't her time yet.

While she lamented on that, an odd gaseous fluid slowly floated its way from the house's various windows and into Polly's vicinity, before it casually entered her undefined nostrils. Polly sniffed and after a few seconds, wretched loudly.

"AUUUGH! THIS SMELL!" Polly cried, covering her non-existent nose. "It's got to be that time of the year again…"

"What time?" Sasha asked, only to be hit by the smell as well, causing her to cry out in pain. "ARGH, MY EYES!"

"Oh boy, I know exactly what Polly means. Come on, I think it's better to just show you." Sprig said, standing up alongside Sasha.

The trio walked from their spot and back to the house. There, the smell emanating from the walls were strong and the closer they got, the more pungent the vicious odour became. It was the worst smell Sasha had ever experienced, before and after she got sent here into this foreign world.

Once at the front door, Sprig placed his hands around the door handle and readied himself. "BRACE YOURSELF!" He screamed, taking a deep breath.

Polly held her breath but Sasha, somewhat disoriented, was left confused. "Brace for wha—?"

Unfortunately for her, Sprig had opened the door. The evil gas that had built up inside was immediately released like a torrent of water, flooding the entire front yard. Everyone was sent flying, with the exception of Sprig who had held the door handle tightly.

A few moments later, the gas quickly dispersed itself and disappeared, allowing for some room to breathe. Sprig let go of his breath and resumed to breathe normally, the power of the stench finally somewhat normalized. Polly hopped her way to him.

"Alright, now that's out of the way, let's get inside. Eh, Sasha— Oh wait, she fainted." Sprig remarked, looking at Sasha's unconscious body a few feet away.

Polly nodded in response. "I can't believe Hop Pop just killed Sasha."

A few minutes later, after Sprig and Polly dragged Sasha's body to the kitchen and splashed her face with water, the three of them were sitting at the dining table and watched as Hop Pop peered into a book and cooked something… unnatural…

Sasha, with her fingers clamping her nose, had to ask. "Yo, Hop Pop! I know I said your cooking was like the fifth most dangerous things in the world, but I didn't think you were aiming for number one."

Hop Pop closed the book and went to the side, cutting apart some worms and pushing them into the bubbling foul liquid. "I'm not! This here's an old family recipe, passed down generation after generation from my great gam-gam."

Polly groaned. "It's for the annual Hop Luck competition."

"Hop Luck? What's that?" Sasha asked. Hop Pop paused his cooking to explain. "Well, you see Sasha, every year the folks of Wartwood hold a cooking competition known as Hop Luck. The winner of said competition is showered with praise and copper coins, while the loser—"

Hop Pop opens up the window, revealing a masked toad and a cheaply-made wooden cage. "—spends the night in the SHAME CAGE."

"And guess who spends the night every year in it." Sprig said sadly before the Plantars all collectively sighed.

Sasha looked at her foster family and frowned. The Plantars took her in when no one was willing to even talk to her. She'd be damned if she let them spend another year in a rickety old cage.

"Not this year!" Sasha shouted. "As if I'll let my favourite froggy family be humiliated like that! You guys are going to win this competition and so says Sasha!"

"Hop Pop, hand me that cookbook!" Sasha demanded though Hop Pop was in a bit of a stupor from watching Sasha's little speech. "Huh, wha? Oh, right! Here ya go, Sasha."

Sasha grabbed the cookbook and began flipping through the pages, looking at recipe after recipe. However, what began with restless motivation was quickly replaced with shock, confusion and uncertainty, before ending with grim certainty.

Sasha lowered the cookbook, facing the Plantars. "… Hop Pop, I'm pretty sure half of the recipes here can kill me."

"What?! Such nonsense, Sasha! We Plantars have been using these recipes for generations! Every year we enter the Hop Luck with a recipe from this cookbook."

"I can see why you guys lose every year then."

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"

Sasha closed the book and threw it behind her, causing Hop Pop to shriek in shock and ran over to catch it. She then grabbed some paper and a pencil, and started scribbling.

"Alright, guys! If you want to win this year, you have to try something new! Something bold! Something the world has never seen before! Something like—"

Sasha showed her crude drawing to everyone. "PIZZA!"

Sprig and Polly both awed at Sasha's depiction of a pizza, while Hop Pop, who had finally returned, frowned. The drawing was a circle with smaller circles in it, and a bunch of squiggly shapes.

"It doesn't look like much… Why not try a recipe from the cookbook instead? It's tried and true, after all." Hop Pop said, trying to convince the kids. Sasha however was having none of it and closed the book in his hands.

"It's tried and it doesn't work. We have to go with something fresh." Sasha explained. Hop Pop still didn't like the idea. "That's a lot of somethings, Sasha…"

"It's fine~! It'll definitely work! I mean, I've never actually made a pizza myself but I know the recipe. I learned it in cooking class."

Thinking about it, she remembered the time she was in said cooking class. At the moment, she partnered up with her best friends Anne and Marcy, and the three were to make a pizza from scratch. Though to be honest, Anne was the only one cooking while Sasha and Marcy stood by the side-lines, showing support. Well, Sasha was showing support. Marcy was twiddling with her phone and looking up memes.

Good thing the teacher wasn't judging them individually.

"Sasha, tell us what the pizza is!" Sprig asked in excitement, breaking Sasha out of her flashback. She shook her head and tried to remember the recipe.

"Well, a pizza is a flatbread with tomato sauce and cheese alongside other toppings. It's an Italian dish."

"What's an Italian?"

"Some dude with a funny moustache."

"Haha, nice."

Sasha scribbled some more notes on her drawing, labelling each part. "Okay, there are three major parts of a pizza; the dough, the sauce and the cheese. Toppings are extra and we can put anything on it."

"Anything?" Sprig asked. "How about pineapple? I think it'll go well with pizza."

"Yeah sure, why not?" Sasha replied. "Though, usual toppings are like green bell peppers and mushrooms. You guys don't happen to have bell peppers, do you?"

"Of course we have bell peppers. We're not savages." Hop Pop answered, the cookbook still in his hands.

Sasha folded the paper and placed it in her pocket. "Alright! Now we're getting somewhere! Let's get out there and win this competition!"

The Plantars and Sasha all cheered and broke off to get ready and procure the ingredients. Unbeknownst to them, the frog gods were not in their side that day and it was about to get a whole lot harder.

The Plantars and Sasha all head out for their first ingredient; the dough. While this usually would be the hardest ingredient to procure considering that none of them knew how to make bread, thankfully Wartwood has its own bakery, serving fresh breads every morning.

They walked into the bakery and witnessed the baker kneading some fresh dough on the table. While Sasha would question the sanitation of using one's feet to knead the dough, she decided not to bring it up.

"Hey, Mr Flour!" Sprig greeted, walking up to the counter. Said Mr Flour heaved the dough from the table and threw it into the oven, closing it. He turned towards Sprig.

"What brings the Plantars to my home?" He asked, his gruff voice masked his confusion. He looked up and also noticed Sasha, causing him to glare. "I see you brought the monster here too."

"The name's Sasha, by the way." She said back, somewhat annoyed. He replied with a grump.

"We're looking for some dough for the Hop Luck competition. We're kinda hoping you have any leftovers you could spare." Sprig explained.

Mr Flour scratched his chin, pondering. He then pointed at the young frog. "If you want the dough, the boy has to marry my daughter."

As if on cue, said daughter appeared magically next to Sprig. No one knew where she actually came from. She was also carrying a doll that looked a lot like Sprig.

She then slowly stabbed a stake through the dolls cotton heart, all while smiling.

"Hiiiii, Sprriigg…" She greeted with her grouchy voice.

"HAH! MADDIE! HAHA, D-DIDN'T SEE YOU THERE!" Sprig replied with fear. He didn't really know Maddie that well but he always did see her every time she stared at him unblinking from the distance. "Y-you scared me!"

"You should be." Maddie said, her face uncomfortably close to his. Sprig then began to hyperventilate, all while Mr Flour smiled as the two interacted.

"Ain't she adorable?" he asked. Sasha also watched the two younger frogs interact and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Now the deal's done."

"S-SASHA?!" Sprig cried, his body having moved back and away from Maddie. She, however, crept closer regardless.

Sasha waved. "It's fine. Your future is secured and we managed to get the dough. I'd say this is a win-win situation for us."

She then turned to the baker. "Now, the dough please."

Mr Flour cheered with a monotone yay, accepting the transaction and threw to them a ball of his dough. Sasha caught it easily and slipped it into her (Anne's) bag for safekeeping.

Having watched all of that, Hop Pop could help but interject. "Ya know, if we used one of the Plantars' old family recipes, we wouldn't have to sell Sprig…"

"Urgh, your recipes are lame, Hop Pop! Besides, we already got what we need. There's no stopping this pizza train!"

"PIZZA TRAIN!" Polly cheered.

"Thanks for the dough!" Sasha exclaimed before leaving, followed by the rest of the Plantars. Maddie waved her little doll's arm at them. "Byeee, hubby…"

Once out of the baker, Sasha smiled. "She seems nice. Creepy but obviously nice." Sprig, however, was still shaken.

The next ingredient in their list was cheese. Now, Sasha was pretty sure that cows don't exist in this world but she was genuinely surprised when she heard that cheese did exist! She didn't even think that frogs ate cheese; she kind of planned to capitalize a new food group.

So here she was at some old lady frog's house, walking towards a pen while a giant bull worm chased Sprig around who was, at the moment, wearing an outfit made of tied-together red leaves.

"Thanks for the help, monster! I know that dear ol' Brutus can be quite a handful!" The old lady frog exclaimed which from the sign, Sasha can assume her name to be Mrs Croaker.

"THE NAME'S SASHA!" She yelled in an annoyed tone.

While Sasha was on her way, Hop Pop and Polly stood in the side-lines, out of harm. "Ya know, my recipes don't even need cheese."

"NO OLD RECIPES!"

In order to get the cheese, Mrs Croaker had asked them to give her beloved bull worm a good walk, before moving it to its pen. Luckily for the Plantars, Sasha had devised a brilliant plan; wear a costume made of red leaves, act as bait and lead the bull worm into the pen.

"SPRIG! I'M READY!" Sasha yelled and waved, finally at the gate of the pen. Meanwhile, Sprig was being chased around by Brutus and a cheeky thumbs up.

Hearing the signal, he turned towards the pen, the worm right behind him. It released a wormy roar and Sprig quickened her pace. Once there, he ran into the pan through the opened gate, baiting Brutus as well.

Sasha, taking notice, immediately closed the gate and hopped away, leaving Sprig and the bull worm alone in the pen. But Sprig was not one to give up easily. He leapt over the fence with the grace of a gymnast, escaping the enclosed space. Brutus roared angrily, finally trapped and unable to follow him.

Sprig walked up to the rest of the Plantars, panting and wheezing with the occasional coughs. Despite being in the prime of his life, he quickly figured out that he was not built for endurance runs.

"Cough up the cheese, grandma." Sasha demanded, not bothering to sound polite.

Mrs Croaker threw the generously-sized cheese wheel towards Sasha, who caught it and placed it in the bag alongside the dough.

"You know, if you want, I can show you why my cheese is so delicious. It all starts at—"

"Please don't tell me how the cheese is made."

With the cheese obtained, the Plantars and Sasha left Mrs Croaker's place and Sprig got to remove his leaf-bait costume.

Sprig turned to Sasha, "So, where do we go next?"

Sasha pulled up her paper and checked off cheese, going down the list. "We need to get ourselves some basil for the sauce and maybe some other stuff on the way."

Crunching the paper back into her pocket, she fist-pumped with cheer. "Nothing's gonna stop this pizza train!"

"PIZZA TRAIN!" Both Polly and Sprig cheered together. Hop Pop only sighed in defeat.

"This is surprisingly easier than I thought." Sasha said out loud.

After getting the cheese and dough, their next targets were two things; basil for the sauce and toppings such as mushrooms and bell peppers. Considering the last two, she'd expect some sort of ridiculous trial like a riddle or being attacked by a pack of mole rats.

Instead, here she was, collecting the plants from the nearby woods peacefully. No attack, no riddles, no anything.

"You know with so much of this stuff all over the place, how come people don't just pick it themselves? Why sell them in the first place?" Sasha asked.

"Basils are usually within the territory of aphids but from the looks of it, we're just lucky they aren't here." Hop Pop answered. "Those critters can swarm a full-grown toad and bite their liver off in ten seconds flat!"

"Why the liver?"

"It's the best part of the body."

Sasha shrugged, accepting the response. A few minutes later, the Plantars and Sasha finally collected more than enough vegetables and herbs for their pizza. Sasha tried to fit it into her bag but it was too full.

"Dammit! The bags too full and the zipper won't close!" Sasha cursed, which surprisingly was her first since she got here.

"Sasha! Language!" Hop Pop scolded. Sasha ignored the old frog and prompted to simple carry her (Anne's) bag zipper-opened. It wasn't like she had much of a choice anyway.

"Alright, we got most of the ingredients. Now, all we need are a couple of tomatoes and we're golden." She said to the group, bringing out a map from her pocket. She had traded Hop Pop's dentures for it, a small price to pay for deliciousness. "You know, it's kinda funny but I haven't seen any tomatoes since I got here."

"Well, I've never tasted a tomato before." Sprig added. "In fact, I don't think anyone in town has ever tasted one."

Hop Pop opened up his cookbook and started flipping through the pages. "There's a reason for that, Sprig. They're in the 'Dangerous Vegetables' section. It suggests we go for prunes instead! Can't go wrong with prunes!"

Sasha chuckled. "Pssh, 'Dangerous Vegetables'. How dangerous can a bunch of tomatoes be?"

"ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!"

Sasha frowned deeply at the creature in front of her; sentient carnivorous plants with heads looking like tomatoes and mouths larger than her entire body. A dragonfly flew close to it accidentally and immediately fell victim to the tomato monster's jaws. As the tomato monster chomped up the insect, spittle flew all over the place, landing quite close to Sasha's feet.

"Ho—"

"—Ly—"

"— Tomato." Polly, Sprig and Sasha exclaimed in sequence, frozen at the spot.

One of the heads crept close to Sasha and roared in her face, this time she was sure some of the spit actually did hit her shirt. She shivered at the stain on her shoulder. The Plantar all simultaneously stepped back slowly. Hop Pop patted his book and whispered, "Ya know, this baby's got a lot of substitutes, all of which are delightfully harmless…"

"Couldn't hurt to hear a few options…" Sprig whispered back.

Sasha immediately took notice of their attempt and ran behind, blocking the frogs from leaving. "O-oh no, you don't! We're not leaving without those tomatoes!"

"Sasha, while I do respect your attempt to save us from the Shame Cage, this is completely asinine!" Hop Pop argued. "This can't all be worth it!"

"Yes, it is!" Sasha yelled, before lowering her voice. "The Shame Cage? It's not just that dingy old cage you guys have, it's in here; the heart. You reject the chance to win because you're so used to losing. You're afraid of the future, a life without the cage. Your heart? It's there, trapped in the Shame Cage."

"Me? I haven't been in the cage before and I'm not gonna let my favourite froggy family in it as well!" Sasha exclaimed, tightening the strap of her bag. She cracked her knuckles and neck, and glared at the tomato monsters. In turn, the tomatoes too glared at her with their non-existent eyes, sensing a flare of emotion.

"I'll show you what it means to win." She said in a serious tone. With her knees bent, she pushed herself forward and ran straight towards the non-monstrous tomatoes. The toothed ones grinned and moved forward, their vines in tow.

One vine attempted to hit Sasha from the side but she quickly ducked, the hit missing. Another attempt was made but lower, and she jumped over. Few shot themselves toward her and missed, planting into the ground. The vines all came after her but Sasha was relentless. She dodged every single one with determination.

The tomato heads have had enough and personally went front to gnaw on her. She realized and moved back, causing one of the heads to crash into the ground, knocking itself out. Another head saw an opportunity and shot forward, hungry for flesh. Immediately, she ran around the downed head with the other following her closely.

While she was chased, the vines had also attacked her from all sides. Some even came out of the ground, having missed earlier. To be hit would spell failure and Sasha was not one to accept losing. Much like before, she dodged all attempts, all while serpentining around them. Finally, she had successfully reached the succulent and juicy tomatoes at the base of the tomato monster.

"SASHA, LOOK OUT!" Sprig warned from afar. Despite reaching the base, the head that chased after her did not give up and was still pining after her. Sasha looked at the head with wide eyes, its teeth just mere feet away from her.

In the end, however, it was her win. Sasha smirked knowingly.

The vines, both the independent ones and the heads, all snagged itself and tightened. The sheer force caused the chasing head to immediately stop painfully and after a few seconds, fell down lifelessly.

From the edges, the Plantars all awed in surprise, followed by a loud cheer. Sprig beamed with the largest smile he could pull off. "OH MY GOSH, THAT WAS AMAZING!"

"THAT WAS The GREATEST THING I HAD EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!" Polly cheered as well, louder than Sprig.

Even Hop Pop was left slack-jawed at the demonstration. He couldn't even form full sentences.

Sasha took the praise shamelessly. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm pretty cool myself." She blushed. "Now come on, let's grab ourselves some tomatoes and we'll be on our way."

At that impromptu moment, the frog gods have decided to enact their will; the third head which they had largely ignored smashed onto the ground with its mouth opened, swallowing Sasha with one gulp.

A few moments later, everyone screamed.

"AAAAAHHHHHH, SASHA JUST GOT EATEN BY A TOMATO!" Hop Pop panicked.

"AAAAAHHH, WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!" Polly screamed from her bucket.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH— Wait, this seems oddly familiar…" Sprig contemplated but quickly disregarded the thought. While they were panicking, the last living tomato head started twitching uncontrollably and having spasms. It roared out in pain.

Sprig noticed immediately and turned to Hop Pop. "Hop Pop, Sasha's still in there and fighting! What are we supposed to do?!"

Hop Pop frantically flipped through the pages of his cookbook. "I don't know! All the book says is that tomatoes are really delicious and—" Suddenly, Hop Pop had an epiphany. Apparently, that was also shared with the two kids. The frog gods had decided to throw a bone at them.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Hop Pop asked his grandkids with a confident look.

"If you're thinking that we eat the tomato monster raw and bloody like a bunch of hungry wild animals, then yeah." Polly replied.

"Alright, Plantars! On three!" Sprig slid his hand forward. Polly placed her fin on Sprig's backhand, followed by Hop Pop. "One!"

"Two!"

"THREE!" All three pulled their hands upwards together and sped off towards the tomato monster.

Thanks to Sasha's previous assault, most, if not all of the vines that once protected the tomatoes were immobilized and unable to stop the charge. This allowed the Plantars to easily reach the base of the plant, where the tomato was too preoccupied with Sasha being an unwilling dinner in its plant throat.

"RAAAAAAGGHHH!" The Plantars all screamed, biting into the tomato flesh.

Meanwhile, within the throat of the tomato head, Sasha was furiously kicking the sticky, wet walls that were squeezing her. She wouldn't admit it but she was a bit embarrassed that she didn't notice the third head.

With the slime covering her entire body, she easily flowed through the oesophagus. She somehow managed to stop halfway through, her back against the slimy wall. Good news is that it wasn't as dark in here as she thought it'd be.

"Huh, deja vu…" Sasha mindlessly said. Nonetheless, she quickly threw away those thoughts and continued kicking the wall.

What she didn't realize however was that for every kick she did, she slowly started losing her grip on the wall. The slimy tomato juices made the surface slippery and the kicks were pushing her off little by little.

With one more kick, the slime finally won and Sasha lost her grip entirely. "W-WOOOAAHHH!" She yelped and screamed, falling deeper into the tomato. Her bag, covered in thick tomato juices, slid off her back easily and tumbled down alongside her.

On her way down, she noticed a bright and bubbly green liquid at the bottom. "STOMACH ACID!" She screamed.

Sasha pulled all the breaks and pushed herself against the wall with all of her might, stopping just before the end. Her grip continued to loosen and she was hanging on to dear life.

Her bag, however, did not care.

"AHHHHHHH!" Sasha shrieked, witnessing the fall of her best friends backpack. Frantically, she shot out her arm and grabbed the bag by the bottom, saving it.

"P-pfew…" She sighed in relief. Though it didn't last long as the unzipped bag flew open, dropping its hard-earned contents into the acid below.

Her left eye twitched. "… ARRRRRGGHHH—!"

"MMRRGGHHH!" A muffled yell of anger and despair was heard from outside. Sprig bit off another piece of the tomato monster, finding it quite tasty.

"Sasha's in trouble! Hurry, Plantars!" Sprig said after swallowing, taking off another bite.

Sprig was doing the best he could, chewing faster than ever. He has to admit, tomatoes were really delicious. In fact, they were the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted in his little froggy life. While this was a rescue mission, he couldn't help but enjoy the meal.

Hop Pop tried to help however but since he sold his dentures for the map, he was having a hard time chewing the touch exterior. Fortunately for him, the innards were much softer, making it easy for his gums to break the red flesh apart.

Polly. She was literally swimming through the plant like a mole digging through earth. Who knew a polliwog like her could eat this much?

After several aggravating seconds, they finally managed to eat enough of the tomato monster that it fell down and died instantly. They continued to eat however, both to save their dear friend and because it tasted really good.

"There! I see her!" Sprig said, starting to get full. Despite that, he pushed on and chewed, eating out a hole large enough for Sasha to crawl through.

Which she did, though with a horrified face.

Giving her space, she stood up and stared at the now-empty backpack. Sprig cheered happily however and jumped for a hug. "Sasha! You're safe! I'm so glad you're okay! " Polly too joined the hug, while Hop Pop merely stood at the side, smiling.

Sprig and Polly let go of Sasha after a few seconds and noticed that she was looking quite grim. Sprig looked at her, worried. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Sasha turned upwards and away from the bag, towards the Plantars, all of which who were looking at her with worried expressions. She gulped. "… It's gone."

"What's gone?" Hop Pop questioned.

"A-all of the ingredients. All that we worked so hard for! Gone! I-it fell into the stomach acid and got ruined!" Instinctively, her grip tightened on the bag.

"… RRRAAAGHH!" And with a furious yell, she threw the bag and walked away, stopping a few feet ahead. She dropped and sat down on the ground, looking at the grass sway with the wind.

Sprig watched as his BF sulked at the field and wanted to console her but he was stopped by Hop Pop, who shook his head and went forward instead.

Hopadiah Plantar strolled to the human vagabond's side and took a seat next to her. He gave it a few seconds to warm up the situation, before finally speaking up. "So… crazy day it's been, huh? Hehehe…"

No response. Hop Pop briefly frowned. "Ya know, with all these here tomatoes we got, we can make quite a lot of gold in the weekly farmers' market! How 'bout I bring ya this week? Huh?"

"No offence, Hop Pop but you suck at this." Sasha replied, still watching the grass.

"Yep, I thought so." He responded in kind, giving another couple of seconds of silence. "We don't have to win the Hop Luck, Sasha. It's fine! So what if we get last place again? We Plantars are used to failure! And every year, we always get right back up and try again. That's the Plantar way!"

"Yeah, well it's not the Sasha way!" She argued, trying her best to control her tone. "I really wanted you guys to win this, just once! And I thought I got everything in the bag, but nope! Fate just had to get in the way and ruined everything! And we don't even have enough time to cook anything!"

"It's just… everything was working out so well and I didn't think it'd fail so easily. Guess Sasha really is just a fool." She sighed and whispered to herself. "Just like how I got us in this mess."

Hop Pop patted her shoulder. "It ain't your fault. All-day, I haven't been a lick helpful to ya in any way. I was so caught up in the old ways that I just didn't care if I had won so long as it was through tradition. It's my fault you had to try so hard."

"I'm sorry I wasn't supportive of ya. Here, have some tomato." Hop Pop apologized as he held out his hand, showing some mushed-up red tomato innards.

Sasha stared at Hop Pop and his tomato mush and smiled. She reached out and grabbed some, accepting his offer, before placing them in her mouth. Immediately after, she tasted an explosion of sweet and sour flavour, so delicious and so fresh.

"Oh wow, this stuff is really good! They're even better than the tomatoes back in my place!" She praised, grabbing some more. A few seconds later, all of the tomato mush in Hop Pop's possession was eaten by Sasha, who truly did enjoy her meal despite circumstances.

Hop Pop clapped, attracting attention. "Now then, let's collect the rest of the tomatoes and head on back! If we sell them at a decent price, I bet we'll be well off for the next two weeks."

"But what are we supposed to do about Hop Luck? We don't have anything to cook anymore." Polly injected.

Everyone started thinking on how to deal with their dilemma and a few moments later, Sasha snapped her fingers. "We could reheat that stew of yours. Maybe add some salt or whatever to make it somewhat decent."

"It won't be enough to get us out of last place but at least it's something." Hop Pop added.

Just then, Sprig had a brilliant idea. "Oh, oh, I got a plan!"

Listening to his plan, the Plantars grinned confidently and went off to collect the rest of the tomatoes before heading back home.

Nighttime fell in Wartwood and so, the annual Hop Luck competition began. Folks from all across town came over to participate for a chance of copper and praise, at the risk of being placed in the Shame Cage. A risk they were all willing to take however, as the past few years, the results were always the same; the Plantars would get last place, guaranteed.

"Welcome all, folks of Wartwood, to the annual Hop Luck competition! Let's begin the tasting!" Mayor Toadstool cheered, though selfishly looking forward to trying out various dishes for free. He began from the left, enjoying every minute of the tasting as much as he could.

That is until he reached the last participant.

"Ah, the Plantars. Nice to see you decided to join us this year again. And I noticed y'all brought with you the monster." Mayor Toadstool greeted with a hint of sarcasm. He never looked forward to a Plantar meal but he still had to taste it anyway, to keep up appearances and all.

"It's Sasha, by the way—"

"Don't care." He dismissively waved off. "Well, let's get this over with. Toadie, bring me a glass of water and a bucket. You know, just in case." Toadie saluted and ran off, bringing back what was asked.

The Plantars had hidden their dish behind a cloche lid and Sprig momentously decided to add some pizzazz. "Behold, our Plantar dish that will rock your world!"

Sasha lifted the lid and beneath it was the foul stew Hop Pop earlier today, though it had some red cubes floating around. Mayor Toad belched in disgust, poking the stew with his spoon.

"What's this red stuff anyway?" He asked. Sprig moved forward and easily answered. "They're tomatoes!"

"Tomatoes, huh…" Mayor Toadstool stared as he grabbed a spoonful of the stew.

Toadie stood next to him, bucket in hand, and the mayor ate the spoonful wordlessly. He swished and gurgled it inside his mouth and for the first time in history, swallowed a Plantar dish!

"Why, this is the best dish you've ever came up with, Plantars!" He praised, no hint of sarcasm found. Sasha, Hop Pop, Polly and Sprig all cheered, happy with the response. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. "Though, it's still the worst dish in the competition, so tough luck."

With zero sympathy, he slammed a ribbon onto the dish, the words 'Good Grief' etched onto it. The Plantars and Sasha expressed their disappointment with 'aww's. "Thus, this marks the end of this year's Hop Luck competition! Carl, bring out the Shame Cage, if you please. And Plantars? You know what to do."

The Plantars and Sasha collectively sighed as they walked towards the Shame Cage. However, one of them showed no disappoint; Sprig Plantar. "Cheer up, guys! Sure we came in last again, but thanks to Sasha's out-of-this-world ideas, we've done the best we've ever done! Next year, we'll definitely do better!"

"Ya know, he's right!" Hop Pop agreed. "I'm starting to like trying out new ideas for once, so long as they ain't dangerous or nothing."

Sasha snorted. "Hah, don't worry about that, Hop Pop. I think I'm going to lay low on the ideas for now. There's no point in winning if you get killed."

Once at the Shame Cage, the masked toad revealed to be known as Carl opened up the door and the Plantars all climbed in, accustomed to the whole deal. Sasha watched as they got themselves cosy in the cage and in a single thought, rubbed her arm in embarrassment and asked. "Hey, uh, this is going to sound weird and all but… do you guys think I can spend the night in there with you? I know, I know, it sounds dumb and all, I probably shouldn't have asked—"

Hop Pop turned to Carl the masked toad. "How 'bout it, Carl? Think there's enough room?"

Carl shrugged. "The more the merrier." He said in a gruff tone.

"Woohoo!" Sprig cheered. "Come on in, you crazy kid!"

"You know I'm older than you, right?"

"Haha, yeah."

Sasha smirked and walked up and into the cage, taking a nice seat next to Hop Pop. The cage door closed, letting her legs dangle between the bars and Carl, with strength unbefitting of someone with his stature, hoisted the cage upwards with its inhabitants.

"Well, the pizza might've been a knock-up but at least I got to share this experience with you g—" Splat! A piece of swamp mud landed itself onto Sasha's unsuspecting face. She quickly wiped it off, disgusted and shocked. "Eww, what the heck?!"

"Oof, forgot to tell you about the Shame Nuggets…" Sprig winced. The family and Sasha looked down and found themselves surrounded by the folks in town, all throwing mud, slime and other unmentionable solid-fluids in their general direction. Mr Flour and his daughter were amongst the crowd, the latter pointing at Sprig.

"Hehe, that's my son-in-law!" He cheered. Maddie beamed in her usual creepy manner.

Meanwhile, Sasha thought of her situation once more. To spend the night in a suspended cage and getting pelted by mud… "Is there a way to get out prematurely?" Sasha asked, hopeful.

"Nope! You're stuck here with us till tomorrow's sunrise." Sprig answered, crushing all hope with a friendly face.

Polly on the hand shook her fin in anger. "YOU CALL THAT A THROW?! MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER CAN THROW BETTER THAN YOU, AND SHE'S DEAD!"