6. Chapter 6

Anne was a little surprised that Hop Pop had actually kept his word about letting her transform every now and then. Granted, there were some days where he refused to let her do so, but he always had a legitimate reason. Sometimes they had to go into town or they were expecting a visitor. Sometimes there was farm work to do and Hop Pop figured it’d be difficult for Anne to use frog sized tools in her true form.

Most of the time, though, he was just too busy to accompany them. Anne understood for the most part, though. After all, the farm was still a business and he still needed to calculate all of the costs, profits, and times to plant and harvest each crop. Not to mention crop rotation, animal care, and living costs for the family! Anne was never very good at math, so she just left Hop Pop to handle that stuff whenever he needed to.

However, there were those days that he’d finally crack and go out with the kids to supervise Anne as she exercised her true form. He’d even started writing notes about it! He said that it wasn’t science unless they wrote it down and the whole reason for letting her transform was indeed for science. It was a little annoying whenever he asked her to sit down and describe how she perceived the world around her, but it was better than lying to him every day.

One day he even asked her to write a short essay on the differences between their species, but she argued that he was already basically doing that, so they might as well just pool their efforts together. They went over all of the things that she’d already covered with Sprig and Polly, figuring it was only fair to get him up to speed with them. The problem was that there were several things that even she didn’t understand!

He let her try some foods while in her true form and for some reason, fruits and veggies tasted way better, but bugs tasted slightly worse. It seemed she could eat both with no digestive issues whatsoever, but this probably meant that she was designed to eat more plants than meat. If that were the case, then why did she have forward facing eyes?! Those were meant for predators that mostly, if not completely, ate meat! Although the discovery that she preferred plants did lessen Hop Pop’s worries quite a bit.

They even figured out why she was so good at climbing trees when they found out that her monster feet were dexterous enough to pick stuff up off of the ground with her toes! Hop Pop watched her climb and noticed that she seemed to be instinctually gripping the bark with her feet! From that, he was able to determine that her species must be at least somewhat arboreal. Upon that discovery, Anne was suddenly very glad that she’d gotten Hop Pop involved in these studies!

She didn’t get to go out in that form as often as before, but at least the times she did go out had them making way more progress. That was until the day they were retesting some of Anne’s tree climbing skills and she grabbed onto a branch that couldn’t hold her weight. She fell to the ground with a loud THUD and laid there on her stomach for a moment before she tried to take a breath. She found it extremely difficult to do so and started gasping, only getting minimal air!

Trying to breathe hurt so much that she started to tear up as she focused on it. It felt like any air that had been in her lungs had been pushed out by the force of the fall and she was trying to reinflate them! When she finally started to breathe properly again, she started hearing her family’s voices around her.

“Are you okay?!”

“That looked like it hurt!”

“What happened?! Yer breathin’s all messed up!” She was finally able to look up at her family and she was about to reassure them that she’d be fine when another voice joined in.

“What in blazes are ya doin’ lookin’ like THAT?!” Every Plantar looked to where the voice came from to see that One-Eyed Wally was standing right there! They figured that he’d heard the fall and came to investigate, so Hop Pop was quick to jump to their defense.

“Now Wally, we’re just runnin’ some experiments in a controlled environment so tha- aaand he’s gone.” Wally apparently didn’t want to listen to their explanation and just hopped away, back in the direction of the town. The family knew he’d spill the beans to the townsfolk, so they needed to act fast!

“Anne! Wally’s gonna tell everyone about this! But everyone knows that he’s crazy, so they won’t believe him if they all see you as a frog. Take yer medicine right now and we’ll go ‘prove him wrong’!”

“Okay, Hop Pop!” It was a solid plan, but then as Anne reached into her pocket to grab her vial, something sharp nicked her finger! She was bleeding a little bit on the tip and she absentmindedly stuffed the end of that finger into her mouth without knowing why. Her mind was far more focused on what caused that to happen. She looked at her skirt pocket and saw a big, yellow stain on it where her medicine had been. As she stood up, she felt some broken glass shifting around in her pocket.

All the Plantars’ eyes went wide. The fall had broken the vial! Now how were they supposed to convince everyone that Wally was being crazy?! Anne immediately turned her pocket inside out and emptied out the broken glass, even though that meant dumping what remained of the liquid out onto the ground. She wasn’t about to try to salvage a drink of something that had broken glass shards in it!

“Okay, okay. Here’s the plan!” Hop Pop piped up “We get back home as soon as physically possible and get Anne a dose right away! Then we make it look like we’ve been at home all day so that when someone comes knocking, we can make it look like we weren’t even out here in the first place!”

The kids all agreed that that was the best plan. Unfortunately, that meant that they had to take the scenic route again just to make sure that no one saw Anne! They started running, but only until they were a decent distance away from the place they were seen. They slowed to a walk at that point as Anne tried to keep her head down. Unfortunately, it seemed she left big enough footprints due to her extra size and weight, so they were tracked down near a small clearing!

“There they are!” They heard Wally’s voice ring out, followed by the frog in question jumping out of a nearby bush. The worst part was that he had an entire mob with torches, pitchforks, and lots of rope following him! It was Hop Pop’s worst nightmare! Anne dropped to the ground behind Hop Pop, hoping he’d be able to defend her. That was until one random frog in the crowd spoke up.

“Wait, Wally, you didn’t mention that the rest of the Plantars were here! I thought we were just gonna take her home!” The rest of the crowd seemed to agree, which made the Plantars all get very confused.

“Wait, what’s goin’ on?” Hop Pop asked, moving one of his hands behind himself to rest on top of Anne’s head. Both as a way of comforting his granddaughter and as a way to show the frogs that she wasn’t gonna bite. Mayor Toadstool then stepped out of the crowd and explained exactly what was going on.

“Look, Plantars, Wally came into town ranting about how Anne was a monster again, but randomly out in the woods this time. We all agreed that we needed to catch her and deliver her back to ya. We thought she mighta went feral, so we brought torches and pitchforks in order to scare her outta fightin’ us. The rope is ‘cause we were gonna tie her up in order to prevent her from hurtin’ anyone, even herself.

“After all of that, we were gonna bring her back to yer farm and get the story on exactly what happened that led ta this. Maybe history repeated itself? We don’t know! But what we do know is even though she’s a monster, she’s still Anne. We might as well make an effort to see if we can save her. But now here you are with her like nothin’s wrong! You’ve got a lotta explainin’ to do, Hopediah Plantar!”

“W- well, we figured it’d be a good idea to know more about what she really is. I’m gonna be writin’ a research paper ta add ta the archives ‘cause there’s nothin’ about her species in there!” Hop Pop quickly tried to explain it so that they seemed like the responsible ones.

“Oh yeah? Then what did ya find out so far?” The Mayor asked, clearly not impressed. Hop Pop knew exactly what to do, though. He just needed to cherry pick the parts that made her seem more harmless!

“Well, to summarize just a few points, she overheats easily, so she’s probably from a colder climate. Also despite her not havin’ cling pads, she’s good enough at climbin’ trees that I think she’s supposed to be arboreal! Not to mention that she can barely swim in this form. She’s good enough that she won’t drown, but it didn’t come naturally ta her in this form and she can’t even hold her breath fer more than a minute!

“Also the sharp teeth and claws are just for show! Turns out those claws are really dull and the only thing they can scratch is an itch. The teeth are only sharp on the outer edges while the rest of ‘em appear ta be flat. That checks out with the fact that she actually likes fruits and veggies more than meats when she’s like this! So she’s clearly an arboreal cold climate creature that doesn’t normally swim and is supposed to mostly eat plants!”

Hop Pop paused after explaining all of this to the frogs around him. After hearing about all that, they were sure to back off! He did his best to make her sound as unintimidating as possible throughout. Thankfully it seemed to work, as several of the frogs lowered their torches and pitchforks. For the rest, he just needed to say one last thing.

“She also listens and appears ta still be as intelligent as the rest of us. She’s not gonna hurt anyone and even if she does, I’ll take full responsibility for it!” A few of the frogs were still on edge, but the Mayor seemed to finally relent.

“Hmm, fine. Have it your way, Hopediah, but I don’t like it!” He put his hands on his hips and turned to the crowd “Alright, boys! Pack it in!” At the Mayor’s command, the crowd turned around and left, mumbling to themselves and each other. Several of them still looked back at Anne with distrustful stares, but at least they were leaving the poor girl and her family alone.

All of the Plantars heaved a collective sigh. The town knew they were doing experiments now, but at least they were being responsible about it! Anne shuddered to think about what would have happened if they would have been caught before Hop Pop got involved. Things probably would’ve gotten very ugly very quickly!

Either way, the Plantars took their lucky break as a sign to just pack it in and go home. Still, they didn’t need anyone knowing that they didn’t have a spare dose on them, so the family continued along the scenic route. While they were walking together, Hop Pop had to admit that studying what Anne was had eased his own worries quite a bit. Heck, when he was presenting his findings to the other frogs and trying to make her seem harmless, he’d even convinced himself to an extent.

He turned to look back at her and when she noticed, her eyes landed right on him. He had to work to suppress the shiver that went up his spine at her predatory gaze. Sprig and Polly had learned to suppress it enough, but Hop Pop was still working on it. It seemed she picked up on it because she looked away rather quickly, seeming to find the ground suddenly very interesting. He could only hope that she also picked up on how hard he was trying to not be scared of her.

He knew she wouldn’t hurt anyone, they’d covered that thought enough times. But instinct was still something that was very difficult to overcome. Suddenly, he heard her pick up the pace a little bit until she was right behind him. He turned back around just in time to see her reaching for him! Before he knew it, she’d picked him up and had lightly pressed him to her chest. She was carrying him!

“Whu-? Anne, what’re ya doin’?!”

“This is how Sprig and Polly got over their fears of me. They let me carry them! I don’t know if it’ll help you, but… maybe?”

“Anne, it’s okay. I’ve just gotta get my instincts to stop gettin’ on my case!”

“And you can get over that if you just let me carry you!” Anne insisted. Hop Pop was really nervous about this, but ultimately he figured he might as well give it a try. Suddenly he felt Anne jerk a bit and he looked to see Sprig balancing on her shoulder while setting Polly down into her hair.

“Hey, I’m not a snail!” Anne protested.

“No, but you’re strong enough to carry all of us at once, so why not?!”

“NOW ONWARD!!” Sprig and Polly respectively followed up. When Anne giggled at Polly’s antics, Hop Pop could feel it vibrating through her chest and he had to take a moment to remind himself that this was just Anne, but bigger… and uglier… and scarier. He had to get rid of those thoughts, so he just decided to focus on the conversation going on between the kids above him.

By the time they’d gotten home, he’d actually started to feel somewhat comfortable. Listening to the kids just being kids helped him keep the bad thoughts out and just focus on keeping himself calm. Then Anne’s body heat (that came with her being a mammal) started to seep into him in a way that reminded him of the feeling he got when he put a blanket over himself without realizing that he’d been cold. It even soothed his aching back a little bit!

All good things had to come to an end, though. Anne stopped in front of the door to the house and knelt down to gently place Hop Pop back on the ground. As soon as his feet were firmly set down, Sprig and Polly jumped off and opened the door. This time Anne paused before entering, remembering to duck on her way in. Thankfully the house had been renovated to have a higher ceiling about a hundred years prior when Emma the Newt had been adopted into the family, so she didn’t have to stay ducked down.

She looked around the house, taking in how things looked different to her eyes. The last time she was inside while in her true form was just after she’d chased off those toads and she’d been a little too distracted to really take in just how small everything was compared to her. In the end she just made her way to the kitchen to grab a fresh vial for herself and downed it. With how she’d been allowed to transform every now and then, she was learning to stagger it and take it at different times of the day for maximum efficiency.

Mostly it was just because Hop Pop wanted her to make up for the occasional lost, wasted, or in this case broken vial. Either way, he helped her out with figuring out the timings ‘cause he seemed to have an easy time with math, which Anne barely understood on the best of days. She was able to do basic stuff, but whenever some really complex stuff came along, she typically just let Hop Pop take care of it.

After she finished turning back into a frog, she looked at Hop Pop and he smiled back at her. He seemed to trust her more, now that he was actually getting to know her true form a little better. It definitely helped that that form had her enjoying plants over meats, as that seemed to be one of the biggest concerns. Ultimately it seemed that that form was meant to look intimidating, but actually be harmless.

Still, that didn’t stop her from accidentally scaring people occasionally. She just wished they’d actually give her a chance! Something told her that the Mayor only brushed off the torches and pitchforks ‘cause Hop Pop was there and she was actively hiding behind him. Regardless, at least she could be seen outside in that form now! She began to wonder if there was something she could do to seem helpful when she was like that when she looked over at the mantis claw that she’d brought home the day Hop Pop found out.

“Hey, Hop Pop…”

“What is it, Anne?” He asked without looking up from the dinner he was working on.

“You said you didn’t want me working on the farm in my true form ‘cause I could be seen and the tools are too small, right?” The old frog stopped what he was doing and looked at his oldest granddaughter.

“... That’s right…” He didn’t like where this was going.

“Well now that the town knows, that first point is moot. And what if we just make some bigger tools? I’m pretty sure the extra strength my true form gives will help make it go faster.”

“No.”

“No, but you can put it in the report! You know how long it takes me when I’m a frog, so you can time me in that form and compare statistics!” While he had to admit she had a point, there was one glaring problem.

“What about the fact that we don’t have any tools that are big enough?”

“Well I was just thinking that we could make a scythe out of that mantis claw I got about a month ago!” The two locked eyes and Hop Pop sighed. He knew there was no way to talk her down at this point.

“Okay, if you can make a functioning scythe outta that claw by the time yer medicine wears off, then I’ll let ya give it a try.”

“YES! You won’t regret this, Hop Pop!” The young frog shouted out before hopping away and grabbing the claw. She kept on finding excuses to transform more often and while Hop Pop didn’t like it that much, he had to admit that it was very tempting to see if it made her better at farming. If it did, then he’d have no real reason to not just let her be herself as much as she wanted ‘cause he’d be able to write her off under the same category as Bessie!

If that happened, then he’d be able to openly have her in that form even in front of future tax collectors! Maybe it’d even let him find some scientist who’d be willing to study her professionally ‘cause there was only so much an old farm frog like him could do! He looked over at the young frog girl, sitting on the couch with the mantis claw in hand, measuring it out with the help of Sprig and Polly.

He was about to push those thoughts out of his head when he remembered that Anne herself had wanted to know more. All he’d have to do was find a trustworthy scientist and she’d probably be completely fine with it! Fat chance of that in Frog Valley, though. Him and his notepad would just have to do! He finally turned back around to look at the ingredients set out for dinner and got to work.

By afternoon the next day, the kids had finished making the scythe for Anne to use and they were getting excited about seeing how fast she could get everything done the next day. Even Hop Pop got a little caught up in the excitement, though he made sure to not show it. When he calculated out the timing for the medicine wearing off, he found that it’d do so right before breakfast. After telling the kids about it, they just decided to let Anne eat breakfast with everyone in her true form instead of giving her breakfast early.

Hop Pop was a little startled the next morning when he saw a tall, lanky figure come walking into the dining room, but the second his mind registered that it was Anne, he calmed down. She gave him a weird look, with her eyes half lidded due to just having woken up.

“Sorry about that, kiddo. I just saw movement outta the corner of my eye and jumped before I knew it was you! Yer not usually up before breakfast’s ready.” She seemed to accept his apology and excuses as she explained.

“I transformed in my sleep and started overheating, so I woke up a little earlier than usual.” She let out a yawn, covering her mouth with her hand and then stretched her arms over her head. She arched her back, but backwards this time in a way that puffed out her chest. She stayed like that for a while until she let out a sigh and dropped her arms while straightening out her back again. Eventually, she got back on her feet and stood just behind him.

He didn’t know whether the anxiety he felt was because Anne was scary when she looked like that or just because he was being watched while trying to make something. Either way, he gave her a nervous look and opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing. She cut him off, though.

“Want some help, Hop Pop?”

“Uhh… sure, Anne. You can watch this pan while I start on the next batch! I made yer’s extra large ‘cause of how much bigger you are in this form.”

“Oh, pillbug pancakes!” She lit up, smiling to herself as she watched it cook. Hop Pop’s heart skipped a beat when he saw her put her face close to the pan, but he calmed down when he realized that she was just trying to take in the scent. When he found out that she could only smell out of that face bump of hers, he’d tried blindfolding her and getting her to identify where things were based on the scent. She’d failed horribly.

“Get yer face outta that fryin’ pan! I don’t want ya gettin’ burned!” Hop Pop commanded. Anne did as she was told and just watched it from a little further away. Soon Polly came rolling into the kitchen, also shaking off the morning sleepiness. She stared at Anne for a few moments before looking away again and just asking what was for breakfast.

Instead of directly answering her question, Anne just grabbed a nearby plate and flipped the pancake out of the pan onto it. She was the first kid awake, so she had the right to the first bit of breakfast. Just as she was sitting down to eat it, though, Sprig came running into the room screaming!

“IT’S HAPPENING!!” The whole family had an idea of what was going on. After all, Sprig only ever reacted like this to one thing. Hop Pop grabbed Sprig’s face and questioned him.

“Are ya sure it’s happenin’?”

“Dead sure! We’ve gotta sound the alarm!” Knowing that she had a minute, Anne grabbed a small container to put her pancake in for later and headed out. She didn’t bother taking her medicine right away, even though they had to go into town, ‘cause an idea was starting to form in her head. After all, Hop Pop didn’t tell her to take it before they left.

They burst out of the door, Sprig riding on top of Hop Pop while yelling in a way that sounded like an alarm. Anne picked up Polly and started running after them only to find that she just needed a brisk walking pace to keep up. Still, they weren’t far from town, so she just let them run.

Anne could hear some people talking as they came up on the town. As nervous as she was, she knew that she just needed to walk in and act natural. Yes, people would stare and some might even run away a little bit, but there were more important things to worry about at this point! So she took a deep breath to calm her nerves and stepped into the town square.

Thankfully, only a couple of people noticed her, as most people’s attention was focused on Sprig instead. Those who did took a few steps back and some seemed to be reaching for something inside their pockets. Though none of them took out whatever it was they were reaching for. Regardless, Sprig still needed to talk.

“Everyone! Listen up! Today is the third morning in a row where the temperature dipped below the frog line, which means hiber-day is almost upon us.” The mood around the town dropped into pure dread. Everyone knew that this meant someone was going to go missing! Even the frogs who were staring nervously at Anne stopped doing so to give their possible goodbyes to their families. When her own family came to give her their possible goodbyes, she stopped them.

“Not so fast!” She half shouted as she put her hands out to block them.

“Whaaaat?”

“Harsh”

“Have you forgotten about tradition, Anne?” Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop respectively responded. But Anne had been concocting an idea ever since the moment that Sprig came into the dining room!

“There will not be any goodbye’s this year because this year, I’m in my true form!” She all but yelled. All eyes were on her, but upon hearing her claim, everyone seemed confused. They all started muttering to themselves and each other, wondering what she was talking about. She figured she’d better explain.

“Okay, so due to some cross referencing we did based on some specific traits I have, we’ve determined that I’m some sort of mammal. And mammals are warm-blooded!”

“That’s gross, Anne.” Sprig interjected. Anne continued anyway.

“It means I won’t freeze! I can be your protector! And under my watch, no one will disappear again!” She announced to the town. There was a slight pause as everyone processed what she’d said before they all erupted into cheer! They might still be somewhat scared of her, but at least they knew not to turn down an offer of protection on hiber-day of all days.

Anne figured it was because everyone knew that if they were encased in ice, then she was their best chance. It’d be the longest stretch of time she’d ever spent in her true form, but it was necessary to keep everyone safe! Hop Pop still stepped in to make sure everyone was on the same page.

“Alright, hiber-day isn’t ‘till tomorrow. So everybody meet back here tonight, then Anne can guard all of us!” The townsfolk all seemed to be in agreement, with various comments rising up from the crowd.

“We’re gonna live!”

“Thank goodness Anne’s still friendly in that form!”

“To think a predatory mammal would actually be protecting us…” That last comment felt a bit bittersweet to Anne. They knew she wouldn’t hurt them, but they still hadn’t gotten over the obvious facts. Regardless, it was still better than their nervous looks and mob mentality. Instead of coming after her, the crowd actually dispersed. That was aside from Ivy, who seemed to want to talk to Anne.

“Hey, my mom told me to carry this around ‘cause a couple days ago it got out that you like fruits and veggies more than meat. So now pretty much everyone is carrying one of these so that you’d go after it instead of them if you ever did go feral. I don’t think you will, though, so here.” The small, yellow frog handed Anne a mostly red apple that had some yellow streaks on it before walking away. Anne was a little surprised, but as soon as she got over it, she thanked Ivy.

Anne figured that if she started eating it right away, then people would see that Hop Pop hadn’t been lying about her preferences. Besides, she could just save the pancake she was carrying around in a box in her pocket for later. After she bit into the sweet fruit, Hop Pop started talking to her again.

“Anne, are you… sure about this? Lookin’ after the whole town’s a lotta responsibility.” Anne grunted before swallowing the piece of apple in her mouth and then answering his question with excitement!

“Are you kidding? I’ve totally got this! I feel like all this practicing with my true form has all been leading up to this moment. It’s like fate and karma combined into one! Like kate or fartma… those are both terrible. But anyway, all my senses feel heightened! It’s like the whole world has slowed down and I’m totally aware of everything all around me! You ever feel like that, guys?... Guys?... WOAH!!” Apparently while she was hyping herself up, her family had frozen solid right in front of her!

“Ahh! What the heck?!” Apparently she was wrong and her senses weren’t heightened at all because otherwise she would have noticed them sooner. She then saw something that she’d heard about, but never seen for herself before. A small, white flake was falling down right in front of her face. She caught it on her finger, mesmerized at the sight of it before suddenly a huge clump came falling down on top of everything, including her.

Snow. It was snow! Usually she froze with all the other frogs before the stuff had started falling, but this time she wasn’t even a frog. She started to look around at all of it and while it was quite beautiful to look at, she started freaking out, yelling out loud to herself.

“Oh no! Hiber-day’s here early! Everybody’s all over the place by now! How am I gonna get them back ta-” she tried to pick up Sprig’s frozen body while talking and stopped herself when she found that there was absolutely no resistance whatsoever. His body may have been frozen, but he wasn’t frozen to the ground and she was able to lift him and all of his ice rather easily.

“Oh. Oh wow. This is very light.” She was able to pick up her whole family and bring them all back to the town square in one trip. Then she went around town and grabbed a bunch more people. She knew that the town’s population was about ninety adults and a bunch of children. She didn’t know the exact number of kids, but she knew that when she saw an adult, she’d recognize whether they had kids or not and go looking for them if they did.

Along the way, her feet started to really hurt from the cold while the rest of her skin started to sting a little bit. Something in her told her to find warmth right away, but she had a mission! Still, she wouldn’t be able to do that mission if she was starting to freeze, herself. She never mentioned it to the frogs, but the book did say it was still possible for a mammal to freeze, just that they’d be dead when they thawed.

Figuring it’d be even worse if she ended up dead too, she ran home to see if she could find something to wrap around herself that would help her keep some of her mammal body’s natural heat. She ended up settling on two particularly big and thick blankets for her main body. One wrapped around her waist like an extra long skirt and the other draped over her shoulders like a poncho style cape, both fastened with safety pins.

She then wrapped a couple of towels around each foot and finished it off with some waterproof fabric taken from a raincoat, fastening her new footwear with a couple of elastic bands. She didn’t know how to make actual shoes, seeing as proper footwear was a pretty rare sight in Wartwood. Either way, her system seemed to work, even though she was dragging the lower blanket on the ground and her steps were uneven due to the hodge podge nature of her new footwear.

She still kept going, though, and before she knew it she had everyone gathered together. Nobody had gotten taken while she was absent, thankfully. Her blankets even worked well enough to keep her warm that she was able to sit outside for a while.

“Welp, that’s everyone. Heh, that was surprisingly easy. And now all I have to do is watch ‘em!” Anne shouted triumphantly as she sat down and pulled her blankets closer to her body. Thankfully, when she curled up like that, she was able to retain enough heat that only her face felt cold. Her hair was bushy and tangled enough to insulate the top of her head, so all she did was pull the blanket over her face every now and then while she let her mind wander.

Hop Pop had theorized that she was likely from a colder climate solely because she overheated easily when in this form. As she felt the cold of the snow and ice around her, she figured that she probably wasn’t from a snowy environment, at least. The ice was too uncomfortable without special protection! Even though Sprig had pointed out that she did indeed have fur, it was far too thin to protect against this stuff!

Either way, she at least found some sort of way to keep warm, so it couldn’t be too far off from her natural environment. Just… maybe a tad warmer? She was grateful that she was able to actually witness the snow this year, though. It was absolutely beautiful, how it gently covered the town in a soft, white, sparkling blanket of cold. The way the light reflected off of it made everything seem brighter than it usually was. If anything, that’d make it easier to spot whatever was taking people!

Honestly she was surprised that everyone appeared to have suddenly gotten over the obvious. Then again, she figured it was the stress from having to deal with hiber-day paired with the promise of protection. She figured they’d likely go back to their normal trepidation after they all thawed, but at least they said some nice things during their initial relief! Maybe they’d have some nice things to say immediately afterwards, (provided she was actually able to protect them all) but give them a week and they’d be back to their usual fear.

Anne let her thoughts swim around like this for at least an hour before she started to get bored. She paced around, wondering what to do and trying to keep herself entertained. Whatever was taking people hadn’t shown up yet, as far as she knew, so she decided to basically take attendance. After about a fifteen minute check, she determined that everyone was indeed still there, completely frozen and unmoving. She groaned.

“Okay, I’m bored. And a bored protector is a bad protector, so I’m gonna need to thaw someone out.” Also she was nervous about something happening if she needed to step away to use the washroom, or something like that. She looked at her family and… Hop Pop would probably yell at her if she thawed him, so she turned to look at her little siblings. Between the two, Sprig was the one that was actually able to keep up with her during their race and Polly was indeed just a baby.

She picked Sprig up and took him back home to thaw next to the fireplace. She figured that if whatever took people showed up while she was away, she could get Sprig to help her track it down. The snow had stopped falling, so any footprints that it’d leave would be easy to follow. And if not, then maybe he could smell it out ‘cause as they found out, her sense of smell wasn’t very good in this form.

It didn’t take long for her to get him inside, get a fire started, and start thawing him. She placed a bucket down underneath him ‘cause she at least knew that ice melted into water and she had the heat of the fire do most of the work for her while she made him his own blanket set like hers. Once the layer of ice got thin enough, it broke off, with Sprig swaying on his feet. He shook his head and groaned for a bit before talking.

“Uhh… where am I? Whazz goin’ on?”

“Sprig! Boy am I glad to see you, buddy!” Then she noticed that something was off “Uhh… you okay, dude?” Sprig blinked one eye at a time and couldn’t seem to focus on anything. When he responded, he sounded drunk.

“I’z awake, yes?”

“Yeeeaaah?”

“Let’z thaw out the othe- oof!” He tripped on the bucket and landed on his face with the bucket upside-down on top of him, causing water to spill everywhere.

“Uhh… I’m thinkin’ we should let nature run its course. I’ve never seen anyone in a cold environment where they weren’t frozen solid, so I didn’t know that frogs apparently don’t do well in the cold.” Sprig turned himself around so that he was lying on his back.

“Why you say dat?” He asked, stretching his arms and legs out before sliding them back and forth, muttering to himself.

“Water angles.” Yeah, he wasn’t doing alright. Anne was so worried that she almost just wanted to throw him out into the snow so that he’d freeze again, but she reconsidered that. It might be too much of a shock for his system to handle. She’d just have to keep him awake and make up for it later.

“Weeellll… since you’re already awake anyways, let’s go have some fun! We’ve got the whole town to ourselves!”

“Let’z do it!” He responded surprisingly quickly, sitting up then falling back down immediately. Anne giggled a little to herself. If anything, she won’t get bored with him like this! She helped him get his blanket set on then held him to her chest underneath her own in order to give his system a warmth boost. As soon as she got back to the town square, she did a head count to find everyone still there, which meant it was time to have some fun!

It started off by just playing with the surrounding snow. It was amazing how it could stick together when bunched up and pressed. Anne grabbed a small bunch, lightly patted it together into a ball and tried to see if Sprig could catch it in the state he was in.

“Hey Sprig, catch!” He didn’t seem to react as the snowball hit him right in the face and splattered harmlessly everywhere. She hadn’t expected it to do that, but if it didn’t hurt him, then it was fine.

“Mneh. Caught it.” Sprig said while putting his hands together in front of his face. It was the slowest delayed reaction she’d ever seen, but it was fine. At least with knowing that the snow would stick together, she figured they might as well see how detailed of a sculpture they could make with it!

The best they got was a crudely thrown together one that depicted Anne holding Sprig above her head. It collapsed in on itself pretty quickly, though, so they abandoned it. When looking for the next thing to do, they turned around and almost immediately saw Wally’s frozen body just standing there in front of them. Despite the eyes being open, both kids knew the bum was asleep like all the other frogs. They gave each other a sly smile!

Next thing they knew, they were grabbing random people and enacting crazy weird scenarios that’d never happen in reality. It was everything from Wally and Mrs. Croaker kissing to Stumpy actually renovating his restaurant! That wasn’t all they did, though! They used the fact that ice is apparently slippery against snow to ride some of the random frozen frogs down a hill that was covered in the stuff and then tied a bunch of them together to form another sculpture… that promptly fell over and nearly crushed them.

The best one, though, was when they lined a bunch of them up like bowling pins and made a giant snowball to knock them down with! Sprig even got on top and managed to get his legs working enough to safely stay on top of the rolling ball until it hit the people! The two of them laughed as they brought everyone back to the town square. Sprig huddled underneath Anne’s upper blanket, right up against her chest again and stayed there. Even when she cut off their laughter.

“Alright, enough! We had our fun! But now it's time for a little protector duty! Let’s do a head count, make sure everyone is still here!”

“Yoouu got it!...” Sprig looked at his hand “Am I still here?” Anne decided to ignore the weirdness of that question and just focus on the frogs in front of her. She put Sprig down, grabbed a clipboard that she’d made up a little while ago, and started listing a bunch of the townsfolk by name.

“We got Tom, Soggy Joe, Jill, Cashmere the Soft, Hop Pop - check, Polly - check, Ivy - … POLLY?!” Anne couldn’t believe it! She ran up to Polly’s empty bucket and looked inside to see that it really was empty! She looked underneath it and even in the snow around it to find nothing!

“POLLY?! NO! NONONONONO! SHE’S GONE!! What kinda protector am I?!” Anne was freaking out! Her little sister was the one who was supposed to go missing this year! She promised she’d protect everyone, but in the end, she couldn’t even protect her own family! She would’ve started crying if it weren’t for Sprig cutting in.

“Somethin’ wrong with Polly?”

“Yes, Sprig! She’s gone! This is all my fault, we’ve gotta get her back!”

“Alright!... Iz somethin’ wrong with Polly?” Anne could tell that this wasn’t going to be easy. At the very least, whatever took her left a trail through the snow, so they could track it via that. The trail was mostly solid, so Anne hoped they weren’t necessarily footsteps. Maybe whatever it was just had short legs, so it had to drag its own body? They could only hope!

Eventually, though, the trail sank into the snow until it formed a tunnel underneath. The problem was that it collapsed a little ways inside ‘cause snow wasn’t a very stable ceiling. Maybe it could tell it was being followed? Either way, the two kids were left with no leads aside from just trying to keep going in the general direction it had been going before. At least Sprig seemed to be a bit more on the ball now.

“Wow. Never tracked anythin’ in snow before. It’s hard!” He said as he climbed a tree to get a better vantage point. As soon as he got to the top, he seemed to lose focus again.

“HEY!! Who wantz a nap?...” He shouted the first word loud enough to echo through the surrounding area, but ultimately quieted down as he went on. At the end, he fell asleep where he was standing and fell back down to the ground. Even though he would have landed safely in the soft snow, Anne still made sure to catch him! If he was falling asleep, then his system might be ready to be refrozen again. But there was something more important to deal with first.

“Just hang on, Sprig. You can go back to hibernating as soon as we find Polly!” She was about to bring him close to her again to give him more warmth, but he cut her off.

“Polly…” he sniffed the air “I smell a Polly!” Anne was surprised that he’d picked up her scent. She hadn’t picked up anything, after all. Then again, they were all well aware of how lacking her sense of smell was in this form. Figuring she could give him the warmth later, she let him lead her through some bushes and over to a cave.

“Polly’s in that… creepy cave.”

“Of course she is.” Anne deadpanned. As she looked at the outside of it, she saw a whole bunch of spikes made of ice (they were called ‘icicles’, if memory served) all around it and even the cleaned skull of an adult frog sitting by the entrance. Regardless of how creepy it was, though, they still had to go inside. Just looking in from the outside showed a bunch more icicles and even a few piles of bones scattered about. They didn’t see anything alive, though, so they went right in! Suddenly Sprig stopped walking and pointed upwards at the ceiling.

“Heeeyyy, that icicle looks just like Polly!”

“Aah! Polly!”

“How’d she get up there? She maaaagic?” Before Anne could respond or even come up with a plan, the ground shook.

“What was that?” Suddenly a mound of snow came up behind the kids and knocked both of them off their feet! The mound then circled around them a few times before popping up to reveal some sort of weasel! It roared at them, showing off its massive fangs.

“Mmmmaybe we can ask this lady? Excuse me miss-” The weasel lunged at Sprig, trying to bite him, but Anne managed to grab and pull him out of the way just in time! She jumped back with him, closer to the cave wall.

“THAT’S what’s been taking people?!” She looked around and found a large bone encased in ice. It clearly wasn’t from any sort of amphibian, seeing as it was about as long as her entire body, but that proved that this thing would eat just about anything! She grabbed the bone and held it like a makeshift staff of sorts then gave Sprig some instructions.

“I’ll keep it busy, you go get Polly!”

“Yeah, okey…” The weasel lunged at Anne, with the girl barely being able to stop it by wedging the bone into its mouth and preventing it from closing said mouth unless it backed up!

“Wait, did you mean me?” Sprig asked absentmindedly and then followed it up by using his tongue to tether himself to the ceiling so that he didn’t have to deal with the cave walls. Meanwhile, Anne heaved a push against the weasel, making it move back a bit and let go of the bone. It tried biting Anne again, but from a different angle this time. Thankfully, because her mammal body wasn’t slowed down by the cold like Sprig’s was, she was able to block it again! All she really had to do was buy him enough time to save Polly!

The weasel tried this a few more times, even burrowing under the snow in an attempt to get the drop on the girl. She was watching it too closely for that to happen, though. Her gaze being focused forewards in this form allowed her to watch its movements much more precisely! Unfortunately, their fight was interrupted when it heard Sprig call out to Polly.

“Pooolllllyyy, stop dancin’ around so much. I’m tryin’ to save you.” The weasel turned to look at him before running off and using its claws (much sharper than Anne’s) to grab onto the walls!

“Hey! Sprig, look out!” Anne was starting to panic! She didn’t know how to help! She couldn’t climb on walls in this form and she made sure to leave any doses of medicine at home so that she wouldn’t be tempted to freeze herself! She couldn’t even jump very well, meaning there was absolutely nothing she could do! Except…

She tried looking inwards. Back when she had saved Sprig and Polly from that mantis, she’d realized that there was something else… something more… she didn’t know what, though. She assumed it was some sort of hidden feral instinct mode that she’d only somewhat tapped into. Maybe if she could tap into that again, she could do something?

She was scared that actively looking for it would do more harm than good ‘cause she might end up hurting her siblings in the end. But no matter what she thought, she knew she’d have to try at least SOMEthing! She focused on trying to find that feeling again, taking a few steps back as she did. The feeling of a feral beast inside of her, the very thing that she’d been denying…

But it didn’t come. She didn’t feel anything at all in that respect! No matter how hard she tried, she could only watch as the weasel approached her little brother and roared in his face! It was going to bite down on him at any minute! Anne took another step back and felt something odd. A collection of soft vines that, when she pulled them back, revealed an extra portion of the cave and something the girl hadn’t been expecting.

“What the…?” She mumbled to herself as she looked inside to see four tiny, pink weasels. Babies. The big weasel was a mother who was just trying to feed her babies! Anne’s heart sank, knowing there was no right answer anymore. If she saved Polly, then the babies would starve. But there was no way she could let her little sister just die like this! Then she had an idea!

Anne grabbed all four of the baby weasels and cradled them together in her arms, making sure not to hurt them! They squirmed a little and cried out for their mother, who responded in turn with what Anne could only recognize as pure, unbridled terror as it froze in place! It made a sound at her, as if trying to tell her to let them go without scaring her into doing something rash. Perfect!

Anne dramatically looked down to the baby weasels in her arms, then up at Sprig and Polly, trying to make it understand. She knew it wouldn’t understand if she actually spoke, so she needed to improvise. It seemed to catch on as it looked back and forth between the two, mirroring Anne’s movements. It growled and hissed before retracting its head and extending a single paw towards Polly! Anne hummed to remind the weasel of what was in her arms, but it proceeded to swipe at Polly, knocking her off of the ceiling and into a pile of snow.

“Sprig! Grab Polly and run!” Anne commanded. The young frog dropped off of the ceiling, next to his sister and stayed there for a bit before getting back up.

“Okeis.” He mumbled before looking around a bit and proceeding to slowly do what Anne had told him to do. Meanwhile, the weasel dropped down onto the ground and arched its back, hissing at Anne! The girl knew it was trying to tell her to let her babies go, so Anne gently put two of them back into the nest. When she kept the other two in her arms, the weasel roared at her, clearly outraged, but scared of what Anne would do! It was smart enough to recognize that, at least.

Anne then moved so that she was in between her siblings and the weasel, but stayed there until they were mostly out of the cave, chancing a quick look at them in order to let the weasel know where her priorities were. Once they were a fair distance away, she looked down at the remaining two baby weasels, then nodded at their mother before nodding towards the nest. It took a few tries, but eventually it managed to catch on and actually walked over to it! Maybe it was smarter than it looked after all!

It looked back at Anne to see her approaching, holding out one of its babies to put back. After she did so, she moved the one remaining baby weasel to the crook of her elbow and put her other hand on her hip, where the box containing her extra large pancake from that morning was. The mother growled, but Anne stood her ground and held the remaining baby tighter! This seemed to make the mother submit, as all she did was lay her head overtop of the three that had already been returned.

Using only one hand, Anne unlatched and opened the box containing her breakfast. Having an extra, fifth digit on each hand made stuff like this MUCH easier. She then held the baby in one hand and the opened pancake box in the other then stretched both out so that the mother could smell the food. Anne then risked it all by putting the baby down on the edge of the nest and setting the food down in front of it at the same time.

Knowing that her sudden lack of baby weasel meant the mother could fly into a rage at any moment, Anne’s mind filled with dread. However, something in her told her to not show it and to just back away slowly! She followed this feeling and it actually paid off! The weasel took the last baby back into the nest, sniffed the food, grabbed the box, and then proceeded to start feeding its babies. Anne gave it one last nod, which it actually returned before she backed out of its sight, turned, and ran!

“Now that’s a protector.” She mumbled to herself as she made her way out of the cave. Just outside, she saw Sprig laying on top of Polly’s frozen body with his eyes closed. She didn’t want to startle him, but she still had to get them out of there!

“Hey Sprig!”

“Huh? Whazzat?”

“We did it! We saved Polly!”

“Yeeeaaah!...” He put his hands on his face “My face feels squishy!” Seeing the state he was in made Anne feel guilty.

“Man, I really shouldn’t have thawed you out.” Sprig didn’t respond to that, so the girl just grabbed both of her siblings and walked back to Wartwood. Her brother eventually thought to climb underneath her upper blanket and cling onto her chest for some extra warmth, which freed up her other hand so that she could hold Polly out at a distance. If she could prevent her little sister from thawing and ending up like Sprig, then she’d take that chance!

By the time she got them both back to Wartwood, the sun was starting to set. She set Polly down and was about to let Sprig go back to hibernating, but then he refused to let go of Anne’s chest. She tried getting him off, but he didn’t budge. Eventually she just decided to let him stay there until he let go on his own… which he didn’t. He even stayed there all night as Anne went inside the house and lit the fireplace so that she’d have somewhere warm to sleep.

She figured that since she dealt with the weasel and only one person ever went missing each year, the threat was gone! So she slept through the night with Sprig clinging onto her the entire time. It was actually kinda nice, knowing that he really did trust her just that much despite how she looked. When she woke up, he was still there! She looked at him and just shook her head before getting up and looking outside. The snow was mostly melted!

She ditched the blankets that had been covering her, grabbed the thermometer and a vial of medicine, and headed back into the town square with Sprig. They had just enough time to do another head count before everyone thawed, so that’s exactly what they did. When they found that nobody was missing, Anne shouted and literally jumped for joy! This finally dislodged Sprig from her chest, causing him to tumble towards the ground.

“Oh my frog, are you okay Sprig?”

“Itz okey. How much longer?” Anne pulled out the thermometer and saw that it was rapidly going up.

“Not much! Look!” she held the thermometer up for him to see. Sprig looked at it and started counting down from ten. Maybe the extra warmth was starting to wake him up a bit more? Either way, she joined in when he got to five.

“Five… four… three… two… one… and thaw!” The two kids shouted in sync! Almost as if on cue, the clouds parted and allowed the sun’s warm rays to come shining through! It was such a relief to finally feel that warmth again and see everyone start thawing out. As the frogs all woke up, Anne could hear them cheering and marveling at how they were all still there! Hop Pop looked right at her with a level of pride that she’d only ever seen a couple of times.

“Three cheers for Anne, the best town protector there is!” Her heart swelled at how Hop Pop was urging the townsfolk to show her love. The best part was that they actually did it! The frogs cheered for her, obviously too excited to be afraid of her at that moment. Knowing that they’d be back to their cautious behaviour the next day kind of spoiled the joy she was feeling, though. Also, the fact that she’d actually somewhat failed at protecting them gnawed at her until she couldn’t take it anymore. She stopped their cheering by putting up her hands and addressing all of them.

“Hold it! I was a terrible town protector, you guys. I slacked off when I should have been watching you, I unfroze Sprig when I got bored…” everyone looked at the boy and noticed his half lidded stare as he tried to reassure them all.

“I’m fiiiiine…” everyone noted how he clearly wasn’t, but Anne continued before anyone could say anything about it.

“And worst of all, Polly almost got eaten by a giant weasel!”

“SAY WHAT?!” The tadpole yelled, realizing that she would have been the one taken that year. Anne wasn’t done, though.

“I’m no town protector, I’m just an irresponsible kid. One that might not even be meant to have the intelligence that I do.” There was a pause, as everyone seemed to take in what she was saying. Despite spending over twenty-four hours in her true form, she was still completely lucid and logical. She hadn’t gone feral or anything! Heck, Sprig was living proof that it wasn’t just the hard ice protecting them from her; she took care of him too! Everyone shared looks that seemed to confirm that they all felt the same while Hop Pop spoke up.

“Anne, yer just a kid, and you took on a big responsibility! Maybe even bigger than you shoulda, seein’ as yer only thirteen for frog’s sake! But you admittin’ all that means yer more responsible than ya think. It also proves that despite yer species difference, yer still the same Anne on the inside.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, if you hadn’t fessed up, we never woulda known anythin’ happened.” Murmurs erupted from the crowd, all either in agreement with Hop Pop or admitting that he had a point.

“You may not be perfect, but you proved that we can depend on ya. And most importantly, this is the first year no one disappeared!...”

“All because of you!” Polly added on. Hop Pop kept going.

“... Happy hiber-day, everyone!” He shouted out. For once, it really was a happy day! Everyone (besides Anne and Sprig) felt refreshed, rejuvenated, and virile with no tragedy to offset it! The ecstatic crowd cheered while Anne put her hands over her chest and thanked them. She knew for a fact that once everyone calmed down, they’d be back to their normal ways, but maybe now they’d think twice before being too scared to talk to her!

Overall, everything was looking great right up until her stomach rumbled. A bunch of the frogs stopped cheering and looked at her, realizing that she was indeed hungry now. Their fears of her seemed to come crashing back as they remembered that she was indeed a mammalian predator! Thankfully, Hop Pop noticed what was going on right away and calmly asked the question that was on everyone’s minds.

“Anne, when was the last time you ate and what was it?” She looked a bit nervous, but answered anyway.

“It was an apple that Ivy gave me yesterday right before everyone froze.” Hop Pop noticed that she hadn’t stuttered, nor had her voice shifted in pitch. She was telling the truth.

“Well no wonder yer hungry! Didn’t ya save yer breakfast from yesterday ta eat later?”

“I kinda… had to bribe the giant weasel to leave everyone alone by giving it the food I had on hand. I didn’t think I could win that fight, plus it was a mother that was trying to feed its babies and I couldn’t bring myself to hurt a BABY, of all things… let alone four of them. So I came up with a different solution!” Truthfully, Hop Pop was impressed!

“Ya know, that right there proves that yer not a naturally violent species. No matter what happened, you found a solution where no one got hurt in the end! Not even the thing that’d been eatin’ people!” Anne had to admit that he was right. No matter how deep she dug, trying to bring out some sort of beast mode, she couldn’t do it. But when she saw a way where no one had to get hurt, it came naturally to her. She smiled and started to tear up.

“You know, you’re right. The only time I ever fought something when I was in this form, it was a last resort! Whatever I am, I’m not meant for fighting and… I feel like that’s a good thing!” She announced. Some of the other frogs that’d gotten scared within the last couple of moments seemed to calm down a bit when they heard that.

“Now, let’s get you home so you can take a dose of yer medicine and get somethin’ ta eat!”

“Oh, I’ve actually got a dose on me right now!” Anne announced while pulling the vial out of her pocket. She immediately uncorked and downed it right in front of everyone. When they saw her shrink back into the little blue frog that they all knew and loved, most of them breathed a sigh of relief. They knew that she really was one and the same regardless of how she looked now.

She still had a ways to go before they’d fully accept her true form, but at the very least, hiber-day gave her the opportunity to prove herself and she’d risen to the occasion! She proved that she was a benevolent creature, capable of rational thought and even peacemaking. They even had definitive proof that she wasn’t going to eat anyone! The only fear that people still felt was entirely residual and instinctual at this point.

In other words, she didn’t have to hide herself anymore!