8. Chapter 8(2)

Anne could only sit there, wondering about what could have been if things were different. Could they have ever been friends? Even though Sasha wasn’t the best person, she was definitely a product of her upbringing. So if she would have been raised outside of the military, then maybe it would have been possible. Her little brother stopped her train of thought with a simple question.

“Anne, are you… okay?”

“Oh yeah, never felt be- he- he” try as she might, she just couldn’t finish her sentence because the tears just came bursting out. She felt weaker than she ever had before, but at the very least her family chose not to ask any tough questions. Instead, they just surrounded her in a big group hug! Their cold slimy skin felt kind of nice against her hot dry skin, but… after being able to hold another one of her own kind only a couple of hours prior, she felt like something was missing.

It took nearly half an hour for Anne to calm down enough to be coherent again. Her cries hadn’t been loud at all, mere whispers in fact. But that was somehow even more heartbreaking for the Plantar frogs. They could kind of understand why Anne was such a mess after all of that. Especially because it also left the question of which of the two of them was closer to their species’ default and if Sasha was, then did that mean that Anne would never get along with another of her own kind?

The last question was one that none of the frogs said out loud, knowing full well that it would fully break Anne if they did. As it was, they’d only just gotten her calmed down enough to listen to them. But when she did, all they saw was how she couldn’t fully keep her eyes open. The sun had already risen, which meant none of them had slept in almost twenty-four hours, but Anne definitely had it the worst!

Not only had she done a ridiculous amount of party planning, but she went through two parties in one night, an escape plan, a fight, and such an emotional rollercoaster that they were surprised she was even still awake! Knowing that words would likely be very difficult for her in this state, Sprig simply took out the bottle of medicine that he’d been keeping on him this entire time and held it out in front of Anne.

The girl slowly looked down at it and stared for a moment before gently taking it from her little brother. She stared at it in her hand for a long moment before her hand went to her hip. There she pulled off a small sack and handed it to Sprig. A quick look inside revealed that they were Sasha’s magic canceling berries! Anne had never given them back, not even when they got caught trying to escape. But that was probably because Sasha was more concerned about disarming Anne than getting back something harmless that neither of them even needed at the time.

‘Well… waste not, want not’ thought Sprig as he put it in one of the pockets on the inside of his vest. Meanwhile Anne stared at her medicine for a good, long while more. More tears started to flow, but this time she found the strength to uncork and down it. After turning back into her frog form, she tried to stand up only to fall right back down again almost like how Sprig was on hiber-day. She was just too exhausted after everything and nobody blamed her.

Sprig wordlessly helped Anne grab onto Hop Pop’s back while Polly held onto his own and the two of them used their cling pads to safely get the girls to the ground. After that, they moved Anne so that Hop Pop could carry her bridal style, which meant Anne didn’t have to spend any energy actually hanging on. From there it didn’t take them very long to find the hijacked party barge that carried everyone to the tower, where they all seemed to be waiting for them. Mrs. Croaker had gotten on top of the giant tarantula and was ready to go once the Plantars got on.

As they did, everyone watched Anne sleeping in her grandpa’s arms and decided to stay quiet for her sake. She did risk her life to save everyone, after all. Because of that, the trip back was completely uneventful with everyone keeping their thoughts to themselves. There were no doubt many different opinions over what had just happened, but at least everyone seemed to agree to just let the poor girl sleep!

When they all finally got back to Wartwood and stopped, the barge jostled everyone, waking Anne up. She looked around a bit before standing up and stretching. She obviously hadn’t gotten enough sleep, but she seemed to have enough energy now to at least walk and talk again. Once everyone got off of the barge and started heading to their respective homes, Mrs. Croaker took the barge and tarantula away to who knows where and the Plantars all sat on the edge of the town statue together. They were all relatively silent until Hop Pop spoke up.

“I know that was hard for ya, Anne. Thank ya, you know, for everythin’.”

“Hop Pop, you three are my family. The only family I’ve ever known! I’d never let anyone hurt you.” Anne responded. Sprig then decided to try lightening the mood.

“Sooo… you guys wanna get breakfast and finish up those plans to go meet that Newtopian Book Beast? I mean, Sasha’s life in the military no doubt brainwashed her into acting the way she did. There’s no way another one of Anne’s species would act the same unless they were raised like that too. And this other one clearly doesn’t have the same upbringing.” Anne smiled at her brother’s explanation. It was comforting to hear someone confirming her own thoughts.

“It’s gonna be dangerous, perilous even!” Hop Pop chimed in, just to make sure they were aware of what they were getting themselves into.

“Understatement!” Polly followed up. Anne smiled at them. They hadn’t said ‘no’, which meant they were still on board with it. They were just acknowledging the danger associated with it and how much planning still needed to be done.

“Well, whatever happens next, one thing’s for sure. If we’re together, I know we’ll be alright.” Sure, it was sappy, but it was kinda what Anne needed at that moment. She wrapped her short, froggy arms around her family to the best of her ability for another group hug. She was nervous about what they were planning, but now she needed to know even more just what her species was really like. If nothing else, then just to prove Sasha wrong so that they could all move on from that.

At the very least, Anne was honestly relieved that she’d never told Sasha about the Newtopian Book Beast…

…

The first thing she heard were voices. All familiar ones, but too far away to make out properly. Then she opened her eyes and was met with light that blinded her for a moment. After said eyes adjusted, she looked around to see that she was inside a small building that appeared to mostly be made out of wood. She could faintly hear some water rushing behind her as well.

She shifted positions and found out that she was laying on top of a large pile of loose straw. Where even was she? The voices she heard were coming from outside, so she got up and stumbled a bit. No one seemed to hear her, but that was when she realized that she was in her true form. She needed to know what was going on, so she stepped as lightly as possible towards the door and put her ear to it. The weird shape of the outside of her ear ended up cutting off all other sounds, enabling her to hear what was going on outside better.

“... Leave her behind? Are you crazy?!”

“Look, I get it. She’s your kid, so you don’t wanna leave her, but she’s also a monster and if you really think about it, this is all her fault!”

“How could you say that?! If anything, it was the other one’s fault!”

“And the other one was only there because of your literal monster child.”

“Can you blame her? What if you were in her position?! Ugh, fine. If you want to leave, then go ahead. But we’re staying with our daughter, for better or worse!”

“Fine, see if I care. You’re coming with us, right captain?”

“Hmm… no, I think I’ll stay with these two and their daughter. Sasha has put far more time and effort into making herself a better soldier than any of the rest of you could ever dream to. Even before she knew she wasn’t a toad! And then after she knew, she doubled down harder than any of you could imagine.

“If I had to make the choice between just her and all the rest of the Toad Tower army, I would still choose her. Quality over quantity, as they say. Still, if you want to leave, I won’t stop you. Should either of us get confronted by any law enforcers, I think we can both agree to keep each other’s locations a secret.”

“Humpf! Fine, then. We’re all criminals now anyways because we abandoned our posts, so see if any of us care should you all get found out and arrested. If you’re lucky, that monster will get shipped off to some zoo where they can stop her from doing any more damage! As it is, the only reason none of us slit her neck on the way here was because you three were all protecting her. So if we can’t do that, then our next best option is to just get as far away from her as possible.”

“Fine, be like that then. It’s not like she saved everyone multiple times over and proved her loyalty, right?! Yeah, she was toooootally responsible for the Tower collapsing!”

“I’ve never heard you be so sarcastic, Braddock, but I’m with you on this one. You’re all blaming Sasha for something that wasn’t her fault and if you’re really so dead set on never seeing her again, then it really would be best if you all just left.”

“... Then goodbye!”

“Goodbye!” Sasha opened the door to look at the two toads who raised her standing with Grime, all three of their backs facing the building she was in while the rest of the surviving Toad Tower army were staring them down with Bog in front. She made eye contact with him and narrowed her eyes while the three who were defending her turned to look. Bog seemed to be rooted to his spot, petrified by her predatory gaze and maybe even some flashbacks of his first encounter with the Wartwood Creature.

“If you really hate me so much, then why are you still here?” Sasha asked him with a level tone to her voice, to which he simply shook his head, turned, and walked away with the rest of the toads. A few of them turned back around to look at her as they left. Some with worry, some with contempt. But that hardly mattered, given that they all still left. Once they were gone, she looked down to see the three remaining toads staring up at her with concern.

“Oh Sweetie, don’t listen to them.” Braddock tried to comfort her, but Sasha wasn’t feeling it. She turned around and walked right back inside the building, sitting down in the far corner and curling in on herself. It wasn’t what Bog and his group had said that was bothering her. She couldn’t care less about them, if she were honest. She was just upset about Anne. The toads who raised her sat beside her, actually not talking for once. Instead, it was Grime standing in front of her who had something to say.

“Sasha, listen. I’m not going to ask about what happened at the top of the tower after I fell. I just know that I saw Anne still trying to save you, but you slipped and lost consciousness on the way down. I managed to catch you before you hit the ground, but I wasn’t about to let you fall to the mercy of those frogs.

“You’re free to do whatever you wish from this point on, but I must warn you. We lost all of your potions in the fall of the tower. You won’t be able to go into public again until we can get you more unless you want to cause mass panic. Unfortunately, though, all of us are now on the run, so getting more will be rather difficult. Therefore, I believe sticking together would be advantageous for all of us. Do you understand?”

Sasha nodded her head. It was all she could do at this point. She’d get out of her funk, she just needed a day or two. Still, something bothered her about what Grime had said.

“If we’re on the run, then why bother getting more potions? You and I are the most likely to get recognized and reported, regardless of what form I’m in. And besides, ordering in more would give away our positions. It’s too dangerous to do that now. I’ll just… make sure I’m ready in case we’re ever found.” Sasha sighed while saying the last bit as she stood up.

“Sasha, you should really rest for now!” Percy tried to get her to sit back down, but Sasha just looked into his eyes. He’d never seen her so upset before! Sure, her monstrous form sometimes made it difficult to tell what she was thinking, but in the past couple of months where she’d used it around the tower, he’d learned how to pick up on some of the more subtle tells.

“Please, Sasha. At least for five minutes so your mom and I can check you over for any injuries we may have missed!”

“... Fine.” She had to admit that that was a fair reason for her to stay put for a bit. She sat down again on the pile of straw and let the people who raised her look her over. Meanwhile she saw Grime take a seat on the other end of the room, no doubt trying to come up with a plan for them. She had no way of knowing what he was thinking, but even she knew there was nothing left for any of them anymore.

What were they going to do now?...