15. Chapter 15

Everything was finally settling back down to normal in the Plantar household. They weren’t travelling anymore and instead, they simply returned to their usual farm work. Anne even started doing some of the farm work in her true form again! After all, the berry bush had absolutely flourished under Chuck’s care! Usually a whole bush wouldn’t grow from a single berry within just a month, but apparently either this species grew really fast or they enjoyed sharing a plot with a bunch of tulips. Maybe because of how the tulips sapped all of the potential salt out of the soil?

That’s right! According to Chuck, all of the crops the family left reached maturity before they got home, so he harvested them all for the family and replaced them with tulips because he really didn’t know how to plant anything else! Of course he relocated them back to his place the day after the welcome back party, but that still left a bush of critically endangered, fast-growing berries for them to care for! They had to test the soil quality a few times, but after about a week of just letting the bush be the only plant, they were starting to get an idea of what nutrients it was taking in and what might be a good idea to plant around it.

Of course they replanted most of the berries around the field after that, but they also made sure to space them out and plant some other vegetables in between them in order to see what would and wouldn’t grow well with them! If all went well, then they’d be able to single-handedly bring this plant species back from the edge of extinction! It was hard work, but with Anne being more comfortable in her true form, it became pretty easy for her to keep up with the extra load.

Things ultimately settled into a routine where Anne would eat breakfast, allow her medicine to run out on its own, do a bunch of field work all day until evening, take a bottle of medicine, and then spend the next day doing other miscellaneous tasks before going to bed and starting it all over again. Typically if they had to go into town, she’d do so in her frog form, but only because it was more convenient like that and their shopping trip days typically landed on the same days she’d spend in that form anyways! But Hop Pop still occasionally took her into town in her true form if she finished her farm work early enough.

Regardless of form, however, she made an active effort to consistently wear that cloak she’d gotten whenever she was out of the house and not actually doing farm work! Every so often when she was walking around like that, she’d get some of the frogs asking her questions about when the ‘Newtopian Book Beast’ would be visiting. She had to tell them that that was all up to the ‘Beast’ in question, but she also made the effort of informing them that she actually hated being called that and that they should just wait for her to show up and meet her then.

While no one seemed perfectly satisfied by this answer, nobody could really argue with it and so the whole town was just waiting with baited breath for this supposed other member of her species. Of course many of them were expecting another Sasha, but they also wanted to trust Anne to know not to fall for another one’s schemes! If push came to shove, then the frogs were all ready to save Anne from this other beast if she turned out to be the same kind of person that Sasha was.

Wartwood as a whole eventually settled into this new normal only a couple of days before an imperial sparrow was seen flying over the town and towards the Plantar family farm! As curious as everyone was, they decided to simply let the family deal with whatever was going on on their own. Nobody wanted to get involved with political matters that were none of their business, after all.

Meanwhile the Plantar family was just peacefully having breakfast. Anne had taken her medicine just the night before, so she was ready to spend the day in her frog form as per usual. Maybe she’d go for a walk in the town? Or maybe she’d stick around the farm and just play with Sprig and Polly. Her thoughts were interrupted by what sounded suspiciously like a bird shriek just outside.

“I’ll get it.” Hop Pop casually said, having already finished eating. The kids were almost done, themselves, so they just kept on going. That was until they heard Hop Pop’s scream coming from outside.

“AAAHH!! A MONSTER BIRD RIDDEN BY A PILE A BOOKS!!... Wait, huh?” The kids rushed out at hearing the ridiculous claim to see exactly that! The only thing they noticed that Hop Pop hadn’t was that this bird was wearing Newtopian armour, which meant that it was sent by the royal family! They were about to point that out when a familiar green newt poked her head overtop of the pile, seemingly having ridden behind it!

“Hiya, Plantar family!”

“MARCY!!” The three kids all yelled in excitement! She was finally there and seemingly ready to begin her studies. The newt began to dismount her ride when she slipped and just fell to the ground instead. She picked herself up pretty quickly, though, and the bird carefully deposited the rest of the books next to the princess before peacefully walking off. The kids all ran up to her and started helping her pick up her books while she started talking.

“Okay, three big things here, everyone! Fir-WOOOAAAH!! IS THIS YOUR HOUSE?! Oh, it’s so rustic and cute! It had to have been built in the second century when this kind of architecture was most popular.”

“Yep, it’s been in the family for many generations!” Hop Pop added, about as happy as he could be that the princess liked the place.

“A few generations back, a newt actually moved in and so it was renovated with higher ceilings in order to accommodate. Even Anne in her true form doesn’t have to crouch when she’s inside.”

“Oh, speaking of her true form, the first thing I’d like to mention is that in our original test results for her blood work, we actually kinda missed something. I retested the remaining amount from the sample I took a few times and found out that it’s actually super concentrated compared to other mammals and I can’t figure out why ! And that’s why you should always do your tests at least 20 times in case of faulty margins! Ugh, I LOVE a mystery that plays hard to solve! I might need another sample eventually, but not right now.” The newt seemed downright giddy, but Anne didn’t like the sound of having to get another sample taken. Either way, it wasn’t like she could say ‘no’.

“Secondly, that crate of potions that you left with us is actually on its way back here and should arrive within a couple of days along with a crate of my own. Don’t worry, I brought a backstock for myself and I’ve labeled them to make sure they don’t get mixed up. No offense, but I kinda don’t want to end up turning into a frog and I’m sure you don’t want to turn into a newt, Anne.”

“None taken ‘cause you’re completely right.” Anne simply interjected. Yes, she liked her frog form, but she didn’t want to try out ‘being a newt’ if she could help it.

“Okay and the third and final thing I need to go over is that my dad actually assigned me a second mission while I’m out here! One that I think would be best to get out of the way as soon as possible and I was kinda wondering if I could get your guys’ help on this one? Seeing as you were able to help out so well with that barbariant mission some time ago, that is.”

“O-of course, your highness. What kinda mission did you need help with?” Hop Pop asked.

“Okay, so there’s this super ancient magical artifact that’s been in my family for thousands of years. But a long time ago, it kinda just… stopped working.” At this, Marcy pulled out a little music box and held it in front of the frogs for them to see. It had a lot of ornate designs, including an inscription of a frog and three little gray gems embedded into the top. Anne took it in her hands to look over a little more closely as Marcy continued.

“Yeah, it stopped working about a thousand years ago and my dad had no idea how to get it working again. But he also said that one day, just a few years ago, it started flickering back into a working condition for a couple of days. He kept an eye on it, but it eventually went out all on its own again. The really weird part is that that happened around the same time that you and I were found by your mom and my dad respectively, so my dad thinks that it might have something to do with our displacement from… wherever we’re from, as crazy as that might sound.

“You see, it’s actually a device that’s supposed to teleport the user to a different world entirely. Seeing as our species is so rare, there’s the faintest chance that we might actually be from a different world and we’re only here because this thing’s power flickered all that time ago. That’s only speculation, though and it could be entirely incorrect, but if it is correct, then-”

“Fixing it might give us more answers?” Anne asked hopefully. Part of her hoped that that theory was correct and doing this would help them to know more. But another part of her hoped that it was incorrect and they could just find more of their kind in a place that they hadn’t checked yet. Anne wasn’t sure if she liked the idea of being a literal alien from a different world.

On one hand, it would explain a lot about how their species didn’t seem to have any sort of evolutionary cousins as far as Hop Pop could tell from his research, but on the other hand… how many others could there be that were randomly displaced? And if it were just Sasha, Marcy, and herself, then why them? Marcy cut off Anne’s thoughts by bouncing onto her tail for a moment as she exclaimed

“That’s right! You remember how I said that my dad found this secret underground chamber that even he didn’t know about? You know, back when we were looking for any sort of extra information on… our species?”

“I think I remember you mentioning it…” Anne tried to recall. The rest of the Plantars had no idea what she was talking about, but if Anne seemed to know, then they’d all just play along without an issue.

“Well he didn’t find any information on living creatures down there, but he did find some info on how to fix this thing and he wants me to do it for him because he’s too physically large to get to the places that we’d need to go.”

“Honestly, that’s fair. He is pretty big, after all. Hey Hop Pop, are we free today in order to get this done right away?” Anne turned to her grandpa to ask, hoping they could do this as soon as possible so that they could either confirm or deny Marcy’s theory.

“Well, technically yes. If the mission’s just gonna be a one day thing, then we could probably do it right away.” At hearing this, Marcy lit up!

“Oh yeah, if we go now, we should be done before dinnertime! If my calculations are correct, that is. I’ll explain more on the way if you’re ready to go right now!”

“Just give us a few minutes to clean up our breakfast plates we left behind and we’ll be right there. Come on, kids!” Hop Pop said before rushing back into the house to take care of exactly that. The three frog kids did exactly as he asked, so it got finished up pretty quickly and next thing they knew, they were all ready to go! Anne even slipped on her new cloak, fully stocked with medicine bottles and berries in its folds. It hadn’t even taken the family five minutes, but when they got back outside, they could see that Marcy was already writing something down while mumbling to herself.

“... I wonder if it’s for pest control? Or is something up with how the roots spread? OH! Sorry, I was just taking a look at your crop field. I’ve never actually seen one up close and personal, so I was just wondering about a few things.”

“Oh, well I’ll be willin’ ta tell ya everythin’ you wanna know, your highness!” Hop Pop excitedly stated, grateful that she was actually willing to listen, unlike most other newts. Maybe it came from her not actually being one on the inside?

“Yes!... Well, as much as I’d like to ask more right now, how about we wait until after the mission is over? Oh, but I’ve gotta ask one unrelated thing first: when was the last time Anne drank a potion?” The fact that Marcy seemed to change the subject multiple times threw the family off a little bit, but they still tried to keep up as Anne tried to answer.

“Oh, it was last night. We’ve got plenty of berries, though, so there’s no need to ration them anymore.”

“Okay, well that works out actually. We go to take care of the mission, then I can ask Hop Pop about his agricultural knowledge in the evening and then we can start our further studies on you tomorrow morning in the event that the mission doesn’t provide any answers. Sound good?”

“Fair enough. LET’S DO THIS!!” 

“YEAH!!” Marcy yelled before turning around to call the giant bird that had brought her to the farm.

“C’mon Joe. Joe?” She gasped when she saw it “JOE SPARROW!!” Marcy yelled. The bird… was performing… its mating dance… for BESSIE!! As the newt ran up to scold the bird and get it to leave the snail alone, the family noticed that Bessie had actually been blushing. They’d need to remedy that later, though, because before they knew it, the princess was ushering them up to the seat on the bird’s back.

As everyone climbed up, Anne noted that if she and/or Marcy were in their true forms, then there wouldn’t be enough room for everyone. She thanked frog that that wasn’t an issue, though, as the family all crowded in next to the newt. Once they took off and their height leveled out to an even point, the newt started explaining what they were going to do.

“Alright, so fixing the music box at this point has everything to do with those little, gray gems on the top. Apparently each one is a magical power source that allows it to work and the only reason why they’re gray right now is because they need to be recharged. They’re actually supposed to be some bright, vibrant colours instead. Thankfully, each gem can be recharged at a specific temple and we’re actually on our way to one of them right now!”

“Wow!... Wait, so there are two more after this?” Anne asked. Marcy’s tail curled a little as she wore a guilty expression.

“Yeeeaaah… sorry I didn’t tell you guys about that part. But we only know the location of this one temple, so that’s all we’re going to do until we figure out where another one might be. Sound fair?”

“Alright.”

“Fine by me.”

“Okay, then.”

“That’s doable.” Anne, Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop all respectively said. Marcy smiled at the family, knowing that she could rely on them. Still, she needed to let them know just a little bit more about the challenges they were about to face.

“Okay, so according to my research, all three of these ancient temples are filled with difficult challenges to keep out the ‘unworthy’. All we have to do is complete the challenges and then we can charge one of the stones.”

“Nifty. So what kind of challenges are we talking about here?” Anne pressed, realizing that this was where she really needed to start paying attention.

“Well this temple in particular is said to specifically challenge one’s intelligence. So I’m pretty sure it’s full of puzzles. No frog, toad, or newt in history has been able to survive it.” Her last sentence was said with such a menacing tone that the Plantars suddenly started to question if they should really be doing this. Marcy, however, seemed to actually be unperturbed.

“But don’t worry because none of them were Marcy Leviathan! World record holding flipwart champion, master military strategist, and perfect straight A student even without any of the teachers knowing that I’m the princess!”

“That’s all great, Marcy, but please be careful. Remember when we helped you fight off the barbariants? I noticed that whenever you started to really focus on something, you tended to tune everything else out.” Anne tried to get her to calm down, remembering how many times she fell down a hole or almost got hurt on that day. She was smart, but clumsy enough for all of them!

“That's called ‘being in the zone’, Anne. It’s practically a special ability of mine!”

“Okay, just… don’t forget about us. This place is going to be dangerous and we’re here to help.”

“Oh please, like I could forget you guys” she gestured to the warmer coloured frogs “Hop Pop, Penny, Sprout.”

“Polly.”

“Sprig.” The two respectively corrected her. She seemed completely unfazed by this, though.

“Look, the point is that I’m not gonna let you guys down.” Just then the sparrow they were all riding on reared up and dove downwards, pressing its wings against its body. The family all grabbed onto the seat beneath them and held on for dear life. But just as quickly as it started, it was over and the bird had landed. Marcy was the first one to get off, but the Plantars followed immediately after.

“Welcome to Amygdala Woods, everyone! Home to the temple of wit!” The family was speechless, having never seen anything like this before. They looked around poking and prodding at the occasional thing while Marcy rattled off what those things all were. It seemed the newt knew where she was going, at least! Everyone found it a little odd that there happened to be an outhouse along the way, but they eventually decided to shrug it off as whoever built the temple just needing somewhere to go.

It made a lot more sense when they actually came across said temple and it turned out to be a massive building made mostly out of stone with a myriad of ornate statues all over the outside! Heck, some of these statues even seemed to have a still functioning water system, as they were spewing water at a consistent rate. Said water appeared to be collecting in a basin at the foot of the temple and flowing into various grates. How those grates hadn’t gotten clogged up with fallen leaves and twigs was a mystery.

It was almost as though someone maintained the outside of the building regularly! Maybe someone did frequent the place to keep it maintained? While there was moss on the outside, it didn’t cover the whole building or anything, so it couldn’t be more than one or two people. Though if someone came by regularly, then that would definitely explain the outhouse that they group saw earlier. Marcy started to rattle off her thoughts on it all.

“Hmm… judging by the fact that the water coming through is actually clear and not murky, I’d say that either there’s an advanced filtration system inside OR the water is being pulled in from another source. The original reason for fountains existing inside of towns and cities was to bring clean, drinkable water to the population by pulling it in from elsewhere. It made it possible for settlements to exist without having to find underground water sources and making wells.”

“Oh so that’s why Wartwood has a fountain instead of a well!... Wait, Wartwood was built on a swamp, so there are plenty a underground water sources in the area. Why would we need a fountain?” Hop Pop asked. Marcy put a hand on her chin and started to speculate.

“Hmm… maybe the water underneath Wartwood isn’t clean enough to be properly drinkable? Or maybe the original architects just liked the taste of the fountain water more? Maybe it’s there just in case of a drought! I’ll have to do some tests on all of that later and get back to you. For now, though, we’ve got a temple to conquer!” Nobody could argue with any of those ideas, so the Plantars just agreed to go ahead with the newt regardless.

The stone doors leading inside were surprisingly easy to open, given how big they were. Anne noted that while King Andrias could definitely fit through those doors, there were probably some smaller doors up ahead that he wouldn’t be able to fit through without causing some damage! She actually felt a little bad for him, being too big for most things. But then again, that was why they were there and taking care of this in his stead.

As the group entered the temple, they looked around for any indication on what they were supposed to do, but were blocked out by darkness. Everyone there had pretty good night vision, but even that required SOME light in order to work properly.

“Jeez, with darkness like this, I’d hate to be in my true form right bout now. But yeah, this is what regular nighttime looks like when I’m outside in that form.” Anne provided.

“Huh. So that’s why you were too scared to move that one time. I remember that Polly and I had to lead you back by the hand. I kinda thought that maybe you were overreacting, but now I think I understand a little better.” Sprig plainly added before breaking off to see if he could find something that might help. However, Polly was the one that solved the issue (albeit accidentally) by hopping onto a switch that appeared to turn on a set of glowing mushrooms that was situated on the walls.

At the end of the hallway there was a massive door with a few vague, damaged, and washed out drawings on it. It was nearly impossible to discern what those were supposed to mean, but at least there were some clearly written letters near the bottom… that were apparently written in some sort of ancient runes.

“Did I learn an entire dead language just for this mission? You’d better believe it!” Marcy shouted out as soon as she saw the runes. Ah, so that was why it took her so long to meet up with them in Wartwood. Even for someone as smart as her, learning a whole new language at all was a tall order!

“Now let’s see… ‘keeper of the box, one strong of mind. Three trials await that will return the stone’s shine.’ Looks like there’s three things we’ve gotta do here.” Just as she finished saying it, the wall split, revealing itself to be another door.

“And here we go!” The newt excitedly yelled! She was really getting herself hyped up for this whole thing! However, that hype crashed a little when there didn’t actually appear to be anything ahead. The princess refused to show any weaknesses, though, and simply walked inside in order to see if they were missing something.

“There’s gotta be a puzzle here somewhere! Everyone, look for clues!” The princess ordered. It took a while of checking the surrounding area, what with everyone examining the walls to see if there was some sort of set of instructions, but eventually Anne felt something hard touch her foot as she was walking around the area. When she looked down at it, it turned out to be some sort of weird… puzzle box…

“Heeeyyyy, guess who found the puuuzzllle?” Anne announced as she picked it up. Suddenly a green bubble surrounded her and lifted her upwards! She wasn’t pressed against the side of the bubble, though. Instead, she felt completely weightless, almost like whenever she was deep underwater, but without the crushing pressure from above. All of the others watched in amazement, but also fear for Anne’s safety while Hop Pop gasped.

“Frog help us! A cursed cube possessed by evil magic!”

“No, it’s the puzzle! Also, I’m pretty sure that’s a magnetic field holding her up.” Marcy corrected him. 

“Isn’t that what I said?!”

“Well whatever it is, it’s all yours, Marcy!” Anne shouted while trying to right herself. She tossed the puzzle directly at the newt who caught it flawlessly. The green bubble around her disappeared and then reappeared around Marcy as Anne fell to the ground. Her family managed to catch her, but the princess simply floated upwards with the puzzle.

“Woah, this thing’s got, like, a zillion permutations! Heh, if this temple thinks it can beat me, it’s got another thing coming!” The family stepped back to simply let her handle it, but as soon as she started moving the pieces around, the room also began to shift! The frogs all latched onto the floor with their cling pads, ready to handle the shaking when the next thing they knew, they were on the wall! All of them immediately made the connection that whenever a part of the puzzle box moved, a subsequent part of the room itself moved!

“Marcy! Could you at least let us know what you’re gonna move before you move it?!” Anne cried out onto seemingly deaf ears. The room shifted again, this time throwing them to the other side. Turning wasn’t the only thing that happened, though, because as soon as Marcy started pushing parts of it out of a cube-like position, pillars started shooting around the room!

It didn’t take long for the family to get separated as they desperately tried to dodge piece after piece. It was an absolute miracle that none of them had gotten crushed by the time the princess was done with it. At the very least she announced when that happened, but it was relatively unneeded with a pair of large stone doors opening up to show them exactly that and to reveal a staircase behind them.

At seeing this, all the frogs let go of their surroundings and dropped to the ground in a pile, groaning in pain and exhaustion. Meanwhile Marcy was gently lowered back down to the ground by the bubble before it disappeared.

“WE DID IT!! One down, two to go! Haha, how fun is this?! YEAH!! WOO!!” She yelled as she threw the puzzle onto the ground, shattering it, and ran off to the next room. The family had a little bit of trouble getting back to their feet after that.

“Is everyone okay?” Hop Pop asked.

“I’ll be alright.”

“I’ll live.”

“I’m not hurt.” Anne, Polly, and Sprig respectively said in unison. Looking at the stairs that Marcy had disappeared up, the frogs knew that they had to follow.

“Wow Anne, now I agree with you about her tuning everything else out.” Polly mentioned. She’d been a little skeptical before, but that whole thing had finally convinced her. Hop Pop and Sprig each shared their own thoughts.

“Not to mention she’s a tad overconfident.”

“Hard to argue with the results, though.” The lot of them started to walk up the stairs, following Marcy. Anne groaned at having to possibly deal with that again, but kept going anyways. When they got to the top of the stairs, they saw Marcy looking out over a large room. There were no stairs that led down, indicating that whoever went there would need to jump. Below them were a whole bunch of coloured tiles with most of them being blue, a few being pink, and only two of them being green. The green ones looked extremely old and worn, with cracks all along the sides.

“That’s a weird floor. What’s up with it?” Anne asked, simultaneously letting Marcy know that they were there.

“Well, watch this.” She picked up a rock and gently tossed it down onto the floor. It landed on one of the pink ones, pressing it down and causing it to emit a sudden pillar of flame that reached up to the ceiling! Sprig and Polly wanted to bail almost immediately.

“Woah. Not getting good vibes from this room!”

“Welp, time to turn back! Thanks for the adventure, everyone!”

“Hold on gang, look.” Hop Pop said as he pointed at the upper wall. Some more ancient runes were appearing, so they all just waited for Marcy to translate them.

“Okay… ‘a dangerous room, what to do? Don’t be jealous of my hue’... Hmm, I wonder…” The Plantars were all pretty confused, realizing that it was a riddle, but not understanding what to do about it. Marcy seemed to have an idea, though. She grabbed another rock and tossed it down. This time it landed on a blue square and a large, spiked cube came crashing down. It was just wide enough to take up the whole square, leaving nothing but a pile of dust where the rock was as the chain that was attached to it pulled it back up to the ceiling.

“Okay so, pink is death by flame. Blue is death by crushing. I’m still not following- MARCY!!” The newt ran past and jumped out towards the room, using her tail to give herself a little bit of extra launching power. Normally a newt wouldn’t be all that great at jumping, but Marcy managed to get just enough height to fire one of her arrows at a pillar on the ceiling. Said arrow had a rope attached to it that she used to swing over and land on one of the two green panels!

With it being somewhat cracked, it shook around a little until Marcy smacked it with her tail in an attempt to get it to press all the way down. Sometimes old mechanisms just needed that little extra push, after all. It seemed to work as it finally activated and… nothing happened. Seeing as no death trap appeared to try to get at the princess, she started celebrating while the Plantars breathed a sigh of relief!

“HA! Solved it! Okay guys, listen up. Green is the safe colour, get it?” The family didn’t understand why, so Marcy continued “‘don’t be jealous of my hue’. It’s a reference to an old saying that… probably predates Hop Pop, but I’ll have to check. Either way, the saying goes ‘you’re green with envy’. So green is the colour of envy, or ‘jealousy’, as it were. Also I think this temple has a bit of a thing for the colour green.” Sprig and Polly simply agreed as if they hadn’t been so confused just a little while prior.

“Ah yes, naturally.”

“Huh, swell.”

“I have a lotta green friends who’d find that sayin’ offensive. I’m surprised you don’t, Marcy.”

“Why do you think the saying was abandoned a long time ago, Hop Pop?” Marcy shrugged. They all had to admit that that was fair, although Polly was the one that pointed out the problem.

“But why hasn’t the door opened, then?” Marcy looked at the door in question, noticing that the tadpole was right. 

“Hmm… looks like this is a two person job. Thank goodness I asked you guys to come along! I might not have made it out of here if I didn’t ‘cause now I can’t move from this space until that door is open! So could I get someone to go stand on the other green square?”

“Marcy, are you… sure?”

“Yeah, how do we know that one isn’t some kinda trap door?”

“With spikes in it?!”

“Not helping, Polly.” Anne, Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop all respectively countered. Marcy tried to assure them, though.

“Guys, I’ve done the research. Plus, it’s me , remember? I said ‘I won’t let you down’ and I meant it! Now who wants to hit that button?” The family all looked between each other, nervously not wanting to go, but also knowing that at least one of them would have to do it or else they’d be leaving Marcy to her inevitable death. Eventually the two oldest Plantars volunteered at the same time.

“I’LL DO IT!!” They both yelled at the same time before doing a double take.

“Anne, no. You’re just a kid! If somethin’ is wrong with this, then I’d never be able to live with myself knowin’ that I let somethin’ happen to ya. I’ve already had a good life.”

“No, Hop Pop. I’ll step on the tile. You know that I’m too young to legally own the farm and I’ve been privileged enough that I didn’t have to become like an extra parent to Sprig and Polly, so what would we even do if something happened to you? If it does, then I’m next in line to be head of the household and I’m nowhere near ready for something like that.”

“But the whole reason why you haven’t had to become like an extra parent is ‘cause I love you all so much! It’s my responsibility ta look after you three and I’m not about ta let ya get hurt.”

“And what? Put Sprig and Polly in more long term danger by getting yourself hurt instead? No way, Hop Pop! As second in line, I’m putting my foot down on this matter.” At hearing this, Hop Pop inflated his vocal sac out of frustration. The last time he’d done that, it was towards Sprig when he wanted to take over the farm. Sprig had challenged him by inflating his own vocal sac on that day, so he was waiting to see if Anne would do the same. The old frog didn’t get to see it, though, because Marcy’s voice cut off the challenge.

“Uhh, everything okay over there? Can someone please hit the button?”

“Gladly!” Hop Pop shouted back and got ready to jump. However Anne pushed past him and jumped, herself. Sprig and Polly shouted out to her to be careful, but she landed without an issue… at least until everyone realized that the button hadn’t been fully pushed down. After looking around, Anne hopped a little in place, trying to stomp on it until it became clear that it wouldn’t go down.

“This… presents a problem.”

“Hmm… maybe you’re just too lightweight? I needed to slam this one with my tail in order to get it to work.” The bunch of them started trying to find solutions, but for the first time, Anne was the one to figure out a solution first.

“Oh, maybe my true form will be heavy enough! I mean, it’s worth a shot, right?” Anne suggested, reaching into her cloak and pulling out a berry.

“... I was going to suggest that maybe a second one of you guys jump onto it with her, but Anne’s idea is probably safer. Good one there, Anne!”

“Thanks, Marcy!” the blue frog said before popping the berry into her mouth and transforming into her terrifying true form. Almost as soon as the transformation was finished, the button clicked underneath her and resulted in all of the rest of the tiles turning green alongside them! The creature smiled as she undid the buttons on the inside of her cloak, letting it unfold to fit her full frame. Marcy didn’t seem to notice, though, as she just ran up to the opening door and started celebrating again while it finished moving.

“WOO!! What did I tell you? This temple is toast. Consider the stone charged!” She started humming happily as she ran ahead. The frog family ran after her with Hop Pop bringing up the rear, a tad disgruntled at Anne’s disobedience. Still, it had all worked out in the end anyways, so he opted to just try to solve the issue by talking to her while they made their way to the next puzzle.

“Anne, I know things worked out well back there and lettin’ you do that was ultimately the best option due to needing the weight of your true form, but you still disobeyed me. Is there somethin’ goin’ on that I don’t know about?”

“I-I don’t know. Just… you weren’t trusting me to handle that and I knew I could. I know you were just trying to protect me, but still. Trust me a little more, please?”

“Alright, Anne. Just make sure you listen to my words of caution, okay?”

“Will do, Hop Pop.”

“Good. Now, anythin’ else on yer mind? I know you well enough ta know that yer hidin’ somethin’ else.”

“Oh, uhh… well, there is one thing. B-but it’s got nothing to do with you, so maybe I should just-”

“Anne, this is a very long hallway. Tell me what’s on yer mind.” Seeing a creature as tall and naturally menacing looking as Anne shift uncomfortably and somewhat wilt under Hop Pop’s gaze would have been hilarious to most onlookers, but for them, it was pretty normal by this point.

“Okay, alright. It’s just… something that Marcy said earlier is kinda bugging me, I guess. I don’t know, really.”

“Well, what’d she say?”

“When she mentioned that the box’s power flickered back on around the same time that mom found me and that it’s supposed to connect to other worlds or something, I just…”

“Anne, whether yer from a different world or not, yer still a Plantar. You know that, right?”

“Of course! That wasn’t my concern, though.”

“... Then what was it?”

“Well… if that theory is actually the case, then… why did we end up so far apart? I was found in Frog Valley and she was found in the Royal Palace. And how does it line up with wherever the heck Sasha was found?”

“Hmm… I see how that’d be stressin’ you out. But don’t worry, we’ll help ya figure it out! We don’t have any answers yet, but we’ll get there. I mean, that’s why we’re here right now, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Thanks, Hop Pop!” Anne finished, satisfied with how it had turned out. As they walked, she decided that she didn’t explicitly need to be in her frog form unless something weird was going on regarding the final trial. So the group continued along down the hallway until Marcy stopped them, looking at the top of an archway that was above a door.

“Ah HA! Here we are, the final puzzle! Oh, I’m so excited! Let’s see here, ‘few have the brains to make it to this door. But are you wise enough to solve what’s in store?’... YEP!! Let’s go!” The princess kept walking, leading them into a rather large room that seemed to have the latter half mostly shrouded in darkness. Under one little spotlight, though, was a platform with some figures on it. Marcy gasped.

“I don’t believe it! It’s flipwart!” Marcy approached the board “You know, I’m so good at this game that I even beat my dad!”

“Impressive! They say King Andrias is one of the best flipwart players around!”

“Yeah! I’ll bet it made my adopted ancestors proud! Okay, so do you guys know how to play?” The family had a general idea. Hop Pop was the only one who’d actually played a decent amount, but the kids still had a general grasp on the rules. Anne was about to point out that the black side was already set up with the white side nowhere to be seen, but then Marcy opened a drawer that was apparently right underneath the board. Inside were all of the white side pieces. As Marcy started setting up the board, Hop Pop looked around and saw some more writing on the side of the room.

“Hmm… hey Marcy, what does this say?”

“‘Any commander who’s wart falls may never again set foot inside these temple walls.’ Looks like you only get one shot at this. Welp, one shot is all I need! But first, to finish setting up the board.” At hearing this, the Plantars decided to relax a little bit by sitting down. They figured that if Marcy was really that good, then they could just sit out of this one and let her take care of it. That was until the floor disappeared from underneath Polly!

“POLLY!!” Everyone yelled at the place where she’d disappeared. The floor reappeared, so they all started to panic, wondering where she might be. Just then, a much larger spotlight mushroom on the ceiling turned on, illuminating the rest of the room. It showed a giant flipwart board with all the pieces that Marcy had already set up except for one. The tile for the missing piece lit up and a giant version of said piece appeared with Polly inside it!

“Polly, are you okay?!” Sprig called out for his little sister. Her response made it obvious that she was.

“OKAY?! I’ve got a sword, baby! I’m doin’ better than all of you!” Seeing that her sister was in danger, Anne put one of her monster hands on Marcy’s shoulder and started to plead with her.

“Marcy, do you think we should stop? This could get dangerous.” The princess looked at her with a nervous expression.

“I… don’t think we have a choice, Anne. I think that, at this point, the only way to free Polly is to finish the game. W-we have to play.” The look on Marcy’s face showed just how concerned she really was, but that her mind was turning with possibilities. She clearly recognized that the baby was in danger, but she could only see one way out of the situation. After a while, the newt sighed and looked straight at Anne.

“Trust me, okay? I can get us through this.” Anne was skeptical, seeing as Marcy had practically ignored them for the majority of the temple so far, but in remembering the conversation she’d just had with Hop Pop only moments prior, she relented.

“Okay. I hope you know what you’re doing.” She said as she let go of the newt and took a few steps back. Marcy smiled and nodded at Anne before placing down two more pieces. At this, Hop Pop and Sprig both fell through the floor and reappeared on the giant board as those respective pieces. Hop Pop got a scepter while Sprig was forced into being just a pawn. Marcy stiffened, realizing her main mistake at this point. She looked back at the Wartwood Creature with an empathetic look.

“Get ready, Anne. There’s a good chance you’re next.” She warned as she grabbed the rest of the pieces and started placing them on the board. Anne braced herself for the floor to give way underneath her. She was tempted to grab a bottle of medicine before she went down, but figured that she wouldn’t have time. However, no matter how many pieces Marcy placed down, the floor still didn’t disappear from underneath Anne!

“Oh, looks like I’m not in the game. Welp, you guys have fun, I gue- WAH!!” Perhaps there was a delayed response? Anne felt the fall end rather quickly as she felt like everything besides her head and arms was being gently squeezed and encased in stone. Something rested on top of her head and another thing was thrust into her hand. It all went so fast that she didn’t even properly register what happened until she popped up on the board. Except that she was on the wrong side!

“Wait, what?”

“Anne, no!”

“TRAITOR!!” Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly all respectively yelled at her. Realizing that she likely had control over the black pieces, she tried to console her family.

“No! This is good! I’ll just play badly and sabotage the other team!” She looked upwards “Didn’t think of that, did ya, temple? HA, here we go!” She lifted the thing in her hands upwards in an attempt to follow through, but next thing she knew, a pair of magic green bracelets appeared around her wrists and forced her back into her original position. She tried to shift herself a little, but something forced her to remain perfectly upright.

“Okay, I can’t move.” Her family called out to her from across the board, but just as it seemed like they were about to come to her aid, the same green bracelets appeared around their wrists as well!

“Anne? What’s going on?”

“Our hands are tied. Literally!” Sprig and Hop Pop shouted. As all four of the Plantars tried their best to break free of the restraints, the newt that was still at the smaller board still tried to reassure them that everything would be alright.

“Don’t worry everyone. I’ll just play well enough that none of you gets hurt. It’ll be like a more advanced version! FUN!!”

“You wouldn’t be saying that if you were the pawn…” Sprig grumbled, not liking any of this.

“Alright, let’s flip! This! Wart!” Marcy shouted as she moved the first piece. Its larger counterpart moved in turn and was promptly taken down by another piece with the head of the destroyed one rolling up to Sprig’s feet. The boy began to shake a little.

“I don’t like this game!” He whined. But Marcy seemed to be a little bit more absorbed in the game, itself.

“Heh, such a basic response. This is gonna be easy…” She muttered out before continuing the game in relative silence.  It was hard to keep all of the Plantars unharmed throughout the whole ordeal, but after nearly half an hour of consistent close scrapes, Marcy saw an opportunity to finally win!

“Gotta admit, this temple’s good, but not good enough!” She placed the last piece down and watched as the bigger version slid over for its attack on the Wart!... The wart proceeded to jump into the air, dodging the attack and landing back down. It then stuck it’s tongue out and turned itself around to slap its rear at Marcy in a taunting fashion. For the first time in years, the princess’ mind went blank. It didn’t stay that way for long, though.

“WHAAAAT?! NO!! GUYS, THIS THING CHEATS!!” Just as she said that, Anne’s restraints started to glow and she moved over towards the rest of her family!

“GUYS, LOOK OUT!!” The frogs started to scream as Marcy did her absolute best to try to move them out of harm’s way! Anne was being forced to attack her family despite her very obvious attempts to fight it and the newt started panicking a little. Her next words were more for herself than any of the others, if she were honest.

“Alright, so what if it cheats? It’s still not enough to beat me!... I still have way more pieces; if I can just attack from a different angle I should be fine!” She kept going for a while as Anne was forced to hit her family multiple times. The newt started panicking even more as the screams of this family echoed around her until finally she looked up and actually saw the states they were in. All of them had bruises and scrapes that looked really painful!

She listened to them screaming even more and realized that what she was doing was wrong! The only member of the family that she’d really been paying attention to was Anne because the two were technically the same species as each other! Her dad had always told her to not worry about the frogs and toads of the world, as they’d sort themselves out on their own. And after reading about them, she’d concluded that they needed to be protected, but when push came to shove, she’d put an innocent family in danger just because of a request from her own! A request that honestly wasn’t worth all of this!

“What am I doing?... NO!! Hop Pop, Anne, Sprig, Polly! Who cares about this stupid game?! I forfeit!” She slapped down her own Wart in an attempt to do just that, but the temple continued forcing the game!

“Ugh, it’s not working! Maybe I have to flip the big Wart too!” She ran down and jumped behind the white Wart in order to try to flip it, but as soon as she landed, the spotlight above the board started flashing red and a shrill sound started to blare! The pieces then started trying to attack her in turn. She ran over to Sprig and ducked behind him because he was the only one with a shield, but once he blocked the first two shots for her, she fired an arrow from her arm mounted crossbow and nailed her wart right in the forehead!

Like many other pieces before it, it exploded out into rubble. But this time, it was followed up by all of the other pieces turning into dust and falling away, leaving the Plantars all lying on the ground and breathing heavily from pain. The newt sat on the ground and curled up with her tail wrapped around her legs, knowing that her mission couldn’t be completed now.

She felt like an absolute failure of ridiculous proportions. She’d just let everyone down! Her dad, the Core, and even the innocent frog family in front of her! Still, they ran over to her, Anne calling out.

“Marcy?... Marcy, I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, why’d ya throw the game?” Hop Pop followed up.

“Because it wasn’t worth you guys getting hurt. I got so caught up in proving I was smart enough to win, I couldn’t see what I was about to lose.” Hearing that from Marcy caught Anne off guard and she couldn’t help comparing her to Sasha in that moment. Sasha had taken special effort to try to separate Anne from her family while Marcy did the exact opposite! She really had proved herself in the end. Sprig and Polly gave their responses first, though.

“Well, in your defense, that game was a ding dang cheat!”

“Yeah! I still think you’re pretty smart! A little obsessive, though.”

“Thanks, Sprig. Polly.” Before Marcy could say anything more, a number of glowing green arrows appeared, directing the group towards the exit! There were so many that Marcy actually got a tad offended!

“I got it, temple! I wasn’t smart enough to win, but I can find the exit, okay?!” The group started making their way out. At one point, Anne even picked Hop Pop up and carried him, which was fairly easy with her much taller frame. After they all got out of the place, they noticed that the sun had set, which meant that the whole thing took far longer than any of them had expected. Anne gently set Hop Pop down and spoke up.

“I guess we won’t be charging that stone today, huh?”

“No. And since I lost, I’m not allowed back in the temple. Either I’ll have to get someone else who could do it or I’d have to hand it all off to you, which would be far too dangerous.”

“Don’t worry, Marcy. We’ll manage it somehow. Maybe we can recruit some help from Wartwood?” Anne suggested. Before she could get a response, though, Polly caught their attention.

“Hey guys, the failure arrows want us to keep going this way.”

“Well, if we’re gonna lose, we might as well lose all the way.” Marcy dejectedly started walking with the family following behind her. It didn’t take them on a very long path, though.

“What? The outhouse?” Sprig questioned. He wasn’t the only confused one! Was the temple trying to tell them that they were on the same level as the ‘contents’ of the outhouse?! Now that was just plain rude! Still, Marcy opened it and was surprised when she saw the walls and ceiling glowing in a myriad of ornate designs.

“No. It can’t be… GUYS, this is where we charge the stone!” The newt announced. The Plantars all made sounds of disbelief and if Marcy were honest, she was in just as much disbelief, herself! She walked inside, ignoring the smell, and approached the hole in the back. Once she got close enough, a pedestal with a small indentation rose up from it and surprisingly, it actually appeared to be clean! Perhaps there’d been a magic bubble or something that was protecting it from anyone who actually thought this was an outhouse? Some ancient runes appeared behind it, so Marcy immediately got to translating.

“‘Only the worthy will have the wisdom to choose whether it’s more important to win or have the humility to lose. A choice was made to save thy friends and honestly doesn’t that make you a winner in the end?’”

“That last bit was oddly casual!” Anne pointed out in the middle of what Marcy had been saying.

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of it sooner?! The temple wasn’t just testing for intelligence, it was also testing for humility.”

“Well don’t give the temple a chance to change its mind! Charge that thing!” Polly commanded, knowing that the princess wouldn’t be upset by it at that point. And sure enough, she did exactly as requested and grabbed the music box out of the satchel she’d had on her to detach one of the gems to place in the pedestal. The moment that she did, it began to glow and fill up with a bright green colour. But that was when the newt felt the heat.

It was a feeling she hadn’t felt in years, like a wave of fire washing over her! She felt her muscles and even her bones start to shift and change shape. She fell to the ground and started writhing in pain! She was certain that she’d taken her medicine that morning, so what was going on?! Why was she suddenly transforming?! Her thoughts were cut off by a vice grip tightening over her chest as she suddenly became unable to breathe!

She didn’t register anything going on around her because of the searing pain! Her skin started to blotch out to that terrifying olive brown that she’d been cursed with the sight of so long ago! But that was when she felt a familiar taste hit her rapidly shrinking tongue. She managed just enough physical self control to swallow the contents of the bottle that had been shoved into her mouth!

As the pain ebbed away and the grip on her chest loosened, she noticed who had been holding the bottle for her: Anne. The concerned look on the girl’s face was enough to make Marcy realize just how much the Wartwood Creature understood what was going on! Once she finished drinking the potion and her newt form was fully restored, she laid there with her head in Anne’s warm lap and three pairs of cold hands along the length of her body. She was panting and trying to figure out why that just happened.

“I-I swear. I d-drank one th-this m-morning!” Marcy stammered out “Wh-why did that h-happen?”

“I-I don’t know, Marcy. M-maybe it was because of the stone? Maybe recharging it has some sort of magic cancelling radius? I don’t know.”

“Th-that s-sounds… plausible.” The newt slowly sat up, breathing heavily. The family all looked at her with concerned caution and compassion. Anne knew first-hand what it was like to go through that and the rest of her family had sat through it with her before. But there was one thing that started to bug Marcy.

“W-wait, how did you get one of my potions?”

“Oh, I just remembered when you pulled one out of that iron reinforced container that you always keep on you and took that one!”

“Oh. Thank you for remembering that!” She looked up at Anne, seeing only warmth in her brown eyes as she said that. It didn’t take her too long after that to stand up and look back at the gem. It was only then that she realized it was firing a stream of light straight out of the building they were in. Out of sheer curiosity, she picked it up and examined it.

“Oh olms! I think it’s trying to lead us to the next temple!” Marcy shouted out, her terrifying experience practically overridden by excitement that she might be able to fully complete her dad’s request after all! The family all celebrated alongside her, realizing that it would probably be best to talk about what just happened after they got back to Wartwood.

“I should be able to triangulate its location with a bit of work. WOO!! This just keeps getting better!” She shouted as she ran out of there and back to Joe Sparrow. Of course, the family followed her and started to board the bird. Anne had to take a dose of her medicine in order for everyone to fit on there, but that was okay. Knowing that they’d be able to find the next temple soon, Marcy wanted to try for it immediately, but decided to check with the family first.

“Hey, you guys wanna go straight to the next temple tonight?... Ooorrr take a break first?”

“Break, please!” They all said in unison. As she looked at Anne, she noticed that the bruises she’d gotten in her true form carried over onto her frog form and frankly, she felt kinda bad about it. The bruises were a little harder to notice on the warmer colours of the rest of her family, but on Anne’s blue skin, they stood out and looked even more painful than they probably were.

“Fair enough.” She simply said before commanding Joe to take them back to Wartwood. The ride back was relatively uneventful, unless one counted Sprig and Polly nearly falling asleep. Anne’s time spent in her true form allowed her to conserve some of her energy while Hop Pop and Marcy both appeared to be at least somewhat used to the occasional all-nighter. Regardless, once they got back, they faced the conundrum of where Marcy would sleep!

Sure, she had more than enough money to just stay at the Sundew’s room for rent in town, but it was a little late into the night for her to try seeking that out. There wasn’t any room in the Plantar household unless she wanted to set herself up on the couch or in the basement either. But there were some beds inside the fwagon! And ultimately, that was where Marcy ended up crashing due to the extra privacy it provided. For the literal princess, she was surprisingly flexible about her standards and Hop Pop couldn’t be more grateful for that!

The lot of them generally agreed that it’d be best to wait until the next day for any experiments, so Hop Pop served up a quick snack sized dinner and then sent all of the kids to bed. After they were all gone, he went into his studies and pulled out one of his old books. Something had been bothering him since that very morning. As he flipped through it, he stopped on a specific page that depicted the exact music box that Marcy had brought.

“Oh no.” He muttered to himself. The page depicted the box in a far more negative light than what Marcy had described it. There were multiple warnings going over what it did and the idea that using it would only lead to disaster! Heck, the book even referred to it as the ‘calamity box’! But he couldn’t exactly go against the royal family! Maybe they knew about this and they wanted to dispose of it properly? He didn’t know, but he knew that there wasn’t anything he could really do about it at this point.

He’d just have to trust that the king and the princess knew what they were doing…