16. Chapter 16

When Anne woke up after the grueling previous day she’d had, she wasn’t expecting to see Marcy inside the house already and eating the pancakes that Hop Pop was making. Being groggy, she just figured that it made sense if she were technically staying with the family and sat down beside the princess to await her own plate. Her true form may have been good for saving some energy, but as soon as she’d hit her bed, she was out like a light!

Marcy greeted the young frog while she sat down, who responded in turn and made it obvious that she was still about as groggy as could be! The newt simply smiled and continued eating, wanting to give her friend a chance to actually wake up. While the pancakes were indeed just a little soggy, she knew that she shouldn’t expect professional chef levels out there in the boonies. Despite being the princess, Marcy knew how to be humble about food, at least. It wasn’t like she was any better at cooking…

She looked back down at the blue frog only to find that her two younger siblings were suddenly right beside her and also eating. When did they get there?! The newt shook her head and looked back at Anne. She seemed at least somewhat awake by this point, so Marcy figured it’d be alright to start telling them about what she’d done on the previous night.

“Hey, so guess what I figured out?”

“Hmm?” the kids of the family asked back, most of them with mouths full of food.

“Well, I was a liiiiittle excited last night and in order to blow off some steam, I actually got to work triangulating the location of the next temple!”

“Let me guess, you got no sleep whatsoever last night?” Polly retorted. Marcy brushed her off.

“Meh, it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last. Anyways, it turns out that it’s way up in the arctic, so it’s actually a really good thing we didn’t try to go for it last night! We’re gonna need to prepare for temperatures low enough to freeze any amphibian!”

“You know, your’s and Anne’s true forms are warm blooded, so we’d do a lot better if both of you went like that.” Sprig suggested. The two transformed girls stopped to look at him for a moment, Anne with consideration and Marcy with apprehension. Of course the princess wouldn’t want to do that at all, but the farm girl was perfectly fine with it.

“U-umm… I-I guess it would make logical sense, b-but… w-we still have to do a whole bunch of in-field research on Anne. And we’d still need to properly prepare anyways, so there’s a bit of time!” Anne could tell that Marcy was just making excuses at this point, but she let it slide because the newt did admittedly make a convincing enough argument.

“Well I know that I’d be fine with it, at least.” She said. Hop Pop followed up.

“Alright, seein’ as Anne’d be in her frog form all day today without a berry, let’s just head inta town ta pick up a few things. Tomorrow may be market day, but its always best ta scope out whatever ya can in the time bein’.” The frog children all agreed with their grandpa and upon seeing that, Marcy figured it’d be best to just go with the flow. Maybe it’d be overwith quickly enough that they could still get some studying in. If not, then she could probably just spend the rest of the day talking to Hop Pop about how farms work.

Before she knew it, breakfast was done and everyone was getting ready to head out to town. Apparently they were just going to take a quick day-trip because there was a decent amount of tending to the farm that they needed to do later on and the markets were more likely to have more of what they needed anyways. Apparently, Anne would even be in her true form during that day! Marcy was fine with that, of course, seeing as she’d actually been a little excited to see a small town like this! She’d only ever really seen Newtopia and the surrounding area, so she took a deep breath and followed the frogs out to their snail drawn cart.

As they went, the newt looked around at the absolutely gorgeous scenery! Sprawling fields of crops stretched out as far as the eye could see and covered the horizon. Each plant clearly meticulously planted with the full understanding of the care that it’d require in order to maximize how much they’d be able to get from it. And with all of the flat lands, Marcy was able to see farther into the distance than she’d ever had before!

It was absolutely breathtaking for the young newt! Olivia had always told her that all of the land in Amphibia was sacred and it needed to be protected! She’d read somewhere that farmers ‘gave back’ to the land they farmed on, but she didn’t quite know how. She knew that that’d have to be one of her questions for Hop Pop later, though. For the time being, she just gawked at the surrounding area until Anne spoke up, sounding a little guilty.

“Uhh… sooo… Marcy…”

“Yeah?” She turned to the frog, noticing that she was wearing the same cloak from the day before. From what she was able to see of it, it was brilliantly designed! The fact that it had several internal pockets AND it shifted size via the use of multiple layers and buttons was brilliant! But once again, that brought about her original theory regarding why her normal outfit shifted size. That it had something to do with her slime coat and so far, nothing had contradicted the idea. Despite all of that, the frog inside the cloak was wringing her hands in what appeared to be nervousness.

“Would you be mad if I had maybe… toldsomeoneaboutyou? I-I didn’t say your name or who you really were! They just asked if we’d found the one we were looking for ‘cause they knew why we went to Newtopia in the first place. All I told them was that you were a shy girl disguised as a newt and that you’d be visiting soon!” The frog finally looked up at Marcy, who held an unamused expression.

“...”

“...”

“... The whole town knows, don’t they?”

“Yeah, the whole town knows, sorry.”

“Anne…” the newt facepalmed “why’d you do that?”

“Because they all accept me for who I am and they aren’t scared of my true form. So I know for a fact that they’re not going to be afraid of you! That and I wasn’t really thinking at the time. I was just happy to be home after such a long journey.”

“Okay, I get the latter part, but… didn’t you say that there was another one of us that did scare them?”

“Yeah… Sasha. But they all promised to at least give you a chance because I told them that you’re a good person!” The frog said as she curled up a little bit. It had clearly been eating away at her for a while, so the newt decided to at least give this a shot. Anne had helped her out plenty of times already, so she felt like she owed it to both of them to do this. At the very least nobody would actually expect her to take her… other form, right?

Marcy breathed a heavy sigh as the group pulled into town and she kept her head down. Maybe nobody would notice her? Her hopes for that soared when Hop Pop told them that he’d see what he could scope out in the shops first and all they had to do was stay in the cart. Polly and Sprig seemed to busy themselves with something else, so the newt practically had Anne’s undivided attention. However it didn’t take long for someone to notice the kids sitting there. Their first guest was a blue, young adult frog with a seemingly missing eye who was dressed like a bum and carrying a concertina.

“Oh hey, Anne!” He greeted the other blue frog before turning to Marcy “who’s yer friend here?”

“Oh, this is Mar-” Marcy cut her off with a tap to her shoulder, not wanting Anne to tell this stranger her real name. People didn’t usually make the connection that she was the princess, but she just wanted to be safe when it came to a stranger like him. She shook her head at Anne and she thankfully seemed to understand.

“-Mar. Mar-mar! Yeah, that’s her name.” She improvised “Mar-mar, this is Wally. He’s actually my godfather, believe it or not.”

“Yep, and I couldn’t be prouder of her! She’s the kindest person you’d ever meet!” Anne smiled at him.

“Thanks Wally.” Marcy was already starting to feel more comfortable around this guy! She was about to start asking him questions about himself when he asked his own.

“So what’s a newt like you doin’ with the Plantars?” Marcy waited for Anne to come up with some excuse, but she ended up just staring at her instead. She wanted Marcy to come up with her own answer. Maybe because she didn’t want to say anything that the princess was uncomfortable with?

“W-well, I’m from Newtopia and-”

“Oh, so you’re the Newtopian Book Beast!” He concluded in such a casual tone that it genuinely threw the newt off guard. Anne was quick to help her, though.

“U-umm… well yes she is, but remember how I said that she hates being called that? So could you please not do so in the future?”

“Well sure, but why? It’s a neat name and you should honestly just own something like that.” He directed towards Marcy. At seeing her hunch over a little bit, Anne crossed her arms and laid out a rather plain defense.

“Well not everyone is fully comfortable with everything about themselves and sometimes some names are inappropriate, given a person’s experiences with that name, Wallium .” Marcy didn’t know why the longer version of this frog’s name was a big enough deal to emphasize like that, but it seemed to work as he just looked at the ground, tipped his hat, and turned to walk away.

“Right. Have a good day, then.” He ended up leaving about as quickly as he came, leaving Marcy rather confused. He understood what she was, but didn’t freak out at all! Maybe it was because he couldn’t actually see it in front of him? But then again, if he was Anne’s godfather, then he was probably used enough to seeing her like that that he didn’t feel the need to freak out. The newt looked around a little more in an attempt to see where he might’ve gone, but her eyes ended up locking onto the sign above the village gate.

“‘Slow to accept, even slower to respect’, huh? W-well Wally there seemed to be pretty open to my… existence. Maybe even a little too much.”

“Yeah, but he’s not originally from here, so think of him like a warm-up. Most of the frogs here don’t typically like outsiders, if I’m to be honest. But I told them all to give you a chance, so you should be okay. If anything, the younger kids here are still pretty open minded. There aren’t a lot of them, but at least there’s that.” Anne explained. Marcy started to consider that when she noticed Anne stiffen.

“Uhh… speaking of the younger kids, please humour me for a moment and scoot just a little bit away from me.” The newt was extremely confused at the sudden request, but she did so anyways. As she did, she noticed that Anne had done the same, leaving a bit of a gap between the two girls. She was about to ask what was going on when a young girl’s voice rang out.

“AMBUSH!!” Marcy flinched and looked around before seeing what was practically a spinning ball of pink and yellow roll out between her and Anne. The blue frog simply returned to her original position before smiling at the ball. When Marcy looked back, she saw that the pink was actually Sprig and the yellow was some other frog his age.

“Uhh…”

“Don’t worry, they do this all the time. They’d been doing it even before they started dating.” Oh. OH!! Okay, so it was just how Sprig and this new frog liked to play. She’d been scared that something bad was happening, but after seeing them interact, she could see that nothing was wrong. She looked back to Anne and realized with a start that she was watching her little brother with a smile on her face that made it obvious that she shipped the two of them.

She remembered when she figured out that Yunan had a crush on Olivia. Of course Marcy would love to see the two of them together, but she'd decided to leave well enough alone unless one of them asked her to intervene. Before Marcy could comment on it, though, Anne seemed to realize what she was thinking.

“Don’t worry, I already learned to keep my eyes on them and my hands off.” Marcy breathed a sigh of relief at that, seeing that Anne knew to leave them alone. She then saw the yellow frog turn in her direction.

“Heya, I’m Ivy. I noticed that you’re hanging around with the Plantars. You must be that other member of Anne’s species that I’ve heard about. Kinda funny that you’re the third one who’s been disguised, but who am I to judge? What’s your name?” The frog held out a hand for her to shake.

“Uhh… it’s Mar-mar.” She said as she shook the girl’s hand. Seeing as Anne had told Wally that that was her name, she decided to play along. These frogs didn’t need to know that she was the princess, after all. In fact, it might just be for the better if she treated this whole ordeal like some sort of stealth mission!

“Alright, Mar-mar. Quick question: do you like being randomly attacked?”

“NOPE!! I’d rather not, thanks.”

“Ah, shame… But understandable.” the frog shrugged and turned to Anne “Anyways, I’m gonna take Sprig for a bit. See ya!” She grabbed the boy’s hand and walked off with him. Seeing as he didn’t protest at all and was actually kind of excited, Marcy just figured that she wouldn’t say anything on that matter and instead focus on something else.

“Well… she seemed pretty nice.” The newt smiled at the frog and started looking around again.

“Yeah, but like I said. The younger kids are a bit more open minded. It’s the older folks who were born and raised here that you’ve gotta watch out for. Like Mrs. Croaker over there.” Anne pointed out. Marcy looked over to see a little old lady frog who either had an eye condition in one eye or had heterochromia! Her skin was a light purple shade and she had a small amount of curly white hair on top of her head. She was also being followed around by a small spider that appeared to be quite loyal to her.

She appeared to be heading over to the same grocery store that Hop Pop had went in, which meant that she was passing right beside the two of them. Marcy wanted to greet her, but she was also willing to heed Anne’s warning about her. Perhaps if she started with something that the old lady was clearly interested in, it could help.

“Aww, that spider is so cute!” She said, trying to get the old lady’s attention while making it seem like she was just making an observation. It somewhat seemed to work, as she looked directly at Marcy for a moment.

“Oh great, an outsider… at least you have good taste, though.”

“Oh yeah, I can tell from the shade of its eyes that it’s got really potent venom, but its friendly behaviour shows that it’s well loved and the fact that it’s peacefully following behind you is an obvious indicator to how well trained it is. I’m actually really impressed!” If Marcy’s life of being royalty taught her one thing, it was that people used flattery to get what they wanted all the time. The amount of people who’d showered her with compliments just to try to manipulate her made it obvious that it had worked for them up until then, so the newt thought to try it out for herself.

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere with me, outsider.” Or not.

“O-oh. Sorry, I just spoke my mind, there.”

“Hmm. And how many more of you are in town today?” The old lady said, squinting her eyes in what looked like disapproval. At hearing that, Anne poked her head over the side of the cart next to Marcy and gave a brief explanation.

“Depends on what you mean by that, Mrs. Croaker. She didn’t bring any outsiders with her, but if you meant people like her, theeeen…” Her eyes widened for a moment before looking in between Marcy and Anne for a bit. Then she took an unamused expression.

“Oh, I get it!” She sighed and turned to Anne “She’s that other one of you that people’ve been talking about. Well, so long as you keep her under control, I guess we can try to give her a chance. For your sake.” After saying that, Mrs. Croaker turned back to her original path towards the grocery store and left the two girls. Anne smiled at Marcy.

“That went WAY better than I would have expected from someone as old as her! I guess it’s just because she actually kinda likes me.”

“Really? If you say so… ya’know, it seems like the people here are moreso on edge because I’m an outsider . Nothing to do with… not being a newt.”

“Yeah, they got over me and my true form quite a while ago, so you’re completely right about that.”

“Hmm…” The newt appeared to enter into deep thought, so Anne simply decided to try talking to Polly instead. Except that the baby wasn’t there! A quick scan of the surrounding area saw her playing in the fountain water, though, so Anne calmed down a bit. She was about to excuse herself to go get Polly when Hop Pop came back.

“Hey kiddos, they had a decent amount a nice stuff in there. I bought some leather that we can turn inta boots fer the snow. We don’t want our feet freezin’, do we?”

“That’s a great idea, Hop Pop! I really don’t wanna have to try and fashion something out of towels and whatnot like I did on hiber-day!” Anne responded.

“Yeah, I was thinkin’ a that. Anyways, let’s get back ta- wait, where are Sprig and Polly?”

“Oh, Ivy took Sprig with her to play or something and Polly’s right over there.” Anne pointed towards the fountain. Hop Pop sighed and put the leather in the cart next to the girls, before running off to get Polly. Anne turned back to Marcy to see that she was still deep in thought.

“Uhh… Marcy? Hellooo?” The newt’s head shot up before looking at the frog.

“O-Oh sorry, I was just thinking about something.”

“Like what?”

“Hmm… let me get back to you on it later, okay?”

“... Alright, then.” Anne finally decided to let it go when she saw Hop Pop returning with Polly. After he placed her in the cart with the other two girls, he gave Bessie’s reigns a quick snap and started heading back home. Sprig would make his way back on his own, seeing as he always did whenever he ran off with Ivy. After they got back, Marcy appeared to be kind of scared of something, although she didn’t quite say what.

Instead, she just spent the evening asking Hop Pop about various farming techniques. It was almost like she was actively avoiding something, with how she seemed to be looking for the more long winded explanations. After dinner, though, the newt asked to speak with Anne in private. The family shared some confused glances before Anne agreed and left the rest of her family to clean up while she followed Marcy out to the fwagon. Once it was just the two of them, the newt sat down at the table and started talking while Anne sat opposite to her.

“I-I’ve been thinking…”

“Oh? About what?” She said casually, hiding her nervousness about whatever the princess might say next.

“I-it’s s-specifically about what Sprig said this morning… about the upcoming trip.”

“Ah, I see. You don’t have to go in your true form if you don’t want to, Marcy.”

“But he was right! It would be safer and more advantageous if both of us…” The newt trailed off, clearly not liking where this was going. Anne extended a hand out in an attempt to comfort her, but she simply took a deep breath and continued.

“I-if both of us… went like that. A-and if I want to not get in the way during the mission, th-then I should r-really… l-learn how to move properly i-in th-that f-form…” Anne was amazed! Was Marcy finally willing to transform again? She’d figured that after the whole ‘book beast’ incident, she wouldn’t want ANYTHING to do with her true form ever again! Anne just needed some confirmation, though.

“Marcy, are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Anne waited for Marcy to reply. It took the newt a few breaths before she was able to open her mouth again, but Anne was willing to be patient with her.

“Tomorrow morning. Before we go into town for market day. I-if you’re going in that form like you said you were, th-then… I-I w-want to t-try… t-to j-join you.” Anne beamed! Given how scared the newt clearly was, she was being really brave by saying that she would do this. Actually doing it was another matter entirely and she would have the whole night to change her mind, but the fact that she’d already gotten this far was a testament to how hard she was trying and how dedicated she was to this cause.

“Okay. If it’s alright with you, I’m going to have to let Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly know. That way they won’t be surprised when they see you. And I’ll bring you a berry for you to eat when you feel like you’re ready. This will all be on your terms, okay?” The newt looked up at the frog and gave a shaky smile back. She then looked at Anne’s outstretched hand and took it.

After a moment, Marcy took another deep breath and let go. She looked back at Anne.

“Y-yeah, you can tell them. And the berry w-would be nice. Th-thank you, Anne.”

“Not a problem! Would you like to come back inside now?”

“No, I… I should really go to bed earlier tonight, seeing as I didn’t sleep at all last night.”

“That’s fair. Do you want me to stay a while longer or would you like me to leave?” Anne offered, wanting to make sure that the princess was as comfortable as possible.

“Uhh… well, I’m not going to say that you have to go, but I will be going to bed right away, sooo…”

“No worries, I understand. You have a good sleep and I’ll see you in the morning!” And with that, Anne left Marcy alone with her thoughts. She watched through the window of the fwagon as the frog ran back into the house, clearly eager to tell her family about the plans for the morning. The newt took a few deep breaths before lying down on the bed in order to sleep.

As her mind drifted, she remembered how even after the Plantars had left Newtopia, she went back to the library without them a couple of times. She wasn’t able to get quite as far as the time that she was with them, but she was still getting farther than she ever did before their visit. It took a lot out of her whenever she did go back, but she was able to make it just a little farther every time, so at least there was that. Her dad seemed to approve of her learning to cope with the library, so she figured he’d be okay with her learning how to use her… true form.

At least that’s what Marcy had told herself. After all, his main concern was people learning that the princess was not an amphibian, but the people in Wartwood didn’t know that she was the princess! All they knew was that she was one of… whatever Anne and her were and disguised as a newt. Heck, Anne had even given them a fake name for her, so she didn’t need to worry about maintaining a reputation!

On top of all of that, she’d have support this time. The last time she transformed, (whatever the heck happened at the temple of wit didn’t count) she was alone and confused with people screaming at the sight of her! This time, Anne and maybe even the rest of the Plantars would be there, she’d know exactly what would be going on, and nobody would be scared of her! Everyone in Wartwood was so used to seeing Anne’s true form, that if they did accept her, it’d be moreso because of that.

For the first time in her life, she’d be an outsider because she was a newt, but welcomed because she was a monster. All she had to do was stick by Anne and listen to her about who was who and what they’d do. Still, the transformation process was painful enough that that alone nearly made her want to back out. She remembered not knowing what was going on and calling for help only to receive more pain when the books hit her.

She sat up in the bed and started focusing on her surroundings! She had to remember that she wasn’t back there in that library. She was in Wartwood with Anne; the one person she knew who understood better than anyone. And if her case was any indication, the process only got easier each time. This meant that whatever she’d feel the next day, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad as that one time all those years ago! Marcy laid back down at that somewhat comforting thought and decided to finally let her mind drift off into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, Marcy awoke to find the frog family outside and tending to the fields, Anne already in her true form. Apparently they’d been waiting for her to wake up on her own, so they were just doing some early work to pass the time. Marcy mostly stayed quiet for the duration of the morning as they gave her a nice breakfast in an attempt to calm her down. Before she knew it, she was done eating and everyone was mostly ready to go into town for market day. Except for one little thing…

“So, did you change your mind, Marcy? Or should we go get you a berry?” Sprig asked her, clearly trying to be helpful, but cutting right to the chase. The newt sighed.

“I-I’d like a berry, b-but I kinda… need a little bit.” She excused herself and ran off to the fwagon. Sitting down at the table, she started to freak out a little, with part of her really wanting to back out. But she knew that doing this would be necessary if they wanted to actually succeed with the upcoming temple. The newt took a few deep breaths before hearing a knock at the door.

“Marcy? Can I come in?” Anne’s voice sounded from outside.

“S-sure.” She responded. When Marcy saw her enter, she noticed that the creature was holding one of those berries. Still, she sat down at the table opposite to the young newt. The two sat in silence for a while before Marcy finally spoke up.

“I’m scared.” She whispered. Anne extended a hand in her direction, her long and lanky arms reaching all the way over the table to her side. She placed one of her own cold, slimy hands into the creature’s and felt the warmth radiating off of her. A warmth that she was terrified of being surrounded by, but was coming from a comforting source. A warmth that she’d need if she actually wanted to keep everyone alive for the next temple!

“It’s okay, I know how you feel and I’m here.” The newt looked up at the predatory eyes, but only saw concern and the desire to comfort coming from them. She took another deep breath and stood up.

“W-will you…?”

“Come here.” The monster stood up and gently wrapped her arms around the newt in what was almost like a hug. But then she turned her around and pulled her over to the wall. Once Anne’s back was against said wall, she slid down with Marcy, putting them both into a sitting position and holding the newt in her lap. As much as she was a hugger, she knew that the warmth of the mammalian body was the last thing she needed at that point. She immediately lifted herself off of her lap and onto the cold floor.

“S-sorry. The heat is… it’s wh-what I…” She felt a large hand rest on her shoulder.

“It’s okay, I understand.”

“B-but will you… h-hold my hand?” She looked up at the creature, feeling childish for asking that, but knowing that she wouldn’t be able to do this alone.

“Of course. I know first hand just how scary this is!” Anne said before she took both of Marcy’s hands in her own. The princess was about to mention that she only needed one hand held when she felt something small drop into one of her hands with Anne’s own pulling away from that one. She immediately knew exactly what the small thing was.

She looked down at the little purple berry with blue stripes and tried to focus on what was necessary. She needed to do this. She didn’t have a choice at this point. It was her best opportunity to get used to it before the mission! The princess finally swallowed her fear and after building herself up, popped it into her mouth and bit down before she could change her mind.

She’d remembered that Anne described it as a combination of a cherry and a strawberry with the texture of a grape and frankly? She was completely right! As the sweetness filled her mouth, she began to feel herself changing already. But no matter what, she did her absolute best to focus on the flavour as much as possible. After all, there was no going back now.

As she swallowed it, the heat inside her body started to match what she remembered from the ‘book beast’ incident. She knew this feeling and all the memories started to hit her. She wanted to scream and cry out of both the fear of history repeating itself AND the pain that coursed through her body as she transformed. She knew what was coming, but that knowledge hadn’t prepared her for the stretching and morphing that her body went through!

She shut her eyes against how the light appeared to be dancing around her and as her spine started to readjust, she finally tilted her head upwards and screamed in pure agony! She couldn’t take it anymore! She needed it to stop! She wanted to back out! It was too hot, too imbalanced, too painful, too wrong !

She almost felt like she was suffocating! She stopped screaming due to her lungs not containing any more air and as a part of her tried to draw in more, she felt the need to push away whatever invisible force was doing this! She gasped for breath as she started to fall to the floor. But the firm grip around her hand pulled her back up to a sitting position.

While she panted, trying to get her breath back, the pain finally started to ebb away bit by bit until she was able to just go limp and focus on her breathing. As she did, she felt a force pull on her in a direction that she simply followed only to land on something warm and soft. After a while of getting her bearings again, she opened her eyes.

Everything looked different, but in a way that she remembered from long ago. She was about to start panicking about it until she felt a hand on her cheek, gently pushing her head to look at something specific. What she saw was the very same pair of brown eyes that she’d learned to associate with a level of sympathy that no one else had ever been able to provide for her.

“Marcy… it’s okay. It’s okay.” The princess started to calm down a little at hearing the familiar voice try to soothe her. She felt Anne’s free hand on her back, stroking it in a comforting way. The two stayed like that for quite a while before Marcy finally had the courage to speak up.

“S-so… h-how do I look?” She put on a shaky smile and turned her head to look into Anne’s eyes once again. The two similar shades of brown met each other and Anne returned her smile.

“Honestly? Not as scary as me.” She giggled as she grabbed Marcy and helped her to her feet. Her line of vision was slightly higher than usual and everything felt uncomfortably small around her. But when she looked back at Anne, she remembered that The Wartwood Creature was used to transforming between forms that were so different from one another that it was almost insane! So she turned back to the rest of the fwagon and went to take her first steps in this form in a loooong time.

… And promptly fell flat on her face! Or at least she would have if Anne hadn't been there to catch her. As it was, she was extremely imbalanced due to lacking a tail. Heck, even frogs and toads retained their tails when they got their legs in order to help them start walking properly right away! This was okay, though. It was almost like that one time her tail had gotten caught in a large door back home and ended up getting ripped off. She was unbalanced until it regrew, but if she was still able to move around then, then she’d get used to it!

She felt Anne take her five fingered hand in her own and slowly lead her to the door of the fwagon while she continued to get her bearings. After taking a deep breath, she looked at Anne and nodded, ready to face the outside world in her true form! The Wartwood Creature then put her hand on the door and swung it open for the princess and suddenly she understood why Anne’s eyes had hurt at the sudden bright light.

She squinted her eyes as they began to adjust. Meanwhile Anne led her down the steps of the fwagon and across the yard. Before she knew it, she could see the rest of the Plantars all packing up various pieces of produce in their cart. When the two monster girls approached them, they perked up and looked straight at Marcy.

“Heeey, look who found the courage to transform!” Anne called out. The fact that she was calling Marcy brave for taking that step made the princess feel just a little bit better about the whole situation.

“Yeah, we could hear yer scream from inside the house. Good job finally takin’ the leap, Marcy!” Hop Pop praised her while the two younger Plantars looked at her with fascination. Polly spoke up first.

“Ya know, a small part of me was kinda doubting that you really were the same species as Anne. I knew that that was ridiculous and that you wouldn’t lie about it, but now that I can actually see you like this, that part has finally shut up.” Marcy didn’t blame the tadpole for thinking like that. Frankly, she was just grateful that they’d all believed her from the first time that she said it in the first place. Sprig weighed in after that.

“Ya know, it’s interesting to see the amount of variety in your species. You’re clearly a different breed than either Anne or Sasha! Your skin might be in between theirs when it comes to the shade of brown, but your eyes are kinda shaped differently.” He pointed out. The princess hadn't expected that, of all things, but she figured that it made sense.

The next few minutes were spent with the frogs loading up their cart and Marcy trying to relearn how to walk without a tail. When they were done, Anne prompted her to climb up onto the cart. She fell off the first time, but after a bit, she found herself secured in place by a somewhat heavy bag of corn that was placed in her lap. She didn't need to carry it, but it held her down enough that she was able to stay on the cart without an issue. Also it let her hide her face if she suddenly felt that she needed to.

This time that she rode through the countryside, she looked out over the fields again to find that they were still beautiful. They were just… different looking than before. She kept trying to place what might be different, but couldn't quite seem to pin any one thing down. Sure, her vision had changed due to the difference in eyeball positions, but she kept wondering if it was maybe something else.

Before she knew it, though, they were at the market. This was it. She'd need to show her true form to this town of frogs. They'd accepted Anne, though, right? So long as she stuck with the oddball Plantar, she'd be okay.

She ended up opting to walk right behind Anne and try to help the family set up their stall. It took a little bit, what with the fact that she was clumsier than ever due to not being used to her true form, but she still did her best. She fumbled a few vegetables here and there, but overall they seemed to appreciate her… attempts to help.

After everything was set up, she watched the frogs with her new eyes. She found that it was much easier to focus on one at a time and examine them like that. The ones that saw her were clearly unnerved, but so long as she avoided direct eye contact, they almost seemed to tolerate her presence!

For the first time in her life, she was an outsider while a newt and (somewhat) accepted as a… creature. It was weird, but when Anne put her arm around her to introduce her to any new frog, it almost felt like it was going to be okay.

At one point, though, Anne was looking over the crowd and seemed to spot something! She grabbed Marcy's hand and started leading her away from the stand.

“Hey, Mar-mar, I just saw someone that I think you should meet!” She announced. Marcy began to wonder who it might be, but then she noticed that Anne was pulling her over to a cart that was set up. She'd done enough research on these kinds of rural cultures to know that if someone was selling from a cart, then that meant they were from out of town! But that made Marcy even more confused, wondering how someone from out of town would be okay with the girls' species.

Still, Anne approached the cart like nothing was wrong while the princess hid behind her. She was still at least a little scared of what someone who wasn't familiar with Anne would think of either of them. However, as Anne approached them, it became obvious that they already knew The Wartwood Creature.

“Hey Monthy, Raine, and Dewey! Fancy seeing you guys here.” The two newts and one nymph all turned their heads to look, the adult giving her a soft smile while the kids seemed to positively light up.

“Miss Anne!” The two cried out, berally wasting a second to aproach her. The nymph jumped at the creature, landing in her hair, and started playing with it. Anne simply laughed at his antics, looking up and going slightly cross-eyed as she tried to catch sight of the smallest child.

“What? No more ‘Miss Monster’, middle name being ‘Nice’?” She teased them. This time it was Raine's turn to laugh, straightening up to look at the taller creature’s face.

“Hey, it would be kinda dumb if we didn’t know your name when we were talking about you so much to everyone. Even Dewey picked it up really quickly.” The nymph briefly stuck out his tongue at his sister for her words, but quickly turned back to whatever he was doing with his mount’s hair.  Meanwhile the oldest newt started talking as he stepped forward too.

“Well look who it is! We were just wondering if we'd see you here today. We heard you left the Valley for a bit, looking for-”

“YEP!! And I found her!” She cut them off, clearly trying to save Marcy from hearing the dreaded title again “Sunes, meet Mar-mar.” Anne stepped to the side, revealing the other creature to the newts. Raine seemed momentarily taken aback and even a little spooked by this new creature, while Dewey’s eyes went wide as he gasped.

“Look papa, look! Another Anne, but different! Ooooooh, her hair looks so pretty!” Anne lightly took hold of his little arms as he reached out, trying to discourage the boy from jumping to the other girl’s head to try and touch it. Marcy hunched her shoulders and shrunk down a little bit, not having expected to see newts here in this little frog town. It was obvious that they weren't actually from the area, though. Anne turned to Marcy.

“Mar-mar, meet the Sunes: Monthy, Raine, and Dewey.” She pointed to each one of them respectively “They're the ones who told me that story that… you don't like to be reminded of, but made me aware of your existence.” She said the last part loud enough that the Sunes overheard and caught on immediately. Marcy hid her face with a single, five fingered hand while looking away, knowing that they’d probably already have their own opinions about her if that was how they knew her.

“W-well, at the very least, I'm grateful that such a… horrible incident at least had the silver lining of leading us to meet each other.” The princess said, looking for an opening to change the subject. Anne caught on pretty quickly and did her best to provide.

“Yeah and now Mar-mar is here so that she can find out more about our species because she’s honestly about as clueless as me.” Monthy nodded and turned to Marcy.

“Ah, I’d imagine that being raised as a newt would give you quite the curious streak, so that makes sense. And I understand why you wouldn’t want to look like this in Newtopia! Don’t worry, though. My kids and I are trying to make your kind seem a little less terrifying through blue moon shut-in stories… although last time, we holed up in a local inn and there was a group of toads there who seemed genuinely traumatized by the very mention of Anne.” The Wartwood Creature flinched at that and gave a bit of nervous laughter while Marcy only looked confused.

“Oh uh… yeah, that’s what happens when you try to kidnap a tadpole from Wartwood. I was called to help!” Marcy gave Anne a bit of a look. There was a story there that she was missing and frankly, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear it… but she’d probably ask about it later anyways.

“Ah, that explains a lot.”

“I knew I got bad vibes from them!”

“So you save people from bad things AND bad guys? That makes you an even better hero!” Monthy, Raine, and Dewey all respectively said. Marcy watched as Anne continued talking to the little newt family. It seemed that regardless of her form, she was always a real people person. Meanwhile the princess was pretty awkward. Heck, she even had trouble looking people in the eye sometimes! So little of their actual personalities had changed between their two forms!

It really made Marcy wonder what the true nature of their species really even was. Whether their respective mindsets and personalities were the results of their upbringings or if they were an inherent part of them. It all boiled down to the old debate of nature vs nurture and Marcy wasn’t sure where it would really go from there.

“Mar-mar. Hey, Mar-mar!” Marcy looked up to see Anne waving her hand in front of her face, trying to get her attention.

“Huh? Yeah?”

“You kinda zoned out there for a moment. You alright?”

“Oh, yeah. I was just thinking about some things.” She looked at the Sune family “Hey, maybe you could… avoid talking about me, specifically? I uhh… kinda don’t want my dad somehow hearing that I’m… giving this form a try.” Marcy bent her knees, making herself look even smaller in the hope that these newts would take a little pity on her. She did lie a little bit, though. She was sure that her dad would be fine with her decision, but she didn’t want any of the general public figuring out who she really was.

“Oh, of course, dear.” Monthy held a compassionate expression “We’ll just keep trying to let people know that that… old story you don’t like was more horrific for you than anyone else.”

“Uhh… th-thanks.” The girl excused herself after that, wanting to avoid the conversation circling back around to the incident. Anne stayed behind for a little bit, deciding to chat with the Sunes for a while. This left the princess to really start taking a look around the town. The first thing she noticed was how several of the residents stared at her with suspicion.

Frankly, she could completely understand why. The girl was kind of ashamed of how Sasha had acted towards the town, what with her threatening so many people and especially Anne. But if someone who was wronged as hard as Anne was were willing to still be open to Marcy, then the rest of the town had to have a soft spot too, right? She took a seat on the edge of the fountain to contemplate how to best win them over when Anne came up to her.

“Hey, Mar-mar , it looks like you’re settling into your true form pretty well.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s not too different from my newt form, when I really think about it. I just think I kinda need to make some different memories relating to it. Dilute the old trauma, ya know?”

“That makes sense!”

“The only problem is that regardless of how I look, everyone who’s actually from here really isn’t too friendly. I’m starting to think I don’t have a chance.”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous, of course they’ll accept you!”

“You sure about that?” Marcy asked, pointing towards a small mob that had been forming nearby, not quite ready to charge, but definitely keeping an eye out for any signs of hostility. It seemed that no matter what form she was in, these frogs were still on their toes. Anne was quick to defend her, though!

“Guys, come on! She’s with me!” The crowd grumbled as they conceded and left, revealing something odd that she pointed out right away “Wait, is that Polly?”

“I go where the mob goes, Anne!” The tadpole yelled back at her sister before the frog that was carrying her took her away on their own. Marcy gave a sigh and started to reach for her bottle of medicine only to have Anne put one of her lanky arms around her and try to offer words of comfort.

“They’ll warm up to you! It just takes time! Heck, when they found out about my true form, even I felt like an outsider for a while. And I grew up here!”

“I guess you’re right.” She got up and started to pace a little bit, surprising Anne. Marcy still wasn’t all that adept on her true form’s feet, after all. Anne remembered when her own tadpole tail fell off and how it was hard for her to figure out how to move properly again. It wasn’t long before Marcy lost her balance, though, and went tumbling over the statue in the center of town!

Her big, lanky form was enough to hit all of the support pillars at the same time and cause it to fall over, making a huge mess on its way down. The nearby frogs all noticed what was going on right away and were quick to call her out! Thankfully, though, Marcy just as quickly thought of a solution to fix it! Mixing some chemicals that she liked to keep on her person, she applied them to the broken parts of the statue so that it stuck back together.

Everyone was pretty surprised at how easily she managed to fix the statue, realizing that they really didn’t have a proper reason to be angry at her anymore! They all ended up dispersing with a mixture of frustration and resignation, but if anything, Marcy saw that as a win!

“You know… m-maybe I can win these guys over. I just have to help out around here! I mean, I am the princess, so it’d be a part of my responsibility to make sure that the general populace is living higher quality lives where possible, right?”

“That makes sense. What kinds of things did you have in mind?”

“Hmm… it’d need to be something that has a lasting impact, while not being too invasive… Anne, is there anything wrong with the general infrastructure of the town?”

“Uhh… I mean, the road’s got some potholes, if that’s what you’re talking about?” Marcy lit up at the mention of something that she could fix.

“Perfect starting point! Let’s go!” And with that, the princess set off on one of her biggest distraction attempts ever! Whenever her mind started to wander back to the day in the library, she would stop for a moment to focus on the area around her.

Before long, she'd ended up repairing all the street lights and fences as well! Seeing the townsfolk all amazed by her work left the princess feeling extremely satisfied with herself. Still, though, there were several people who weren't convinced yet. The princess still had a lot of work to do, but Anne seemed to be pretty amazed by her contributions.

"This is actually pretty amazing! Great job, Mar-mar!"

"Thanks, Anne. But I was thinking that we've gotta go bigger!"

"Did somebody say 'bigger'?" A masculine voice rang out. Marcy looked around for the source only to see a rather… rotund toad approaching. He eyed the girl up and down for a bit before seeming to decide that she was safe enough to approach.

“Mar-mar, meet mayor Toadstool.” Anne introduced the toad with such a lack of enthusiasm that Marcy began to wonder about how well he actually ran the town. Given the state of the place and how much she had to repair, she began to wonder whether it was caused by the taxes simply being too high or if this guy was just… incompetent. Still, she wanted to give him a chance.

“So you’re the local toad, huh?”

“Right on the money. And speaking of money, are you the one who’s been making all these delightful little improvements to our town?”

“Yep, that’s me!”

“Gotta hand it to ya, I find your work mighty impressive. How’d you like to help me make some bigger improvements? I have a mind to turn this little town into a real money making tourist attraction and if you’re able to help me, then you can undo all the damage that the last outsider of your species caused!” Hearing that really caught the girl's attention.

She'd heard enough stories of this 'Sasha' and how she used their shared species' intimidating frame to get her way. Her being raised in the militaristic toad culture didn't do her any favors when it came to these frogs! The more Marcy thought about it, the more sense it made for the townsfolk to be wary of her… barring the fact that she was, in reality, a hideous monster. But she figured that that last point hardly mattered because of how much they already loved Anne!

Ultimately, Marcy agreed to help out with whatever the mayor had in store. He had his little assistant hand her a scroll with all the details before taking off. When Marcy turned to Anne, though, she noticed that The Wartwood Creature had a concerned look on her face.

“This is it, Anne! The way to everyone’s heart!”

“I don’t know, Mar-mar. Any plan of the mayor’s is sure to fail. I mean, he wasn’t even raised here! He was just put in charge by the local Toad Tower! And that place collapsed!”

“Hmm… I’ll still take a look at these later, just to say I did.”

“Well alright, I guess.” For once, it was Anne who had a nervous look, which made Marcy immediately want to ask what was wrong! Before she was able to do that, though, the girls heard Hop Pop’s voice calling out for them.

"Girls! Where'd ya run off ta?!"

"We're over here, Hop Pop!" Anne shouted back, then grabbed Marcy's hand to lead her back to the old frog. The princess still kept hold of the mayor's plans, but they'd have to stay all rolled up until that evening. As it was…

"There ya are! I need ya back at the stand. You know yer better at pickin' out rotten or infected veggies by smell than any frog!"

"Right! Sure thing, Hop Pop!" Ah yes, another thing that Marcy had read about in Hop Pop's notes. A nose for sweetness! She'd have to see if she could join Anne and help her out a little with this. After all, if she was actually in her true form for once, then it made sense for her to try out some of the more harmless parts of it, right? There was one little thing that she noticed on their way back, though.

"Uhh... Anne, why are there suddenly braids in your hair?" The Wartwood Creature lifted a hand up like she didn't even realize they were there. But then she just giggled and left them there without giving Marcy an explanation. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent with the girls hanging around the stall, Marcy occasionally reading over bits and pieces of the mayor's plans. As far as it went, they seemed pretty solid for making the town more successful! And the best part was that she could totally help with getting the imports from Newtopia! All she had to do was send off a messenger wasp to the right people and she'd have it in town by morning.

After business for the day concluded and Hop Pop brought everyone back home, Marcy was feeling a lot better about herself. Not only was she able to make some more positive memories with her true form, but she also had a plan for getting the townsfolk to like her! And that plan was to follow the lead of the local toad! The two monster girls took their respective medicines, said good night, and then Marcy headed out to the fwagon. About an hour later, she snuck out onto Joe Sparrow and flew off to go and get those imports!

The next morning, Anne was surprised to see that Marcy wasn't in the fwagon. But Joe Sparrow was still hanging around the barn, so she couldn't have gone too far! After having a quick breakfast that the princess missed out on, the family decided to see if they could find her by going into town. Anne sincerely hoped the girl hadn't gotten herself into any trouble and had been waiting for help all night. Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw, though!

The entrance of the town was bordered by a huge, white archway with ornate designs on it. Looking around, they saw that all of the houses that had a wall facing the center of town had that wall covered up by some sort of thick, ornate, extra wall! On top of that, there was a set of carriages set on a specified track and pulled by a rather large beetle. But the most eye-catching thing was a massive stage in the middle of the town square! Anne heard Hop Pop yell.

"What in tarnation is goin’ on here?" As everything sank in, Anne started to realize what might be going on.

"Oh no, she didn’t…" The blue frog’s fears were confirmed when some music started playing from the base of the stage and she saw a familiar green newt, but in a fancy red and black suit, run up onto said stage from the left with Toadstool matching her on the right. Both of them attempted a backflip with Marcy pulling it off almost flawlessly and Toadstool falling flat on his face (he recovered quickly). Anne almost wanted to slap Marcy in that moment, but she kept her composure and listened to their presentation with a worried expression. Marcy started it with Toadstool following up right behind her.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlefrogs!"

"And welcome to…"

"New Wartwood!" The two of them finished together. The majority of the frogs in the crowd cheered, as most seemed to like these new changes. The two of them continued with Marcy starting up again.

"Your town is new and improved thanks to the work of myself and mayor Toadstool!"

"Gone are the dumpy store-fronts of old, replaced by new ones made of imported Newtopian marble!"

"Feast your eyes on the new clock tower!" She pointed to a huge, shining clock tower with weird, moving eyes that went back and forth with each second "And finally, may I present, the new and improved town square statue!" The backdrop behind the two moved to show that it was actually a giant, buff, gold statue of the town founder that had previously been covered by a tarp. Anne overheard Mrs. Croaker comment on it.

"Woah, is he single?"

"Uhh… it’s a statue." Wally responded.

"That’s not what I asked!" Mrs. Croaker immediately retorted. Toadstool continued once the ogling had died down a little.

"And, for a limited time only -about fifteen minutes- everything is free!" Explosions of confetti rained out over the stage from either end as the music started to get louder. Most of the frogs dispersed and started to just mindlessly enjoy themselves. Even the Plantars wanted to, to an extent. But Anne was a bit more skeptical about all of it. She approached the stage and called out to the green newt on top.

“Mar-mar! Are you sure this was a good idea?” She ignored the young frog’s concerns, though.

“Isn’t it great?! We completely transformed this place! Now everyone here will have to love and accept me!”

“That’s not how this works! People will accept you when they accept you.”

“Yeah, which is right now! Look, Anne. You’ve lived here your whole life, so you have the advantage of already being one of them! Given what I heard about Sasha, I knew I had to fast track all of this in order to undo the mental damage she caused.”

“I get that, but this really isn’t the right wa-” Anne was cut off by some tremors that shook the ground beneath her feet. The two girls’ eyes went wide as they started looking around. Anne watched as massive cracks started spreading through the ground around the town! Water started sprouting up from said cracks, even taking some frogs away with it! A whole bunch of the marble in front of the buildings started falling and sunk into the ground, leaving a bunch of gaping holes behind.

All of the buildings started to sink below ground level, revealing the swampland that the town had been built on. Frogs screamed as everything was ripped out from underneath their feet! Some even climbed to higher ground, remembering the salt floods from earlier that year and not wanting to take their chances. Thankfully the frogs that got swept up in the water didn’t seem to be getting burned, so at the very least they had that! Still, Marcy had no idea what was actually happening.

“WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!”

“Marcy, this town is built on a swamp! The reason why nothing ever sank before was because the designers knew exactly how heavy to make everything!”

“Oh no! The weight! We built too much!” The newt shouted as the realization hit her. Toadstool cut in.

“I, for one, refuse to learn anything from this!” He then ran off, leaving the girls to try and fix it themselves. Marcy looked over everything, letting her mind work overtime. She eventually gave a sigh.

“Well, they definitely aren’t gonna like me after this! BUT, I can at least make sure that everyone’s okay. Come on, Anne!” She extended a green, four-fingered hand down to her small froggy friend, who took it immediately.

“Right on!” Anne responded as she climbed up and perched herself on Marcy’s shoulders. The newt called for Joe Sparrow by yelling his name and giving a rather loud snap. Once the bird arrived, the two amphibians boarded him and started flying around in order to rescue as many frogs as they could find. Sure, the water wasn’t hurting them at all, but they really didn’t need any giant slabs of marble falling onto them!

From there, all they had to do was remove as much of the heavy stuff as Joe could lift. Thankfully, the bird was strong enough to break the majority of the things thanks to fault lines that naturally occurred as the designs were being carved into them the night before. The only thing that he couldn’t break down was the new center statue, but with just a little encouragement from Marcy herself, Joe was able to lift it off and send it falling down a cliff that Anne directed them towards! Finally, the town was safe!

As the water flowed around the building, it brought with it a whole bunch of mud. There was even enough of it that it got caught up underneath the buildings and started propping them back up! It seemed like they’d acted fast enough to mostly save the town. Sure, there were a few crumbled buildings, but it could have been SO much worse! As Joe landed and let the girls down, Marcy was starting to feel the adrenaline leave her body.

“We did it, Anne! Total success!” Just as the princess said that, though, someone cleared their throat behind them. The two girls turned around to see, only to be greeted by nearly the entire town’s population staring angrily at the newt. Anne was quick to jump to her defense, though. If anyone knew how this town could get towards people who’d done less, it was her!

“Wait. Guys. Don’t be mad, Mar-mar just wanted to help.” Before she could explain further, though, Marcy bent down and put a hand on Anne’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Anne. I can face this on my own. I mean, you’ve helped me through worse, right?” She mumbled into the blue frog’s ear before standing up straight again and turning to address the rest of the town “I’m so sorry everyone. I mean, you’re all really important to Anne and I know how much you love her, so I guess I just felt like… if anyone would be able to not be immediately horrified by my true form, it’d be you. And you weren’t, but when I saw that everyone still viewed me as an outsider, I took things way too far.” At this, Mrs. Croaker approached from the crowd to speak on everyone’s behalf.

“Mar-mar, was it? I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we’re all pretty mad at you!” 

“To be fair, I shoulder just a bit of blame, here.” Toadstool uncharacteristically interrupted. He must have recognized how unfair it was for everyone to be so upset at a child . Mrs. Croaker wasn’t having it, though.

“ZIP IT, TOADSTOOL!! We’ll get to you!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“As for YOU,” she pointed a finger at Marcy “you’re a walking disaster who doesn’t know when to quit! You nearly destroyed this town and killed us all in the process! I overheard you talking to Anne about whether to follow Toadstool’s plans and you chose to listen to the toad who was assigned to this town over the frog who grew up here! You can’t just waltz on into a place you’ve never been to before and start trying to make ‘improvements’ without considering what the native population tells you!” Marcy looked down with a contemplative, yet horrified gaze.

“We’ll go easy on you this time ‘cause you’re just a kid and you didn’t mean to cause a disaster, but you’ve got some work to do to make up for this, young lady! And something like this had better not happen ever again!” 

“Yes ma’am. In fact, I’ll get to fixing this mess right away.” She rolled up her sleeves and went over to the first collapsed building, finding some crafting tools nearby and getting to work. The Plantars were the only ones not surprised by her willingness to just immediately get to it. Meanwhile the town watched as Marcy actually started repairing people’s houses with the grace and expertise of an actual carpenter. Maybe she’d taken classes in the past?

Everyone had to admit that they were pretty amazed and even if she was actually some weird, predatory creature underneath a transformation, she certainly didn’t act like it! Looking back and forth between the two disguised monsters, the town breathed a collective sigh of relief.

It seemed Sasha really was the outlier for their species and they actually just might be relatively harmless after all…