17. Chapter 17

The preparations for the second temple went pretty smoothly, what with everyone already knowing that it’d be in the arctic. It just took them all a while to actually make all of the appropriate coats and boots. The process sped up significantly, though, when Polly found something really weird. It was some sort of metallic construct that was able to move all by itself and even seemed to have a mind of its own! Thankfully that mind was friendly, so the Plantars decided to give it a chance.

The main reason that Hop Pop let it stay, though, was that it didn’t seem to require any food and yet it performed physical labour without complaint or exhaustion. It was uncannily perfect for helping out on a farm with limited money! Its friendly, but naive nature had Polly treating it like a younger brother despite it being bigger than either of the two monster girls’ true forms. At one point, she’d started calling it ‘Frobro’ because it was still frog shaped despite being seemingly made of metal. But enough slips of the tongue landed on it just being called ‘Frobo’ instead.

All in all, he (Polly insisted that Frobo was a boy) made an excellent addition to the group! Most of the family was surprised when they actually heard the construct speak, of course, but he spoke in broken sentences and only ever to Polly. She was the one who found him, after all! He still did what others asked him to do without complaint, of course. It was just obvious that he had a favourite Plantar!

The main thing that Marcy kept up at night wondering about was where the heck Frobo came from! Anne entertained the idea that maybe he’d come from the Ruins of Disaster, but the likelihood of something like him following them all that way shut that idea down. It really was a mystery! Marcy promised that she’d take him back to Newtopia with her for some observations after they were done with the temples, but she also had to promise to return him because even the princess had to admit that the tadpole could be pretty scary at times!... That and Frobo didn’t seem to want to cooperate if it meant he was separated from the pollywog, so she didn’t really have much of a choice.

Either way, he was another interesting addition that Marcy was able to study as much as she liked! And he helped out enough that the frogs were able to double down on making the cold-proof clothing! It was really a win-win for everyone! The only problem they had after that was making sure that no one froze on the way there.

“What if we just make the cold proof clothes for Anne’s and Marcy’s true forms, have them transform, and then we go?” Sprig suggested.

“There won’t be enough room on Joe Sparrow’s back if we do that. Not unless we have him carry someone in his talons. But up there, it’d just make that person freeze even faster.” Marcy countered. Anne knew she wasn’t quite as scared of her true form anymore, so she wasn’t just making excuses this time. This was an actual concern. There was silence for a while before Hop Pop spoke up.

“Ya know, if we give Joe a vest or somethin’ and put a pocket on the front, then someone can ride in there.”

“Oh, kinda like how I’d always read the news with my dad every morning while sitting in his pocket! I still actually do that whenever I’m at home and we’re not preoccupied by something else.” Marcy immediately made the connection. The Plantars all looked at the newt with a bit of confusion before just shrugging. They knew King Andrias was pretty physically affectionate, so they should have expected something like that.

“So you’ll be riding in the pocket?” Anne asked Marcy.

“Oh no, no, no. Firstly, I have to drive and I can only do that from the proper seat. Secondly, that pocket will actually be pretty warm already thanks to birds being warm-blooded. Meanwhile if Anne and I sit on opposite ends of the seat, then we can keep two of you guys warm in between us!”

“So then who’ll ride in that pocket? And where will Frobo be?” Polly asked. Marcy looked at the pollywog and gave her a sympathetic look.

“Well I think we should let Frobo stay safe back here at the farm. I looked him over and I’m pretty sure the cold would end up damaging him worse than what a freeze would do to any of us. It’s just the safest option for him! Now, as for who’ll be sitting in the pocket, it’d have to be one of you frogs.”

“I’ll do it.” Hop Pop chimed in. Everyone was startled to hear him offer, but they knew he’d explain right away, so they all kept quiet for him.

“It was my idea in the first place and it was hard enough ta get all a us up there when the girls were amphibians, but with them in their true forms, they’d only really have enough room between them fer the smallest a us. So I’ll ride in the pocket and let the younger kids ride with the two a ya. Make sense?” Anne smiled. The amount of trust that Hop Pop had in them was obvious!

“I guess so.” Anne said while shrugging. All the other kids seemed to be in agreement as well, so they started measuring out Hop Pop in comparison to said pocket so that he’d fit properly. At one point, Marcy had started giggling to herself, but wouldn’t tell anyone why. It became obvious, though, when she held up the front of it that she’d been working on to reveal that she’d sewn the words ‘Hop Pocket’ on it.

The frogs all needed to take a few minutes after that. The newt kept working with a big grin on her face while the others proceeded to step outside to scream a little at the pun. But it was harmless, so they ended up keeping it. The rest of the equipment got finished up rather quickly after that and before they knew it, they had the next trip scheduled. In the morning right before they headed out, Marcy was surprised to feel a warm hand on her shoulder!

“AHH!!... Oh, it’s you. You snuck up on me, Anne!” Marcy turned around and looked up at the creature behind her, both of them with wide eyes. Anne’s hands even went up in surprise on their own!

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to! I just figured I’d transform early in order to get that out of the way. I even grabbed a berry for you ‘cause if you’re driving, then you’d no doubt want to do that before getting up there.”

“That… that’s fair…”

“... You’re scared that it’s gonna hurt again, aren’t you?”

“Well of course I am! You know just how badly it hurts and I haven’t transformed anywhere near as often, so I haven’t gotten used to it yet like you have!”

“... Would you like to go somewhere private or something? Do you want me to be there?” Anne asked with concern in her voice. The princess looked at the creature. Despite her horrifying predatory face, she could only see kindness in the farm girl’s eyes.

“W-well… if you don’t mind…”

“Of course, Marcy.” Anne turned to the rest of her family “Hey guys, give us a minute. We’ll be right back!”

“Okay, don’t be too long.” Hop Pop shouted back at them.

“We won’t!” Anne casually responded, as if they weren’t about to subject Marcy to a world of pain. The Wartwood Creature ended up leading the newt inside the fwagon once again and handing her the berry she’d mentioned earlier. Marcy took a few deep breaths before putting the it into her mouth, but not biting yet. She felt a five-fingered hand take her own, four-fingered one and give it a light squeeze.

Each subsequent time hurt less and less, right? And Anne had done the first several of hers without a berry, so she didn’t even have the taste to take her mind off of it. Looking up at those predatory brown eyes, the princess was reminded of just how much stronger Anne was when compared to her. Marcy had all of these crutches that Anne didn’t get to have and it made the newt feel a little guilty about needing such special treatment.

But when she looked at Anne, she knew that the farm girl had her back no matter what. And with one final deep breath, she rolled the berry off of her tongue and in between her teeth to bite down! As the sweet taste flooded her mouth, she did her absolute best to focus on that and that alone. Despite that, however, the pain still coursed across her entire body in another wave of heat! She had to be strong, though! If Anne could get through this phase, then she could too!

She’d become just familiar enough with this pain to know what to expect, so she grit her teeth and tried to keep her scream in. She did her best to focus on the sweet taste of the berry that lingered in her mouth and not on the searing pain that shot through her body. In the end she still let out a scream, but it wasn’t anywhere near as raw and visceral as the previous time! When the transformation was finished, she found that she’d dropped to her knees at some point and Anne was kneeling beside her.

“Wh-wha? When did I…?” Marcy questioned in between breaths. Anne figured out what she was trying to ask right away.

“You fell right after you finished screaming. And for the record, you handled that pretty well. I’m impressed!” The princess looked up at the farm girl and gave her a smile with her big, predatory teeth.

“Thank you!” She said with grace as she got back up to her feet and walked out of the fwagon, Anne following behind her. She only stumbled a couple of times as she readjusted to not having a tail again, which she saw as a win! From there, it was a simple game of distraction as she got her true form all geared up for the cold. She was boiling in the cold weather gear while in the swamp, but she knew that there’d be no way to safely change while up in the air, so she just had to deal with it for the time being.

Thankfully the Plantar frogs had been working on getting Joe and themselves set up while she’d been transforming, so they didn’t need to stick around there in that heat for very long. After a quick check to make sure they had everything and everyone was secure, with Hop Pop in the Hop Pocket and Sprig and Polly sandwiched between the two monsters, they all took off! It was a small mercy that as soon as they got moving, the wind gave the girls at least some relief.

Before they knew it, the ground beneath them changed from a wetlands to a dense forest, and then a frozenlands! Snow and ice became more common as the more lush plant life died out and was replaced by mostly pine trees. The fauna also changed in order to match. The cold air got even colder and started seeping into Marcy’s clothing a bit, making her very glad that she’d changed before heading out. The two youngest Plantars curled up next to the monsters around them while pointing out various things they could see on the ground.

Finally, when they were almost there, Marcy had Joe land. He was about to let them all down, but started slipping around due to having landed on a frozen lake! Everyone struggled to hold on, desperately trying to stay upright. It only stopped when Joe landed in a snowbank on the side. At the very least, the frogs had enough residual warmth to get out of there before they froze! Marcy was the first one to actually pop out of the snow, though.

“Welcome to the arctic, everyone!” The others all pulled themselves free from the snowbank while she continued “I triangulated the tracking beam from the green stone aaaaand…” She pulled said stone out of her pocket to show that it was shining its beam of light directly at Hop Pop. Once Marcy called out for him to move out of the way, he simply fell down and onto his face. As the light shone past where the old frog had been standing, Anne pointed towards the set of trees that blocked the way.

“The second temple must be right through there!” She announced in excitement. The group walked past the small layer of trees to find an archway that the green gem’s beam was pointing directly at. Once they approached, a collection of ancient runes appeared on it in a glowing blue hue. They were the same overall symbols seen in the first temple, just a different colour. Marcy got to translating it right away!

“‘Just beyond these snowy gates a grueling, perilous temple awaits’.” The black-haired monster read out loud. As the mist cleared, though, there was an obviously glaring issue that Polly pointed out.

“Umm… no it doesn’t.” Beyond the archway there was nothing! Just a flat field of snow!

“Hmm… weird.” Marcy mumbled to herself as she tried to figure out what was wrong. Sprig tried to suggest something, even if it was ridiculous.

“Could it be invisible?” He tried to feel for it and even leaned on the thin air. Of course he fell flat on his face with Anne beginning to wonder if taking her family was really such a good idea, what with how the cold seemed to slow them down. Marcy ignored Sprig’s attempt at finding it as she relayed what she knew to the family.

“All the ancient texts about this temple were SUPER vague. It just mentioned the word ‘heart’ a lot.”

“Okay, are we lookin’ for somethin’ heart shaped?” Hop Pop asked while making an example with his fingers. Polly, however, had a bit more of a gruesome idea.

“Maybe we have to rip someone’s heart out !” Suddenly they heard a bird caw in the distance. Everyone ducked in preparation for a swoop, but the bird that did so turned out to only be a small one. It didn’t even seem like it was trying to hurt anyone! Realizing that it had to be trained almost like Joe Sparrow, Anne insisted on following it.

It didn’t take long for the group to come across a hut out in the snow. It was a rather small house, but clearly effective and in use. There was a sign propped up against the outside of it that read ‘Valeriana’s Mysterious Goods’. Hop Pop was the one to point it out.

“‘Valeriana’? That… that’s the name a the newt that makes yer potions, Anne!”

“Wait, what?” All of the kids shouted back in confusion. Hop Pop continued.

“Yeah, I’ve known her fer years! She’s got a lotta experience and is actually pretty reasonable.” Anne looked at the sign for a bit, then turned back to the rest of the group.

“I never would have thought… but hey, if she’s so experienced, then she’d have to know more than just potions, right? Maybe she knows where the temple is!” She looked around a bit more before noticing a sign that read ‘out to lunch’ “Oh, come on!” She complained. Hop Pop was quick to place a hand on Anne’s lower back (it was the highest he could reach on her too-tall frame) to try to comfort her.

“Eh, that’s normal fer her. We might as well just keep lookin’ without her an wait fer her ta show u-” Suddenly the old frog was cut off by a commanding, feminine voice coming from behind them.

“No need to wait, I’m right here!” Everyone gasped as they turned around to see a newt with dark brown skin and bright yellow skin spots wearing a black cloak. She had a glove on her tail, clearly making up for the fact that she was missing an arm. In her remaining hand was a small stick with a little bug skewered on it. She grabbed the bug with her teeth and pulled it off of the stick to finish eating it as she continued talking.

“It’s been a while, you lot. Two of you are looking much uglier than usual. You two didn’t take your medicines, did you? Oh well, I still get paid, so that's not my business. Either way, what brings you here ? Do you, by chance…” She threw the kebab stick up into the air and it expanded in size until it turned into a large, hooked staff “seek a temple to charge an ancient stone?”

“Uhh… OH! Yes. You know about the stones?” Anne asked, overwhelmed with questions at finally meeting the face behind her medicine, but wanting to stick to the task at hand. Valeriana continued.

“Indeed, but do you really think you are worthy?”

“Well… we’ll never know unless we try, right?” Anne responded with Marcy rushing up to her and putting an arm around her shoulder before defending her.

“Totally! I mean, we’ve already got one of them, so we’ve gotta be on the right track, right?”

“We shall see. Come with me, we have much to discuss.” The newt commanded with a level of authority that even the princess was inclined to follow. She led the group inside her hut, where it was actually warm enough to remove their jackets! As Anne looked around the room, she noticed that a lot of it was shrouded in darkness. Clearly not on purpose, just a consequence of not having any mushroom lights due to the environment.

There were a few things that Anne was able to make out, though. Most of them were dressers and shelves with random trinkets scattered all over them. What actually caught the creature’s attention was a large stack of crates with labels on them. Anne did a double take when she realized that a few of them had her own name on them and the others all had either Marcy’s name or Sasha’s. She couldn’t just let that slip by.

“Uhh… why are mine, Marcy’s, and Sasha’s names on these crates?” Without missing a beat, Valeriana replied in a deadpan tone.

“I am contractually obligated to say nothing. I won’t stop you if you try to look inside, though.” Taking it as an invitation, each monster girl opened a crate with their own respective name on it. Anne had had a suspicion about what was inside and was satisfied to know that her instinct was correct. Marcy, however, was a bit more surprised.

“Wait, you’re my provider too?” At hearing that and looking over at her crate to see the lighter yellow medicine bottles, another suspicion started to tickle the back of Anne’s mind. She grabbed one of the crates and lifted the lid on it in order to confirm it.

“Does this mean…” Inside were the dark yellow bottles of medicine that she’d only seen once, but still brought back sour memories. Regardless, another question forced its way to the surface. She turned back to the newt as she closed the crate.

“Wait, if you knew that the three of us all drank this stuff, then why didn’t you say anything to anyone?” Valeriana didn’t even look at her as she answered in an even more deadpan voice.

“In order to set up regular payments and deliveries, I had to provide contracts. Each of these contracts binds me to confidentiality, for the safety of each of you. Thanks to that, I am prohibited from saying anything more on the matter. Now, back to the topic at hand. Take a seat around the table, everyone.” Anne didn’t really like the explanation given, but she at least had to admit that it was understandable. She awkwardly sat down on one of the cushions around the table, still towering over everyone but Marcy as Valeriana continued.

“I am the last of an ancient order. Our purpose was to study the sacred stones and temples.” Marcy seemed amazed, already loading herself up with questions. At the very least she was able to control herself enough to only ask one at a time.

“Oooo, so you know where the temple is?”

“Indeed. And you possess the music box?”

“Oh yeah, it’s right here!” Marcy pulled the box out from her satchel and presented it to the newt. Said newt’s eyes went wide as she spoke in a quiet voice.

“After all these years, it’s right here in front of me! I should very much like to hold it.” At this, Marcy pulled it back towards her with a worried expression.

“Uhh… my dad told me to not let anyone else touch it, except maybe Anne because he personally trusts her as well.” She explained. Valeriana looked disappointed, but kept her voice at a level tone.

“… Suit yourself.” She got up and went over to one of the dressers “To get to the temple, we must climb the freezing cliffs of Mt. Mutu.” She then pulled out a collection of big, fluffy coats. They were pitch black in order to absorb more light and therefore heat. Except for, of course, the yellow spots on the back. Each one had a hood and tufts of fur sticking out of them, but they were too thick for it to really matter. As Valeriana tossed the coats one by one at the group, she continued.

“Leave your flimsy jackets and wear these caterpillar wool coats instead.” When each of the two monster girls got their respective coats, they were surprised to find that they actually fit them perfectly! It was so rare to find something that naturally fit their true forms without it having an awkward tail hole. Anne kept her now signature cloak on and simply put the coat overtop of it. Due to the cloak not having arm holes, she had to throw the front of it back and wear it more like a cape. Sprig and Polly respectively were quick to comment on the texture of the coats.

“Ooo”

“So fuzzy!”

“Since this temple is my responsibility, you all must do exactly as I say. Or else you can say goodbye to ever finding it. Are we clear?” Valeriana stated. The group didn’t want any sort of issues, so they all just agreed in unison.

“Clear!”

“Good! Follow me!” She started to leave. Everyone but Anne immediately did as she ordered. The Wartwood creature, however, grabbed her little brother’s shoulder and pulled him back. He looked at her with a confused expression as she explained herself.

“Something’s not right about this lady.”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you see how she looked at the music box? I know she’s helped us out a LOT simply by being my medicine provider, but she was getting paid, so it doesn’t really count! My point is that she looks like she wants to steal the box and I’m getting pretty concerned.”

“That’s ridiculous, Anne. Now come on or they’ll leave us behind.” Anne groaned at her brother’s words. As she did, it almost turned into a little bit of a growl, but she stopped herself. Why did she just growl at Sprig? Was it because he was making her frustrated by not listening to her? She realized that she hadn’t been moving, so she ran to catch up before continuing her train of thought.

As she caught up with everyone else, she thought about how she hadn’t really felt all too frustrated while in her true form before. The only times she could remember getting even remotely violent were against those tax collectors and that one mantis. But both of those times, she was trying to defend her family! This time, she’d gotten frustrated with one of them. Sure, it wasn’t the first time that Sprig frustrated her, but it was the first time he did so while she was in her true form.

She didn’t exactly feel all too different when it came to that, but it still bothered her that her first instinct had been resorting to growling at him. She was still unsure whether her intelligence was a borrowed thing from the fact that she was raised as a frog, but she’d always been sure that her general kindness was inherent to her. Now she was calling that into question. Her thoughts spiraled for a bit until she realized that the group was directing her to start climbing up a sheer cliff!

Regardless of where her intelligence and kindness truly came from, one thing she knew for a fact was that she wouldn’t stay mad for long. Especially not when she had to focus on the climb ahead of her. One little issue was that she was actually a pretty good climber in her true form so long as there were branches for her to grab on to. But this was sheer ice and cliff faces! Her frog form’s cling pads would’ve been much more helpful at that moment, if only it weren’t so cold!

The group had to slow down a little bit because of how steep it was and how uncoordinated Marcy was when climbing in that form. Not to mention the cold-blooded nature of the frogs making them have to stop every now and then in order to leech some heat from either of the two monsters. Valeriana had gotten pretty far ahead of them, but turned around in order to make sure they were still following. She had some sass to throw their way regarding the fact that they had to slow down.

“Quickly, you lot! I’d like to reach the temple in THIS century! How could adventurers so lazy ever expect to conquer the temple?” This time, Anne’s frustration was directed towards the newt. Instead of lashing out or anything, though, she turned back to her family and proceeded to start helping them get up the mountain. She gave them some words of encouragement as they climbed up to a rather large ledge.

“Don’t listen to her, guys. We’re almost there.” Suddenly the group heard a whistling sound coming from above them. They looked around, wondering what caused it when a huge red bird appeared in front of them! All of the Plantars screamed out of fear and in the hopes that Valeriana might help them out. Marcy, however, was unfazed as she started to explain while walking up to it.

“Oh, relax everyone. It’s just a cardinal; they don’t eat frogs. She’s just saying ‘hello’.” Almost as if to prove her wrong, the cardinal grabbed Marcy in its beak and started trying to eat her! Was their species’ natural predator a frogging cardinal?! Anne refused to believe it, given that she knew birds would eat pretty much anything. Still, Anne yelled for the other of her kind.

“MARCY!!” The Wartwood Creature jumped as high as she could and grabbed on to the princess’ legs to pull her away from the bird. As the two tumbled down onto the snow around them, said bird flew over to the Plantars and started trying to eat them instead. Anne felt the need to call Marcy out.

“You said it doesn’t eat frogs!” She yelled. The princess looked at what was going on with wide eyes as she tried to figure out why it was going after them. After some stuttering, she managed to figure it out!

“I-I-I was sure tha- WAIT!! Cardinals eat caterpillars. It wants our coats!” Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop all respectively protested.

“NO!! We need these coats to stay warm!”

“And look good!”

“Marcy, what do we do?” Said creature started wracking her brain for answers.

“Lemmie think, lemmie think!” She shouted out at them. Anne had a solution first, though.

“There’s no time!” She yelled as she took off her coat and waved it around to catch the bird’s attention. She then threw it down the mountain and it followed without fail.

“Now let’s get outta here!” They resumed their climb and got to the top rather quickly. But once they got there, Anne couldn’t take it anymore. The cold was so overwhelming! It was far worse than anything she’d felt back on hiber-day and she’d even started shaking. Without thinking about it, she crossed her arms in a way that had her hands actually grabbing the opposite arm. As she shook, Hop Pop looked up at her and pointed out the obvious. 

“Ya saved us, Anne! Wait, what’s goin’ on with ya? Why are ya shakin’?!”

“I-I-I d-d-don’t kn-know!” Everyone except Marcy was confused. The princess, however, appeared to have an idea of what was happening.

“Oh, I read about this once. If a warm-blooded creature is too cold, it’ll start shaking in order to make its body produce more heat. It’s almost never enough, though. I didn’t realize it was instinctual as opposed to a conscious effort until just now!” Anne didn’t quite like the idea of being a sudden test subject when she was already so uncomfortable thanks to the cold. Thankfully Hop Pop had her back!

“Oh no, if ya freeze, then ya die! That’s how mammals work, right? Here, take my coat!” He started undoing it to give to Anne. As much as she would have liked to take it, she couldn’t.

“N-no, you guys w-will turn into i-ice without p-protection! I-I’ll be okay a-as long as we r-reach the t-temple soon.” She explained herself. Valeriana showed up right in front of her and pointed at her with her tail while scolding her.

“It won’t be soon! You think it wise that you abandoned your coat?”

“W-well I had t-to do SOMEthing!” Anne argued. The newt didn’t seem impressed as she walked away while muttering to herself.

“Impulsive AND defensive. Very unworthy qualities, I must say.” Finally noticing his sister’s impatient glare, Sprig decided to try to distract her with a suggestion.

“Don’t worry, Anne. We’ll huddle around you for warmth. Just like how you kept me warm on hiber-day. Just let the outsides of our coats help you keep your heat!” Realizing just how good of an idea that was, Marcy added onto it.

“And you can share mine so that we can share our own body heat with each other!” Anne was a little confused about what she meant until she threw the right half of her coat around the girl’s shoulders. Marcy then pressed her body into Anne’s in order to let them exchange heat. The problem was that the coat wasn’t meant to cover something as wide as the two of them together, so the front was left wide open. Thankfully the frogs were there with their own coats on to cover up the gap.

The five of them walked together as one from then on. It was a little cumbersome at first, but they all got the hang of it eventually. It helped that the only ones who’s feet were touching the ground were the creatures, so only they needed to coordinate two people’s steps. It was a small mercy that their legs were pretty much the same length as each other’s.

As they kept on going, they eventually came across a small area that could only just be classified as a forest. The foliage wasn’t very dense, but Anne figured that that was to be expected from a place so cold! While they were making their way through the trees, Valeriana seemed to try starting a conversation.

“It’s fortunate that the music box was permitted to leave the castle. How did you convince the king to pass it on to you, Princess?”

“Oh, he just kinda… told me about the whole ‘recharging the stones’ thing and then asked me to do it for him while I was on this big trip.” Marcy explained. They weren’t able to get very far, unfortunately, as the ground started shaking.

“Uhh… what was that?” Polly asked. Valeriana answered in just the most casual tone.

“Nothing much, just an avalanche.”

“WHAT?!” The group yelled, with Sprig breaking off and starting to run away while continuing to scream.

“EVERYBODY RUN!!” He was stopped immediately by Valeriana popping up next to him and grabbing his mouth to pinch shut. She proceeded to scold him.

“Sush, you loud, little frog baby!” Her gaze snapped upwards, towards the top of the mountain while everyone else grew quiet and followed her line of sight. They all saw a massive bank of snow fall off of the top of another nearby mountain and slide down.

“Phew, looks like it’s heading away from us.” Valeriana pointed out with a relieved sigh. However Anne noticed something that she apparently didn’t.

“Wait a second, look!” She pointed at a small hut that appeared to be made of purposely shaped ice blocks. It was just past a ledge that would protect the group from the avalanche, but it was still in the disaster’s way, meaning it’d get destroyed! Not only that, but the chimney was billowing out smoke and there was clearly some sort of light on inside. Anne continued.

“What about that little hut? It looks like someone’s inside! We have to save them!” Valeriana gave The Wartwood Creature a disappointed glare.

“How?! By running towards an avalanche?! They are lost, child. I say we press on.” Upon hearing that, Anne started to weigh her options and ultimately decided that making the newt a little more angry was worth it if it meant saving a life!

“NUTS TO THAT!!” She yelled as she gently threw her family off to the side and ran out of the warmth provided by Marcy’s coat. She knew she had enough residual heat to make the trip, so she threw caution to the wind and jumped down the ledge. She used her long, lanky legs to run as fast as she possibly could and burst through the door!

“HEY!! You guys gotta get outta- huh?” She started shouting before she noticed another ‘out to lunch’ sign, this one standing on the table. “What the-?” The Wartwood Creature shook her head and turned around, forcing herself to keep going despite the confusion and the cold sensation that was starting to bite at her. She could see the snow closing in on her, so she had to make a last-ditch effort and jump onto the ledge! She just barely managed to grab on with a single hand, but the rest of the group was right there to help her up.

“Anne! We’ve gotcha.” Sprig shouted while helping to pull his big sister up. Once she was on her feet again, Marcy threw half of her coat back over her in an attempt to warm her back up. Of course, Hop Pop wanted to make sure his granddaughter wasn’t hurt.

“You okay?”

“It’s okay. I’m fine, I’m fine. Let’s just hurry and get to the temple.” Anne assured him. But Valeriana had clearly had enough by that point.

“Oh, that won’t be happening. I’ve learned all I need to know about you lot. Disobedient, foolish, impulsive. None of these qualities are worthy of the sacred stones! You don’t deserve my help! Good luck finding that temple on your own !” Anne’s anger at hearing that was nearly boiling over! She knew that getting violent was always a bad idea, though, so she turned to Marcy and made a hushed request.

“Marcy, please hand me the box.”

“Uhh… okay. Just be careful.” The princess had never heard Anne talk like that, so she complied with what she wanted. Maybe she was going to try to convince Valeriana to give them another chance? The farm girl turned to the newt and started yelling!

“You are full of such frog spit!” As Anne threw the coat off again with the box in hand, Valeriana turned around and shot her a glare “Oh come on! You barely even gave us a chance! Not only that, now you’re gonna strand us out here?! Especially when this box is supposed to be sooooo important to you and we still have it ?!” She held the box up at this, showing the newt that it was in her hands at this point. Everyone else fell into stunned silence, knowing that Anne almost never got like this! She kept going.

“Well, we may be ‘unworthy’, but you and your order are even worse! You’re nothing but a cruel, judgemental, SNOB!” Anne noticed Valeriana’s muscles tense before rushing at her with her cane out!

“BRAT!!” She nearly whacked Anne with her cane “You dare insult the order I have dedicated my entire life to?!”

“Yeah?! What are you gonna do about it?” Anne was about to find out the answer to her question when the newt grabbed her lanky, thin wrist with her tail and waved her cane. Next thing she knew, Anne felt like she was floating while also being made of liquid. It didn’t hurt, but she felt like she was melting regardless as everything went black. Meanwhile all the others could do was stand and stare at the place that Anne had disappeared. Sprig was the one who eventually broke the silence.

“Diiiid you guys see that?” The boy was in disbelief, himself! He didn’t know anything about teleportation magic, but if Valeriana had gone with her, then that was what it had to be, right? The general consensus from the group was that they couldn’t have gone far, so they started to look around.

Elsewhere, Anne started to feel like her body had some weight to it again. She was laying face down on some cold ground, but it wasn’t anywhere near as cold as the snowy forest she’d just been in. The girl pulled herself up and looked around to see that she was standing on some spire surrounded by clouds of mist as far as the eye could see! The night sky that stretched over her head was one of the most beautiful that she’d ever seen, with stars twinkling in a myriad of colours and wavy lights dancing around up there!

“Huh? Woah! Where are we?” She looked around and saw that Valeriana was the only other person with her “What did you do? Just show me and my group where the temple is already!”

“Never! You are not worthy! In fact, none are worthy! I was originally planning on pulling Marcy into this place, but then she gave you the box. So now that I finally have the one holding it alone, I can return the box to its rightful guardian: me!” Her words confused Anne and made her wonder about why King Andrias would have it if it belonged to Valeriana. In her confusion, she didn’t notice the parrot swooping in to snatch the box right out of her hands! It threw it onto the ground in between the two.

“No! I need that in order to find out if I’m some sort of alien or not!” Anne protested with an arm outstretched. The newt snatched up the box with her cane.

“Ah HA! See? Still only thinking of yourself!” Anne needed to argue her case while also keeping the box away from Valeriana. If she could teleport so effectively, then there was the chance that she’d just run away with the box and strand Anne… wherever they were. She was willing to strand the lot of them out in that forest earlier, after all. Anne jumped at the newt and grabbed the box out of her… tail-hand?

“You’re wrong! I’m not… that selfish!” She yelled as she did so. Valeriana started swinging her cane at the creature while Anne tried desperately to dodge out of the way. She was at the end of her rope, what with having to protect the box as well. The newt, on the other hand, seemed to be completely comfortable with arguing while fighting.

“Oh no? Didn’t you lie to your family so that you could explore your true form in secret?”

“How- how do you know that?”

“Didn’t you drive the family snail, even though you were told not to?”

“Okay, this is getting weird. What else do you know?”

“I know that you snore.”

“You coulda kept that one to yourself.” Anne mumbled as Valeriana hooked her ankle with her cane and tripped her. She fell flat on her back while the newt grabbed the box out of the air before it hit the ground and continued her verbal assault.

“Didn’t you steal Hopediah’s wallet for a girls’ day on the town?” Anne got up and did a roll that let her kick Valeriana’s tail so that the box soared upwards and off of said tail. The girl grabbed it on her way back up and brought herself back to a stable position before correcting the newt in front of her.

“Okay, that is definitely not how that happened.”

“But you DID steal those berries from Sasha, leaving her without, and then profited off of said stolen property by presenting it to the king, did you not?” This one caught Anne off guard. She had never really thought about it like that, but Valeriana was right. Her family obtaining the royal credit card while they were in Newtopia was such a boon, that it’d be ridiculous to think that they hadn’t profited off of it.

“I… I did steal them. But I had to! I needed to disguise myself at the time!” Anne argued, getting defensive.

“You’re trying to justify theft, when you could have returned them afterwards!”

“W-well… I mean…”

“So it is! You are a liar and a thief. And now the box will be mine!” Valeriana rushed at Anne, who dodged out of the way, no longer on the offensive. The girl was too caught up in her guilt to do much more as she considered how the newt was right! But it was still enough to make her drop her cane on the ground and tumble over the edge. She started laughing as Anne picked up the cane and walked over to where Valeriana was holding on for dear life.

”Why are you laughing?” She asked.

“You can’t get back down the mountain without me. HA! You have to save me!” Valeriana answered with full confidence in her voice. Anne, though, already had an idea of what to do.

“… Don’t I just wave this stick up and down to get back?” She gestured to the cane in her hand. The newt’s eyes went wide as she heard the creature say it.

“You weren’t supposed to figure that OOOOUUUUT!!” She shouted as the ledge crumbled underneath her hand. She started to fall, but was stopped by the creature nearly throwing herself over the edge of the platform in order to save her. It was a good thing she already had the cane, as she wouldn’t have made it in time without it… mostly because Anne used the hook of it to grab on to the top of Valeriana’s hood. As The Wartwood Creature pulled the newt up with a grunt, said newt made an observation.

“You risked your life to save me? But why?”

“You were right. I did lie and steal. If that makes me ‘unworthy’, fine. Those bad choices were mine and I’ll own them, but making them taught me that it’s always better to do the right thing. So that’s what I did, regardless of how much I didn’t want to.” Anne didn’t notice how Valeriana smiled when she delivered her speech.

“We have been waiting for someone like you for such a long time.” Hearing that confused Anne.

“Uhh… excuse me?” She said as she tilted her head. Why was this jerk suddenly changing her tone? The monster girl watched as the newt raised two fingers and moved them around a little bit. Next thing she knew, both the box and the cane went flying over to Valeriana and mist surrounded her! It wasn’t around her for very long before it exploded and revealed a total outfit change with the newt now in a pure white gown with gold trim. 

“Woah, you cleaned up nice !” She commented, noticing how the gold trim on the gown matched the yellow spots on the body, creating a synergy between the white and brown. The newt ignored the compliment in favour of explaining herself.

“You have sacrificed your warmth for your friends; your safety for a stranger in need. You even risked your life for an enemy. But empathy alone isn’t enough, for what is heart without responsibility?” As she said the last word, she slammed the tip of her cane in a hole in the ground. Next thing Anne knew, a bunch of blue runes lit up around it, fanning out in a circle. Valeriana continued.

“In the name of the temple, I declare you worthy !”

“Wait! No way! So the cardinal, the avalanche. All of this was-”

“A trial. You see, we’ve been making our way through the ‘temple’ this whole time and I have been testing you.” The parrot from before landed on the newt’s shoulder and repeated her last two words. She cleared her throat before finishing.

“So, what is it you want?”

“Oh, right! To charge the stone and finally get some proper answers!”

“So be it!” Valeriana held out the box on the tip of her tail and put her hand in front of it. One of the two remaining gray gems flew out and into her hand, which she then placed in the crook of her cane. It floated there for a moment before shining a brilliant blue, just like how the green gem had before it. More runes appeared on the floor and rushed up the length of the cane to make the stone finally start charging!... Albeit only a little at a time.

“… It’s a lot slower than last time.” Anne commented.

“Sorry, this thing’s pretty old.”

“Oh, no no no, I get it. No problem.”

“Do you want uhh… something to read, or…?”

“Seriously, it’s fine.” After all she’d been through, Anne was content to just stand there and wait. After all, it was still moving, right? That was until she heard the sound of Marcy and her family screaming! It sounded like it was coming from below them, so she stuck her head over the edge of the tower they were on in order to see if she could catch anything else. When she heard them scream again, she started to panic.

“Oh no, they’re in trouble! What if it’s another avalanche? Uhh…” She looked at the stone to see that it was only about three quarters of the way charged, but she just didn’t have the time to wait. Her family could be in danger! She made the decision right then and there to take it out early.

“That looks charged enough! Let’s go!” She started pumping her feet in impatience as she looked at Valeriana “Send me back, send me back, send me back, send me back, send me back, send me back, send me back, send me back, send me back, send me back,-” Valeriana nodded at the simple command and waved her cane over Anne, making her vision flash white for a split second.

“-send me ba- oh.” Anne realized that the newt had complied right at the end. She started to look around and soon saw everyone just past a couple of trees. They all looked contemplative, but they were screaming just a moment ago, so someone must have gotten hurt! At least with her true form available, she’d be able to carry whoever it was, even if it was Marcy.

“Hang on, guys! I got you!” She yelled as she burst through the trees. Her siblings were the first ones who noticed her.

“Oh, there you are! We were looking for you.”

“We decided to stop for a moment to catch our breath and think over where you might be.” Polly and Sprig respectively said. Anne had honestly been expecting them to have been looking for her, but she was still confused about the screaming. Maybe they’d done it in order to get her attention? Either way, Marcy seemed pretty happy to see her.

“Anne! You’re alright!” The other creature shouted while running up to the girl in question. Anne smiled, seeing her opportunity to flex about what she’d accomplished.

“And that’s not all, guys. Look at this!” She held up the box, showing that the blue gem appeared to be charged, even if it had been taken out early. All of the others ‘oooo’d at it before Sprig decided to actually ask.

“But how?”

“I’ll explain later. But for now, can we please get out of this cold?” Anne begged as she started shaking again. Knowing how to solve the problem, she immediately pulled half of Marcy’s cloak over herself again and pressed herself against the other creature. She handed the box back to Marcy in the process and her family latched themselves back onto them just like before, all the while cheering for her.

“Woo! Way to go, Anne!” Hop Pop even kept it going.

“Maybe Frobo can make us hot chocolate when we get back.”

“Oooo!”

“Yay!”

“That sounds great!” Sprig, Polly, and Anne all respectively said as the group made their way back to Joe Sparrow. Along the way, though, Anne just had one concern remaining.

“Alright, so why were you guys screaming earlier? Were you just trying to get my attention?”

“Uhh… no one was screaming, Anne.” Marcy answered in confusion.

“What? But while the gem was charging, I could have sworn I heard you guys screaming, like someone was in trouble!” The Wartwood Creature argued, but her grandpa was the next one to respond.

“I don’t know what ya heard, Anne. But none a us were screamin’.”

“Oh… I-I guess I must have misheard something?”

“Sounds like it. You sure you’re okay, Anne?”

“Yeah, you sure your monster ears weren’t messing with you?” Sprig and Polly chimed in.

“I-I… I don’t know? You know what? Nevermind. Let’s just get back to Joe and get the heck out of here!” Anne finally concluded. Her family and Marcy were all in perfect agreement with that last bit, so they all just left to find Joe… and pick up their old jackets along the way. They couldn’t forget those!

Meanwhile, still up on the top of the great temple pillar, a certain brown and yellow newt breathed a sigh of relief. She felt bad about making that illusion of Anne’s group screaming, but she knew that it was literally the only way to get the girl to take the gem early. Yes, she tricked her, but she wasn’t about to let the prophecy die like that. She’d done too much work to let it all just slip away now!

In the end, Valeriana could only hope that The Wartwood Creature was still able to access at least some of the gem’s power in the future…