19. Chapter 19

Anne had gotten used to this new arrangement. To see Marcy sitting at the table with her family in the morning, always the first to be awake with Hop Pop and her notebook next to her plate, just in case she learned something new. And then either her siblings would join them right after or they might have managed to get downstairs and sit at the table before her already. She had gotten used to it.

What she wasn’t used to was the loud BANG that came from the trap door to the basement, followed by a string of muffled curses. The whole family froze to look at the door, remembering what was down there, and waited to see what would happen next. After a few seconds the door jiggled again, more gently this time. When it didn’t budge, the voice behind it let out a sound between a groan and a sigh.

“Hey, door’s locked, can we come up?” The two disguised amphibians exchanged a look. Wartwood had been too jumpy to want Sasha or Grime anywhere near. They’d nearly chased the two toads off with torches and pitchforks before Anne had managed to calm them down. In the end, they had set the two up in the basement, with the doors locked so they wouldn’t be attacking people in the middle of the night of course.

Eventually, it was Anne who got up to unlock it before walking back to the table. Sasha pushed the trapdoor open slowly, taking in the room before she climbed out. Her wider toad body was a little awkward to fit through, but she seemed to manage. The group had thought that she only had a few bottles of medicine on her, but apparently she had a bit of a stash hidden away somewhere.

Either way, they knew for a fact that her true form was far more competent and scary than her toad form, so seeing her like that didn’t really bother anyone by comparison. Anyone except for Sasha, of course. For some reason, she seemed to be a LOT more comfortable in her true form! Maybe it was because she was stuck like that for so long while she was a fugitive? Nobody really bothered to ask, though.

After she managed to climb out of the basement, the pink toad made eye contact with the blue frog. No words were exchanged before the former simply nodded and made her way to the bathroom. It wasn’t long before Grime also made his way up and stood by the door to wait for his turn. Hop Pop shook his head at this and started making two more plates of breakfast.

At the very least Marcy’s infinitely deep wallet was coming in handy for the small family. They hadn’t been planning on having this many people in their home, so they needed to rely on her royal funds for food. Thankfully King Andrias had sent them a very large sum after Marcy informed him of the situation. His letter back to them seemed to indicate that he wanted her to come home as soon as possible, but he also wanted her to bring in Anne and Sasha. Of course this meant that Marcy would need to observe the latter girl for a few days just to make sure she wasn’t planning anything bad. She was a fugitive, after all.

Marcy hoped that when she brought in both Sasha and Grime, her dad would sentence them to community service and see to getting the younger one a therapist. Olms knew she needed one at this point! Heck, Marcy almost got one after the whole ‘Newtopian book beast’ incident, but the need to keep up her image as the princess outweighed that potential need. Maybe if whoever they got for Sasha proved truly trustworthy, then Marcy could have a chat with them too!

That was all just wishful thinking, though. As it was, tensions were so high within the Plantar household that one could cut it with a knife. The second that one of the toads sat down at the table, all chatter just stopped! For the past two days they’d been there, the princess just let them get away with claiming early morning grogginess. After all, Anne definitely suffered from that!

Once Sasha was done in the bathroom and sitting at the table, everything went by at a crawl. Especially once Grime arrived and Sprig, Polly, and Anne all finished up with their plates. They put them in the sink to be taken care of later and went to the living room to play quietly while watching the toads. Marcy eventually joined them, having learned from experience that it was never a good idea to try talking to anyone when they were still groggy.

They ate in relative silence until they were done. Thankfully they had pretty good table manners, so they didn't make a mess. In fact, they even offered to clean the dishes for the frog family! Occasionally Sasha’s claws would nick on something or she would accidently scratch something, so Hop Pop was a little nervous about letting her handle fragile things. But those were all obviously accidents because of how long she spent in her true form. She had to get used to her toad form all over again!

After all was said and done, Hop Pop ushered everyone outside. He and the kids needed to do some work on the farm and while Marcy would normally be asking him about that stuff or even studying Frobo, she had other plans. She figured that distracting the toads might be helpful, so she simply decided to ask them about how the militarized toad culture worked. The problem was that they didn’t really provide her with anything that she didn’t already know.

Most of it had Grime recounting his glory days as the Captain of the Southern Toad Tower. Abandoning that post was what led to him being a fugitive, but after hearing about the state of it, Marcy found that she couldn’t really blame him. It was beyond repair at that point because the foundation itself had been detonated! The whole area was a danger zone and it would be irresponsible to send anyone in there for any reason.

Upon hearing about that, Marcy knew that Grime had indeed been unfairly branded by the system. It didn’t make his actions that night right, but at the very least, the princess knew she could set things right for them if she could just get her dad to hear them out. She still hadn’t told them that she was the princess yet, nor did she tell them how long they’d be observed before being taken to the city. But at the very least, they seemed to be cooperating with anyone who asked anything of them, so they weren’t causing any trouble.

It was all way too tense for anyone to feel even remotely comfortable, though. At one point, it actually got to be too much for the oldest amphibian!

“Alright, that’s it!” Hop Pop shouted, getting everyone’s attention “We can’t keep goin’ on like this. I get that Sasha and Grime wanna prove themselves, but nobody’s really talkin’! Sure, Mar-mar’s askin’ questions, but it’s not doin’ much!”

“Then what do you suggest? We’ve been patiently waiting for you and your kids to be comfortable enough to talk to us, but they haven’t been.” Grime calmly explained. It was clear from his tone that it had been frustrating him as well, but he just wasn’t saying anything about it. Another way that things were getting too awkward!

“Well, we’ve been staggerin’ our meals so that we’re not sittin’ at the same table. Why don’t we just eat dinner together this evenin’?” There was silence all around. The Plantar kids knew where he was going with this, but the two toads and one newt were all confused. Hop Pop continued.

“It’s a well-known fact that sharin’ a meal together helps communication ta start. We all bring somethin’ different to the table, contributin’ different things for one big meal.” Anne, Sprig, and Polly all nodded along. They’d seen it happen once before with another family in town and their estranged relatives. Sure, Sasha and Grime were the farthest thing from family, but if anything would work, it was that! The younger toad still seemed quite skeptical, with her tilted head, but the older of the two seemed to be giving it some thought.

“Hmm… I don’t know if it would work, but… if nothing else, it would give us an excuse to have a volcakeno.” Sasha’s head snapped in Grime’s direction and her eyes widened.

“Oh, I haven’t had one of those in FOREVER!! We’ve gotta do this now ‘cause I am NOT giving up an opportunity to have one of those!”

“I… actually don’t know what that is.” Marcy interjected, clearly a little surprised at not knowing something about another amphibian’s culture. Sasha was quick to provide an answer.

“It’s this special type of dessert that we only see on very rare occasions. It’s got this super rich chocopede taste like you’ve never tasted before! I’ve always been awful at making them, but they’re irresistible!”

“Well I’m actually pretty good at making those, so I guess if we’re doing this, then I’m on dessert duty!” Grime volunteered. Marcy looked at the older toad with surprise.

“I… didn’t take you to be a dessert kind of guy. I guess looks can really be deceiving!” Anne noticed how she tried to say it in as inoffensive a way as possible, but it still came across as a little condescending. Knowing the princess, it was probably accidental and as luck would have it, Grime didn’t seem to take offense to it. He just responded with the utmost casualness in his voice!

“Well people also don’t take me as the kind of guy to look after a thirteen-year-old girl, yet here I am.”

“Okay yeah, that’s fair.” Marcy finished. Hop Pop then interjected.

“Well there’s that part settled. If ya need the kitchen ta do that, then I can grill the veggies and starches outdoors. Heck, it’ll give ‘em more flavour that way! Which only leaves the protein...” Hearing that prompt seemed to give Sasha an idea.

“OH! Since I’m not very good at making the volcakeno, why don’t I take care of that? Actually, now that I think about it, it might be a good exercise for Anne, Mar-mar, and me. I mean, our true forms are obviously natural predators, right? If we go together, then we might be able to figure out how we’re supposed to do that while also putting it to productive use.”

“I don’t know ‘bout that. Anne? Mar-mar? What do you think?” Hop Pop asked the other two girls, trusting them to make the judgement on their own. The two of them looked at each other for a few moments before Marcy broke the silence.

“W-well, she’s not wrong about our true forms being predators, what with the foreward-facing eyes. And I would like to study how that’s supposed to happen. Anne? What about you?”

“Hmm… As much as I kinda don’t want to see Sasha in her true form again so soon, I do have to admit that I’m at least a little curious. I mean, I haven’t really felt the urge to hunt in that form.”

“Well maybe that’s because we’re supposed to be pack hunters. It’s at least worth a shot, right?” The pink toad argued, ignoring the jab. She really wanted to get the other two members of her kind away from the other amphibians. If she did that and then proved that she was the best leader, then they’d have to accept her as their alpha! The best part was that toads already had some really solid hunting strategies, so she could just reapply those if their instincts for it didn’t somehow ‘awake’ for them.

What she didn’t expect to see a few hours later, though, was that Anne was actually experienced enough with hunting for her to have her own opinions on how to do it. Apparently, she wanted to try tracking something by tasting the dirt and then setting a trap for whatever she found. Unfortunately for them, their true forms didn’t seem to be cooperating with that method when Anne tried to show them what she meant.

“Hmm… yes, interesting. In my professional opinion as a hunter…” She spat out the dirt that was in her mouth “... I don’t taste all the minuscule traces of tracks in the soil anymore like this.” Her face took on a combination of frustration and bafflement.

“Well clearly your method isn’t going to work, so I suggest we walk around until we find something big enough and then just ambush it and stab it a lot. I mean, we brought our weapons for a reason, right?” Sasha argued, trying to get the others to follow her lead. She’d only really let Anne have her try because she knew that stopping her would cause the two of them to cut her off. She was already on thin enough ice with them, so she couldn’t risk breaking it. Anne stood up and looked at her with a deadpan expression.

“‘Stab it a lot’? What are you, some sort of barbarian? What are you even gonna hunt that you’ve gotta kill before you catch it?” She asked Sasha, seeming genuinely confused.

“What’s even worth hunting if you can just pick it up and take it?” The Monster of the Tower countered. As much as she really was on thin ice, she was also confused enough to ask. This would have spiraled into an argument if it weren’t for Marcy speaking up.

“You know, both of your ideas are really good and valid, but completely cultural. Frogs want to hunt as inconspicuously as possible so they don’t end up as prey themselves. Meanwhile toads look for challenges and safety in numbers. Both of your suggestions are very clear and obvious reflections of that.” The two monsters stopped and stared at each other for a few moments, knowing that she was right. As they looked back at her, Sasha put on her kindest and gentlest voice as she asked her own question.

“Well… how do newts hunt, then?” Marcy looked a little startled at this and averted eye contact. She lifted up one of her five-fingered hands and scratched the back of her head. A nervous look took over her face, with a bit of matching laughter.

“Heh, uhh… hunt? Yeah, no. No no no, w-we don’t have any traditional hunting methods. We’re a fishing culture! The most I could try to hunt is a worm. That’s kinda why I said that both of your methods are valid. It’s just that we’re also out here right now ‘cause we’re trying to figure out how our species is supposed to hunt, right?”

“Yeah…” The other two said in synch, startling each other. Marcy even looked a little bit surprised, but she seemed to shrug it off a little more easily than either of the other two.

“So we probably shouldn’t be focusing on what we already know if we’re gonna do that.” She concluded. Sasha put a hand to her chin, going into deep thought. Meanwhile, Anne reassured the princess.

“Huh. You’ve got a point, there Mar-mar…” She’d wanted to say more, but trailed off when she noticed that Marcy had joined Sasha in deep thought. Not wanting to feel left out, she started trying to think about what to do as well. Nothing really came to mind, though. They’d set out with enough daylight left that it wasn’t like they were having a hard time seeing. Their lack of night vision made it obvious that they were diurnal, so they’d headed out pretty much as soon as noon hit.

This was making stealth very difficult for the group. They were larger than any amphibian, meaning they made more noise as they moved around. Not only that, but their unique appearance drew the attention of many animals, both curious and cautious. It was all a little too much for Anne to figure out on her own, so she looked up and asked the other two girls the big question.

“Soooo… either of you two having an instinctive epiphany on how we’re supposed to hunt?” The two of them looked at her before glancing at each other and then turning back to Anne.

“Not… really, no.”

“No, I’ve got nothing, to be honest.” Marcy and Sasha respectively stated. None of the three of them seemed to know what to do, so Anne and Sasha just went back to arguing over who’s more traditional method they should use. It went back and forth for quite a while with both of them clearly becoming frustrated with each other. Neither of them had noticed how Marcy had stopped paying attention to them.

The princess still kept within view of the other two, but she figured that those two would just keep arguing themselves in circles, so she decided to simply take a closer look at some native flora instead. She didn’t really find anything that she wasn’t familiar with, but at the very least she was able to tune out the argument that the other two were holding. That was until Sasha finally raised her voice.

“FINE!! How about we make this a competition, then? You use your method while I use mine! Then we both get to do what we want, AND we’ll see who gets more out of it!”

“Fine! Just know that you’re probably going to get yourself mauled by one of the wild animals here.”

“I have a weapon, Anne! Nothing in this forest can stand up to me! I think you’re forgetting that I killed a heron while I was in my toad form and this form is stronger than that! So quite clearly, I can deal with some random wild animals.” Anne hated to admit it, but she was slightly intimidated by the other girl and in this form, she didn’t have a vocal sack to inflate in retaliation. So instead she straightened her back, puffed out her chest, and lifted her chin so her throat was more visible in an attempt to make herself look larger that way. It helped her own confidence a little bit.

“Alright, then. Just don’t come crying to me when something gets you!” Sasha mirrored her actions within a second.

“Not gonna happen!” She yelled as she stormed off into the woods. She momentarily considered taking Marcy with her, but she could tell the other girl wouldn’t do that much good in a test of strength. If only she could get Anne to see what they could achieve together with her leadership… Well, when they saw how much work Anne had to do to get something like a measly grubble and then saw whatever she herself would catch, then surely the two other creatures would realize who was the more capable provider.

Anne threw her hands up into the air with a light roar of frustration and turned around to face Marcy so that she could rant.

“I can’t believe her! I mean, I live in the area! Heck, my mom found me in this exact forest! If anyone knows this place, it’s me! And still, Sasha seems to think that she knows more than me!” She groaned and facepalmed. Marcy quickly went to her side and put a hand on her shoulder.

“W-well, it’s not like her saying those things means that she’s suddenly aggressive again, or anything. I think she was just getting frustrated from the fact that you made her realize the flaws in her plans. I mean, wasn’t she a lieutenant for a Toad Tower once?” Anne had too much energy and she didn't want that frustration to turn on Marcy, so she turned around to pace around in front of her instead.

“Yeah, but compare her to YOU! You’re the froggin’ princess ! And yet, you don’t get all pushy like she does.”

“Actually, I think I know why there’s that difference beyond just personality! Newts are naturally more open to logical debates from peers, so I’m always more willing to listen. Toads see their peers as challengers that they have to win against, which means Sasha sees you as a peer. In other words, as an equal! And to be honest, that’s kind of impressive when you consider the social power inbalance between what each of your amphibian forms are.”

“Meanwhile frogs are brought up with peers who differ so greatly from each other that there’s no real need for competition, so when she butts heads with you, you get defensive. Again, we’re all acting more culturally than naturally. But it’s hard when we don’t know what our natural states are even supposed to be like! So we just default back to how we were raised… maybe that’s actually a part of how we’re naturally supposed to be?”

Marcy’s rant had calmed Anne down a little bit. She knew that Sasha was clearly trying to be nice on a more regular basis, but her life as a toad had really messed her up! She already knew about Marcy’s plans to get Sasha a therapist and rehabilitate her once they got back to Newtopia, but Anne wondered if that would be enough. Wouldn’t Sasha feel too betrayed by the trap that Marcy was clearly setting for her?

She shook her head. Sasha had betrayed her in the past, so if she could just remind The Monster of the Tower about that, then maybe she’d realize that she deserved it? If anything, it’d be satisfying enough for The Wartwood Creature! She looked back up at the princess and gave her a small smile.

“Maybe, I don’t know. Sasha said she was without her potions for quite a while and she was rationing what little she had left. So she’s clearly spent more time in her true form than either of us have. Not to mention how she was on the run for so long!”

“Yeah, but conditioning can last a lifetime, Anne. It’s so obvious that she’s trying to break free of it, but it’s really hard when it’s all you’ve known. I mean, you said that when compared to each other, she and I are really different. But in reality, I think we’re more similar than you give us credit for.” Anne did a double take, staring at the thin, mild mannered girl before her and mentally comparing her to the much brawnier and turbulent blonde one.

“Whaaaat? How?!”

“She and I were both really stuck in our ways due to how we were raised. That was until you came along and shook things up. I never would have given this form a try if it weren’t for you helping me and holding my hand. Meanwhile Sasha never would have gotten away from that toxic toad culture if it weren’t for you coming along and forcing her out! We’re both changing for the better because of you.”

“That’s… a lot of pressure, you know.” Realizing how that might have sounded, Marcy quickly lifted her hands in a placating gesture, trying to ease the brunette.

“I don’t think you need to worry about it, to be honest. You’ve already done enough to set both of us up with new paths. Healthier paths! All you have to do at this point is be there to see us through!”

"Yeah… no pressure, your highness." Anne said as she did a small, mocking curtsy. Marcy giggled and put her arm around Anne’s neck in a half hug.

"It's okay, you don't need to worry about it. You know that, right?"

"Yeah… I just…" Marcy noticed the way she kept glancing off into the brush though. She could make an educated guess as to why.

"Let me guess, you still can't help being concerned about Sasha even despite the awkwardness between the two of you."

"Well yeah. I mean yes, she tried to kill my family and I'm still REALLY mad at her for that, but… she was the very first of our kind that I ever met. I think that maybe… maybe that makes me want to care about her despite everything?" Anne hadn't realized that she'd started crying until she felt Marcy's warm thumb wipe the tear off her face.

"Anne, listen. If one thing's obvious, it's that we're pack animals. That's why you feel that way! Our intelligence still might be borrowed from our amphibian forms, but that just gives us the tools we need to navigate these issues." Anne looked away from the princess and towards the ground. She didn't know what to think about that.

Yes, it was clear that they were pack animals. If they weren't, then why would Anne love being a part of the Wartwood community so much? And why else would she feel the need to make friends and then actually do so with relative ease? That added up perfectly, at least! But then why did Sasha feel the need to go alone? Her toad strategy was going to get her killed because she didn't have backup!

… it was going to get her killed. Anne looked in the direction that Sasha had left with a worried eyes. She didn't want to admit it, but she was concerned. No matter how bad Sasha was, she was still one of them and Anne knew that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she just let her die like that. She let out a combination of a groan and a sigh.

“Alright, we’d better follow after her and make sure she doesn’t DIE or anything.”

“That’s the spirit!” Marcy shouted, throwing a fist up into the air to celebrate getting through to The Wartwood Creature. The two of them then set out in the direction that Sasha had gone, but Anne quickly started to panic as she was looking around.

“Ugh, how do we know that she kept going this way? I can’t track her by tasting the dirt in this form! Maybe I should just transform and then track her like that.” She reached into one of the pockets on the inside of her cloak to grab a bottle of medicine, but Marcy placed a hand on her arm just as her fingers were about to close around it.

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Look!” She pointed at the ground, where there were some odd tracks that Anne was unfamiliar with.

“You sure those are hers?” To prove her point the newt-raised girl took a measuring tape from her belt, rattling off her observations as she showed the other her measurements.

“Yep, foot size five leaning towards six, only one set of tracks and stride length is about sixty centimeters, which means it was a biped. It also suggests a confident stride from someone about one meter and fifty-five to sixty centimeters tall. Track depth in dry soil suggests about one hundred and seventy pounds, which sounds like a lot, but she is wearing toad armour. Plus there’s these really long, golden hairs in the bushes over there.” Anne was stunned. What happened to not knowing how to hunt because of Newtopia being a fishing culture?!

“Oh wow, you can tell all that?! That’s kinda cool, Marcy!”

“Yeah, bad news though. Those are some other kind of tracks that I’ve never seen before and they’re going straight after her.” Anne looked at where Marcy was pointing to see some tracks from something that seemingly had rather large paw pads with five toes and claws at the end of each one. If only she could detect the miniscule traces of things in the dirt in her true form! Maybe then she’d be able to see which of the two sets of tracks were fresher. Then she’d be able to determine which one was hunting which!

As it was, though, they couldn’t waste any more time! They had to do everything in their power to catch up to the blonde as soon as possible. Marcy managed to determine that whatever the other thing was, it was a quadruped that was heavier than Sasha’s true form, so she’d be in trouble no matter what! It took them a while, what with Marcy leading the way through visuals alone, but eventually they came across The Monster of the Tower panting while staring down a creature that Anne had only ever seen once before.

Back when she’d tried to take Bessie out on a joy ride and they got stuck because the snail refused to move, she ended up actually reading the manual for her. It eventually led to Anne finding out about these creatures and how aggressive they could be, what with their beady eyes, long snouts, and spiny backs! ‘Hedgehogs’, she remembered they were called. And Sasha was fighting one!... And losing.

“Agh, this is why you take the inconspicuous route when you don’t have much of a group!” Anne muttered to herself, only just loud enough for Marcy to hear. Despite the fight going on, something else caught Anne’s attention. Back when she was with Bessie, a whole pack of hedgehogs had attacked them after being disguised as spiky bushes. This time, there was only one hedgehog, but… there were still four ‘spiky bushes’ surrounding the fight!

Sasha was in far more danger than she even realized! Heck, one of the ‘bushes’ even had a blue hue, so this had to be the exact same pack that had attacked all the way back then! This was bad! Anne knew first-hand how fast those things could be and just how screwed Sasha really was! As much as The Wartwood Creature didn’t like The Monster of the Tower, she couldn’t just sit by and watch her get ripped apart by these things!

Marcy seemed to have the same idea, but she also clearly didn’t have the same information.

“Okay, we gotta get Sasha out of there, there’s no way she’ll get away from that thing on her own! I’ll draw it towards me, then you can get around it and to Sasha. Then the two of you can surround and attack it.”

“Mar-mar, that’s- No wait!” Anne was about to warn her, but she just shot off to the side, hoping to draw the creature away from Anne far enough that she could get around it and to their blonde conspecific. On the way she managed to snatch one of the spines that had lodged itself into a tree. The animal must have shot it at some point during its battle with Sasha.

She loaded said quill into her crossbow and took careful aim at the animal’s shoulder, where the hard spines bordered on coarse fur. There was the snap of the drawstring, and the creature howled out in pain. Sasha was stunned for a moment, looking around for the source of the attack and noticing with relief that she wasn’t on her own anymore. It quickly turned to shock and fear though when she realized that her adversary wasn’t alone either.

At the cry from their comrade, the spiky ‘bushes’ rose up and shook out their quills, hissing at these two new threats that had entered their hunting grounds. Realizing the new black-maned creature was both the biggest threat and the physically weakest of them, they knew who to focus on.

Marcy saw it too. She wouldn’t be able to do as much damage in close combat and she wasn’t as fast as Anne or Sasha. All these creatures would have to do is drive her away from the other two girls and she’d be an easy target! That made sense. But it seemed like the blue hedgehog between them had other plans.

As one of the brown creatures tried to make a rush for her, it shot forward and bit him in the shoulder. It instantly caused the others to cower, splitting up as the blue one made a few harsh bark-like sounds. The action actually gave Marcy a brief moment to realize the state these animals were in. The blue beast was large and muscular, not to mention fat. Its quills were brightly colored and shiny, a clear sign of success and health. Its pack, though… 

The one she had shot before had a large dark eye, swollen and blind from a past injury. Another of the creatures had boils and unusual warts on its snout and an ear that just seemed to be rotted away, like it had some sort of disease or infection. The trembling individual near the back had huge chunks of its fur and quills missing, leaving bald spots that Marcy wasn’t sure if they were from stress, fighting, or maybe even a skin condition. And even the one that had just made a lunge at her and got bit for it seemed to be fairly healthy at first, but had a network of scars marring its face, legs, and sides.

At another bark, the four brown animals split into two groups, one starting to circle Sasha, while the other two made a move for Anne. The blue one focused on the last girl, saliva dripping from its maw. Each of the girls had just the right amount of opponents to kill them, the blue one focusing on the individual that would be easiest to take down. It was risking every other member of its pack, just to get all the prey it could. This was just greed!

“Mar-mar!” Sasha tried to get to the only member of her species that she still hoped to add to her pack. But the two animals that were guarding her did not allow it, snapping their jaws at her ankles like she was some common herbivore. She made a swing for the beasts, but her blade simply collided with the hard spikes on its neck and slid off. She snarled in frustration. If it hadn’t been for those sturdy interlocking spikes working like some sort of primitive armor, she would have made short work of those pests already!

But as it were, she was at a disadvantage now. No large group of warriors to drive these things into a corner. No shield-bearer who would ram into them and throw one of them onto their back. No lancers who could get under or between those spikes from a safe distance.

She didn’t want to admit it, but she had been stupid going out on her own. Even if she had landed the killing blow on that heron, the whole tower had still been there to get the animal into position for her to wound it. And Grime had been there too, an ally of similar strength to watch her back. She reflexively looked at Anne, her weapon still not drawn and instead she was sitting in a crouch with her hands on the ground like she was ready to frog-leap out of there, but with her eyes closed. Yeah, there was no relying on that!

Taking advantage of her glance away, one of the animals leapt for her throat! She was a warrior, though, which meant she was fast enough to swing her sword between the two of them, catching its fangs and adding another scar to its ugly mug. It pulled back with a yelp, shaking its head in pain before turning back to her with a snarl. This thing was even dumber than it looked if it thought she would go down without a fight. Even if she wouldn’t make it, she would take at least one of those ugly bastards down with her!

And then the other hedgehog gave a curious hum as it turned its attention to the side. Noticing its partner’s reaction, the other did the same. Neither of them turned their attention back to Sasha afterward. Instead, their muscles relaxed and their eyes stayed transfixed in the direction of Anne, so the blonde girl felt safe enough to glance over as well.

She was… what the heck was she even doing? Was she dancing or something? Her body was swaying around, lightly hopping between her feet, long arms trailing through the air in intricate patterns that switched between flowing and elegant, and strong and firm. And the hedgehogs were absolutely transfixed by it, muscles lax and even wandering over like they were pups looking at a shiny rock. Even Sasha herself realized she had been staring at the girl a little longer than she intended to, mesmerized and disoriented by whatever she was doing.

When she snapped her eyes away and back to her adversaries though, she realized that they were thoroughly distracted! The two animals nearest to her were left with their spines down and soft spots right open and even as she moved, their attention didn’t snap back to her. Perfect! She drew the dagger and readied herself to cut into her nearest prey, only to hear a high-pitched scream from the direction of the third girl.

Immediately her eyes snapped to Mar-mar, who was currently on the ground with the blue hedgehog over her, the wood from her crossbow preventing the beast’s jaws from closing on her neck or face. It hadn’t even bothered to look up to see what was happening to its pack members and thus Anne’s display. It was only interested in its next meal!

Feeling a flash of fear that wasn’t for herself, the blonde shot forward with a roar. She easily skidded around the two distracted hedgehogs and made a mad dash for the weakest of her pack. She spun the dagger in her grip so she was holding it back-handed and with a roar, she plunged it into the side of the blue beast’s neck underneath the spines, throwing her entire weight into it.

She winced as some of the cyan quills dug into her arm and shoulder, but that was nothing compared to the screech of pain and terror that came from her victim as it was knocked off. The sound startled Anne so much that she lost the rhythm of her dance altogether, thus waking the other hedgehogs from their trance. Noticing this, Sasha quickly adjusted her grip on the remaining blade in her hand again, preparing for retaliation as the hedgehogs either defended or avenged their alpha.

Instead, they gave it one good look and saw the huge bleeding gash in its shoulder and neck, turned tail, and fled into the shrubbery. No hesitation, no second glance, within seconds they were just gone . Anne however shot to her feet and ran for the two of them. Or more specifically, ran for Mar-mar, dragging her away from the still thrashing alpha.

The wounded animal was barking and snarling in the direction its pack had fled in. Then a realization crossed over its face and the sounds turned to feverish, panicked screeches. It just realized it had been abandoned!

Sasha glared at it. What did the thing expect? It had decided it was worth it to bite off more than it could chew, it had not cared about its fellow pack members’ safety and health, and judging by the state the animals were in, it had no problem taking out any displeasure on them. It was no wonder really that they decided they were… better off without them.

She felt cold all of a sudden, realization sinking in. She stared at the pitiful monster, screeching in the dirt for the others to come back, to not be abandoned, to not die alone.

“Sasha? You okay?” She was startled out of her thoughts, looking back up at the other two girls. Anne was looking at her with worried eyes, holding on to Marcy to steady her as she sat there shakily with her hands over her ears to block out the screeching.

They had come for her. They didn’t abandon her. She knew for a fact that Anne didn’t particularly care for her and Marcy barely knew her. She had never uttered a single cry for help as she was fighting one hedgehog on her own, too proud to do so. They could have been rid of her right then and there. And yet they had tracked her down of their own choice. Because they were worried? Because, despite everything, they still cared?… Maybe she hadn’t damaged whatever there could be between them beyond repair, even with Anne.

“I-it… it seems wrong to let it suffer longer.” The Monster of the Tower turned her eyes back to the animal. Its own eyes were getting unfocused, occasional screams now disrupted by wheezing and panting. It would die soon enough from the blood loss alone. She heeded The Wartwood Creature’s words anyway.

Retrieving her dagger from where it was stuck in the animal’s flesh, she used her boot to roll it more onto its side. She got barely any resistance. She worked swiftly and cleanly, grabbing the hedgehog’s lower jaw to pull its head up as she let the dagger find the artery right underneath its skull. The cries ceased and the beast went limp.

For a moment the three simply sat there, looking down at their kill as they processed what just happened. Around them, the sounds of forest critters slowly returned. The predators just got their prey, so they decided it was safe to resume their activities again.

“Well, I’d say that went fairly well.” Sasha finally broke the silence once she mentally recovered somewhat. The sarcasm was thick in her voice and yet there was relief and a sense of accomplishment welling up in her chest. After making sure Marcy had regained enough sense to keep herself sitting upright, Anne quickly scooted over to the other creature and grabbed her arm, studying the quills.

“I guess still being alive is as ‘well’ as one could hope for, but you got pretty lucky! These spines are relatively small and spread out. Those guys have been causing trouble for a while now and I’ve heard of frogs being found looking like pincushions with even their bones pierced by the larger quills.” Sasha let out a humorless laugh at that, checking out the spines sticking from her flesh and maybe also imagining how cool it would look if they were actually part of her.

“I just think amphibian bones are a bit softer than our own. I accidently broke a few toad arms while arm wrestling those first few days in my true form. It’s really annoying to train without any opponents that can keep up.” Anne gave her fellow creature a look, but filed that information away for later. Instead, she held a hand out towards the other one.

“Hey Mar-mar, you usually have a few med tools, right?” The black-haired girl perked up at this, rummaging through her bag until she pulled out her canteen and some bandages. The brunette one nodded in approval while steadying Sasha’s arm on her knees. Knowing what was coming, she braced herself. The barbs being pulled loose from her muscles were kinda painful, but nothing she couldn’t handle. So instead she just spent that time staring at her two congeners as they patched her arm up.

Honestly, she felt grateful. Even she could admit she would have died back there on her own. Mar-mar, despite being smaller and relatively weak compared to the two of them, had rushed in to try and get that thing away from her. And even if Anne had jumped in to protect only said smaller girl, (which she was slightly doubting as she watched her gently press down on one of the punctures to make it stop bleeding) that didn’t take away the fact that she was a strong pack member to have. What she did back there, despite looking weird and probably sounding stupid if just talked about, had had the same effect as an entire support squad working together to drive a target into position.

She wanted them in her pack. Both of them. She knew getting Marcy to her side might be relatively easy. But it might be even easier if she could get Anne to do the same. Then her friend would just follow! But the question of how to get her fellow alpha in line still arose.

Maybe it wasn’t a matter of why she wasn’t following her. Maybe it was a matter of why she was rejecting her. The frogs, that must be it! It was clear that Anne was happy enough to follow them and be subservient to them. It was only when she had threatened her family that Anne took her position as alpha to protect them. And she kept doing it again and again because she thought the blonde was going to try and hurt her loved ones again. Sasha herself knew she’d fight tooth and claw if someone tried to separate her from Grime too. So maybe if she showed she wasn’t a threat or going to separate their family and instead include and protect them, Anne would realize she was a safe alpha to follow.

She'd gladly take the frogs if it meant Anne came with the package. It wasn't like they would be completely useless, either. And if Mar-mar wanted it, she'd take in her own newt family too! Mind made up, she relaxed and tried to think of ways to make both girls feel advantaged and comfortable once she got power over all of Amphibia. Her thoughts were interrupted when Mar-mar spoke up though, seeming to have bounced back from her scare.

“Well, despite everything, I think we got off pretty fortunate, considering we only have a few minor injuries. Plus, we got our dish! Woooo!” The girl fist-bumped the air, making the brunette follow her lead once the bandage was secured around Sasha’s arm. She laughed fondly at the two, even if she felt bad about being the bringer of bad news.

“Sorry to break it to you guys but, not quite.” They instantly stopped their celebration, giving her an incredulous look. She swore she could almost see Anne pop a vein.

“WHAT?!”

“Well, first of all, your family doesn’t strike me as the kinds of frogs who eat red meat, right? And even if they just don’t eat some of it, I doubt we will either. As toads, we do occasionally eat red meat, so it was also one of the first things we tested when I discovered my true form. Meat is pretty good, but I can tell you from experience that meat from straight predatory mammals is really gross .” Her fellow creatures stared at her for a moment at the revelation, Marcy with sinking disappointment and Anne with frustration.

“So you mean to tell me all that was for NOTHING?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s a complete waste.” She picked up her sword again and walked to stand over the carcass. With her injury it was kind of heavy, but she still lifted the sword over her head before bringing it down with a yell, demonstrating how the spikes deflected the blow with minimal damage. She lightly tapped the sword on top again to make her point as she turned to the two other girls.

“During hunts, another toad tradition is to turn whatever you catch into trophies and armor. If we turn this thing onto a pelt, it should also be strong enough to double as an upper back guard. You got that blue and silver cloak, right Anne? I think this will go with that quite nicely.” Anne heard Marcy take in a sharp, but quiet gasp next to her at that and when she glanced at her, she noticed her eyes were wide with surprise.

“Now then,” Sasha twirled her dagger around her fingers a few times as she gave them a smirk “I’m gonna remove some of those innards to make this thing easier to carry. Everyone who thinks they’re gonna turn their guts inside out from me pulling this thing’s guts out, you’d better look away for a bit.”

Marcy pulled Anne to turn around before she could do so herself. She didn’t mind, she absolutely did not want to stare at that either. But then the princess briefly looked over her shoulder to make sure the blonde really got to work before scooting even closer. The look on her face was both serious and excited as she started talking in a hushed voice.

“She just gifted you her trophy!” She stared back in confusion, not understanding why Marcy was so enthusiastic. Luckily she continued to clarify.

“That’s just not done in toad culture! The number of trophies you have are a sign of competence. Sometimes a subordinate might present a kill to a superior to gain respect or favor. In some cases, it’s even a proposal. But considering she has next to nothing to gain from appeasing you as an equal and we’re too young to seriously court let alone marry , this is something that’s completely abnormal for a toad. Something they would otherwise never do!” Anne still didn’t quite get it, but from the way Marcy was acting, she could tell this was a big deal. And yet, the way Sasha had offered her the pelt had looked like she didn’t consider it as such.

“So, what are you saying here? Do you think she’s trying to do a big gesture as a peace offering or something?”

“Well, either that, or this might actually be something that isn’t toad! This might be an action that’s closer to our true instinct!” Anne’s eyes widened, realizing that even though they weren’t able to get their part of the dinner, they were still able to figure out something about their species’ true nature regardless. They now knew for a fact that their species naturally shared their spoils!

“Alright, I’m done!” Sasha’s voice could be heard behind the girls, startling them both out of their conversation. The two of them turned back around and saw Sasha carrying what looked like the hedgehog’s corpse on her shoulder, but there was a big gash down its middle and a pile of red and pink innards discarded a little ways away. Anne wasn’t really interested in looking at the pile any longer, so she awkwardly turned around and started heading back home.

“Well, we’d better get going. The sun’s gonna set before we can track down anything else, so we’ll just have to go back with a trophy, but nothing edible.”

“Thank goodness the Plantars and Grime have their own foods waiting for us when we get there!” Marcy added, trying to lift up the spirits of the other two girls. She then went over to help Sasha carry the thing. Even though The Monster of the Tower was more than fully capable of doing it herself, Marcy still wanted to offer what help she could just because it was a nice thing to do. Anne joined in and suddenly it was so lightweight in each girl’s arms, that none of them had any troubles carrying it!

On the way back, they passed by the outskirts of the town and were seen by several frogs. The fact that Anne was with them was probably the only thing that really saved Sasha from getting chased by a mob. Well… that and the fact that the creature who’d been causing so much trouble for anyone with a snail was dead in their arms! Knowing that the only way for Sasha to be safe with the townsfolk was to give her the credit, she did just that.

The blonde looked at the brunette as she explained what happened, wondering if this was payback for her giving the pelt to her. The frogs were still pretty cautious of The Monster of the Tower, but the fact that they didn’t try to pursue her afterwards really said a lot for how they were willing to trust Anne’s judgment… and how grateful they supposedly were for the hedgehog finally being dead! Even though only a few frogs got the explanation, Sasha had no doubt that the whole town would know about it by morning. Maybe, if they were receptive enough, they’d let her and Grime into town instead of them staying in the Plantar’s musty old basement!

All that was left was to get the thing back to the farm and with the help of her new pack members, Sasha had no trouble doing so! When they got there, Hop Pop was outside, heating up the grill. Polly and Sprig had apparently already washed the vegetables a little bit ago as their way of helping. The old frog seemed to notice what was wrong the moment he laid his eyes on what the three of them were carrying, after jumping at the sight.

"Uhh… girls, I know it's big, but that thing ain't edible."

"We know, Hop Pop. But it attacked us first and we figured that its pelt could at least be useful for something. Sasha’s got some pretty neat ideas for it." Anne explained while Sasha dropped it on the ground “Unfortunately, by the time we were done with this thing, the sun was already too close to setting for us to keep hunting. So we couldn't get any protein for the dinner." There was a bit of silence as Hop Pop looked over the girls and saw how disappointed in themselves they all looked. He couldn't very well scold them for having bad luck, so he just got out some extra veggies for the grill and tried to console them.

"Well it looks like ya couldn't really help it. It'll be fine, we can just have roasted veggies tonight and whatever that dessert Grime’s makin'. As it is, you three gotta get cleaned up! I don't know if ya noticed, but ya got hedgehog blood all over ya!" Startled, Anne looked down at herself and saw a mixture of red and brown staining her clothes. She looked at the other two girls and noticed that they were just making the same revelation.

“Uhh… looks like I didn't fully drain it before picking it up.” Sasha sheepishly admitted while shrinking in on herself a little in embarrassment. Anne couldn’t help the giggle that rose up from her at this, but before the blonde could retaliate, the brunette simply made a suggestion.

“We have a pond out back, so we can just rinse ourselves off over there. Hop Pop, would you like us in our true forms for the dinner or do you want us as amphibians?”

“Amphibians, please.” Sasha nearly groaned, what with her true form being her preferred one. But when she saw that Mar-mar cheered at the idea of being a newt again, she began to wonder about why the black-haired girl disliked her true form so much. She figured that just plain asking would be better than speculating, though, so she put it out of her mind for the time being.

As it was, all they had to do was go with Anne to the pond and wash the blood off. They didn't even remove any clothing except for the bulkier armours the three of them wore. That was fine, though. Sasha's armour didn't shift size with her form change like her more porous clothes did, so she'd need to take it off anyways. When she saw Anne take her cloak off, she was surprised to see the small bit of leather that was already protecting her from underneath. All she could think of was how she'd have to take that into account when dealing with that pelt. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Sprig's voice ringing out from the open back door of the house.

"Hey, Frobo's gonna handle cleaning your armours. And I picked up a potion bottle for each of you. I'm just gonna put them on this crate over here, okay?"

"Thanks, Sprig!" Anne responded as her little brother did exactly as he said he would. Anne didn't know if Hop Pop had told him to do it or if he just decided to help them out on his own, but she wouldn't put it past him to think of that. Maybe he just didn't want to see Sasha in her true form anymore and figured it'd be easier to escape her wrath if he made it look like he was doing a kind gesture for all three of them.

Whichever reason it was, Anne was still grateful for his help. He left the three girls as they quickly washed up. At one point, Marcy started giggling to herself a little and when Anne asked her what was up, she explained.

"Well, I was just thinking about how it was kinda funny that I was originally raised without knowing that I'm not a newt. I was just told that I was chronically sick and needed to take 'medicine' for it. Of course, that was the potion!" The other two girls stared at her for a minute before bursting out laughing! Anne didn't know why Sasha was laughing, but the blonde looked just as confused about why the brunette was doing the same. Thankfully, Sasha explained herself first.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just that I was raised the same way. I even genuinely thought I was the biological daughter of my adopted parents. I even called it 'medicine' too!" Hearing this, Anne confirmed that it was the very same with her and the result was all three of them laughing like hybeenas! Marcy finished cleaning herself up while she giggled and went to get her own medicine bottle.

Sasha and Anne finished up soon after and went to get their own. Remembering that hers was a lighter shade than Sasha’s, she took the brighter bottle of the two. Sasha took hers in her hand and the three of them laughed a bit more before they all took their respective medicines.

Meanwhile Sprig had just finished setting the table and Grime had finally come out of the kitchen with his dessert. Apparently it needed a little more time to rise, even though it was already so large! The young frog remembered Sasha telling him to make sure it rose outside for some reason. He didn't know why, but it seemed the old toad listened regardless. All that was left was for the girls to show up and take their seats.

That was until Sprig heard three rather high pitched voices screaming from behind the house! The three frogs and one toad all wordlessly rushed through the house and out to the back to see what was wrong! Had some sort of wild animal tried to attack the girls and caught them off guard? When they all burst through the back door to where they were, though, the lot of them were met with one of the strangest things they'd ever seen!

Staring back at them was a pink frog with long blonde hair, a green toad with short black hair, and a blue newt with curly brunette hair. Ah, so that was why they screamed. They'd mixed up their potions! The three of them locked eyes with the four who had come to their aid and silence hung in the air for several minutes.

That was until Polly started laughing so hard that she couldn't even stay upright! The pollywog couldn't even form words, but it certainly broke the silence enough to get the girls out of their shocked states. Particularly Sasha, as her shoulders slumped and she started yelling.

“Oh reeeeal funny, ha ha. I can’t believe this! I grabbed the darkest one ‘cause I know that that’s mine! How did this even happen?!” Marcy put her face in her hands and groaned.

“I just grabbed the closest one without looking! Then you two grabbed the ones that contrasted respectively with each other! I’m so sorry!” Seeing as it was a genuine mistake that she was paying for too, Anne just felt bad for Marcy. The blue newt put a hand on the green toad’s head.

“Hey, don’t worry, you clearly didn’t mean it. And it’s not that bad! I mean, we’ve got enough berries growing out in the front that we can fix this right away. So let’s go get the-OOF!!” Anne had started walking in the direction of the house only to trip over her own tail and fall flat on the ground. Polly stopped laughing for a moment until her big sister looked up and revealed that she was okay. She resumed giggling to herself, but seemed to be trying to stop it at that point. Grime looked down at Sasha, who looked the most upset by the whole situation, and tried to hold back his own laughter while speaking.

“I, uhh… I’ll… I’ll go and get you… those berries.” Sasha looked up at him and almost felt a little betrayed. Then again, she knew that he’d never actually laugh at her misfortune, so he just had to be laughing at the fact that he thought she was in trouble when she really wasn’t. That had to be it! Or at least, that’s what she told herself to make her feel better about the fact that she was a FROG! It was so humiliating, given how weak and pathetic frogs typically were!

The worst part, though, was the fact that she looked so similar to Sprig that one could actually mistake her for a Plantar! She just hoped they’d have the courtesy to not point it out. Polly was too busy laughing at the three of them as a whole and Hop Pop had enough sense in him to not say things like that. Meanwhile Sprig probably didn’t want to entertain the idea of Sasha being a member of the family for even a second. She decided to distract herself from those thoughts by looking down at her hands.

The only thing that frogs ever had over toads was the cling pads that allowed them to walk on walls and ceilings. Other than that, though, they were just some fragile little manual labour folk who couldn’t even fight properly! She could feel how weak her new, little frog body was and she hated it! The sooner Grime came back with those berries, the better!

Marcy was feeling pretty similar, but also coupled with the shame of having been the cause of this whole thing. Her new toad body was too short and too wide! She felt all bloated and bulky in the worst possible ways, but she also felt like she really had no room to complain because of how it was all her own fault. She shifted a little bit and found that she had a decent amount of muscle mass that had carried over from newt form to true form and then to… this !

It was so awkward that she’d be willing to spend a whole week in her true form if it meant she’d never have to be a toad again! She didn’t voice that thought out of the fear that she might offend Sasha, but she figured the blonde must be having similar thoughts about being a frog. The princess just figured it’d be best to stand there and wait for Grime to get back with those berries, but he might take a little while because it looked like he wanted to get his laughter out without being within earshot of them.

At the very least the actual amphibians were amused! But the fact that they were laughing at a mistake that she made still kinda stung. She looked over at Anne, who was still lying on the ground. Thankfully her clothes still shifted to match her form change, but that was hardly a silver lining. The claws on her toady hands started to dig into her face as she buried it even further, causing her a bit of pain. She removed her hands and let them fall to her side with how distraught she felt.

Anne, on the other hand, had decided to just wait there on the ground because she wasn’t about to risk tripping again. She remembered having a tail when she was a tadpole and shortly after she got her legs, but still! It was never this big and awkward, let alone prehensile! At the very least she was able to control it somewhat because of her early childhood familiarity, but that didn’t stop it from being far too awkward for her to properly deal with.

It was a good thing that the only ones who wanted to laugh were Polly and Grime. She looked up from her position on the floor to meet Hop Pop’s eyes and she saw that they only held worry and concern in them. She almost wanted to get up in order to seek comfort, but she thought better when she felt her new tail brush against her ankles. Being a newt wasn’t too different from her true form, but it was just off enough to be unsettling!

Suddenly she felt a pair of cold hands grab her face and pull her up a little bit. She looked to see Hop Pop’s face in front of her, pulling her close for a hug. He obviously thought that this was affecting her more than it actually was because of her refusal to get off the ground. Ultimately she decided to just let it happen while her tail moved around a little bit. Most newts held their tails still, but she was finally realizing just how much self control they had to have in order to do that. She was brought out of her thoughts by a rough voice.

“I’m back! I’ve got those berries for you three!” Grime shouted. Sasha literally jumped at the opportunity to get one right away… and completely overshot Grime and smacked face first into the wall above the door. That was how she learned about how much more powerful a frog’s legs were when compared to a toad’s! It was a good thing he was right underneath and able to catch her while she remained dazed.

He simply held her in one arm, practically cradling her as he wordlessly handed a berry each to Anne and Marcy. Sasha shook her head after that and didn’t even bother trying to get out of her godfather’s arms as she reached for the third berry! The second she bit down on it, he set her down to transform and a feeling that she hadn’t felt in a long time took over her body!

The searing heat of becoming warm-blooded came in full force and she felt her bones and muscles stretching in an unnatural way once more! She’d gotten used to transforming from her toad form to her true form, but apparently that didn’t extend to her starting from a frog form! She couldn’t help the scream that tore through her throat just like what happened all that time ago in the tower’s basement prison cell.

Thankfully it seemed like she wasn’t the only one as Anne’s and Marcy’s screams also rang out alongside hers. If she weren’t in so much pain, then she’d have sworn they actually harmonized at one point! After it was all done, she stood up to her full height and panted a bit before looking down at her godfather. He had a look of shock and concern on his face and Sasha realized that her scream must have made him fear for her wellbeing. She put her hands on top of her head and pushed back some of her hair in an attempt to make herself look a little better kept.

“Well then… it looks like we’re only used to transforming from our usual amphibian forms. I think we can all agree to never let any of that happen again?” She looked back at the other two to see that Anne had already pulled herself up off of the ground, but Mar-mar had fallen back so she was sitting on the down and staring off into space with a horrified look. Sasha could see that something was clearly wrong, but she didn’t know what. Thankfully Anne noticed as well and went over to help the poor girl!

“Mar-mar! Mar-mar, it’s okay. You’re okay, you’re here now. You’re safe!” She said as she grabbed the other girl’s head and pulled her close to her chest. Sasha didn’t know what was going on, but she approached anyways in the hope that she could help! She had to be a good and caring alpha if she didn’t want her pack abandoning her like what happened with that hedgehog earlier. She didn’t bother actually asking because it looked like Mar-mar wasn’t willing to talk about it at that moment, so she grabbed the black-haired girl’s hand and helped her stand up.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but maybe walking around a bit will help? It usually works for anyone who’s feeling dazed, so long as their legs still actually work.” Mar-mar simply nodded at this and started following the blonde around while Anne continued to hold her other hand. Sasha realized right then and there that she was literally leading her pack around by the hands and they weren’t complaining one bit! They must have accepted her as their alpha once she actually started trying to show care and compassion! She’d finally cracked the code on their species!

They walked around like this for several minutes before Mar-mar started snapping out of whatever trance she was in and seemed to want to go sit down for dinner. Sasha didn’t try to protest, seeing as she was also getting hungry and the amphibians were clearly trying to get them to sit down as well. At the very least, everyone was finally on the same page! And Hop Pop even let the girls stay in their true forms for the dinner, so that was a plus.

The whole thing went without much issue once Sasha mentioned that she’d wanted to ask about Mar-mar’s apparent trauma, but hadn’t found a good time to bring it up. Everyone was surprised to hear the girl in question actually tell the story from her own perspective, revealing to Sasha how she’d met the King and won his favour with the ‘Newtopian Book Beast’ incident. She had to admit that it’d no doubt be traumatizing for the poor girl, but she was also glad that Anne was able to help her with it so far. That way, Sasha didn’t have to bother much with helping her through obvious trauma. She wasn’t all too great at doing that, if she were honest with herself.

But that was one of the good parts about having a pack! She could outsource what she wasn’t good at to a subordinate who was good at it! She made sure to show respect and sensitivity towards Mar-mar regarding what happened to her, though. That was the only way she’d be able to keep her at this point and frankly, she didn’t feel like being that much of a jerk.

In the end, the dinner went quite smoothly and she had to give it to Hop Pop. His whole idea had really worked with getting the lot of them to actually talk and even bond a little bit. It was exactly what they needed!... The volcakeno was a bit of a disaster, though. Neither her nor Grime had realized that the dessert battle was a toad exclusive tradition, so the others were all wholly unprepared for it.

There was a bit of scrambling, but after figuring out that they could just have Mar-mar load a spare hornet stinger into her crossbow, things went pretty smoothly. It was a good thing that Sasha had told Grime to take the thing outside, or else the Plantar house would have been destroyed in the process!

After the lot of them winded down for the evening, the three girls took their respective medicines. They triple checked to make sure they were taking the right ones this time, though! They didn't want to go through all of that earlier nonsense again. Once was enough for all of them, even despite how much Polly clearly wanted to see it happen the other way around. After being turned into a frog, Sasha did NOT want to be a newt for even a second! If she did, then she'd look too much like that ‘Yunan’ freak that tried to hunt her and Grime down that one time!

Either way, when morning came around, the pink toad was pleasantly surprised to discover that the basement trap door had been unlocked before she’d tried to get out. Anne must have convinced her family that she and Grime wouldn’t hurt them in the middle of the night, or anything. It felt good to be trusted like that for once, if she were honest. And this time, the Plantar family didn’t leave the table when the two toads got there! Instead, it seemed like Hop Pop had an announcement.

“Alright, everyone. Mar-mar and I discussed some stuff last night and we agreed that once our morning preparations are done today, we’ll be headin’ to Newtopia!” The Plantar children cheered and Mar-mar looked rather proud of herself. Meanwhile Sasha actually stopped because she was so surprised! Granted, they’d had toad soldiers posted up in Newtopia for a few days now, waiting for the signal to attack, but she’d still need to sneak off a message of some sort to the toad captains that today was the day! Grime was a little bit more on the ball than she was, thankfully.

“Oh, that’s wonderful news. There are two things that I’m just a little curious about, though.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” Mar-mar asked the older toad.

“Well first of all, I’m a wanted criminal. So how would I evade capture the second I enter the city?”

“Well, we can just get some cloaks for the two of you. So long as the hoods are up and you’re with me, no one will bother you!”

“Hmm, sounds reasonable. Secondly, you said that you’ll be taking the music box to the king, right? Exactly when will that be happening? And will we be going with you?”

“Oh yeah, as soon as we get to the city, we’ll be going straight to the palace. And yes, you’ll be coming with me. I’ll be able to get you guys cleared of all your charges once he sees that you’re with me!”

“... Wow, I didn’t realize that! Thank you, that would be quite helpful!” Grime finished with a smile. Hop Pop cut into the conversation afterwards, changing the subject.

“One little thing we’ve gotta do before we go, though.” He reached into a cupboard and pulled out something dark brown and lumpy “We’ve gotta find a place for this mud crown !” Sasha reeled back! It was someone’s birthday as well?! She knew that it was neither her’s nor Grime’s, so whose was it? She looked around and noticed that Mar-mar looked just as shocked as she did, so it couldn’t be her.

This meant that it had to be one of the Plantars, right? She looked over the faces of the three frogs and one tadpole at the table. Anne was staring at Hop Pop with wide eyes while the other three were all staring at her. Wait, was it…? Hop Pop walked around the table and put the mud crown onto Anne’s head! Sasha shook her head as Mar-mar shot up to join the family with singing the traditional song to her. After the first couple of words, Sasha and Grime both joined in just for the heck of it!

“Froggy little birthday here, it’s crystal clear you were born this hoppy time of year!” Her family members then each gave her a single kiss each on her cheeks. The one newt and two toads held back on that part, knowing that that was a little much for them, seeing as they’d known her for less than a year by that point.

Anne thanked them all before going off to start reflecting on her life up to that point. Meanwhile everyone else finished up their breakfasts and started packing for the trip! Sasha then overheard Marcy talking to Hop Pop.

"So Anne's fourteen now?"

"Well ta tell the truth, we didn’t know how old she was when her mom first found her out in the woods. It was clear that she wasn't newborn, though, so we just assumed that she was already a full year old and made her birthday inta the same day we found her."

"Oh, that makes sense…" Mar-mar continued talking after that, but Sasha hardly paid attention to the rest of her conversation with the old frog. Instead, she began to wonder about what made her own adopted parents decide when her birthday was supposed to be. It was still a few months away, so the only way to figure it out would be to ask them. Too bad they hadn’t been seen since they left her at the tower with Grime. She looked over to the older toad and realized that he’d been staring at her with an unimpressed glare. She was about to ask what was wrong when he ushered her over to a more private area and then began scolding her by asking her a question.

“You're actually getting attached to them, aren't you?” Sasha started to get defensive, knowing full well that she wasn’t supposed to actually get attached. She wanted to tell Grime about her epiphany out in the woods the previous day, but she didn’t have time for that. She needed to keep it nice and simple.

“Look, maybe I'm just kinda bummed about being alone all the time. And maybe I'm jealous that those two have each other. Maybe I finally want that pack I deserve. And they’re perfect!” Grime paused for a while, just staring at her. When she didn’t shrink away or back down, he sighed.

“Fine. Just as long as you don't let your personal feelings interfere with our plans. We have worked too hard and have too many people counting on us to back out now.” She knew that full well, so she didn’t need the reminder.

“Right. Don't worry, I can pull this off… I have to.” She finished. There was really nothing else she could say on the matter, so she just walked away from the conversation and back to the rest of the group. Anne had apparently finished up her reflection and was ready to go. Marcy tossed a pair of relatively cheap cloaks towards the two toads for them to put on and threw her fist into the air.

“Alright, now who’s ready to fly to Newtopia and meet with the king so that we can finally get some answers about what the three of us really are?!” Despite it obviously being directed at just Anne and Sasha, everyone joined in and cheered. As the lot of them took their places boarding Joe Sparrow, Sasha started to worry a little bit about her new pack.

Would the other two really be okay with her showing her true colours when the time came?...