22. Chapter 22(1)

Old-timey writing utensils, a slingshot, a tiny sheathed dagger, and a whole freaking dwarf-accordion were all sitting on the bathroom counter along with all of the leaves and twigs that Oum had pulled out of Anne’s hair as she washed it. The girl absolutely refused to elaborate except that she didn’t know they were in there! The mother simply sighed and shook her head, not even really wanting to know, but fully understanding that she'd have to unpack that eventually.

Due to the fact that Anne didn't understand what soap was, Oum actually had to go into the bathroom and help her daughter wash up properly. It was beyond awkward to be washing a teenager that she'd only really met about an hour prior! Thankfully Anne was understanding and her attitude about it lowered the awkwardness of it significantly. She was a mother who needed to teach her child what soap was and how it was used. No big deal, right? She looked back at the items that had been in the girl's hair.

If the police had known about them, then they would have taken everything as evidence like they had the baby blanket. As it was, Anne seemed to be somewhat protective of those things, so keeping them might help her mental state a little bit. Still, Oum had to finish cleaning her up before she could let her hold them again. Nobody would want them getting water damaged, right?

When they were finally done and she was wrapped in a towel, she tried reaching for her old clothes. Oum snatched them up before the girl could touch them, though.

"Woah, no. They've got to be cleaned separately before you put them back on. I'll go get some of my own clean clothes for you to wear in the meantime. Just wait right there and don't touch anything!" Oum left her daughter in the bathroom to drop the old skirt and button-up shirt combo (which smelled worse than sin) in the washing machine and get her some temporary ones from the woman's own closet.

In truth, she had hoped that Anne would have been able to handle her own cleaning. But when someone doesn't know what soap is, it's never a good sign. At the very least she was able to check the girl over for any scars that might indicate what her life had been like beforehand. But in the end, there weren't any at all! Seeing as she also had a pretty good amount of muscle, it became obvious that any and all abuse that might have happened to her was purely mental and not physical.

When she got back to her daughter, she expected to see the girl at least sitting down somewhere instead of standing there and looking like a drowned puppy! At least she'd listened to her mother's instructions, though! And thankfully the girl was able to dress herself. It was a simple shirt and pants combo, but they were clearly too big for her. At least it was only temporary until they could get her some more clothes of her own.

The outfit she came with wasn't necessarily bad, but she was going to need a bigger wardrobe overall. After she was dressed, they grabbed all of the things that Oum had pulled out of her hair and made their way downstairs. It was enough to just put it all on the coffee table and then go get the breakfast that Bee was cooking. The two parents thought that the meal would be awkward as well, but once their daughter took a bite of the fried eggs she was given, her face lit up!

"Oh my gosh, this is so good! It's actually one of the best things I've ever tasted!" Anne wasn’t even exaggerating or anything! She recognized them as eggs, but they had a distinctly different taste from the tarantula eggs she was used to! She almost wanted to ask what animal these ones came from, but refrained for fear that that might be common knowledge in this world.

She looked down at her plate and examined the other parts. There were three thin stips of some sort of meat along with some small pieces of… potatoes? She'd already eaten some potato based food while she was being held by the police, so she knew that her kind did naturally eat that stuff. But for breakfast too? The ones on her plate looked like they had salt all over them, but when she remembered how good the salted potatoes back home tasted… they were the next thing she tried!

And the taste was even better than she expected! Salt clearly wasn't the only thing on these potatoes, so the girl began to wonder about it. Still, what if that was common knowledge as well? Best keep quiet and see if she could watch the next time they cooked any food. Next was the little meat strips. Anne figured they'd just be some crunchy little bits that'd taste a bit like beetle meat. But she was only half right because this meat as well was one of the saltiest things she'd ever tasted!

"Wow, all of this tastes really good! Better than anything the police gave me." The couple of adults at the table smiled at her like they fully expected her to say that. She began wondering why, but her biological mother answered the unasked questions for her.

"Well, both of us are professional chefs."

"We actually own a restaurant together!" The man followed up. So her birth parents were successful businesspeople? That was honestly a bit of a relief for the girl. She'd already accepted that her intelligence wasn't borrowed from her frog form and was actually inherent to her species, determining that while talking to Officer Miller for the first time and noticing just how hard he was probing her for information. Everything with the police was some sort of combination of a confused mess and a careful dance, but she liked to think that she made it out of there without revealing too much.

On the other side of the coin, her birth parents had just revealed that they were both chefs! This meant that they must have knowledge about food that others of their species wouldn't! In other words, it definitely wouldn't be suspicious for her to ask about that or even to request…

"Umm… if you guys are actual chefs, then… could you maybe teach me how to cook properly? I'd love to know more about that!" If their passion was really food, then it'd make sense for them to be willing to pass that knowledge along, right? The two of them looked a little surprised, but then smiled even wider.

"Of course!" Her biological father shouted, clearly excited to see her taking an interest in his passion! She'd need to ask them about salt-free foods once they started. There appeared to be some time though, so she knew she could come up with some sort of excuse for wanting that. The more time she spent with her species, the more she was convinced that there weren't any amphibians around… at least, any intelligent ones.

Her birth parents had spoken about frogs like they were simple animals instead of people. Maybe they were exactly that in this world? If so, then what if her family was actually in danger of losing their minds instead of her?! She shook that thought away. She hadn't lost her mind in Amphibia, so they probably wouldn't lose their minds here, right? Anne’s thoughts were cut out by a high pitched sound coming from another room.

“Oh, your clothes are done being washed. Give me a minute, I’ll go transfer them to the dryer.” The mother said before getting up and leaving the room. Only a couple of minutes later, she returned with a somewhat disturbed look. It probably wouldn’t be suspicious to question it, but Anne didn’t need to because the woman simply held up her somewhat damp outfit. Except it was frog-sized. She started to panic a little, wondering if her cover had been blown.

“So… this happened…” The mother started. Anne sputtered a little, trying to think of an excuse.

“I-I… I can explain!” She didn’t get a chance to, though, as her father cut in with his own speculation.

“It’s made of cotton, isn’t it? I had a shirt made of cotton that did that once. It was a real shame, too. Don’t worry, I’ll run out and get you a cheap set of clothes that you can wear to the store so we can actually get you a proper wardrobe, okay?” Anne could only stare for a moment. Did… did clothes normally shrink around here? The amount of casualness in his voice made it seem so. She thanked frog that SOMEthing finally had a convenient answer.

She was also grateful for his offer to get her some clothes of her own before they headed out. Her mother's clothes were so loose and baggy that she feared tripping over them. She had a decent build, but she was certainly much taller than the girl. Anne wasn't used to people being taller than her in her true form unless they were a bigger newt like General Yunan. But that kind of height was pretty rare in Amphibia.

She was taken out of her thoughts by her father standing up and taking his empty plate to the sink. At least that motion was familiar enough for her! She still had some food left, so she continued eating as her mother sat down to finish her own plate that she'd left behind. Anne noticed her father looking between the two females for a few moments before he walked out of the room. He then called out to the two of them.

"I'm gonna go get that cheap set of clothes now. You two have fun while I'm gone!" Anne's mouth was too full to say anything in response before she heard the door close. She hoped he didn't take offense to the lack of response, but seeing as her mother had said nothing, Anne decided to not worry about it too much. All she did was finish her breakfast and then copy her father's previous actions of taking her plate to the sink.

The awkwardness that remained as her mother finished up was palpable. What could they talk about that wouldn't raise suspicion? Anne didn't really know, so she opted to try letting the woman lead the conversation instead. Although her plans to do so were cut off by a yawn.

"Heh, still fighting off morning grogginess?" Anne almost wanted to say yes, but then she remembered that some of her kind were indeed active at night. The police had assumed she was raised by people like that, so she could easily keep up the same story with her birth parents as well, right?

"Ah, it's more like… I'm used to getting ready for bed around this time. I'm… still adjusting."

"Oh, jetlag? Yeah, I get that. The rest of our family back in Thailand are getting ready for bed around this time too, so whenever we go to visit, we feel the same thing."... Okay, there were actually regions in this world that had a reversed day/night cycle?! Anne wanted to ask how that was possible, but figured it'd be another case of being too close to common knowledge to safely ask about. Either way, it was still so much easier than trying to say she was used to being active at night! And her biological parents has experience with it?! How many more convenient excuses could she find and exploit in her attempts to keep her past hidden and her family safe?

“Oh. I… I didn’t know there was a word for it.” She admitted, hoping that not knowing that wouldn’t seem too suspicious. After all, they already thought she was weird for not wearing shoes and not already knowing what this ‘soap’ stuff was. From the smell alone, she could tell that it’d be harmful to frogs, so of course she wouldn’t know anything about it. But these others of her species couldn’t know about that! Thankfully her mother just shrugged and made an offer.

“Well if you want, you can take a nap in our bed upstairs. Or you can nap on the couch. We… don’t really have a place for you to sleep yet, but we’ll get started on that today, okay?” Honestly, that was fair. Anne hadn’t been in their lives for how long? It’d make sense that they wouldn’t be prepared for her return! So all she really had to do at that point was choose between a bed that smelled like strangers who happened to share her genetics or their couch…

“I… I might get in the way or something if I sleep on the couch, so maybe I could try the bed? I-I hope you don’t mind.” The mother smiled and led her upstairs to the parents’ room. When she walked in, her jaw dropped! She’d never seen a bed so big before! Hop Pop’s bed was considered huge, but this was just plain ridiculous! Looking back at the woman who’d led her there, she considered the size of the species and the fact that both of the parents clearly slept together, then looked back at the bed. The size made sense with that context, but it was still impressive!

After she managed to get over the shock, she climbed into the bed and tried her best to fall asleep. She felt herself getting tucked in by her mother and as sweet of a gesture as that would normally be, it still felt ridiculously awkward. It was a good thing that the woman had thought to leave shortly after and let the girl sleep. The bed was certainly much more comfortable than the bench in that jail cell, but that was a given.

As Anne drifted off to sleep, she tried to come up with a plan to make sure her adopted family was safe. Perhaps this nap would give her the energy she’d need in order to take a midnight trip to reunite with them? She’d just make sure to not get caught this time! In the meantime, though, she’d have to just lay low while she was in her current position. And for that, she’d need to get some actual sleep.

When she awoke, she didn’t know how much time had passed. But she could faintly hear her biological parents’ voices coming from downstairs. Sneaking out in order to see if she could catch any sensitive information, she tripped on the pant legs that were way too long for her. The sound of her fall traveled far enough that both of the adults were at her side in an instant. So much for stealth.

“Are you okay, Anne?” Her father asked as both of the adults grabbed her and pulled her up. She was honestly fine, but the concern coming from them warmed her heart a little bit. After confirming that she was okay, she found out that she’d been asleep until well into the afternoon and her father had actually returned a couple of hours prior with a new set of clothes for her. When she tried them on, she found that the shirt was baggy and the pants were just a little bit too small despite the fact that she was still able to squeeze into them.

She found out once they were about to take her outside that the ‘shoes’ she got were actually just soft platforms with a rough strap that went in between her largest toe and the one next to it. They were almost like the sandals that she’d worn to the third temple! The platform was a bit too small, but the whole outfit was apparently going to be replaced once she was actually able to be properly measured. She’d be okay for the time being.

On the way from the police station to her birth parents’ house, they’d passed by the small forest that Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly were still presumably in. She’d watched the surroundings as they went by in an attempt to memorize the route. This time, however, she didn't need to memorize that stuff. So instead, she decided to see if she could make some small talk.

"So… you're professional chefs… what's the most common mistake you see people making in the kitchen?" She figured this was a safe question for multiple reasons. First, it would let her know how common the lack of knowledge really was in this world. Second, she'd actually get some information that not everyone in this world knows. Third, showing an interest in her birth parents' profession would make it easier to connect with them in the long run. The two of them answered by quickly following each other up almost as if they were just one person listing things off. The mother started.

"Add sugar to the veggies WHILE cooking them! Not after! It makes them taste like the baby version of the veggie."

"Anyone can be allergic to anything, so keep cross contamination of allergens in mind at all times!"

"Raw meat is TOXIC!! Stop spreading the bacteria from it around the place!"

"Always use the bear-claw method when handling a knife! If you don't, then you risk losing the tip of your finger."

"You don't always have to be exact with your measurements unless you're baking rather than cooking!"

"And always, always , ALWAYS … add. More. Salt!"

"Oh yes, THAT One! Salt is the lifeblood of flavour and the main difference between a bland dish that no one likes and the most amazing meal of all time!"

"Salt is so important for making things taste good that when the government found out there were iodine deficiencies in the general public, they had companies add iodine to their salt in order to fix it."

"That's why table salt is 'iodized', but that means that the salt in question isn't pure and so you need even MORE of it to do the trick. This is why you should always use kosher salt while cooking. The whole point of kosher salt is to be without any extra things added. Also pickling salt is the exact same thing as kosher salt, just with a different label!" Anne was a little put off by the focus on something that was so deadly to her adopted family, but then she made a connection that she figured might help her out a little.

"W-well, you said that anyone can be allergic to anything, so… w-what if someone's allergic to salt? Hypothetically, of course." The two parents glanced at each other for a split second before the father spoke up again.

"What, they've got hypertension?"

"I don't really know anything about that condition, just that when a customer says they have it, you back off the salt and just go with foods that have more natural flavour."

"And then what you actually use depends on the flavour preferences of the person."

"I usually just load it up with capsaicin, either actual peppers or pure spice. No real need for a lot of salt when you can barely feel your face 'cause it feels like your mouth is on fire! It’s such a good feeling!" Hearing that made Anne perk up. She and Sprig had consistently challenged themselves and each other to try eating Hop Pop’s pain peppers, so she was pretty good at handling spiciness. But discovering that her kind was actually supposed to like it suddenly made her feel a lot more validated!

"Oh, I actually really like spiciness too. My… my adopted grandpa grew these special super spicy peppers that I challenged myself with all the time! I eventually grew to really like them!" She figured that revealing the fact that she still had a guardian in her adopted family would be okay. That way her birth parents would know that she wasn't left alone after her adopted parents passed away. And telling them about the pain peppers might make them more likely to respect Hop Pop, regardless of if they ever actually meet each other.

The two of them shared a look again for a moment before the driver put his focus back onto the road. There was a bit of silence before the woman turned around to face the girl and seemed to contemplate something. She eventually asked what was on her mind.

“Your… adopted family. How many are there and what do they do for a living?” Anne went quiet at this. She didn’t really want to say anything that would indicate the fact that they were a different species, but she knew that simply not talking about them wouldn’t do any good!

“Umm… well, we’ve just got a little vegetable farm on the outskirts of a village, so I’m a farm girl! There’s my grandpa and my two little siblings. My little brother is ten and my little sister is five. They’re the biological children of… the two that I grew up calling ‘mom’ and ‘dad’. Back when I was about eight years old, they were… they were attacked by a wild animal and… eaten. They… they died protecting me and my little siblings.” She choked out the last bit, hoping that she wouldn’t be asked to elaborate any further. She just couldn’t keep talking about that any more. Thankfully her birth parents seemed to understand, as they went quiet for some time before her mother simply said.

“I’m sorry to hear that. If it helps at all, they have my utmost respect for that.” Silence hung in the air for a good while. Her biological parents were clearly processing everything while Anne simply tried her best to get her emotions under control. She was the only one of the Plantar kids who really remembered their parents, so it’d been the hardest on her when all of that happened. At the very least, it seemed like her birth parents were smart enough to refrain from asking about her adopted parents after that.

No one spoke until the robot carriage they were in came to a complete stop while surrounded by others like it. Finally, Anne’s father turned around in his seat and looked at his daughter before giving her some instructions.

“Okay, so if I’ve figured out anything about you so far, it’s that the village you were raised in is pretty isolated from the rest of the world. So there’s no doubt a LOT of things you know nothing about despite it being common knowledge here. Like the existence of soap, for starters.” Anne looked away, but still listened as he continued “So I know you’re going to have many questions about many things. But while we’re in public, I’m going to ask that you wait to ask any questions just in case someone overhears and gets nosy. Just stick by us, okay?”

The girl nodded in response. Sure, he was wrong about Wartwood being an isolated village, but she wasn’t about to stop him from thinking something like that because it was so convenient for her! She’d still have to be careful about her questions, but at the very least that opened up some of her options. And with that out of the way, the three of them stepped out of the robot carriage and made their way towards a building that Anne had never seen before!

Once they were inside, the girl was awestruck from all of the clothing she saw just hanging up on racks. She assumed that every piece was being sold, but she couldn't stop wondering how many people worked to make all of these clothes! She'd only ever had one set of clothes at the time before, so seeing this much all at once was amazing!

"Okay, so what you do is you go around and look at any styles you like. I want you to pick out six sets of clothes that you like and multiple sizes of each. We'll get you some properly fitting outfits!" The father instructed her. She was surprised at the idea of having a whole six different sets of clothes to choose from, but she wasn't about to complain! Once she collected some, she presented them to her birth parents and they directed her towards this small section in the back of the store that had a bunch of 'fitting rooms', as they were apparently called.

It was there that she weeded out all of the clothes that didn't fit her properly and made her final decisions on what she wanted for her outfits! Her personal favourite was this shirt and shorts combo where the shorts were a dull blue (apparently made of a material called 'denim') and the shirt was mostly white with red shoulders and a design that looked like a flame on the chest. When she saw herself in the mirror wearing these clothes, she realized just how different she already appeared from when she arrived in this world! She both looked and felt cleaner while wearing brand new clothes that were completely different from her usual style.

She actually looked like an intelligent being instead of a monster in frog clothing! But when she looked harder, she still saw the same hideous creature that terrified so many amphibians staring back at her. Which one was the real one? Was it both? She could be both, right? Either way, she shook the thoughts out of her head and changed back into the cheap set of clothes that barely fit her so that they could go and pay for her new outfits. On the way to the register, she even saw a bright yellow coat of sorts that appeared to have a frog silhouette on the back! Even though it wasn’t a part of one of the outfits she chose, her birth parents still let her have it just because they knew she liked frogs.

After that, said parents led her to a shoe store and she had relatively the same reaction as before! From that place, she picked out four new pairs of shoes. One was a set of bright yellow rain boots, one was a pair of actual sandals that she swapped over to right away, and the other two were actually proper shoes of distinctly different makes. She couldn’t decide which one she preferred, so her biological parents had gotten both for her!

One pair was some light, breathable yellow shoes that went up her ankles a little and the other was a far sturdier set of purple and white shoes. She made it her mission to at least try to wear those ones on occasion because she noticed that those were the most expensive ones and she'd feel bad if she let them go to waste. For the moment though, she'd wear the sandals due to not wearing any of these 'socks' that her birth parents mentioned. During the process, her father actually ran off somewhere to get something else. When she asked to see what he got, though, he hid it from her and said that it was a secret.

She supposed that that was fair. They'd already spent so much money on her, so they deserved to be able to spend a bit on themselves. When they were done getting her all of those things, they took her back to the robot carriage and told her that they had one last store to stop in. When she wondered what kinds of things they could still possibly want to get for her, they mentioned that they had a room in their house that was originally meant to be hers. Since she went missing, it became a storage room that had a bunch of random things inside. But now that she was back, they were going to get her some furniture and clean the room out!

Anne felt a little bad about how much money they were dropping for her when she wasn't even sure if she'd be staying with them for very long. After all, she needed to get back home and take care of some things over there, so who knew if she'd even come back to her birth parents at all afterwards? Granted she definitely wanted to at this point, but it was still a little up in the air. The girl knew that she needed to put those thoughts aside, though! She had an act to keep up and she was determined to follow through!

Eventually they arrived at a massive store filled to the brim with more random furniture than she’d ever seen before! She did her best to keep her cool around all of this stuff that was appropriately sized for her species, but it seemed her parents caught on to the excitement she was feeling because her mother put her hand on the girl’s shoulder to calm her down a little bit. She took a couple of deep breaths and started looking around. She was told that she could pick out a bed, a nightstand, a dresser, a desk, a chair to go with the desk, a standing lamp, and a table lamp.

Along the way, Anne got so overwhelmed looking around she bumped something and accidentally knocked it over! She scrambled to get it back to its original position, but her father noticed before she could. Thankfully he didn't scold her or anything and instead, he helped her put it back. It wasn't broken or anything, so it wasn't like they had to pay for it. She still apologized, but his response caught the girl off guard.

"Don't worry, you're only human after all." That was a new word. But he'd said it with the kind of casualness that made it clear that she was supposed to know what that word meant. Was it some sort of slang for 'young girl'? He noticed her confusion, but thankfully mistook it for her not being familiar with the phrase as a whole.

"You know, every human being makes mistakes. I do, your mom does, everyone here does! 'To err is human', as they say. So don't worry about it!" He gave her a pat on her back as he turned and walked away. Did… did he just drop their species name? He basically said that everyone in the building was 'human' and Anne had a pretty good feeling that the only real thing ALL of them had in common was their species!

She wasn't completely certain about it, but until proven otherwise, she was more than willing to call herself that! With renewed vigor, the 'human' girl ran up to join her biological parents and finish up their mission! It took them a little while, but she eventually picked out all of the stuff in question and they brought the list of desired furniture right up to another register. Apparently the business had a delivery service that would get the furniture over there within a couple of days, so they technically left empty handed. But that was okay because that stuff was still on its way!

All that was left after that was to go home and make dinner. Once everything was finally set up, the plan that Anne had been concocting was finally put into motion. She approached her mother while she was in the kitchen.

"Hey, umm… so I was wondering…"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Ever since you said that cooking without salt was a thing, I started to get really curious about it. Would you be able to… show me how?" The mother smiled at hearing this and obliged immediately! The girl knew that if she memorized a quick saltless recipe, (they DID say that measurements didn't need to be exact) then she could try to recreate it after her birth parents went to sleep and then take it to her frog family. She could only hope that they were doing okay.

Meanwhile, Sprig woke up to an empty stomach once again. It had been three days since Anne was taken and the rest of the family didn't have enough courage in this new and strange world to go much farther than they did on the first night. But they also didn't have Anne and her much tougher skin to prevent them from getting a couple of mild chemical burns here and there from brushing up against the wrong things while digging through garbage. Still, Hop Pop insisted that they should give her at least a week before trying to track her down. He trusted her to make her way back to them on her own, even when she was surrounded by her own species.

In the meantime, the frogs probably wouldn't have survived if it weren't for the sheer luck of finding a whole bunch of small, clear containers with fresh water in them! The nearby pond they found in this small forest had a nasty smell that made the family recoil in disgust. They also found out that at least a few of the birds in this world were about the size of the flies back home, so it was easy enough to catch them with their tongues. Their bodies weren't used to dealing with feathers, but they didn't really have any other choice if they were going to avoid the rest of Anne's species.

However, the birds of this world weren't necessarily dumb. They'd started avoiding the areas that the frogs were in, meaning it was back to digging through garbage for the little family. They eventually managed to wait until nightfall once more and were about to head out when Sprig heard a very familiar sound! Thinking that he may have imagined it, he got Hop Pop and Polly to stop and wait. If they heard it too, then…

“Hoooop Pooooop! Spriiiiig! Poooollyyyy!” It was Anne’s voice! Not only was she back, but she was actively calling for them! After confirming that the others heard her as well, the family sprinted in the direction of the sound!

“AAAANNNNNE!!” Sprig called back, trying to let his big sister know that they were there! Suddenly the calls for him and the rest of their family stopped and were replaced by the sounds of twigs snapping and foliage rustling. He rushed towards the sounds and next thing he knew, he was looking up at the horrifying monster that he knew and loved!

“ANNE!!” The three frogs shouted as they all hopped up onto The Wartwood Creature, hugging her tightly now that they all knew she was safe! Sure, she smelled different and was clearly wearing a completely new outfit, but it was still her. She was here and she was safe ! She didn’t hug them back, but when they looked up, they noticed that she was holding an extremely large bowl filled with something unknown. She quickly set the bowl down onto the ground with great care and then returned the hugs she was receiving! The family was finally back together!

When they eventually let go, Sprig was just starting to get a whiff of whatever was inside the bowl she’d brought. Whatever it was, it smelled particularly good and the young frog’s stomach started to ache! Anne then explained that it was indeed filled with fresh food that she’d brought for them and they could eat as much as they wanted! While the frogs filled themselves up, Anne sat down on the ground and told them about everything that had happened within the past three days!

Sprig remembered how he and his big sister had joked about potentially finding her biological parents, but not actually expecting to find them! The fact that she apparently did almost seemed like she was kidding at first, but she was particularly serious about it, so he eventually decided to not question it. Perhaps if he didn’t take that level of sheer luck for granted, then Hop Pop, Polly, and he would be able to go back with Anne and actually stay with them! When he brought it up, though, his big sister looked troubled.

“Well… believe me, I’d love to just bring you guys in, but… I don’t fully trust them yet. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like they’re hiding something. The first time I asked them about frogs, it seemed like they were kinda reluctant to say something and then they got a little nervous about the idea that I’d hurt anyone who would harm a frog. Does that mean that they’re okay with frogs getting hurt? Something just… doesn’t add up and I get the feeling they’re hiding something. For all I know, bringing you there could put you in far more danger!

“I mean, do you remember Wigbert? Wally’s father? He was all friendly and everything at first, but once he discovered the truth about his son, he got really toxic really fast! I haven’t even known my biological parents for twenty-four hours yet. What if they’re actually like that, or worse?! I don’t want to potentially risk your lives!” She explained while drawing her knees up to her chest. She looked genuinely ashamed of what she was asking of them, but Sprig could see her logic. Hop Pop, on the other hand, didn’t seem to agree.

“Anne. I love ya, but look at the state we’re in out here! We’re barely survivin’ and you want us ta STAY?!”

“I… I’m sorry, I want to bring you with me! I really do! But I don’t trust them to not hurt you in some sort of way! I promise that I’ll keep bringing you guys food and tomorrow night I’ll even see if I can get you guys some blankets! I want to give my birth parents at least a week, though. If I don’t and they turn out to be horrible people who’d try to hurt you, then… then I don’t know if I'd be able to stop them! They’re both bigger than me and I don’t know if the adults have some sort of special thing that the kids like me don’t.” She started crying at this, making Hop Pop realize just how bad she felt about it and that she really was trying her best. He sighed and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Well Anne, yer the one who’s actually met them. If you say there’s somethin’ off, then I’ll believe ya." She looked over to him from her curled up position with tears in her eyes.

"Thank you, Hop Pop!" She yelled as she grabbed him and pulled him in for another hug. Sprig and Polly joined them with the latter weighing in.

"We'll be okay out here! Aside from the others of your species, nothing we've seen so far even comes close to being a threat!" Hearing that, a thought seemed to pop into Anne's head.

"OH! By the way, I think I might've found out what my species is called! At least, I'm about eighty percent sure." The frogs all stopped to look up at her, stars in their eyes. Anne smiled back at them, sharing in their sudden excitement. She was starting to find more peace with herself now that she was finally learning more about her species right from the source. After a bit of a pause, she opened her mouth again.

"'Human'. I'm pretty sure we're called 'humans'." It was a foreign word on her tongue, but knowing what it (most likely) meant, it felt good to finally say! It wasn't long after that that Anne decided that she needed to get back to her birth parents' place. She didn't want them waking up in the middle of the night for a drink of water only to find that she was missing… again! That'd be just plain cruel!

Thankfully everything seemed to be okay when she got back. At the very least, they weren't looking for her in a panic or anything, so she figured that she got away with it. Sure enough, when morning actually came, they appeared to be none the wiser! After breakfast was finished, her father left in order to tend to their restaurant. Apparently both of them would normally go, but now they needed one of the two to stay behind and watch over Anne. The girl was fine with this, though. At the very least it'd give her the chance to individually assess her mother for trustworthiness!

Most of the day was just spent with her in the kitchen, but that was enough. The girl learned way more about cooking that day than she did when helping Stumpy and Felicia out after the salt flood. Maybe it was because of the circumstances being different on that day? Figuring that that was probably the case, she decided to pay attention so that she could finally figure out more about a human's natural diet. She had to stop herself from laughing when she found out that the most commonly consumed meat was actually bird! Oh how the tables had turned!

Unfortunately, Anne's mother did notice the missing ingredients for the food she made on the previous night. It hadn't been enough to really deter any meal plans, but it still caused suspicion. In the end, the girl falsely admitted to having gotten hungry in the middle of the night. She then complimented her mother, saying that the food she served was so good that she'd wanted more! The woman was definitely flattered, but still didn't approve of her daughter just grabbing food like that. She'd have to see if she could make more variety in smaller portions in order to make the lack of food in the cupboard less noticeable.

Or she could just ask her mother to show her a whole bunch of different dishes so that there'd be leftovers that she could take, like what actually happened. But Anne still learned how to make a lot of different foods that she could replicate for her froggy family later. By the time her father came home, she'd been in the kitchen for the whole day, only taking a break so that she could get some hours of sleep in. Therefore there was enough food to feed the lot of them (frogs included) for a few days! All they had to do was reheat the stuff after putting it into cold storage, which was apparently easy enough.

That evening though, her parents tried something new with her. Instead of setting her up to sleep on the couch, they insisted that she sit on it with them and watch this weird, glowing box that depicted something called a ‘movie’. Even Domino seemed to want to join in, settling on the arm rest. As far as she could tell, it was just like a play, but better! Apparently it was also ‘animated’, which she didn’t really understand until she actually saw it in action. From how her birth parents explained it, it seemed to be a lot like a flipbook that lasted over an hour and had professional music and voices added. In other words, insanely impressive!

The first one they showed her was about a supposedly fictional creature that was half fish and half human, but she wanted to be fully human. It was a little awkward for Anne to watch as the main character actively wanted to transform and spend the rest of her life like that without any supposed way to return to her true form! She remembered when she was first told the truth about her ‘medicine’ and how she wanted to remain a frog permanently, but was ultimately grateful for the chance to transform often. But then she remembered how Marcy didn't like her true form at all and would typically try to avoid having to transform if she could help it.

All in all, Anne would say that the story was good, but she couldn't really relate to the desire to permanently keep a form that she wasn't raised in. The next 'movie' was about a cursed prince who was turned into a monster and had to get someone to love him despite it in order to break said curse. Also, for no good reason, the rest of the castle staff got cursed and turned into inanimate objects, but were still able to talk and move on their own. Anne knew that that wasn't how curses worked, but she let it slide because it clearly wasn't supposed to be real in the first place. After hearing a song (they were apparently musicals) about the other characters wanting to return to their true forms, the girl thought of Sasha and how she preferred that over her toad form.

As it was, Anne used whichever form was most convenient for whatever she was doing without having a real preference for either. Sometimes she was forced to hide one form for the sake of safety, but both were definitively a part of her. The third and final movie of the night made her think of exactly that, though! Unlike the first two, there were no transformations, but the main character did have to pretend to be the opposite gender or else she’d be killed. She hid her secret well enough and when the reveal happened, she was spared because of the connections she made.

This ultimately led to the character saving the lives of everyone and being honoured as a hero! In fact, it specifically reminded Anne of when she stopped those tadpole-napping toads by scaring them. How even despite her differences from the norm, she was still able to save the day! And with the three movies done, it was starting to get late. Her birth parents let her stay up while they went to bed and even gave her a few books to read this time around, not knowing that she was going to head out that very night.

Anne’s visit to her family went much like the one on the previous night, except that Hop Pop pointed out to the girl that her biological parents might’ve been trying to figure out more about her with those movies. If they had been watching her reactions, then that would actually make sense! She'd have to be a little more cautious about what she did and didn't react to. After helping her frog family set up a little blanket shelter in their hiding spot, she headed back for another day of testing her biological parents!

The third day saw a reversal from the second where her mother went to tend to their restaurant and her father stayed home instead. He was… an interesting one. He seemed to really like these devices that he called 'electronics' and he even taught Anne how to use a couple. Especially the one that he called a 'phone'. Seeing as it was apparently supposed to be a communication device that could connect to any other phone anywhere else, she could see why he wanted her to know how to use one. It was a little overwhelming, so she took a nap after that. When she woke up, he decided to introduce her to a different hobby of his that was much more up her alley: gardening!

Having grown up on a vegetable farm, Anne knew how to handle plants! In fact, she even noticed how a couple of his plants weren't in the best condition and reflexively suggested a few ways to change things so that those ones would thrive. Before she knew it, she was actually teaching him about soil nutrients! She didn't know for sure if the knowledge she had about that still applied regardless of which dimension they were in, but he seemed to be listening to her, so she kept going. At least it made her seem like she had SOME knowledge about something!

At one point, she even asked him if she could set up her own plant and he immediately handed her a pot with fertilized soil in it! So long as it was potted, it wouldn’t turn into an invasive species, right? She didn't tell him what she was planting, but he seemed to respect her desire to keep it a surprise. In reality, she planted one of her magic canceling berries because the ones she brought with her were starting to get a little mushy and she'd rather have fresh ones if she could help it. Hopefully her father wouldn't be weirded out by how fast they grow… and she sincerely hoped they would grow in this foreign world!

Shortly afterwards, the mother returned and the lot of them had dinner. They decided to reheat some of the leftovers from the previous day and the parents were once again confused at the fact that some food was missing. This time, Anne played dumb and pretended that she had no idea what they were talking about. She felt bad about lying to them, but she didn't really have much of a choice at this point. Either they'd discover the truth in time or they'd prove themselves untrustworthy and she'd leave for the sake of the family that raised her.

Instead of movies that night, the parents decided to finally move all of the stuff out of their storage room so that Anne could make it into her new bedroom. The girl mostly just let them do their thing because they knew what was what and where it should go. But she did check in on them when they were moving out something interesting. She walked over to investigate and even put a hand on it. It looked like a baby's crib made out of some unknown material and large enough to hold a ten year old frog. She remembered Hop Pop saying that she was about that size when they found her, so… was this hers? She was startled by her mother speaking up.

"That was where you were sleeping when you disappeared. We put you to bed all safe and sound only to find you gone the next morning. There were no signs of a break in or even a struggle. It was like you just disappeared into thin air! Neither of us could believe what happened and we were so distraught that there wasn't much we could really do! Believe me, though; we tried! We searched everywhere for you, but we couldn't find you anywhere.

"The police couldn't seem to help either, even though that's literally their job. And… and when someone is missing for seven years, they're… they’re legally declared dead… Your grandparents on my side even held a funeral for you, despite only having seen you once… It was hard for all of us…" She clearly had a difficult time talking about this, seeing as she was getting teary eyed. But were her tears coming from her remembering the sadness she felt or were they from the happiness of Anne finally being back?

She looked down at the crib in front of her. Despite it not being made of wood or metal, it was clearly sturdy! Especially since it was still in one piece after all of these years. These human parents of her’s really loved her and wanted the best for her all along, didn’t they? When the girl looked up at her mother’s face, she saw the amount of heartbreak and relief mixing in her expression.

It almost reminded her of her frog mom whenever she’d managed to escape danger as a little kid! How she would always fret over her and Sprig because she clearly cared so much. Anne remembered the way that she would show so much understanding and love by actually listening to her and trying to help her with anything that was wrong. And now her human mother was here and suddenly doing so much to make her feel welcome. Maybe… maybe she could have something like that again? She hesitated for a moment, but then put a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

“That really must have been hard. I remember how hard it was to accept that my adopted parents were… gone. There weren’t even any bodies left to recover, so I know what it’s like to have a funeral when you don’t even have any remains. The difference is that I’m still around while I know for a fact that they’re not. You were parents who lost their kid whereas I was a kid who lost her parents… twice. But now I’m back and… and I feel like if I call you two ‘mom’ and ‘dad’, then I’m effectively spitting on the memory of the pair that raised me.

“I’m sorry that I feel this way, but I can’t help it. It happened when I was about eight years old, so unlike my little siblings, I still remember them and…”

“And you don’t want to lose us in the same way after getting attached to us?” Her father cut in. She thought for a moment before responding.

“Kind of. The thing that got them can’t be found anywhere around here, so I know you’re safe from that. I just… I hope they wouldn’t be upset now that I’ve found you.” This gave her birth parents pause for a few moments. They looked at each other before looking back at their daughter and trying to console her, starting with the mother.

“You know, I’m very glad that you were found and raised by someone who left such a good impact on you that you still love them. I wish we could have met them, but I understand why we can’t.”

“They were so good to you that we don’t mind the fact that you called them ‘mom’ and ‘dad’. I mean, what else were you supposed to call them? It’s normal for adopted children to call their adopted parents those names. And I’m sure they’d be okay with you calling us those names as well, but I understand why you’re nervous to.”

“We won’t push you to do that before you’re ready, okay?” Anne smiled up at her birth parents. Maybe she’d be able to introduce them to her frog family earlier than expected? She was still unsure, though. What if the species difference actually meant something to them? She’d need a couple more days, at least. But for that moment, she gave the two of them a hug and then offered to help them move more of the stuff out of that room.

They got everything moved out and into the attic, but left it rather dusty. The parents assured the girl that it was fine because they’d just clean it the next day and then the following day would be the actual furniture delivery! So after about an hour of cool-down, the adults went to bed and the girl started making preparations to go visit her frog family again. The whole thing was beginning to become almost like a routine by this point!

After giving her adopted family some more food, she told Hop Pop about her conversation with her biological family. He agreed with her on the fact that they were clearly trying for her, but still cautioned her against fully trusting them quite yet.

“Ya see Anne, after ya left last night, I started doin’ some thinkin’. It’s obvious that whatever amphibians do exist in this world are a much lower class than the ‘humans’. So you’re right about the potential a them mistreatin’ us. Durin’ the day sometimes, we actually go out to the edge a this forest and see if we can spot any a them. They never notice us ‘cause we’re careful, but we haven’t seen any amphibians yet and that worries me.

“The point is that the other humans worry me. We know that yer safe, ya always are! But what about the others? We know they’re intelligent, but we don’t know exactly how their minds really work. So we need ta know which ones are safe and which ones aren’t and to do that, we’re gonna be trustin’ ya ta make those judgements fer us, okay?” The girl looked down towards her grandpa and nodded. He trusted her to do this for her family, so she’d trust him to be safe and keep Sprig and Polly out of harm’s way as well!

That same level of trust wasn’t exactly easy to get out of her birth parents, though. The moment that she got back to their place, she was confronted with both of their tired and angry faces looking down at her! They’d caught her in the act as she was coming back and she’d never felt this small in her true form, not even when she was facing Andiras himself! They brought her into the dining room and sat her down to talk to her. It started with them staring at each other for a while before her mother gave an exasperated sigh.

“Anne… do you have ANY idea how worried we were?! Your father got up to get some water, realized you weren’t around, called for you, woke me up, and all we could do was worry! We were THIS close-” she held her index finger and thumb together with a miniscule amount of space between them “-to calling the police again! The only thing that stopped us was realizing that even more food was missing from the fridge. Seeing as every night you’ve spent with us, some food has gone missing, it’s obvious that you’re taking it somewhere. Now where are you taking it and why?”

The girl could completely understand why they were upset. Any self respecting parent would be! But she couldn’t just tell them about her frog family yet, could she? She’d already started seeing them as overall good people earlier that day, but what Hop Pop had said just a little bit ago about trusting her started to give her an idea.

"I… I can't tell you."

"Why not?!"

"... Do you trust me?"

"Anne, it's not a matter of whether we trust you or not, it's a matter of whether we trust the rest of society or not. And frankly, there are enough awful people that walk the streets that we can’t trust them! You've already been kidnapped once, so I thought you’d understand that better than anyone!"

"Okay, fair. BUT!! That was when I was a baby! I'm not a baby anymore, so I can handle myself. If it makes you feel any better, I've actually gotten… self defense courses from at least two different professionals. So I really CAN handle myself!" She didn't tell them that they were actual fighting lessons nor that the first set came from a criminal that tried to get her and her siblings to rob a train.

"That doesn't matter when many of those people have guns , Anne! Do… do you even know what that means?" Her father finally chimed in. And while she didn't actually know what he was talking about, she figured that it was something dangerous based on the tone of his voice.

“I… I don’t, but it really feels like you guys aren’t trusting me here.”

“Anne, your mother already told you-”

“I heard her! But how do you expect me to trust you guys when you won’t trust me?! I can tell that you’re trying, but when I asked if you trusted me, you dodged the question ! At least my adopted family trusted me enough to let me go and find you guys and now that I have, you refuse to trust me! You have no idea what I’m going through right now and I just… I can’t talk about it yet. So I REALLY need you guys to actually trust me. If you don’t, then… then I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay here.”

She mumbled the last part, almost hoping her birth parents wouldn’t hear her. But it seemed they did because both of them recoiled with their eyes wide. Did she go too far? Perhaps, but she couldn't just stop helping her adopted family and if her birth parents had to know that something was up, then so be it. The two of them looked at each other for a moment before her father excused himself. There was awkward silence until he came back with a small white box and put it in front of the girl.

"Open it." He instructed. There was no way she was being rewarded for sneaking out in the middle of the night, so she was a little suspicious. But she was pretty confident that her birth parents wouldn't hurt her, so she did what was asked of her. Inside the box was a smaller, black one with a couple of little buttons on the side and a tiny sunken in spot on the back. She remembered her father trying to teach her how to use something like this earlier that day, so she began to wonder if this gift had already been planned or not.

"It's your very own phone. Now if you ever get into trouble, you can use it to call us and we'll come to help, okay? It's very dangerous out there, especially when you don't have one of those. But so long as you carry that with you everywhere, we'll be able to feel at least a little better about you being out of the house on your own." Hearing her father explain that, Anne considered his point. He'd told her earlier that these things were very expensive and difficult to replace, so she had to be careful with it.

She thanked her father and then tested her limited knowledge of this thing by trying to turn it on. When it finally lit up, she took a look through it and noticed something in there that wasn’t in her father’s phone. She figured that they could spare one quick question about it before they went back to bed.

“Umm… real quick, what’s this ‘tracker’ thing about?” They gave her a look that betrayed how tired they were, but her father gave a quick explanation anyways.

“Well, it’s a thing that’ll let us know where you are in case you ever get into trouble. That way we can come and help! Just leave it there and it’ll do its job automatically.” So it would activate on its own if something ever happened? It suddenly made so much more sense for them to give it to her at this point. She looked up at her biological parents and saw that they were both clearly exhausted and in need of sleep. Anne figured it'd be best if she simply put the phone away so that she could ask them more about it in the morning. The girl had to promise that she wouldn't leave the house again for the rest of the night, but that didn't mean she had to stay home the next night, so it was okay.

In the meantime, Anne slept a fair amount and then went out to the back yard once the sun had risen in order to see if the berry bush that she planted was growing in this strange world. Only a day and she could already see a tiny sprout starting to pop up. She smiled and started tending to the rest of the plants, only to be greeted by her birth parents by the time she got back inside. She had to argue that the back yard counted as part of the house since it was fenced in and that she didn't go outside until the sun had risen, so she didn't technically break her promise. They both grumbled a little bit at this, but seemed to brush it off during breakfast.

Once they were finished, they informed the girl that that day was some sort of 'community day' and she'd have to go with them to some sort of temple. Apparently this happened once per month and Anne wasn't sure if she should be scared or excited, so she approached it with caution. She helped them load up the back of their robot carriage with a bunch of different things that appeared to be wrapped in very thin metal. After that, she got inside and fastened herself into her seat at the same time that they did so.

When they finally got there, it was far from anything that the girl had expected! So far, she'd seen several other humans of varying breeds, all mixing and mingling like they were all one people. It was definitely good to see because it proved that her friendship with Marcy and even the few positive interactions she had with Sasha were completely natural. But what she saw in front of her was a collection of MANY other humans who were all the same breed as her! Apparently her breed had some sort of unique culture that was a little different from the norm and this 'community day' thing was supposed to be an opportunity for them to indulge in that. Granted, she could be wrong about that, but that's what it seemed like.

Anne's birth parents lead her to what looked like a tent with one side completely open and a fancy looking table sitting in the way. They got behind the table and once they started loading it up with food, Anne realized exactly what this was! It was just like market day back in Wartwood and her birth parents had their own stand! Finally there was something that she was at least a little familiar with. The mother seemed to notice how relaxed she suddenly was and decided to ask about it.

"You look like you're no stranger to selling things at a stand." The girl contemplated telling them a little about her experiences doing so. They already knew that she was a farm girl, so it'd only make sense to tell them about the next logical step.

"Well, one can't survive on vegetables alone, so most of the stuff we grew on the farm would be taken to the market and sold so that we could buy proper groceries later." Her mother nodded in a way that showed how much she understood and then left the conversation at that. After setting up, Anne’s mother asked her to wear a special hat that had the restaurant’s logo on it and then stand in front of the stall with a plate to hand out free samples. Simple enough, right?

Well that’s what Anne thought right up until a group of about five different old ladies showed up. They started off by speaking in a language that she didn’t understand, so she looked to her birth parents for help. Her father came over and… started speaking in the same language?! Anne was extremely confused, but in that moment she also realized why both of her parents had the same heavy accent. They were bilingual and their second language was Anne’s native one!

The conversation between them went on for a good while before one of the old ladies put a hand on the girl’s shoulder and looked straight at her. Anne was a little nervous about a total stranger touching her, but she figured that if her father was okay with it, then it’d be alright.

“Welcome home, Anne.” The old lady said with the utmost sincerity. Meanwhile the rest of them surrounded her and her father simply smiled and told her a little about what they were talking about.

“They were wondering who you were and I just gave them a brief rundown. They’d like to show you around and tell you a little about some Thai traditions while your mother and I run the stand. Don’t worry, they do this kind of stuff all the time and everyone here loves them. They’re some of the few people outside of the family that we always trust.” So they were effectively tour guides that offered to give her a free tour? That’d certainly be helpful!

She went with them and learned so much about all of the different traditions and little cultural things that she was actually kind of overwhelmed by it all. The girl had to assume that everything they were practiced in explaining were things that not every human knew, which helped her to pick out what was normal in what places! She was sure that she missed several things by the time they were all done, but the old ladies seemed to be pretty understanding of that as one of them held a book out to her.

“Here. A gift for you, dear.” The text on the front read ‘Traditional Thai Recipes’ with some letters that Anne was unfamiliar with underneath. Given the bilingual nature of the people in this area though, she assumed that it just said the exact same thing except in that language. She opened the book to find that seemingly all of the recipes had the same sort of bilingual print, so it might even help her to learn the language a little. Not only that, but studying the recipes in the book would help her connect with her birth parents a little more, seeing as they were indeed chefs!

She thanked the old ladies for the very thoughtful gift just as they lead her around and back to her parents’ stand again in order to drop her off. Given how overwhelmed she was, the girl simply elected to stay right there and pretend to study the book while letting her mind just calm itself. She was only pulled out of it when her birth parents gave her a plate that had a bunch of the stand’s food on it. She ate with them and before she knew it, it was starting to get a little dark. So her biological parents packed their stand up and headed home.

Anne hadn’t really had a chance to get a midday nap in, so she’d have to make her visit to her frog family rather quick. If she didn’t, then she’d risk being too tired to handle the next day’s events! She was mostly left alone with the recipe book for the remainder of the evening before they went to bed. As usual though, the girl lagged a little bit until she was sure they were asleep before heading out. When she flipped the page to the next recipe, she almost wished she hadn’t.

Anne’s heart sank as her eyes went wide! The top of the page read ‘Stir Fried Frog’... She thought that maybe it was some sort of trick. Maybe it was just called that because it was shaped like a frog? She continued to read and to her horror, she came face to face with a fact that she’d hoped to never see. Humans were… natural amphibivores?!

No! It couldn’t be! There were so many things that made it clear that humans thought frogs were cute! Why would they eat something they thought was cute?! She was so confused and horrified that she started hyperventilating! She needed to get out of there and check on her family immediately ! She almost forgot to bring the food for them, but she thankfully remembered at the last minute and then dashed out the door with both the food and the book in her arms!

The second she met up with her frog family, they immediately knew that something was wrong! Hop Pop sat her down and as they distributed the food amongst themselves, he asked her about it. All she could do was sit down, cover her mouth, and hold out the book. Finally remembering that her new phone was in her pocket, she pulled it out and used its ‘screen’ to create enough light for her family to properly read it.

The Wartwood Creature silently directed her froggy family to the specific cursed page and waited for their reactions. She feared that they would run away from her. Maybe they’d get her to take one of her bottles of medicine in order to shut down any of those instincts before they rose up. This was the longest amount of time that she’d ever spent in her true form, after all! Instead, after a lengthy period of silence, she felt a tiny pair of slimy hands on her arm.

“We know you’d never hurt us, Anne.” Polly assured her “In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s not talking about frogs like us. You see, Sprig found something pretty interesting today.” The human looked over to her little brother and saw him reach into his hat. What he pulled out was certainly a surprise for the girl, but it also answered a lot of other questions.

In his hands was a frog that was about the same size as the bitties from that one village on the way to Newtopia. Except that this one wasn’t wearing any clothes and she couldn’t really see the light of intelligence in its eyes. No real thoughts at all, just… a frog as a standard animal. It definitely freaked the poor girl out, but then Hop Pop came over and weighed in.

“I think ya should ask yer birth parents about it. If they know that you value frogs in general so highly, then they should be sensitive ta the whole thin’.” Anne knew he was right, but she couldn’t go back just yet. Sure, she was tired and she really needed sleep, but she also needed the comfort of her frog family more than ever by this point. She may have nodded, but she didn't move.

"Soooo… what even is this thing?" Sprig asked her while pointing at the phone. The question worked enough as a distraction for Anne to start telling them about her day and all of the things that happened. By the time she was done, she was nearly falling asleep right where she was. Her family offered to watch over her while she slept, but she knew that she had to get back to her birth parents' house in order to confront them about… the recipe.

The one thing that stopped them was a sound that she’d gotten used to, but hardly expected! A short meow came from the bushes as a familiar black and white fluffball poked her head out. Did Domino follow Anne all the way out here? Sure, the cat was apparently allowed to come and go as she pleased, but she wasn’t expecting to be tracked by her! Once she saw her frog family getting ready to defend themselves, she put a hand in between them.

“Woah guys, it’s just my birth parents’ pet cat. I know she looks like a kill-a-pillar, but she’s completely harmless! She’s not even a bug! In fact, she’s actually pretty friendly if you let her smell your hand first.” The cat stretched her head out towards the frogs and her nose twitched. All of them were pretty nervous about going anywhere near that thing, though. They all remembered when Anne had brought home that kill-a-pillar, named her ‘Charlie2’, and it grew up only to try to eat the whole family.

It was a miracle that they survived that whole encounter in the first place, so the human could understand why her family was nervous about Domino as well. But once Sprig cautiously placed a hand out for the cat to smell, he realized that she wasn’t biting him! Instead, she rubbed the top of her head against his hand and that was what made him see that she really was harmless. They could only hope that she wouldn’t get any bigger!

After the cat seemed to decide that she had enough of the frogs, she rubbed herself against Anne’s legs and then turned to leave. The human left shortly after, assuring her frog family that she'd be able to get back on her own without collapsing from exhaustion. When she snuck back inside, her birth parents were still seemingly asleep. So of course, she followed suit right there on the couch and woke up to her mother offering her breakfast.

"Mmm… thanks." She mumbled as she took the plate. She found out that both of them would be staying home that day in order to deal with the furniture delivery and then they'd take Anne grocery shopping. It wasn't long after breakfast that there was a knock on the door and some strangers came into the house carrying the things. This time, Anne was asked to direct them on where to put the stuff because it was her bedroom.

The desk went against the far wall from the door with its chair right in front of it. The standing lamp went next to them. The bed went against the wall, close to the door with the nightstand in between it and said door. The table lamp went on top. Finally, the dresser was placed opposite to the bed and her room was finished. Once the guys left, she sat down on her new bed and felt that it was probably the most comfortable thing she'd ever settled down on! Apparently it was ‘queen’ size, which the girl thought might be a little excessive at first. But it did fit her true form really well, so she wasn’t about to complain.

She nearly fell asleep there, but was called downstairs by her birth parents instead. Ah, that's right. They were going to go grocery shopping! The girl figured she could stay up long enough for that to happen, right? Her biological parents certainly noticed how tired she was, so they promised to make the whole thing rather quick. Anne didn't really pay much attention to what was going on when they got to the store because of how much she was fighting to stay awake right up until her father handed her something.

"I can tell you're tired. I'm willing to get this for you if you can promise you won't down the whole thing in one go." She looked at the thing in his hand and saw that it was some sort of massive bottle of pink liquid with spikes on the upper part and a label that said 'Blam Berry Blitz - The drink that punches you in the face and doesn't stop.' Anne wasn't sure she wanted to be punched in the face by the drink, but given how many other things were seemingly metaphors in this crazy world, she assumed that must be one as well.

She looked at the ingredients list and didn't see anything relating to frogs in there, so the girl figured it'd be okay. She nodded and put the drink into the basket so that they could pay for it before she opened it. At least she hoped that was the norm in this world! The rest went by in a bit of a blur until Anne was sitting in the back of the robot carriage again and she was handed the drink. Popping off the lid and taking a sip, the taste hit her right away!

Bubbling and fizzy with the sweetest taste she'd ever imagined, she certainly felt the 'punch'! If said punch was how strong the flavour was, then she could get behind that. Despite the strength of it, it was still rather good. Before she knew it, she'd had three large gulps and her father was urging her to slow down! She listened after just one more gulp, but dang did she want more! And the best part was that she actually felt more energized afterwards! It was like she was on some sort of candy rush that just wasn't stopping any time soon.

After they got home and the girl helped her birth parents put everything away, (she was slowly learning where things went) she finally decided to confront them about the recipe. She told them that she wanted to talk to them about something important and asked them to sit down at the dining room table. When they did exactly as she requested, she grabbed the book, opened it to the dreaded page, and put it in front of them.

They both looked it over before the two of them took on a guilty look. Oh no. The recipe's existence was bad enough! Had they actually?...

"We were afraid you might find something like this." Her father admitted "We don't know why you like frogs so much, but I promise that we'll never make this recipe again."

"'AGAIN'?! You mean to tell me that you've actually made it in the past?!" Anne was both furious and terrified upon realizing that her birth parents were indeed amphibivores! Her mother tried to make an excuse.

"... Well… we're chefs. We've tried almost every recipe we have access to at least once." There was a beat of silence before Anne mumbled something. When they asked her to speak up, she looked them directly in the eyes and gave them a very simple question.

"How. Many. Times? How many times have you made this one?" The two of them looked at each other and then looked at the ground before the father answered.

"Rarely. Only a few times, honestly."

"So you…"

"If it makes you feel any better, we've never killed one. We just buy the meat already properly butchered." Anne covered her mouth. She didn't know if that was better or worse. Her birth parents seemed to notice her horror, so her mother tried to add a silver lining.

"And 'eating frogs' is actually so rare in this part of the world that you'd have a pretty hard time finding the meat anyways!" So it wasn't normal for most humans to eat frogs? That much was a relief, but that didn't change the fact that her birth parents were some of the few that did! Anne excused herself and went upstairs to her bedroom. She didn’t know what she was going to do!

For one, her birth parents had already spent so much time, effort, energy, and money on her within the past few days and she was actually starting to like them. But on the other hand, they were amphibivores ! And they didn’t even apologize for it! She didn’t know if she could really stay there at this point. She REALLY didn’t want to run away so soon after actually finding them, though! What if they could be rehabilitated? Then again, Marcy thought that Sasha could be rehabilitated and… and she never even got a chance to try it.

It still might be possible for a human to be rehabilitated from that, but with them being so much older… she’d need to talk to Hop Pop. At one point, the girl’s birth parents came up to her room and asked if she wanted to go downstairs to watch a movie, as if nothing was wrong. She didn’t know if she could really handle it after a conversation like that, but she couldn’t exactly go anywhere without them knowing and maybe their pick would help her better understand what to do about this whole thing?

She begrudgingly let them show her one new movie. At least she got a small reward for it in the form of Domino curling up next to her this time and resting her little head against her thigh. Brushing her fingers along the cat's soft fur actually helped her relax slightly and the purring certainly helped. Soon enough, she was actually able to focus on the movie in question. Apparently it was made by the same overall group that made the others from the previous night, but decades later.

This movie was a lot like the others, but instead it had the main characters both turn into frogs. Not the kind that she was familiar with, but the standard animal type that seemed to be native to this world. It was a little confusing, but once she got over the fact that they were effectively naked animal versions of what she knew frogs to be, she started actually kind of enjoying the movie. Eventually there was a moment where the main characters had to deal with some wildlife that was trying to eat them! One particular shot of a heron in an intimidating position made Anne’s heart race a little, but she tried to keep it under control.

After all, if the frogs of this world were that small, then the herons had to be little as well, right? It made sense to fear the herons of Amphibia, but not the birds of this world she was stuck in. The girl just had to hope that her birth parents wouldn’t notice how that scene shook her up. Perhaps they had? It was hard to tell, but if they did, then they didn’t say anything about it.

The musical sequence where the main characters were singing about wanting to go back to being human did resonate a little with Anne, though! She knew that feeling all too well, but for all intents and purposes these characters were maliciously cursed. Meanwhile Anne’s transformation was meant to be for her benefit and it was cancelable at almost any time. Despite the differences, Anne knew what it was like to long for one’s true form.

However, there was eventually a part with some humans who were trying to hunt the frogs in order to eat them and it made Anne severely uncomfortable! Her birth parents explained that those humans were depicted as some mixture of crazy and stupid because eating frogs was so rare. It barely helped the girl to feel better about the whole thing, but at least the humans-turned-frogs in the movie won the fight against the humans. In fact, the movie treated it like it was a good thing that the humans fled while screaming, which left the girl even more confused! Wouldn’t a movie made by and for humans want the humans to succeed more?

Or maybe it was okay because the main characters were originally human. She’d have to file that question away for later, though. What if it was too close to common knowledge? Soon enough, the characters came to someone who knew how to turn them back into humans. And it was here that the girl had a bit of a slip-up. Upon realizing how convoluted the solution was, she muttered to herself.

“Can’t they just… berries?” It took her a couple of moments to realize what she had just said and when she did, she looked over to her birth parents. They wore quite a bit of confusion on their faces, but Anne refused to elaborate. She wasn’t even supposed to say that in the first place, so she wasn’t about to go any further with it. Instead she just kept watching the movie.

In the end, it finished with another unrealistic method of breaking the curse (albeit not what the story tried to get the audience to expect) and the main characters got their happy ending. While Anne’s biological parents did try to get her to watch another, the girl wasn’t really feeling up to it. She claimed that her lack of sleep was catching up to her and that she just wanted to go to bed. It wasn’t technically a lie, so it worked well enough.

Her claim worked well enough and she went back to her room. It wasn’t long after that that both of the adults in the house went to bed and the teenager once again started to head out. As she was grabbing some of the last bits of pre-made food from the fridge, she noticed the bottle of Blam Berry Blitz sitting there and figured it’d benefit her to take a couple of gulps. Knowing what to expect from the taste, she was able to pace herself more easily and left over half of the bottle for later.

When she opened the door, she saw that it was lightly raining. Not enough to cause any sort of issue, but enough to soak the girl by the time she got to her froggy family. She almost wished she’d borrowed one of her biological mother’s spare coats that she kept next to the door. But Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly didn’t seem too bothered by the moisture, so she figured it wouldn’t be an issue for her. The only thing was that her human clothes didn’t seem to be built for being wet, so they stuck uncomfortably to her skin.

That hardly mattered, though. She told her frog family about what her birth parents said in regards to eating frogs. They seemed just as disturbed as she was, but then Hop Pop took a deep breath and tried to console his eldest grandchild.

“Anne… when you first came back ta us, you said that you suspected somethin’ was up. That they were still hidin’ somethin’. And now we know what it was! You were right about them not bein’ safe fer us, but they are safe fer you. Maybe ya can get ‘em ta see the issue and get them ta fix it. Maybe not. I don’t know how easily they’d come around, but what I do know is that you’ve got a power in this world that we don’t.