Sasha awoke to the sight of a sagging canvas sheet hanging above her. She smelled like bog water, especially her wet, blonde hair that clung to her face and neck. Sitting up revealed she was resting on a camping cot in a tent being illuminated by two fireflies housed in a lantern hanging from the tent's centre pole.
Seeing her armour scattered about the floor refreshed her memory of what'd happened: in the fight against King Andrias she'd been kicked out a window before she could join Anne in the portal home Marcy created. She must've fallen into the marsh surrounding Newtopia, and she had a pretty good idea of who'd fished her out, but she couldn't be sure.
Quickly donning her armour, Sasha peaked out the tent entrance flap and reassuringly confirmed her suspicions. Captain Grime was laying against a pile of chopped wood before a fire, bordered by a ring of tents that included hers. If she had to guess they were at the last encampment left over from the toad army's campaign to storm Newtopia. The evening breeze chilled her damp clothing, so Sasha took a seat beside Grime and let the fire's heat radiate over her.
"I take it we didn't win?" Sasha asked.
"No, no we did not," Grime grimaced, picking up a log and tossing it onto the fire as Sasha looked around.
"Where is everyone?"
"Marcy managed to teleport Anne and the Plantar's to another world before King Andrias could stop her."
Sasha face lit up with a smile, "That's great, is she staying with us?"
Grime's good eye travelled from the fire to the nearby tent, which showed light spilling forth from its entrance flap. Sasha followed his gaze to the tent.
"I don't know if I can forgive her for taking the three of us here on purpose." Sasha looked back to him. "What about our troops?"
"They're occupying the tents around us as we speak." Grime's gaze stayed on the fire. Sasha scooched closer to the flames and brought her hands forward, observing the water from her soaked glove turn to steam. "Did she at least manage to get the box away from King Andrias?"
"No." Grime answered, poking the fire with a stick as an armoured toad approached his side.
"Sir, all the preparations have been made."
"Good, we'll head out at daybreak." Grime looked to Sasha as the toad walked back into one of the surrounding tents.
"Tomorrow we join forces with the Newtonian Army and take King Andrias down for good." Sasha stared at Grime, who averted his gaze from hers, almost like he was hiding something from her.
"What aren't you telling me, Grime?" Sasha watched as the battle-hardened toad avoided her gaze completely, pretending to tend to the fire.
"Grime?" She followed up, but there was no change to his demeanour. Taking hold of his shoulders, she turned him to face her. "Grime, I'm your lieutenant and second in command, right? We're a team, and teammates don't lie to one another, so just tell me what's going on." When there was no change in his demeanour Sasha started guessing. "What, did our troops suffer a lot of injuries?" Sasha watched Grime's good eye anxiously flick to Marcy's tent and back to the fire. "Wait, is Marcy okay?" Continuing to avoid looking at her, Sasha's heart practically dropping into her stomach as she shot to her feet and hurried to the tent.
"Marcy!" She called out upon entering, relaxing at the sight of her friend sleeping on a cot at the tent's far end, much like she had been earlier. As Sasha moved closer she noticed Marcy's arms were crossed with her hands covering her chest, kind of like vampires did in movies. "Marcy?" She asked, but Marcy remained silent and motionless.
"Stop pretending to be asleep and talk to me." Sasha chided her sleeping friend, tapping her arm. "You can't avoid talking to me forever." When that also didn't wake her she jostled Marcy a bit, causing her hands to fall aside and reveal a large, cauterized passage that went all the way through her sternum. Sasha screamed, recoiling in horror before rushing back and frantically shaking the girl's shoulders.
"Marcy? Marcy wake up! WAKE UP MARCY!"
Sasha suddenly felt Grime's strong arms wrap around her waist and pull her away.
"What are you doing, Grime? Let go of me!" Sasha ordered, flailing in his grip while her heart hammered in her chest. Marcy couldn't be dead, this had to be some sort of trick. "Where's the real Marcy!"
"That is the real Marcy, Sasha, she was impaled by King Andrias' sword." Grime elaborated before Sasha managed to stamp hard on his food. This released the upset teenager, who flew back to hold Marcy once more, praying she would open her eyes and start teasing her for getting so upset. But feeling Marcy's cold, clammy cheek on her palm, and seeing though the hole in her chest to the cot beneath only further confirmed her dearest friend was truly gone.
Sasha collapsed onto her knees, violently wrenching as she cradled Marcy dearly. She felt sick to her stomach, like something foul was trapped in her gut that kept catching the back of her throat and impeding her breathing.
"It happened shortly after you were knocked out the window. King Andrias got to her before she could join Anne and her friends." Grime added, placing a hand reassuringly on Sasha's shoulder while her viscus repulsion crystallized into anger.
"This is all their fault." Sasha seethed through her clenched teeth. "If Anne and her stupid friends hadn't messed up our plans Marcy would still be alive!" The fury in her tone was palpable as Marcy's body grew heavy in her arms.
"Sasha, we need to gather our resolve and get ready for the counter-attack." Grime reasoned as the distraught blonde teen set her departed friend back on the cot, affectionately fixing her hair. "King Andrias needs to pay for this."
"You let this happen, didn't you?" Sasha's fists clenched in rage.
"What?" Grime's bewilderedly replied as Sasha spun around, slugging him across the jaw so hard he dropped to one knee. "You let her die so I'd stay and help defeat King Andrias!" Sasha snapped as Grime's spat out a blood-caked tooth, standing up with a look of disappointment as she lashed out at him again. This time he managed to dodged the attack, making an inciting come get some hand gesture and eliciting several more strikes from Sasha. A few toads watched from the tent's entrance as Grime's continued to dodge her volley of blows, finally catching one of her fists in his hand.
"You need to get ahold of yourself."
"Get ahold of myself?" Sasha retorted, slugging Grime in the stomach with her other hand, "Marcy's dead, and no one did a freaking thing to save her!"
Two Toad soldiers quickly put themselves between Sasha and Grime, raising their weapons in defence as he collapsed on all fours, winded from the blow.
"Lay down your arms!" Grime's wheezed, standing and putting his fists up defensively. The soldiers anxiously looked at one another before standing aside. Sasha again struck at Grime, which he blocked along with the next, and the next, and so on. Even as Sasha's fists ached she continued to punch Grime, desperate for a distraction from her overwhelming sorrow and the void it left in her heart. All she'd ever done was use and hurt the people closest to her, and in spite of it all Anne and Marcy had stuck with her. After all these years convincing herself that they relied on her leadership the she'd finally realized it was just a way to subvert her own abundant insecurities: she was the one who needed them.
"King Andrias is the enemy here, Sasha, but if he's to be defeated I'll need your cunning and skill." Grime's spoke up with busted lips as Sasha struggled to steady her breathing, looking to Marcy and lamenting how poorly she'd treated her friend, and how desperately she wanted to apologize to her for doing so. Exhausted and at her wits' end, Sasha staggered over and collapsed at Marcy's bedside. The vile feeling at the back of her throat finally came loose in a guttural wail of anguish as tears ran down her cheeks. Head in her arms, Sasha sobbed as Grime and the other toads stood by silently, that is until a hoarse voice cleared its throat and pierced the somber ambiance.
Sasha looked up to find herself face-to-face with an short, light blue adolescent frog about Sprig's size wearing a black sack dress with a brown rope for a belt. Her pink hair was done up in a knot, with bangs obscuring one of her large, yellow amphibian eyes. Sasha took note of her oversized knapsack with various vials of coloured liquids and raw herbs protruding from its pockets as the young frog stared intently into her eyes. Sasha looked to Grime who shrugged his shoulders, seemingly as taken aback as Sasha at this strange frog's sudden appearance.
"I'm sure you're wondering who I am and why I'm here," the frog spoke with an authoritarian tone that beguiled her minute stature, "so listen up 'cause I'm only saying this once: I'm Maddie Flour, Marcy's magic teacher and best bud."
Feeling like that last bit was directed at her, Sasha's eyes widened in irritation as the mysterious frog withdrew a large, worn-covered tome from her bag. "I came here to resurrect my apprentice and chew gummy maggots," Maddie smirked confidently at Sasha, "and I'm all out of gummy maggots."