Three days have passed and as Anne, Charlie and the Plantars continued to press on towards Newtopia. They were still going down a dirt road but the dirt road was having what looked like jungle areas on all sides. Hop Pop was still steering Bessie as they would hear creature sounds of all sorts. Bugs chirping, birds chirping as well, they even heard twigs snapping and big leaves rustling nearby.
"Charlie, how does one say hello in your native language?" asked Polly curiously.
"Kon'nichiwa." answered Charlie.
"How does one say good bye?" asked Sprig looking amused.
"Sayōnara." answered Charlie.
Anne smiled as she was seeing Charlie teach Sprig and Polly a little Japanese. She scooted over to him and pulled him in for a hug in her arms. Both of them blushing.
"I'll bet you taught others how to do so much?" said Anne feeling proud.
"Some things I taught others but I wouldn't call myself a brilliant scientist. I know enough to do a lot but I'm no Robert Neville." said Charlie being modest.
"Whose Robert Neville?" asked Sprig and Polly in unison.
Charlie looked towards the two frog children as he knew they didn't know he was talking about someone from a post-apocalyptic action thriller film he saw.
"He's a character from a film I saw a while back. He was an army virologist who was trying to transfer his immunity to make a cure for a disease that turned people into zombies. Some people were immune, others were not. He was trying to create a cure to eradicate the disease and save the world along with all survivors." Charlie explained in detail.
"Oh." said Sprig and Polly in unison.
"Still, you've proven to be the best to me." said Anne with a grin.
Anne placed her hand on Charlie's chest, feeling his heart pulsing as she was starting to briefly tickle his belly a few times. Causing Charlie to twitch, laugh and squirm when she did tickle him briefly.
"Anne, that tickles." chuckled Charlie.
"Tickle him!" Anne, Sprig and Polly said in unison.
The three of them went to tickle Charlie as Sprig and Polly and Anne tickled Charlie's belly a bit just to make him laugh.
"We see Charlie's big belly." teased Polly in a thrilled tone laughing.
"No, not there guys." choked Charlie.
They shown mercy as they stopped tickling him. He got up and that's when Anne pulled him in her arms again to hug him as she was planting a kiss to his cheek, causing him to blush deeper, smile and chuckle.
"Do we need to give you two ten minutes or something?" chuckled Sprig.
The two humans stopped and their smiles turned to nervous expressions.
"Uhhhhh no!" answered Anne and Charlie.
"Kidding, I'm just messing ya." said Sprig showing them mercy.
Without warning, the caravan stopped and it caused the kids to lose their balance and shuffle around inside briefly. Polly landed on the nearby bed, Sprig landed on one of the seats near the dining table but perfectly landed on it that it looked like he was sitting there but Anne and Charlie fell on the floor with Charlie on his back to the floor with Anne was on top of him. It looked like they were in a position that was a bit inappropriate. The two teens looked at each other blushing deeper than ever.
"Did we stop?" asked Sprig curiously.
The topside exit of the caravan opened up and Hop Pop poked his head and face through it.
"Sorry about the sudden stop. Bessie's looking like she's going to have to use the snails room. And she's keeping an eye out more than usual right now. I think she senses something that isn't good." announced Hop Pop.
Hop Pop saw that the kids probably lost their balance when they stopped and possibly got shuffled around but when he saw Anne and Charlie in the position they were in. He blushed and grinned with a chuckle.
"What are you two up to?" chuckled Hop Pop.
Anne and Charlie quickly got up and blushed so deep that they knew the old male frog possibly got the wrong idea about why they were in that said position.
"We slipped and tumbled, that's all." said Anne.
"What Anne said." Charlie confirmed.
"Just messing with ya. I know the sudden stop probably tossed you kids around like a sack of potatoes." chuckled Hop Pop. "If anyone needs to use the frogs room, now's the time." suggested Hop Pop. "If anyone has to use number one, do it on the side of the road, we won't look that way, if you have to go number two, don't wonder off too far."
They all got out of the caravan and they saw that Bessie was doing her business on the side of the road. Sprig, Polly, Anne and Hop Pop were doing their business on the side of the road too and it didn't take long for them both to get done. They turned to see Charlie was blushing as he was feeling like he had to go and do the other type of relief. He had to use number two.
"Charlie, you got to use it?" asked Hop Pop.
"I got to go but..." Charlie began.
"Should we give him some privacy? Don't worry, Charlie. We won't look, even if your, you know, got your pants down." said Polly blushing.
"It's not coming out the front door, that's for sure." grunted Charlie.
They all knew that meant he had to poop and his legs were lightly shaking and swaying back and forth. He had his sword on him as he had it tied to his belt. They knew that having to go a distance away to relieve one's self was a bit risky but Anne came over to him.
"I'll go with him and watch his back. Hop Pop, you, Sprig and Polly stay here. If Bessie goes inside her shell, than that's when something is really wrong and danger is near. Charlie, lets hoof it and find a tree you can do your business behind." Anne instructed as she took command.
"You got it!" said Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly in unison.
As Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly went back inside the caravan. That's when Anne lead the way into the nearby jungle area with Charlie following here and he carried his sword with him unless trouble found them. They were going deeper into the area to find the right spot for Charlie to do his business at.
"Anne, can't hold it for much longer." grunted Charlie.
"Almost there, wait, found a spot." said Anne pointing at a tree.
Charlie wasted no time and behind a big and tall tree as Anne kept an eye out for anything dangerous as Charlie went behind the tree to do his business. Minutes ticked by as this was being done.
"Charlie, everything alright back there?" called Anne.
"Thank the lord for that lemon juice because it's helping me let everything out easier. Don't come back here if you don't want to see more of me than you usually would." warned Charlie.
A few minutes ticked by and afterwards, that's when Charlie came out from behind the tree. Anne was relieved to see he was alright. She checked his body out in case there was any waste remains on him and he was completely clean.
"Alright, I did what I had to do and lets get back with others." said Charlie.
They looked around and saw that they might need to look at any other direction to see where to find their way back. They were starting to feel lost.
"Where is the way back?" asked Anne curiously.
"We might've gone too far away. We should've left a trail." said Charlie feeling guilty.
"Well, you know what say when you go to poop. When you gotta go, you gotta go. We didn't have time to leave a trail." Anne stated.
Charlie felt a bit guilty about this as he knew that having to go poop didn't give them much time to do anything else. Anne could see the guilt in his face and she placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.
"Listen Charlie, your not to blame for anything. If it were the other way around, same thing would've happened. It's like my mom said. You go number one, you can hold it a bit easier and longer if one has to wait to find a bathroom. But if you have to go number two, you got to make a bee line to the bathroom before an accident happens. We'll find our back." said Anne with a word of comfort. "Just follow me."
Anne led Charlie by the hand as they walked one direction to find their way back but they were taking more time to find the caravan but every direction they would go led them nowhere closer. They stopped and knew what this meant.
"We're lost!" they said in unison.
"Damn it." Charlie cursed under his breath.
"Charlie, I know this is fault. We should've taken a map with us. Hop Pop had every map we needed." said Anne feeling guilty.
"You didn't know this would happen." said Charlie kindly. "Let's just take a minute to assess the situation and..."
Charlie paused and looked down to see what looked like foot prints but they were not human prints. Anne was wondering why he fell silent all of the sudden. Anne looked to see he was looking down and he had his right hand on the sheath of his sword and his left hand on the handle of the sword. She looked down and saw the foot prints that were in the dirt. They were large and animal like. They were filled with wide eyed alarm.
"Bessie must've had a good reason to sense danger was near." said Charlie in a low tone.
"It's got two legged foot prints instead of four." said Anne in a slight panic.
"Anne, we got to stick together and do not stray away from each other." instructed Charlie.
They heard something that sounded like loud, reptilian like hissing sounds and it wasn't far away ether. They felt fear running through them. Anne felt more fear since she left her weapons back at the caravan but Charlie was showing more alarm and alertness as he had his samurai sword with him. He looked at her and signaled her to not make any loud noises and he motioned with his fingers where to go.
They went into the direction that they headed in and they would hear that hissing sound coming and going. They walked and tried to make as little sound as possible as they knew that any loud sound could draw what ever it was out there closer.
"Charlie, keep your sword with you." whispered Anne.
"You got it. Come on, this way." whispered Charlie.
They would go another direction but they still took more time to try and find their way back. It felt thirty minutes or more passed till they eventually stopped. Anne was looking in one direction and she saw the caravan from a distance with a grin. She turned to look at Charlie but Charlie was looking in a different direction with a wide eyed look of alert.
"I can see the caravan from here. We can make it if we run." said Anne.
"No, we can't." said Charlie in a deep and low voice.
"Why not?" asked Anne.
"Because we're being hunted. Even if we do escape, it'll follow us anywhere we go." said Charlie still speaking in that low and deep voice like before.
Anne knew he was right but he wondered what they should do.
"It's nearby. Probably in the bushes, straight ahead." said Charlie. "It's alright."
"No way it is." said Anne alarmed.
"Run, towards the caravan." said Charlie slowly walking forwards.
Anne didn't like what was going on or what Charlie was about to do. She instantly knew that Charlie was going to try and fend off or kill what was hunting them.
"I got here, babe." Charlie uttered and looked at Anne. "Go! Now!"
Anne nodded and turned to run towards the caravan. She ran, she jumped over a log on the ground and continued forwards. She jumped up to swing from a tree branch above and than landed on the ground as she ran towards the caravan and made it. She went inside the caravan and closed the door. Anne had seen that Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly were inside the caravan and they were shaking with wide eyed fear and staying away from the windows, they had blinds covering the windows.
"Anne, you're back." said Hop Pop looking relieved.
"There's something out there, Anne. Bessie went inside her shell for safety." said Sprig.
"Where's Charlie?" they said in unison.
"One, we just found out something is hunting us out there, we even saw it's foot prints. Two, we got a bit lost out there but he told me to run to the caravan. I think he's going to kill what ever is hunting us." Anne explained panting a little.
They were surprised that Charlie would try to fend off or kill what was hunting them. They figured he'd be afraid at first.
"Anne, the second you and Charlie went out there was when this huge, reptilian beast shown up. It didn't see us but was sniffing us out." explained Sprig.
"It must've sniffed out me and Charlie and that's why it probably went elsewhere. Did you guys see what it looked like?" asked Anne.
Before they could answer, a big loud thud was heard as something came on top of the caravan and shook it a little. They remained quiet as Anne placed her index finger over her lips to signal them to not make any sounds.
They were silent as they would hear animalistic grunts and growls outside while the caravan would slightly shake and vibrate as they knew what ever it was that was hunting Anne and Charlie at first when it tried to go for the Plantars initially was now on the roof of the caravan, sniffing out the scent of any nearby prey which it was probably trying to locate Anne and the Plantars and probably Charlie as well.
But one of them felt a sneeze coming along and it was Sprig. He was showing he was about to sneeze as he was taking in a few muffled breaths and they saw that he was about to sneeze. Anne quickly placed her finger around where Sprig's nose should be and his sneeze subsided as Anne removed her finger from his nose.
Their luck had ran out when afterwards was when Sprig let out a sneeze and it was loud. They went stiff with alarm and fear and suddenly, the caravan was being shook violently and loud reptilian snarls, growls and roars as Anne and the Plantars were hanging onto anything inside to keep them from being shook around like a sack of potatoes in there and from getting grabbed at by what ever the creature was that was attacking them. They were screaming in terror when they saw silhouettes of clawed hands and possibly a reptilian tail from the shaded windows.
"We should run for it!" cried Sprig in panic.
"We can't do that. We'd get lost out in the jungle." said Hop Pop wide eyed.
"What if we attack this thing head on?" Anne advised. "It's better than sitting in here till that thing breaks in."
"We don't even know what it looks like or what it is." argued Hop Pop.
They heard another loud reptilian like roar but than they heard something else or someone when they heard a scream that sounded human.
"Hey you son of a bitch!" came a male's voice.
They didn't see what was going on out there but they heard what was going on. They heard Charlie's voice and the caravan stopped shaking followed by a loud and painful, animal like shriek of pain as they heard a loud thud on the ground from outside.
"Shinu!" screamed Charlie.
They heard another loud, animal like shriek but it was louder this time and ended as soon as it was heard. Than they were met with silence. They didn't know what happened since they didn't see what went on but only heard the sounds.
"Bessie, look away, you don't wanna see this." Charlie advised.
They smiled as they heard Charlie's voice. He was alive and sounded like he was alright. Anne was the first to get out of the caravan by using the topside exit and the Plantars followed. What they saw left them feeling a mix of emotions. They didn't see Charlie at first till he came out from the nearby jungles on the left side of the road and he was cleaning off his sword with a clothe he had on him, they saw the sword was stained with a red liquid and they saw him covering a trail of the red liquid with dirt and sand, kicking the sand and dirt to cover it.
"Don't look at it!" Charlie advised.
They looked away as they looked up at the sky and tree tops as they knew the tone in Charlie's voice commanded attention. It was a few minutes till Charlie gave them all the okay.
"All clear." called Charlie.
Anne, the Plantars and even Bessie turned to look at Charlie and they saw the trail of red liquid was gone, probably covered in dirt and sand as the dirt on the road shown a trail of uneven sand. They looked at him in confusion.
"Charlie, what happened?" asked Polly.
"I saw it going near the caravan so I followed it without being seen or heard from it." answered Charlie.
They climbed off the caravan and stood near Charlie. His hands were dirty with a mix of sand and dirt on them while some remaining drops of red liquid was on his hands and fewer on his clothes. They looked at him with a sense of curiosity and hesitant alarm as they had an idea what the red liquid was.
"Charlie, what was it that was hunting us and attacking us?" asked Anne with some hesitancy.
"It was a cannibalistic Komodo that for some reason walked on two legs instead of four." revealed Charlie.
They were gasping as Hop Pop also seemed to know what the description was.
"That was no Komodo, that was a maned-komodo. They only walk on two legs, they don't speak like people and their race was thought to have become extinct. They've been known to be cannibalistic and to seven foot tall with largely muscular bodies. And they have long, thick manes on their heads." explained Hop Pop looking surprised. "Charlie, what did you do to the creature?"
That's when Charlie fell silent and had a stoic expression on his face as he knew the answer to that question but knew that the answer wasn't going to be easy for them to handle. He told them in the best way they'd understand.
"Back there, eighteen feet away." Charlie answered. "But you don't wanna go back there."
They looked at him and saw the red liquid on him was possibly blood and it wasn't his blood ether as he shown no signs of wounds, injuries or cuts, no teeth and claw marks ether.
"Charlie, did you?" Polly began.
"Let's just say that I had three choices. Ether scare it away, lure it away into a trap which I had no trap set up for it or the last resort option. You can tell which I went with." Charlie told them.
They looked at him with surprise and while they knew that the blood on him meant he went with the third option which meant he killed the reptilian monster in order to save them.
"One, that was dark. Two, are you alright? Three, I see that you did what you did in order to save us but curious to how you, well, you know." said Anne feeling her fear fading.
"I'm alright, guys. Sure, I didn't enjoy what I did but I'm not about to let anything hurt my family or my girl who also feels like family to me." said Charlie kindly. "Also, you don't wanna know how I did it. Just like how you don't want to know where I had to bury my droppings after I did my business."
They looked at each other and back at Charlie, the knew he wasn't kidding from what he said to them but they had an understanding as they knew he didn't want to traumatize them or gross them out.
"Charlie, you may have did what needed to be done, even if you didn't like what you did, still, I'm glad you saved us from that beast." said Hop Pop relieved.
"Also, why did you advise me to run towards the fwagon when I saw it from a distance when both of us could've made it?" asked Anne curiously.
"Because I didn't want that beast to lay a hand on my girl. That, and I was the only one armed and knowing predators, they go for anyone that is unharmed. So I suggested you run to the fwagon so you'd be safe with Hop Pop, Sprig, Polly and Bessie while I took on the beast." explained Charlie.
"But weren't you afraid?" asked Sprig.
"A little. But just like Muldoon in Jurassic Park, when facing danger, he kept calm in order to avoid raising alarm and fear. Than I went all badass on that monster." Charlie revealed. "By the way, you might want to postpone any hugs or handshakes with me as I'm covered in that beast's blood."
They suddenly heard a clap of thunder and looked up to see light grey clouds in the sky forming. They looked up and saw that rain came down on them. The rain wasn't as hard but it was raining on them enough to feel like they're getting wet. They looked at one another and both Anne and the Plantars saw Charlie was using the rain water to wash the dirt, sand and blood from his hands and to wash any blood off his body and clothing by rubbing his hands anywhere there was blood, dirt and sand. They giggled at the sight.
"Well, to be honest, I need to take a shower anyway." joked Charlie.
"Good one, Charlie." chuckled Anne.
It looked like all the dirt and sand was now washed off Charlie, even the blood, but the blood on his clothes were taking some time to completely wash off but the excess was washed off already. Anne looked at Charlie with a grin and gave him a flirtatious expression as she reached out and pulled him to smooch him on the lips. She kissed him and he closed his eyes to kiss her back. The two human teenagers were kissing each other like a couple making out. Bessie looked at the sight and blushed with a grin as Bessie made two loud purrs that sounded like she was doing her own way of wolf whistling at them. Both of them eventually pulled their lips off each other and blushed while chuckling with nervous smiles.
"Alrighty, ya lovebirds. Lets get inside the fwagon and head onward." said Hop Pop chuckling.
"Okay." chuckled Anne and Charlie in unison.
They all walked back to the caravan and got inside but Charlie managed to grab an umbrella that was made to be worn on someone's head. It was large enough to provide covering for Bessie as he placed it on the large snail's head but used the comfortably fitting straps to strap it on her head, it provided plenty of cover for her from the rain.
"That'll provide some cover. Also, keep an eye out there for anything dangerous." instructed Charlie kindly.
Bessie chirped twice and nodded with a grin. Charlie went back inside the caravan with everyone else and all were drying off while Hop Pop was back to steering Bessie but wearing a yellow raincoat and an umbrella hat on his head.
Little did they know, hours later, someone was watching them from a distance. The person watching them was a tall female newt with pink skin, a slender build and white-blonde hair that protrudes from the back of her head. Having a lighter shaded underbelly, and a long tail, featuring darker pink spots. Her eyes are glowing yellow with black thin pupils when looked closely. The person was had an evil grin on her face.
"So the wimpy little what's his face from before is traveling with some unidentified people? This will be easier than I thought. Watch out, you fur-less monkey boy. General Yunan is coming for you." said General Yunan with a laugh.
General Yunan watched them from a distance and used her long, thick and wide, large tail to slap her butt with it and she was laughing. Was she having plans to kidnap Charlie and use him for something or was she harboring lustful feelings towards him? She had no idea.