Everyone arrived at the beast polo field. Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly were sitting in the stands somewhere with a lot of others. The playing field looked like a soccer field from the looks of it, two goals on both ends of the field but there were nets on them, just two colorful poles on each goal. Anne and Charlie were close by with Wally on the field.
"And now the players will pick their beasts." said the male referee.
Wigbert stood next to a large and tough looking beetle that had a skull tattooed on it with a saddle strapped to it's back.
"I choose Andromeda." said Wigbert.
The huge beetle that went by the name Andromeda let out a grunt with steam coming out from it's mouth.
"And I choose Fiddle Leaf." said Wally patting the beetle on his head.
Fiddle Leaf let out a cute chirp or two but Wigbert smiled mischievously.
"Not so fast. Fiddle Leaf is a Ribbiton family beast. Since you no longer wish to be a Ribbiton, you can't ride any of them." said Wigbert smugly.
"Damn it, Wigbert. You know that's not fair to him." came Charlie's voice.
Some gasped as they heard Charlie curse out Wigbert. Wally saw Charlie join his side and he smiled as if seeing someone acting like a real father to him.
"Did you just-" Wigbert started.
Charlie shot Wigbert a scary look that was enough to silence him immediately. Wally wasn't too bothered by this.
"Wally, we may have a substitute." said Charlie.
"I'll be your beast!" called Anne.
Anne shown up and joined Wally's side. Wally was a bit surprised as he wasn't expecting one of them to let Wally ride on one of them as his beast for the sport. He thought that was insulting towards both the humans.
"Anne?" said a surprised Wally.
"Look. If you're gonna go down, you might as well go down fighting. Plus, we got you into this. At least let us try to get you out." said Anne showing her support.
"All right. You know how to do this?" asked Wally.
"No, but I'll figure it out." answered Anne.
Anne was putting on the saddle on her back and clicked the belts on her to keep it on her.
"Kick some ass out there." Charlie encouraged.
"Well, here. Put this bit in your mouth." said Wally handing her the reins.
"No reins!" advised Anne and Charlie in unison.
Anne took hold of Wally and placed him on her back. Both Wally and Wigbert wore a helmet on them while both of them had what looked like a croquet mallet. They walked onto the field and got on opposite sides of the field. Anne and Wally were on the right while Wigbert and the huge beetle he chose were on the left.
"Okay, fellas. Let's keep this game cool and friendly‐like. Three, two, one. Ee‐eee!" announced the referee.
Wigbert and the beetle he ridden charged first and he swung his mallet at the ball, hitting it so hard it went across the field and went into the goal, he scored the first point and the ball hit the wall nearby, cracking the wall. Anne and Wally were wide eyed.
"Crump Sir Ribbiton has scored the first goal." said the referee.
"Short term memory, guys." called Charlie supporting Anne and Wally.
As the crowd cheered. Wigbert had a smug grin as he scored the first goal really fast.
"Turns out dad's still got it. We might be in trouble.." said Wally worried.
"Well, then come on. Let's step up our game and demolish this old man." said Anne looking determined.
"Steady. He's still my dad." advised Wally hesitantly.
"Sorry, I'm just so competitive." said Anne getting into the game.
Anne and Wally were now on the right side of the field while Wigbert was on the right. The ball was dropped on the center of the field and they were ready to take on the next round.
"Come on, Wally and Anne!" called Charlie.
Wally and Anne felt like Charlie was supporting them.
"Ready?" said Wally with a grin.
"Ready." said Anne.
Anne charged after the ball and Wally swung the mallet, hitting the ball as they kept going and jumped clean over Wigbert and his steed.
"That beast may be small, but it sure is agile." said the referee.
Anne jumped forwards, Wally hit the ball with the mallet again and the ball went flying into the goal and the scored the next point.
"A goal for Walliam." called the referee.
The crowd cheered for them and so did Charlie and the Plantars.
"Kick some ass!" cried Charlie.
"Looks like the young male human has some romantic feelings for the female human and is supporting Walliam like a father." said the referee blushing with a grin.
"You know it! That's my girl and Wally's going to win this." Charlie replied. "Stick it to the man!"
"Stick it to the man! Stick it to the man! Stick it to the man!" the crowd chanted.
Charlie seem to be getting others into the spirit of the game and in his favor. Hop Pop looked at Charlie as if proud to have him as a son.
"That's my boy." said Hop Pop.
As time passed in the game. There were times when Wigbert scored a goal while there were times and both Anne and Wally scored a goal themselves. The game was entertaining to the crowd as the score eventually got tied. The scoreboard shown nine to nine.
"All right, folks. This is it. Next goal wins." said the referee.
Both of them were looking like they were racing to one of the goals and were neck and neck. Wigbert tried to bump into them but Anne slipped and fell. Wigbert laughed as he was going to score the winning goal.
"Oh no." said Wally alarmed.
Wigbert swung his mallet and the ball went towards the goal but as Anne got up, they saw the ball bounce off goal's pole and bounce in the other direction. They still had a chance to score the last and winning goal.
"Ah. He missed." said Wally excited.
"Second wind." Anne responded.
Anne ran towards the ball to catch up to it while Wigbert attempted to do the same thing.
"Come on, Anne. We're so close." said Wally trying to encourage her.
"He's too fast. We'll never make it." said Anne feeling discouraged.
"That's what you think. Watch this." said Wally.
Wally reached inside Anne's hair and pulled out his accordion, making the brief musical tune it makes. Anne was surprised it was in there.
"Wally, how long has that been there?" asked Anne surprised.
"A season at least." chuckled Wally.
Wally pulled on the instrument and just like a slingshot, he pulled it back on one end and let go as it stretched out to hit the ball. He succeeded and when the accordion hit the ball, his dad gasped in horror and the ball went through the goal. But it went passed the goal and hit a giant blue mushroom that was a boomshroom. It exploded like a firework and they all saw a big blue light shine for a bit and fade quickly afterwards. The crowd cheered for Anne and Wally.
"Goal! Walliam wins." the referee said happily.
"Woo hoo! They won!" said Hop Pop getting up from his seat.
Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly being carried by Hop Pop, and Charlie ran to Anne and Wally's side while Anne unbuckled the saddle from her and Wally hopped off Anne as both of them hugged each other and even jumped for joy afterwards.
"We did it!" said Anne and Wally in victorious unison.
"I can finally be myself." said Wally looking relieved.
Hop Pop pulled out a hat and it was the hat that Wally wore when he would be in Wartwood. Wally took off his helmet and tossed it away and took hold of his signature hat and placed it on his head.
"Can't be yourself without your signature hat." said Hop Pop with a grin.
"Anne, that was incredible." said Charlie elated.
Anne turned to Charlie and pulled her in close to him and planted his lips to hers in a kiss. Everyone stared as both Anne and Charlie kissed each other as if witnessing a romantic sight between a romantic couple.
Everyone there had let out an adored "Awww" at the sight of the two human teenagers kissing each other. The two eventually pulled their lips off each other in a loud pop, blushing deeply.
"Looks like this is the first time you put the moves on me." chuckled Anne with a grin.
"Only when it's my soul sister." said Charlie with a blushing grin.
Wally hopped off Anne's back as he saw that the two love struck teenagers should have their moment. That's when Anne, Charlie, Hop Pop, Sprig, Polly and Wally turned to see Wigbert. The older male frog was looking a bit saddened in his defeat. They all walked over towards Wigbert's side. The older male frog cleared his throat and tried to hide his sadness.
"Well, son, I concede defeat. I suppose this means goodbye forever." said Wigbert shakily.
"I don't want to leave forever. I just want to be able to be me, wherever I am." said Wally hugging his dad.
Wigbert was feeling his sadness disappear while he was surprised yet relieved to hear those words.
"I hope I'm not intruding on anything but Wigbert. Here's the thing, I know you still love Wally and he still loves you. But the reason why Wally is happy about living his life the way he does in Wartwood is because, well, being here at home and in town, he initially felt miserable because there was so many rules that stamped out his free spirit and denied him to live his life how he wants to." said Charlie as others heard. "Forgive me but I know this is not my place but long before this, it seems as though there were times when Wally wanted to tell you but some times you kept telling him it'll have to wait and the time never came and he was afraid that you and his family would disown him just because he's being his free spirited self. It's not that Wally hates this place, no, it's just that he wants to be allowed to be himself. Be it free spirited, being allowed to do what he wants to express himself, to be himself, live as he chooses to live, make his own choices and be able to have you accept him for who he is. He lives his life in Wartwood the way he does because he's happy that way. Were you and your dad like this before?"
Wigbert looked at Charlie and he could see that Charlie was making sense out of this. A lot of sense. The old male frog would think back to when he was younger and his father and recalled some memories being fond and some of them not so fondly as he remembered.
"Didn't your dad ever stop you from being yourself or wanting to do something you always wanted to try out but he wouldn't let you do it?" asked Charlie.
"Well, there was a time I wanted to dabble in a musical performance with the genre being golden age hip hop but my dad told me that kind of music was teaching rebellious behavior and it was nothing but boom boom noise." said Wigbert recalling a time in his past.
"But dad, there was also a point in your life where you and grandad hardly ever spoken to each other anymore. You two would barely interact, especially on holidays." Wally stated.
"We did talk to each other when ever we saw each other." said Wigbert.
"Yes, but now grandad is retired and you two interact but you now have to speak to him in sign language ever since he survived that accident that ripped his vocal cords out. I don't want us to end up like that." said Wally as he was showing a possible grim reality they dare not want to face.
Wigbert started to remember that his own father was like this on him when he was Wally's age or even when he was younger than that age range. He remembered that his dad was the same way he is towards Wally. Now he sees the scary reality that him and his own father have and he had an epiphany that struck him like lightning. He looked towards Wally with an expression of sympathy.
"I don't want us to end up like that either. I'm sorry that there's been so many times I didn't listen to you or let you be yourself as you choose. Just out of curiosity, where did you learn to have the courage to stand up to me and get through to me this way?" said Wigbert.
"From them." said Wally. "Especially Anne and Charlie."
Wally pointed in Anne, Charlie and the Plantar's direction. Wigbert was also showing impressed amazement. Wigbert got closer to them and stopped.
"I see that you've been quite a good influence on my son. Especially you, Charlie. Did you learn this from your own father and mother?" asked Wigbert curiously.
Charlie fell silent at the mentioning of his own father while Anne, Wally and the Plantars shown alarm as if worried that Charlie was uncomfortable talking about his own father to even Wally's father.
"Dad, what goes on between Charlie and his dad is really none of our business." Wally kindly advised.
"I never learned this from my dad." Charlie blurted out.
There was a moment of silence and Anne, Wally and the Plantars looked to see that Charlie was appearing to not be bothered too much about what he just said.
"Truth be told, I learned nothing from my dad. The marriage between my mom and dad didn't work out and ended in divorce. I haven't seen my dad since I was two. Every year on my birthday, he'd promise me he'd visit but got a postcard from him that told me why he couldn't make it. His job had him on the road a lot. For years, my dad was a no show, my mom, my aunt and the six other ladies in the house hated it that my dad was doing this to me. They knew that my dad was just stringing me along only to pull the rug right out from underneath me. I would see so many other kids bonding their dads while my dad was a no show. For a long time, I wondered what I did wrong that had my dad not being with me and I would make excuses to defend him. There was even a time when I was five when some other kid asked me why my dad wasn't around and I made up some excuse by telling him that my dad was a superhero in a robotic iron armored suit and that he was away fighting crime, saving lives and possibly saving others. By the time I turned eleven and my dad was a no show, again, and that's when I decided that my dad was never coming back and that broke my heart." Charlie explained.
Everyone there in Ribbitvale heard this sad story about Charlie's own father and many of them were feeling the pain he felt. Some of them got out a tissue from one of their pockets to dry a few tears they shed.
"The only people that ever got me through it at those times was my mother, my aunt and the ladies of the house which a lot of people found it surprising I was the only boy in a house full of women. But when me and Anne got transported from our own world to this world, well, I got attacked, was in a coma three in a half months, escaped from some evil, crazy people that were no good and when I met Anne, Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly, even Wally and others from Wartwood. It took me a while to adjust to this new life I was going to be in for the time being which it was the same for Anne. No matter how much I screwed up, no matter how many disappointments I faced and no matter what went wrong in my life, they were there for me. I even used to be terrified of old men with canes and I was afraid of Hop Pop because I got traumatized during an event with an older man with a cane while helping some older kids, but with how much I've grown and came a long way, I was able to talk more about my problems which I initially didn't feel comfortable about. Hop Pop told me he uses his words, not violence when ever we did something wrong and got grounded for it. Hop Pop's more of a dad to me than my real dad ever was." Charlie continued.
Hop Pop gave a smile and shed a tear as he came over to hug Charlie and he hugged him back. Everyone let out another adored "Awww" at the heartwarming sight. Charlie than looked back at Wigbert who subtly shown he was touched by such words and what he seen and heard.
"I know you love your son and he loves you too. But you got to repair the relationship between you and Wally while you still can and while your still alive and hopping. My real dad may have never been there for me but you're still around and it's not too late to fix the relationship between you and Wally. He's the only son you've got and there's no time like the present to fix the relationship between father and son while you and Wally still have each other as father and son." Charlie finished.
Wigbert looked at Charlie as if he finally understood what he was doing to help Wally in telling him what he wanted to say to him for years. Wally smiled at Charlie and mouthed the words "Thank You" to him and Charlie winked and smiled. Wally turned to his father who shed a tear from how touching this moment is to them.
"You mean you still want to be a Ribbiton?" asked Wigbert with a small smile.
"Of course, I do. But you have to accept me for who I am. Both Walliam and Wally." said Wally as he briefly made a musical note on his accordion.
"I suppose we can do that. Ah, accordion, eh? You know, I used to love playing the jug, but I gave it up a long, long time ago." said Wigbert in agreement.
Wally looked at his father with a grin as if he knew that he had a secret he was hiding and caught him. Wigbert smiled and blushed.
"Oh, all right. You got me." said Wigbert with a chuckle.
Wigbert grabbed hold of a part of the field and easily peeled it off like he was pulling a blanket off his bed. There was a small compartment underneath the ground and it shown a few jugs that he mentioned from before that he used to play for musical reasons. Wally was wide eyed that he found out there was a habit that his own father does that he too also does.
"You've been holding out on me." said Wally giggling.
"Aw. Isn't this great? I just love happy endings. What do you say? How about a song? Always works for me." came the referee.
"I don't see why not." said Wigbert.
Wally turned to Anne and Charlie with a grin.
"Anne, Charlie, Thanks, for everything. Even if some of your attempts did have some rocky beginnings, still, at least it worked out." said Wally feeling grateful.
"Don't mention it." said Anne with a grin.
"Anytime, little man." Charlie chimed in.
"Hit it, Pops." said Wally encouragingly to his father.
As Wally and Wigbert started to play the musical instruments together as a father and son bonding moment. That's when an idea popped into Charlie's mind and he whispered to both Anne and the Plantars quickly what it was and they were smiling at the sounds of it.
Charlie went over to a nearby male frog who appeared to be in his thirties with long and flowing, thick wavy hair and a thick beard to match. He had a guitar near him.
"Mind if I borrow this?" Charlie asked kindly.
Charlie whispered to the male frog about what he's about to do and the male frog smiled with a nod. He gave Charlie the guitar and Charlie let him know he'll return it to him and that's when Charlie went to the center of the field and he began to adjust the strings. He began to play the guitar as it sounded like he was playing folk rock music and that's when Wally, Wigbert and everyone turned to see Charlie. Anne and the Plantars knew that Charlie had an awesome idea. Everyone who resided in Ribbitvale were surprised but also touched that Charlie was able to play the guitar and play such a mournful beat. But they got a bigger surprise at his beautiful singing voice.
"If you leap awake in the mirror of a bad dream. And for a fraction of a second you can't remember where you are. Just open your window and follow your memory upstream. To the meadow in the mountain where we counted every falling star"
Charlie kept playing the guitar as the song and it's musical beat sounded more like the type of music a parent and child could bond through. Others would slowly way back and forth as if subtly dancing to the musical beat.
"I believe a light that shines on you will shine on you forever. And though I can't guarantee there's nothing scary hiding under your bed. I'm gonna stand guard like a postcard of a Golden Retriever, and never leave 'til I leave you with a sweet dream in your head"
The musical beat got a little louder as the musical beat sounded light hearted yet touching as they saw the thirteen year old male human pulling off such a touchingly beautiful performance. Wally took hold of his father's hand and both of them smiled.
"I'm gonna watch you shine, gonna watch you grow. Gonna paint a sign so you'll always know as long as one and one is two-o-o-o. There could never be a daddy who loved his laddie more than I love you"
Wally and Wigbert shed a tear at the touching words and melody as others also shed a tear for the same reasons. Hop Pop felt like his heart was growing to be a bigger size at how touching this looked and sounded as he knew this was not just a way to show that the love between Wally and his father is still strong and now mended but that the father and son bond between him and Charlie is just as strong.
"Trust your intuition. It's just like goin' fishin'. You cast your line and hope you get a bite. But you don't need to waste your time, worryin' about the market place, try to help the human race, struggling to survive its harshest night"
As Charlie's singing sounded pure, sweet, and melodious. The musical tune got soft for a bit but got a bit louder afterwards as many people there were slowly swaying back and forth in a peaceful dance while Charlie continued. What they saw next was unexpected. Charlie's hair and his eyes started to turn a glowing gold color and there was gold silhouettes forming in front of them as the two golden silhouettes formed into the appearance of Wigbert and Wally, showing them through out the years as at one point, it shown them as Wigbert with Wally as a baby, than shown them playing around in the house and outside the house, and another shown them what they look like now, hugging each other.
"I'm gonna watch you shine, gonna watch you grow. Gonna paint a sign so you'll always know as long as one and one is two-o-o-o. There could never be a daddy who loved his laddie more than I love you"
Charlie played the guitar louder as he was playing out the most beautiful part of the music and everyone there felt like this was like witnessing world peace or the beautiful sight of a father and son reconciling after years of the son trying to gain acceptance from his father to accept him for who he is and the father finally accepting his son.
"I'm gonna watch you shine, gonna watch you grow. Gonna paint a sign so you'll always know as long as one and one is two-o-o-o. There could never be a daddy who loved his laddie more than I love you"
The song's musical beat started to get softer and as Charlie played the guitar and was slowing it down softly. The gold silhouettes faded, Charlie's eyes and hair turned back to their original color. As the music slowed to a stop, Charlie tossed the guitar towards the male frog he borrowed it from and he caught it successfully.
Everyone had cheered, applauded and both Anne, Wally, Wigbert and the Plantars came over to Charlie and the six embraced Charlie in a group hug and he embraced them as well. Other parents there were seeing that maybe they should let their kids be who they are and what they want to be which their kids were happy to know that and they embraced each other.