"Frosta, stop it!" Glimmer shouted in her best queen voice.
Frosta reluctantly lowered her spear.
"How many times, Frosta? You can't go around attacking everyone who comes here!"
The tadpole perched on the wild haired girl's head scowled and pulled out a rolling pin from...somewhere.
"Oh! Ho ho! Just give me a reason to use Old Doris here!"
"No, Polly!" the girl said half annoyed, half exasperated. "No Old Doris!"
She lowered her sword and tennis racket. "I'm Anne. This is my family."
"Luz..er, and my family" Luz had been holding a piece of paper with a glyph on it and Adora had seen
Glimmer and Micah use magic enough to know it could probably do a lot of damage.
When Frosta lowered her spear she had put it away. Adora had a chilling feeling they were lucky.
Both girls introduced their family members.
"I'm Glimmer, Queen of Brightmoon" Glimmer said, trying to sound regal but her voice wavered. She was not used to introducing herself that way yet. "These are my friends, Bow and Adora"
Adora looked nervously towards the Whispering Woods.
Glimmer touched her hand reassuringly. "One of us is away at the moment. The violent child is Frosta"
She gave Frosta a stern look as Frosta and Polly stared each other down, growling.
"Wait we're missing someone" Hop Pop cried, suddenly realizing "Bessie? Where's Bessie?"
"Oh Frog!" all his grandchildren said at once.
"Wait, 'frog'?" Anne whispered "I've been in Amphibia too long"
"Um...heh…you mean that thing?" Adora pointed to the giant snail attached to a carriage, eating grass contentedly. She raised her head and purred.
Luz's eyes lit up "You have a giant snail that purrs like a cat! That's so cute I love her so much"
"You said that about a slug demon once" Eda reminded her drily.
Hop pop put Polly on his head. With one hand he picked Sprig up upside down and the other he pointed severely at Anne. "Kids, wait with Bessie while we sort this out" He handed Polly to Anne.
"What? Weak, Hop Pop! I wanna see the castle!" Polly protested.
"Hush"
Sprig had already run off and was showing his sling shot to some children with goat horns.
Anne sighed. "C'mon girl"
"Don't give in to the tyrant, Anne!" Polly shouted as she was carried off.
"Um...your majesty" Hop Pop scratched his tufts of hair "How far away are we from Wartwood?"
"There's no place called Wartwood on this planet"
"Yeah" Hop Pop sighed "That's what I figured you'd say"
Eda stepped close to Glimmer and sniffed deeply. Glimmer took a step back.
"You're magic, kid. If there's magic here, I'll have this place figured in no time. Now, how many suckers would you say are born a minute around here?"
"Uh…"
"Eda!" Luz protested.
"And figure out how to get home, of course." Eda smiled guiltily. She pat Luz on the head and winked. "Go hang out with the other kiddos, kiddo. I'll get us out of this. I always do."
Luz walked down the bridge and was promptly hit in the eye with a rock.
"Ow!"
"Oops" Sprig whispered, lowering his slingshot.
"Great job blinding the human, Sprig!" Polly shouted from Anne's head.
"Oh geez, are you ok?" Anne put her hand on Luz's shoulder. "Let me see"
"I'm not blinded" Luz said rubbing her eye.
Bessie purred and rubbed against Luz's head, sensing she was hurt.
"Oh my gosh I love you so much" Luz said in a rapid hush.
"Mrrr"
Glimmer led them through the castle. Adora looked behind her occasionally. She couldn't push down her foreboding. Weird things were happening and Catra was alone.
"Holy Frog" hop pop looked around "my entire farm could fit in this hall"
"I could get used to this" Eda smirked, rubbing her chin.
"Yes!" King agreed from her arms "Finally! Accommodations fit for my majesty!"
"Hush"
They passed the hall leading to the war room and Adora smiled slightly seeing a doodle scratched into the wall with a knife, low under eye level.
It was a copy of the doodle she had made with Catra in the Fright Zone, updated with Catra's cut hair and Adora's new She Ra form.
In the war room, Micah was drawing a rune in the air, tongue stuck out in concentration. He was using magic to push in all the chairs at once. "Oh hi, baby girl. Adora. Bow. Who are these people?"
"Ha! I knew there was magic here" Eda exclaimed. She drew a magic circle in the air but it crumbled into dust immediately. He looked at the disaster in consternation and shrugged. "Eh, worth a shot."
"what in tarnasion is this kooky place?" Hop Pop asked dryly. "Give me giant bugs that try to kill you any day! I can't take all this magic nonsense"
"Oh we have those too" Bow said brightly, looking up from the point of an arrow he was inspecting.
"Ok, everyone sit down" Glimmer said forcefully. "And tell me what exactly is happening here."
Outside Brightmoon on the grass the kids sat around Bessie.
"You're pretty god with that tennis racket" Luz said to Anne. "You'd like my friend Amity. She's good at sports too. Though she probably isn't feeling the school team spirit after...er...breaking her leg in a revenge grudgby match" she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "It was...kinda intense."
"I...can relate" Anne looked down sadly. Polly gave her a hug and Sprig took her hand. Before Luz could ask what she meant, a large cat, really more the size of a cougar, came flying out of the woods.
"Cute!" Luz squealed as it passed.
Adora wasn't paying attention to the meeting. Catra really should have been back by now.
Glimmer noticed and took her hand. "She's fine, Adora. She has...Melog...with her...oh no." Glimmer finished in a hush.
Melog had run into the war room meowing bloody murder. Without Catra.
"She's hurt" Adora whispered. "No. No! Not again!" She grabbed her jacket and ran out the door. "Hang on Catra, I'm coming!"
As she ran, she glowed and transformed into her She Ra form.
"Um...she do that often?" Hop Pop asked in astonishment.
"Yes." Bow said bluntly, pulling out his bow and knocking an arrow.
"I'm sorry, Hopediah. Eda. Our friend is in trouble." Glimmer stood up. "Adora, wait for us!"
To be continued