When Lucian was five years old, he knew he was destined to be a hero.
Like many a young toad child, he was raised listening to the stories of the war, the battle to save two worlds.
Most children in Wartwood excitedly listened to the stories once a year during the celebration, about the climatic battles, the tales of heroes from this world and earth, Lucian listened to them non-stop, he consumed them even when the other children grew out of them.
He had been told by many, including his best friend, that maybe he was a little too obsessed with them.
He scoffed at that, they just stopped understanding how amazing the heroes were, He tried to live like them, be as heroic as Anne, as Wise as Marcy, as strong as Sasha.
When he had finally grown his legs the first thing he did was to dedicated himself to Captain Grime, He had heard Grime's stories yearly and loved them, so he was an obvious choice to learn more about the heroes from another world.
The captain tolerated him at first however as he got older Grime had started to accept his help, the older toad admitting he needed help with cooking meals and buying groceries after losing his arm.
Lucian's parents were supportive of him spending time with Grime, they were friends with him, but they always acted slightly awkward when he told them some of the things that Grime had done during his time as captain.
He put it down to his parents just being weird, they never really talked about what they did during the war, sometimes he wondered if there was a reason for that, but he put that aside.
However, there was still something missing, he needed the adventure he needed something that would propel him to becoming a hero.
Enter Max.
The human would lead him to greatness he knew it, eventually they would go on an adventure and save all of Amphibia and then everyone would see him as a hero and….
"Lucian?" called a voice.
Lucian blanked and looked at Max who was currently sitting at the table, next to him was Nicole who was standing on her chair, the only way she could see over the table, both of them were looking at him like he had just said how he liked to kiss snakes.
The toad boy realized he had gotten lost in his heroic fantasies again, "Oh," he said placing the tray (Containing three drinks and a rather expensive cake for Max.) down on the table.
"Are you okay?" asked Max with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm fine just thinking about things."
Lucian sat, and looked at his new human best friend, (Marcy was still his Amphibian best fried, he could have two.) and wondered just when the adventure would start.
Max was not what he expected from a human, though in all fairness none of them were what he expected at all, So far other than Max he had only talked to Sasha.
She was really nice, she told him some stories last night about what it was like during the war and how she had been the youngest lieutenant in all Amphibian history, and when she asked him questions she was really nice which was shocking because he had been told she was a fearsome warrior while-
"Lucian you're staring again." said Max.
Lucian shock his head, it was hard not to get lost in the excitement of the humans, this could be the start of his heroic journey, he would be stupid not to be excited.
He had to be honest though Max seem a little different from the stories and Sasha, that prank yesterday was a little bit too much, But that was probably going to be fine, the stories told of how Anne grew from a selfish monster to become the hero of this town, maybe it would happen with Max.
"Hey where's the frog girl you were hanging out with?" asked Max.
Lucian shuddered, "She's with the old king."
Max looked at him confused, "Huh?"
"King Andrias, He was a monster, but he's cool now." said Nicole.
Lucian scoffed.
"He's just biding his time, before he returns to evil," he said dismissing the small nymph.
"You're still jealous that Nicole likes spending time with him," said Nicole with a smile on her face.
"No I'm not," said Lucian annoyed at the small Amphibian.
"Andrias," said Max pondering for a second, "He was the guy who invaded, The basis of King Oldris?"
"Yeah he invaded but who's Oldris?" asked Nicole.
"He's the king in Marcy's comic, He's clearly evil."
"See," said Lucian, smiling smugly.
"So you're not worried about your Marcy?" said Max quizzically
Lucian stopped smiling and looked at Max confused, "What do you mean?"
"Well in the comic Marsha, that's character who's supposed to be Marcy was manipulated by Oldris, some sort of evil plan thing, maybe something to do with the invasion ten years ago?"
Max had a feeling he shouldn't have told Lucian that when he saw the toads mouth drop.
"You mean he might have been doing the same to my Marcy?"
Nicole giggled at the mention of his Marcy.
Max just shrugged "Possibly-"" before he could continue, Lucian jumped from his chair.
Lucian felt like a fool he allowed Marcy to spend time with that monster, who knows what evil plan he was thinking of, and his innocent best friend was being corrupted, her dislike for the heroes must have come from him, It all made sense now.
He ran towards Loggle's stand, the Axolotl was standing behind the stall patiently for a customer.
Loggle," said Lucian, "What the hardest thing you could hit someone over the head with?"
Loggle handed him a table leg, "Here it's oak."
"Looks fancy." replied Lucian, "You sure you don't want to use this for anything else?"
"It's from one of the oldest antiques I was never able to sell due to its dark murderous past," said Loggle his voice lowering to a whisper. "Do you want to hear it?" he added in a perky voice.
"Later," said Lucian running off toward the fields.
Max and Nicole watched as their friend ran off to parts unknown.
"You want to follow him?" said Max.
Nicole shrugged, "Might as well, Lets kept him from making a complete fool of himself, and laugh at him if he fails. "
The two rushed after their friend.
…
As Marcy Wu run out of the forest she saw King Andrias standing there, his fist on the ground, covered in the slime that probably belonged to the curse that Maddie sent out.
Marcy stopped running for a moment, memories returned to her.
She was trying to fix the box, get her friends home, fix all she had done wrong, when she felt something pierce her stomach, she looked down to see a blade sticking out of her chest.
"Marcy." said a voice next to her.
For a second Marcy thought it was Anne but turning she saw Maddie standing next to her, a look of concern on her face.
"Are you okay?"
Marcy found herself returning to the present, "Yeah, I'm okay," she muttered.
The two continued to run towards Andrias, but by the time they got to him, he had entered the Large shack.
As she reached the shack she started to pound on the door, she didn't notice the Frog girl looking at her with resentment.
Running to the door she called out, "Andrias, It's me Marcy I need to talk to you, it's about-"
Before Marcy could finish her sentence, a pebble hit her head.
"Ow." she turned to see her frog namesake standing there holding a rock, glaring at her, before picking up another pebble and aiming towards.
"What the Heck," said Marcy.
"YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!" said Frog Marcy throwing teh rock.
"What, I…" Marcy said as she dodged the rock.
"I HATE YOU." screamed the frog child before she ran off, Marcy was about to run after hm, only for Maddie to start chasing after her.
"I'll follow her, you stay here."
Marcy watched as Maddie followed Frog Marcy wondering what just happened.
She briefly thought about following them however she knew that she couldn't give up her chance to talk to Andrias.
She stood in front of the door and knocked, "Andrias are you in there?"
Nothing.
Marcy knew that maybe that he didn't want to see her, but she needed to do this.
"Andrias Please, I need to talk to you, It's about… the past."
Still nothing.
Marcy sighed, she had no real idea how to handle this, She had a feeling that the former king wouldn't want to see her, a part of her couldn't blame him, she remembered his last words to her, just a bittersweet guilt-filled goodbye.
"It'll only take a second."
The door opened slightly, she could see an eye above her in between the gap.
"What is it?" said the voice, it was in the same tone from ten years ago.
Marcy stood there quietly, it had seemed so easy a moment ago, she just needed to say something, anything.
"Ineedyouropiniononmycomic." she blurted out.
The door opened a little bit more, but just stood there looking at her.
She could see him wearing robes, It was surprising how old he looked, how broken.
"What?"
Marcy blushed, "I'm sorry I need your opinion on my comic."
The silence was awkward for her, The king just stood there looking at her, making her feel smaller than ever.
"Goodbye Marcy." he said flatly.
Marcy's heart sunk, she watched as the door started to close, she could have just left it at that and gone back home.
That was when something clicked in her brain.
She started to run through the closing gap in the door, she just made it just before it closed.
"What are you doing?" said the confused former king.
Marcy looked around the room, "Woah this is a bit of a downgrade to the royal chambers."
Andrias stood by the door trying to turn around which was hard without his hammer, "Marcy Get-"
However, Marcy ignored him, she rushed towards his writing desk and started to climb up his chair, when she reached the top she gasped.
"You're writing a book!" she said excitedly.
Andrias hopped around to see Marcy kneeling above his book, she had a page in her hand, the ex-king wanted Marcy away from him for various reasons, a new one entered his head.
Marcy would destroy his book, he knew how much of a disaster she was, it was one of his key arguments against the core possessing her.
"NO!" he said trying to protect the book from the Marcy's bad luck field.
Sadly in his desperation to protect the book he forgot his missing limb, he fell to the floor, the landing caused a small tremor, which caused Marcy to fall, to both of their horror's there was a ripping sound.
The room was deathly silent for a few seconds.
"Marcy?"
"Yes?"
"How bad is it?"
Um… Pretty bad."
It was bad, the page which had been full of a story about Barrel facing a large monster on his own had been scrunched.
Marcy expected a roar of anger, threats, however what she got was something else.
She heard a familiar chuckle, which devolved into laughter.
"Marcy Wu." said the former king, "You haven't changed."
She tried to fight it off, but she started to join in the laughter, it lasted for a few minutes before they stopped.
Andrias sat up and looked at the girl, it wasn't a look of warmth or even anger just sad curiosity, "Why did you really come here?"
Marcy stood there for a second and sighed, "I wanted to see how you were." he felt a little embarrassing to say.
The king just shrugged, "Well I'm fine, I've gotten used to living a nomadic lifestyle."
"That really doesn't work if you hang around with others," said Marcy.
"So you know about the stories."
"Only just today, Lady O and Yunan didn't tell me, You seem to know their daughter."
The king gave a small laugh. "Yes, meeting her was a shock."
"What you mean the fact that she has the same name as me?"
"Yep, I hoped I would never see her again but the next day she brought a small army with her, and they demanded stories."
"Really Frog Marcy did that?"
The king nodded, "Yes, she used to visit daily, Still come to visit me once a week."
"Does she know what you…"
Andrias shuffled there for a second, "She knows, but she just… tries to ignore it."
The room fell silent again, "Okay, so why does she hate me then?"
Andrias looked at her awkwardly for a second and then coughed, "Marcy, has some issued with you."
"What issues?"
The king looked at her quietly for a second, I can't tell you."
"Why not?"
Andrias raised a large pinkie finger, "I made a promise."
Marcy looked at him perplexed, "Oh now you keep those."
The room was quiet for a second, Marcy realized she may have said the worst thing possible.
"Sorry," she blurted out.
"No," Said Andrias, "That's fair,"
Marcy stood up on the table, "No it's not Listen I…"
"I know what I did Marcy."
"Yeah but I've…"
"Don't" said Andrias his voice turning grave.
"What?"
Andrias looked at her gravely, "I know what you want to say, And no."
Marcy felt the hair on her neck stand up, "But…"
"No." said the king reaching for the hammer, he took it and slowly rose.
Marcy watched as he walked over and held out his palm, "I'm sorry, but you have to leave."
She looked at him for a second and nodded, "Okay,"
She stepped on his palm and was lowered to the ground, King Andrias walked to the door opened it, Marcy was almost out the door before she turned, "I know how you feel."
"Don't." said Andrias bitterly, "just don't."
Marcy stood there for a second and then walked, she expected to hear the Shed door close when all of a sudden a scream rang out.
It only took a few second for Marcy to realize it came from the woods, and that it belonged to one person, a person who screamed how much she hated her a few minutes ago.
It was Marcy Yunan.
Whatever feelings Marcy had over the meeting vanished, she started to run in the direction of the scream.
…
Marcy Yunan ran through the forest, doing her best to try and get away from the intruder, she was just was so angry that another part of her life have been invaded by her.
Why did she have to come here? Didn't she have a life back on her own world? The world talked about her enough, her parents always compared her to her, Her best fried always compared her to how great the human was supposed to be, Why did she have to come back?
She ran deeper and deeper in to the first, it grew darker and darker, the pleasant forest she was used to was replaced by the dangerous ones where monster dwell, Marcy knew this but didn't care.
Why did Andrias take the blame, it was the human's fault, Why did he have to go when she showed up? Why did she have to take him back?"
After a while she stopped running. Too exhausted to continue.
That's when she looked around where she was.
It was dark, the trees were closer to each than in the other parts of the forest, she looked up, she couldn't even see the sky through the leafs.
It was then she started to realize that she might have made a mistake.
She had no idea where she was and no idea how to get back. How could she be so stupid.
Turning around Marcy started to walk in the direction she came from.
With each step the frog started to feel smaller. She remembered some of the stories she had head about these forests, about how dangerous they were, tales of children being eaten, Andrias had never told those stories it's why she kept going to hear his stories of heroes.
Maybe if she had listened to those other stories she wouldn't be in this place.
As she continued to walk she tried to think of something to keep her mind off the danger of the woods, looking around that's when she saw something in the east sparkling.
Figuring that maybe it might be someone in the woods she rushed towards it.
The source of the sparkle came into view, it was some eggs, she could see through the shells, inside were long worm-lie creatures with canine heads.
Marcy swallowed, she knew what these were.
Hybeenas larvae.
Before she could run away, one of the eggs started to leak, a small head started to push its way out of the shell, Marcy was terrified but another part of her was fascinated, Not many Amphibians had the chance to see a hatching like this up close.
The small rope like creature wriggled its way free from its egg, it lifted it's head and looked at Marcy, she had to admit that in a strange way it was kind of cute, the creature tilted its head at her, then leapt towards her.
Mary dodged the Larva's attack, when it landed she kicked it, it landed quite far whimpering.
"Sorry." said Marcy before she realized it was a wild creature that might kill her, she turned to walk away.
Her heart froze the moment she heard the growling.
She turned around slowly to see shapes start walking out of the woods, she saw the golden manes, the wings, the armor like skin, she saw how the canine part stopped and an insectoid lower half began, she didn't see the stingers but knew that they could piece armor in the stories her mother told her.
These must be the parents, of the eggs, and she had just angered all of them.
"They started it." said Marcy, she instantly felt stupid that was going to be her last words.
The Hybeena's charged.
Before Marcy could move something exploded in front of her, shocking the Hybeenas, turning around she saw a blue frog wearing an apron standing near to a tree, She was gesturing for her to follow.
"RUN," shouted the frog who Marcy recognized as the baker Maddie flour.
Marcy ran towards her the figure, taking her hand they weaved between the threes, she had no idea if Maddie knew where she was going, but she wasn't about to argue with her about that.
The wicked giggles and howls from behind told her that the beasts were in pursuit, Marcy did her best to keep her eyes open, fearing that in her fright she would close them in hope that this was just a nightmare.
She noticed that for a baker Maddie didn't seem to be as scared as she was right now.
That's when they heard buzzing from above her.
Looking up Marcy saw two of the hybeenas flying.
They swooped down to one of them almost catching her arm in their jaws.
Marcy let out a scream, Maddie changed direction to the right, Marcy almost tripped over in the course correction.
The next thing Marcy knew they had exited the forest.
The only problem was that they were standing on an edge of a cliff, it was a long way down.
"We're trapped." said Marcy who was near hysterics at this point.
"We need to…"
What Maddie was going to say Marcy wouldn't know, for one of the Hybeenas smashed into her sending her down the cliff, Marcy screamed again as she watched Maddie land on a large rock that was just sticking out.
Marcy was terrified, but despite that she jumped to see if her would be savior was alive.
Landing on the rock she felt if shake a little, running over to Maddie she could hear the frog breathing, she was only unconscious, however Marcy's relief was short-lived.
All of a sudden the only thing she could hear was buzzing mixed with laughter.
Marcy turned and her heart sank.
In front of her were an army of flying Hybeenas.
Marcy thought about her moms and how she forgot to say she loved them that morning, she thought about Lucian ad how they fought earlier she wished she had been nicer to him.
She then thought of Andrias and his stories those that told her of noble heroes, she looked at Maddie and knew what she had to do.
If she covered her, maybe when the monsters were done eating her they'd go, sparing the baker.
Marcy dove upon the unconscious frog.
She closed her eyes and prayed that it would be quick.
"HEY UGLIES!" said a voice from above.
The rock surface shook, Marcy looked up to see the back of the monster that had her name, wielding a tree branch.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!."