Hello everyone!

I'm back with a new chapter! At first, I was gonna do one following the events of 'The Third Temple,' but I decided to wait until next chapter to do that, so I came up with this one, which takes place a couple days after the events of 'Barrel's Warhammer!'

Enjoy!

Advice from Aldo

One… Two… THREE!

Ethan let go of the horizontal bar, flipping through the air and landing, rather shakily, on the mat beneath him. He stumbled forward, nearly tumbling over, but managed to catch himself in time. Panting heavily, he straightened back up, disappointed that he couldn't stick the landing.

Five imperfect landings in a row, the young teen thought annoyedly, deciding to end his training early for the evening and turn in. He walked across the North Tower's courtyard and headed inside, the toad soldiers on duty saluting him as he passed by. Heading up to his room, the boy collapsed onto his four poster bed and staring at the stone ceiling, too tired to take off his boots and armor.

It had been a couple days since he and Grime had retrieved Barrel's Warhammer for the other toad captains, gaining the support they needed to march on the capital city of Newtopia. Since then, most of their time had been spent in meetings with Aldo, Beatrix, Bufo, and several other high-ranking toads, discussing plans to gather their armies and take over the country. Most of it was boring talk about calculating the amount of resources they'd need for all the soldiers, having the blacksmith's make sure that everyone's weapons were in top shape, and other topics that the teenager didn't find interesting. The only good part of the last meeting was when Beatrix challenged Grime to an arm wrestling contest, with Beatrix winning out after nearly ten minutes of tense glares between the two.

Ethan wasn't sure if he liked the other toad captains. It was hard to gauge anything from Aldo, who usually napped through the loud and rowdy meetings with a serene expression on his wizened face; beside their first meeting, the old toad hadn't said a word to the young human. Beatrix reminded him a lot of Sasha in many ways, being bossy and rude to everyone around her, though he couldn't help but laugh whenever she told embarrassing childhood stories about Grime, who sat nearby with a furious (yet very pink) face. Bufo made a few efforts to talk to him every now and then, but it was mainly condescending questions about why 'hummuses' couldn't jump as high as toads and why they had those weird bumps on their faces. And it didn't help that Grime, apparently glad to be back with toads that were 'equal' in status to himself, started to spend more time with them after the meetings and training drills, often going down to the cellars to crack open a barrel or two of bug juice.

Sighing, and no longer feeling too tired, the young human sat up and got out of his bed. Grabbing his copy of Dune, he left his room, heading up to one of the highest parts of the Tower. Finding a spot that was clear of any patrolling guards, he sat down and cracked open the book, continuing where he had left off with help from the light of a nearby torch. His old backpack had ripped long ago, and he now used a sturdy knapsack to carry his books, old notebooks, and what was left of his SJMS hoodie. It was a great night, with very little clouds in the sky, and a nice breeze blowing any smells from the surrounding swampland and bogs away from him as he read.

As time passed, Ethan started to find it more difficult to pay attention to what he was reading; it didn't help that he had read this book at least ten times before, and it was hard to focus on the story when he knew what was going to happen before it did. Eventually, he shut the book, looking out at the expanse of land surrounding the North Tower with a slight frown on his face. For a few minutes, he wasn't sure what he was feeling; he only knew that he didn't like it. Then, with a sudden start, he realized it was loneliness.

Back in the human world, the young teenager had what he called 'school friends.' They were kids he saw at school everyday and was friendly with, but they didn't interact with one another outside of school or the Sci-Fi club. The same could be said for his gymnastics team; he was chummy with his teammates, but as soon as practice was over, they might as well have been strangers as they left the gym. To put it simply, he didn't have anybody he'd consider a real friend. He used to with Anne, but that had been ruined months before they arrived in Amphibia. Then, in Amphibia, he had found two new friends in Percy and Braddock, and (though it took a long time for him to realize this) another friend in Captain Grime.

But now Percy and Braddock were gone, keeping true to their word and leaving that very night. Against Grime's orders, Ethan had managed to slip away, going after them as they were limping across the courtyard. And-

The boy closed his eyes, a wave of guilt coming over him as he pictured how they had looked that night: bruised, beaten, and tired. All because he had broken his promise to them…

[][][]

"Guys… I really am sorry," Ethan said, putting his hand on Braddock's shoulder. "I promise, I won't do anything like that again."

"We know you won't," she replied, smiling a little.

"And don't worry," Percy added. "Of course we forgive you! But…" He and his girlfriend exchanged a look. "We just… This isn't for us. You and Grime are better off without us."

"That's not true," the teen quickly replied.

"It is," Braddock said gently. "You and Grime… You're both true soldiers and leaders; you're meant to conquer Amphibia. But Perce and I… we're just regular toads at heart, and right now, you need soldiers to march on Newtopia. Not a gardener or a joker." She adjusted her grip around her boyfriend's shoulder, still supporting him. "And… we've been thinking about leaving for a while, but we didn't wanna leave you and Grime without any soldiers. But now you've got enough toads to take over Newtopia ten times over."

"But you're…" Ethan was surprised to find that he was blinking away tears, and he quickly wiped at his face. "You guys… You guys've been my best friends since I've gotten here, and I don't…" He struggled to get the words out, but the two toads seemed to understand.

"You'll be fine," Percy said, smiling and hopping on his uninjured foot over to him. Briefly letting go of Braddock, he hugged the boy, who, after a brief moment or two of shock, hugged him back. When they finally let go, Braddock hugged him too, with Percy keeping a hand on her shoulder so he wouldn't fall over.

"We're thinking… if it's okay with you," she said when they let go. "We here hoping we could take Rocky with us. I know these toads have a stable full of critters that you can use for transportation, but we know you helped find Rocky and had gotten attached to him, so if you don't want us to-"

"No, it's cool," the young human said, putting on a too-wide smile, blinking away more tears that were threatening to fall. "Of course… you're the one that took care of him most of the time, anyway."

"True." Braddock nodded at him. "Goodbye, Ethan. Oh, wait…" She dug into her knapsack, taking out a small jar and handing it to him. "Some more of that salve, for your scars and such."

He accepted it, holding it with both hands. "... Thank you."

She smiled. "Goodbye, Ethan; hope the invasion goes well."

"Yeah," Percy agreed, waving at him with his free hand. "Don't forget about us when you're at the top!" And on that final note, the two toads limped off across the courtyard, leaving the teenager alone.

[][][]

Ethan realized he was running his finger over the back of his left hand, and looked down, noticing that there were barely any scars left. Feeling his face and the back of his neck, as well as his arms and legs, he realized that most of the scars from his time in the Hole had faded away, leaving his skin as smooth as it had been before arriving in Amphibia. Braddock's salve had worked like magic, and his hand fell away from his hand, and a few more tears welled in his eyes. First Anne and Marcy, and now Percy and Braddock... Why must all this misfortune land on him?

"A beautiful night, is it not?"

The young teenager jumped, whirling around to find Captain Aldo standing behind him, staring out at the surrounding bogs with… Ethan couldn't see any eyes in the toad's sockets, yet he had the eerie feeling that the aged Amphibian could still see. He also had no idea how the senior leader of the Toad Army had climbed all the way up here, since he usually moved around with slow, shuffling steps. A sudden realization came to the human.

"How long have you been standing there," he asked.

"Long enough," the senior toad replied, still staring out at the night scene, standing as rigid as a statue; if his mouth hadn't been moving, the teen would've thought he was a statue. "And I must say, you're a lot braver than I thought; most soldiers would rather break every bone in their body than to show tears in front of a captain."

The human quickly turned away for a few seconds, wiping at his eyes as he cheeks flushed with humiliation and annoyance.

"Get it over with," Ethan muttered. "Whatever you've gotta say, just say it."

"Eh? Sorry; I couldn't hear you."

"I said, just say whatever it is you wanna say to me."

"And who said I wanted to say anything to you," Captain Aldo asked, turning to look at him, staring at him with the blank, empty voids of his eye sockets.

A chill ran down the teenager's spine, and it took all of his courage to not look away from the toad's stare. He swallowed a lump in his throat.

"I… I just meant," the young human said, realizing that while this toad may look like a walking corpse, he was still a captain of the Toad Army, and his superior. "I'm sorry, I thought that… Usually, in books and movies and stuff, whenever a old character- Not that you're old or anything! I just meant that…" He frowned, frustrated that he couldn't say what he wanted to say correctly. "I just thought you were gonna give me some sage advice or something."

There was a substantial period of silence as the toad and the boy stared at one another, with only the wind and the noise of one of the tower guards snoring loudly some ten yards to their right. Ethan couldn't tell if the captain was upset or not; he worried for a few moments that he'd screwed everything up, and that he and Grime would either be tossed out, taken to Newtopia as traitors, or locked in the dungeon for the rest of their natural lives. However, this thought quickly left his mind as the old Amphibian suddenly chuckled, the noise low and deep.

"Heh heh heh." The senior captain smiled, showing a mouth with very little teeth. "Heh heh… I've never heard that excuse before! 'Sage wisdom,' indeed!" He continued to chuckle, and after a while, the human started to grow slightly annoyed.

"I'm sorry, sir," the young teenager said, doing his best to keep any disrespect and sarcasm from his tone.

"Nothing to be sorry for," Captain Aldo replied. "It's one of the funniest things I've heard in over 30 years!" He looked down at the ground next to the boy. "What's that you're reading?"

"It's just… a book from my world," Ethan answered, picking up the novel. "You probably wouldn't find it interesting."

"I'll be the judge of that." The toad slowly as, with a lot of creaking noises, he held out his hand to the human, unfurling his fingers one at a time to take the novel. After a brief moment of hesitation, the boy stood up and handed the book to him. Aldo looked down at the book, and a stray beetle crawled out from the folds of his robes, briefly crawling over the book before the captain flicked it away. The leader of the North Tower slowly turned the book over, looking over the summary for several long minutes. Finally, he said:

"I cannot read this strange text." He held the book back out to the teenager, who accepted it. "What is it called?"

"It's called Dune," the human replied. "It takes place on another planet, thousands of years in the future. There's this guy named Paul Atreides, the son of a prominent duke, and he and his family are sent to rule this desert planet Arrakis, which is the only planet in the universe that produces this drug called Spice. The plot's a bit complex, but basically, some bad guys attack and send him and his mom into hiding, and he becomes the leader of this small rebel group so he can reclaim the planet."

"So it's a book of war," Captain Aldo stated as he nodded slightly, his neck creaking as he moved his head up and down.

"Of sorts."

"And this Paul Atreides character… he is young like you, I assume. And you see qualities of yourself in him, correct?"

Ethan nodded. "Yeah. Well, he's fifteen at the beginning of the book, so a couple years ahead of me. And as for seeing myself in him…" He shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, yeah, it's my favorite book, but I don't think that means-"

"Now if there's one thing I will not tolerate," the wizened toad captain interrupted, a hard tone entering his voice, "is when someone lies to me. I've been in charge of this tower for over forty years; I've seen just about everything, and even you, strange creature, do not surprise me." He leaned forward a little. "I may be old, but I'm not stupid. So don't try to hide anything from me." A centipede crawled out of his left eye socket, disappearing into the socket of the right eye. Trying not to throw up, Ethan quickly nodded.

"I…I wasn't trying to… Fine, I guess I do kinda see myself in Paul," he said, taking a small step back while taking care to avoid the ledge so he wouldn't fall off the tower. "He's smart, resourceful, and a natural-born leader." He smiled a little. "Not to mention it's a sci-fi book with futuristic technology and alien creatures and worlds, so I guess I sometimes imagine myself doing the same stuff he's done. Especially since arriving in Amphibia." He looked back out at the swamplands in the distance. "This place is about as alien as it can get to me, though I wish there was more advanced technology than glowing mushrooms and giant bugs that can deliver messages."

Aldo nodded. "I see." He straightened back up. "Is Paul Atreides a crier?"

The human flinched, and his hands clenched into fists, unclenched, and then clenched themselves again. After a few moments of silence, he said, "Why does that matter?"

"I just wanted to know if you had a good excuse to be crying earlier," the toad explained.

"With all due respect, sir," Ethan said, "I-"

"Don't finish that sentence," the aged captain ordered. "You mean no respect towards me."

He's good, the young teenager thought.

"Then may I speak freely," he asked out loud. "Without fear of retaliation?"

Captain Aldo grinned. "Scared of disappointing Grime?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Or are you afraid of disappointing someone else?"

"What do you mean, 'someone else?' There's no one else-"

The boy abruptly stopped talking, an image of Percy and Braddock riding away on Rocky entering the foreground of his mind. The senior toad captain nodded a little.

"Your two… peppy friends," he said. "I remember them; they left shortly after you returned Barrel's Warhammer to us."

"I was there," Ethan snapped without thinking. "And as to why they left-"

"It was your fault," Aldo interrupted. "You drove them away."

"I did no- They told me they wanted to leave," the teenager protested, feeling his face flush with anger. "They said that they had been thinking of leaving for a while, but that they didn't wanna leave me and Grime without any soldiers to command!"

"And that's most likely true," Captain Aldo continued, "but you're the one that broke their promise." He held up his hand before the boy could speak. "Word travels around; I know that you made a deal with those two, and that you reneged it the moment you saw that hammer."

"You're the one that asked us to get the stupid hammer in the first place," the human retorted.

"Do not try to pin your failed friendship on me, boy," the captain warned, his eye sockets narrowing. "You saw that hammer and thought of the glory and power it would bring you, and in that moment, you decided that was more important than your friends."

"I didn't! And even if I did, Captain Grime always said that sometimes, you have to make split-decisions in the heat of the moment, and in that moment, I did what I had to do to ensure that we'd get the support we needed to take over Newtopia."

"And it cost you your friends," the aged toad captain stated. "Did Grime tell you that, that your decisions will not only affect your life, but the lives of those closest to you?"

"He-" Ethan hesitated, shaking his head. "What does it matter if he did?"

"Would your Paul Atreides have done that," the toad questioned. "Make a decision that would lose those he had closest to them?"

"He's not even a real character!"

"But would he?"

"No! No, is that what you wanted to hear?!"

"I must say, for someone that claims to view a fictional character as his hero, you seem to be acting very much unlike him," the toad said. "Unless Paul Atreides is a betrayer, like you."

The teen pushed the old toad back, slamming him into the nearby wall. Before he could hit him, the captain grabbed his wrists in a death-like grip, pulling him close enough for their faces to be inches from one another. All the human could see was the empty sockets of the toad, and could smell a mixture of bugs, algae, and something that the boy could only describe as being 'musty.'

"You forget your place, Lieutenant Day," Captain Aldo said, his empty eyes boring into his. "Any soldier that attacks their superior is tried for treason, and sentenced to an excruciatingly painful death. And after all that work you went through to gain our trust and support, you throw it all away in a moment of anger? Is this another 'split-second' decision, like the one that ruined your friendship?"

Ethan couldn't speak; somehow, he couldn't get his mouth to open, nor form the words that he wanted to say.

"You want some sage advice," the wizened toad captain asked. "Here it is: being in a position of authority is one of the most dangerous jobs one can have. You may think it's easy, getting to tell everyone else what to do, and being able to intimidate anyone you please, but the instant you let your own self-interest get in the way, then you're doomed yourself and your soldiers. Your friends were counting on you and trusting you to do the right thing; it's what all soldiers expect their captains and lieutenants to do, since their job is to keep them all alive to see another day. You failed that night, putting your and their lives at risk."

"You sent us on that mission," the teenager finally gasped, struggling to break free of the toad's surprisingly strong grip.

"I gave you our terms, and you were the one that accepted the challenge. If I recall, you answered for your group and said that you'd bring the hammer back without consulting them. Even if you had refused, because your friends didn't want to, I would have found that more honorable that putting their lives at risk. And yes, maybe you were trying to show that you were brave and strong, prove to your captain and your friends that you could lead and be responsible. But you made it all about yourself!" He let go of the boy's wrists, straightening back up. "Grime and Paul Atreides… Even without knowing either that well, I can tell they are two very different individuals. But from what I've seen and heard from you, you are clearly like Grime, instead of that young hero you claim to emulate." He pointed at the young human. "But mark my words: eventually, you will have another big decision to make. One that will affect your life and the lives of everyone around you… Think about what your choice will be, Lieutenant Day."

Ethan stared at the old toad with shock, his words fresh in his mind. For a few moments, the two stared at one another, but eventually, the aged captain turned and shambled away, heading around the bend of the tower and out of sight.

That… That… What did that old toad know, saying that he was the cause of his own misery by pushing away his friends? Now he knew what he thought about Captain Aldo; he was just as bad as Bufo and Beatrix, if not worse. It made sense, in a way; you don't stay in charge for decades without being replaced by a younger, more able captain unless you've got a sharp mind. Aldo's mind was as sharp as a knife, Ethan felt like he had been gutted, and all of his inner thoughts now lay on the stone in front of him. And he didn't like what he was seeing.

You pushed Anne away too, he thought. You got angry at her back at the playground and at Toad Tower, so if she doesn't wanna be your friend anymore, it's your fault. Aldo was right; you're letting your own ego get in the way of your friendships and what's really important in your life!

"I'm just doing what Grime told me to do," he muttered to himself. "Following orders, I-"

But you're not a soldier, he reminded himself. You're a kid! A kid who's gotten himself in too deep, and if you don't try to get out of this now you're gonna hurt more people, and maybe yourself!

"NO," the boy suddenly growled out loud, turning around and kicking the discarded Dune book over the edge of the tower, sending it spinning towards the courtyard far below. His heart beating like a drum, he watched it fall in the dirt below. And then, after a moment of hesitation, he rushed towards the nearest stairs to go get it.

Yeah, a bit of a more serious and emotional chapter, focusing on Ethan's inner turmoil after Percy and Braddock leave, as well as a bit of his feelings about his past with Anne and Marcy.

I hope you enjoyed it; the next chapter will be 'The Third Temple,' so keep an eye out for it! Follow and favorite, and feel free to leave a review with your thoughts! Have a great day, everyone!

-aggiefrogger

I do not own Dune or Paul Atreides at all.