When the entirety of Wartwood is set to go into hibernation, Leo and Anne clash on what kind of responsibility would be best for looking after them, with one wanting to simply have fun and the other just wanting to keep them safe.
...
...
Leo jabbed at the food that had been plated out in front of him, it didn't look bad but it was more the fact that he was suspicious of what it would taste like, "I don't trust this."
Anne seemingly brushed off his worries, and slid the omelet closer towards him smugly nudging him to just get it over with and eat it, "C'monnnnnn! I went out of my way to make you food, and you're not gonna eat it?"
Whatever she was trying wasn't working in the slightest, but Leo still reluctantly picked up his fork and ate the food alongside Polly and Hop Pop. A much to his own dismay at admitting the Anne had made a nice meal and giving in to her, Leo couldn't lie and say it didn't taste bad.
What he didn't expect was the eagerness Anne actually had awaited his response to the meal, "Is good, a lot more palatable compared to all the bugs I've eaten."
Exhaling, Anne sagged her shoulders at his answer, "Of course, you just had to make it sound boring..."
Before the conversation could continue any further, a high-pitched scream came from the top of the stairs, carried down from Sprig, he abruptly stopped at the food Hop Pop had," Oh, those look good," He remarked."
"Omelets," He responded.
"Huh," Sprig's screaming didn't stop as he stared his grandparent in the eyes, making sure he realized he was serious, "It's happening!"
"Are you sure?"
"Deathly!"
"Soooo..." Leo dryly turned to Polly on the other side of the table, "Is this a death to all Amphibia kind of thing, or Plantar family drama kind of thing?"
The pollywog shrugged it off rolling off, "Both...kinda?"
Anne slowly began packing away her food, separating different parts of the omelet, "Yeah, Anne they've gone already," Leo admitted, gesturing to the already open door.
"Get a move on girl!" Polly chanted, slapping the food away and hopping into her palms, "Yeah, no that's totally fine. I'll just leave this omelet here, completely soggy."
They completely ignored the 16-year-olds sulking and followed after Sprig and Hop Pop, who was sounding a weirdly well-tuned alarm with just his tongue. Clambering up and over the stones overtop the lake, following behind them into the town.
Surprisingly, the rest of the citizens had grouped around it as well, "How did...how did anyone hear that alarm?"
Anne shrugged it off, she'd grown accustomed to the world's random uncertainties and had mainly decided to just roll with it at this point, "Now what is this all about Plantar?" Toadstool questioned, watching as the frog eventually simmered down and came to a halt.
"Everyone! This is the third morning in a row that temperature has dropped below the frog line, and you know what that means!"
"Hiber Day!" Hop Pop howled, a little too dramatically.
Even Anne was confused by what he'd said, she was sure that she'd never been told about something like that, especially considering the fact with how much of a fuss the town was making about it, "Hiber Day? The heck is that?"
"One day every year, the temperature drops so low that us frogs all go into instant hibernation. And when we wake up, we feel rejuvenated and alive!"
Leo felt a shiver go down his spine, he could sense the dark twist about to pop up. Glancing over to the small tadpole in Anne's hand, receiving a small nod from her, "That sounds pretty cool," Anne spoke.
"You understand nothing Anne! Alongside the hibernation, one of us always ends up going missing at the end of it. Never to be seen again."
"Knew it," Leo interjected, sighing as he did, "Never a dull moment."
"It's serious Leo! We've lost plenty of frogs because of it," Sprig explained gesturing to townsfolks behind him, each and every one of them speaking their possible goodbyes to one another.
The Plantar family was doing the same, with Anne and Leo failing to see what the real problem was, "You're thinking the same thing right?" She queried, already knowing the answer.
"Mm, we can survive in the cold. And keep an eye on everyone," Leo responded.
Hop Pop turned over to the two humans, spreading his arms out into a hug, "Of course, possible goodbye Anne and L-"
"Not so fast!" Anne announced, stopping all three of them.
"Your kind of spitting on tradition Anne."
"One of you going missing every year isn't a tradition you should feel is being disrespected, besides this year that won't be happening..." Before Leo could calmly explain the situation his usual monotone voice, he was overturned by Anne who was speaking much louder.
"We'll be able to protect everyone, no one will go missing this year!" She yelled yet again, pumping her fist against her chest.
All of Wartwood seemed confused at the declaration, tilting their heads and squinting their eyes in suspicion of what she was talking about, "Hellooo, me and Leo are warm-blooded!"
"That's gross Anne," Sprig said casually.
"I watched you eat a fly off of Bessie's stable earlier this week..." Leo teased, smiling somewhat at Sprig's embarrassment.
"So, what! We're frogs, it's our way of life!"
"Calm yourself boy, just let them finish explaining," Hop Pop kept the pink frog quiet.
"If we're warm-blooded than we won't freeze!" Anne finished, taking a stance against the town statue, "And under my watch, no one will disappear again."
"Guess I'm not here then," Leo murmured under his breath, smiling as she whacked her hand against the statue.
On one hand, he was fine with looking after the town, as Hop Pop was explaining; they could just meet in one place and it would be pretty easy to keep an eye on all of them. What worried him though, was what the mysterious force was that did take only one of the frogs every year, and if was one of the worlds more horrific creatures, would they even be able to stop it?
He was also unsure on whether Anne could even handle the fact that she had to help look after so many people at once, someone as impulsive and fretful as her was bound to get bored of simply watching the town.
Suddenly, Polly called for Leo as the her and the rest of the Plantar's were heading off, "Are you two sure you're alright with this? Looking after the whole town is a lot of responsibility," Hop Pop questioned.
"I mean, you're all in one place and not moving right? It shouldn't be too hard to watch every single one of you. Only thing I'm concerned about is...the cold."
"You not a fan of it either huh?" Hop Pop commented getting a sheepish nod in return.
"I like feeling refreshed and able to move about, but from my own thoughts the idea of a chilly, hard to move around in climate just seems awful..."
Anne gave him a somewhat harsh slap on the back, a confident look on her face, "Don't sweat it dude, I'll get you some warm clothes. I've got some mittens and a hat you can borrow; we've got this! I feel like this is the moment that everything has been leading up to!"
"All of my senses feel heightened, as if I can do anything and see everything in my surrounding! You feeling the same Leo?"
When no response came from the white-haired boy, Anne looked around her to see the other human shaking and chattering on the spot, "W-We've got a b-bit of a problem," He stammered, not able to get out a proper sentence due to his shuddering teeth.
Beside him, were Polly, Sprig and Hop Pop all completely frozen in ice, "I t-think H-Hiber Day came early, dammit I knew I would hate the cold, my e-entire b-body feels numb," Leo snarled, trying his best to warm himself up despite the single grey t-shirt he was wearing not doing much to help.
"This is bad, everyone's separated across the entire town, it's going to take ages for us to-" Acting on impulse, Anne pulled up on the ice-covered frogs, discovering that they were in fact surprisingly light to carry.
"Alright, let's get all of them into the town square," Anne planned out, carry Hop Pop and Polly in each arm, leaving Sprig to Leo.
Speaking of, the red-eyed teen wasn't faring to well in the temperature, "And then we'll make sure to get you some warm clothes, promise."
"Thanks," Leo really did appreciate it, unfolding his red and numb fingers out from the tucked in position they were in and picking up the even colder feeling frog.
Soon enough, the two of them had collected each member of Wartwood, placing them on either side of the statue. It hadn't actually been that much of an egregious task considering the weight of them all and the fact that none of the frogs had managed to get that far away from the center of town.
Leo rubbed his mitten covered hands together, attempting to warm them up even more than they already were, Anne had also lent him her spare gym jacket which had been doing a good job at keeping him warm.
Anne hobbled from behind a house, carrying the final frog and placing it down, "That's the last of em, which was surprisingly easy, look at me go, town protector!" As she posed, Leo got in her way shaking his head at what she was doing.
"Just...stop."
After a few minutes had passed, Leo and Anne sat beside each other on a log that was spaced out enough to give them a good overview of all of the frogs, "What now?" Anne questioned, looking over to Leo, who had weirdly serious gaze fixed on the frozen amphibians.
"We wait and watch," He replied sternly.
It hadn't even been a couple more minutes before Anne had grown bored of simply staring at the frogs, "Wanna do something Leo?" She asked, not getting an immediate answer from the boy, "Are you listening?"
"Y-Yes, but right now we need to watch them. Something is going to come and take one of them, we have to be ready to stop it!" Leo explained steeling his gaze once again.
'Uhhh, he needs to let loose a little. I've seen him messing about with Sprig, why's he being so serious all of a sudden, guess that is just how he is.'
She still needed something to do however, there wasn't much time until she be completely bored and tired of the entire ordeal. That was until she spotted Sprig amongst the group of solidified frogs, 'If I'm going to stay the town protector, then I'll need someone to preoccupy me.'
Unbeknownst to Leo, Anne snuck off and away from the log, slyly collecting Sprig as she did, carrying him all the way over to the Plantar household. There she defrosted him, realizing how much of a drunken mess he seemed.
"Ohhh, this might have been a bad idea. You frogs don't seem to do well in the cold," Anne cringed internally at her friends flopping about in the now melted ice.
"Why you say that? Water angels," Sprig spewed out, not sounding any better than before.
'Maybe I shouldn't have defrosted him, what is Leo going to do when he finds out?'
"Hell. That's what," Leo usually plain voice now had a much darker undertone to it, "Why would you let Sprig out, he's supposed to hibernate!"
Anne blew a raspberry, seemingly blowing off his worries, "Stop being such a stick in the mud Leo, we can still look after Wartwood, there's nothing wrong with taking a break."
"What happened to being responsible!?" He exclaimed back, trying his best not to get frustrated.
"I am! Just in my own town protector way, if I'm bored, I won't be able to do anything will I?" Anne argued, getting no reply from Leo. He had already left the household and was halfway down the path, "You can have fun, but I'm going to be doing the job we said we were doing. Making sure nobody gets taken, it's the responsible thing we were supposed to do."
With that, Leo left Anne and Sprig, somewhat on what the two of them were going to do.
And so, with much hesitation and reluctance. Leo was forced to keep watch on the frogs of Wartwood as Anne and a disheveled Sprig begun to mess around, throwing snowballs at one another and creating snowmen that soon collapsed under one another.
In all honestly there wasn't any real harm to it, all they were doing was playing in snow and it wasn't even that far away from the center of town.
It had been a good hour at this point, with Anne and Sprig having fun, with Leo doing nothing but sitting on a snow-covered log, freezing in his own misery, he really did hate the cold. More than that, he really didn't see any harm in him getting up and having fun.
That was until they approached him again, this time holding both Mrs. Croaker and Wally in either hand, "What are you two doing? Put them back."
They didn't stop however, acting out the two of them in a relationship. Leo thought it was stupid, in what way could this be fun, all they were doing was poorly impersonating either one of the frogs; yet he still let a chuckle slip out his mouth.
"Shit," He audibly swore, due to his own annoyance.
Smugly grinning back at him, Anne beckoned him over to them, "Come on Leo, you've been sitting here for a while, just relax. You can afford to take a little break," She continued to bargain with him, first getting him off of the log.
"No. I have to watch them, we have to watch them, they're counting on us Anne," Leo explained, it wasn't because he wanted the town to respect him more than they already did, he and Anne had made it his responsibility to look after them all.
Anne couldn't help but feel a little guilty at what he'd said, but what was the point in just sitting by for hours on end, when it was much easier to enjoy themselves and be a protector, "Leo. You just to cut back a bit, and stop being so serious all the time, that's your problem."
She sounded a little harsher this time, letting go off him and picking up some more of the frogs, getting help from Sprig to tie them up together.
He didn't know what it was, but it was some kind of weird amalgamation of the frogs, with the rope soon loosening and collapsing all of the frogs, "Woah, what are you doing. You're not having fun anymore, this is just irresponsible, what kind of town protector messes about with the helpless people she's protecting."
Leo huffed as he tried to pick up the most frogs he could, not noticing the moody, annoyed stare Anne was giving him as he left.
"Well at least I'm not some robot, you're too busy being responsible that you're not even trying to have fun. When I know fully well that you can, so stop being so serious and ruining it for everyone."
He didn't stop at what she said, still choosing to return to the middle of Wartwood to put everybody back where they were.
As he placed Polly into her bucket however, something blurred through the snow, kicking up a flurry of it as it did. He had nothing to fight with, after being gifted Anne's jacket he'd placed his combat knife back at the house, that didn't matter though; right now, the creature who was stealing the frogs' lives had returned.
Flanking up and over the several piles of snow packed atop the houses circling the area, the pale white creature finally veered it's long, snake like head, baring its fangs back at Leo.
It didn't seem to have its eyes set on him however, no it was more locking its piercing red eyes at the tadpole behind him. As it reared forward so did Leo, making sure he wasn't going to let it reach her.
Anne returned to the group where all of the citizens of Wartwood were supposed to be, preparing to do a headcount, "Sprig, have you seen Leo anywhere?"
"Yep!" The pink frog replied enthusiastically, "I've seen him at the fountain and back at home, in the store. I've seen Leo in all sorts of places."
Not impressed with the answer, Anne continued with her headcount of the frogs, briefly skimming over the empty bucket that Polly was supposed to be placed in, "Polly, no! She's gone!"
'Leo was right, what kind of protector am I..'
Speaking of which, it was strange that he had disappeared as well. Not to mention the set of tracks leading away from the town, clearly belonging to one of Amphibia's numerous creatures.
"C'mon Sprig we have to get those two back, no matter what!"
"Is there something wrong with Polly?" He quizzed back, a derpy smile over his face.
They followed the clearly imprinted tracks in the snow, with the pawprints having sunk deeper into the ground, making it even more visible to where they were. Anne was making sure she could keep on moving, she couldn't let whatever had taken Polly and Leo eat them, it was just like he said, it was her responsibility as well.
"I smell a Polly, right there in that creepy cave," Sprig pointed out, droopily beginning to stumble over towards it.
"Of course, it is.."
Once they entered, Anne could immediately spot a pile of bones just casually lying around it, "Hey, that icicle looks like Polly!" The young frog glanced upwards to his sister placed up against the wall.
Before anything, the creature revealed itself lunging viciously towards Anne. She reacted just as quickly though, reeling a frozen bone from out of the snow and trapping it between its large jaw, keeping it firmly in place.
Just as it was about to snap through the bone and possibly Anne all the same, a familiar white-haired figure leaped from atop the ceiling, completely encased in frost that was starting melt off his clothes, "Sprig! Hurry up and get Polly, we don't have much time!" Leo ordered now pulling the bone back against the snow-white beast's mouth.
"LEO!" Anne yelled, relief pooling off her words.
"Yō," He stated simply, grunting as a continued to tussle with the creature, "Wouldn't mind if you helped out here Anne!"
"Hey Polly, stop dancing around so much I'm trying to save you!" Sprig spoke, seconds away from drifting off and collapsing off of the roof.
Hearing the frog, the possum esc creature managed to throw Leo off of its back and on top of Anne, scuttling over to Sprig, revealing its large, husky, sharp toothed mouth.
"We've got to get to it, now that its distracted I can hit it!" Leo described, sneaking under the mammal.
Anne on the other hand, heard a sound coming from the covering section of the cave, peaking into it she noticed three of the creatures' children, presumably crying out from hunger, huddling together for warmth.
Seeing this, the possum leaped from the roof and in front of Anne, screeching at her to get away wrapping its tail around her babies, growling in a protective stance.
"So, that's why it took Polly and had been taking frogs, it has to feed not only itself but her babies," Leo observed, gently throwing the frozen weapon away, Anne did the same, "But, if we take Polly then they'll have nothing to eat."
Raising an eyebrow, Leo was unsure of what she was getting at. That was until she, zipped open her bag and began preparing the same food they'd eaten earlier that morning, once she'd finished Anne timidly slipped it over to the possum.
Lucky for them, it took the food and began feeding it to her family, "I can't believe that worked," Leo gasped, his mouth aghast, Anne didn't seem to shocked by it though.
"I guess the power of omelets are universal, now let's get going before it decides to eat us," Dusting some of the snow out of her brown hair, Anne pulled Leo with her and watched as Sprig broke Polly from off of the wall, landing directly in their arms.
"My face feels squishy," Sprig smiled giddily, flailing his arms about.
Leo gave Anne a disapproving glance, "Yeah, yeah I know, I shouldn't have thawed him out."
Eventually, after a few remaining hours had passed and most of the snow had melted, Anne, Leo and Sprig all waited for the moment that the temperature dipped back above the frog line and the sun finally shined back through the clouds.
Once it did, the rest of Wartwood finally began to thaw out of the ice, "We made it through the freeze," Hop Pop cheered shaking the water off of himself.
"We're alive!" Polly yelled all the same.
Just as they were about to cheer for Anne, she cut them off, "Don't bother cheering, I was a terrible protector for you guys, it's Leo that deserves your praise. I did nothing but goof off, I even thawed Sprig out because I was bored."
"Heck, Polly almost got eaten by a possum!"
"Anne, you can't just blame yourself. You were right, I took it way to seriously, and I'd be lying by saying that I didn't want to have fun as well. Not to mention the fact that I did fall asleep for two hours, besides you still saved her in the end," Leo intervened, going against Anne's claims.
"Yeah but.."
It was Hop Pop's turn to step into Anne's words, "Anne, the fact that you admitted that proves that you were a good town leader, you took responsibility and owned up to your mistake. Not to mention that this is the first year that no one's gone missing!"
"Are we just gonna ignore that I almost died without my knowledge.." Polly brought up, her voice going unheard over all of the cheering.
As the noise settled down, Anne placed a hand on Leo's shoulder, trying to catch his attention, "Look dude, I'm sorry about what I said, you were right in the first place, I should've been more responsible about it and for the record I don't think you're a robot," She apologized, seeming genially guilty.
"You know, I think I have something to pay you back," Leo grinned, accepting the apology crouching down to the floor. Anne hadn't seen him bawl up the few remaining clumps of snow, so as Leo got back up to above her eye level, he tossed the ball of snow right at her face, "Yeah, I think we're even now."
Anne wiped the frost from off of her face, kneeling down to the floor clamping the snow into her palms thrusting it forward and directly into his stomach, "I'm not just gonna let you of that easily."
Before they knew it, the two of them had started a massive snowball fight that spanned throughout the entirety of Wartwood, all of them enjoying the end of their Hiber Day for the first time in years.
...
Sorry for the length once again, I'm not sure how you guys feel on long chapters, but nevertheless I really hope you enjoyed, this was just another character to better flesh out Leo's relationships with different people in the show while fleshing out Anne like in the show. This came out a little later than I wanted by hey at least it's here, the next chapter will be on the Bizarre Bazaar so until then, see yah.
