Attack of the Giant Maddie

by birby6

Maddie never wanted to experience something like that day again. When a painful migraine leads to a full on bodily surge, she immediately finds herself back in a stature she desired to forget...but on a grander scale. Now it's a mad scramble to find a cure for her titanic growth before she has to live as a colossal giant forever, but something doesn't seem right...

5. Chapter 5

Everything progressed pretty uneventfully for the next week. Everyone went about their own agendas…even with a giant frog girl nearby. To them it became just another weird occurrence that they had to live and adapt to, which, to Maddie, made her more comfortable over her surprise height gain. Some townsfolk even offered her some leftover food and drinks since she couldn't exactly wander into her home and leave it in one piece, although she always kept the special Spudley potatoes on standby that always satisfied her for the day. A few months ago they treated Anne like some sort of monster over her unusual appearance compared to what they considered the common frog stereotype, and now she basically stood out as the town protector and treasure that everyone welcomed with open arms. To hear that they learned their lesson and took next to no time at all to understand her circumstances provided Maddie signs that certain maturities echoed throughout Wartwood which never had a presence before, at least from what she witnessed in the past. For now she'll have to stay as the town's personal titan in the background, and everyone seemed satisfied despite the inconveniences.

Anne and Sprig got off on a pretty easy note as they only had to go off and perform Maddie's delivery duties since the giant girl couldn't perform her duties at her huge size. While the first couple of days began with pretty rough starts, although not to the extremes as their first "exhaustive" day, like any fresh employee their skills honed in over time. Anne personally blamed her experience in the restaurant business as to why she caught on with each step in deliveries pretty instantly while Sprig called himself a fast learner, even if certain duties in the past said otherwise. Because she stood out as the only one other than Hop Pop to drive Bessie, Anne handled the driving while Sprig went over each individual on the list she they wouldn't forget. Eventually the two understood a decent amount of what Maddie went through with her delivery schedules, and even though they lacked full efficiency compared to her they got all of the basics down. They put their legs to work after they obtained the required pastries from the head baker, and even though they scanned the list thoroughly they never questioned the decisions of each recipient. After a couple of rough starts they planned out a system of specific paths that got them around many buildings to certain markers laid out on a greatly detailed chart. This left them with some of the most beneficial routes that cut down on time considerably, and since then they never missed a particular deadline. Sometimes, they arrived slightly earlier than they intended, which proved how efficient their new routes played in the duties of pastry delivery. After a couple of days on the job, they soon took it in as another mark on their checklist to accomplish on a daily basis. They lacked the skills at first, but after a week on the job they got used to it like pros.

Too bad a majority of Sprig's orders came from a single person that willingly ordered pies just to throw them in his face.

In terms of the most knowledgeable of the group, Marcy sure carried a lot on her plate during her personal times. Not only had she taken it upon herself to cure Maddie of her "gigantism" with a new antidote, but she also promised a small innocent living potato creature that she would find a way back to its habitat. She also needed to study its peculiar language in the process, and find the second temple for their temple quest. She never considered herself the kind of girl the undergo such tasks that cluttered all of her schedules, but she quickly learned the ramifications if one outcome went under. Combined with the fact that her attention span usually concentrated immensely on one certain part at a time that tuned out all of her other senses, it spelled a recipe for disaster if she ever fell to her certain tendencies. She couldn't let down anyone that relied on her, but it meant her efforts required double or triple amounts beyond what her body handled regularly. At least in the time spent since she started she found herself a better sleep schedule so she never became overworked. Even though she wanted the best for Maddie and put her size restoration at the top of her priority list, once more days passed the frog witch told her that she shouldn't put too much pressure on herself. She started to get used to the new sights, so she said that she wouldn't mind a few extra days just so Marcy would lose some serious tension. After that, she took Maddie's words to heart which alleviated some pressure off of her shoulders, especially with all of the other happenings she needed to pay attention to on the sidelines. Her encouragement gave Marcy the jump start she needed, and as the days progressed she thought she came across some rather interesting breakthroughs that she kept to herself. She saw the end in sight, and if she continued on the checkered line had her name written all over it.

As for the titanic witch frog herself, she went at her own pace. While at first she wanted to change back to normal as soon as possible, as the days went on the urges lessened to a tolerable degree. She learned a lot since her growth and understood that it didn't spell her end. In fact, it came in handy on certain occasions like the repairs after the asps attacked. From roofs, walls, and everything else too heavy for one normal sized person, Maddie took each material like she lifted weights behind everyone's back. She received thanks from many others which made her feel warm inside, and it put a smile on her face. Even with her massive height everyone still treated her like any normal person, and it helped cushion her feelings toward the problem like it never mattered. Her younger siblings even enjoyed their time with their "big" sister when they got around to finally play with her, which made the giant girl hesitate at first until she finally got around to it. She started off easy with the lighthearted juggling until the three said they wanted to go higher, and after some adjustments they almost felt like they went through a theme park from such motions. From her shoulders to the top of her head, the kids got Maddie to put them through some really high throws, where she displayed caution at first until Ginger convinced her to let loose a bit. Some of them even stuck a landing onto her pink blob for hair, which cracked them up and brought their enjoyment to new levels. Maddie expertise with juggling helped relieve possibilities of injuries, but when it came to the Spudley she knew its regenerative abilities meant it could take some accidents here and there, even if it possibly wanted to not resort to such powers. Her younger sisters wanted the creature to crack out of its shell and constantly took it around with them to varying results, which Maddie appreciated even if she left most of the work to the others. From what she saw, even after multiple activities it still remained on the shy and nervous side, but she knew they made progress even if it stayed under wraps. Everyone else around town took its introduction rather well, which probably came as a result of repeated weirdness Wartwood became known for, and for the ones that paid more attention to it…they couldn't help but constantly gaze at it from its pure adorable nature. She watched from the sidelines, but even she couldn't help but like it back. Her attitude toward her enigmatic growth went from severe panic to soothing calmness and she didn't mind staying as a colossal girl for once.

However, that didn't solve the fact of the multiple disappearances around town.

The facts lines up and brought a wave of unnerving stress to Wartwood's citizens. While it seemed to occur at random intervals, at certain days during the week more and more people around town disappeared without a trace. Rosemary's intense worry about the supposed beast that roamed during the night left her to hide under the covers, and the others took it as a grim sign that something wasn't right. Marcy reported the troubles to Anne, Sprig, and Maddie to give them a heads up, which eventually lead to a couple of stakeouts. Marcy still had to work out the ever increasing findings for the antidote and Maddie's perspective changes made surveillance basically impossible, the task went over to Anne and Sprig who didn't mind in the slightest. They struggled to stay awake at times, but they eventually got used to it at various points. However, even with their acute and locked eyesight, they either had some of the worst luck imaginable or they ended up on a wild goose chase as they found next to nothing that could have possibly lead them in the right track. They heard and felt large amounts of quakes during the nights, but every time they found themselves at a dead end. One time they followed the deep impacts across the ground and thought they finally found a break in their search only to arrive in One-Eyed Wally's bathroom through a hole in the wall from Anne's reckless driving…which somehow never got fixed. The two took notice immediately and slowly backed out of the establishment before they agreed to never talk about it again.

"Why must this always happen to me?" Wally thought while her frowned and scrubbed his back.

No matter which spot they picked to survey over at night, nothing came across their sight. From all of the tremors they felt and heard one of their first instincts steered them over to Maddie and her massive stature, but every single time they rushed over to her personal grounds they always found her fast asleep. They asked her on a couple of occasions if she saw or heard anything, but they received next to nothing they already knew about. Maddie always stated that she hadn't seen anything before she fell asleep, and even if she could it wouldn't become clear to her unless she brought it up close. While they never ruled out the possibilities behind her, all of their efforts ended in failure. Whatever snatched up the citizens of Wartwood thought one step ahead and made sure to cover all of its tracks, which left Anne and Sprig to conclude on their own assumptions. Even then they had to find the missing frogs before the town went into another panic down the road.

At least at the tail end of the week they got to relax a bit with one of Wartwood's classic market days. It usually meant they could focus on their own stand and let loose without too many migraines. When everyone got down to it, market days brought out the positives throughout all of Wartwood's residents. While lots of stalls carried some of the typical objects one expected from such vendors, for the most part some stood out as different from the norm. It took a bit of digging to find, but it made all the difference once they became found. From large exotic beans, celebrity laden accessories, to even never before seen mushrooms, they always brought a smile to anyone's face if they desired such wares. For ones that lived in Wartwood that maintained a certain market, they became the go to stalls and always had some kind of popularity behind them. Eager shoppers immediately made beelines for their specific needs which included the more popular stalls, but as time went on certain realizations hit and barely anyone resorted to those kind of tactics when it came to market days. Even if one didn't carry traits of shopaholics, the general areas and communications with others often brought with it social gatherings that everyone in town enjoyed.

The basic concept of such days meant a family like the Plantars relied on them to make tremendous profits. Because of the incident with the asps and the fact that Maddie scared all of them off, it required slightly more work that kept Hop Pop in the fields which meant someone else had to hold the stand for potential customers. While it would have left Anne and Sprig open for the job, they had to watch over the bakery stand since Maddie couldn't afford to do so at her current size. As such they had to rely on Plan B, which just so happened to put Frobo and the Spudley in their place. It sounded so crazy that any sane person would brush it off immediately, but the Plantar's proved that they didn't act as any normal family. At first it seemed like Frobo wouldn't understand how to work at such a station, but after a couple of minutes he got the hang of it. Normally one would like to avoid such strange sellers, but the Plantars had an ace up their sleeve. While the small potato creature wanted to remain out of the spotlight since it still remain nervous around anyone it didn't know, its unique appearance caught everyone's eyes the moment they set on it. From long gazes of amazement to the sparkles in their eyes it soon became the main attraction and in the process the Plantar's crops became sold in droves. Nobody expected such a sight and its display lead to sales in seconds. In Hop Pop had his presence at the stand at the time he probably would have suffered a heart attack from how much money he made from just one market day, although Frobo handled efficiency much better than anyone else could. While it remained uneventful for the bakery stand, the Plantar's stand flourished in profits like no other.

Even Anne herself, from across the walking path where both stands faced each other, had her eyes glued to the Spudley from cuteness overload. She considered buying up some of the crops, even though she lived with the Plantars in the first, from the small potato's appeal, although Sprig glanced around continuously for any sight of Ivy. He hadn't seen her for a bit and worried that Felicia put her on Flint duty twenty four seven until he got back on his feet, and yet she remained out of the public eye since that incident.

"I know I've seen it a million times already, but DARN I LOVE THAT LITTLE GUY!" Anne exclaimed with gleams in her eyes.

"I've also heard that a million times over." Sprig answered while his pivoted his head around and frowned. "I'm not seeing Ivy anywhere around here. You think she ran off somewhere else?"

Anne didn't answer at first since she had her head in the clouds while her gaze fixated on the adorable little potato, who also had a small crowd around it from curious shoppers. The attention constantly made it duck under the stand for cover, but every time it cowered away from everyone Frobo beeped a couple of times and hastily brought it back above ground with one of his long arms. Sprig required no extra indications of what filled his friend's head, so he swiftly smacked the teen on the back of her head to snap her out of it.

Her instincts immediately brought slight anger into the mix as she turned her attention to Sprig.

"Hey, what did you do that for?!"

Sprig recoiled back a little in surprise.

"I wanted to have you back, for one thing!" Sprig replied. "And second, have you seen Ivy around lately? I've not seen her since…well, the start of the whole growth debacle."

Anne quickly calmed down once she realized his intentions and shook her head in denial.

"Sorry Sprig, she evaded my sight too." she replied. "You think that supposed monster took her away?"

Her question sounded so preposterous to Sprig that even he couldn't hide his dumbfounded expression. He'd known Ivy for as long as he could remember, and in all of that time he nailed her personality down for the most part and understood her likes and dislikes. From hunting down rainbow beetles to spelunking so they could find a way to the other side of the planet, Ivy always went through each exploration with a smile on her face and the eagerness to back it up. The valor and playfulness combined to form the lovely girl frog her enjoyed and cherished while he wallowed behind with around a dozen butterflies in his stomach…not in the literal sense. She always thought one step ahead when goings got tough and unexpected which made for one of the greatest travel partners he ever imagined, and if Anne didn't show up in his life he would most likely have her as his closest friend. That didn't mean they weren't close, very far from it, and Anne even gave their friendship the "SprIvy" moniker just to make sure they stayed together. In the end, the ways he knew Ivy far outweighed the possibilities of her capture from a monster nobody witnessed yet, and the mere thought of such an occurrence never filtered through his head.

"Unh unh, no way!" Sprig retorted back. "Hate to break it to you Anne, but Ivy's not getting captured anytime soon. You don't know her like I do, and from everything I've known she would never fall for such underhanded maneuvers!"

Anne put her hands up to her face.

"Whoa there Sprig, I'm not stating any kind of fact! I'm just thinking hypothetically. You know, basically a what if scenario?"

Sprig's emotions fell to a crawl once reality caught back up to him.

"Oh, uhhhhh, I…I always knew that! Congrats Anne, you, ummmmm, passed the test! Heheheheh…"

He silently rubbed the back of his head and put on a tepid smile. For Anne, she knew the real reasons behind Sprig's sudden defensive actions, which always made her squeal with glee under the hood. After all of the shipping wars she fought with across the internet back at home, including some related to her favorite movie franchise, to see one unfold before her very eyes seemed like a dream come true. She continuously pushed for such a relationship between the two that, for the most part, finished up in…adequate results. Despite them, she hadn't given up yet and while she would have made more attempts she learned over time that one of them should make the first move when they felt good and ready. As much as she wanted to two to fess up and seal the deal already, she foresaw a rocky and rainy future in her eager teenage mind if she continued to push them.

After all of that, he still lacked a concrete answer to Ivy's whereabouts, but luckily he always had someone from above that watched over him to ask…in a very literal sense.

"Hey Maddie, can I ask you something?"

He pivoted behind him, followed by Anne, and gazed into the sky above where the huge frog girl watched everything. Even though destruction followed in her wake which prevented her from any interventions below on market day, she still watched over everything because the days always interested her. While it made her visible eye appear like a planetoid in the sky, everyone else below went on their merry ways since they knew she carried no ill intentions. She sat on on her knees with her hands on them while her intrigue kept her eyes to everyone that appeared as specks to her. While she wished she could help out more, especially since Anne and Sprig never maintained the kind of perfect effort she always had, no other choice ran through her head. Nothing but the option to hold back and watch the scenes unfold stood out much to the potential detriment of the specks below her if she went for anything else.

Even with all of the noise around though, she heard Sprig clearly and angled her large visible eye over to the particular dot identifiable as the young Plantar boy.

"Oh, hey there Sprig." Maddie's deep voice boomed overhead. "Got anything in mind?"

"Why yes, actually." Sprig answered while Anne covered her ears from the volume. "Have you seen Ivy from up there?"

He watched as Maddie's mouth went flat before she shook her head.

"Sorry, I haven't seen her. Even if I could I can barely make out the minute details to help differentiate her from everything else. You nearly teeter between the two sides from my point of view already, and if you didn't speak up I probably wouldn't have known that it was you."

"Oh, that's…disappointing." Sprig said with a dip in tone. "Doesn't your size come with pristine vision or something?"

"Sorry Sprig, it's quite the contrary." Maddie boomed again. "If you somehow grow to these extreme heights you'll understand."

While it disappointed Sprig to hear the news from his other girl frog friend, especially after she increased in size, it he held onto the facts any longer it would ruin his outlook for the rest of the day. Anne seemed to take the news rather well, even if he didn't know what ran through her head at the moment, and every time he glanced at her it always perked him up. Deep down he wanted to act as a positive influence to someone like her and have the valor and courage to stand up to anything, so if he wallowed in sorrow for a long time he wandered further and further away from that distinct goal. She relied on him for his positive traits and friendship that rubbed off on her, so likewise he needed to catch up and match her to show how strong their friendship bound them together.

Market day continued uninterrupted for the next hour or so and dozens of customers became roped in by positive word of mouth from the crowds, although Anne and Sprig had their "small potato" guesses for the actual reasons. By that time everything began to wrap up while the vendors stockpiled the rest of their unsold supplies in their open spaces. It also applied to Anne and Sprig as well, so they also started to pack everything up and head in for the day. Frobo had it a bit easier than the others due to the multiple mechanics under his burly body, and his various compartments and storage areas meant he could pack millions of objects with lots of space left over just in case. The Spudley lacked arms which meant its help winded down to a minimal, and even then it desired to stay out of the public eye despite the intrigue of others. Everything had to end eventually despite the community around such a day.

Anne and Sprig didn't think too negatively about it though.

"Another day, another sack of cash." Anne said as she counted the amount they obtained. "At face value, I think we got the average amount earned today. Not too shabby!"

"Except we didn't operate our normal stand." Sprig replied while he indicated the obvious across from them. "I'm pretty sure they stole all of the thunder, and I can't blame them. You could have at least dolled yourself up with something."

Anne gazed at him for a moment.

"Yeah, I'm not one to change myself into the next endearing sensation just for some extra coinage. Marcy probably, but not me."

Her response got Sprig to chuckle a little. He knew Anne changed her getup a couple of times when special occasions occurred around town, and even in those times he had to admit that she understood certain styles to match the setting. Even then she never went all out on stunning looks, but they struck certain vibes to ones that set their eyes on her. To think that someone who used to sleep in a tree have an understanding for clothes and how to sync them with many events seemed so out of place that he wouldn't blame anyone who simply brushed it off as another tall tale. Of course they never completely understood the truth unless they got to know her, and Sprig had the clear knowledge of the tall teen so he required no further indications since he heard nothing but truth. Even so, it brought the curiosity in him to hear that Marcy possibly thought of clothes more thoroughly and possibly brought out the positive vibes better than Anne could. For once he missed any indications that she spoke the truth or lied through her teeth, but it didn't matter to him at the moment. Whether she stated a fat or opinion, denial that Anne lacked a fashion sense stood out as nothing but pure fiction.

"Can I check your earnings really quick?"

Their trains of thought as they continued to pack derailed into oblivion the moment they heard the deep booming voice above them. It even seemed to make some other passing and packing frogs cover their ears from such a loud volume, and yet the one who made it couldn't help herself. It came as one of the many side effects to her humongous stature that she had to live with.

Once Anne and Sprig recovered from the large headaches the voice caused, Anne spoke up.

"Uh, could you say that again…but lower on the decibel level, please?"

They stared up to the gigantic culprit, who frowned for a second before she attempted at a much quieter voice.

"I said, can I check your earnings really quick? Just want to make sure we got our fill for the day."

While still pretty high in volume, at least they heard the words in full to understand what she meant. The two below perked up upon the realization and hastily nodded their heads before Anne held up the large bag of money. They watched from below as Maddie loomed over them and reached down with one of her huge arms. Her hand moved in closer and closer until her titanic blue fingertips set right before them, which proved a bit troublesome at first for Anne and Sprig. Even though she placed them on the ground in free space where nobody ended up crushed under her digits, her growth spurt that went further than before brought her scope to new heights, and that included her body parts. Anne could barely even reach half of one tip if she hoisted herself on her toes, which left climbing up them an unviable option. Luckily, Amphibia's population of frogs came with one "hopping" choice, and Sprig put his legs into high gear on many occasions. Because Anne couldn't make it if she tried, Sprig took the bag and leapt high into the air before he landed on one of Maddie's huge fingers. He placed the bag down before he dropped himself back next to Anne, who watched as Maddie lifted her hand back up and close to her visible eye. She focused on the spot where the bag sat and seemed to mentally estimate the amount inside. If everything went well their efforts paid off in the end.

After a couple of minutes, she got back to the two of them with her typical flat expression.

"Well, although I would have appreciated to handle the stands myself with this growth spurt the duty fell to you two. While not the usual amount if I lead everything…you've earned well enough in my stead."

The three exchanged smiles at the good news. Their experience at their own stand became useful as they temporarily took over the Flour stand, and even though most of the attention of the shop goers steered over to their own Plantar stand, Maddie seemed to have taken it in and cut them a bit of slack. Nobody blamed anyone to know that the "adorable mascot" would take over, despite its need to stay out of sight, and even if they didn't earn the regular amount Maddie obtained when it came to market days they performed well even with the circumstances against them. The giant frog witch scratched their back and they scratched hers, which benefited all of them.

Anne and Sprig took a couple steps back as Maddie carefully placed her massive hand against the ground again. Sprig took action and hopped aboard her massive fingertips to claim the bag of money before he got off. The giant girl withdrew her hand shortly after and would have left them to clean up the rest of their stand, but before they did so she inadvertently boomed one more time.

"Wait, do you intend to head back to the bakery after you pack everything?"

The two paused for a moment as her deep voice rang through the echoes of their heads. While not to dire extremes for them it still brought headaches. They held their heads for a moment while they looked up at Maddie and her massive height while she sat on her knees.

"We…kind of put a pin in that before we started." Sprig answered as he rubbed the sides of his head. "Your father loves to bake lots of extras, for sure!"

While she never intended to inflict the two with migraines, she put it on the side while she smiled lightly.

"Yeah, he tends to go overboard when he places the dough in the oven. Call it a baker's curse or something similar." Maddie answered. "I sometimes space out when I'm following in his footsteps, even with my other hobbies."

"With your size, I'm sure at this point you should expect the contrary." Anne stated before she lightly laughed in a playful manner. It made the two frogs chuckle a little in slight unison, and soon after Maddie playfully rolled her visible eye before she got back to them.

"Okay, okay, I'll give you that." Maddie's voice boomed while she changed the topic. "Even so, I still have one final request."

"And what would that be exactly?" Sprig asked while he tilted his head.

"I'm curious as to how Marcy progressed in that antidote. I'm quite surprised already, but I somehow endured an entire week as this hulking…girl. The uncertainty behind how much longer I can last still bound me a bit around the edge, and everyone knows that this way of life won't end well for Wartwood in the end."

Bells chimed in their heads as they let the facts whisk by them. In all of the time they spent in Wartwood while Maddie towered over everything as the biggest girl on the planet, none of them obtained any information related to Marcy's deal and how she insisted to create the shrinking curse herself. Nobody had any idea why she confined herself to secrecy on the project, especially with the dire consequences if she failed, and yet she provided the crucial key to end all of the tribulations Maddie carried across her back. Anne would never forgive her if she mislead her intentions the whole time and took their problems with a grain of salt, and yet she still trusted her to the fullest. After an entire week of no updates while she possibly wallowed away in ingredients for something not related to Maddie's cure, they deserved insight into whatever she had on hand at the time and if she cared for the giant girl's huge presence at all.

Yet they still had more packing to go through.

"Yeah, she really wants to keep her lips sealed on the matter." Anne said while she leaned casually on their stand. "Kind of makes me wish I had the key to release them, because once she gets into something deeply it takes truckloads of effort to pull her out of it."

"Uh, what do you mean by truckloads?" Sprig asked in slight bewilderment.

"I'm talking about a human thing. You wouldn't understand unless you've been to my home." Anne answered before she got back to Maddie. "Anyways, if you want to know for yourself, why don't you go and ask her yourself? I'm sure she'll open up to you if you can convince her."

Maddie silently shook her head.

"I can't exactly go there myself at the moment…at least until everything gets mostly cleaned up. I can't risk any collateral damage to anyone below me, and I'm smack in the middle of the whole place if you couldn't tell. If I went for an attempt now, well, I don't want to test the fates to know if anyone witnessed the bottom of my feet."

She shuffled slightly on the spot, which caused multiple rumblings throughout the whole area and knocked some townsfolk off of their feet, before she carefully protruded one of her massive feet out in front of Anne and Sprig. The two held back the urge to puke on the spot from the fumes, but the looks alone proved her point. From a distance no such deadliest graced its appearance, but up close they completely underestimated such range from her two toes alone. One step from the bottom of such a part carried the potential to dismantle and destroy over half of the entire market if she ever miscalculated and planted it in dangerous spot. They saw close ups of her face, hands, and body but when it came to the bottoms of her feet they already wanted out. They didn't want to say it to her face and completely kept it to themselves, but her feet perpetuated a stink that rivaled garbage dumps. Anne concluded on rotten cheese, expired canisters, and even dead carcasses from such fumes, and she already had more ideas in the back. Both Anne and Sprig understood what Maddie lead on about while her foot stood higher than anything they could have imagined on the spot…and discharged a stink that even flies probably easily considered was too much.

Once Maddie pulled back her foot Anne and Sprig found that they could breathe again. They both had watery eyes, but otherwise they lived such an ordeal. Sprig chugged away at the air like he just got released from a quarantined box of some kind, while Anne masked her relief to a minimum to not upset the giant frog witch to uneven results. Even so, Maddie seemed to never suspect such actions while Anne responded.

"Okay, I get it there. You…can't move from your spot." Anne responded while she did her best to hide her "smelly" disgust. "Of course we can't leave until we've finished packing, and even then Marcy probably locked herself up tight in terms of details. She won't trust just anyone."

"Didn't you say that you knew Marcy for a long time?" Maddie asked while she boomed in the process. "If the facts lined up she most likely would confide to you if you give her the chance."

"Except…we still have to pack up our stand." Sprig said while he recovered from Maddie's stink bomb of a foot.

It really brought a dilemma for the three. None of them could leave their posts and yet they wanted to hear the updates from Marcy that she refused to leak to the public. So many expectations wandered through their mind but nothing concrete to solidify a doable outcome. They couldn't leave their posts just yet, but even if given the chance Marcy kept her lips seals even to close friends. Not just anyone contained the potential to learn what she had in mind, but someone needed to find out for themselves.

It took a couple of minutes, but Anne eventually concluded on a rather unorthodox decision. She turned her attention to another direction and set her sights on one particular being that she knew stood by Marcy frequently, even with the circumstances against it. A smug and cheesy smile formed on her face before she made sure it looked in the other direction and calmed itself down somewhat. Sprig and Maddie glanced at the teen like she lost a couple of brain cells but watched from the sidelines as she got up and weaved her way through the passing villagers before she ended up at her destination. If everything progressed well the creature would understand and side by them for such a favor.

Even as all of that happened, for the stand on the other side Frobo handled most of the heavy duty work, which it didn't mind in the slightest, while the Spudley stood by and tried to remain out of the public eye. It sat on the stand and sometimes flailed its feet in the air while it uttered a couple of various squeaks that Frobo seemed to not understand. Despite the language barrier, the large mech took its presence like anyone else and enjoyed it while it smiled and packed things up to take back to the house. The Spudley gave off one more elongated squeak before it slumped down and relaxed a bit. Whatever intentions it tried to provide never fazed Frobo like everyone else around it.

With its attention over to the large frog mech, it never noticed the young teen and her bushy hair as she slowly raised her head over the counter, and during the whole duration her pupils nearly took over both of her eyes and her obvious cheesy smile became more and more apparent as time moved on. She still couldn't help with the adorableness overload when it came to the small squeaky potato, and the urges to embrace and smother it in a bone crushing hug screamed all across her body. It took all of the amount of willpower to not startle the creature immediately with her highly desired actions, and in some ways it really strained her body. However, if she wanted it on her side for one single request she needed to show her restraint, especially with the Spudley's timid personality ever since it found itself trapped with them.

Even though she kept strong restraints on herself, some still managed to slip out.

"Spuuuuudleeeeeeyyyy?"

She still expressed her large smile and dazzled eyes as she spoke in such a blatant charmed way, which quickly caught the attention of the Spudley as it leapt up for a second and darted its eyes right in her direction. Once it realized who startled it the Spudley calmed down some, but not fully. If anyone else went up to it's worried self it probably already had an escape route planned out, but Anne figured that since she became one of the few that it witnessed the moment it found itself outside its home it likely knew her well enough to not bolt at the sight. Her assumptions became fact once she saw the results, at least in her mind, and while she didn't know how well it gotten used to her at least it stayed on the spot unlike its previous actions that implied the contrary.

The creature took a few steps back, which implied how nervous it felt, but luckily not too far as Anne stated what she had in mind in a rather guilty tone.

"I know how you want to forget that you ever set foot outside your habitat, but can you do me a really, small, teensy weensy favor? Pleeeeeease?"

Her blatant joyous and endearing face practically performed the exact opposite of its intended effect as the Spudley fired off a couple of squeaks in rapid succession and began to shudder uncontrollably. Its deep worry rubbed off on Anne a bit, but not enough to dampen her spirits.

"No, no, I'm not talking about anything life risking. I just need someone to go check up on Marcy about Maddie's antidote, and because all of us either still have some packing to do or, well, can't move from their spot…"

She took a glance over to Maddie, which the Spudley followed, where she silently waved back with a tepid smile. She refused to move from her spot until everything by her feet dispersed for the safety of the others, and after a few second the small living potato squeaked in a rather odd manner that Anne didn't understand. It didn't deter her though as she still went on.

"Yeah, she doesn't want to take any risks." Anne stated before she got back to it. "Anyways, since you seem pretty close to Marcy, we thought you might have it in you to go in our stead…even with the apparent language barrier. You don't need to utter a single word, or squeak whichever you put it, because I have everything figured out."

The Spudley tilted its body left and right while it kept its eyes on Anne. Some low audible squeaks got uttered as it moved before it shuffled its round feet and sat on its behind. It put on a little display for itself as it pivoted around and squeaked some more while its sight went all over the place. Anne stood stupefied at what in the right mind her eyes currently watched, and yet the Spudley put on a show of sequenced squeaking and various motions. Even Frobo caught wind of the noise and once he caught the potato in the corner of his sight he couldn't take his eyes off of it. It last for around a couple of second, but by the time it stopped the two comprehended naught while their minds caught back up to reality. Whatever stirred in the creature's mind failed to connect with anyone else…including Sprig and Maddie who witnessed the whole thing from the opposite side.

Anne's eye twitched while her mouth hung agape long after the Spudley stopped and put its eyes back on her. Any attempts to figure out what it meant caught fire and incinerated immediately in her teen mind. Even Frobo failed to find any sort of connection as the pupils n his eyes changed into millions of numbers and equations that only resulted in two large X's that caused him to beep out sounds that seemed to relate to error messages on certain machines. Even so, Anne couldn't leave their conversation on that weird display of…something.

"Uhhhh, I'll, ummm…take that as an approval." Anne said. The Spudley spoke up again in its own squeaky language before it hopped up and down then back on its behind. Frobo still got left standing as it never fully computed on the Spudley's actions. To make sure pondering on it for too long didn't fry his circuits, he quickly pulled away and got back to packing up the rest of the Plantar's crops. He might have the mind of some of the most complex supercomputers, but not every form of knowledge resonated through his circuits and even he wanted certain topics to remain on the wayside. The less he brainstormed about something the less strain he inflicted on his computing systems, and he surely didn't want to short circuit any time soon, especially around Polly.

Once Anne settled on its supposed comprehension to assist in such an endeavor, one certain downside hit Anne like a freight train. While she wanted to provide a note for the Spudley to deliver, it lacked certain appendages that meant grasping and grabbing something became next to impossible. In fact, it only had two round green feet and nothing else to possible carry, let alone hold, a written piece of paper. It presented a bit of a dilemma for Anne, and yet her only option relied on the little walking potato.

She thought about it for a few minutes until she concluded on a rather interesting option if the Spudley cooperated. If everything advanced correctly it wouldn't feel a thing, although it might easily go sound if she gambled incorrectly.

"Okay, ummmm, little guy. Because you don't have hands I'll have to take a different approach, and since you can just regenerate I think you'll get by this rather unscathed. Can…can you trust me this one time?"

The Spudley got on the fronts of of its feet and uttered a long and skewed type of squeak before it sat back down. It left Anne with next to nothing about what it intended as it continued to stare at her with its small eyes in a rather lovable fashion that tugged on Anne's heart strings. Despite its glances, it didn't do anything else and left Anne guessing if it allowed her to proceed or not.

Because her patience wore thin, Anne eventually made the first move. She carefully and slowly brought one of her hands forward to grab the Spudley by the head, and once she did the Spudley still had its eyes on her and failed to react too much in any fashion. She took a small breath after as she went for the second step, and in a very cautious motion she turned the Spudley around until it had its back facing her. Her ears heard a couple of low audible noises from the creature, but for now it never fought back and let her advance with her procedure. She gazed over the brown hide of it as trickles of sweat dripped off her forehead and bushy hair, since if anything fell south with her hunches the Spudley would possibly never trust her again. To make sure it maintained a certain sturdiness she grazed over the surface with her fingers and tapped a few spots. While not the most rigid and tough, it carried enough to withstand common injuries from what she guessed, and after what she witnessed from all of the slight trip ups and falls from the Spudley's habitat it proved her point. She pressed on a specific spot a couple of times just to remain on the safe side, which also made the Spudley squeak in a certain sequence she couldn't translate, before she went for the final step…and she hesitated to proceed at first. Since she already convinced the potato to cooperate, at least in her mind, she had no other choice than to finish the job even if her preferences told her to back off and forget she ever considered it. She already had a pencil and piece of paper on hand, but she still needed one final object she always made sure to carry spares of. She rummaged through her pockets for a moment until she found it, and not a moment too soon. While she lived out in the middle of a distinct dense marshland ever since she found herself in Amphibia, which meant her appearance provided very little in the scheme of things, that never meant she didn't care about how she looked in the face of the public on occasion. Just for the sake of a "fashion emergency" as Sasha called it, she always carried some extra bobby pins on hands to fix her hair into a style in a short time period. She had no intention to put some in her own hair at the time though, yet alone anywhere on her body. She thought of a more "squishy" place that nearly made her call it quits from the mere mention.

She got to work on the note almost immediately. Words flew off the handle and to the whiteness of the paper like vigorous classwork. It took next to no time at all to finish what she wanted Marcy to read, but that only stood out as the easy part of the whole debacle. She heard the Spudley's unique language a few times while it stood still with its back toward her, but that didn't ease her worry one bit. While she wrote the note, she still had to place it somewhere with the Spudley…and she already had something in mind with a bobby pin in hand.

"Alright little guy, you might feel a slight prick if everything goes well. Just relax for a bit and…and…"

She nearly felt sick to her stomach as the reminders stirred up to haunt her. The Spudley provided some skewed squeaks in return, but it didn't help settle the mentally scarring moments she desired to forget. Dread always filled her young self's head the moment her mother informed her about any kind of doctor's appointment, and from the kids that conversed around her at school, which included Marcy and Sasha, they understood her worry. They seemed to know that any visit to the man with the stethoscope meant the possibility of the one needle that pierced the skin and inflicted pain akin to a bee sting. Every time she sneaked a peek at her mother's upcoming schedule and saw those dreadful words, the nervousness and anxiety built up like a plague that filled her to the brim with venom. Until she eventually went there and took the shot her entire body went into a permanent meltdown of tears and bile when it reached certain extremes. It went so bad one time that she locked herself into her bedroom an entire day and refused any form of compensation to calm down. Eventually her mother stopped informing her about upcoming appointments entirely so those types of drastic measures never occurred again, which Anne thought was pretty mean from her at first, but once her age arrived at double digits she somewhat learned to deal with it. Her back still obtained chills from such announcements, but at least she never fell to those juvenile methods ever again.

And now she basically had to vaccinate a creature not of her type.

The bottom of her lip went numb after she sunk her teeth into it. The unnerving vibes of such a procedure pushed Anne into uncomfortable territory. She delayed enough from the sights alone, and if she continued any longer the more she felt from her childhood traumas. Even after a couple of deep breaths she still couldn't escape such clouds over her head. If she closed her eyes to avoid the sights it would leave her blind and any inaccuracies meant everything immediately became a million times worse. She had to give it to the Spudley to act like nothing bad commenced with it and Anne, even if for the teen she thought the polar opposite.

Her hand shook as she pointed the bobby pin close to the Spudley's brown skin and her breath shortened into brief spurts. Before she even knew what happened next, she winced a little and plunged the pin straight into the Spudley's cranium. The living potato squeaked briefly which sent it into the air for a second, but otherwise it remained grounded. It sat down at one point and even flailed its round feet in the air like nothing actually happened to it, and yet Anne knew the contrary. The pin protruded out like someone shot an arrow into it, and yet it didn't completely stick. Once it fell out her heart paralyzed into shortened beats while her known courage reached a stalemate with her painful childhood memories. It required a second attempt and she already wanted out of the procedure, which only dragged it on for much longer than she wanted.

"Easy Anne, hold it together this one time…" she thought. She rubbed the sides of her head for a few moments before she got back to the pin. Even with one large dent in its head the Spudley remained upright while it let Anne do whatever she had in mind. Her fingers grasped the bobby pin while they shook uncontrollably from her treatment against the creature. While she sat on the receiving end of the doctor's chair, never in her life had it ever crossed her mind for her to act the one with the needle. Part of her wanted to pierce it into the arms of the ones that forced her into it in the first place, and yet the sight of the cute creature told her otherwise. She never even reached the age of consent for medical procedures, and if it happened back at home she probably had an orange jumpsuit in storage with her name on it. The calmness built up twisted and deformed into a makeshift degree even though college was still ages away for the young teen. Out of every occupation ever to grace her mind, a doctor or nurse stood at the lowest priority on her personal chart.

She went at it again on a more cautious level. With one hand on top of the small potato's head, she thrust the bobby pin into its brownness for a second time. Some types of clear juices and liquids leaked out that almost made her hurl, and from there she saw a clear image of the white innards of the innocent Spudley. From color alone it seemed like they really had the traits of being walking and living potatoes, and their insides displayed like sliced and cooked potatoes she always saw on the frying pan. To know that no such intestines or glands had a place where she struck her pin alleviated some grossness from her mind, but not all. Her efforts paid off when she saw the pin stick into the Spudley's body at a firm angle, which meant only one step remained. She prepared herself mentally while she glanced back at the paper and picked it up. With some very careful precision from her fingers, Anne punctured a small hole near the top and then put the stuck bobby pin through it. After that, the whole thing ended which left the Spudley with a piece of written paper stuck to its back from the pin pierced in it. Anne's lesson in minor surgery completed and it didn't even last a full ten minutes.

She almost collapsed to the ground from all of the tension built up, and from that instance she never wanted to go through something like that again. The Spudley turned around and squeaked in its adorable manner while it seemed to not care about the piece of paper in its back. Anne's drained face stared at it for a moment while it tilted its body to the side for a better view.

"Just…just get out of here so I can wipe this memory from my head."

The Spudley required no extra reiterations and quickly turned back around and waddled off in a quick fashion while the piece of paper flew in the wind like a typical superhero that wore a cape. Of course after what she went through Anne knew too well that she saw something else and wanted to never revisit such a concept again. Only a sick masochist would ever enjoy a job like those procedures, and she unquestionably wasn't fit for it at all.

She sat on the ground so completely out of it that she almost failed to notice Sprig as he made his way over. Maddie's massive head loomed over her at the same time for a closer look.

"Uhhh, you okay there Anne?" Sprig asked with a nervous twitch. "I think we saw to try to carve open…a bit of that Spudley's-"

"Just drag me back to our stand so we can finish packing." Anne interjected at a very deadpanned tone. He couldn't argue with something like that, so he took her by the leg and slowly dragged her shocked body across the dirt and mud. The less they reminded her about it the better, and she really wanted to forget it ever happened. Maddie would have helped if her fingers didn't risk the destruction of other stands from the sheer size of them, and even then she lacked the best view of everything. She came to her own assumptions, and yet she still heard the whispers that calmed her to a point that she didn't care as much. While odd in her eyes, she kept more attention on Anne just in case after…whatever she performed pushed her to her limits.

Frobo lucked out when he kept his eyes on the boxes of produce instead of the procedure behind him.

---

Some extra crab grass…

A pint of tree sap…

One mint leaf…

…

…

No result.

Marcy grinded her teeth for a moment and rubbed her forehead. One glance at the spell book and she had to mark it as a failure yet again. As much as she learned to control herself and manage a sleep schedule, part of her wanted to keep at it for Maddie's sake. After a rough start she definitely learned her lesson, and with the steady progress she came across some pretty astounding breakthroughs that made concocting the antidote much easier. From worthwhile substitutions to elemental mixtures she reached new grounds and saw the end in sight. After everything she tested privately the milestones gradually fell into her grasp and only a few remained until she finalized everything. She only required one final push to tie everything together, but she needed to find it first.

"If these next couple of formulas fail I'm going to call it quits for the day." Marcy thought as she reached for a couple of ingredients. Maddie always made sure to categorize specific ingredients, especially the hard to acquire and dangerous ones, which always had labels that displayed their lethal capabilities. Grains of rat guts, dirt from Wally's backyard, and spare fangs from a Skeleshell littered all over the shelves in clear jars that Maddie cleanly labeled, much to Marcy's benefit, which also saved her the trouble of figuring out certain parts herself. She grabbed samples of each and made sure to cautiously open each jar with clear gloves on, even if she naturally wore fingerless gloves since her arrival. Created from the most elastic of trees deep in the wetlands, they kept her hands safe from anything potentially dangerous she potentially had to dig into, and the less reminders about how her digits could melt off the better. While she went for the dirt first, Marcy made sure the gloves fit tightly before she grabbed a clump and hoisted it into the cauldron. The purple haze bubbled and shook which she took as a positive effect, so the guts went in next. She didn't take too long with those and threw them in when given the chance since they grossed her out a bit, and soon after the liquid heated up. The finishing touch required a couple of the extra fangs, which Marcy had on hand, but she checked up on their density first. Very rigid and tightly compact, exactly what the recipe called for, so she dropped them in next. Immediately after the fangs made contact the whole cauldron shook, so Marcy took a couple of steps, while the intense heat rose higher and higher. While it seemed pretty dire at first, after only a few minutes the whole thing fell to a standstill. Marcy kept her cool since she witnessed those reactions multiple times from various different hex requirements, but she had to admit she always felt her blood pressure increase when it happened. Just another time with the chemicals and dark arts for someone who desired such concoctions like her.

Once the formula settled, Marcie walked back up and loomed over the haze for a second before she carefully brought out the next instrument required for such tests. She only really used them back home during chemistry class, but ever since she took on the task of finding an antidote for Maddie it basically became part of her everyday life. Relief immediately coursed through her once she found out that Amphibia used pipettes, and Maddie just so happened to have some around the conjuring site, likely to always remain prepared. With pipette in hand, she closely took a couple millimeters of the liquidized curse and took it over to a small desk with a couple of glass slides on them. She managed to build a somewhat decent microscope after she hired Loggle to create some crystal clear glass, which he knew how without any hesitation, and some sturdy metals from back at Newtopia. While far from ideal and terribly bent in a few spots, it somewhat worked to what studies she had in mind. She placed the droplets of the hex on a few glass slides before she placed them under the microscope and took a glance through it. If all went well then the results stood on her side.

Her fingers twiddled while she smiled behind the glass.

The microbes actively moved around, something she learned was a step in the right direction, and some even went through mitosis to fill the gaps. All signs pointed upward, but she hadn't reached the finish line yet. They still lacked a couple of signs to finally call it complete, and once that happened she could finally call herself a worthy conjurer of the dark arts. She saw the completed antidote over the horizon, and her eager emotions hyped her into pure excitement.

"Ooooh, soooooo close! I can almost taste victory from all of these advancements!" Marcy said while her body shuddered positively all over. "I just need one final knot to tie everything into a single perfect package. Come on Marcy, keep it together for Maddie… Darn, I can't help it! I'M SOOOOOO EXCITED TO FINALLY PUT THIS TO REST!"

She did her best to minimize her shaking while she put the slides away and prepared for another dosage of an extra ingredient. Everything lined up perfectly, but the antidote required one final touch not listed in the spell book. If the regular ingredients for the shrinking spell failed to function against Maddie's new height, it required her to divert from the instructions and figure it out herself. She still followed some of the instructions to stay on the right track, but when it came time to step it up a notch with alternate steps it took a few wild guesses and some pinpoints to nail everything down. A new formula became the only outcome since the old one failed to deal with anything.

She took the time to wash her hands and wipe sweat off of her brow while she lightly whistled a humble tune. She never got far until she heard some rustling nearby, but thanks to another series of sounds she never batted an eye in that direction until a few seconds later when it arrived. Right as it came onto the grounds it accidentally tripped and fell face first into the dirt. Once she saw that it had fallen and couldn't get up, Marcy ran over and helped the little creature back on its round feet.

"Ah, you finally came back!" Marcy said with a smile. "I assume you became the star of the show back there?"

It stood dazed for a moment before it shook itself out of it and glanced up at its closest caretaker. Once she heard the sounds one of her faintest wishes became apparent. With her priorities all over the place the moment she saw Maddie grow for a second time, learning the Spudley's language remained on the lower spectrum, even after she considered its adorable appearance. After the promises made to Anne and Maddie her focus remained on them, even if the Spudley somehow found itself in the world outside from its usual home and desired to get back.

Despite the language barrier, it didn't take a genius to make guesses.

"Yeah, I kind of expected such reactions on first impressions." Marcy responded. "If you need me, I'm going to get back to the mixtures, formulas… You know, all of the requisites for a mad scientist? Ooh, Mad Scientist Marcy has a nice ring to it!"

She turned back around to proceed further to loosen the knot around the bottleneck of Maddie's cure, but then her ears picked up more sequences of the Spudley squeaking. Her interest steered her back to the small living potato, and before she knew it the Spudley pivoted around and showed its back to her. She found it quite surprising as she noticed a loose piece of paper stuck into the creature's back, and once the bobby pin came into view it occurred to her who performed the action. The pin embedded into its skin at a pretty deep level, which puzzled her at first until she realized that Spudlies returned from the ground almost in an instant if they every became crushed or wrecked across it. She quickly concluded that the small potato paid no direct attention to the fact that Anne drove a bobby pin straight into its cranium and that it minded very little of the fact. From all of the injuries and beatings the Spudlies possibly went through, whether intentional or accidental, to see it not writhe or collapse in pain displayed their rather dismissive nature when it came to such topics. If they healed their bodies off instantly, which included coming back from the dead, than such concepts seemed like child's play to them, and even though it waddled around with a pin lodged in its head it still went about its business as if nothing was wrong.

After her brief brainstorming session, she got back to the creature and understood what it wanted from her. She picked it up and put it in her arms while she plucked the piece of paper right off, and for the bobby pin it took a couple of tugs but she eventually dislodged it. True to what her research told her, soon after the deep wound into its head filled up completely followed by a new patch of brown skin. The little display acted as if Anne's actions against it never happened in the first place, which astounded Marcy to where she wanted to drop everything and undergo more research on its kind. However, she didn't stray too far from the path to let her mind carry her off, so once she made sure the Spudley thought nothing of the injury she placed it back on the ground so she could get to the note.

She took a few moments to scan through all of it, and soon after she held back the urge to roll her eyes. After all of the secrecy she desired to keep everyone out of the progress toward the antidote, Anne couldn't help herself and cut to the chase. Marcy never considered herself perfect in knowledge at every turn, but from everything she built up a simple explanation never sufficed to what she became used to. Even so, any minor slip up potentially carried the effect to morph their emotions so they might hype themselves up into something that may not happen anytime soon. The only one who stood by her and witnessed everything she went through in the project was the Spudley, but due to the differences in language anything it wanted to say never processed into anything substantial. While she wished Anne spoke directly instead of a note, the outcome remained the same.

Marcy glanced down at the small Spudley by her feet while it gazed up at her.

"I appreciate the gesture you went through, and even though I can't leave my post I'll write my response on this in a minute.

If anyone blinked soon after they probably missed the happenings that occurred. It started as Marcy tried to turn back around so she could get back to work on various mixtures, but the Spudley's interruption let her guard down for a brief moment. In that time, right in the middle of the dirt and mud set a small tree root mostly from one of the large trucks nearby, and right as Marcy attempted to make her next step the front of her boot hit right against it. The root never budged in the slightest, but the teenage girl definitely toppled forward at a deadly arch. Her heart almost stopped while her pupils contracted as the Spudley's innocent body stood right under her, and it too never saw any trouble coming until its temporary caretaker leaned forward and lost balance. Before both of them caught up with the situation, all of it ended the moment Marcy fell atop the helpless critter. The height difference meant the Spudley stood no chance and ruptured open the moment the teenager made contact against it, which sent its remains all across the area like a bomb the just went off. It may have a somewhat sturdy outside for minor injuries, but against a tall human teenager it lacked such bulk to soften the blow.

Marcy laid against the dirt with her face completely covered, and after a few moments she sluggishly brought herself up. As she slowly got back to her feet, she instantly noticed all of the gooey muck around her front, and once she glanced downward she put her hands up to her mouth and lightly gasped. Yet again, after all of the displays she witnessed previously, the Spudley's crushed remains set dormant on the ground since she completely crushed the creature under her weight. Even though the memories of such incidents rang strong through her head, a part of her still reviled against such gibs and almost forced another heap of bile out of her. Loose eyeballs, round feet, and what she assumed as some of its guts put on a full display before her straight out of a rated R movie. No matter how hard she tried to forget, the thoughts always reeled back at her like a large punching bag.

If she never knew what happened next in the first place she probably would have bolted from the sight, but once a large bump formed around the remains she obviously understood better. Straight from a zombie movie, a second body of the Spudley rose from the ashes and back to the land of the living. It shook off some of the gunk from its previous self, but otherwise it stood and stared at her as if it never ended up crushed in the first place. Marcy did her best to stomach most of the grotesque imagery, but part of her felt that the Spudley thought one step ahead and shared her sentiments.

"Oh my gosh…I'm SO sorry I smothered you like that!" Marcy apologized. "I didn't mean to…as even I can act like a klutz at times…"

The Spudley squeaked back in its own unique language, which Marcy understood none of, but Marcy couldn't help but keep her focus on the decimated remains. Everything about them made her want to heave everything she had for lunch on the spot which caused a lot of pressure in her lower abdomen. To think that even though she didn't have Maddie's large scale, she still managed to inadvertently splatter the helpless potato creature into a pile of gunk against the ground. Granted, it's regeneration meant it never actually passed away before her eyes, but even so it left behind some disgusting parts. Her mind failed to comprehend why the Spudlies tolerated such practices without worry, especially since multiple crushing left behind more and more body parts across the ground. They split further and further from their previous bodies that sometimes she thought to herself that they possibly came back as different Spudlies altogether…

The wires came into contact and sparked an inspiration.

She pinched her forehead and snapped her fingers a couple of times until everything surfaced. If the knot remained hidden the whole time, the one final clue finally provided the ribbon to tie it together into one perfect concoction.

"Yes, yes, I think I got it!"

She raced on over to the shelf where most of the ingredients set while the Spudley tilted its body for a second and uttered a long squeak that increased in pitch before it waddled over to her. Marcy wanted to not admit to it, but the gross Spudley remains provided the information needed to solve everything. Her fingers grazed over the labels of each individual piece Maddie always had neatly organized, and once her eyes read the words that defined the discarded fangs of a Skeleshell they lit up. She hastily put on some clear plastic gloves and grabbed a couple of them by their bottoms before she took a moment to glance at them in her hand.

"If the facts didn't lie and the Skeleshells contain high calcium elements embedded within…then if I spread them out as miniaturized particles…"

Her mind went into a full concentration on the subject. She'd read about the often overlooked tortoises before and how they lived in arid places while they wore stiff plating that made their bodies appear like solid bone, but one crucial fact stood out that provided the crux of the whole issue. While dry areas seemed almost nonexistent to most of Amphibia, for the few places that contained such requirements they always carried the risk of housing creatures called Skeleshells. The bulky terrors of the arid sands usually moved at a sluggish pace which became a determent to catch prey from speed alone. To solve the issue they relied on a particular tactic which left Amphibia's researchers puzzled since the discovery of the beasts. They willingly dug themselves into the sand and mimicked the appearances of discarded corpses and decomposed bones, and when an unsuspecting target wandered up close… SNAP! They ripped their prey to shreds with their powerful jaws. To think such a huge hulking monster existed and relied on such clever maneuvers fascinated Marcy as she read about them, and the facts about their sturdy fangs stuck out to her in more ways than one. Like other creatures with sharp teeth, as the creatures grew older their fangs eventually fell out to make room for new ones, and since ancient times they've become highly sought after. Even modern day collectors desired to have at least one Skeleshell fang during their lifetime, so for Maddie to gather multiple during her stay at Wartwood became a feat on its own for someone like Marcy. However, the composition of such sharp teeth intrigued Marcy until she pinpointed the exact elements that made them up. It didn't surprise her to learn about yet another fascinating creature in the vast Amphibia ecology, and it actually paid off for one distinct reason.

Granted the ones Maddie picked for her own hex creation didn't have the largest capacity compared to some of the highly sought after big ones, but Marcy understood that they still did the trick if every went according to plan. The Spudley watched carefully from the sidelines while Marcy took the fangs over to one of the small tables and picked up a kind of stone hammer she created during her stay at Newtopia. She took extra precautions when she handled it, and after a couple of accurate practice swings she performed the real deal on a couple of the teeth. If the scale on them went any further Marcy probably would have needed to smack them a lot harder, but with the smaller size it only took a few light hits to completely shatter them. She practically heard a lot of die hard collectors weep uncontrollably as she went for another, and after some more hits it shattered just like the last one. Eventually, she ended up with dozens and dozens of small shards of the Skeleshell fangs, which she carefully scooped up into one of her hands. After she took a deep breath, while making sure to not inhale any of the pieces, she trotted on over to the large cauldron and paid attention to each part so she wouldn't drop one in prematurely. While her eyes missed the Spudley from the corners of her eyes, she guessed that it felt just as nerve wracking as she did.

She glanced over at the mixture inside the pot while the thoughts littered her mind.

"Come on, just one more try. You got this Marse, YOU GOT THIS."

Her gaze aimed straight at the formula as tensions rose in her body. Just so she wouldn't overexert herself from every single factor, Marcy released her grasp of the fang shards and watched as they plopped across the surface of the liquid. They sunk under soon after, which made the pot boil some high heat around it. Bubbles surfaced and popped while the cauldron started to shake and shudder on the spot, which prompted Marcy to back off followed by the Spudley beside her, before some very disturbing noises came from the mixture. While she understood that processes that conjured curses displayed damaging results and even a couple of dangerous warning sign, normally it served as a bark more than a bite. That didn't mean they had the possibility to go south, so to remain safe every time the signs pointed in a specific direction she backed up a couple of feet until it settled down again. From what she learned from Maddie, if in progress curses seemed like they would spontaneously combust it more than likely meant you conjured up something fierce or powerful, so to see such rumblings gave Marcy middling vibes as to the direction her efforts steered towards. She had her guesses, and they tilted on both sides constantly.

Eventually, after a few minutes, the cauldron sizzled and puffed out a large cloud of mist before it suddenly went dormant. She tiptoed quietly at first in case it contained one final trick, but once she saw nothing she walked up to it normally. The Spudley still followed beside her, although its height meant it couldn't see the top and had to rely on Marcy to provide the context. At first glance nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, but for extra safety Marcy carefully grabbed a bottle near the pot and scooped up a portion of it while she made sure not to let any of her fingers suffer contamination, especially since she understood none of the potential effects yet. Due to the slightly different ingredients she used to concoct such a curse, it would carry the effects of the antidote she made when Maddie grew before but considered to be a separate hex altogether. If all went well, one pour of the potion and the target would suffer shrinkage.

Marcy barely contained herself after she created such a mixture with her own two hands, so the testing phase started immediately. As for a potential test subject, as much as she wanted to forget about its existence, she went over to the Spudley's previous crushed body and picked out one of its eyeballs, which still had a stem of an optic nerve in the back, and got on her knees close to it. The Spudley glanced up at her for a second and then down at its previous body before it let loose another squeak that started low but then increased in pitch. It didn't faze Marcy as her hands shook before her until she tipped the jar to the side and poured a small drop upon the loose eyeball. The first couple of second provided nothing in particular, which indicated a possible slow process, but one time passed a few seconds later the teenager gasped.

She actually did it. She finally succeeded.

Both Marcy and the Spudley witnessed the loose eyeball contract and diminish before them like a raisin. As it kept getting smaller and smaller it almost worried Marcy a bit to think that she may have put a little bit too much formula on it, but that soon went away once the shrinking ceased around thirty seconds later. The body part lingered in the goop, but after Marcy's mixture it did so at a fraction of its original size.

Marcy held back millions of tears, but some still managed to slip through. After only a week of testing, mixing, and adding on specific occasions, she concocted the spell to finally shrink Maddie back down to size. She personally added it to her list of accomplishments, and to think she handled it all on her own after her teachings from Maddie. The giant frog girl relied on her to solve the issue, and now she could grab the checkered flag and hoist it up high. The antidote finally reached its successful finalization, and it had Marcy's name all across the front.

Her emotions overwhelmed her so much that she even leaned closer to the ground and broke down, which put the Spudley into "assisting overdrive". Marcy smiled and shed tears like no tomorrow while the Spudley held up her top end as she leaned on its small body. Her arm hung in front of its face while most of her weight compressed its body like she gave it a muscle bound hug that never ended. Its second body cracked and stood on the verge of collapse, but it held Marcy up as much as it could. She would have possibly called it friendship if she had the right state of mind, although much of the purposes of its actions still remained in mystery.

"So…so beautiful…" Marcy rambled on in a rather joyfully muffled mood. "All of that my time as I read Maddie's notes…followed instructions…and even almost lost my leg on one occasion…I have finally achieved the Chemist Marcy status! I never thought this day would come…especially after that squeamish incident…and yet here I am with a squeaky potato that witnessed my accomplishment. I…I don't want this moment to end…like that one time when I finally obtained that high score…battling karts…outwitting orcs…fighting massive bosses…"

She continued on and on in her own world while the Spudley struggled to hold Marcy up. Eventually it became too much for the small creature, so right before it could potentially pop and splatter across the ground for a second time, it tumbled backward which sent the girl into the wet mud. The sudden change of pace seemed to bind her back to reality, as immediately after she bolted back up with a straight face.

"NOMOMMADONTTHROWMEOUT!"

She shook herself awake before she gazed over to the Spudley. Once she realized what she went into she expressed a very lukewarm smile.

"Oh, uhhhhh, sorry about that. Got caught up in my own fantasies there, heheheheh."

The Spudley's eyes thinned into cracks while it it squeaked out a rather long and low one to the tall teen.

"Hey, don't aim those daggers at me! You know I tend to gravitate frequently to different agendas!" Marcy retorted. "Let's just, ummmm, go deliver this formula as quickly as possible! Ummm, yeah, definitely falling on that plan!"

She really want to squeeze her way out of the awkwardness in any way possible, and even though she fumbled like an idiot for a few seconds by the time she finished her presence disappeared behind the Spudley. The small potato ended up caught in the rush as Marcy zipped past it, which left it twirling on the spot for a quick moment before it fell on its behind with dizzied eyes. It shook itself out of it pretty hastily, and even though to teetered woozily back and forth when it got to its feet, as it walked forward everything slowly stabilized while it followed Marcy close behind.

---

The entire town had a lot of work to do when it came to clean ups around market day. Anne handled most of the leftovers while Sprig took on the deconstruction of the stand. The two made their cases as to why their jobs were worse between them, but in the end it never lasted too long. Even though she never considered herself the beefiest girl, between her and Sprig she became the next best thing to pack up the rest of the pastries. It worried her a little every time she saw Sprig as he stared off at their own Plantar stand across from them, to which Frobo had that portion taken care of, to which he gritted he teeth and shook his head. While Anne knew Sprig as someone who performed adequately when it came to selling produce at their stand, sh guessed that it probably hurt to see something inorganic take the job and performed beyond expectation. Frobo never broke a sweat as he lifted boxes of produce and stacked them away for later while he simultaneously took extra care when he deconstructed the stand for another day. While the mech possibly carried no such insight into such a saying, he basically rubbed his efficiency in Sprig's face even if he performed everything correctly. Just the thought of a mechanized Sprig as she worked during her part of the cleanup made her snicker to herself, although he probably wouldn't enjoy it. Maybe a couple of rocket launchers on his back, two massive arms cannons, and possibly lasers for eyes-

She got back to work quickly before her mind trailed off.

While Anne and Sprig went through their work in a typical manner, Maddie never stood a chance at any attempt to move around. As a massive colossus any movements she possibly could pull off potentially brought disaster to anyone crowding below her, and she couldn't risk it. As such, she hardly ever moved her legs and when she did go for those certain actions most of the time it resulted in the collapse of multiple stands which set off some colorful vocabulary in her direction from angry sellers. She expressed her apologies and restricted movement to avoid more collateral damage, although at certain points she got to help out with some pretty heavy duty work. Even though most of the time her fingers took up too much space from sheer size alone, which exemplified even further that she completely eclipsed her old growth from a week ago, when the opportunity popped up they ones in need couldn't have asked for anything better. Heavy ironworks and rocks became weightless under Maddie's gigantic digits, and she transported dozens of materials from one side to another in no time flat. She received much appreciation to the small frog below by her two toed feet, and it made her feel wanted throughout the community despite her stature as the biggest creature throughout all of Amphibia. She even managed to see her three young siblings when they hopped in to check on her, and even though she knew that she promised the three that they would have a "ginormous" playtime later, because of the fact that she basically turned into a statue until the rest of the cleanup finished, she told them to wait a bit longer. From the barely visible sightings by her feet, it everything progressed at a decent pace they probably only had about ten minutes left until everything cleared, and even though Rosemary's, Lavender's, and Ginger's excitement displayed in full swing they understood the ramifications of any miscalculated action from their gigantic sister and chose to wait back at the bakery. Even with her limited movements Maddie couldn't slack off for various reasons, and all of them were below her at a mere fraction of her large toes.

Rosemary felt chills flow down her back as she left with her other sisters for some reason though.

Once most of the stuff from the market cleared up, Maddie finally found a bit of wiggle room. She picked herself up off of the ground at a slow pace to stay on the safe side, until she stood at her full titanic height. Sprig and Anne grouped all of the leftover produce into large bags that piled up pretty quickly, which disappointed Sprig a little since he knew he had to carry most of them, but before they could start they gazed up at Maddie for a moment to make sure she got out okay. Even though they witnessed her massive stature on multiple occasions, they could never get used to just how much her growth spurt placed her on another level compared to everyone else. A few wiggles from her toes spelled disaster and each step she took brought earth shattering tremors with them. She never meant to inflict such troubles to any speck below her, but when it came to her huge size it basically came with the giant package. While she adapted somewhat to the different surrounding, it became a determent to her ways of living, and if she stayed like that it jeopardized her life span by a substantial amount. Nobody could live like that and get away with it, not even a witch like Maddie.

Before the two continued with their lives, their ears almost fell off from the deafening sound over them. Even the ones still around the market while they packed took the time to cover their ears as if it became mandatory to avoid such noise. No such hard thinking became required to understand where it came from, and once they glanced up the cause also revealed itself. After she stayed in one position for who knows how long, it surprised no one at all to understand that stiffness in bones became standard for such decisions. However, when a giant girl frog became the stiff one they pretty much transformed into a deafening bomb ready to spontaneously combust, and Maddie sure set it off pretty instantly. As she stretched to loosen herself up she let loose a series of deafening cracks and the repercussions proved damaging to everyone below. Out of everything for Maddie to go through that could potentially damage the specks that ended up as the townsfolk of Wartwood, long stretching session never passed across everyone's radars.

She only took a few moments to straighten herself out, but once she finished she shuffled her feet a little, which destroyed a couple of stands, before she glanced down at the terrain. Sprig still had his hands over his ears while his eyes rolled wheels, and Anne kept her eyes shut for the moment while she also bottled up her hearing with her hands and clamped her teeth together. While her sight remained pretty fuzzy to anyone at a fraction of her height, she managed to distinguish the fact that none of the specks moved around much and concluded on a certain result.

"Oh dear, did I inadvertently do something terrible down there?"

Sprig lost his focus, in combination with his hearing, the moment the noises reverberated through him. He tried to respond, but it didn't come out the way he hoped, especially since his sight became wonky from his dazed eyes.

"Whaaa? Did someone say something…or do I sense a super loud phone ringing? Hey Anne…since when did you…gain triplets?"

He fell onto his back as his dizzied face persisted. Maddie really embedded a number on him from such a simple action, and it left him as an incapacitated frog that required some time to himself to recollect himself. While she affected Anne to a similar extent, she didn't fall to the same delusions Sprig displayed and maintained a somewhat leveled head.

She gazed up at Maddie while she attempted to clear her headache.

"Well…to a certain extent." Anne stated while she rubbed the sides of her head. "It could have easily gone a lot worse. Ergh, I'm really annoyed by this ringing in my head!"

"Yeah, sorry about that." Maddie stated with a hint of embarrassment. "It comes with this growth hex I guess…"

"I'm certain Marcy…has some progress up her sleeve." Anne responded under her migraine.

Because most of the marketplace cleared up from under her, it appeared safe enough for Maddie to take her first steps. After all, she still had her siblings that she promised to play with despite the obvious size difference. She took extra caution at first to make sure everybody walked clear of the space she planned to step on first, and once she saw the all clear in her head she raised one of her feet and prepared to press down.

"I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT!"

The exclamations took less than a millisecond to figure out which high eccentric teen shouted such words. Because of them, Maddie withdrew her foot while Sprig and Anne turned their attention over in the direction it came from. Soon after it didn't take long to notice the upbeat teenager as she rushed in with some type of bottle in her hand, and her small but squeaky potato creature put its stout round feet to use as it kept pace beside her. The Spudley actually zipped across the ground so much that it seemed to only pay attention to the path forward and not the tall teen next to it, which Marcy never saw coming until it literally ran in her path. One large step forward and her boot caught the rushing Spudley under it, which made her easily lose balance. Marcy's whole body fell forward while the Spudley flung backward into the air, and after a couple of seconds squeaking and flailing its feet airborne it landed with a thud in a pile of produce. In an ironic twist of fate, the certain food it landed in was a pile of standard potatoes, and the frog in charge never fully packed yet. Before long, the frog in charge grabbed a pile and prepare to load them into a crate for transporting, and almost instantly the Spudley got up and soon exchanged looks with him.

The two exchanged screams and the frog never looked at potatoes the same way since.

As for Marcy, the entire front of her body stayed comically flat against the ground for a couple of moments before the others saw a burst of life as she raised her hand in the air that held the bottle with the special curse inside.

"Got it!" Marcy stated in a muffled tone. Anne helped her close friend back to her feet while Sprig slowly got himself up from his large headache earlier. Maddie kept her sights on the dots below her and chose not to move at the moment especially since Marcy just arrived.

The instant they saw her face the smile across it indicated something occurred, especially since Marcy couldn't hold secrets very well. If something happened behind closed doors, it only took a couple of prods to force the information out from between her lips. Anne and Sasha considered it part of her enjoyable personality that kept them close, although at times she let a couple of details out of the closet that most often than not got them into trouble. One time, back when the three of them still set on the lower end of the age spectrum, when it came time for their particular elementary school to announce their local news over the PA system Marcy became the next one in the pecking order to perform the duty. It became somewhat of a school tradition to have one of the young kids from one of the grades take on the role, and even though she'd taken the role before one particular day stood as as the most infamous. The vice principal at the time often acted scatterbrained at times and tended to accidentally leave many objects in the wrong places, and when Marcy got called in to provide the daily announcement, the adult left behind something near the microphone that clearly never touched a kid's hand before. Nobody knew how it got there, as even the vice principal herself couldn't recall how it happened, but a personal journal of one of the teachers caught Marcy's sight which she interpreted as what she had to read off of. The teachers always made sure to write everything out in a binder so the kids understand what to say, so it only seemed natural for her to say the written words aloud over the loudspeaker. Right as she read out the first couple of sentences she already had dozens of teachers banging at the door to force her to stop, but due to her attention span once she got down to certain subjects she basically tuned everything out until she rummaged through all of the pages and said every single word inside.

The teachers made sure to remove the door's lock that day so such an incident never happened again.

Like her personality dictated, she revealed everything to the three after a simple question.

"Whoa Marcy, I haven't seen you this giddy since that one day at the water park!" Anne said while she helped to wipe some mud off of her. "You must have something interesting to talk about from the signs alone."

"Oh, definitely." Marcy responded with her joyful grin. "VERY interesting indeed! Hey Maddie, you may want to loom in close, because I'm sure you'll REALLY like this!"

Even though Marcy stood as a small speck compared to her, Maddie still heard her clearly and the enthusiasm behind her tone provided mixed signals. On one side she possibly had some kind of useless information that she ultimately hyped herself up for just to kill the mood later, but on the other she seemed genuine. Something about it lit a small light in her head and he had no idea how to react to it at first. She wanted to move toward it, and yet she found herself with tinted glasses over her eyes that obscured her vision. While only a couple of smudges for now, Maddie didn't think too much of it as she adhered to Marcy's request.

Even though such pristine vision became basically impossible at her size, Maddie still bent her legs and fell to her knees, which caused multiple tremors in the process, so she could try to get some kind of picture from the three. Her head became an entire planet from the normal sized ones as it towered overhead and cast a shadow over them.

"Okay, I'm listening. What do you have in mind?" Maddie asked in her giant deep pitched voice.

Marcy wasted no time as she eagerly held up the bottle that contained the curse inside. Even though her sight remain blurry because of her growth, it took only a couple of brain cells to figure out what Marcy held, and instantly dozens of flags waved in her head. She maintained a rather inexpressive facade of a face, but under all of her blue skin and cranium the approach of the inevitable hovered over her like a swarm of angry bees.

Marcy answered almost instantly.

"Well, I finally finished the concoction! I have in my hands the clean curse that will reverse your size so you won't have to live as a behemoth any longer! It took SO much out of my schedule, between the temple quest and research on the potato critters, but after finalizing the last few ingredients I've created the one thing you've wanted ever since the problem started! Compared to the previous antidote I formulated for you, while I used different ingredients for this one it should still have the same shrinking effect. Because of the differences, this curse should effect you unlike the last one!"

She basically prodded Maddie with the tip of a knife. At first her priorities wandered all over the place the moment the perspective changes happened, and if she asked her past self what she wanted the answer obviously stood out. From a civilization of living potatoes, flattened grounds, and a scuffle with stone laden snakes, it threw her into a coaster that seemed to never end. However, throughout all of the incidents and situations, she always heard the whispers. It helped her throughout the issues and settled her worries about the burdens of such changes, and it banged at the door for one final request. Her normal tendencies fell on deaf ears while she stared at the one behind the glass, and it told her everything to make sure she remained content. She lost her sense of reality through the grim stare, and she reveled in its presence beyond how she normally thought.

She still kept her normal face on though.

"Wait, you actually pulled it off? You better not have crossed fingers behind your back."

"No, really! I just finalized it!" Marcy replied. "If everything goes well you'll have your regular size back in no time!"

Anne and Sprig took a glance at the bottle for their two cents, and they echoed Marcy's statements.

"I'm not too much into chemicals and junk, but it looks legit to me." Anne said. "From everything I've heard about the dark arts, I guess I should have expected something more…foreboding for a final outcome. Seems kind of anticlimactic to me."

"Well, I'm one that wants to steer clear from such practices after I basically turned into a fuzzball that one time." Sprig said while referring to a previous incident. "Even so, I have to agree that I'm seeing a finished curse here."

"Then that settles it. I've perfectly concocted the answer to your problem Maddie." Marcy replied. "Allow me to do the honors!"

Maddie watched closely as Marcy slowly walked up to one of her massive feet and prepared to toss it straight at it. She understood that some spells work regardless of how they make contact, and as for a shrinking spell it fell under that category. Her innermost thoughts screamed for safety, but after everything she went through she never hesitated to answer such a plea.

"Wait!"

She blurted out almost instinctively right as Marcy approached one of her massive feet. The ones below heard her loud deep voice instantly, which caused the three to stare up at her face in puzzled ways. Marcy especially didn't understand why the giant frog witch suddenly put everything on hold, and she already prepared to toss the bottle in her direction.

"Uhhhh, what is it Maddie? You've waited for this moment since…well, forever ago!" Marcy asked.

She successfully delayed the cure for a little bit longer. The voice gave off a bit of relief, but she knew the wait remained temporary.

"Well, uhhhhh…maybe you didn't test it thoroughly yet. I don't want to accidentally succumb to something you never knew about in the first place."

Marcy's smile went flat.

"Maddie, I tested it out on something before I came here. It worked and shrunk it down, so this antidote should work on you."

"You sure about that?" Maddie questioned. "Maybe it doesn't work on something living. You might need some extra time to smooth things out."

"It WORKS Maddie. Trust me on this, okay?" Marcy replied. Anne and Sprig just watched from the sidelines, and as the display went on it immediately clicked in Anne's head about why Maddie acted so evasive. While she never stood a chance against Marcy's intellect, she understood enough to read emotions across the faces of other, and what she saw across Maddie's told her everything she needed to know.

"Maddie…do you want to stay that huge?" Anne asked.

She aimed straight for the throat. Maddie's pupils contracted a bit while she began to perspire, which she wiped so they wouldn't fall on anyone. It took a moment for Marcy to take into account what Anne meant, but one she caught up in almost shocked her to an extent. Maddie read her expression like a book and knew they had her cornered, and yet she couldn't find the urge to speak normally.

"Well, I, ummmmm… Errrrrrr, maybe…I can stay like this…for just a BIT longer? I…may have changed a bit…since then…"

If Marcy, Anne, and Sprig had a completely different set of minds they probably would have let Maddie get away with it. After all, they got to trek through an unknown civilization never seen by anyone and learn how much a change in perspective turned expectations upside down into different sets of priorities. However, they knew full well the ramifications if she continued as the colossus of Amphibia. They barely managed to make everything work for her on a timer and anything further than the red line and they would reach their limits. From tremors that shook everything below from every step she took, the limited amount of the special potatoes before they went dry, and the fact that she still had a job at her own family bakery meant her time as the biggest girl in the land had to end sooner than later. Marcy herself felt a giant hole in her chest as she thought about opposing the witch's request, and yet it became the most comprehensible answer. Maddie's time with her head in the clouds had to end at some point, and with the formula already concocted it only seemed reasonable to put an end to it right then and there.

Anne replied first as she walked up next to Marcy followed by Sprig.

"Maddie, we can't continue working like this. We have lives too you know, and we can't support these set of circumstances forever. Sure, I may understand how your business works now and can volunteer as a decent substitute, but I can't take over your job forever. We still need to track down that second temple to recharge the music box after all, and we can't do so while you stand tall over us."

"Yeah, uhhhh, what she said!" Sprig added. "I'm still counting down the days until you accidentally step all over Wartwood and wreck everything. I want to keep it that way, but as long as you stay like that…yeah, not pleasant."

Their words fell on deaf ears as Maddie slowly felt her blood bubble underneath. They held a knife to her throat and if they continued they would get the first move. They had the upper hand with their supportive words and reality checks, but she still had the height advantage as long as the antidote never made contact with her.

Her expression dipped south while she stood up at her full height.

"You've experienced so much already, so a couple of extra days surely won't create any further trouble. I'm sure you can rearrange your schedules for a bit longer because, well…I don't think I'm ready yet."

The moods of the three below didn't change.

"Sorry Maddie, but we can't risk those potentials." Marcy said. "Now if you just let me pour a bit of this bottle over you-"

The giant frog had enough. From soothing waters to jumbled rapids, her mood hit the deep end and she let all of it out in one powerful outburst.

"GET THAT CURSE AWAY FROM ME."

The entire town shook along with everything else in the vicinity. Anne, Sprig, and Marcy covered their ears as more ringing sounds rebounded everywhere in their heads. Maddie made her point as stood firm and grinned at the destruction below her. In fact, she let out so much that even the townsfolk that never gave her any attention had no choice but to gaze up at her wicked expression with the others. To think that any action she performed brought utter chaos to everyone that stood at a fraction of her height and she reveled at the fact. Her deep dive provided enough to break the voice through its barred prison while it eerily witnessed every action Maddie went through, and she listened beyond all reason. Everyone understood that she meant business now, and her huge size remained as a tipping point.

Spring required a couple of moments to clear his head, which made him fall on his backside for a second, while Anne and Marcy stayed upright. While they couldn't drown out the ringing completely, but they stood before a more pressing problem that they needed to solve right then and there. Now more than ever all of the signs provided the writing on the wall that spelled out Maddie's subtle changes in attitude before her drastic transformation. Something definitely went wrong in all of that time as the biggest girl in existence, which indicated that they needed to pour the solution over her NOW.

While everyone around them underwent severe intimidation from Maddie's outburst, Anne, Marcy, and Sprig didn't fall into that mentality. In fact, Marcy began to express her deep anger while Maddie acted like a spoiled child that wailed over a specific toy at the toy store. Normally she followed Maddie's choices of insight into the dark arts and her clear instruction behind them, but the friend she knew and loved left the moment she eclipsed them in height.

"Okay Maddie, now I know you went through something since your sudden growth!" Marcy exclaimed. "The gloves are off now!"

Anne and Sprig initially called her last statement a bluff, but once they saw that she actually acted on it and took her fingerless gloves off the blatancy plastered right before their eyes. Marcy meant it both figuratively and literally, and yet Maddie stood her ground to the ants in front of her toes.

"You know I care about you Maddie, but not like this. Ever since you somehow grew and became Amphibia's moon your attitude steered into another direction. Now I'm seeing someone else that wants to believe that she still stands by my side as a friend, but now it completely went hazy as I look at you. I don't care anymore about what you want like you control our lives, but I want my friend back. I will pour this hex over you whether you want to or-"

Her entire body froze in place. She went from a small rant about her current thoughts to mute in only a split second, and it paralyzed her moments into stiff concrete. Every part of her skin faded into a pale mummy while her pupils nearly disappeared into the white void, and it only took one glance down as the offender revealed itself. The effect protruded something horrifying that caught Anne and Sprig near her, and they almost mirrored her exact expression. While no such blade slashed across her neck, the burial ground near her uttered a cacophony of wicked chants akin to offensive laughter. Anne and Sprig had their hearts ripped out of them while Marcy brought the unnatural bile across her entire front side, and yet the culprit gazed through different windows while they carried two pistols in hand that smoked cold steel. All of their innards flushed out and shut them down into a cold induced stasis and nobody understood the urges to break out into life once again. All that time Marcy glued her eyes to the monster above while the mass dripped down her clothes like corroding poison that wore her down bit by bit. If her eyes lacked the deep color distinction she could have mistaken such looseness as something that flashed red, and yet she stared down utter chaos she once considered as a distinct intelligible one behind such topics that remained out of the public eye. As her eyes stared into dead space, everything she once understood crashed and burned. Nothing but a hollow husk of a girl stood as the victim of such umbrage condensed from such void in the corner of light.

"…Mah…Maddie?"

Everything flashed before her as she found herself in a different state. The sounds that followed after nearly sucked any type of positivity from everyone unfortunate to have their ears act on duty. Never had such malice and the inevitable brought misery from such an utterance, and as for Anne and Sprig the circumstances behind it never crossed their minds. Such a curtain close evaporated what delights stood around them for weeks on end, only for such disasters to slice their chests wide open. Her tears remained like a cockroach in their minds as the last couple of images flickered before she disappeared in the blink of an eye. Nothing remained once she vanished into the deep abyss of the beast, and the antidote shattered on impact across the ground.

The offender's neck bulged for a split second then settled back down.

The ones around Anne and Sprig unfortunate enough to witness such darkness eventually couldn't take it anymore. Many bolted from the sight while the giant girl's gaze pierce the ground like she wanted it all along. Anne and Sprig couldn't move and take their eyes off of the horrors that unraveled before them. It almost seemed offensive to speak up, and yet someone had to break the fragile silence.

Anne mustered enough courage to go for it…and she was distraught beyond belief.

"Maddie…HOW COULD YOU?!" Anne shouted as tears formed in her eyes.

Maddie didn't flinch.

"She deserved it. I gave her a warning as she failed to listen." Maddie answered with no empathy whatsoever. "Her ignorance came back to bite her straight across her neck."

"SHE DIDN'T DESERVE ANY OF THAT!" Anne answered after the incident left her in shambles. "YOU'RE A GIANT CANNIBALISTIC MONSTER TO THINK I'M JUST GOING TO LET THAT SLIDE!"

Her outburst still never fazed Maddie's new attitude, but she still loomed her massive face up close to Anne's microscopic body to rub in the fact that she was helpless in the sort of endeavor. She even tripped her up at one point with one large stomp that shook the entire area around her.

"Keep that up and I might have room for seconds! Shut up and live with it, because she's never coming back. She brought all of it on herself for running off that mouth of hers."

Anne's mind clashed back and forth between utter sorrow and intense anger. Never had such ignorance behind the magnitude of a situation pushed her to limits she never knew she had before. To see Marcy suddenly whiplashed onto Maddie's tongue and snatched off the ground filled various hollow parts of her mind with either of the two feelings, and all of it kept her in check as they fought for dominance. It sucked out her will to move, but she contained enough to form her two hands into hard fists. No matter what emotion took over in the end, her desire to wallop the young frog straight in the face extended beyond normal boundaries. Her soulless actions gave Anne the ambition to show her what for as an act of revenge, and yet she knew better because of the height difference. If she ever found a way to match sizes she wanted no more than to sock the giant frog and strangle her to death for the unjustifiable fate she brought upon Marcy.

While Anne may have thought things between conflicting emotions, Sprig already planned things through. While some became thorough blueprints with intricacies beyond normal comprehension, his relied on the most primitive action one could have thought up in a couple of seconds. Because Maddie's mind stayed preoccupied to Anne's attitude over Marcy, Sprig took the moment to floor it out of there as fast as he could leap. Unluckily, he never managed to get far as he suddenly found one of the bluest walls right before him and he couldn't slow down in time to avoid it. A loud boom hit his hearing as he lost his balance and thwacked right into it. The whole thing threw him backward, and as he glanced up he saw that Maddie planted one of her humongous feet right in his path to block his escape, and her visible eye scanned all over him in seconds.

"Going somewhere Sprig?" Maddie's deep voice boomed. "I don't want to lose my ex-hubby anytime soon, you know."

It only took that last sentence to force terror out of him. It struck him so much that he failed to notice that Maddie crushed dozens of stands in one powerful stomp and nearly planted her foot all over groups of innocent civilians that ran for their lives. His worst nightmare ever since she grew came to light at the worst possible time, and all of the foreboding signs he felt in the past reared back to haunt him. Anne built up too much distraught over her loss of Marcy to slog over in time, which left the two of them on their own.

He lost the urge to speak the moment he locked his eyes against his massive ex's entertained sight.

"I…uh, I…I…"

"Awww, little Sprig has a human in his throat." Maddie stated while she put on one of her creepy grins. "Can't speak after that harsh nostalgia trip? I've never forgotten such a crucial detail between you and me, but after this drastic chance in perspective…all of it flooded back to me."

Sprig took note of her tone of voice through his cowering fear, as it lacked any kind of seriousness to possibly grind him further into dust. If she wanted to lash out at him she could have done so at any moment, and yet she held back. While he remembered that she said she never minded their break up in the first place, one simple flip of the size switch brought a slew of changes that morphed her outlook on everything into the polar opposite.

Her powerful voice boomed over him again.

"Ever since you gave me that breakup note, I found it quite unfortunate that I never gave you anything in return. However, I think I found the perfect substitute to show just how much you inflicted on me. I crafted it specially for you, and I know you'll enjoy it."

Sprig couldn't push down the giant lump in his throat as Maddie's presence and clear intention bound him to very light movements, similar to how Anne felt. He slowly started to back up as the giant Maddie reached into her pockets and rummaged through them. After some quick searching, she eventually found what she wanted, and once Sprig took notice of the object his speed picked up a bit. He recognized such an object ever since that infamous day, and whatever set under the knot had the enigma that worried him even further. While it didn't size up with her, he wanted no part in finding out what contents remained inside.

She pinched the small bag between two fingers while her common creepy expression painted all over her face, but after everything she said and acted on it spelled his complete demise as if the grim reaper breathed down his neck with a sickle in hand. Her stance and facial expression served as the straw that broke the camel's back, which caused Sprig's slow walk to change into a full on sprint. His panic rubbed off on Anne who caught the sights in the corner of her eye, and once she noticed the bag between Maddie's fingers she knew what would happen next. Even thought she still lacked a portion of her heart after Maddie swallowed Marcy, the fact that she might lose another close friend reinvigorated certain parts of her that got her legs working again. Sprig needed to get away from Maddie and FAST.

Even though everyone's actions appeared like they progressed in slow motion, in reality it was still normal speed. Without any further moment to spare, Maddie released her grip on the bag and tossed it forward toward her lost hubby, which soared through the air at blistering speeds due to her increased strength from her size. Sprig legged it as much as he could while Anne attempted something she's only witnessed on TV during a sports broadcasts and ran forward in an attempt to intercept tackle Sprig out of the way, which sounded better in her head then the actual performance. All three acted on their own accords, and only one would come out on top as the successful maneuver.

Reality really seemed to hate Sprig at that moment.

Anne's loose attempt to act as a quarterback failed as she completely miscalculated and sailed right over Sprig into a pile of oranges from a loose stand. She never got to witness the fact that Sprig's legs, while fast, never stood a chance compared to Maddie's throwing arm when he immediately found himself smacked right across the back from the giant frog witch's concocted curse. He hit the ground hard which planted his face in the mud in a semi conscious state, and once Anne picked herself out of the orange pile she gasped in horror at Sprig's state. She almost tripped over a couple of the fruits, but she hastily ran over to her downed buddy to make sure he didn't get injured too much.

"SPRIG!"

She immediately flipped him over so she could see his face, and once that happened she felt some relief as his eyes flapped open. He coughed a couple of time and rubbed his head, but nothing too drastic seemed apparent at first.

"Owwwwww, that really smarts…" Sprig muttered before he glanced over to Anne with a small smile.

"You okay there, buddy?" Anne asked. "Looks like you took quite a wallop from that bag."

"I'm fine for the most part." Sprig answered. "Nothing puts the ol' Sprig down that easily…easily…ea…"

His head wobbled around like a top losing its spin while the rest of his body shivered all over. He only managed to catch one more glance at Anne normally until the curse's effects kicked in. He still remained mostly awake even as he took on a huge migraine, but as the seconds rolled by Anne noticed something very sinister Maddie seemed to cast him with. She could only watch with her hands to her mouth as Sprig confusingly continued to look at her, and soon enough even he began to take note of something not quite right. Once Anne's head and bulbous hair extended higher and higher, he immediately glanced down at himself and instantly understood what Maddie cursed him with.

Maddie wanted everyone to see him as a helpless gnat.

Sprig's size continued to diminish before Anne's own eyes, and she couldn't do anything about it since she didn't cast the hex in the first place. She expected it to progress a lot further than his normal height, but in a surprising twist it actually lasted only around half a minute until the entire thing settled on a specific value. Sprig's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he glanced up at Anne, who now stood akin to some of the highest walls compared to him. While not too harsh of a shrinkage, he obviously couldn't go around lower on the height scale compared to his best friend, who appeared even taller than when he first got to know her.

Anne immediately turned toward the gigantic Maddie.

"Maddie! What sort of curse did you put on him?!" Anne exclaimed.

Maddie didn't flinch and even seemed to enjoy Anne's slight outburst.

"Oh, nothing much. Just a minor reduction curse to show my appreciation for him breaking up with me. He needed it after all."

"No I didn't!" Sprig exclaimed, which somehow came at a decent volume despite his smaller size. "You basically changed me back into a polliwog at this height! Change me back!"

"No can do Sprig. You asked for it since that turning point." Maddie stated, which indicated that she could still hear him perfectly. "Even so…I only gave him the first dose."

The two had no time to react as Maddie acted instantly and brought another of the same bag out of her pockets. She wasted next to no time as she sent the bag through the air at such an accurate angle that it hit Sprig across his body for a second time. If the first reduction brought him to the size of a tadpole, the second shrunk him down to the size of Anne's shoe. She almost found it a bit difficult at first to track him down from such a height, and yet Maddie never intended to end there.

"You see Sprig, I can pile on as many curses as I want on a single person whether they want to or not. I can make you smaller…"

She instantly threw another bag at him that shrunk him even more, which left him at the size of half of Anne's shoe.

"…and smaller…"

Another bag hit him and put him at the size of Anne's big toe.

"…and smaller…"

…then the size of a whole fingernail.

"…to whatever I please!"

One more bag to the face left Sprig in a terribly shrunken heap. She toyed with him the whole time until she finally decided what final height she should stand at, and for him it became unjustifiable in every aspect. Anne herself barely had a visible picture of Sprig, as the last curse Maddie unloaded on him reduced him to the size of some of the smallest bugs back home, possibly around ant size. Maddie clearly had her fun as she forced him to nothing but a nonexistent speck compared to her, and she fully intended to keep him that way.

Anne wouldn't have it though.

"Maddie, I thought you said you only use magic to help people! Sprig didn't deserve this!

"I may have once thought that particular mindset, Anne." Maddie answered. "However, ever since I became this huge I've experienced such splendor and greatness that made me think things differently. I cannot ignore such a gift, and if it means going against by previous beliefs I'll always go for it. Besides…he deserved all of it."

"Maddie, you've taken things too far! The whole land of Amphibia doesn't revolve around you ever since your growth! You better spit Marcy back out and revert Sprig back to normal or-"

"Or what?" Maddie interjected while she brought her face up close and personal with Anne, which almost seemed like the human stared down an entire planet. The sheer scope alone gave Anne a lot of chills, but she refused to run off unless she got her friends back. Sprig tried to utter something in the process, but at his size compared to Maddie his words fell on deaf ears.

"I…I don't know right now, but I'll think of something!" Anne exclaimed. "You let all of that power go to your head Maddie, and that's not the innocent girl I knew as a friend!"

She expected Maddie to fume up in a furious manner, especially since she found someone that actually had the courage to talk back against her. Whether by some kind of trigger or some other method, Anne fear slowly melted away over time into the hero Wartwood knew her for. While she went against one of her friends, to her something else called the shots. Maddie's personality never devolved into such bitter and spoiled behavior before, and from what she experienced with the witch those times usually never resorted to such heinous actions. If she had to go against Maddie to bring back peace, because she thought of no other option she prepared herself for the worst. All in the name of Wartwood's safety, Anne acted on such tactics even against a friendly face.

Instead of the picture Anne painted prematurely, Maddie pulled her face back and stood back up to her full height. The giant frog lightly shook her head before she gazed back down at the speck by her feet.

"Aww, such a terrible choice from someone who claims to act as the hero. I even considered you as a potential toy to mess with through my fingers at one point. Oh well, you spelled your demise and fate. You know what I do to defective toys, Anne?"

Anne's pupils contracted as she watched Maddie slowly raise one of her feet in the air until it cast a shadow over her. Maddie never flinched while Anne saw all of the dirt and grime underneath that almost made her sick. Sprig also said something in that time, but due to his size nobody could hear him.

"Goodbye Anne. Tell the underworld I said hi."

Anne's adrenaline burst through the thermometer the instant she saw Maddie's foot fall toward her. She required no reminders to understand that she had to book it, and she gave herself an instant head start. Her heart accelerated from slow to fast while she acted quick, but Sprig deserved to live as well in the process. In an act of pure anxiety, Anne snatched the shrunken Sprig into her hands and put her legs into marathon mode. Maddie's foot covered a large area which meant she had to act like she ran an Olympic triathlon which never crossed her mind until then. Whether Maddie intended to crush her or not, she didn't want to become a stain against the ground especially when she felt something was wrong.

She ran like the frightened teen she was while she heard low noises from her hands that most likely came from Sprig screaming. The bottom of the giant frog girl's foot grazed the top of her hair and continued further downwards, which made Anne's legs go faster and faster. She almost couldn't bear to keep her eyes open in case the worst happened, and yet part of her forced them open. Her breathing shortened and put more pressure against her chest, and yet she couldn't stop. Light poured ahead that shined pure gold that Anne desired beyond anything else. Only one single winner could claim their rightful achievement with lives on the line.

Her eyes caught visuals a bit too late as a resonating boom forced her to the ground. Immense power pressed over her and left her with almost no time left. With one ounce of strength left in her, Anne leapt forward and planted herself into the ground. Foreboding death resonated through her mind as the worst possibly smitten her into potential paralysis. She didn't want to look up, but the constant noises from Sprig as she covered him within her fingers hit her senses enough for her to eventually do so. As her mind surged with possibilities, she mustered up enough to steadily open her eyes.

She almost couldn't believe where she ended up.

Her soul never left the planet. All of her efforts kept her barely above ground between the toes of the titanic Maddie. For whatever reason, Maddie had a slight separation between her two toes, and that minor space provided Anne enough to avoid getting steamrolled by the giant witch. Never had she considered a vest made out of four leaf clovers, but after death breathed down her neck she immediately put a pin in it near the very top of her priority list. Whatever she put into her adrenaline rush, she emerged as the "sole" survivor.

The stench of Maddie's feet provided the reality check she needed. Her train of thought went off the rails once her nose picked up the fumes around her. After all of the steps she took as the titan of Amphibia, it came as no surprise that she possibly placed her feet in rather rancid areas. If dozens of creatures never stood a chance and perished under such parts, she easily got the memo only a few seconds in. While showers existed in the never ending swamplands, such ones for Maddie's massive height didn't exist which meant the full stink made its presence as disgusting as possible. From the dirty underside and nearly toxic fumes, Anne couldn't stay between Maddie's toes for long and required a much safer space away from the deadly state of mind overhead.

She made another break for it. Her ears couldn't pick up what Sprig uttered from her hands, but at the time she didn't pay attention due to more pressing matters. Maddie kept her toes still, possibly because she already thought Anne perished under her foot, and she would have kept it that way if the giant witch catch her in the corner of her eyes. She gritted her teeth and raised her foot again, which lifted the blue walls around Anne, but before she attempted another earthshaking stomp her bad eyesight caught up with her. Right as Anne rushed through the space between Maddie's toes, she blanketed herself and disappeared under the greens of nearby trees. The giant girl's hindered eyesight from her growth lost track of the small speck that ended up as the courageous human throughout the sea of trees, and she despised such a tactic. The acceptance of such agility fazed her to the tenth degree.

"Grrrrrr, I won't let you live next time Anne!" Maddie's deep and powerful voice boomed everywhere while she angrily stomped in place one last time. The power behind such an impact shattered windows, collapsed a few houses, and utterly decimated dozens of stands that weren't fully packed yet. All of the frogs and young tadpoles down by her feet that didn't flee in terror before got the message quickly and ran for the hills. They understood that Maddie's time as a cautious and friendly girl that somehow grew and became a titan ended to a terrifying replacement.

As Maddie's attention steered toward all of the scared tiny citizens by her feet, it overwhelmed her with destructive joy. She finally got to play out as one of the classic giant monsters Anne displayed from her phone during movie nights. Her mind always had something similar on the back burner, and now she got the chance of a lifetime. Everyone below her stood at a fraction of her height, not even up to her toes, which exemplified her destructive hormones ever since she fell to her new personality. She almost couldn't believe she never went through with all of it the first time she expanded in size, but ever since her new growth kicked in she got to make up for that brief moment. She followed the instructions listed and finally obtained what she wanted.

One part stood out to her though that required her attention.

"Oh no you don't. I don't want any of you getting away from my new playground, because I'm just warming up for what I have in store. Let me fix that!"

She still had on her creepy and disturbing smile as she rummaged through her pockets once more. Like before, it only took a few moments to dig up what she had in mind, but first impressions failed to distinguish it from others of its kind. Nothing but another small curse bag, also at normal size, set between two of Maddie's fingertips, and she wasted next to no time at all to let it loose. Without a single missing beat, the giant witch frog threw the bag straight to the ground below and barely missed a panicked frog as she ran by Maddie's toes. It took a couple of seconds for results to appear, but when they finally showed up the effects kicked in instantly. From the outskirts of Wartwoods a large purple beam surged across the ground like a bolt of electricity until it formed a perfect circle around the entire premises. From there a bright purple light burst from the ground and stretched upward until it encased the entire town in a bright dome that faded in and out every few seconds or so. Anyone unfortunate enough to reach the lights right as they appeared immediately felt like they ran into concrete and fell over onto their back, which hurt and brought quite a shock. At approximately one hundred feet, which didn't even come close to Maddie's height, it only put more fuel into the fire for everyone that lived in Wartwood and even a few that chose to stay there for a few days. It became immediately obvious what type of curse Maddie cast on the entire town, and it bound everyone inside like a zoo display.

She got on her knees for a closer look at the dome before she reached out to touch it. Unlike anyone else who received "shock treatment" when they collided with the curse, Maddie's huge hand phased right through it as if it never existed in the first place. The girl smirked a little before she had a little bit of fun and grazed over dozens of trees with her huge fingers. Almost every piece of greenery that came into contact with her digits either collapsed instantly, uprooted then fell over, or got obliterated under the sheer size. The one seemingly harmless action for Maddie seemed to have caused more panic to everyone encased in the magic globe as more villagers ran everywhere for some kind of cover, and all attempts that went against the barrier ended in failure for the terrified frogs. She still had no idea where Anne ran off to with Sprig, but she knew she remained somewhere in the dome and couldn't get out in any way. In the end, everything worked out that made sure Maddie could mess with anyone while nobody else could break out and ruin her fun.

One huge shadow blanketed the entire town soon after, and once the townsfolk gazed up their entire vision got taken up by Maddie's planet sized face that took up the entire sky from their perspective. She expressed her trademark creepy smile and blank gaze before she uttered a chilling phrase to everyone below trapped within the confines of her own creation.

"Your fates…now rest with ME!"