Previously on Calamitous Intervention
Luz planned to leave the house for a bit to do some activities, but Hop Pop forbade her from doing so. She instead decides to try experimenting with the pain peppers but she finds her game system the Tindo Swap, making her completely forget about her original plans. She and the Plantars played it for a while until the battery ran out unexpectedly, and they had to go get it charged.
At another point, Luz and the Plantars were practicing spitting when Ivy visited and brought Luz to have some girl time together. The human also included Polly and Maddie and they had lots of fun, using up Ivy's allowance until they met Tuti. After Luz accidentally wrecked the shop, she threatened them so Polly had to win the spitting record to pay her back for the damages.
Chapter Fifteen - Froggy Funds / Unveiling Calamity
It is a scorching hot day outside in Amphibia, as Luz, Sprig, and Polly work together to pluck weeds from the field, crawling across the dirt, and sweating in the terrible heat. Sitting far from them is Hop Pop, as he rests on a chair, his feet propped up, and happily drinking lemonade. He feels relaxed not having to go through the tough physical tasks everyone else is doing.
Sprig gets up, already exhausted, before hearing a moo. He looks over to see cowapillars munching on wheat in their pens, and the frog immediately gets an idea that could make their work a lot easier. He runs up to the old frog, yelling, "Hop Pop! Hop Pop! Great idea! What if we trained the cowapillars to eat these weeds? Then we wouldn't have-"
"Hup bup bup," Hop Pop cuts him off, waving his hand. "Suggestion barrel's over there." He points over to a barrel covered in mold and mushrooms, surrounded by flies. Next to it is a tilted sign labeled, "Suggestions".
Excited, Sprig runs up to the barrel with a piece of paper, sticking out his tongue to eat all the flies in one swoop. He grabs a pencil, writing his idea on the piece of paper while Luz, carrying Polly, walks up behind him curiously.
"Suggestion eighty-nine…" Sprig mutters, writing as Luz speaks up. "At least Hop Pop's considerate of your ideas. How much has he read?"
"I doubt that he's read any of them," the tadpole simply replies. "I suggested a swimming pool months ago, and that never happened," she finishes as she looks ahead with a blank and deadpan expression.
"Oh, come on, guys," Sprig lightens things up. "Have a little more faith in Hop Pop." He sticks his paper through the slot, before accidentally getting his hand stuck inside. "Oop…" He chuckles nervously, doing his best to pull it out. "Hand stuck."
With one last pull, he gets his hand out, but in turn, the barrel tips over as well. To their shock, underneath the barrel is a deep pit with flames rising from inside. They quickly realize that the pit has been burning up their suggestions all those months and Hop Pop has never actually read any of them.
They peer down into the pit, shocked, as Polly says, "A fire pit? That's the opposite of a swimming pool!"
"Why, Hop Pop?!" Sprig dramatically cries out. "Whyyyyy?!"
"Because your suggestions were ridiculous," the old frog explains. "You can't just dig swimming pools anywhere. It attracts pests. Running a farm ain't easy, kids."
"Maybe. But if I were in charge, I'd listen to other people's suggestions, not burn them!" Sprig retorts angrily. As if on cue, the fire pit behind him grows larger, peeking out of the hole.
"You? Run the farm?" Hop Pop scoffs. "Run it into the ground, maybe." He inflates his vocal sac, smacking Sprig and making him stumble back. In return, Sprig does the same, surprising the old frog. Polly gasps, realizing what this means. "Is that an official challenge?"
"Why are we fighting over this?" Luz cuts in. "Can't we just compromise?"
Ignoring her, Sprig runs to a tall pole in the middle of the farm, climbs up on it, and uses a stick to ring a bell while hollering obnoxiously. As he hops down, the three walk up to him while Polly announces, "Sprig Plantar, you have rung the Plantar Family Challenge bell! What is your challenge?"
"I want to replace Hop Pop and run the farm my way," he states.
"Hop Pop?"
"I do formally accept this ch-" Hop Pop starts, but is cut off by Luz. "Okay, okay, what kind of challenge are we talking about?"
"It's the Plantar Family Challenge," Hop Pop tells her.
"An artful test of skill where the winner takes all!" Sprig adds.
"They push each other until someone falls off a lily pad," Polly summarizes to Luz. "It's dumb, but fun to watch."
Right as they're about to run off to prepare for the challenge, Luz grabs Sprig by his vest, not letting him go anywhere. The young frog frantically rocks his legs in the air before stopping and sighing. "I really don't think that's the best way to handle this," Luz solemnly tells him.
"Why don't we go back inside to the living room and just talk it out?" she suggests. "Back home, that's how we always managed these conflicts so that things won't get messy."
"What? But talking's for babies!" Sprig angrily protests. "A real, violent showdown with bruises and tears is the ONLY way to do this!"
"If that were true, I don't think society would be the same," the human replies. "Why don't we just settle things peacefully? Maybe make an agreement to satisfy both sides."
"Yeah, I don't really care how you two handle this," Polly says. "Count me out."
Hop Pop sighs, realizing they probably should listen to Luz's idea this time. "Well, she's got a point, I suppose. Not like it ever ends in Sprig's favor."
Angered by this comment, Sprig begins to open his mouth to say something, raising his shoulders up, but stops before saying anything. He slumps down as he sighs and looks down with a disappointed "Okay."
The four walk back into the house and shut the back door, silently walking back into the living room as they sit down on the main sofa. The atmosphere is filled with awkward silence, but Luz clings onto hope, optimistic they can handle this smoothly.
Realizing she's the one who has to start talking, Luz inhales as she tilts her head back, thinking of what to say. Back home, she always got pretty nervous when talking to anyone other than her mom, especially when being thrust into the spotlight in moments like this. Regardless, she begins.
"So… Sprig, you said you want to run the farm and do things your way," she begins. "You do realize how many responsibilities and challenges you'd have to face, right?"
"I feel like Hop Pop doesn't care enough to even consider our ideas," the young frog begins. "He doesn't even wanna hear our suggestions, he just burns them up like they're trash!"
"Well, maybe it's 'cause your ideas are terrible!" Hop Pop snaps back. "All your suggestions could lead to the farm being ruined by pests! Of course, you wouldn't know because you don't run the farm."
"Well, maybe I should!" Sprig yells, and Luz waves her hand. "Hey, yelling isn't going to help! Just breathe a bit and calmly talk about it. It helps out a lot more than you might think," she suggests.
"Fine, fine," the old frog grumbles. "Look, I'm not lettin' Sprig run the farm. There's gotta be another way."
"I'd make a great leader!" Sprig says, and Luz winces. "Sorry, Sprig, but I don't think you're nearly as ready to run the farm as you think. Hop Pop, can't you at least read their suggestions from now on?"
His shoulders slump at this. "Come on, can't I just stick to the fire pit?"
The human shakes her head. "Just because one idea is bad doesn't mean all of them will be. Maybe they could benefit all of us."
Hop Pop sighs, scratching the side of his face. "Fine… I guess I could give it a shot. Let's just call this off, Sprig. I'm not even in the mood for it anymore."
The frog boy taps his foot before nodding. "Then the challenge is off. I accept your terms." They shake hands, which makes Luz smile as Sprig walks off back outside.
As she sees him walk outside, she feels good about the positive impact she's made on many people around here. It especially surprises her how much she's changed since her days back home. With not much to do, for now, she wonders what she could do.
She sits on the couch, taking a breather after the hours of work they've had to do on the farm. It is boring and tedious work, and she wishes she could do something else. As she gets lost in thought, her mind drifts to memories of a few days ago, when she, Ivy, Maddie, and Polly went out to different places in Wartwood, spending some time together.
She wishes she could relive those events, but one thing quickly dawns on her–she doesn't have any money. She's not about to let Ivy waste all of her allowance on her again, no matter what. Before Hop Pop is about to join Sprig, Luz speaks up. "Hey, Hop Pop, I was thinking… that maybe I could get an allowance somehow?"
The old frog halts before looking back at her. "An allowance? Not happenin'. Right now, I barely have enough money to provide us with food and a house to live in."
"Wait, why don't you just use that tomato monster I brought home nearly a month ago?" Luz suggests. "You guys could get rich with that!"
"It's not that we haven't thought of it," Hop Pop tells her. "It's just that vegetables take time to grow. They can take months. You can't just magically make them grow in an instant."
As he goes outside, those words give the human an idea that could secure the family's financial future. "I think I know what I'm gonna do today."
She goes outside after the old frog, going to the left side of the house where they placed the tomato monster. They had to move it because it chewed a hole through their front door weeks ago.
Upon seeing her, it growls before snapping at her. She instinctively flinches, but approaches it anyway. It's pretty small, so it can't really harm her. It tries biting her arm, which hurts but isn't enough to pierce her skin. Reaching down, she plucks an unripe tomato before going back inside the house.
She goes down to the basement, pulling out her cauldron and ingredients. She's ready to begin experimenting to see if she can grow or accelerate the process to ripen the tomato.
Luz then pauses before beginning. She's always made potions that go by Maddie's spell books, yet one that can instantly grow a plant never came up. To even attempt this, she will need to create her own spell, which she has never tried before.
She's confident she can get it to work though, as she begins experimenting. She's learned what every ingredient she has does, so she'll need to get the perfect ratio in her custom potion.
As she boils the water in her cauldron, she starts adding ingredients one after the other, while also listing down her ideas. Her first idea is to try using a bit of the only ripe, non-spoiled tomato they have. She scoops out the insides and tosses a slice into the cauldron before stirring.
She next puts a bit of fertilizer in, tapping her chin as she squeezes more tomato juice into the cauldron, allowing some seeds to spill in. The cauldron has a strong tomato-like smell, with a faint twinge of soil mixed in it. It isn't quite as bad as she thought it would be.
For the final ingredient to actually make it a potion, she needs something magical, something to bind it all together, but something that isn't dangerous to consume. She then has the perfect thing in mind.
She grabs a handful of leaves from a plant called a willue. Maddie told her it is the safest option for a binding agent, mostly used by beginners. She chops them up and tosses them into the cauldron, changing the liquid's color.
As it finishes, she scoops it into a potion, walks over to the ripe tomato, and pours some drops over it to see what will happen.
She excitedly watches, before the tomato suddenly deflates like a balloon, confusing her. "Huh?"
Out of nowhere, it shoots up at quick speeds, splatting against the ceiling and going everywhere, including on her face.
She slowly wipes the gunk off, realizing this is gonna be harder than she initially thought. For her second attempt, she goes through the same process, but this time, she puts fewer seeds in. This time, it doesn't deflate, but instead just explodes in her face again, covering the basement with gunk. "Darn it."
She spends hours trying to perfect this recipe, but no matter what, she's barely making any progress. She doesn't want to bother Maddie by asking her for help since she wants to accomplish this herself, but she's running out of options.
Then she gets an idea. Why is she blindly adding ingredients she thinks could work when she could just go borrow Maddie's ingredient guide? The young sorceress has been listing ingredients she's studied and still does so to this day. She hopes she can one day publish it, even.
Technically, this still means she makes the potion herself. Even if it doesn't, her top priority right now is helping her frog family. So as it approaches noon, she quickly heads off to Maddie's, coming back only thirty minutes later. Running that long still takes a lot out of her, but it's not as bad as it was before. Thankfully, Maddie was completely fine with her borrowing the guide, even thinking about making a copy just for Luz.
Unfortunately, she's starting to run out of time, since Hop Pop wants her back on the farm soon. Going back to the basement, she plops the book down and opens it, revealing pages upon pages of ingredients. The fact that her friend has worked this hard and studied countless hours to describe everything in detail impresses her.
Flipping through the pages and reading each one thoroughly, she stumbles upon an ingredient that might just be what she needs.
On one of the pages, she spots something called 'Giant Caterpillar Hair'. What it is is pretty self-explanatory, but what it does interests her. The book says that they have a rare blend of minerals and skin material that work together to quickly and surprisingly healthily grow plants.
Her eyes widen as she reads this. If she succeeds, then perhaps tomatoes aren't the only thing she can quickly grow. The Plantars will be rich!
She starts supplying herself with some potions as she prepares to search for a giant caterpillar. It shouldn't be difficult, considering she's seen many in her time here. Wasting no time, she leaves the house, heading out into the wilderness. She's a bit nervous about going out alone, but knows she will probably be fine.
Around her, she can hear birds squawking and bugs chirping. It sounds rather peaceful, but knows she cannot let her guard down. After a bit of searching, she spots a giant caterpillar. Up close, it is covered in thick green hair. She thinks it would look cute, except it immediately goes on the offensive upon spotting her.
It screeches, crawling toward her. Luckily, she's able to outpace it, but that doesn't make the huge bug any less terrifying. She pulls out a bottle, drinking it as she watches her body gradually fade out of view. Now affected by the invisibility potion she's almost completely mastered, the bug screeches to a halt, confused.
She sneaks past it, trying her best not to make any sound. The bug looks around, trying to find where she went, but is unable to. "Sorry, big fella," she whispers as she reaches out, yanking a handful of hair off the creature.
Immediately, it shrieks as she runs off. The potion wears off just in time when she's nearly back home. As she walks through the front door and goes down to the basement, Luz resumes stirring the cauldron before dropping a few strands of the giant caterpillar's hair into the mix.
When the mixture is finally done brewing, she bottles it up, walks over to another unripe tomato she set down, and pours a few drops on it. This time, a different reaction occurs. Her eyes light up as she watches it slowly grow and turn red. "Yes! I did it!"
Unfortunately, it explodes right after, sending gunk everywhere. Despite this, though, she isn't too upset. She's definitely on the right track. She goes back to reading the ingredient guide, adjusting the portion sizes of the ingredients as she learns more about what each of them does in more detail.
No matter how much she changes it up, the results always remain the same. When it turns ripe, it explodes everywhere. If she has to clean up the entire basement one more time, she's gonna lose it.
Feeling frustrated, she takes a quick break, lying down on her bed. The potion should work, but there's one crucial thing she's doing wrong. It's almost as if it's not working together properly. When she thinks about this, she realizes something. The binding agent she used–a willue–isn't strong enough, explaining why it explodes immediately after.
She suspected it was because of too many caterpillar hairs, or too much fertilizer at first, but that only just slowed down the ripening process. It explodes into mush either way. Maddie said a willue was the safest option, but she might have to take a risk.
Luz gets up, flipping the pages and going to the section listing the binding agents. After a bit of searching, she finds what she needs: A Terraca. This ingredient is a lot trickier to work with, but it isn't going to risk poisoning or ruining the edibility of the tomato. Terraca produces a strong sharp odor that is dangerous to sniff in bulk but can be very effective, as long as you apply just the right amount. It's very stingy with how precise she has to be with it.
She expects it to be some sort of plant, but surprisingly, it's a mineral. Her arms slump at this, wondering how she's going to be able to get it. Upon reading further, it's revealed that the minerals are primarily found in Misty Peaks.
The human realizes that's the same place Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly went to get her Tindo Swap charged. Considering how long they were gone, she guesses it's not very close by. She really doesn't want to ask Maddie again, but she isn't equipped to deal with something like that.
Sighing, she gets up, heading out the front door again. It takes a little while, but she makes it back to Maddie's hideout to ask her about the mineral. Panting, she walks up to the young frog, who notices her. "What happened, Luz?"
The human takes a deep breath before speaking, "Sorry to ask you for another favor, Maddie, but do you by chance have Terracas? Those mineral things?"
"Why do you need those?" Maddie asks. "Are you attempting a level two spell? You know that's risky. You're an apprentice."
"Well, if you consider instant plant growth a level two spell, then yes," Luz replies. "I'm trying to make a potion that will instantly grow a tomato, which started from me wanting an allowance."
"Huh, I've never attempted speeding up the growth of vegetables," the frog ponders. "Well, I have a limited supply, so please be careful with these."
She reaches into her bag, pulls out a small container, and hands it to her. "Don't touch these with your bare hands, unless you want to deal with hair loss, potential Red Leg, and possibly death."
The human shudders at this. "Wait, how do you know that?"
"You don't want to know."
"Yeah, I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Luz says nervously, before turning and walking off. "Thanks, Maddie. I'll make it up to you."
As soon as she arrives home, she sets down the container and opens it. Immediately, a strong odor hits her nose, making her cringe. Her mind immediately thinks of a pungent, cheddar-like smell, even though it's a bit off. It's still very unnatural to her, and she prefers to not think about it too much.
She starts a new batch, following the same steps as her previous one. Instead of adding willue, however, she grabs tongs, using them to pick up the mineral from the small container. She walks up to the potion, cautiously lowering it into the cauldron and waiting to see what happens.
It bubbles as she stirs it, even more than before. When it's finally done, she scoops up a potion, walking over to her second to last ripe tomato, and pouring a few drops on it.
Immediately, it swells, growing in size and turning red. She gasps as it becomes bigger than her previous attempts, closer to the variants the giant tomato monster from back during the potluck had.
It stops, and she hides in case it explodes. She doesn't even want to know what the after-effects could be. After a few minutes, she peeks to see it hasn't budged. Her face breaks into a wide smile as she cheers, feeling accomplished for managing to master this recipe in less than a day. She can't wait to tell Maddie about this.
However, she doesn't get the chance to do anything, as the entire house shakes, nearly knocking her off her feet. She stumbles around, wondering what's going on. The cauldron doesn't seem to be the source of it, so what is?
Running outside, she spots something that horrifies her. She hears a roar as the tomato monster becomes massive–even bigger than back at the potluck. What could've caused this? She doesn't have time to think about it, as it starts to rampage. Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly run away, yelling as a root barely misses them.
Immediately, the human springs into action. She'll have to find the cause later, but right now, she needs to stop it before it destroys the entire house. It's already caused enough damage as it is. Running forward, she grabs a potion from her belt, tossing it at the tomato monster. Immediately, it bursts into the air, creating a gust of wind that makes it flinch.
Throwing more potions, she gets concerned. She doesn't have a shrinking potion on her right now. She hasn't made one since the potluck because she didn't think she would need it, but now she realizes how stupid that was.
It shrieks, shooting vines to grab the others. The frogs are able to avoid it, but Luz isn't so lucky. It wraps around one of her legs, yanking her toward the monster. She screams, trying to break free, but the monster is too strong.
Luz tries to think of something as she quickly approaches its giant mouth, but she doesn't know what she can do. Before she's eaten, she comes up with something as a last resort. It's kind of risking her own life, but she has no other choice. She grabs an empty bottle with a label on it, tossing it as far as she can toward Sprig.
"LUZ!" the frog boy yells, before noticing the bottle flying toward him. He catches it with his tongue before reading the label. Now he knows what he must do. "Hop Pop, Polly, keep it away from the house!"
Without waiting for their responses, he darts into their home, heading into the living room. "I hope you know what you're doing, Luz," he mutters, approaching a barrel and dragging it down into the basement.
Outside, Hop Pop, carrying Polly, is doing his best to distract the tomato monster. It isn't easy, considering he's not nearly as nimble as he used to be, but he's doing a decent job for now. One thing that works is his awful singing voice. Luz is doing her best to hold on a fencepost for dear life, but it is starting to crack.
In the basement, Sprig is doing his best to come up with something. He's tossing different ingredients left and right that look like they could work. He opens the barrel, grabs a few pain peppers, and drops them into the boiling cauldron. Immediately, a strong odor and a red cloud of steam fill the room, making his eyes water. "Come on… What else do I need?!"
In the corner of his eye, he spots the container of Terracas. Not knowing how powerful this binding agent is, he runs over, grabs it, opens it, then pours all the contents into the cauldron. Immediately, the cauldron bubbles violently, vibrating and spilling over a bit. He steps back, not knowing what to expect.
Then the smell hits him. He coughs, tears streaming down his face. "I hope I don't get some sorta disease from breathing this stuff in…" As soon as the reaction calms down, the potion is now a purple color.
Not wasting any more time, he grabs a potion and scoops the contents into the bottle before running upstairs. Outside, the old frog has finally run out of luck. The frog boy gasps, seeing his grandfather being dragged toward the monster with a vine.
"Oh, no, you don't!" he yells, running forward, winding back his arm, and tossing the potion at its mouth. Without a second thought, it opens and swallows the potion, before hissing and going to grab Sprig.
He flinches, closing his eyes tightly until it completely stops. He slowly opens his eyelids as he notices the monster is standing completely still. It then starts toppling backward, luckily missing the house. After it hits the ground, it inflates before exploding, sending stomach acid and other disgusting juices everywhere.
In the middle of it is Luz, who is panting heavily. She looks back and forth between the frogs and the remains before slowly standing up. "What just happened?"
"I made a potion to save you!" the frog boy tells her with pride.
"How did you even manage that?" Luz replies, still in shock. "That's like a level two spell. It just stopped, fell, and exploded."
He shrugs. "I just added whatever looked important, including this small container of weird-smelling rocks."
"Well, those weren't really made to be used all at once, but regardless, thanks, Sprig," she says, wiping the gunk off her shirt. She then remembers something. "Oh! I forgot to show you guys something!"
"Right now?" Hop Pop mutters. "We kinda have to deal with damage to the roof…" He notices her puppy eyes and sighs. "... but we can wait until after. What do you want to show us?"
The human gestures for them to follow her to the basement, before showing them the massive tomato. This mesmerizes everybody, especially the old frog. "H-how did you do that?! I thought it took months to grow tomatoes!"
"I know, so that's why I did a little experimenting," she replies. Luckily, everything is intact in the basement, so she grabs the instant growth potion she made, walks over to an unripe tomato, and pours a few drops on it.
Immediately, it inflates, turning red and swelling. It doesn't explode, thankfully, and there is a big, ripe tomato. Hop Pop's eyes dilate at this, as, without warning, he hugs Luz tightly. With this, their financial situation is definitely secured. "What did I do to deserve you?!"
The human smiles, patting him on the head. "It's nothing, really. All this started cause I simply just wanted an allowance."
Out of the corner of his eye, the old frog notices something, walking over behind the cauldron. "Huh? There's a hole in the wall here."
Luz's eyes widen, putting two-and-two together. The tomato monster was right outside behind the cauldron. Her previous attempts must've leaked into it and created the abomination. Upon realizing this, her face drops.
The Plantars notice this, looking at her with concerned expressions. "What's wrong, Luz?" Sprig asks her.
"It's my fault this happened in the first place," she tells them, before explaining what she realized.
Instead of getting angry as she expected, Hop Pop just laughs at this. "Luz, it's not that big of a deal. Trust me, the damage to the roof is nothing compared to the stuff Sprig did over the years."
In response, the frog boy's arms slump as the old frog continues, "Besides, we can repair that damage once we sell these tomatoes."
Hearing this lifts the human's spirits up again, making her crack a smile. "Thanks, Hop Pop."
Then he says something completely unexpected. "For Frog's sake, you've secured our futures financially! Luz, how would you like to be adopted?"
"HUH?!"
It has been a few days since the tomato incident. Thankfully, Sprig and Luz have mostly managed to repair the damage to the roof. Ever since they killed the tomato monster, they've lost their main source of getting tomatoes in the first place.
On the bright side, Luz's new potion allows her to ripen tomatoes instantly, and the Plantars have managed to double their profits from the stand, and it's still rising. Things are looking up for them.
The human sits in the living room, pondering. Since they aren't producing any more tomatoes, they're eventually gonna run out and they have to figure out a way to get more somehow. Maybe they can just grow them without one. In that case, they didn't need the tomato monster in the first place.
With this plan in mind, Luz gets up and walks out the front door to see Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly loading up many wrapped boxes and gear on Bessie's back. She blinks, wondering what they're up to. She's pretty surprised but curious enough to ask them, "What's up, froggy fam?"
"The three of us are going to Camp Phlegmington," Sprig replies as he strikes a pose, leaning on Bessie's shell. "Gonna rough it outdoors and get filthy!" He pumps his fist, excited about the trip.
"An ordinary camp?" Luz ponders. "That doesn't sound so bad."
"When we Plantars camp, we camp hard," Hop Pop tells her, sitting atop the snail's back. "No sense in you coming with us and being miserable."
Upon hearing this, she starts having second thoughts. Camping sounds pretty fun, but hard camping? She probably wouldn't wanna know what hard means in this context.
Hopping onto the shell behind Hop Pop, Sprig adds, "You told us about your first week coming to Amphibia. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to go through a similar experience."
"You're soft, Luz," Polly teases, "like a baby."
"Really, you should be glad you're not one of us," Hop Pop says. Luz opens her mouth to say something, but no words come out. She knows they are right. Upon being sucked through that portal, she had no prior experience of surviving in the wilderness. Her first week in the world was traumatic enough, and she doesn't want to go through anything like that again.
As much as she has been adventurous and wants to discover new stuff, she doesn't wanna go too far away from the only safe place she knows here. With this in mind, she makes her decision.
"Well, I guess you guys have fun then," she tells them. "What do you need me to do, Hop Pop?"
"All you need to do is watch over the house," the old frog says. "Don't go searchin' for Stringbean or doin' crazy magic experiments. Got it?"
She nods and starts walking inside as the Plantars leave the property, leaving her alone. As she walks inside, she stretches before lying back on the couch. She taps her fingers on the cushions, trying to think of something to do. Hop Pop doesn't want her to do any potion experiments, which is disappointing, but she didn't argue because of the incident a few days ago.
She considers playing on her Tindo Swap, but she isn't really in the mood right now. She instead prefers to unplug things a bit and do something relaxing, like reading a book. Perhaps she could learn more about how this world works. She's read stories about other amphibians besides frogs, such as toads and newts. There are many more out there.
She goes around the living room, trying to find a book she hasn't read already, but thanks to her nerdiness, she cannot find a single story she hasn't read in there. She can't leave the house either, since Hop Pop wants her to watch over it. Even if she could, she has no money.
She racks her brain, trying to think of something, but she suddenly remembers. So far, the old frog had never allowed her to enter his study room. But with him gone, she gets an urge to see what may lie inside. She knows it may not be the right thing, but with no one here, who would find out? There's probably so much she hasn't learned yet about this world.
The door creaks loudly as she opens it, dust filling the study room. Walking in, she looks around. She's impressed with how many collectibles and things are spread across, including bookshelves and desks.
She grabs a stack of five books from a shelf, all regarding certain topics like the history of Amphibia, their rulers and wars, and family trees. Figuring it could be at least many hours before they come back, she plops them and sits down with a glass of lime juice by her side, ready for a long reading session.
She doesn't keep track of the time, and as she finishes those books, the sun hasn't set yet, but the whole room is bathed in a more orange and gold glow. With the sun setting soon, she decides to put those books back and maybe check out some other secrets of this room. She has nothing to lose and no one will figure it out.
As she starts to put the books back into the bookshelf, she spots a thick book innocently hiding near the bottom of the shelf. It's a book containing information about many legends and artifacts lost to time. She's very curious about what secrets could lie in this book, so she pulls it out and plops it on the desk (but not before grabbing another glass of lime juice, since this book'll be good).
She flips through the pages, finding a lot of them amusing. In one of them, she can see the outline of a strange triangle-shaped being with an eye and a top hat. Something about it deeply unsettles her, so she flips through more pages.
After a bit of reading, her heart skips a beat as she stumbles upon a familiar page. It's the same page Hop Pop showed her upon first arriving at Amphibia, but she never got the chance to fully read it in detail.
She assumes this thing is dangerous based on how the text was written with great urgency. If that's the case, however, why did she have it with her? She's never seen it prior to being sucked into that portal.
Curious about what it does, she reads further into it. The big blocks of text are blocking some of the words out, but she can get a basic idea about how this thing works. She gasps out loud when she discovers what the box's true purpose is. It can travel to other worlds.
She sits there in silence, reading the rest of the page. Could this thing be her only way back home after summer camp is over? If so, she has to get it back, but she doesn't know where Hop Pop put it. Her face drops as she realizes she'll need to tell him about this. He seemed very insistent on burying it, but surely he will listen to her, right?
After thinking about it further, she pulls out her phone and takes a picture of the page. After that, she closes the book, puts it back, and gets up, trying to get her mind off of it for now. She always has that little impulse to explore and discover, so she makes a tough decision and starts looking for what else could lie in this study room. Surely there will be more than just books to discover.
After a few hours of skimming through props and indescribable goodness, she feels herself slowly drifting off. It's so peaceful and quiet in the house right now, and, before she knows it, it's already the afternoon. She has completely lost track of time but decides to shrug it off, figuring it will still be a good while before the Plantars come home.
As amazing and interesting as all those goods and books were, she still can't stop wondering about the Calamity Box and how important it could be for her future, so she decides to start searching for where Hop Pop put it. She faintly remembers he buried it somewhere, but where exactly is a mystery to her. Her best guess would be either in the front or the back of the house - either way, it likely isn't too far from where she is.
Without wasting any time, she grabs a shovel and goes outside, trying to find any patches of dirt that look a bit off. She digs around the farm until sundown, and it is a lot of work since she has to fill the holes back in.
After failing to find it the first day, she goes to sleep as per usual and gets up the next day, eating breakfast. Being completely alone and in charge of the house feels strangely liberating to her, but she knows she can't ignore this predicament while she's still alone. She goes straight back to work and spends most of the day outside. It takes a few hours, but luckily, Luz finally gets lucky. In front of the tree outside, her shovel hit something.
Upon digging it up, she can't believe her eyes. She actually found it! Grabbing the buried Calamity Box, she wipes the dirt off it and gives it a good glance. "Huh, I guess that's it, then?" She brings the box back inside and down to the basement, wanting some cool air after spending hours in the hot, presumably Summer sun.
Completely alone with no one to see her, she pulls out her phone, looking back and forth between the box and the picture she took. Thanks to the darkness of the basement, she is able to realize something's off. The gems aren't colored like they are in the picture, and she's confused as to why.
The human briefly hesitates before opening the box, wondering what would happen if she opened it in this state. She braces for anything to happen as she opens it, but not surprisingly, nothing happens. Her shoulders slump as she feels disappointed by what happened. Maybe Hop Pop found a way to turn it off? No, because she doesn't remember the gems glowing when she first had the box, either.
Luz stares at the lifeless gems before her eyes, trying to piece together what's happening. It then hits her. Maybe it's like a lightbulb in a way and needs to be powered. She slowly turns toward her cauldron, trying to resist the urge to do experiments. Hop Pop told her not to, but making potions is in her blood. She can't just simply stop doing it and feels this is the best approach, even knowing there could be a small risk of damaging the gems.
Making sure she does the procedure carefully, she starts a small fire, causing the cauldron's water to boil. She rubs her hands together, feeling excited as she starts experimenting for a few hours.
She quickly scans through some ingredients that could cause some sort of electrical reaction, since once she breaks things down mentally, this could be the best and easiest way to try to get some reaction out of them.
Luckily, she's recently learned about one ingredient that has such properties, which would've been useful for her Tindo Swap. She grabs the ingredient that's light blue and has some markings on it, which is essential to pumping electrolytes and keeping the flow and energy of a potion up. Thinking of what could be energized by this, she thinks of adding some bromine and barium to the mix, realizing that with how mysterious and unknown the energy might be, any unusual combination might also do the trick.
Okay, she realizes she's being completely nerdy and overthinking this, but she sometimes just gets lost in thought. As she adds the ingredients and a bit of willue to bind it all together, she walks over to the gems and pours a few drops on them, waiting for something to happen.
A quick puff of smoke rises from the gems, which isn't a good sign. She dabs them with her fingertips and immediately recoils at how burning hot it is. She gets nervous that they will shatter, but thankfully, they aren't as brittle as glass.
With her first experiment failing, she wonders what else she can do to power the gems. Apparently, electricity doesn't work on them, so she'll need to try something else. However, to do that, she doesn't want to risk damaging the box itself.
Once the gems cool down, she tries to pull them out, but they won't budge. Maybe they're a part of the box, or there's a way to detach them. She looks closely at every part of the box, trying to figure out a switch, but she's having trouble.
After a bit, she just resorts to pressing her finger on different parts of the box to see if there are any hidden buttons. Luckily, there is. After some tinkering, she finds three switches in total. She couldn't find any others, so she starts pressing the three in different orders randomly.
Eventually, it succeeds. Her eyes widen and she slightly jumps back as the music box plays a tune before the gems twist and emerge from the box. She grins, taking all three of them and carefully laying them out on a table. "I don't get why Hop Pop's so afraid of this thing. It doesn't look that bad."
She pulls out a tied-up bag, slowly opens it, and pours a bit of the content onto a gem. A tiny burst of green fire happens, but nothing happens. She frowns at this. She should start using more variety in her potions.
Next, she tries a drop of the invisibility potion. Of course, the gems turn invisible for a few minutes. She doesn't know what she was expecting. All other potions she tries have no effect on the gems, so she has one more idea left that sounds ridiculous, but could be useful if somehow they are alive.
She spends the next three hours gathering ingredients for the final potion attempt, which was harder than she anticipated. After finally returning, she gets to work on brewing the potion. When she finally gets to the last ingredient, it's finished. "One-half drop of worm snake venom, and…. It's done!"
She created a corpse revival spell, which not even Maddie has needed to create (yet). Luz taps her chin, walking up to the gems before pouring some drops of the potion on them.
At first, nothing happens, until they start shaking, confusing her. This is unlike any previous reactions thus far. The blue gem is acting up a lot more than the others, and she doesn't know why.
Suddenly, she gasps, feeling strange as her eyes flash a light blue, and a purple shockwave knocks nearly everything over, creating a mess. Luckily, the gems are unharmed.
She pants, not knowing what just happened, but it was definitely not what she was expecting. The human felt strange for a moment, and a bit tired out, but maybe it was an error in making the potion. Regardless, she grabs the gems and puts them back into the box. Luz will have to find a solution later with the help of Maddie.
After cleaning up and putting her stuff away, she decides to take a break from working on this project for the rest of the day. She's still got months left until summer camp is over, so she has a lot of time to figure it out. In the meantime, she hides the box out of Hop Pop's sight for now, tucking it into a secret spot in her room. He will inevitably find out about it, but she'll cross that bridge when it comes to it.
The Plantars return to the house at sundown after a long camping trip. Luz gets up, yawning as they carry in some of the equipment they used. "We're back!" Hop Pop announces. "Luz, where are ya?"
Walking up the stairs, she exits the basement to greet them. "Hey, guys! How was your trip?"
"Oh, there ya are," Hop Pop says. "It went pretty well, surprisingly. Well, except for this one oddball who was stalking us from a bush."
"Sounds like a normal day in Amphibia," the human mutters.
"And you didn't do any potions, right?" the old frog asks, before smelling a burning sensation from her experiments earlier. "... I'll just overlook that."
Luz is relieved to see them back home and safe, but hidden within her smile is a tiny bit of worry, now that she knows something Hop Pop definitely didn't want her to know about.
To Be Continued in Chapter Sixteen
Sorry for the delay in this chapter! I hope you liked this adaptation of Sprig vs. Hop Pop and Anne (Luz) vs. Wild. Things started out the same, but they quickly changed to original segments, primarily focused on Luz's potion-making.
I also saw Watching and Dreaming the night it came out, and was absolutely stunned, to say the least. My co-writer and I have come up with ideas about how to make this story awesome.
~ Scruffy