Chapter 4: How to be a Frog
Anne returned to Hop-Pop's bedroom and grabbed the stuff she needed to change her hairstyle. She had already decided what kind before she went to the bathroom and got started. The Plantars waited just outside of the bathroom for Anne to finish up. It took quite some time, but Anne finally came out and showed off her temporary new hairstyle. Unlike her usual poofy hair, it was all combed back neatly and tied into a ponytail.
"Well, what do you think?" Anne asked.
"Nice, Anne." Sprig answered with a thumbs up.
"I hardly even recognize yew." Hop-Pop said.
"Eh, it's alright." Polly said. "And now that you're done... OUT OF THE WAY! I GOTTA GO!"
Polly rolled past Anne and slammed the door so she could finally use the bathroom.
"So, now what?" Anne rubbed the back of her head. "Should I just waltz into town like I've always been here or something?"
"I don't think so." Hop-Pop said. "Yew may be all frog now, but yew need to learn how do the things we can do first. Unfortunately, I forgot some errands I need to run with Bessie, so I can't teach yew. Sprig, do yew think yew can handle this?"
"You bet I can, Hop-Pop!" Sprig said a little too excitedly. "This is gonna be fun."
"Remember, don't let anyone see her until she's ready." Hop-Pop picked Polly up and headed out the door. "And Polly, yer coming with me. I know about the hammer."
"NOOOOO!" Polly whined. "I don't wanna do boring things!"
"Come on, Anne." Sprig said.
"Right behind ya."
A short while later, Sprig and Anne were outside next to a safe lake with some nearby trees.
"Alriiiight! Where do we start?" Anne asked.
"With the tongue." Sprig said.
"Of course." Anne deadpanned.
"It's not that hard, Anne." Sprig explained. "Just remember, the harder you stick out your tongue, the farther it'll go. First watch me."
Sprig demonstrated with a short reach of his tongue, then a longer one, and lastly the longest Anne had seen yet.
"Now you try."
Anne gave it a shot. She stuck her tongue out softly and nothing impressive happened. Then she did it harder and accidentally grabbed a rock and pulled to her face. *WHAM!* She fell on her back.
"Ow."
"Don't worry, Anne. I had trouble at first too. You'll get the hang of it." Sprig assured while helping his friend up.
Anne tried again. Sometimes Sprig had her grab things on purpose. She did, but found it gross. Seeing frogs do things with their tongues in any world is one thing. Doing those tongue things yourself is another. Anne did manage to improve though. She even learned how to throw things that her tongue can grab.
"Alright, one more tongue maneuver and we can go to the next step." Sprig said. "Now do as I do."
Sprig latched his tongue onto a distant branch and zipped to it, landing perfectly on it. Anne hesitated, but followed. She stuck her tongue out hard enough and latched onto the same branch. And that's where it went wrong.
"WAAGH!" *BOOF* Anne zipped to the branch and face-planted into it.
Sprig pulled her up and Anne unwrapped her tongue.
"We'll come back to that one later." Sprig said. "For now, I'll give you something a little easier."
"That would be nice." Anne moaned.
"Now this can be a little tricky at first too, but you'll find it handy as long as you keep your balance." Sprig stuck his hands and feet to the trunk of the tree and moved sideways, then all the way down to the ground. "Okay, your turn."
Anne placed her hands one at a time on the trunk. Then her feet the same way. Slowly she moved a hand, then a foot, then the other hand, and then the other foot. She was actually crawling to the side like a spider and enjoying it. Then she started moving down the tree a little faster, but stopped halfway with a fun idea.
Anne took her hands off the tree, stood sideways and said "Look, Sprig! No hands!"
"Don't do that! You'll fall!" Sprig warned.
Too late. Anne's feet popped off of the tree and she fell.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" *BAM* she hit the ground.
"Anne!" Sprig ran to his friend, hoping she wasn't hurt. "Are you alright?"
"Ohhhhhhh." Anne was groaning, but uninjured.
"This is why I told you to keep your balance."
After a few minutes to recuperate, Anne was ready for the next lesson.
"Now this should be the easiest one for you, since you can already do it." Sprig said as he stood right next to the lake. "Swimming."
"Then why bother?" Anne asked.
"You've only swam as a human, not a frog." Sprig explained. "You need to get used to your new body. Besides, I really think you'll like the difference."
"Fine." Anne and Sprig stepped into the water and got started.
They swam for a little while as ordinary as can be. Then Sprig called for Anne's attention.
"You already know how to swim your way. Now let me show you how we sometimes do it." Sprig demonstrated by laying face-down while looking forward, then pushing with his legs and pulling with his arms all at the same time, just like frogs naturally do. "Oh, and to turn, use the opposite leg to where you want to go."
Anne lied down in the water and faced forward. She then moved her arms and legs the way she was shown, and she went forward faster than she had expected. She kept at it, sometimes turning and realized how much better her swimming truly was. She then took a deep breath and went underwater. Anne looked around and saw the beauty within the lake. For a moment, Anne forgot that she was stuck in a dangerous world full of carnivorous beasts and plants. Sprig then came to her and got her attention. He pointed up and they both swam to the surface.
"It can be awesome underwater, Anne, but don't forget you still have to breathe."
"Got it. Anything else to learn?"
"Just one thing." Sprig got out of the water and did a spinning jump to face Anne. "Hopping."
Anne climbed out as well and listened up.
"Basically it's a lot like tonguing." Sprig said while he hopped as an example. "Push with your feet harder, and you'll leap higher or farther, depending on your aim."
"Okay." Anne remembered her tantrum hopping from earlier and tried hopping similar to that.
Each hop was a little higher than the last and Anne easily got the hang of it. Soon she was having fun and literally bouncing all over the place. Sprig joined in on the fun and off they went. They laughed and started doing tricks as they hopped through the woods.
"This is the happiest I've ever been in Amphibia!" Anne cheered in mid-air.
She and Sprig kept on hopping around for joy until she bumped into someone.
"Ow! Watch where you're going!" they said.
"Sorry." Anne replied, getting back on her feet.
"Hey, a new kid." another frog said.
Anne and Sprig looked around to find that they were at the edge of town and surrounded by five frog children.
"Yeah, she's from a family Hop-Pop knows." Sprig lied. "They came to visit for a while."
"Well hi, I'm Skippy." the bumped into frog introduced. "These are Jumpy, Bouncy, Leapy, and Jim."
"Are those really your names?" Anne asked.
"Of course not." Jumpy said. "Most of us just like having nicknames."
"Wait, wasn't Ivy with us?" Jim asked.
"AMBUSH!" Ivy cried before leaping from a tree to tackle Anne.
"AAHHH!" Anne hopped to the side just in time, surprising everyone.
"Woah, nobody's ever dodged one of Ivy's ambushes before." Bouncy said.
"That was impressive." Ivy said. "What's your name?"
Anne froze, remembering that she hadn't thought of a false name yet. Luckily she quickly thought of just the one.
"It's Fran."
"Okay, Fran. You wanna play tongue tag?" Leapy asked.
"Sure. Come on, Sprig."
"That's okay. Go on without me." Sprig declined. "I never get invited to play anyway."
Anne then remembered that most of the other kids don't get Sprig. Then something unexpected was said.
"Well you are this time." Ivy protested without argument, causing Sprig to smile. "And guess what? You're it!"
So they played tongue tag for a while and were all tagged at least once. At one point, Anne accidentally tongued someone in the face and tasted frog slime.(I'm sorry. Mucus.)
"BLAGH! BLEHBLEHBLEHBLEHBLEHBLEHBLEHBLEH-" Anne tried desperately to wipe the disgusting taste off of her tongue until she realized the other kids were watching her act strange for a frog. "Uhhh, I mean... you're it, Bouncy."
Fortunately, nobody got suspicious and they kept playing. Once all of them were done with that game, the other frogs left Sprig and Anne except for Ivy.
"So, have you seen the rest of Wartwood yet, Fran?" Ivy asked as they walked.
"No, but Sprig said he'd show me around." Anne lied.
"Have you met his friend yet?"
"You mean that ugly, ugly, ugly monster?!" Anne falsely reacted to that question almost perfectly. "Yeah, that was terrifying."
"Well you'll have to get used to her, Fran." Sprig said. "Especially since Anne just got sick today. What did she call that disease? Oh yeah. The mocha lattes."
"That sounds pretty bad." Ivy said.
Then just as they neared the forest again, a large praying mantis showed up out of nowhere.
"Aah!" they screamed and ran, then hopped away.
Unfortunately, the mantis flew at them and grabbed Sprig and Ivy. Anne stopped and saw what was about to happen.
"Oh no you don't!" she said.
Anne grabbed a pair of sticks from the ground, one in each hand. She leapt at the mantis and slapped Ivy out of it's grip. Then she did the same for Sprig. The mantis tried to grab Anne, but she blocked it's pincer with both sticks. Anne needed to finish the fight ASAP. Then she had an idea. She grabbed the mantis's neck with her tongue and sent herself towards the face, kicking it with both feet. The mantis fell and was down for the count.
"Woah. That was pretty sweet." Ivy said. "Thanks a lot."
"No problem." Anne replied.
The three of them hurried to the center of town before the mantis could wake up.
"That was great and all, but I think we should head home now." Sprig suggested.
"Bye, Sprig. Bye, Fran. See you tomorrow." Ivy said as she walked away.
"Bye, Ivy." Anne said as she and Sprig did the same.
That night, Anne and the Plantars were having dinner and talking about the day.
"So, how were the lessons?" Hop-Pop asked.
"A little bumpy, but Anne is now a natural frog." Sprig answered. "She even mastered the tongue grapple."
"I had to fight a praying mantis to get that one right, but I had a lot more fun as a frog than I expected." Anne said. "No offense."
"None taken." Hop-Pop said.
"Awwww, why do Sprig and Anne get to do all the exciting stuff?" Polly whined.
"By the way, Anne is pretending to be from a family you know and is going by the name Fran." Sprig said.
"Thanks for telling us." Hop-Pop said. "Now let's get to bed. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day."
All four of them finished dinner, said goodnight, and went to their rooms. While the Plantars instantly fell asleep, Anne just lied awake, looking forward to whatever awaited her tomorrow.