After Anne and Hop Pop are tired and exhausted from driving nights on end, Leo offers to drive through the rest of the night alongside Polly, although night driving ends up being a lot more perilous than they first assumed.
This story is also over a year old...I truly appreciate anyone who's reading this.
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Back on the road, both humans and Plantars had been stretching themselves thin through the night, trying to get themselves to Wartwood as soon as possible, admittedly Leo hadn't been putting in his fair share, at least not as much as Anne, Hop Pop, and even Sprig had been.
It wasn't a secret that he prioritized sleep over most other things in his life, part of that was because escaping into his dreams seemed to be the only way he'd been accessing his memories as of late, and the other half was just his own peaceful enjoyment of sleep.
Anne and Hop Pop seemed to be the two bearing the full brunt of the work, on the brink of collapsing off the f'wagon, both bloodshot and drowsy, having to catch each other before they could fall off it.
"Uhhhhhh!" Polly let out an audible groan from inside the f'wagon, flopping her face onto the map she and a sleep-deprived Sprig was observing, "I just want to be home already!"
"Mm..." Sprig groggily replied, sliding off the table as he spoke, "Totally, totally.."
"How can you be so energetic so late at night Polly, you should be in the same mindsight as Sprig," said Leo softly, nestling himself into his blanket across the f'wagon, "I know your more mature than average pollywog but still.."
Polly could only sag at his input, "Coming from the guy who's wrapped up in a bunch of blankets like a baby?"
"I'm making the smart decisions," Leo responded plainly.
Ignoring him this time, Polly continued to reminisce over Wartwood to a clearly tired Sprig, imagining a morning just like before where she could wake up to a warm breakfast with everyone.
Traveling outside the valley had been fun and so had Newtopia, but that didn't mean she wasn't any less happy with returning to Wartwood, it wasn't called home sweet home for nothing, and she was ready to take a well-earned break from all the adventuring, especially since they already had the plan to get Anne and Leo home.
There shouldn't be a rush to get them there right away...
Just as she was about to recollect her thoughts on finally sleeping in a real, warm bed the f'wagon was jutted forward, knocking both Plantars siblings and Leo from where they were, the latter rolling from his shared bunkbed with Anne onto the floor.
"Mmmmm.." He groaned with little energy, too tired to make a fuss.
Anne and Hop Pop soon clambered in from the roof of the f'wagon, both of them slumping onto the carpet with little effort, Sprig was close to joining them his head bobbing side to side.
"What the heck you guys! We've got a schedule to keep!" The tadpole blurted out in outrage.
"Polly...we've been driving for 20 hours straight, we got so tired at points that Sprig had to stay with us to make sure we didn't fall off the f'wagon, and then he got too tired...we just need a little break," Anne groaned, rubbing her eyelids, "...Just a...short break."
"We promise that we'll be able to get right back into it come the morning," Hop Pop added, struggling to keep himself awake.
Polly pleaded a little more, hoping to break them, "Come on, can't you just power through one more night? Heck, I'll keep you two awake instead of Sprig, please, please, please!"
Neither Anne nor Hop Pop was budging, "I get how you feel Polly, but you're not the one who has to drive all night."
The pollywog wilted having nothing else to say, she couldn't very well argue for her to drive the f'wagon alone at night, not even Sprig was arguing against them already fast asleep on the sofa.
Leo was currently tucking himself back into bed, glancing over to a downtrodden Polly. He could at least relate to being homesick, although he wasn't too sure where it was, or if there even was one he should be missing - but both Wartwood and whatever home was trapped behind his memories were clearly important to him.
Especially everyone inside the f'wagon, they meant a lot to him as well.
"Couldn't I ride the f'wagon?" He suggested nonchalantly.
Despite being sleep-deprived, Anne and Hop Pop glanced at one another for a moment, the Thai girl was the first to speak up, "To be fair, Leo has read Bessie's driving manual right?"
"Oh, that's what that was.." Leo responded densely, glancing at them to make sure they hadn't heard him.
"Ah, I don't know. It's not that a don't trust yah Leo, you're the least likely to want to get into trouble, but you'll be driving alone. Are you sure you can handle that? Amphibia changes at night, monsters of all kinds come out of their caves and feast on frogs alive!"
Polly shivered on the spot and Leo simply raised an eyebrow, "I haven't seen any myself, but you know...could happen."
"I'd want to say that won't happen but on our way to Newtopia, I've seen things I'd choose to get locked away like my other memories. But, I'm confident I can handle an overnight drive.." Leo's small smile cracked a little at the sudden realization.
He was fine with driving; he'd done so to try and cheer up Polly. But if he really was going to be doing so overnight it meant he wouldn't get a single second of sleep.
"Well...alright, I'm trusting you Leo, now just let m..." The old frog didn't finish collapsing onto the nearest surface.
"Drive safe L-" Anne and Sprig followed soon after, all three of them were sleeping headfirst on a singular bed.
Leo gently tucked them in and rested them against actual pillows, he eyed a still very awake Polly, "So, when are we getting back on the road?"
The snow-haired boy could only sigh, it was going to be a long night.
Now sat atop the f'wagon, Leo adjusted himself, so he was comfortable, holding Bessie's reins as the snail innocently nibbled on some nearby grass, just as he was about to snap them Polly leaped from inside the f'wagon, "Hey Leo! When are we getting back on the road!?"
Flinching a little from the sudden noise, Leo mustered a slight scowl on his typically plain face, "I was just about to, you don't have to be in such a rush. Just head to bed, it'll make getting home go by quicker right?"
"No way! I'll never get another chance to drive through Amphibia at night, you'll need a co-driver right? To make sure you don't fall off.."
Leo could only sigh, he knew better than most not to question Polly's maturity, she definitely acted older than most and she'd proven that time and time again, but truthfully Leo couldn't deny the chance he would end up falling asleep and off the f'wagon.
"Fine, but I don't want any trouble, this is my first time driving after all," With that, he lightly whipper the reins, Bessie reacted immediately trailing across the narrow cliffside, it was a fairly normal ride at least for Amphibia standards, and Leo had only caught himself in a cold sweat at least a few times.
"This is gonna give my already slow heart a panic attack..." Leo grumbled as he finally swerved the f'wagon away from the edge.
Polly on the other hand, seemed to be having the time of her life, "So, this is what night driving feels like? You're pretty good considering this is your first time driving?"
"Night driving? Is that what you're gonna call it?" Leo said keeping his eye on the road, "I'm hoping we don't come across...anything else."
As if the universe had wanted to play with his words exactly, Bessie halted the carriage as they came across what seemed to be a cavern of falling boulders, "...Well we tried, time to stop for the night."
"What!? You can't seriously be giving up now, we've barely rode anywhere!" The tadpole argued, flailing her flippers about.
"If you think we can make it through my death trap then be my guest..." Leo muttered, about to bring Bessie to a halt for the night, he was disappointed to stop as well but it wasn't worth risking anyone's life.
At least he was supposed to grind the f'wagon to a stop if Polly hadn't instinctively pulled the reins back, jerking Bessie back awake, storming her into the cavern as Leo took back control, maneuvering them and f'wagon away from any of the tumbling rocks, just barely scathing part them.
"Left Leo. LEFT!"
Doing as he was instructed Leo curved the f'wagon, just narrowly avoiding a boulder that was bowling towards them as he scraped across the carriage – as the cavern inched closer and closer, Leo whipped Bessie's reins once more, barely making it out of the relentless falling boulders.
"Polly...please. You almost got us killed!" Leo mustered as much yelling as he could, still struggling to catch his breath, "I'm way too tired to exert the energy to stay angry."
Waving it off, the pollywog sat back down next to him, "We got across right? We don't need to stop right?"
At a certain point, Leo was fine with drawing the line, and if he was in this situation a few months ago he would've been quick to deny her request, but he also knew just how much Polly was looking forward to being in Wartwood again.
"Huhhhh, look if you promise not to pull us towards anything else that can get us killed then we'll keep going, but if we come anything like something like those boulders then we're stopping for the night, ok?"
Polly could only nod as they got back on the road again.
The atmosphere grew cold and eerie as they hobbled down the empty path, eyes peered from gaping holes in trees, multiple practically staring down at them as they strolled by, it felt as if creatures of all sorts were crawling out each and every edge of darkness.
Although there were exceptions, such as the horrifying experience of whatever was under Newtopia castle Leo would be hard-pressed to find himself uncomfortable in scary situations like these. The same couldn't be said for Polly, she wouldn't admit but she was shaking on the spot.
"..Polly you don't have to be up here you know? I can still get us home even if I'm sleepy.."
"What are you talking about, I'm fine remember you don't have to treat me like I'm some scared tadpole! I can at least handle this!" Polly retorted proudly, before squinting her eyes at what was ahead of them, "Wait what's that?"
There, stood along the edge of the road, a tall, scruffy top hat that was curved to one side, held at his hip was a dimly lit lamp that made his appearance known on the side of the road, slowly and robotically the figure stuck in hand out towards them.
"It's a hitchhiker, do we...do we have a policy on those?" Polly questioned, looking to Leo desperately, hoping he had an answer.
"There is no policy, just keep your head down and I'll keep driving. Even if he's a nice guy we can't just let someone into the f'wagon, we're trying to get home anyway," Leo stated, hastening their pace up the road, passing the figure without a second glance.
Polly couldn't help herself, she peaked at the stranger as they passed him, it was as if lightning struck out behind him, leaving his face for her to see as clear as day. It was scarred all over with a big creepy grin almost frozen to his face, the hand he had held out in front of the road had become a hook.
She was finally able to peel her eyes off of the stranger as they continued down the road.
Before they knew it, the path ahead of them became clouded in a thick fog, completely obscuring the sky above them and the ground below.
"I can barely even see the road, are we even going the right way?" Leo muttered dryly to himself, glazing his crimson eyes over the foggy ground.
"Uh...Leo."
"What..? Are we actually going the wrong way?" He glanced at the pollywog, falling where her eyes seemed to be locked. Just ahead of them, in the middle of two diverging paths was the same hitchhiker.
Creaking his arm out like a withered hinge, the stranger gestured his hooked hand to the left, "Nope!" Leo blurted out emotionlessly, swerving both Bessie and the f'wagon to the right trailing down the road before the stranger could even think to follow after them.
He for one had dealt with everything Amphibia had to offer one too many times and wasn't in the mood to deal with the eerily-looking hitchhiker, and was far too tired to handle it.
Polly was staring back at the road behind them, hoping the frog hadn't latched himself to the back of the carriage, she was growing more and more wearer of just how dangerous night driving was becoming.
Leo was even more panicked, not over his current safety, but with the fact that Polly was still up top with him right in the line of whatever dangers there were and over Sprig, Anne, and Hop Pop all sleeping right below them.
The swirling mist returned once again covering the two entirely, Leo tucked himself into his seat making sure Polly was to.
Claws of all sorts reached out at them, just narrowly scraping away at a few of Leo's stray hairs, the tadpole dropped right off the f'wagon, being promptly caught by Leo as the missed seemingly swerved them in the air and suddenly back down to the ground.
"Leo, Polly..." An omnipotent voice whispered eerily to them, seemingly arising from the fog.
"What the heck was that!?" Polly exclaimed; her eyes glued to a dark face beneath the mist.
Finally, at least for a moment, the mist subsided, and Leo was finally able to relax his tense body, "Polly...are you ok?" He huffed, slightly exhausted.
"W-What? Yeah, I'm totally fine, I just didn't expect night driving to be so...much fun!" The tadpole lied through her teeth; it wasn't doing a good job at convincing anyone.
"Polly, I think it's best if we stop for the night, this is clearly more dangerous than even Hop Pop thought, I'm not even totally sure what that was before.." Leo shivered on the spot, although his face didn't seem all too troubled.
"What! Not after all of this, we've gotta finish it at this point, we can handle it!" Polly ensured not too confident herself.
"I don't think you can and given what we've come across on this road alone, I don't want to put anyone else in harm's way Polly! I get you want to get back to Wartwood as well but it's not worth it if we're put in this much trouble."
Yet again, Polly caught herself unable to say anything more, hanging her head as Leo began to slow down the f'wagon, a cold chill traveling down her body.
All of sudden, the tadpole pulled the white-haired boy to one side, "Leo looks out!" Suddenly appearing atop the f'wagon was the hitchhiker swinging his hook directly at them, just as Leo swerved to one side, the frog snuck the reigns into his hooking, beginning to pull Bessie to a stop.
The f'wagon scraped against the mountainside, Leo leaped at the man who easily swerved away nearly taking Leo of the entire vehicle if he hadn't gripped onto the edge pulling himself back up.
Whilst he was, Polly attempted to snatch the leads back from the hitchhiker, being thrown off the f'wagon entirely, that was until the figure caught with his hook, tearing into her bow and tossing her back atop it.
Yet again, Leo lunged at the man, throwing his body forward a lot less this time, yet he faltered yet again...the man was practically intangible, no matter how fast he recovered to his own missteps and vigorous shaking of the f'wagon he couldn't seem to get close enough to even grabbing him, it was as if he was completely intangible.
The figure snapped his hooked hand forward and scraped it into the fabric of the seats before picking up the reigns and pulling it to a final halt.
Scraping against the thick smog, the f'wagon stopped nearly throwing Polly and Leo off as well if the red-eyed boy hadn't kept them steady, "Is it over? Are we impaled!?" The tadpole pat herself down, "Look like we're not.."
"What happened though...where's that random frog. Seriously who just attacks people like that?" Leo grumbled, drawing his attention over the cliffside, "And we're home? How did we even...?"
Before he could appreciate just how close they were to getting home, Polly yet again leaped at his face, "Leo! It's the hitchhiker!" She wailed.
"Where!?" Leo exclaimed, glancing over to what at first seemed to be the frog. On further inspection, it was nothing but a statue, "This monument is dedicated to Zekaria Nettles, who spent his days guiding travelers on their way back home."
Leo and Polly took a second to look at one another, they knew exactly what thought was running through their minds, but they'd be damned to say it aloud, out of everything they'd witnessed in Amphibia they were willing to draw the line at the fact that a deceased spirit had seemingly guided them home.
"Only in Amphibia..." Leo grumbled, turning over to Polly, "I think we stop for now, ok?"
Again, Polly tried to object, "B-But we're already in the valley, right? We can't stop now!"
Leo simply crouched down to the tadpole's level patting her head a little as he tried to fix her now torn bow, "Look, Polly. I know you do like being treated like a kid just because you're little, and I'm not going to, your more mature than me in some areas, but only some and that's not including your violent tendencies..."
"...But just because you don't want anyone to see you as a kid, that doesn't mean you can't act like one, you can be scared of something, I know for a fact you were during that whole drive. I'm not gonna treat you like a tadpole permanently just because you're scared.."
"It's just...I was the one who wanted to get home so much and was the reason you were choosing to drive at night in the first place, I just didn't want to make it out as if I'd done it for nothing."
Sighing a little, Leo took the younger frog into his arms yawning as he approached the f'wagon, "As much as I'd like to get back to Wartwood, I've had enough of Amphibia for one night, besides it's not like I wasn't a little shaken up either."
Polly didn't say much, close to falling asleep as she was being carried.
Not too long later, Hop Pop and Anne groggily awoke, perching out of the roof of the f'wagon expecting to find themselves either in some perilous situation or chugging along the road with Leo riding the carriage.
Instead, they found neither, they had come to a sudden stop just 3 miles outside of Wartwood, "Well at least we're not dead," Hop Pop spoke cheerfully, Anne bonked him ever so slightly on the back of the head.
"Where are Leo and Polly then?" Anne questioned, dropping back into the f'wagon spotting Leo fast asleep just short of his bed resting only his head on the mattress, Polly was resting on his lap, slumped against one of his heads that was keeping her from rolling off.
Anne couldn't help but smile at the two, climbing back up top as Hop Pop was already beginning the last stretch back to Wartwood.
"Hey, Hop Pop, I have to ask, did you have any weird dreams last night?"
"Oh yeah, I was a god in my world, I controlled everything to my bidding!" Hop Pop exclaimed in excitement.
As they traveled alongside the cliffside, a metallic husk was just short of trailing behind them, dragging its rusted arms along the ground stretching them however it pleased. Its three-pronged toes twisted to move its skulking body to the larger sign ahead - WARTWOOD 3 MILES.
It was only sure of his one purpose, that he was going to keep following after them, no matter how far he had to trek and how long it took, whatever surge of energy it was following, it would be sure to discover the source.
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So first off, I would like to humbly apologize. I wanted to get this chapter out so long ago really, I did, but I had my final outcome for my art course, and making a full-colored and smooth animation takes a lot of time, a lot of time. Then once my final project was done, I had even more exams just a week after which are still going on but obviously, I'm gonna want to focus my revision and time on those.
I hope you enjoyed though, I always like to give Leo a chapter with each character in the main cast centered around an arc so to speak, (excluding Anne who obviously gets multiple) so this was his and Polly's which I wanted to be a lot more light-hearted much like the actual episode.
The next chapter will be Return to Wartwood, not too much I want to do for that one except show the growth Leo has gone through.
Until the next one, (which hopefully won't take longer than this did) see yah!
